From the moment she landed the job that would take her away from Earth for the rest of her life, Antaska had been thrilled and excited. Now she felt nervous. She stood at the entrance to the space ship. The door slid silently open. M. Hoyvil, her new employer, stood there. He looked down at her, but he didn’t greet her. He didn’t smile or change his expression. But his enormous upward-slanted green eyes slanted up even higher.
Hmm. He seemed friendlier when I met him in the viewing room. Was I imagining that? Antaska wondered.
M. Hoyvil stepped back from the door and motioned Antaska inside. Then he turned and took off walking fast. Antaska followed him as fast as she could through the bare, high-ceilinged, curved hallway that circled the space ship’s outer rim.
Never once looking back in her direction, M. Hoyvil walked fast, taking huge strides on his much longer legs. Antaska brushed away the pink hair that kept falling across her almond-shaped gray eyes as she rushed after him with high bounding steps on the spongy floor.
She hoped nothing would fall off the floating cart she pulled behind her. All her few possessions were on the cart and also Potat. The small cat was tranquilized and sleeping to protect her from the shock of this drastic change to her living situation.
Antaska walked as fast as she could, but she fell farther and farther behind M. Hoyvil. In the distance, she saw M. Hoyvil stop and open a panel high in the side of an inner wall. Another tall, thin alien male approached him and stopped about five feet away.
In contrast to M. Hoyvil’s dark, almost-black green hair, this man’s hair was a light lime green shade. Their features were different, but they both had the green skin of their species. They looked kind of like Earth humans. But the tops of their heads were bigger in proportion to the rest—faces with large foreheads and huge eyes that narrowed down to pointed chins.
As Antaska walked toward the two men, she slowed her pace. Her eyes grew large and round with a curiosity that went unnoticed.
M. Hoyvil stopped what he was doing. He turned and stared at the other man, who returned his silent stare. Antaska knew that the Verdantes were telepathic, and she guessed that they were talking.
Still, Antaska felt an inner chill while she waited and watched the two large beings stare at each other in silence. Antaska couldn’t hear their mental talk, but she had a strange feeling of coldness that wasn’t caused by the cool but comfortable ambient temperature of the space ship hallway.
Now Antaska caught up with M. Hoyvil. She stopped a few feet away from the two men. The strange cold feeling seemed to warm and melt away. The second alien turned and looked down at Antaska. The corners of his eyes lifted up too, but he didn’t say anything to her. Then he turned and walked away.
This job seems strange already, Antaska thought. Will it be like this for the next 300 years?
Her new employer looked down at her and then continued on his fast walk. Antaska sped after him. He stopped in front of what seemed to be a tall, narrow doorway. It was unmarked and only distinguishable as a door by the seam around its edges. Still ignoring Antaska, M. Hoyvil pressed his large palm against the wall in a spot that seemed no different than any other spot. A panel opened up at his chest height, which was just over Antaska’s head.
M. Hoyvil lifted his arms and began waving the long six fingers of both hands against something inside the recessed opening. Antaska couldn’t see in from her much shorter height. He finished what he was doing, and the panel closed.
A chime sounded, and the door silently slid up and open. M. Hoyvil went though without stopping to wait for Antaska. The door began to slide back down. She rushed in after him, pulling her cart with the still-sleeping Potat behind her. Thinking of Potat calmed some of Antaska’s nervousness.
The Verdantes let me bring my pet I’m so attached to on their space ship, so they must be a compassionate species, she told herself.
More Verdantes passed by as Antaska and M. Hoyvil walked along, some also followed by humans pulling luggage carts. Antaska and the other humans exchanged glances as they passed. A quick breathless smile, a wave of the free hand.
They’re all nervous too, Antaska realized.
Etchings of tall, narrow doors appeared at random intervals along the interior corridors. The high doorways rose to a dizzying height of about fifteen feet within the even higher hallways. The doors seemed to dwarf even the eight-foot-tall M. Hoyvil.
Antaska tilted her head all the way back to look up. She felt unbalanced by the view of the walls and door markings curving gradually in toward the ceiling.
The behavior of M. Hoyvil was even more unsettling. It was true that their only meeting had been brief, and they had spoke only with sign language. But even with the clear barrier between them in the viewing room, Antaska had thought he was warm and friendly. Now on the space ship, M. Hoyvil seemed like a different person. His continued silence and blank expression seemed to show a complete lack of interest in her.
Antaska had learned in space school classes to expect long periods of silence from her Verdante employer. But the actual experience of being treated as invisible was disturbing. And now, she noticed that the tan ship suit she had been so happy with—made of comfortable stretchy fabric—was the exact shade of the walls. All of the Earth humans wore ship suits of the same color.
M. Hoyvil and the other Verdantes they passed all wore fitted ship suits designed like Antaska’s. But theirs were a bright blue color that showed up in the tan hallways. Both the males and females were around eight feet tall. All of their faces wore the same blank expression as M. Hoyvil’s. Like Earth humans, their hair colors, textures, and eye colors varied, but they all had an un-humanly green shading in their skin and features.
They walked along, and Antaska noticed that M. Hoyvil sometimes looked at the others, but he didn’t acknowledge them. They looked at him but also said nothing.
Of course, they could be speaking telepathically, she realized.
They passed more Verdantes, and still no one spoke out loud. But they didn’t walk in complete silence. Since boarding the space ship, Antaska had noticed a low, soothing humming noise.
It must be the ship’s machinery or ventilation system, she thought.
In silence, M. Hoyvil led Antaska down more long, tall hallways that curved endlessly in toward the space ship’s center.
What do I really know about him, and what have I gotten myself into? Antaska asked herself. In any case, there’s no way I’m staying on Earth. This trip has been my dream for my entire life. A little nervousness would be normal for anyone leaving on a life-long journey into the unknown, working for an alien on an alien space ship.
In her mind, Antaska pictured the images of star systems and galaxies she had spent so many hours studying. Once more, she was filled with the familiar longing to see them up close and to explore their planets.
Antaska stopped worrying about M. Hoyvil’s behavior. Like most Earth humans, she had always accepted the superiority of the Verdantes. Wasn’t that proved by their advanced technology, medical knowledge, ability to travel through space, and mental telepathy?
Anyone would feel intimidated by all that, she told herself.