“Yes, I know you are so impressed. You just can’t think of what to say to thank us,” simpered Iiooonaa.
One hand made a grooming motion down along the rows of orange triangles on her head that might have been hair or might have been scales.
“Wha..buh..” Eegor shoved his mouth open and forced the words out. “But what about the teasing, the tormenting, the sad embarrassment! Boo hoo! The passive aggressive stuff you did yesterday? I loved that stuff! I thought I was gonna watch that for the next twenty-five years till I get out of solitary! To make the time pass! And now you took that away after only one day!”
Muscles bulged in Eegor’s muscular fists, and the reddened face that faced the Eeeepps was now more menacing than handsome.
The Eeeepps bunched around Iiooonaa again, all with wide open muzzles and eyes.
“But Eegor, you got exactly what you wanted. And you got it fast. I don’t understand what the problem is here,” said Iiooonaa.
“The problem is this!” Eegor shouted. He grabbed his snack bowl and threw it at the video screen. The screen caved in at the point of impact, and the image of the Eeeepps contorted.
“Video off,” Eegor heard Iiooonaa say as the colors on his screen faded to black.
After M. Hoyvil and Potat left Master Meeepp’s quarters, the gigantic Verdante man sat down and slouched back on the couch in exhaustion. Vorche and Tabxi were making the arrangements to return early to the Verdante planet, and all he needed to do now was wait. Master Meeepp was more concerned about M. Hoyvil than he had let show during their conversation.
He could relate to M. Hoyvil’s situation in a deeply personal way. The Verdante adolescent female who had been kidnapped by the Woogah was his older gene sister. He had been a young adolescent about the same age as M. Hoyvil at the time of her kidnapping. Like M. Hoyvil, he had been angry and had demanded fast action from the adult Verdantes. After many heated discussions very similar to the one he just had with M. Hoyvil, he had accepted the decision of the adults that diplomatic negotiation was the only possible action to take.
The reminder of that painful time and all the years of suffering that had followed filled Master Meeepp with deep grief. All of the harm done to his gene sister over more than 1,000 years, and the harm now being done to M. Hoyvil and his pet, seemed to combine in a crushing sadness of an intensity he had never before experienced. He sighed and brushed six fingers through hair still thick and deep green.
Then, as he sat immobilized by his feelings, he felt a trickle of soothing calmness creep in and begin to ease the sadness in his heart. Yes! It was his life mate, Mistress Bawbaw, sending him her love through their telepathic emotional connection. She could sense his distress and was sending him comforting emotions. He sighed with relief. This sending was proof that Mistress Bawbaw was not in any immediate danger—at least for now.
As usual during their long-distance communication, he could visualize Mistress Bawbaw in his mind and, as always, he was awed by her beauty. In her personal room on the Verdante planet, he could see her reclining her voluptuous ten-foot-long body on her lounge while seeming to look directly into his eyes. Her huge pale green eyes, so much larger in proportion to the face than Earth human eyes, shone with love.
No speech was needed as she communicated her message that was more powerful than anything that could ever be said with mere words. He gazed adoringly at her glowing green hair and the perfection of her creamy pale green skin. He knew there were other women in the universe more beautiful than her, but as he so often told her, “in my sight, you are the most beautiful woman in the universe.”
Master Meeepp sighed again with appreciation and felt the sharp intensity of his painful feelings soften. After he sat on the couch for some time receiving and sending her back his own feelings of love, most but not all of his serenity was restored. Along with the pure, peaceful feelings of love he felt from Mistress Bawbaw, did he detect something additional and not as pure? Or was he just imaging things now that he suspected her Eeeepps of who knew what treachery. In any case, he would be with her as soon as possible and get to the bottom of this.
Relaxed and determined, still some pain remained in Master Meeepp’s heart. He would never forget his gene sister, and he would always carry some sadness for her.
M. Hoyvil was also causing him Master Meeepp a large amount of anxiety. He knew that M. Hoyvil, although obedient and quiet, was also imaginative and could show unusual determination at times. What could he be up to now? With Woogahs involved, it could be dangerous. Master Meeepp’s impulse was to restrict M. Hoyvil to his room and assign guards to escort him about the ship, but he dismissed that idea. M. Hoyvil was an adolescent, an adult in training. Treating him like a child would negatively affect the man he would become. He knew he must allow M. Hoyvil to make his own decisions even if they might be very wrong decisions with dreadful consequences.
Master Meeepp felt his own advanced age as he rose from the couch to go to his computer console and compose a message warning of this new danger from the Woogahs.
“All Verdante owners of Earth human pets,” he wrote, “be warned that your pets are in potential danger of kidnapping by the Woogahs. An Earth female pet has been kidnapped from the Tri-Galaxies space station. Although space travel for Earthling pets is not restricted at this time, it is strongly recommended that you keep your pets in quarters while on all mixed-species space stations. Cover their eyes whenever the presence of Woogahs is unavoidable. This problem will be set before the Universal Council for their recommended resolution as soon as possible.”
Master Meeepp signed the memo, marked it urgent, and sent it out to the all-Verdantes mailing list.
Chapter 12
A quick dash around curved corridors brought M. Hoyvil with Potat riding in his pocket to a bank of space station vacuum travel tubes. Potat watched M. Hoyvil press the call button. Then he walked through the round-topped entrance. Once inside the transport capsule, they faced a bank of buttons with pictures of faces of various alien species as well as other pictures. M. Hoyvil pressed a button with a space ship on it.
Without warning, the capsule shot away at high speed in a outward-spiral path that followed the concentric curves of the walls of the space station. Potat wasn’t expecting the abrupt motion. In protest, she dug all her claws as deep as she could into M. Hoyvil through the inside of his jacket, but he didn’t seem to notice.
Potat meowed pitifully in fear and misery.
When will this torment end? she wondered.
A few seconds later, they arrived many miles away at a point almost half way around the station near its rim. The capsule slowed just before it came to a stop, and the door slid silently up.
Potat remain crouched down low in M. Hoyvil’s pocket. She looked up and saw some of his big fingers reaching down into the pocket above her head. Then she felt the fingers lightly brushing down her fur, which was puffed out to its fullest height. Then M. Hoyvil removed the fingers and stepped quickly out of the tube.
Now Potat felt brave enough to poke her head out and look around at the bare tubular hallway that curved away in the distance. Sudden lightness told her there wasn’t much gravity here. She dug her claws in to keep from floating out. In his rubbery-soled magnetic space boots, M. Hoyvil walked along the slick floor without slipping or floating away. The top of the hallway rose several feet above his head—just high enough for an adult Verdante being to pass through. The curving empty tube they walked in had no visible doors leading from it, except the door back into the elevator, but M. Hoyvil kept going forward.
Where is this blinding bright light coming from? Potat wondered, blinking her eyes.
They walked on for about a half a mile before a mechanical-sounding voice spoke out of nowhere in universal humanoid: “Please state your name and business.”
M. Hoyvil answered out loud. “My name is M. Hoyvil, and Potat the cat is with me,” he said. “Our Earth human companion Antaska has been kidnapped by a Woogah, and we�
��ve come to ask for your help. You have a stealth ship that can travel to the Woogah planet to rescue her. She’s my responsibility, and it’s the responsibility of the Verdantes to help her too. If we hadn’t brought humans into space, this would never have happened.”
Several minutes of silence stretched out after M. Hoyvil finished speaking, and Potat began to wonder if anyone had actually heard him or if he had only been talking to a machine.
“Hello, is anyone there?” M. Hoyvil asked finally.
“Yes, we’re here,” a live humanoid-sounding voice answered. “We’re considering your request. What you are asking is highly irregular. However, if you’ll come this way, we’re willing to discuss this further.”
The voice went silent, and a holographic red arrow appeared floating in front of them. It pointed down the curved hallway. As M. Hoyvil, carrying Potat, followed the arrow, it moved forward, always keeping directly ahead of him. After walking what seemed like a mile from the elevator, the arrow stopped and turned to point at the side of the wall of the tube.
Is this where the jalapeno is? Potat wondered.
She sniffed the air, but her powerful nose couldn’t detect anything except the same faint disinfectant smell she had noticed everywhere on this space station.
The arrow moved forward and disappeared as if going through the wall. Then M. Hoyvil pushed his hand against the curved side wall. Potat twitched as she saw the big green hand go right through what appeared to be a solid wall. As he stepped through with Potat, she felt a frightening tingle.
“Mew!” she cried out.
Potat’s hair, so recently smoothed down, once again stuck straight out all around her body from the slight electric charge.
“Don’t worry. It’s OK,” said M. Hoyvil. “This wall has a protective force field that could kill anyone trying to pass through uninvited, but we’re invited, so we’ll be fine.”
Now they were standing in another curving tube. Again, M. Hoyvil followed the red arrow down the tube and through another force-field protected wall.
After passing through the second force field, they ended up in a larger hallway with doors. Softly glowing green walls rose up to form a curved ceiling at a much higher height of about fifteen feet above the flat, cushioned floor. Video screens showing moving images of space and the Verdante home planet were spaced along both sides of the hallway. The red arrow moved forward and turned to point at one of the doors.
M. Hoyvil approached the door. Before he had time to press its round button, the door slid up.
“Come in, visitors,” said a telepathic deep voice from within the room.
Four adult Verdantes stood to the side of the doorway. M. Hoyvil was surprised to see that two of them were female. All four were adults, but the two women and one of the males were young adults, barely past adolescence. All had the height of Verdante adults, but they were thinner than average with sharply defined muscles. Dressed in military clothing, none of them were smiling. M. Hoyvil felt Potat shudder and then dive inside his jacket pocket.
M. Hoyvil was fascinated by the two young adult females. They were nothing like any of the adolescent or young adult Verdante females he had ever seen on the home planet. Those females were shy and retiring, hiding behind their long, flowing robes. These women were confident, strong, and powerful.
“It’s rude to stare, boy,” said the older male to M. Hoyvil.
“I’m sorry. It’s just that I was surprised to see females in space,” he said apologetically with partial truthfulness.
At that, the first sign of a smile broke through the stony expression of one of the females as she attempted to suppress a laugh.
M. Hoyvil was mesmerized by her enormous, deep green eyes set in a heart-shaped face with a button nose and slightly cleft chin. Her shiny dark green hair brushed the top of her lean-muscled shoulders. He didn’t want to be rude, but it was so hard to look away.
He was surprised by his reaction to this complete stranger.
Could this be what the Woogahs do when they hypnotize their prey? he asked himself.
He shook his head to clear it.
No, he told himself. I’m not in a trance. This female is attractive, but I’m not in anyone’s control, and I won’t forget my mission to Antaska or stop until I have saved her.
“Although it’s strongly discouraged, there’s no law prohibiting females from space travel,” said the female Verdante, interrupting his thoughts. “The corps have always accepted females, and it’s the only way those of us who aren’t content with staying on the home planet can explore the galaxy.”
“But aren’t you afraid of the Woogahs?” asked M. Hoyvil.
Now both females laughed heartily. “The Woogahs cower at the sight of us,” said the second female, who had very light green hair, pale green skin and startling light blue-green eyes. “They know we travel the universe working to make it safe from their pitiful scum selves.”
Now M. Hoyvil began to felt hopeful that these people would support his cause.
“Then you must help me because that’s exactly what I’m trying to do,” he said excitedly. “An Earth human has been kidnapped by the Woogahs. You can take us to their planet in your stealth ship to get her back.”
M. Hoyvil felt Potat stirring in his pocket. Her head popped out and she said, “Get her back!” but no one else seemed to hear her.
“Now, hold on there M. Hoyvil,” said the younger male in a voice with the heavy accent of those from the southern hemisphere of the Verdante planet. “That’s not what we do. You know as well as I do that snatching people off planets without their express permission is against universal law, and the same stinking law won’t allow us to step foot on that planet without the permission of the Woogah natives. What we do is follow the Woogah around the universe and warn unsuspecting telepathic beings what those snakes are up to so they can protect their females. Unfortunately, once they’ve been taken, there’s nothing much we can do about it.”
M. Hoyvil heard Potat’s low growl of disapproval.
He was not willing to take “no” for an answer.
“If you won’t go, then lend me your ship, the Jalapeno, and I’ll go myself. I promise to bring the ship right back after we rescue her,” said M. Hoyvil.
The four adults looked at each other as if a silent communication was passing among them.
Then the oldest male answered for all of them. “My name is Kamphone. I’m the captain here. The Jalapeno is too valuable to lend out. We need it to serve the entire universe. We have to follow and watch the Woogahs. We have to keep an eye on them, and with more planets being discovered all the time, they’re up to more and more trouble all the time. So if you take it, we can’t do our job. It’s by order of the Verdante planet sentient trees, by the way, and we take that very seriously. So, I’m sorry, no can do. That said, I admire your resolve in wanting to get your pet back from those bottom-feeding Woogahs, we all do.”
M. Hoyvil looked up to see the others nodding their heads above him.
These people are no different than Master Meeepp, he thought bitterly.
Then, before M. Hoyvil had time to argue sink into despair, he was shocked to see Potat jump out of his pocket, fly through the air, and land on Kamphone’s chest. Kamphone’s big slanted green eyes widened in surprise too. Digging her claws into his jacket for leverage, Potat started walking up toward his face, now tilted down at her.
“Trees say you take us!” Potat screamed in her little telepathic cat voice in Kamphone’s face.
“What was that? Did this thing say something?” asked Kamphone.
“She said ‘Trees say you take us,’” M. Hoyvil interpreted.
“Huh? What?” all four adult Verdantes asked in surprise.
“She’s sentient, and that’s what she said,” said M. Hoyvil. “I can understand her, but it’s harder for adults—brains to rooted and slow, I guess.”
Then he turned to Potat. “What do you mean?” he asked her.
�
�The trees talked to me on the Verdante planet,” said Potat. “They said, ‘WHEN THE TIME COMES, SEEK THE JALAPENO.’ And now is the time.”
“She says the trees on the Verdante planet told her to go to you in our time of need,” M. Hoyvil interpreted again, this time somewhat loosely.
“Can you prove this?” asked Kamphone?
“Grrrr!” Potat growled, and then M. Hoyvil heard her making a strange mental noise that sounded like the humming sound of the sentient trees.
“She’s speaking the Verdante tree language!” one of the female Verdantes shouted mentally.
“All right, let’s hear it,” said Kamphone. “Then we’ll decide if it’s really a message from the trees.
“But that will take hours!” M. Hoyvil protested.
Suddenly, a telepathic shout was heard from down the hallway in the distance. “Ahoy! Ahoy there! A message from the trees!”
The sound of rapid-thudding space boots, and in no time, the Verdante runner was among them. The young adult Verdante corpsman braked to a stop in front of Kamphone and saluted.
“What’s this, lieutenant?” asked Kamphone.
“A message from the trees, sir! New orders!”
“And they are?” Kamphone prompted.
“As soon as important travelers arrive, we are to depart with them at once, sir,” said the lieutenant.
Kamphone looked down at Potat still clinging to his chest and over at M. Hoyvil.
“Could these be the important travelers?” he asked doubtfully.
“Yes!” exclaimed the lieutenant. “Tiny cat animal and a Verdante adolescent. That’s them!”
“Then there’s no time to waste,” said Kamphone in a stern voice. “All hands to ship stations now! We take off in 20 minutes!”
The four young adult Verdante crew members turned and dashed down the hallway, but M. Hoyvil stood shock-still, not quite taking it all in.
“Wha…?” he started to ask.
“Go! Go! Go!” Kamphone leaned down and shouted in his face gesturing down the hallway.
hypnoSnatch (Xeno Relations Book 2) Page 9
