Lost in Space

by Trisha McNary

  From complete darkness, Antaska’s awareness woke to something else. She felt no sense of having a body or being in a place. All she knew was a sense of warm brightness not seen with eyes and a feeling of indescribable and total bliss. Without any thought, analysis, or questions, Antaska experienced the bliss for a time that could have been infinitesimal or could have been forever.

  Then within her sense of perfect joy, she heard a familiar voice. “Antaska. Come back now.”

  “Potat?” Antaska asked the voice. “Come back? But it’s so wonderful here.”

  “Yes, it’s me. You’re not going to leave me now, are you? A small cat all alone with dangerous people. Don’t you care about me? Aren’t you going to take care of me?” the small, sad voice of Potat asked.

  “Of course I care about you. Of course I’ll come back and take care of you,” said Antaska.

  As soon as she said that, Antaska was yanked with brutal roughness out of her perfect existence and back into a pain-filled body.

  Antaska tried to scream, but all that came out was a small whimper of pain. Instantly, the medical tubes attached to her body injected a strong medication into her veins. She felt the slight, familiar weight of Potat climbing onto her stomach, and then she fell into a peaceful slumber. This time true sleep, not the sleep of death.

  M. Hoyvil crouched low and rushed through the human-sized doorway to Antaska’s room, breaking to a fast stop at the edge of her bed. She lay in the orange glow of a med light. A quick read of the holographic printout displayed above her told him she was alive but in a medically induced coma.

  Potat sat on Antaska’s stomach, and the three Verdante children stood next to the bed. The Earthling Freeta struggled futilely to get loose from the strong grip of M. Gwaawh.

  He heard the sound of gigantic pounding feet approaching in the hallway. Master Meeepp and Mistress Bawbaw, inhumanly fast runners despite their enormous size and more advanced age, came thundering up the hall to Antaska’s doorway.

  It would have been an impossible squeeze for either of them to fit through Antaska’s doorway, but they both lowered their large heads at once to peer in with gigantic green eyes, their two giant-sized faces pressing against each other and entirely filling the width of the doorway.

  “What’s happening here?” shouted the two adult Verdantes telepathically at the same time.

  On top of Antaska’s stomach, Potat’s fur spiked up high. Her back curved up too. With a loud hiss, she turned toward the gigantic Verdantes in the doorway.

  “What have you done to Antaska?!!” M. Hoyvil shouted telepathically at Master Meeepp and Mistress Bawbaw, breaking the rule of respect to one’s gene contributors in his excess of fear and rage.

  “I don’t know what happened, but she appears to be fine now according to the house monitor,” said Mistress Bawbaw.

  She shoved a large arm through the doorway and pointed at the glowing panel of lights suspended in the air next to Antaska’s bed. “I’ll question everyone in the household and find out what happened, and I’ll let you know.”

  “We know what happened,” said M. Gwaawh, still holding Freeta is a tight grip. “This Earthling tried to kill Antaska with Ms. Janeez’s drugs!”

  M. Hoyvil turned to look at the small human woman. Anger welled in him, but he restrained himself. He placed a hand on Potat to restrain her too.

  “No. I didn’t!” Freeta insisted. “She stole the drugs from Ms. Janeez. I just came in here to see if she was OK.”

  “She’s lying!” said Ms. Beeenaw. “I saw her spraying drugs on Antaska. Then she put the bottle in her pocket!”

  Mistress Bawbaw pulled herself out of the doorway and straightened up to her full height of twelve feet. Then she turned and faced the crowd crunched together along the curving hallway.

  “All of you go to the main living room and wait for me there,” she ordered out loud.

  Mistress Bawbaw was not to be disobeyed, and everyone except M. Hoyvil left the room and headed in that direction, followed by Master Meeepp and Mistress Bawbaw as soon as there was space to move.

  “Well,” said Master Meeepp telepathically to Mistress Bawbaw as they walked slowly down the high-ceilinged hallway, “unfortunately, it looks like this won’t be the best time to suggest to M. Hoyvil that he leave his pet here on the Verdante planet. Under the circumstances, he’s unlikely to agree. And I’d have to concur with him that it might not be safe for her here.”

  Master Meeepp knew there was relief in his tone of voice, but he hoped Mistress Bawbaw would think it was caused by relief for worry about Antaska’s condition rather than for not having to engage in an argument with M. Hoyvil.

  “Of course it’s safe here,” Mistress Bawbaw insisted. “This is the safest place in the entire galaxy. Otherwise, why must females stay planet-bound here to avoid the perils of space?”

  The thought that the drug use of his mate and other females in his household might be a problem tried to enter his head, but once again, Master Meeepp pushed it aside. Instead, he blamed what had happened on the shortcomings of the human race.

  “It’s safe for you and the other Verdante women, my dear,” said Master Meeepp. “But the relationships between Earthlings are another matter. We all know that they’re still at a violent, barbaric stage of their evolution, as this situation has just proved. I’m sure you’ll get everything straightened out after we leave.”

  “Yes,” Mistress Bawbaw agreed. “Perhaps it’s best for this trouble-making Earthing Antaska to be away from the household.”

  Master Meeepp was relieved that she agreed with him. Further argument was avoided as well as any even more uncomfortable discussion of the drug use of the females in his household.

  But a final nagging thought forced itself into his mind. This time, it was an Earthling, but what if next time it’s a Verdante who overdoses? Humm…Maybe I’ll bring up this subject again at some point. But not today.

  They entered the main family room where all the household members, except M. Hoyvil and Antaska, were gathered. Mistress Bawbaw started the questioning.

  Ever since Mistress Bawbaw had pointed to the medical monitor, M. Hoyvil had stopped paying attention to her or any other humanoids except Antaska. He lowered himself to sit on the floor next to the bed and turned to read the extensive information displayed in mid-air almost from floor to ceiling.

  Antaska was alive and well. Only an insignificant number of brain cells had been destroyed during her temporary cease of life function. But she wouldn’t be affected by that according to the monitor. All of her body functions and organs were healthy except for her kidneys. Those organs were now being repaired. For her own comfort and safety, Antaska would remain in an induced coma for the next twenty-four hours while the repair took place.

  After she regained consciousness, Antaska would be fine, but the house’s medical system was ordering her to stay in her room for continuous monitoring for the rest of her time on the planet. The med system had given the residence orders to construct a personal bathroom in her room and a small kitchen, so she wouldn’t have to go out at any time.

  The residence would also create a door that locked for Antaska’s protection.

  M. Hoyvil heard a humming sound, and he turned to look at the wall behind him. It was caving inward to take the shape of the new bathroom door, or perhaps the new kitchen. The edges of a new door were growing inside Antaska’s doorway as well.

  After he read Antaska’s medical information, M. Hoyvil’s fears were calmed but not his anger. It was made more complex because he didn’t know who to blame for it. He felt a slight tap against his cheek. M. Hoyvil looked at the puffed up little gray and white cat who had just slapped him. He realized that Potat must be very angry too, or he wouldn’t have felt the blow of her tiny paw.

  “You’re right! It’s all my fault! I should never have left her alone here,” he said telepathically.

  M. Hoyvil grabbed and pulled on his short, dark green hair. Then he lowered his l
arge face into his long, six-fingered hands.

  Potat sat back and considered her gigantic alien pet.

  Is it really his fault? she wondered. I’m the master of both these pets. Wasn’t it my responsibility to look after them?

  Although Potat had been in the residence, she’d been asleep when she should have been looking after Antaska, who was known to get herself in trouble when not closely watched. And why had Potat been asleep? The trees!! Yes, they were the ones who’d tricked Potat into going to sleep when she should have been watching her pet!

  “It was the trees’ fault!” said Potat to M. Hoyvil. “They tricked me by telling me they had an important message about Antaska that I must hear. But it was a silly message they must have just used to manipulate me. Those losers! They’re stuck rooted in the ground, so they play games with the lives of those of us who are free to roam the galaxy!”

  “Well, people say the messages of trees can be mysterious. Sometimes people don’t understand them till much later,” said M. Hoyvil. “But I can’t hear them. Only the adults can. They say.”

  “The trees! It was the trees!” Potat shouted telepathically to M. Hoyvil. “Let me outside, and I’ll rip them to shreds!” she demanded.

  To demonstrate, she stood up high on her back legs and waved the outstretched claws of both front paws furiously in the air.

  “I will but not yet,” promised M. Hoyvil. “I believe what you’re saying, but don’t you want to wait here with Antaska until she wakes up?”

  “You’re right! I have to stay and watch her. I can’t fail her again,” said Potat.

  She flattened herself down on the bed and made sad whimpering sounds.

  M. Hoyvil gently lifted the tiny cat in one hand larger than her entire body and pressed her lightly against his chest. Potat stopped whimpering and curled into a ball. A tiny purr rumbled in her throat.

  M. Hoyvil gave a deep telepathic sigh. Potat looked up at him and was surprised to see a large tear form in the corner of one enormous eye. It flowed down the side of his face and splashed onto the bed. The little cat pushed herself deeper into his chest to avoid any possible splash.

  Chapter 12

  Twenty-four hours later, Potat waited next to Antaska on the bed. Her small white-tipped tail swayed back and forth ticking down the seconds till Antaska was due to wake up. M. Hoyvil, who was too large to stand comfortably in the room or to sit on any of the furniture, sat on the floor on the side of the bed nearest to the door.

  He’d been there for most of the time since he’d found Antaska recovering from the overdose, glaring with huge green eyes at anyone who looked in the door. But M. Hoyvil had agreed to let the young Verdante children take over his watch some of the time, so he could sleep and eat.

  Almost adult Earthling height, but much broader, the three children now sat together on the bright turquoise human-sized couch that curved around one side of the wall. Made of strong fabricated materials, it sagged under their weight but didn’t break.

  A chime sounded from the medical monitor, and new data streamed on its readout. As promised by the monitor, Antaska woke up exactly twenty-four hours after she’d been put into the induced coma.

  Antaska fluttered her eyelids and then opened her eyes wide. She didn’t remember the past twenty-four hours of her coma. To her, it was as if she’d just experienced the trip into the afterlife and then the return to the living world. She looked up at the star-holographed ceiling of her room and knew without a doubt that she was back.

  Overwhelming feelings of the bliss she’d just experienced remained with her. Those feelings mixed with disappointment to have left that perfect, indescribable place. A small sigh escaped from her mouth.

  Potat was the first to speak. “Mew?” she asked.

  Antaska turned to the sound of Potat’s voice. The sight of Potat filled her with love, somehow increased by the remaining feelings of boundless love and pure joy that were still with her on her return to her living body.

  “Potat!...and M. Hoyvil!...and Ms. Beeenaw and M. Gwaawh, and M. Hawee!” Antaska cried.

  She sat up and turned around the room. Feeling uncharacteristically exuberant, she spread both arms out wide in a dramatic sweeping motion, as if to take in all of them at once.

  “I’m so happy to be back with you all!” Antaska said.

  Watching Antaska, M. Hoyvil noticed her joy. And somehow, it was contagious. He found himself also feeling joyful—very joyful. The dark emotions and cares of the last day were unaccountably lifted by the surge of almost magical happiness he seemed to absorb from the atmosphere surrounding him. The corners of his large eyes lifted up in a huge Verdante grin, and he laughed telepathically, and then even laughed out loud.

  Potat, emotionally telepathic and closely attuned to Antaska, was also affected by the infectious feelings of happiness and love that Antaska was emitting in all directions. But Potat’s anger against the trees was still with her. A loud purr started up from the middle of her body, while she furiously raked her claws into the bed to express her mixed feelings.

  “I guess it’s time for Antaska to rest now,” said Ms. Beeenaw, not needing to be told that they would now be asked to leave the room.

  “Yes, but you have my eternal thanks for your help watching over her this past day,” M. Hoyvil told them telepathically.

  “And mine,” Potat told them also telepathically but with a touch of regal queenliness. “You have proved yourselves worthy, and I now accept you as my pets.”

  “Oh thank you!” all three children shouted telepathically at once.

  There was one person Potat still had to reward.

  “Hello, M. Bomb,” she spoke to him telepathically.

  He was far away in the residence, and distance prohibited humanoids from speaking to each other mentally. But that wasn’t a problem for cats, who were much more powerful telepaths.

  “Kitty?” M. Bomp answered her.

  Potat had noticed that he was quite a powerful telepath too—for a humanoid.

  “You have proved your heroism by helping to save my pet Antaska,” said Potat. “So I’m giving you the high honor of adopting you as my pet too.”

  “Bomp be kitty pet!” his loud telepathic shout echoed throughout the residence.

  “What is this nonsense?” Potat heard Master Meeepp ask telepathically from a far distance.

  “It is getting to be a bit much,” she heard Mistress Bawbaw say next.

  Potat lifted a careless paw and began cleaning between the pads.

  “Let’s go tell everyone that Antaska is awake, and Potat is our new master!” said Ms. Beeenaw.

  Then the three large Verdante all children ran out of the room.

  “I’ll go too, so you can rest now,” M. Hoyvil said to Antaska. “I’ll lock your new door behind me, so you can have privacy. Then people will have to press the door chime and announce themselves, and you can let them in if you want to.”

  M. Hoyvil stood up to leave.

  “Thank you, M. Hoyvil. Thank you for everything!” said Antaska.

  The corners of his eyes crinkled way up in a Verdante smile, and he walked out of the room.

  Potat heard the emotion in Antaska’s voice.

  But Antaska was so happy in that other place, she thought.

  Then Potat turned to Antaska. “I felt your sadness to leave the world beyond life,” she said telepathically. “And I see how you’re acting now, like you’re happy to be back with us. But did you really love that place more than M. Hoyvil? And more than me?”

  Antaska’s hands reached out and scooped Potat up off the bed. Then Antaska hugged her gently.

  “That place was wonderful, but my choice was to come back to you,” said Antaska. “And M. Hoyvil. That will always be my choice.”

  Potat, with a cat’s ability to recognize truthfulness, knew that Antaska spoke the truth. A contented purr rumbled from her tiny body.

  “Everything worked out in the end, but I hope you learned your lesson,”
said Potat.

  “What lesson?” Antaska asked. “I told Freeta that I didn’t want her drugs. I told her to stay away from me. Do you think it was my fault that she sprayed drugs on me?”

  “No. Not that lesson,” said Potat. “I mean the lesson that if you ever try to leave me, I’ll come find you.”

  “Yes, I did learn that lesson,” said Antaska. “That’s the best lesson of all.”

  End of Lost in Space

  Alien Pets

  (excerpt)

  Xeno Relations

  by Trisha McNary

  Copyright © 2019 Trisha McNary

  Published by Trisha McNary

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover art by Heather Hamilton-Senter

  Excerpt

  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.