Alien Pets, Trisha McNary [free novel 24 .txt] 📗

At exactly 1800 hours, M. Hoyvil sounded the chime on Antaska’s door, and she palmed the pad to open it.

“It’s time to go to dinner. Are you ready?” he asked.

“Yes,” Antaska answered. “Goodbye,” she said to Potat.

In much less time than it had taken to board the ship and reach their quarters, they reached a large, dome-shaped entrance. Antaska followed M. Hoyvil into an enormous room holding over fifty dining tables. Over one hundred beings—Earth human and Verdante—sat at the tables, walked around, or stood in the line at the food counter at the far end of the room. The domed ceiling soared more than twenty feet at its highest point.

Except for the space ship’s ever-present faint humming sound and the tapping of dining utensils, the vast room was silent. Suddenly, Antaska felt the silence like a cold, heavy weight pressing inside her head. She began to feel dizzy and nauseous.

I hope I won’t humiliate myself and my new employer by passing out or, even worse, vomiting in front of so many people, Antaska thought.

Trying to regain her equilibrium, Antaska looked down at the floor in front of her. She focused on M. Hoyvil’s large feet moving forward and followed him across the big room. Antaska felt steadier when they reached the entrance to the food counter. One at a time, they walked through an archway formed by a looped silvery tube attached to the floor. When they passed, an orange light glowed in the archway’s inner plane.

There were no workers at the counter. It consisted only of three long metallic shelves attached to the wall. One was at Antaska’ chest height, one was at M. Hoyvil’s chest height, and a even higher shelf was near the top of M. Hoyvil’s head. They stepped up to the lower two shelves, and two panels flush with the wall slid up and open. Two trays that held food and beverages slid out from the openings on the two shelves at their respective chest heights. Then the panels slid closed.

The foods on Antaska’s tray were different than those on M. Hoyvil’s tray, and she wasn’t able to identify any of the foods on either tray. His tray held four large tubes of light green-colored liquid compared to just one on her tray. Antaska was surprised to see that he had less food despite his much larger body size.

They lifted their trays from the shelves, and Antaska followed M. Hoyvil to the center of the large hall. As she entered the midst of the silent diners, the feeling of cold pressure in Antaska’s head increased. She was relieved when M. Hoyvil stopped at an empty table. He set his tray down and sat in a large Verdante-sized chair on one side of the table. Antaska put her tray down on the other side of the table. To sit, she had to climb up a staircase attached to a raised chair that resembled a large high chair used by babies and toddlers on Earth.

Antaska felt like a child sitting in the raised chair and was embarrassed. The other humans wore tan ship suits like hers that matched the colors of the walls, floor, and furniture. So Antaska had to look twice to see them sitting in similar high chairs. The others also sat across from Verdantes dressed in the more visible shade of blue.

Remembering from her training for this assignment that the Verdantes didn’t speak during meals and considered that extremely rude, Antaska remained silent. M. Hoyvil also remained silent.

The combination of the uncomfortable, strange setting and the cold, heavy feeling in Antaska’s head took away most of her appetite. But she put a small amount of bright green, mushy food on her fork. She chewed it without paying much attention to the taste.

Then Antaska looked around. Close by Antaska and M. Hoyvil, Verdante males and females of his size sat with their Earth human assistants at tables for two. The tables were spaced about six feet apart. Some of the Verdantes stared at M. Hoyvil, and he stared back but said nothing. The humans ate with stiff movements. Antaska felt stiff too.

She knew the Verdantes didn’t speak during meals, but Antaska felt a strong sense of discomfort and awkwardness. As if she was the object of the silent attention of many people. The feeling of cold pressure grew more and more oppressive.

Then M. Hoyvil looked up, and Antaska looked up in the same direction. Something large and bright red was in front of her. She tipped her head far back and saw the face of the largest being she had ever seen looming over their table.

Now Antaska felt the cold pressure like a painful headache. The gigantic alien standing there was over ten feet tall. He wasn’t thin like M. Hoyvil but solid and muscular. Similar to M. Hoyvil, his skin was the same color as the green grass of Earth.

This man wasn’t dressed in blue. He wore a form-fitting ship suit in bright red. His enormous upward-slanted green eyes looked down at Antaska. Then he looked into the eyes of M. Hoyvil, who stared back without blinking. Antaska felt rude for staring. She lowered her head from its uncomfortable bent-back position. She down looked at the plate of food in front of her but didn’t eat.

M. Hoyvil didn’t notice Antaska’s discomfort. He stared up at Master Meeepp wondering why his primary male gene contributor had come over here to the adolescent area of the dining hall. The others were watching and listening. M. Hoyvil’s green skin blushed darker, but M. Hoyvil spoke to Master Meeepp with the traditional respect.

“Greetings, Master Meeepp,” said M. Hoyvil in silent mind speech.

“Greetings to you, young one,” answered the huge alien. “Today is an exciting day for you and the others who have reached the age of pet ownership. You have your new pets aboard the space ship. I became curious when I heard so much talking from all the way across the room, so I came over to see your new Earth pet.”

“Yes, this is my new pet, Antaska,” said M. Hoyvil, with somewhat embarrassed pride.

He waved a few long green fingers in her direction.

“I picked her because I liked her unusual coloring and her gentle personality. And she scored high on our genetic diversity scale,” M. Hoyvil added as an additional selling point.

Master Meeepp directed his gigantic eyes down for a closer look at Antaska. She was staring down at her plate.

“Yes. Her coloring and features indicate an unusual diversity of Earth genes. That’s always a valuable addition to the splicing supplies in our birth labs. You’ve selected well. Still, I can’t help but notice that she looks a little peaked and perhaps unhappy. I don’t mean to criticize, but have you been giving her all the care and attention she needs?” Master Meeepp asked.

M. Hoyvil lifted the corners of his dark green eyes in surprise.

“What makes you say that? She looks fine to me,” he answered.

“The emotions of Earth humans can be read on their faces,” explained Master Meeepp, “but they display different than on the faces of Verdantes. We don’t use our mouths much except to eat and drink and sometimes to communicate out loud with non-telepathic humanoids. The mouths of Earth humans and other non-telepaths are bigger because they use them more often to communicate. And they eat much more food than we do. They also use their mouths to express a wide range of emotions including happiness, sadness, and anger.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that,” said M. Hoyvil.

“Notice how the corners of her mouth are drooping down. When you see that, it indicates unhappiness or some other negative feelings. And see how she is just picking at her food? Loss of appetite is another sign that something is not right,” said Master Meeepp.

The corners of M. Hoyvil’s eyes drooped a bit in dismay.

“I thought I was doing everything I needed to. I passed all my human care classes with high scores. And I watched tons of their ancient videos,” M. Hoyvil protested.

“Taking classes and watching videos is not the same as providing for the needs of Earthlings in real life,” replied Master Meeepp. “Maybe if you tell me what you’ve done so far, I can tell you if she’s lacking something she needs. I can give you advice based on more than a thousand of years of successful pet ownership. But I have to admit that I made some mistakes in the beginning too.”

“Well,” began M. Hoyvil, “First of all, I met her at the door of the space ship with a big smile on my face. She said ‘hello,’ and I said ‘follow.’ Then I led her all the way through the ship to our rooms. When we got there, I showed her the door that led to her room, and I told her I’d get her at dinner time. She went in with the small animal she has for a pet and closed the door. Then later, I told her it was time for dinner, and I led her here.”

“Well, I’m not saying you’ve done anything wrong, but I can give you some tips that will