Bonded in Space

by Trisha McNary

  Antaska turned and smiled up at the two Verdante women.

  “At least I have this guy,” she said.

  Chapter 40

  Late the next evening, Antaska was back in the Integer’s lounge. The ship had moved into warp space, and its gravity effect allowed her to sit on an enormous Verdante-sized couch—or at least to imagine she was sitting there. Everyone else had left hours ago, except for Wawuul who sat next to her.

  Ever since she’d learned that she might be bonded somehow to Marroo for the rest of her life, Antaska thoughts had been bleak.

  What will my life be like now? she wondered. Will I never find love and have a life mate who I actually want?

  Potat wasn’t there, so Antaska sat with her arms around Wawuul. She was careful not to rub against his healing bite wound. The unwanted connection to Marroo inside her might never go away, but everything felt better with the big cat by her side.

  An ancient Earth video was playing on the giant screen in the lounge. Two life-size black and white dancers floated around a ballroom to the sound of romantic music. It was one of Antaska’s favorite movies. Potat and M. Hoyvil weren’t much interested in it, but Wawuul seemed to be interested. His eyes focused on the screen, and they moved when the dancers moved.

  Sometimes he seems so much like a humanoid, Antaska thought. I wish he could talk to me with more than just pictures.

  Antaska knew that about half of Wawuul’s genes were humanoid, but she still thought of him as a cat because he had a cat’s form. And he couldn’t vocalize except to make the sounds a cat makes.

  The soft music and the comforting presence of Wawuul relaxed Antaska more than she expected, and she fell asleep next to him on the couch. Wawuul fell asleep too.

  In the ship’s night, Antaska dreamed.

  She dreamed that she woke up on the couch. The lounge was lit only by the warm, soft glow of starlight reflected from the dark edge of the galaxy. Antaska looked at Wawuul sleeping in her arms. His huge, so humanoid-looking green eyes opened, and he turned his cat head and gazed back at her.

  In her vision, the edges of his cat form grew fuzzy. In her arms, she felt his body move and tremble, but in the dream, she wasn’t scared, and she didn’t let go.

  Wawuul’s shape and color began to change. Beneath Antaska’s hands, his body felt firmer and less furry. It changed from orange stripes to a tan color. The fur on his head became less orange too. It grew into a long tawny mane that reached his now humanoid-looking broad shoulders.

  When the transformation stopped, Antaska was holding a naked humanoid male in her arms. But she knew he was still Wawuul. The same bite-shaped scar was etched into a muscle on his shoulder. He lifted arms that were a man’s arms and put them around Antaska. The look on his man’s face was the same so-humanoid expression she had seen on Wawuul’s cat face so many times.

  In the dream, none of this seemed strange. They gazed into each other’s eyes, and Antaska remembered the time she’d first met Wawuul in the Central Planet police station. Again, she felt the same gentle feeling of connection to him all through her mind and body. But now, the feeling was even stronger.

  Wawuul pulled her in close, and Antaska pressed her cheek against his own warm man’s cheek. Held tight against his lean-muscled chest, she felt her heart match pace with the slow, strong beat of Wawuul’s heart. They held each other for what seemed like an eternity.

  This bond will last forever too, Antaska thought.

  Somehow she knew that was true. Then in her waking dream, resting in Wawuul’s arms, Antaska fell back asleep.

  End of Bonded in Space

  Alien Pets

  (chapter 1)

  Xeno Relations

  by Trisha McNary

  Copyright © 2018 Trisha McNary

  Published by Trisha McNary

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover art by Heather Hamilton-Senter

  Chapter 1

  A few short weeks after she graduated from space school, Antaska stood in front of a clear barrier, waiting and hoping to be selected. She held her small gray and white cat Potat in her arms. Energized with excitement and high-strung nerves, Antaska watched the gigantic green alien Verdantes. Crowds of them walked in the curved corridor outside her “viewing room.”

  The aliens, Antaska’s prospective employers, looked in at her and the other humans in similar “viewing rooms” built by the Verdantes to suit their purposes. The walls on the sides of her viewing room blocked Antaska from seeing the other humans and which aliens were taking an interest in them.

  Now one of the aliens looked at Antaska and paused. The eight-foot-tall giant approached and stopped right in front of her. Antaska looked up to see enormous slanting green eyes staring down at her. Above the eyes, green curly hair covered an enormous cranium. The alien lifted a large six-fingered hand and waved at her. Antaska waved back and smiled.

  Maybe I’ll be selected already! she thought.

  “Grrrr!!” she heard and looked down.

  Potat stiffened in her arms. She hissed and spat at the Verdante in front of them.

  The big eyes of the alien got bigger.

  “Stop that!” Antaska said to Potat. “Shush!”

  But the tiny cat wouldn’t stop.

  “Rrrowwwwwwwww!” Potat let out an endless angry meow.

  The alien shrugged big shoulders and shook his head. He lifted up his hands as if to say, “What can I do?” and walked away.

  Potat stopped meowing and settled back down in Antaska’s arms.

  “What is wrong with you?” Antaska asked the little cat.

  She didn’t expect an answer, of course, and she didn’t get one.

  “Are you crazy? You might have just blown our only chance to go to space! My life’s dream! Don’t you dare do that again.”

  Antaska talked out loud to the cat. It was a habit she’d got into. Sometimes, it almost seemed like Potat understood what she was saying.

  This had better be one of those times, thought Antaska.

  She felt a slight movement and looked down to see the Potat cleaning a snow-white paw.

  Antaska looked up. Another alien, this one female, was standing in front of the clear barrier. She wore the same bright blue space suit as the males. But she had a smaller, more delicate feminine body and features. Shiny bright-green hair brushed her shoulders. Large pale green eyes crinkled up as she looked down at Antaska and Potat.

  Maybe Potat will like this one better, Antaska thought.

  Antaska smiled up at the alien and waved. The female alien waved back and then made signals with her hands. She pointed at herself, then at Antaska and little Potat, and then up toward space.

  Antaska nodded and gave her a thumbs up.

  Yes! she thought.

  “Grrrrr!” Potat started growling.

  “Oh no! You bad cat! Not again!” Antaska admonished her.

  But the cat paid no attention.

  “Reyowwwrrrrrooowwwww!” Potat let out her endless howl.

  The Verdante female’s smallish mouth formed an “O” shape. She shook her big head from side to side.

  “No! No! Stop! Stop!” Antaska pleaded with her cat.

  But of course, Potat didn’t listen.

  The alien lowered her chin and closed her eyes for a moment. Antaska read that as disappointment. Then the large green female turned and walked away.

  Antaska’s hopes took a dive. She turned, walked a few feet back, and plopped down on the couch built into the back wall of the small viewing room.

  “Are you trying to stop me from going into space?” Antaska asked Potat as she set her down on the couch.

  Potat, now calm and settled, looked up at her with innocent gold eyes.

  Maybe cats just aren’t adaptable to new things, thought Antaska. Maybe they’re just not that intelligent.

  A tiny paw reached out and slapped her leg kind of hard.

  “That wasn’t nice!” Antaska told her.

  “Am I going to be s
tuck on Earth with a crazy cat?” she said out loud to no one in particular.

  Potat ignored her and began to take a bath.

  Antaska sighed and leaned against the back of the couch. With dimming hope, she watched the large aliens walking past outside her viewing room.

  A few minutes later, the nutty cat jumped off the couch and walked to the front of the viewing room. Potat sat down there and watched the Verdantes passing by as if she were the one they might pick. Then she looked back and stared hard at Antaska.

  I think she wants me to go over there now, Antaska thought. Or maybe this cat has finally drove me crazy.

  Grumbling about the problems with cats, Antaska got off the couch and walked over to Potat. She picked up the tiny cat and whispered in her ear.

  “OK. You’ve got your way once again. As usual. I hope you’re happy, whatever you’re up too.”

  Potat purred back in her ear.

  Among the other Verdantes, lanky, thin M. Hoyvil took long strides around the circle of rooms containing Earth humans. It was his second or third time circling around. So many of them! How was he supposed to choose? The humans stood near the front of their viewing containers, watching the passing Verdantes with wide, round eyes. Except at a few of the containers.

  Some have been taken already! Hoyvil thought. I’d better pick one before they’re all gone.

  He walked past an empty spot to the next one where a male human was performing martial arts moves. The red-haired male was stockier than the usual design for space travel, with cool genetically designed tattoos along his arms and chest.

  M. Hoyvil stopped in front of the Earth man and watched him. The man smiled and kicked high in the air.

  Hmm. It might be fun to have someone to practice fighting with, thought M. Hoyvil. Of course, it would all have to be pretend. They’re so much smaller and weaker and slower. I could easily kill him by accident if I wasn’t careful. That wouldn’t be good.

  M. Hoyvil stood there watching, trying to decide whether taking this one would be a good idea or not. Out of nowhere, he heard the sound of a small female telepathic voice.

  “Here! Over here!” said the voice repeatedly and insistently.

  Who’s that? he wondered.

  He looked around, but there were no female Verdantes close by. And those walking by weren’t paying any attention to him at all. They might have been interested in the human male, but they wouldn’t approach the container when another Verdante was already there. That rule stopped people from fighting over the same pet.

  No. The strange, tiny voice wasn’t a Verdante, and it seemed to be coming from the direction of the cube next to him. M. Hoyvil looked over. Now a human female stood there. She held a teeny, tiny gray and white cat in her arms.

  Could that Earth female be telepathic? M. Hoyvil wondered. No. That’s not possible.

  M. Hoyvil lost interest in the martial arts man. He walked over to stare at the young woman with the cat. The tiny voice stopped.

  Did I really hear that? he wondered.

  He shook his big green head. The pink-haired Earth female smiled up at him.

  This is the one! M. Hoyvil suddenly knew it for sure without knowing why.

  He made the hand signs asking the human if she would like to go up to space with him.

  She didn’t answer right away. She lifted her cat, stared at it, and talked to it.

  Could that cat be sentient? M. Hoyvil wondered. No. That’s not possible either.

  But the young woman seemed to be asking the cat’s opinion. The cat leaned toward M. Hoyvil behind the clear barrier and reached out her paws toward him. Then the Earth female nodded her head and gave him a thumbs up.

  M. Hoyvil placed his palm on the pad outside her viewing container to select her.

  Get Alien Pets on Amazon: US UK AU CA

  hypnoSnatch

  (chapter 1)

  Xeno Relations

  by Trisha McNary

  Copyright © 2018 Trisha McNary

  Published by Trisha McNary

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover art by Heather Hamilton-Senter

  Chapter 1

  Several hours later after the space ship landed, Antaska sat engulfed in the deep cushions of an enormous blue chair. Three other humans sat facing her in similar chairs arranged around a floating stone table. Flickering flames crackled in a huge stone fireplace nearby, muffling their voices. The chairs faced the far side of the large, cavernous room. There, ten-foot-tall, beautiful, and pale green Mistress Bawbaw lounged on an enormous adult Verdante-sized divan.

  The three resident humans kept their words soft and sparse, and Antaska took a cue from them, answering and speaking in the same way. The conversation moved at a slow pace. Many pauses to sip a hot brown liquid from delicate but hard plasti-mold cups. More pauses to nibble crumbly food items provided on small plates on the floating table.

  “So tell me my dear, have you bonded yet?” Tabxi, an elderly human female, asked Antaska.

  Antaska considered the question. ‘Bonded?’ She looked toward Tabxi and Vorche, an elderly man sitting next to Tabxi. On Vorche’s other side was a younger man, Zapop, whose soulful golden eyes were focused across the room on Mistress Bawbaw. Antaska’s turned to look at each of the humans. Her slight movement swished and rustled satiny petticoats under a voluminous gray skirt.

  She thought about her regulation tan spaceship suit with regret. So comfortable, so quiet.

  But her telepathic cat Potat had insisted that she could not wear it. “No! You can’t go to this party in your ship suit!” Potat had said. “Wear the weird dress they left in here for you, or they’ll be offended.”

  Antaska’s thoughts returned to the present question.

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t quite understand what you mean,” she finally answered.

  “Let me explain,” said Tabxi, leaning forward. “I’m talking about that mysterious bond that happens when two beings of two entirely different species meet for the first time and become so attached to each other that they stay together for the rest of their lives--the life of the shorter-lived one anyway. I mean that kind of bond.”

  “Oh! I know exactly what you mean,” said Antaska with quiet excitement in her voice. “When I first met my cat Potat, right away, I felt so attached to her that I wanted to keep her with me forever. But I knew I was going to space, and it was best not to take a cat along. I kept planning to take her to the shelter, but for some reason, I could never do it, and we ended up staying together. So yes, I have bonded. I bonded with my cat.”

  “She means, ‘have you bonded with M. Hoyvil yet,’” said Zapop in a loud whisper.

  “M. Hoyvil? Why would I bond with M. Hoyvil?” Antaska asked in confusion.

  She turned toward Zapop, again with a rustle of skirts. But his eyes were already back on the gigantic Verdante woman. Without removing his eyes from Mistress Bawbaw, he lifted his cup to his lips. He sipped and sighed, Antaska already forgotten.

  Tabxi resumed the conversation. “Well, you did agree to be M. Hoyvil’s companion for the rest of your life didn’t you? After just one meeting?”

  “Yes, I did, but…” Antaska began.

  “But there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s what all Earth humans do when they’re adopted by a Verdante, and that’s not a problem. The reason I’m asking you this is that sometimes some humans take the bonding too far, in my opinion.”

  A snort escaped from the somewhat large nose of Zapop, who sat slouched back in soft tan pants and a brown knit sweater. He pulled his attention away from Mistress Bawbaw for just a moment and absently scratched the furry chest hair that showed at the top of his comfy sweater.

  “Yes,” said Tabxi, “many humans become so attached to their Verdante Master or Mistress that it interferes with their forming a normal human relationship.” She looked meaningfully at Zapop. Antaska looked at him too. Zapop looked at Mistress Bawbaw.

  “Zapop!” Tabxi addressed him sharply but quietly.<
br />
  “Huh?” he asked, vigorously shaking the shaggy brown hair on his head as if to clear it.

  “Doesn’t Antaska look lovely tonight in her becoming gray dress?” Tabxi asked him.

  Zapop turned toward Antaska and looked her up and down.

  “Why, yes she does. As you know, that dress is one of my favorites. She wears it well,” he answered before his eyes pulled back to the enormous green voluptuous sight of Mistress Bawbaw.

  “So, Antaska, do you think you might be interested in forming a romantic bond with an affectionate but lonely human male here on the Verdante planet before you take off into space?” asked Tabxi.

  Antaska froze. Her gray eyes narrowed, and her kicking feet stiffened.

  “Someone to think about on the long, tedious days of the voyage. What do you say?” Tabxi pressed.

  Antaska looked at Zapop again. He didn’t seem to be paying any attention to the conversation. Antaska’s mind felt blank. She could not think of a good answer.

  What is going on here? Antaska wondered.

  She felt uncomfortable.

  I wish Potat were here. She’d know how to handle this, she thought wistfully.

  At that moment, the little gray and white cat was fast asleep on a pillow on Antaska’s round bed in her round dome-covered room.

  Just before going to sleep, Potat had complained to her telepathically. “Those annoying trees are sending me another message! It’s less of a bore to hear it from dreamland. That booming collective one-word-per-hour voice is too tedious! Don’t they know cats live and think at seven times the speed of an Earth human?”

  A telepathic sigh.

  “Oh well. I’m five hours short of my seventeen hours’ sleep today anyway. Sorry I can’t go with you, but I think you’ll be safe enough without me this time. I smelled some evil reptiles when we landed on this planet, but they aren’t close by right now.”