Bonded in Space

by Trisha McNary

  In the gym, Pweet was finishing up her workout. She’d spent most of it thinking about the strange situation with Marroo, and she’d decided that caution was the best plan. She knew that Marroo’s species was telepathic because that was a requirement for a species’ ability to travel through warp space at sub-light speeds. She’d learned that in space school, and Marroo had mentioned it too.

  Well, I’m definitely not telling him that I heard him talking, Pweet decided. He seems to want me to become telepathic, but everyone knows Earthlings aren’t. I need to find out why he’s so bent on that and what he’s up to. I usually speak my mind about things, even if it gets me in trouble. But this time, I’m not saying anything. I need to figure out what’s going on here.

  After spending a few minutes in the body-cleaning compartment, Pweet left the gym and walked down the hallway toward Marroo’s bridge. As she approached the door, she heard a faint echoing sound in her head. Like a man’s voice talking. The nearer she got, the louder and clearer the voice became. Pweet stopped for a moment to listen. It sounded exactly like Marroo’s voice except it had an extra echoing effect.

  “Did I make a mistake by going to Earth?” Pweet heard the voice say. “Was Antaska an exception among humans? But no. The others at the space station where I found her were becoming telepathic too. And Pweet must be. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be getting those headaches when I shout at her telepathically. That’s a sure sign. I just need to keep it up, and I’ll break through her barriers.”

  Huh? Pweet thought.

  She stood still out of sight and kept listening.

  “Ah! The results of my calculations are coming in,” said the voice of Marroo. “What! Fifty years! I can’t waste so many valuable years of my life on such a long trip. Only the Verdantes are foolish enough to spend that much time flying around in space on their fools’ errands.”

  What the heck is he talking about? Pweet wondered.

  There was silence for a few moments except for the low sound of space boots thumping on the bridge floor. Then the thumping stopped, and Pweet heard more talking in her mind.

  “No. That just won’t work,” the voice said. “I’ll have to make this work with Pweet, and then I’ll find a way to get more Earth women after her. Earth is close and convenient. I’ll keep up my efforts to unleash her telepathy on the way to the home planet. If she’s not telepathic by the time we get there, I’m sure the gene doctor can infuse her with enough Woogah genes to do the trick. It’s standard procedure anyway for all slaves who are sold to the Woogah work farms. They must be strong telepaths in order to respond well to the hypnotic spell that keeps them docile and hard working.”

  I can’t believe I’m hearing this, thought Pweet.

  Her face felt hot, and sweat dripped down her neck. She considered running to her room, but the need to hear more kept her rooted to the spot.

  Now the voice of Marroo grew petulant. “If she’s on the verge of telepathy, and she must be, I don’t understand why my hypnotic spell isn’t working. The problem must be her, not me. I’m as manly as I ever was. There’s no doubt about that. Could the after-effects of cold storage have lowered my male hormones? I’ll need a trip to the doctor too, I guess. But there’s almost three months to keep trying.”

  Pweet was relieved to hear that whatever Marroo was up to wasn’t working—yet anyway.

  I think it’s safe to go in there for now, she thought.

  She walked into the room. Marroo was standing in the middle of the bridge.

  “Hello, Pweet. How was your workout?” he greeted her out loud. “Is your headache any better?”

  “Yes. It’s a lot better. Thank you,” Pweet answered. “What are you doing today?”

  She walked into the room and sat down in the chair across from Marroo.

  “I’ve been plotting the courses of potential trips out to the far branches of the Milky Way,” Marroo answered her. “To discover new unknown species, of course.”

  “That’s cool,” said Pweet, although she now knew he had no plans to take her on those trips.

  Pweet knew she was in a bad situation with not much power to get out of it. But at least there would be three months till she had to deal with whatever waited for her on the Woogah planet. What she needed now was more information.

  “Did you find some videos that I can watch? I’m really curious about your planet,” said Pweet, “and it will help pass the time till we get there.”

  “Why yes, I did,” Marroo answered.

  He sauntered over to stand within a few inches of her. He brushed a hand across her shoulder as he reached over to push buttons on the console behind her. Pweet inched back from him and swung her chair around to see what he was doing.

  “Here,” Marroo said. He pointed to a list of titles on the console. “You can watch any of these that don’t say ‘locked’ next to the title. I’m sorry, but as I told you, those have classified information that’s only for members of my species.”

  Pweet noticed that most of the titles were locked. Marroo swiped a finger on the screen and scrolled through a long list of more titles.

  “I know one that you’d like,” he said. “Ah! Here it is. Flora and fauna of the Woogah planet.”

  Just press your finger against the title to start it,” Marroo explained.

  Then he palmed a spot underneath the console. A compartment opened, and Marroo handed Pweet something with two lumps and wires.

  “Put this headset on so you can hear the audio,” Marroo told her.

  Pweet took it from him and started listening and watching. Marroo smiled down at her and then went back to the captain’s chair.

  At some point, he left the room, but Pweet didn’t pay any attention to him. She was too interested in the video about his planet. It was a dark, cold desert place with two small blue suns. The landscape was barren yet beautiful with spots of colorful flowers and shrubby plants. Hulking beasts shaped like reptiles but covered in fur roamed the planet’s surface.

  No humanoids were shown, and according to the video, most of them lived under ground. The camera zoomed in to show birds, small rodents, and reptiles that looked more familiar.

  Not that many different kinds of animals, Pweet thought.

  With a pang, Pweet remembered the little black kitten she’d met on Earth right before Marroo appeared.

  I wish that kitten hadn’t ran away, she thought. I wish that kitten was here with me right now.

  She sighed out loud. Marroo was back, and he must have heard the sigh.

  “Are you done watching the video?” he asked. “How did you like it?”

  “Interesting,” Pweet answered.

  She swiveled around in her chair to face him.

  “I noticed a lot of small mammals and reptiles, but I didn’t see any felines. Do you have cats on your planet?”

  “No, we don’t,” Marroo answered her. “The closest things we have to cats are skunks.”

  Pweet sighed again.

  From his side of the bridge, Marroo heard Pweet’s sighs and wondered what was causing them. Again, as was his habit, he spoke to himself telepathically.

  “She sounds unhappy or bored or something. Is she not thrilled to be traveling alone through space with one of the most handsome males in the entire galaxy? Isn’t the lifetime dream of all Earthlings to go to outer space as the pets of the Verdantes? This has to be better than that arrangement.”

  His stared at Pweet intently, trying to figure her out. Her beautiful mouth pressed closed, and then she turned her chair back around toward the console. Her shiny silver hair formed a touchable curtain behind her shapely back. Marroo watched her slowly scroll a finger through the list of videos as if she was reading the title of each one—even the ones she wouldn’t be able to watch.

  “Much too curious for her own good,” he spoke to himself again mentally. “It would be a catastrophe is she were to access the information in most of those videos. Fortunately, she will never guess my password.”
r />   He chuckled telepathically. Then he heard her sigh again.

  “Could she actually be bored on this trip?” he wondered, continuing his mental tirade. “I’ve never travelled with a female who wasn’t semi-comatose from my hypnotic spell. In a way, it’s been interesting with her, but it’s also difficult. And three months will be a long time. Will I have to entertain her? Will she become troublesome? This is all Antaska’s fault!”

  Annoyed, he clutched at his stomach. That weird pulling feeling whenever he thought of Antaska had returned.

  “Antaska! Antaska! Antaska!” Marroo fumed telepathically.

  Restless, he stood up from his chair. He walked over and stood where Pweet could see him.

  “I’m going to the gym,” he said out loud. “I feel the need for a heavy workout. Will you be OK here by yourself watching videos?”

  “Yes, I’ll be fine,” Pweet answered, hardly looking up from what she was doing.

  Marroo turned and stomped out the door.

  Pweet waited a few minutes after Marroo left, making sure he didn’t come right back for some reason. She turned her chair slightly sideways so she could keep an eye on the door. Then she clicked on one of the forbidden videos that interested her the most—“Warnings about the Verdantes.”

  A menu popped up asking for the password. “Antaska,” Pweet typed in. The video started playing.

  While keeping a eye out for the unexpected return of Marroo, Pweet watched and listened to the shocking video. Marroo and others of his species kidnapped telepathic females from all over the galaxy and sold them as work slaves on their planet. But they ran into trouble when one of them captured a Verdante adolescent. When she grew to an adult, she became too powerful—both physically and telepathically—for them to handle. So they returned her. But they kept the reason a secret, fearing that if other species knew of their weakness, they would take advantage of it.

  It’s no wonder that Marroo didn’t want me to learn this, thought Pweet. I’m not a gigantic powerful telepath like the Verdantes, but I wonder if there’s any way that I could take advantage of this too. Right now, it’s all I’ve got.

  She shut off the Verdante video, found another one that Marroo had left open for her, and quickly started it up. Then Pweet turned her chair back toward the screen and tried her best to act interested when he returned to the bridge.

  Chapter 17

  Woogah planet…

  Nestgorm sat on the bed in one of the tiny, miserable rooms of the barracks where he’d housed his slaves before he lost control of the work plant. Still in the trance set on him by the two Eeeepps, he couldn’t move without their orders. His mind was in a faraway place watching himself but not able to do anything about the situation.

  At least they’d programmed him to go to the bathroom when needed and to take regular showers. And he ate food and drank water when it was brought to him. But the Eeeepps forgot about him and forgot about feeding him as soon as he was out of their sight.

  One person didn’t forget though. Vurreeka the part-bird woman remembered him and brought him meals three times each day. Although she was no longer under his compulsive hypnotic love spell, she seemed to genuinely care about him.

  He couldn’t speak or even think much, but Nestgorm could still sense Vurreeka’s caring through the mist that clouded his mind. Now she was at his side again, feeding him lunch. She spoke to him as she lifted a spoon of food to his mouth.

  “There you go, Nestgorm. Chew this all down now.”

  Nestgorm chewed and swallowed.

  “They’ve all forgot about you, but don’t worry, I won’t forget about you,” said Vurreeka. “I know you’re not such a bad guy as they all say. The others might not like you now that they’re not under your spell, but I still like you. I would have liked you even without that Marroo guy hypnotizing me.”

  She laughed a chirpy laugh.

  “Can you hear me at all, Nestgorm?” she asked.

  Nestgorm could hear, but he had no way of letting her know that. Not yet anyway. But each time she visited him, he felt something changing, ever so slight. Bit by tiny bit, his mind was getting a little clearer. Nestgorm stared at Vurreeka. That was all he could do.

  “I think maybe you do hear me,” she said.

  Her beaky mouth formed the shape of a smile.

  Then the bird woman stood up. Blue, red, and gold feathers extended behind her from her elbows up to the back of her head. More feathers adorned her bottom in a long train that reached almost to the ground. Vurreeka lifted a hand and tickled Nestgorm’s face with her short arm feathers. He sneezed, and she laughed.

  “I’ll be back tonight with your dinner, sweetie,” she said. “I won’t forget about you. Don’t you forget about me.”

  She sauntered out the door swaying her tail feathers.

  Nestgorm watched Vurreeka leave. He heard the sound of her sharp-clawed toes clicking softer and softer on the floor on her way to the exit. For the first time in months, he felt something. Feelings! Warm feelings. And with them hot, angry feelings. He sat on the bed experiencing these feelings and others while he waited for Vurreeka’s next visit.

  In Nestgorm’s former office, Eegor sat waiting too. Finally the Eeeepps arrived. Dressed in fluffy robes, they must have come straight from the salon and spa. Eegor was pleased to see that. But he was less pleased to see that they both held colorful drinks with miniature umbrellas in their skinny clawed hands.

  “Eegor, we got here as fast as we could,” said Apostrophe.

  She dropped down into one of his guest chairs, and Pooquali dropped into the other.

  “What did you need us for?” Pooquali asked.

  The semi-humanoid crossed one thick leg over the other and draped his thick tail over the side of his chair. Apostrophe lifted a hand and admired her colorfully painted claws with a pleased smile on her thin-lipped snout.

  “What’s up, Eegor?” she asked.

  “This isn’t working! That’s what’s up,” said Eegor.

  “Huh?” asked Pooquali.

  “I’m bored out of my mind sitting in here by myself all day long,” said Eegor. “It’s nice to look at all these women, but that’s not good enough. I’m still all alone all the time. And it’s getting to me. I feel like I’m going crazy. Do you know what I mean?”

  He leaned forward and stared at each of the reptilian humanoids in turn. He got blank stares from them in return, and anger welled up in him.

  I need to stop getting mad so much, Eegor thought. It doesn’t help, and it’s already caused enough problems.

  Eegor fought to push the anger down, but his arm muscles bulged, and he felt his face redden. The two Eeeepps swayed backward in their chairs.

  Pooquali waved a clawed hand at him in a calming motion.

  “Sure, sure. I know what you mean, Eegor,” he said. “But you’re the one who said you can’t be around them. I know they wouldn’t have any problem if you let them get close to you. They talk about that all the time.”

  “Uh huh,” said Apostrophe.

  She nodded her scaly head up and down in agreement and then took a big slurp of her drink.

  “Yeah, well, you know I can’t get near them without getting an awful headache. So that’s not happening,” said Eegor. “So we need to leave here and find some women who don’t give me a headache. Like Earth women. They never did that. Like Antaska. Remember her? We were supposed to be going after her, but we just gave up. We need to get back in the space shuttle and find her. You people were able to find her last time. Even though she left right before we got here. So you can find her again.”

  “No Eegor,” said Pooquali. “We can’t do that.”

  “Why not?” Eegor asked. “Don’t you have some kind of way that you’re able to track her?”

  His anger was growing again. He didn’t like these answers. He squeezed the arms of his chair to release some of his irritation.

  “Yes, we can track her because she’s got some of our DNA in her,” Apo
strophe answered. “Iiooonaa planted it in her neck when she bit her. That’s how we traced her here. But the problem is the alien females. We saved them from Nestgorm, and they’re under our protection now. There’s not enough room for all of them in the space shuttle. What would happen if we left them here, and some Woogahs came around and put them back into that stupid trance. They’d be slaves again. Is that what you want to happen?”

  “That’s right,” said Pooquali. “They’re our responsibility now. Even though you can’t be around them, I thought you felt like that too. Don’t you?”

  “Yes, I do,” said Eegor. “I don’t want to stay here, but I guess you’re right. I have to. But I feel exactly like I did in solitary confinement on the Verdante planet. This stinks!”

  The eyes of the two Eeeepps got a fixed look. Eegor glared at them.

  They better not be thinking about putting me in any trance, he thought.

  But Pooquali had another idea.

  “I know what we can do,” he said. “We can get an Earth female for you from Nestgorm’s slave provider. We’ve read everything on his computer, and he has an order in. Expecting arrival in a few months. When she gets here, we’ll just command Nestgorm to go over and pick her up.”

  “That’s right,” said Apostrophe. “We weren’t going to do anything about it because we don’t have slaves here anymore, but we can get this one for you. What do you think?”

  “Hmm,” said Eegor, considering.

  He scratched the cleft in his perfectly sculpted chin.

  “I guess that could work,” he said finally. “It’s a drag to have to wait though. How long did you say it will take?”

  “It looks like about three months,” said Apostrophe. “But the time isn’t guaranteed. I guess it depends on how fast the slaver can catch someone. Then the standard process of gene alteration takes a few weeks more.”

  “Gene alteration? What’s that for?” Eegor asked.