Bonded in Space

by Trisha McNary

  Then Eegor spoke up. “You mean I’m part tree?” Eegor asked. “Is that where this greenness comes from?”

  He lifted a muscular arm and looked at it.

  “That’s right,” said Murrie. “Lots of humanoid species add tree genes to their mix so they’ll live longer, but the early Verdantes didn’t know what they were doing, and they took it too far. That’s why they’re bigger than everyone else in the galaxy, and they have the weird problem with their telepathy that other species don’t have. Because their telepathy didn’t develop naturally. They got it from the trees, but the tree type of telepathy doesn’t work very well with humanoids. They read each other’s thoughts too clearly because trees are a collective species, and that’s what collective species do. But that’s not what humanoids are supposed to do. Humanoids aren’t rooted to the ground, so they need to be independent. But the Verdantes aren’t independent. They’re dependent on the Earthlings who they separated from a million years ago.”

  Murrie could see that both Pweet and Eegor were interested in what he was telling them, and he would have gone on to tell more, but a loud, familiar telepathic female voice shouted at him from the doorway.

  “I think that’s enough blabbing, young cat!” Potat yelled at him. “What will you tell them next? The meaning of life?”

  “I was just getting to that when you interrupted me,” Murrie sassed her.

  He wasn’t going to let this tiny skunk-striped runt intimidate him, even if she was who knows how much older than him.

  Potat sauntered across the floor, climbed up on Pweet’s bed—without an invitation—and sat down next to Murrie. Murrie turned toward her, and she spoke to him in the cat telepathic language that the humanoids couldn’t hear.

  “What do you think you’re doing, telling these humanoids cat secrets? You know that’s against our rules. You know why. It impairs their evolution if we tell them everything they need to learn for themselves,” said the bossy cat.

  “No. That’s not true,” Murrie argued. “We’re allowed to tell some things sometimes. If we feel like it. That’s in the rules too. And I needed to give Pweet that information because this situation affects me personally. It affects my housing. Because I adopted M. Mort too. And if Pweet doesn’t understand why she should forgive M. Mort and stay with him, I’ll have to divide my time between his place and wherever she’s staying. You know how much cats hate that.”

  “I guess,” said Potat with a sniff of her tiny pink nose. “A cat’s comfort always comes first, of course.”

  “That’s right,” said Murrie. “And what if one of them decides to go out to space or another planet? Where would I be then? It’s not like I’d be able to fly a space ship back and forth to spend equal time with both of them. So I decided to tell her.”

  “Humph!” said Potat. “Well I hope you’ll decide that you’ve told them enough for now. Maybe when you’re older, you’ll learn how to sway humanoids to your point of view without having to resort to telling them our secrets.”

  Always has to have the last word, thought Murrie, but he didn’t say anything else back to her.

  Murrie turned his head back around and looked up at Pweet instead. It was time to get her answer.

  “So,” said Murrie to Pweet. “If you go stay at M. Mort’s place, I’ll stay there with you. What do you think?”

  “Are you invited to stay?” Pweet asked him.

  “No. Cats don’t get invited. They invite themselves,” said Murrie.

  “OK. I’ll think about it,” said Pweet.

  Pweet looked over at the wide view screen on the far wall of the bedroom. M. Mort and the crew of the Jalapeno were still waiting in silence. She wanted to ask Eegor something too. She turned and looked up at him. The man she had just met but already felt so much love for. Already attached to him in a different, deeper way than what she felt for Murrie and M. Mort.

  Murrie had almost convinced her to stay with M. Mort, but what about Eegor? Would he feel hurt by that decision?

  “You heard that M. Mort invited me to stay at his place, but what about your place? Do you want me to stay there instead?” Pweet asked Eegor.

  “I want you to stay with me more than anything,” said Eegor. “But the residence I live in belongs to my so called owners who are really my primary gene contributors. That’s why I can’t invite you. And also, I wouldn’t be in solitary confinement if you were there. I think I need to serve out my time. Because even when I tried to run away from it, I still ended up alone in a room here with just the Eeeepps around. So it’s probably best if you stay close by on the same planet at M. Mort’s place—if you want too—and at least I can talk to you on video. But it’s up to you. I know seventy-five years is a long time to stick around waiting for me.”

  “It’s not a long time. Of course I’ll wait for you,” said Pweet.

  She threw her arms around Eegor and squeezed as tight as she could.

  Then Pweet let him go and turned to speak out loud to M. Mort on the screen.

  “Yes, I’ll stay at your place. Thank you, M. Mort,” Pweet said.

  The droopy corners of M. Mort’s eyes raised up. Now he looked like he did the first time Pweet saw him from the viewing room on Earth. He placed a big six-fingered hand over his heart, then pointed at her, then himself, and then up to space.

  Pweet placed her hand over her own heart, pointed at M. Mort and then herself, and then up to space too.

  And the promise made so many months before was no longer broken.

  Potat cleaned her paws and between her claws while the humanoids sorted things out. Then she spoke to that young whippersnapper Murrie.

  It’s so humiliating to ask him for help, but sometimes a cat must swallow her pride, she told herself.

  She spoke to him in the cat telepathic language again.

  “Our job’s done here. Now we have something else to take care of. Those Eeeepps are about to wake up, and I need to sort them out. But they’re too powerful for one cat to take on alone. Are you with me?” Potat asked Murrie.

  “Sure, I can handle them,” said Murrie.

  He stood up on Pweet’s knee and puffed out his black fluffy fur.

  The young are so arrogant, thought Potat, but she didn’t respond. Now wasn’t the time to criticize the help.

  Potat didn’t say another word, but she walked to the edge of the enormous bed, jumped off, and stalked across the huge room’s plush floor covering. She waved her white-striped black tail back and forth to show her disapproval. At the door, Potat turned and looked pointedly at Murrie.

  “I gotta go with that cat,” Murrie told the humanoids. “I’ll see you later.”

  Pweet reached out a hand and brushed down Murrie’s fluffed up fur from his head all the way to his tail. And then Eegor reached a big hand over and petted him too.

  Now he has three humanoids to himself, thought Potat. Spoiled!

  She kept her thoughts to herself but glared at him.

  “Time to get going,” Potat told him.

  Murrie gingerly stepped off Pweet’s knee and then took off like a black furry lightning bolt. Potat tackled him and pinned him down in the doorway.

  “Whoa there!” Potat said. “You’re going to end up in the claws of death if you go racing out there alone.”

  “Oh. Yeah. I just got a little excited,” said Murrie.

  Potat let him go, and Murrie got up and straightened his mussed up fur. Then the two cats stalked down the hall together, both with tails straight up in the air and fur fluffed out to its fullest.

  When they turned the corner and passed into the next hallway, a crowd of alien females surrounded the two Eeeepps and blocked Potat’s view of them. But the crowds couldn’t block out the distinctive reptilian odor.

  “Phew! I smell cats!” Potat heard one of the Eeeepps say out loud.

  Potat and Murrie threaded their way through the colorful females toward the Eeeepps.

  “Coming through!” Murrie shouted telepathically.
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  The larger humanoid females looked down at the two cats but didn’t move out of the way. The Eeeepps were sitting up balanced on their large bottoms and big scaled tails. They were twisting their heads around and rolling their eyes. A few of the alien females held onto their skinny arms and spoke to them in the vocal language they could hear.

  “Are you OK, Apostrophe?” cooed one.

  “What did those bad cats do to you, Pooquali?” asked another.

  The Eeeepps didn’t look like they were in any condition to do much damage to the cats now. But just to be on the safe side, Potat stopped and sat down just outside of reach of their claws.

  “We need a translator,” Potat said mentally a nearby alien female. “These Eeeepps aren’t telepathic, and we need to talk to them. It’s for their own good. Will you help us?”

  “OK. I can do it,” said a purple-skinned female. The sharp-pointed ears poking up through her thick yellow head hair perked up. “What do you want me to say to them?” she asked Potat.

  “Ask them if they want to go on the Integer to Central Planet with all of you. If they do, then they’re going to have to make a truce with us cats. Because there’s two cats who are crew on that ship. Me and the big orange cat. If not, they’ll have to go back to the Verdante planet on the Jalapeno. Maybe in the brig because they stole a space ship, but I don’t know. That’s not up to me,” said Potat.

  The purple female turned to the Eeeepps and spoke Potat’s telepathic words out loud to them. They were still a little fuzzy, but they were starting to get back to normal.

  “Wha…what?” said Pooquali. “We want to stay with our new friends—all these females—right Apostrophe?”

  The female Eeeepp sniffed a few times through her snot-like nose and then spoke too.

  “Right,” said Apostrophe. “But I don’t know about making a truce with you cats. What did you do to us, you beast?”

  The purple alien female started to translate Apostrophe’s words, but Potat stopped her with a waive of a paw.

  “No need. We can hear them,” said Potat. “Tell them that I broke off their collective connection to the other Eeeepps back on the Verdante planet. Those other reptiles are evil and rotten to the core. I did that to give them a chance to live their own lives. And a second chance to not have to take the punishment for the things they’ve done already. But if they want to go back to the Verdante planet and get back in the collective, I can arrange that,” said Potat.

  The purple female translated again. Then the two Eeeepps stared at each other—two pairs of yellow bulging reptilian eyes. They weren’t telepathic, but it was as if some communication was passing between them.

  Finally Pooquali spoke to Potat. “What can you do, little cat? You talk tough, but maybe you aren’t so tough without your big cat here.”

  “Yeah, but I’m here,” said Murrie who was sitting next to Potat. “Do you want to find out how tough I am?”

  The purple female translated, and the two Eeeepps looked at each other again.

  Then Pooquali said, “Actually, not right now. And we don’t want to go back into the collective. We just want to go with these females. We’re attached to them now. We’re different species, and we haven’t know them very long. But we like them so much that we want to spend the rest of their our lives with them. Right Apostrophe?”

  “Right,” she said.

  “Great,” said Potat. “Good luck with that. There’s a hundred of them, and they might all go in different directions back to their home planets after they get to Central Planet, but whatever. Anyway, if you’re going to travel with them on our ship—my ship—you’re going to have to behave. No fighting with us cats. And you’re going to have to stay in the passenger section of the ship, so I won’t have to smell you as much.”

  After the translation, Apostrophe said, “Fine. We agree. But you cats are the ones who stink, not us.”

  Chapter 39

  That evening, Antaska hovered in zero g the Integer’s lounge talking to the two Verdante women Sosha and XoXo. All the crew members from the Jalapeno had come over to the Integer for an in-person—or animal—visit on this last night they were spending on the Woogah planet.

  Pweet, Eegor, the Eeeepps, and the alien female former slaves weren’t aboard yet. Captain Kamphone had allowed them to spend one more night in Nestgorm’s plant. Both ships would take off the next day. The alien females and the Eeeepps were all going to Central Planet on the Integer. Eegor and Pweet would travel on the Jalapeno with Murrie and M. Mort to the Verdante planet. Lieutenant Dweeemm would fly Master Meeepp’s ship back there too. Only one alien female wanted to stay with Nestgorm. The bird-humanoid female Vurreeka wouldn’t leave him.

  Now the two ship crews were separated into three groups around the spacious lounge. Potat, Murrie, and Wawuul floated in the air near the fireplace that burned fabricated wood. They were talking in the cat language, Antaska assumed. M. Hoyvil and the males hovered by the huge polished-stone bar. They waved their six-fingered hands in the Verdante sign language, but their telepathic conversation was just a murmur at this distance.

  The females’ conversation was more intimate, and they kept their telepathic voices lowered. The two Verdante women were concerned about Antaska.

  “How are you doing?” Lieutenant Sosha asked her. “I don’t think the males have noticed, but we’ve seen a look on your face—in your eyes—that says something’s wrong.”

  Antaska’s tan skin reddened. The truth about Marroo was so humiliating.

  “Don’t pry so much, Sosha,” said Lieutenant XoXo. “She doesn’t have to tell us all her secrets.”

  “No. It’s OK,” said Antaska. “I need to tell someone. It’s just…embarrassing.”

  “We don’t judge,” said XoXo. “We just travel around the galaxy chasing the Woogahs.”

  “Well, that’s kind of what it is,” said Antaska.

  She looked at the two much taller alien women floating next to her. They were so different from her, but somehow, their faces showed understanding and comprehension.

  “You know I was kidnapped by Marroo, the same Woogah who kidnapped Pweet. And he put me into that hypnotic love spell,” said Antaska.

  “Yes. We know that,” said Sosha.

  “Well, I don’t think I’m in love with him,” Antaska said. “He’s a terrible person, and I don’t want to be in love with him. But ever since then, I’ve had a feeling inside me that’s like a pull. It pulls me toward whatever direction he’s in. When I got here, it was really strong. Irresistible. I kept thinking about going to him. But I didn’t want to. That’s the last thing I wanted to do. So it was tearing me up inside, but I didn’t say anything to the others because I knew how much that would upset them.”

  “I understand that,” said XoXo.

  “Then earlier today, something changed, and that feeling got weaker, but it’s still there,” said Antaska. That’s why I think Marroo left the planet. Because the pull inside me is getting smaller and weaker, but I don’t think it will ever go away.”

  Antaska covered her face with her hands. Despair took over. And she was so ashamed of what she’d just confessed.

  Lieutenant XoXo placed a large, comforting hand on Antaska’s back for a moment.

  “Yes, that’s what we suspected, actually,” said Sosha. “Ever since we traveled with you in the Jalapeno, we’ve wondered. Because you were talking about him when you were partly conscious. We wondered if you might have bonded with him. And it sounds like you did.”

  “Bonded? What does that mean?” Antaska asked.

  She remembered a conversation about this with elderly Earthlings on the Verdante planet.

  “Isn’t that something like when an Earthling and a Verdante get attached to each other or a cat and a humanoid?” said Antaska.

  “Yes, it’s like that. But this is a stronger thing we’re talking about,” said XoXo. “There’s another kind of bond between two life mates. Verdantes make that bond, but we’ve never heard
of Earthlings making it before now. Because it’s a telepathic bond. It’s a bond of love that once made will last a lifetime.”

  “What are you saying?” Antaska asked. “Do you think I’m stuck in some kind of love bond to that evil Woogah slaver for the rest of my life! I don’t love him. He’s a terrible person. He destroys lives.”

  She looked into the large faces of the two Verdante women who were much bigger than even the gigantic M. Hoyvil.

  “We’re afraid this may have happened when you were under the love spell he set on you,” said Sosha. “At that time, you may have felt love for him, and he must have felt something for you as well. And the bond was formed inside both of you where your feelings reside.”

  “No! No!” Antaska insisted. “I hate him!”

  “You might hate him now, but you must have at least been attracted to him in order for his hypnotic love spell to work. And once the spell was set, you must have felt love for him,” said Sosha.

  “No. No,” Antaska said softer now. “Maybe I did feel something. I don’t know. But it wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t hypnotized me. It’s wrong. It’s not fair.”

  She couldn’t stop the tears from falling from her eyes. A large green-fingered hand reached over and patted Antaska lightly on the back again, but Antaska could feel no comfort.

  “We’re sorry to have upset you,” said Sosha. “But we thought you should know about this. Even if it’s very painful. I hope this is different than the bond we know about, and that it won’t hold you for the rest of your life. But we just don’t know.”

  “No. I’m glad you told me,” said Antaska. “At least now I understand why I’ve been feeling this way even if there’s nothing I can ever do about it.”

  Something soft rubbed against Antaska’s knee. It was the big head of Wawuul. She reached down and scratched behind his ears. The big cat made the loud rumbling sound that was his purr.