Chapter 8

Antaska walked with M. Hoyvil into the circle-shaped meeting room, and she heard more of the now-familiar whispering sounds. The room held about thirty large desks placed so they curved around and faced a larger desk placed at the back. The ceiling was higher than the one in the main room in their quarters but lower than those in the dining hall and gym. It had the same domed shape Antaska had seen so far in all the rooms in the space ship.

Verdantes who were the same size as M. Hoyvil—some accompanied by Earth humans, some not—entered the room and sat at big desks. Each desk had at least two chairs: one large Verdante chair and one or more smaller human-sized chairs with attached step ladders.

M. Hoyvil first led Antaska to a side wall. He opened a compartment and handed her two drink tubes. Then he took four more for himself, easily holding two in each of his six-fingered hands. Then he led her to an empty desk. He pulled a computer tablet from his backpack and placed it on the desk before sitting down.

Antaska was temporarily distracted from both her sore ribs and her thoughts of Eegor by the sound of loud whispering. She climbed the steps to her chair and sat down. Then she looked around the room and recognized some of the humans from her exercise class but not all of them. Antaska wondered if the rest of them had stayed in their rooms resting and recovering from the intense, unaccustomed workout.

The red-haired woman who had spoke to Antaska in the gym was sitting a few seats over. She smiled and waved when Antaska looked her way. Antaska smiled and waved back.

“It’s nice to see how you humans can socialize so easily,” M. Hoyvil said.

Antaska smiled up at him. She remembered what he had told her about the Verdantes social problems, and for the first time, she felt kind of sorry for him and his species.

The room was quiet except for the voices whispering in Antaska’s mind. She ignored them.

I know it’s from that bump on the head, she told herself.

Now that she was sitting still, the pain in Antaska’s ribs came back. Her body and all her muscles were exhausted from the hard workout. She tried to keep her back up straight, but the effort was too much, and she slumped.

M. Hoyvil was still looking at her.

“The dark green drink will help you recover from the workout and get stronger,” he said.

Antaska suddenly felt very thirsty. She took a big drink from the dark green beverage tube.

“That one not only has fluid to rehydrate your body but also protein, simple and complex carbohydrates, and a small amount of healthy fat—everything your body needs to build new muscle tissue,” M. Hoyvil said.

Then he also lifted a tube of dark green liquid to his mouth and took a long drink.

Suddenly, the whispering noises stopped, and the room became absolutely silent. One of the larger-sized Verdante males entered the room. He walked to the big desk at the back. At under ten feet, he wasn’t as tall as the largest of the aliens Antaska had seen so far. And he seemed to be older, with graying green hair and deep wrinkles on his dark green-skinned face. Bushy gray-green eyebrows topped enormous slanted eyes.

Before sitting down, the huge green man stood and silently looked around the room. Then, the whispering sound was back—a low and rumbly deep male voice. All through the meeting, no one spoke out loud. Antaska assumed the large man was speaking telepathically to the group. The Verdantes sitting at the desks stared toward the front of the room at the larger man. He said nothing but looked back and occasionally waved the six fingers of both hands.

Many of the Verdantes typed on computer tablets like M. Hoyvil’s. Every so often, one of them would raise up a hand. The big man would look over and sometimes point with his own wavy-fingered hand. At those times, Antaska heard the whispering of higher-pitched male or female voices. As much as she tried to deny it, Antaska couldn’t help but wonder if she was hearing parts of the Verdantes’ telepathic speech.

Could it be possible? she asked herself. But M. Hoyvil said humans don’t have any telepathic abilities. That’s what makes us useful in space as companions. If I were telepathic, then I wouldn’t be able to go on this trip.

Antaska’s anxiety grew stronger.

I’m not telepathic; I can’t be telepathic! she insisted to herself. Whatever I’m hearing is my imagination, and I won’t pay any more attention to it.

Blank expressions began to appear on the faces of the Earth humans who sat sipping from drink tubes. Antaska might have been bored by this meeting too, but her mind turned to thoughts of Eegor. Physically, she was starting to feel better, and she was content to sit sipping her drink and take comfort in the large presence of M. Hoyvil.

After about fifteen minutes, the meeting became more interesting, and thoughts of Eegor fled from Antaska’s mind. An enormous floor-to-ceiling, 3-D holographic image appeared in front of the large alien’s desk. A planet floated in space with strange symbols written in the air above it. The giant man stood up and walked around inside of the image. He waggled his arms and fingers about and pointed a long wand at various features shown in the hologram.

The panoramic image zoomed in to show features of the desert planet’s geography. Then closer and closer to show trees and buildings, and then some odd-looking humanoids. They wore long, dark midnight blue cloaks that partly hid their dark blue faces. The camera zoomed in to show sharp-planed but otherwise humanoid faces and heads. Their metallic skin reflected light and was difficult to focus on. Pale white clouds floated and swirled in their strange eyes.

Antaska felt the tension in the room increase as the big man continued to wave his hands and wand at the holograph. It showed more images of humanoids, animals, and other life and non-life forms on the same planet. The Earth humans no longer looked bored. They stared intently at the moving images along with their Verdante companions. Again, many green hands were raised, the big green man would point at one of the hand raisers, and the hands would go down.

During this time, something familiar about this meeting began to nag in the back of Antaska’s mind. But her interest in the holographic images kept her from focusing on that familiarity. Finally, after almost an hour, the holograph faded. The gigantic alien seemed drained of energy. He walked with heavy steps back behind his desk and sat down. His huge green head rotated from one side to the other as he stared at the meeting attendants. Then he sat still, seeming to look at nothing in particular.

This meeting was really more like a lecture, Antaska thought.

She watched many of the Verdantes get up to leave with their human assistants. A few others left their human assistants sitting at the desks and walked toward the large alien at the back of the room. The smaller body size of the Verdantes in the audience compared to the lecturer now reminded Antaska of a classroom of younger students and an older teacher.

But how could that be possible if M. Hoyvil is a full-grown adult man? she asked herself.

Wondering about this strange similarity, she looked up at M. Hoyvil.

Class was over, and M. Hoyvil stood up.

“It’s time for lunch now,” he told Antaska.

He waited for her to climb down from her chair.

Normally, he’d go to the teacher’s desk and ask some more questions about the subject of this lecture—the treacherous Woogah species. But today, he didn’t want to make Antaska wait in the chair any longer than necessary.

They left the lecture room and walked to the dining hall. M. Hoyvil adjusted his stride to Antaska’s much shorter one. She was going even slower than usual, and he worried that she might still be in pain.

After they were seated with their meals in the dining room, M. Hoyvil was ready to talk vocally to Antaska again. He thought he was getting quite good at it, and he was learning to eat and drink in between talking, so it wasn’t disruptive to his meal.

“How are you feeling now?” he asked.

“I’m still a little sore and tired but mostly feeling better,” Antaska answered.

M. Hoyvil was relieved. “Do you have any questions about the meeting?”

“Yes, I do have some questions,” she answered after a moment. “I was wondering about that. It seemed more like a lecture than a meeting. Is that right?”

“You are exactly right!” said M. Hoyvil, pleased by her astuteness.

He took another bite of his food.

Antaska continued. “In some ways, it reminded me of my classes in school, with the teachers much larger in size than the students. I think you said that the bigger Verdantes are much older, and that you’ll get taller when you’re older. Does that mean that you’re a child?”

Antaska she sat back in her chair, looking at him and waiting for him to answer.

M. Hoyvil took a big drink from his beverage tube before replying. He hadn’t been expecting this question so soon. In fact, many Earth humans never got around to asking it. Sometimes, much older humans figured this out. But they were usually closely bonded by then and not too upset by the revelation.

M. Hoyvil worried not only about Antaska’s reaction but also about the other humans sitting near them who might overhear his answer. Maybe because of his unusual behavior in speaking vocally to her during the meal, the two of them were even now the object of the attention of many of the other Verdantes and their human companions.

“I’ll answer that question when we’re back in our quarters,” M. Hoyvil said at last. “It needs some more explanation. But this isn’t the place to talk about it because others might be listening. Those who have not asked the question or even thought of the question aren’t ready to hear the answer.”

M. Hoyvil was somewhat embarrassed to find himself talking in the manner of the adults. But Antaska just nodded her head in agreement and went back to eating her food. They ate the rest of their meal in silence, but M. Hoyvil carried on conversations with his friends, both telepathically and by using sign language.

The other Verdantes were both impressed and concerned to hear that Antaska had asked him about school and their actual relative ages. Many suggestions were given about how he should answer, along with warnings not to give out too much information.

After lunch, M. Hoyvil and Antaska walked back to their quarters. This time, M. Hoyvil walked slower because he was thinking about the discussion they would soon have. Although the time they had been together so far was not long, he realized that owning her had already provided many unexpected challenges. He didn’t believe everything Master Mytaar said. But it seemed likely that in the future, she would provide even more tests for him as the person legally responsible for her.

M. Hoyvil looked down at her—a small figure walking by his side—as he thought about this possibility, and he had no doubts that he had made a good choice. The trip through space could get dull while traveling long distances between inhabited planets, and it would be more interesting with a challenging companion.