Meanwhile, Antaska was sitting next to Potat on the edge of the round bed. The little cat stared up at her expectantly. Antaska looked down at her and spoke.
“At first I thought I was going crazy, and then I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t true. But I guess by now, we both know that I can understand you,” Antaska said out loud to Potat.
“Talk to me only in your mind, or the Verdantes might hear you. They have very sharp ears,” Potat answered her mentally. “I mean the Verdantes’ hearing is sharp, not that their ears are pointy,” she clarified.
“How do I do that?” asked Antaska, again out loud.
She’d never spoke telepathically yet, even though she’d accepted that she could hear the telepathic speech of Potat and the Verdantes.
“Just think thoughts of speaking to me, and I’ll hear them,” Potat explained.
“OK,” Antaska said mentally, giving it a try and hoping it was working. “First of all, I’d like to say that I’m really sorry for all the times I told you ‘No! Stop that! Don’t do that!’”
Antaska suddenly felt embarrassed that she’d ordered a sentient being around like a small misbehaving child or a pet. She struggled to push the word “pet” out of her mind, believing that Potat would be offended by it.
Potat looked up at her with a slight, smug cat smile.
“We both know that I always do whatever I want to, no matter what you say,” she said telepathically.
Antaska thought about that and realized it was true. Potat had never paid attention unless the request was something she wanted to do anyway. Mostly relieved but also wondering if she should be worried, Antaska looked down at Potat’s face and spoke to her, again telepathically.
“I’m happy that I can talk to you even though it’s kind of strange and weird. But what I’m really upset about is that I just heard some other Earthlings talking in the bathroom. They said awful things about me. And they were taking drugs! They got them from M. Hoyvil’s gene sibling. I think I should do something, but I don’t know what to do. Can you help me?”
Potat got up, padded over, and sat down right next to Antaska. She pressed against Antaska’s side while making the soothing purr sound that had the power to heal both physical and mental ailments.
“Yes, I can help you,” Potat reassured her telepathically while continuing to purr. “What you need to do is tell M. Hoyvil about this drug situation. It sounds dangerous, and he can tell his primary gene contributors. They need to know.”
“I don’t know if I can do that,” said Antaska mentally. “That’s ratting on people. I’d feel like a snitch, and everyone would hate me.”
“Well, you asked my advice, and I gave it to you,” said Potat “I can’t force you to take it.”
Then the little cat walked away to the other side of the bed and started kneading a pillow with her claws.
“It’s time for a nap,” she told Antaska.
Antaska felt more frustrated than helped by the conversation.
What’s the point of being able to talk to your cat if you can’t get good advice? she wondered.
“I heard that, and I did give you good advice. You just didn’t want to hear it,” said Potat.
“I wasn’t trying to talk to you that time!” said Antaska. “Can you hear all my thoughts too? Do you read my mind?”
“Only when I feel like it,” said Potat. “Now, if you don’t mind, I need to get some sleep. It’s been an exhausting day.”
Her tiny mouth opened and yawned huge.
“OK. Sorry,” said Antaska.
But suddenly, a loud noise was heard.
“Knock, knock,” said a loud girlish voice accompanied by the light thudding of a large fist.
“Come in,” Antaska answered with a look toward Potat to see her reaction.
The small cat was facing the door while seated in the classic Sphinx cat position on top of the round pillow.
“It’s fine. I can stay awake a bit more,” said Potat.
Antaska turned back toward the doorway. Ms. Chiiz was standing in it surrounded by the three large Verdante children Antaska had seen in the family room.
Ms. Chiiz also carried a gigantic Verdante infant positioned to face backward over her shoulder. The big baby struggled against her firm hold. It twisted its head around to stare with huge light green eyes at Antaska and Potat—especially Potat.
“Kitty! Kitty!” Antaska clearly heard the telepathic words coming from the big baby.
She expected Potat to run under the bed and hide again. But Potat calmly faced the rowdy group without moving except to turn her head in their direction. She blinked at them with golden eyes as if she were just mildly confused by the interruption.
In her earlier state of culture shock when she’d first entered the residence, Antaska hadn’t noticed much about Ms. Chiiz or the three children. Now they pushed and shoved each other and Ms. Chiiz in their attempts to get in through the Earthling-sized doorway.
Antaska saw that all of them wore clothes different than the plain styles worn by the Verdantes on Earth or the ship suits worn by the Verdantes and their Earthling companions. Antaska wondered if these flamboyant outfits were normal children’s wear for their species.
Ms. Chiiz wore a professional-looking teal pantsuit that exactly matched the color of her large slanted eyes. Darker-colored teal pumps with pointed toes and low heels completed the look. At six feet tall, she would have almost looked the part of an adult human office worker, were it not for the slight chubbiness of childhood and her alien coloring.
Typical of the Verdantes, the top of Ms. Chiiz’s head was proportionally larger than a human head and tapered down to a much smaller chin. Her bright green skin was a few shades lighter than her green shoulder-length hair. The straight shiny hair framed a face from which intense upward-slanting eyes looked in sharp interest at Antaska and Potat.
The three chubby Verdante children were smaller–from three to five feet tall–with the equivalent physical development of Earthling four to six year-olds. They wore puffy-sleeved blouses and tight-fitting pants with wide metallic belts. Tall boots rose just above their knees.
Each child also wore a black cape held on by a silver clasp. One child wore a wide-brimmed black hat sporting a large white and gray feather. These outfits reminded Antaska of a rare video made in ancient Earth times.
They look like those ancient Earth swashbucklers, the Three Musketeers, Antaska thought.
Ms. Chiiz addressed Antaska vocally. “Can we come in to visit you and your cat? M. Hoyvil told us she’s sentient and telepathic, and the little ones asked to meet her.”
“Kitty! Kitty!” said the big baby again with insistence.
“Ahm, well…” answered Antaska, not sure what Potat would want her to say to this request.
Now the three large alien children hovered shyly but eagerly behind Ms. Chiiz.
“Can we please play with the kitty?” asked the smallest, who was about three feet tall.
“This is Ms. Beeedut,” Ms. Chiiz introduced the young female child.
Potat climbed down from her pillow and stared at Ms. Chiiz and the three smaller children. M. Beeedut’s long, dark green curls contrasted sharply against her light pink puffy sleeved blouse and spilled down almost to the floor as she bent around one side of Ms. Chiiz. Her green skin surrounded by tumbling curls brought an image to Potat’s mind of a small leafy tree in a shaded wood. She felt the urge to attack the tumbling curls with her claws, but she resisted.
These humanoids might disapprove if I attack a child, she thought.
Instead, Potat gave herself the satisfaction of kneading her claws deeply into the bedspread. She answering Ms. Beeedut telepathically.
“You children may enter and visit me if you can restrain yourselves from any rough behavior and show the proper respect.”
The group moved toward the bed. Potat sat down next to Antaska just to be safe. The big baby reached eager arms toward Potat and kept saying, “kitty, kitty,” softer than before but still insistently. That made Potat a bit nervous. She was relieved to see Ms. Chiiz carry him around to the other side of the bed where Antaska sat.
Ms. Chiiz sat down next to Antaska with the big green baby restrained on her lap. He whimpered just a bit more. Then he started to fall asleep in her arms.
The three older children lined up in front of Potat on her side of the round bed. Together, they gave Potat a formal courtly bow, with flourishes of arms and hat. Mesmerized by the swing of Ms. Beeedut’s dark green-black curls so tantalizing near, Potat couldn’t resist lightly swatting at them with one paw, without claws extended, of course.
“Stop that,” Antaska ordered Potat out loud, but as usual, Potat completely ignored the order.
Ms. Beeedut giggled and sat down on the bed next to Potat. She leaned toward her and shook her curls in Potat’s direction. Potat didn’t need any more encouragement than this to attack the long hair with a flurry of both front paws, but she restrained herself enough to keep her claws in.
The two larger Verdante children sat down on their knees in front of Potat and tried to get her attention away from the game she was playing with Ms. Beeedut.
“We can get you some better toys than that,” said the larger five-foot-tall one in a childish but loud telepathic voice.
“What toys?” asked Potat telepathically, only slightly distracted from her purpose of creating a tangled mess out of Ms. Beeedut’s hair.
A mental conversation mostly consisting of visual images followed that question, as the two male children kneeling on the floor presented images of various cat toys and furniture. Potat answered with her own mental images, either rejecting or modifying their offers more to her liking.
Potat lost interest in Ms. Beeedut’s hair, and Ms. Beeedut joined in the visual telepathic conversion, adding her own ideas for things that Potat might like. Eventually, it was decided that a cat castle would be constructed along one wall of the round room. The three children and Potat continued to work out the details of its design as well as what additional items would be needed such as pillows, fake mice, and large fabricated feathers.
Meanwhile, Ms. Chiiz and Antaska were talking out loud.
“Can you tell me about the Verdante-Earthling offices on Earth?” Ms. Chiiz asked Antaska. “I’m 500 years old, and in just 50 more years, I’ll be old enough to go to Earth and act as an office administrator. I can’t wait to go. It’s my dream. Especially since Verdante females aren’t allowed to go anywhere else in space except Earth.”
“Well, all I know is that the Earthlings will think you’re an adult. I didn’t find out that the Verdantes we interacted with were adolescents until M. Hoyvil told me,” said Antaska with a laugh.
“Sure,” said Ms. Chiiz. “That’s because our scientists studied Earthlings before the first contact and decided that you’d be frightened by the gigantic green adults. A lot of newly contacted species have been frightened by them, actually.”
“I can believe that,” said Antaska. “I was disturbed by my first sight of Master Meeepp standing in front of me on the space ship. But most people would get used to it, I think.”
“Oh, please don’t tell anyone that our adults wouldn’t be scary to Earthlings,” said Ms. Chiiz. “Then we children wouldn’t get to go to Earth.”
“OK. I won’t,” Antaska promised.
“Anyway, the children aren’t alone there,” said Ms. Chiiz. “A colony of adult Verdantes lives on Earth all the time. They supervise the Verdante children, and they all live in an underground community like the living spaces on the Verdante planet. But they never show themselves to the Earthlings.”
“Well, I hope you like it there,” said Antaska. “Earth is beautiful, but most Earthlings spend their whole lives waiting to leave. Everyone wants to go to space.”
“I want to go to space too, but females can’t,” said Ms. Chiiz with a loud sigh. “But at least when I turn 650, I’ll be allowed to bring an Earthling with me back here to the Verdante planet.”
Antaska noticed that Ms. Chiiz didn’t call the Earthlings “pets.” But she knew from hearing their telepathic conversations that the Verdantes–especially the adults–did think of the Earthlings as their pets.
I’m glad that M. Hoyvil says he doesn’t like that, and he tells them to call me his companion, Antaska thought. Ms. Chiiz seems to understand that being a pet would be demeaning too.
As Ms. Chiiz continued to ask questions about Earth, and Antaska answered, she looked at the large green-skinned baby sleeping on Ms. Chiiz’s lap. Even though Ms. Chiiz was the size of a large human woman, the enormous baby, about three times the size of an Earthling baby, spilled over the sides of her lap. However, she held him easily and comfortably.
Antaska found her attention drawn irresistibly to the baby. His light green curls, chubby toes, and fingers curled into fists made him resemble a large alien cherub. Suddenly, Antaska was flooded by a strange, previously unknown feeling–the maternal instinct.
This feeling took Antaska completely by surprise. Earthlings were raised in groups of twelve fertilized eggs with similar genetic ingredients. Always dreaming of space travel, she’d never been interested in the Earth career of an adult caretaker who raised groups Earth babies to adulthood.
Earthling babies and children were kept in areas separate from adults, and Antaska had only seen images of them in videos. This big baby was the first humanoid infant she’d ever seen in person.
As she felt the strong, unfamiliar urge, Antaska wondered if there was more behind the Earth government’s practice of segregating its adults from its babies and children than the reasons of convenience the government claimed. Because humans were technologically advanced and not animals, said their government, all Earthlings were sterilized at birth. The amount of humans born was carefully controlled by the government to be a perfect balance for the Earth’s resources. And the government birth labs bioengineered each embryo to ensure that only the highest quality humans were put on the planet.
A realization that would have been disturbing if she was still on Earth came into Antaska’s mind. Maybe most or all humans would demand to have their own children if they all felt like this!
“Can I hold the baby?” Antaska asked Ms. Chiiz.
“I’d let you hold him, but he’s really heavy, and he’d probably wake up and start fussing if I try to hand him over to you. Can you hold him another time when he’s awake?” she asked Antaska.
“OK,” said Antaska.
Instinctively, she reached over to pet Potat, who rewarded her with a loud purr. But Potat kept talking to the three children who were out of diapers and much more interesting to her. Antaska didn’t hear, but she saw part of their strange visual telepathic conversation. Embarrassed to be eavesdropping, she quickly put her focus back on Ms. Chiiz and the sleeping baby.
Potat came to a final arrangement with the three Verdante children on the things they’d create for her with the residence’s subatomic particle computer.
Now Ms. Beeedut spoke to Potat. “M. Hoyvil is so lucky to have an Earthling who has a pet like you! I wish I could get a cat instead of a human when I’m 650. You’re much better than those boring humans!”
“We want a cat too!” said the other two children in loud unison.
“Well!” answered Potat in a superior but forgiving telepathic voice, “First of all, I’m not a pet. Antaska was my first pet, and I gave M. Hoyvil the honor of becoming my second pet after he proved his worthiness by rescuing Antaska from bad people.”
“Cool!” said the two children seated on the floor. “Wow!” said Ms. Beeedut.
“Can we be your pets too?” “Do you want more presents?” “Tell us the story,” they said all at once.
“I’ll tell you the story, and giving me presents is nice, but it’s not enough. You can only become my pets if you perform an act of heroism to prove your loyalty,” Potat told them.
“We will, we will!” they promised. “What do you want us to do?”
“We’ll only be here for a week, so there might not be a chance this time. But wait for my call, and be ready to come to my assistance if I need you. And by the way, I’m impressed that you can understand me so much better than M. Hoyvil can.”
Potat didn’t expect trouble during this week-long visit, but she knew that a small cat could never have too many large humanoids ready to serve her.
All three children nodded their large heads in agreement and settled down to listen entranced while Potat told them her version of Antaska’s recent escape from the bioengineered human fitness instructors, Eegor and Tilde, on their journey here from Earth.
Suddenly, Antaska heard Potat stop talking and let out a low, growling noise that would have terrified any creature smaller than her. Antaska looked at the little cat with concern.
Why is she stiff and frozen like a statue and growling at the empty doorway? Antaska wondered.
About thirty seconds later, Antaska froze too. An Earthling female of about 250 years old stood in the open doorway. She wore a dress of light pink material trimmed with shells in an artistic pattern. Bright red-dyed hair rose artificially above her head in the shape of ocean waves.
“Hello, I’m Freeta,” she said in a sweet, friendly voice. “We haven’t met, but I saw you come in with M. Hoyvil. I see you have visitors. May I come in and chat too?”
Antaska recognized Freeta’s voice from the bathroom, and after what she’d heard, she didn’t want to chat with her. She looked around and noticed that the Verdante children were staring at Freeta with blank faces and down-turned eyes. But Antaska didn’t want to be rude.
“Sure, come in,” she answered Freeta.
Freeta walked in. When she moved, her dress made a whooshing, wave-like sound.
“This is a bad lady!” Antaska heard Potat say telepathically to the three Verdante children. “Please make her leave my room.”
Antaska knew that Freeta couldn’t hear telepathic speech, but Ms. Beeedut relayed the message to Freeta out loud, in so many words.
“I’m sorry Freeta, but this cat, Potat, isn’t comfortable with you here. She asked me to tell you to leave since she can only speak telepathically and can’t tell you herself.”
“What!” Freeta exclaimed. “Antaska just invited me in, and it’s her room, not this dumb animal! Don’t try to play your childish games with me!”
“Well, it’s really Potat’s room too,” said Antaska. “And she’s a sentient being, by the way.”
“That’s right, Freeta. It’s not nice to disrespect other species. Now if you would please leave?” said M. Gwaawh.
They must be trying to prove themselves worthy of becoming Potat’s pets, Antaska thought.
Antaska had heard Potat giving orders to the children and wondered if the Verdante adults would be upset about that. Would they be upset that the children had ordered Freeta out of her room? Antaska really wanted Frieda to go away too. And anyway, she knew by now that there was no use in telling Potat what to do. This cat would do exactly what she wanted to.
Ms. Chiiz could also hear Potat talking telepathically. She hadn’t been paying attention to the conversation between Potat and the children. So she was surprised at Potat’s aversion to Frieda, her order to the children, and their quick response.
This is very interesting, thought Ms. Chiiz, who studied the behavior and interactions of humans and Verdantes as a hobby. I wonder why this cat is focused on Freeta with such aggressive intent. Why are the children taking orders from this cat? And why does Antaska seem so tense and uncomfortable? Fascinating!
Her thoughts were interrupted by the big baby in her lap. The vocal talk of the children and Freeta had woke up M. Bomp, and he was fussing.
“Shush, shush,” said Ms. Chiiz telepathically to M. Bomp.
Ms. Chiiz pretended to focus all of her attention on calming the baby while she waited to see what would happen next in this unusual situation. Freeta stood in front of her as if she expected Ms. Chiiz to interfere. But Ms. Chiiz just patted the baby’s head and didn’t say anything.
Ignoring the children, Freeta spoke again—this time only to Antaska.
“Well! It’s really noisy in here with all these children. I’m sure you’d rather go to my room to talk. Come along now.”
She ended her short speech with a flourish of her arm as if to direct Antaska out the door.
Hmm, thought Ms. Chiiz. Freeta is attempting to manipulate this other human female by telling her what to do and not giving her an option to say ‘no’ without seeming rude.
Ms. Chiiz turned to look at Antaska and waited with interest to see how she would respond.
“Umm, ahh,” said Antaska.
“Tell her to leave!” the small cat Potat said loudly and telepathically to the three children. She accompanied this with an arched back, raised fur, and a loud hiss in Freeta’s direction.
The largest of the children, M. Gwaawh, stood up and glared with lowered eye corners at Freeta.
“I must insist that you leave now, Freeta,” he said with an adult-like firmness that was oddly unsettling coming from a child-like but large body.
Well he is 500 years old, Ms. Chiiz thought.
M. Gwaawh made a sweeping gesture with his arm and the six green fingers of one hand toward the door.
Freeta’s eyes and mouth opened wide, and she stood momentarily frozen. Ms. Chiiz had noticed that this human never seemed comfortable around the large Verdante children and usually avoided them. Because they were hundreds of years old, the Verdantes let them roam around the residence unsupervised, but they were children and therefore unpredictable.
Now what will happen? Ms. Chiiz wondered.
Freeta spoke up. “Well! Ms. Janeez told me that you children were well behaved and self-controlled, but it looks like she was wrong.”
No one said anything in answer to that. Ms. Chiiz bounced the baby on her lap. The Earthling Antaska sat next to her stiff and unmoving. And the three Verdante children and the cat glared at Freeta with undisguised disdain.
Freeta looked around at all of them. Then she turned and left the room with a rustle of waving hair and dress.
“I’ll tell Ms. Janeez! I’ll tell her about this!” Ms. Chiiz could hear Freeta threaten as she retreated down the curved hallway.
With superhuman Verdante hearing, M. Chiiz could also hear Freeta’s lower-voiced rant from a farther distance. “I was right about those children! Hundreds of years in a child’s body really does make them crazy!”
The corners of the big baby’s eyes pulled down, and his small mouth pressed closed tight. Ms. Chiiz’s efforts to soothe him hadn’t been helped by the loud talking and yelling. M. Bomp wanted badly to express himself, but he couldn’t. It was extremely frustrating for Verdante babies to not have the physiological development needed for either vocal or telepathic speech until at least the age of one hundred, when they began speaking their first words. M. Bomp was just over one hundred years old and could still speak only a few words, including his most recently learned “kitty.”
From the moment M. Bomp had seen Potat, he’d wanted to pet her, but his desire had been thwarted by Ms. Chiiz. She’d held him firmly until he fell asleep. Most unfairly, the other children had been allowed to surround Potat and receive her full attention. The cat had even said they might be able to become her pets, but what about M. Bomp? He heard the little kitty telling them a story as he drifted off to sleep listening to the sound of her sweet, melodious voice. It was like nothing he’d ever heard before on the Verdante planet.
After a nap that was much too short for the needs of a Verdante baby, M. Bomp woke to the sounds of trouble. Someone was bothering the kitty! He wanted to do something, but he was so limited by his baby body. Once again, one of the larger children won Potat’s attention and admiration, and still, M. Bomp had not been allowed to even pet her!
Large tears began