by Ava Louise
She scooped up the cat in her right arm and walked out to the living room. Luckily Mamzell didn’t mind her carrier so she crawled in and was zipped up and ready to go in no time. “So we have her, the suitcase, my craft bag and the litter box to go,” said Maggie. She was trying to think of this as an adventure and stay upbeat. If Mamzell picked up on her nerves, she would start meowing. “Claire said if I take a sample of her kitty litter that you have a way to make it up there on your ship; is that right?”
“Yes, we have a replicator. Are you ready to go?” asked the Security Chief. Maggie wondered if the guy ever smiled. She had yet to see him smile and wondered what it would do to his beautiful face. Both men drew their hoods up over their heads and turned to the door.
“Yep, ready to go.” Maggie locked up her apartment as the males took her belongings to the exterior door. Maggie would carry Mamzell to help keep her calm.
As she stepped out onto the landing, she looked around. It hadn’t occurred to her how the transportation would work. The medication was really knocking her off her game, she thought. She followed the Nordonians down the stairs and out to the alleyway. Just as she was about to ask about their ride, Security Chief Daxon held out an object, pointed it toward the alley driveway, and suddenly a small silver vehicle appeared. The door on the side folded upward and the ambassador waved her forward.
“Please step inside quickly before we are seen,” he said to Maggie. She rushed to do as he said. The gentlemen followed suit and the door closed behind them. “Take a seat, Maggie, and fasten your harness. I will secure the pet’s carrier in the other seat.”
After taking care of the pet carrier and stowing her other bags, the two Nordonians sat in the front two seats. Maggie didn’t want to distract them from their tasks so she held onto her questions as long as she could. The vehicle suddenly shot straight up to hover over her block. This move made her stomach feel like it dropped to her feet. “Oh wow…a little warning next time?” said Maggie. She was hoping she didn’t suddenly suffer from motion sickness. She never had in the past, but if that is their idea of “smooth sailing” she may need to ask for an airsickness bag!
The little space vehicle shot off toward the sky, leaving Maggie’s stomach back on Earth. “Oh man…you need to learn to drive, Daxon,” she mumbled. She had a feeling he did the fast take-offs on purpose, just to annoy her.
“Just settle back and try to enjoy the trip, Maggie. It will take us about thirty minutes to reach the starship,” said the ambassador. Maggie was glad the ambassador had come along to pick her up. With Daxon being so stiff and unfriendly toward her, the ambassador’s presence was a nice buffer.
As Earth fell away from the small space vehicle, Maggie wondered again if she was doing the right thing. She was torn between curiosity for the aliens and fear of the Snake gang. She watched as the town got smaller, the roads became thin lines with tiny dots of cars dashing away in all directions. This would definitely be an interesting story to tell grandchildren about one day.
The vessel climbed higher, passing through the clouds until nothing could be seen of Earth. There was just banks of white clouds, until even those started falling away as the space vehicle climbed higher. Maggie found it rather peaceful this high up; no traffic sounds, no hustle-and-bustle of everyday living. She leaned forward in her seat to watch the moon getting larger in their view. She remembered someone saying the Starship the Nordonians lived on was behind the moon, to stay out of sight of Earth.
As they approached the moon, Maggie could feel the small space vessel slow down. She assumed this meant they were close to their destination. Suddenly the inside of their vessel darkened; they had come round to the back side of the moon, where the sun never shines. Maggie could hear Daxon’s voice speaking softly to someone about docking procedures. Her stomach tensed up as she realized this really was happening. She was no longer at home and was about to willingly walk onto an alien space craft. Well, her and Mamzell.
Daxon flew their vessel to the side of the starship. It was huge, larger than any mode of transportation Maggie had ever seen before. It looked like it could be a city unto itself. She tried to watch everything around them, but there was simply too much going on. Huge doors opened up on the side of the starship and Daxon flew the smaller craft inside. They paused in a smaller chamber, while the exterior doors closed. A few seconds later, another set of doors opened up, leading them further inside the ship. Daxon landed their craft then started flipping various levers and buttons on the panel in front of him. After the lights on this panel started going out one-by-one, the side door of the small space vessel opened up.
The ambassador and Daxon rose from their seats. Maggie took this to mean it was safe for her to undo her harness and to also rise.
“Welcome to the Starship Starrays, Ms. Cline,” said the ambassador. “Please, follow me and I will show you to your rooms. Someone will come to get you for dinner; until that time, I ask that you stay in your rooms to settle in.”
Maggie followed the ambassador and the silent security chief closely. She tried to see everything around her, to memorize the path they were taking, but she was soon overwhelmed with the strangeness of her surroundings. There were markings on the walls that she took to be directions or location markers. She realized if she truly did decide to go through with this she would have to learn the Nordonian language; something else that had not occurred to her while making this decision. They stepped into what looked like an elevator. After pushing a couple of buttons, the doors closed and Maggie could tell they were rising. A few seconds later, the lift stopped moving, the doors opened and Maggie could see a long corridor with doors on each side.
The ambassador stopped in front of a door, entered something on a keypad, and waved Maggie inside after the door to the room opened.
“The lights come on automatically when the door is opened, Maggie. To turn them off at night, just say the words ‘lights off.’ If you give me a sample of what you needed replicated for your pet, we can take care of that right away, too. Tell me how much you will need and I will have someone deliver it to you shortly.”
“Oh, sure, here you go,” said Maggie after she retrieved the small plastic bag of kitty litter. She had completely forgotten about this. She was still trying to absorb everything around her. “Ten pounds should be fine, Ambassador. Thank you for this. It means a lot to me that you allowed me to bring Mamzell along.”
The ambassador turned to Daxon and handed him the small bag. “Daxon, please see that Ms. Cline has everything she needs to settle in.” Before waiting for a response from Daxon, the ambassador continued, “The security chief will be your guide to help you settle in. I will leave you in his capable hands, Maggie. He will instruct you on how to use the communications panels and pick you up for dinner later. I must get back to my office, so until dinner time, welcome aboard.”
Without a backward glance, or waiting for a response from the surprised Maggie or the clearly upset Daxon, the ambassador headed out the door without another word. The security chief stood there a second, clearly not knowing what to do or say next. He was obviously not expecting to be designated as her guide.
“Um, I can see you’re not happy about this. Is there anything I can do?” asked Maggie.
“No. He just took me by surprise is all. Give me a few minutes to get this replicated and I will be back. Please settle in the best you can until I return.” Daxon rushed from the room.
Maggie turned to survey her surroundings. Things looked pretty much like she would expect them to, she thought. The furniture was quite similar to what she was used to on Earth. This made sense considering the Nordonians were quite similar to humans themselves. She was standing in what she considered a living room. To the left of the door was a sofa with a chair at each end. There was even a small round table placed in front of the sofa. To the right of the door was a table with four chairs on one wall and a desk and chair set on the front wall closest to the room’s door.
; Directly across from the entryway door was another door leading further into the rooms. Maggie quickly stepped through this doorway. As expected, this was a bedroom. A large bed with end tables was on the wall to the right. On the left side of the room was a chair with a small table next to it. This was situated by the window in the room. The two doors on her left showed her a walk-in closet and a bathroom. The entire place looked like an upscale hotel suite. The overall tone of gray on gray, though, could use with some accent colors. Even for someone who wasn’t too interested in interior decorating, the color scheme seemed very boring.
“Mrawr.” It would seem Mamzell had had enough of her carrier and was ready to be released. Maggie placed the carrier on the bed and unzipped the top flap. Mamzell immediately jumped out, talking as she slowly took in her new surroundings.
“Well, Mamzell, looks like this’ll be home for a couple weeks.”
Maggie made her way over to the window. She could see the huge moon, blanketed in darkness. Around that, she could see the many stars she enjoyed looking at from Earth. Even out here, they were just pinpoints of light, thought Maggie. She wondered how many of these stars the Nordonians had seen close-up.
Hearing Mamzell still chatting away at her, Maggie turned to dig out the food and water bowls for her cat. As she turned to the bathroom to get water, she wondered how different this would be. Hopefully she would be able to figure it out. Luck was on her side. As she waved her hand under the spout at the sink, water flowed forth.
“Well, little lady, where do you want your dishes, hmm? How about we set them up in the bedroom? The bathroom is way too small to be dodging a water bowl in the middle of the night.”
“Mrawr,” came the expected answer. Mamzell really didn’t care where things were placed, so long as she could get to them and they weren’t in the traffic paths. The bed was elevated off the floor quite a bit, so this gave the cat plenty of areas to investigate.
Maggie decided to unpack her bag while she waited for Daxon to return with the kitty litter. It was sort of embarrassing having someone else involved in Mamzell’s “toilette.” Surely that had to be a first for the aliens. “I’ll even leave the closet door open for you, girl. How does that sound?”
When Maggie picked up her craft bag, she realized she might not be doing as much crocheting as she had thought. With a broken arm, there was no way she could work the yarn into anything even remotely useful. At least she had loaded up her e-reader before leaving home. Now the only question was, could she actually keep it charged?
Maggie decided to sit down and rest while she waited on Daxon. Hopefully he wouldn’t be much longer. Mamzell would need her litter box set up and Maggie was getting hungry. It didn’t take the cat long to find her lap. Looked like it didn’t take Mamzell long to explore her new home, either.
CHAPTER 14
Daxon stormed out of Maggie’s rooms and went in search of Ambassador Pacer. The last thing he wanted was to play nursemaid to a human woman! Damn Pacer and his meddling ways.
Heading straight for Pacer’s office, Daxon didn’t bother knocking; he just barged in not caring if he interrupted the ambassador’s work. As expected, Pacer was sitting at his desk. Just as expected was the smug look on his face when he realized who his visitor was.
“What do you mean dumping that woman on me? I am the security chief! I do not have time to play guide for her!” roared Daxon.
“It is simple, actually. Your duties do not keep you so busy at the moment that you cannot take time out to help Maggie meet some of the crew and learn our ways. She will also need help getting around the ship, at least to the areas she is allowed into. I really do not see what the problem is. Others have taken the opportunity to help with the program, it is merely your chance to do your part. Besides, her pet seems to like you already. Oh, and by the way, take her by the medical facility and have them look at her arm. They should be able to help it heal faster than it would on its own.”
“Since when do we share our medical technology with the humans?” asked Daxon.
“Since now. Think of it as a sign of good faith. I am sure it is difficult for her to get around in a new place while being impaired with a broken arm,” calmly replied Pacer.
“She is only here to avoid the criminals in her town; for security. She is not truly interested in getting to know any of us Nordonians. It is extremely doubtful she will even stay here the two weeks she mentioned.”
“Nonsense. Her feeling insecure at home, the danger she is in, is incidental. It may be the catalyst for her visit, but I believe she truly is interested in finding a life partner. She appears to believe in Fate. There is no reason why we can’t use this time wisely and see how things turn out. Worst case scenario, she will decide to leave and return home, without her memories for these next two weeks.”
“And if she does go back to Earth? And we have fixed her arm? How will that be explained? And is she even sane? She talks to her pet like it can understand her!” asked Daxon.
“It will not be explained, but stranger things happen all the time. It will just be another mystery for her. As for her sanity, she has explained it. Now stop stalling and help Maggie get set up in her new rooms.”
With nothing else to add, Daxon left the ambassador’s office and headed to Supply. He would get this stuff for her pet replicated, take it to her, and then leave.
As he made his way back to Maggie’s room, he pondered his own reaction to the woman. Yes, she was attractive. But he could not get rid of the feeling that she was only using the Nordonians to stay safe for a couple of weeks. This made him feel used, even though it wasn’t directly aimed at him. Is that what she was doing, using them, he wondered. He knew there were several Nordonians onboard the starship that would like to make a connection with a female. They had the same drive as most other species, to connect and bond with someone, to grow their family lines with children. If he were honest with himself, he wanted these things, too. But with no Nordonian females to make it happen, Daxon was not ready to believe these same connections could be made with females of a different race. How could they find soul mates with a different race? So far, none of the pairings had produced even a single pregnancy. He felt all the pressure to procreate would only end up hurting all parties involved. And so far, from what he had learned of the humans, they did not appear to place any value on soul mates, the way the Nordonians did. Daxon remembered how his parents acted with each other. He did not feel it was too much to ask to have that same type of relationship. Finding it, however, that would be the difficulty.
☆★☆
Daxon entered Maggie’s room without knocking. He found her asleep on the couch in the living area. Maggie woke as she heard the door close behind him.
“Here is the replicated material for your pet. How exactly does this help the pet?” asked Daxon, handing over the small bag of kitty litter.
“Thank you. I put it in the box we brought, called a litter box. When she needs to … ummm … eliminate body waste … she will do it in the box. Then I scoop it up and flush it down the toilet.” Maggie could feel her cheeks redden as she tried to explain this process as clinically as possible.
“It all sounds very unsanitary,” said the security chief with a slight curl to his lip. It was fascinating how human-like some of their expressions were.
“Well, it isn’t, I promise.” Maggie was at a loss for what else to say. He obviously didn’t understand pets, and didn’t seem too willing to learn either. If he was supposed to be her guide she was worried about her time aboard the space ship; he didn’t seem to want her around and he wasn’t very friendly.
“If you will follow me, I will take you to our medical bay and have the Medic look at your arm. They may be able to help it heal faster.”
“Oh, sure, that would be great! Let me get Mamzell set up and I’ll be ready to go.” She quickly set up the litter box for Mamzell in the bedroom. It was a bit of a juggling act, trying to lift a ten pound bag with just one working a
rm, but she wasn’t about to ask Daxon to help. As she rose to go, she found Mamzell was once again checking out the security chief. For a cat that wasn’t fond of strangers, she sure seemed to like this one.
“Your cat is exfoliating again,” said Daxon, while trying to gently move his pants legs away from the feline.
Maggie laughed aloud. “I think you mean she is shedding. That is what it is called when furry animals lose their hair like this.” She couldn’t help laughing; she envisioned the cat in the shower with a loofah sponge soaped up and ready to scrub.
“Okay, I’m ready to go. Come on little lady, away from the door. I’ll be back soon.” Maggie shooed the cat away from them, toward the bedroom. She was sure the Nordonians would not appreciate having a small pet running around the ship. Who knows how much trouble she could get in to?
Daxon opened the door when Maggie got close to him. As she followed him down the corridor, she could not help but admire his form. He was a fine specimen of masculinity in her book. Now if only she could get him to smile; she would love to see what a smile does to his face. She liked the stylized flames he had tattooed to the back and sides of his head.
“Did Nordonian women also wear a tattoo on their head, Daxon?” she asked him hesitantly. She didn’t want to offend him, but she was here to learn about them and that could only be done by asking questions.
“Yes, they did, but only after they mated. They would then wear the clan tattoo of their mate.”
“Oh, okay. How old were you when you got your tattoo?”
“On my sixteenth birthday. That is when Nordonians are considered grown enough to start making their own decisions.” He waved her into the elevator. “Medical Bay.”
“So the elevator is voice activated?” she asked.
“Yes, or you can press in your destination on the panel. Most controls on the ship use both methods.”