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

The next morning, Antaska ate another meal of different good-tasting but still unidentifiable foods in the dining hall. She was thrilled to see the unbelievably handsome human male staring at her again. The same female sat next to him glaring at Antaska. And the same tiny voice spoke in her head telling her to look away. But Antaska didn’t.

Then M. Hoyvil took Antaska back to their quarters to get Potat for their visit to the doctor. The small cat was waiting in the main room.

“We’re both going to the doctor for a checkup,” Antaska announced.

With fur fluffed high, Potat walked on stiff legs back to their bedroom and jumped up on the bed. She dug her claws deep into the bedspread and left them there. Antaska was not surprised by this behavior.

“It looks like she’ll have to ride in the carrier,” she said to M. Hoyvil.

Antaska walked to the bed and lifted Potat up in the direction that would extract her claws without pulling on them.

Did she hear the tiny voice speaking in her mind again? “You overbearing bully! Do realize how rude this is?”

Just imaging things again! thought Antaska.

She scooped the cat up and placed her in the carrier. Then she zipped it up with the quick efficiency of a person experienced in avoiding scratches.

A long walk down curved, outward and upward slanting hallways led to a tall door toward the outer part of the ship. M. Hoyvil stopped and placed his palm on a gray circle about twice the size of his hand. The circle began to glow and brighten, and then the door slid silently up and open.

“Come right in,” rumbled a deep voice from inside the door.

Antaska, pulling the floating cat carrier, followed M. Hoyvil into a large, circular room with a hard white floor and bare white walls. A gigantic-sized deep green-skinned alien stood next to one of four medical examination tables. He was heavier and much taller than M. Hoyvil, but not as tall as the giant alien who had stood next to their table in the dining hall.

This alien also looked much older, with wrinkles and a head of close-cropped graying green hair. Instead of the bright red ship suit worn by the other large aliens, he was dressed in a white medical jacket, white pants, and shoes. A few medical instruments Antaska was unfamiliar with were attached to his jacket and hanging around his neck.

“Who do we have here?” inquired the enormous doctor as he bent down to look in Potat’s cage.

“I’ve brought Antaska and her cat Potat for their checkups,” M. Hoyvil replied.

“Ah, yes! Hello, I’m Dr. Daji. Please be seated on the table with Potat so we can begin,” the doctor said to Antaska.

She lifted the carrier with Potat up onto the five-foot-high examination table. Then she opened the door and reached in to get Potat. The little cat scooted to the back of the cage and growled.

“If she could speak, she would be saying ‘bad man,’” thought Antaska.

Dr. Daji said nothing, but he stared at Potat, and Antaska heard faint whispering, as if from very far away. One of two whispering voices was a very deep bass-pitched male, and one was a much higher-pitched soprano female.

Antaska wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard the male voice say the words, “won’t hurt.” The whispering continued for a minute, and then Potat stopped growling and stepped calmly out from the carrier.

The corners of M. Hoyvil’s eyes lifted high. He turned to look at the doctor. They started at each other in silence for several minutes while Antaska sat waiting. She had accepted these strange staring sessions as normal for the telepathic Verdantes. So she waited, and her thoughts drifted back to the disturbingly attractive man from the dining hall.

Antaska heard more whispering, but she didn’t pay much attention to it. The male and female whisperers she had heard before were now joined by a higher-pitched tenor male voice. In the midst of her musings, Antaska thought she heard the words “intelligence” and “toddler.” But the words didn’t make any sense, and they were much less interesting than the man who was on her mind.

If Antaska had fully understood the silent telepathic conversations that just had taken place, she might have been more interested.

M. Hoyvil, on the other hand, was very interested in the ongoing conversation. First, he heard Dr. Daji talking to Potat.

“Don’t be afraid, little one, I promise I won’t hurt you,” Dr. Daji had assured Potat. “I only want help you and your friend.”

“My pet, my pet,” Potat had answered possessively.

“Yes, or course, she is your pet, please forgive my mistake. I only want to help you and your pet. Will you please come out?” the large doctor had asked in his deep but gentle telepathic voice.

“Not hurt?” Potat asked again.

After further assurances from the doctor, she had been convinced, and she stepped out of the cage.

Then M. Hoyvil spoke telepathically to Dr. Daji.

“Can these small creatures really understand and speak the telepathic language when they are pets of the non-telepathic humans?” M. Hoyvil asked, unable to keep the shock out of his voice.

“Why yes,” was the reply. “Although these creatures have the intelligence of a young toddler, they are telepathically sentient. But because Earth humans aren’t telepathic, they aren’t aware of this. And because cats don’t have the vocal cords to express themselves in a way that would be understandable to them, the humans believe that cats don’t have language and aren’t even sentient. It is really quite amusing that both species think they are the owner, and the other is the pet,” the doctor concluded with a rumbling chuckle.

M. Hoyvil watched Antaska take the cage off the table and climb up the steps to sit next to Potat.

“We’ll start with a scan,” said Dr. Daji, speaking out loud.

He pressed a black button on the side of the table, and Antaska and Potat were surrounded by blue light. Then a wide holographic screen appeared from floor to ceiling on one side of the examination table. The screen was filled with slowly scrolling symbols and pictures. The huge doctor read the screen, occasionally pushing a button to stop and then to continue the information flow. After a few minutes, the last of the symbols rose up to disappear at the top of the screen. Then the screen itself disappeared.

Dr. Daji spoke to M. Hoyvil telepathically while Antaska and Potat sat waiting.

“As we expect with pets from Earth, they both have some cellular damage from the radioactive wastes that still remain on the planet,” the doctor explained. “Fortunately, in the 10,000 years that we’ve been caring for humans, we’ve cleaned up much of the waste left from their prehistoric wars. The cellular damage we see in humans has been decreasing. And when we take them as pets, we can give them medical treatment to repair their cells. I’ll begin the cellular repair today. With the medicines they’ll receive in their food, this problem should be fixed in less than a year.

“As suggested by your human’s appearance, her DNA contains genes from both of the two separated Earth populations that survived the prehistoric nuclear and environmental destruction of most life on the planet. This includes a fine mix of the ancient races that covered the Earth in pre-apocalyptic times.

“If you’ve been studying your ancient Earth history, you may recognize some of the names of the tribes that contributed to her genetic makeup. Most of her genes are from the humans who survived in the North Pole area. These include the peoples who were known as Irish, Chinese, German, and a few others I am not able to identify. Thanks to the genetic variance and improvement program we’ve provided humans, her DNA also includes some of the ancient tribes from south of Earth’s equator.

“Obviously, that material was contributed from the gene labs of Earth’s South Pole government. It’s a very strong mix that will be a nice addition to the DNA of your own future offspring.

“If you’ll just sign this release form giving me legal permission, I’ll extract the standard genetic material for storage including one thousand of her eggs, which she won’t miss. This will provide you all the future DNA you could possibly need plus extra amounts you may choose to contribute to the Verdante planet-wide genetic supplies for the benefit of our race.

“I’ll also collect genetic material from the cat, which is rare and hard to obtain away from Earth. They don’t live long, and many of our human pets become distraught at their loss. Providing them a new copy is often just the thing to cheer them up again.

“Of course, I don’t need to remind you that we strongly advise against the same practice when it comes to replacing Earth humans. I understand that human pets have a much shorter lifespan compared to ours, and their owners