Chapter 3

Antaska was breathing fast and her leg muscles were burning when M. Hoyvil at last stopped at the tall, narrow etching of a door in the wall. She smothered a sigh of relief.

Strange alien symbols marked the door. At the height of M. Hoyvil’s chest, a raised circle glowed dim in the well-lit hallway. He pressed his large palm against it. The door slid silently up, and he walked through. Antaska followed, with her luggage and Potat, into a circular open space.

A curved Verdante-sized dark green couch rested against the far wall. A large elliptical table, anchored to the floor, stood in front of the couch. Soft dark-brown plush material covered the floor. Instead of the tan shade of Antaska’s uniform, the walls were colored a soft blue. She tipped her head back to see where the walls curved in to form a domed ceiling several feet above M. Hoyvil’s head.

There were no visible light fixtures, but bright but not harsh light glowed uniformly from the walls and ceiling. Two doors led from this big circular main room.

After his long silence, M. Hoyvil spoke to Antaska.

“That door leads to your room,” he said, pointing to one of the doors. “You can go in there and get settled. I’ll get you at 1800 hours when it’s time for dinner in the space ship’s dining hall. Place your palm here to open and close your door. It’s coded to your hand print.”

Antaska went into her new quarters, pulling the cart in with her. She sealed the door closed behind her. This round room was smaller than the outer room. Walls in the same blue color curved up to a much lower dome-shaped ceiling. M. Hoyvil would have to bend down to fit in here, Antaska realized. She felt a sense of relief and comfort to be in an Earth human-sized room, with human-sized furnishings.

A round bed filled about a fourth of the room. Another door led to a small bathroom. Antaska lifted Potat out of her travel cage and gently placed her on the bed. Then she flopped down beside Potat and stared at up the domed ceiling. Her mind turned back to what she had been taught in space school to expect from this job.

“You might experience culture shock when you first go to live with the Verdantes. That’s normal, and it will pass when you get used to your new surroundings,” her teacher had said.

“What I’m feeling is normal,” Antaska said to the sleeping Potat.

The idea of living in shared quarters with her employer had seemed strange when Antaska first learned about it. But that was the usual arrangement for Verdantes and the human assistants who worked for them. Antaska was used to living alone in her dorm room with Potat for many years. But as an assistant, she would need to be close by when needed.

“It’s like being a live-in house servant, except your position will be more administrative,” her teacher had said. “And you’ll have your own room and bathroom.”

It had seemed normal when put that way. But now that Antaska was here, she felt a bit uneasy at the thought of sharing a common household with an alien being.

“This is strange, but I still don’t want to go back,” she told herself and Potat, who continued to sleep.

A runt among her species, Potat was larger than a kitten but only about half the size of most adult cats. She lay curled up tightly in a small ball—her snowy white belly fur surrounded by darkening shades of gray. A wide, dark stripe flowed down from her ears and ended just before the white tip of her tail.

Antaska felt a sudden stab of guilt that Potat had no choice about being moved from the home she was used to into this new and different environment.

“I’m sorry,” she said. She hoped Potat could understand her even though, of course, that was impossible.

Experiments had shown that domestic cats had evolved and were far more intelligent than their early Earth ancestors of a million years ago, but they had no language and were not sentient beings, Earth biologists insisted.

Antaska got up from the bed and explored her new quarters. A miniature alcove contained cat food and water in small bowls. In the bathroom, Antaska found a cat litter box as well as the standard human plumbing fixtures. She experimentally pushed the small brown button above the litter box. It sunk down and disappeared under the floor, which closed over it. Antaska heard a dumping noise and the sound of more litter filling the box, and then it reappeared.

“Fantastic!” Antaska said out loud.

An hour later, she had stowed most of her belongings and the floating cart. Potat woke up, but she was still groggy. Antaska sat next to her and told her that this would be their new home. The small gray cat didn’t seem frightened. She rubbed against Antaska and purred. Then she sat and stared up at her.

In times like these, Antaska could almost believe that her pet wanted to tell her something. She hoped it would be something like, “Don’t worry about me, my home is where you are.”

Potat looked up at her with what looked disturbingly like an amused cat smile.

Potat gazed with affectionate frustration at her pet Antaska. She lifted a tiny white paw to scratch at high speed behind one ear. Potat knew Antaska could hear her mental speech, but she refused to listen. At times, this could be a problem. Like today, when Antaska insisted on giving her a tranquilizer for this trip.

“Don’t drug me. I don’t need that. You need it more than I do,” Potat had tried to tell her telepathically.

But Antaska had stuffed the pill in Potat’s mouth, held it shut, and rubbed her throat to make it go down. The memory brought up some resentment.

I guess she needs punishment for that, Potat thought.

She reached out a paw and swiped it hard against Antaska’s leg, pulling her claws in at the last second.

I really don’t like hurting her, I guess, Potat realized.

“What are you slapping me for, you crazy kitty?” Antaska asked her.

“You know what for,” Potat answered her mentally.

Antaska shook her head but acted like she didn’t hear anything. Pink hair floated and wiggled in the air.

So annoying, but so shiny! thought Potat.

The little cat felt thirsty from the affects of the drug and the unnatural induced sleep. She sniffed the air for water. Luckily, some water was nearby, so Potat didn’t have to cry and whine until Antaska figured out what she wanted.

Potat hopped down from the bed unto the cushioned flooring. She headed straight to the alcove that had her water and food in it.

“Oh, right. There’s water and food over there,” said Antaska a bit too late.

As Potat slurped down the water as loud as she could to show how terribly thirsty she was, she heard a small plop sound from behind. She straightened up and twisted her head all the way around to the back. Antaska had flopped down on the bed. She was staring at the holographic image of stars displayed on the ceiling.

“Right. Just abuse me, and then ignore me,” Potat said to her telepathically.

She didn’t expect an answer, and she didn’t get one. But Potat felt irritable, and she felt the need to get rid of that feeling. Taking off at high speed, she rushed in circles around the small room. Again and again.

“You crazy cat,” Antaska judged her while still lying on the bed.

This room is too small for a good workout, thought Potat.

She added some intensity to her run by jumping up on the bed and running across Antaska.

“Ouch! Stop it!” Antaska said each time Potat ran over her.

So this was a little better. About five more times, and then Potat stopped on the bed next to Antaska. Time for a bath. She lifted a paw and began washing herself.

Antaska turned her head to look at Potat.

“Are you mad about something?” she asked.

Potat ignored her but couldn’t stop the satisfied purr that escaped from her throat.