It was probably fortunate that the Dromat did not understand a single word of what James had said. Although it was under compulsion to stand there and do nothing that might be interpreted as threatening, odds were good that it would have been insulted to learn that it had been compared to a comedic character from a situation comedy. One of the Slatherns it was carrying started making noises which the Dromat couldn't understand.
The same couldn't be said for the humans in the room. All of them jumped when the Slathern said, "Hello, Captain Klein. It is nice to finally be able to talk with you."
Stunned, everyone looked at Cousin Itt holding the two slugs in its hands. Surprised at the fact that the alien knew English, James commented, "Well, I'll be damned. All of those television shows were right. Space aliens do speak English. Of course, they were wrong about them having perfect American accents. Who would have thought they'd speak with Dutch accents?"
No one else had picked up on the language, just the fact that the alien knew the Captain's name. No one was more surprised by that rather significant fact than the Captain. It seemed that a long time passed before he recovered enough to ask, "How did you know my name?"
"I'm Siegfried," was the answer.
"Siegfried? Who is that?" the Captain asked staring at the slug-like creature from which the sounds were originating. He had to admit that if an alien creature hadn't been holding it in his hand; he would have probably squashed the slug without giving it a second thought until it had started speaking at him.
"I'm the Quatyl standing beside you. You've been my pet for years, Otto," the Slathern answered.
Confused that the slug was claiming to be his Quatyl, the Captain looked down at his pet only to find Siegfried looking up at him. All thoughts about the big ship fled his mind at the idea that his Quatyl was talking to him through the slug held in the hand of Cousin Itt. His eyes drifted over to the Slathern as he asked, "What's going on here?"
The other Slathern started making some noises. These noises the Dromat did understand since it was speaking Quatyl. Somewhat amused by the desperation in the voice, he listened as the Slathern said, 'This is Captain Beac of the Quatyl Space Exploration Agency. What is going on?"
Siegfried answered Captain Beac using the Slatern on the other ship to explain that they were taking a moment to speak to their pets. While he was doing that, Starman used the other Slathern to say, "James, you have been a very good pet."
"Thank you, but I think you have the relationship backwards. You're my pet," James said looking down at his Quatyl.
"I adopted you for a pet," Starman said well aware of his pet's attitude about which one of them was the pet and which one of them was the owner.
"No, I adopted you for a pet," James said with a smile. He figured that they were going to have lots of fun discussing the matter for years.
Ann was staring at Stardust thinking about the implications of what she was witnessing. It dawned on her that the Quatyl could very well want to get on the other ship and leave. With tears threatening to well up in her eyes, she asked, "You're not going to leave us, are you?"
"No, I won't leave you Ann," Stardust said surprising everyone with the feminine tone in the voice coming from the Slathern.
Still upset that the Quatyl had growled at her, Kim looked down at Ice and asked, "Will you be leaving me?"
Rubbing against her leg, Ice answered, "No."
"You growled at me," Kim said. Her feelings were still hurt.
"I'm sorry I growled at you. We were just so excited to see one of our ships here. The fact that you wanted to go out and attack it was a little upsetting," Ice answered.
"I can see why," Kim said. She reached down and picked up Ice. With tears in her eyes, she said, "I love you, Ice. The thought of losing you was just too much to bear."
That news seemed to have released a little of the tension in the room and the rest of the humans picked up their Quatyl. The Dromat watched with wide eyes as the creatures stroked the backs of the Quatyl and heard the noise emitted by the little things. He had never heard a Quatyl purr.
Having dealt with Captain Beac, Siegfried said, "The Quatyl Captain wants to talk with you, Otto."
The next few hours turned into a rather interesting discussion concerning the future of the Quatyl/Human relationship. The conversation had been made a little more complicated by the fact that some of the Quatyl participating in it had adopted Humans as pets and weren't willing to give them up. It was nice to have a creature that willingly took care of you and occasionally surprised you with treats.
Captain Beac had a nagging suspicion that the Humans had some kind of mental or physical control over the Quatyl, but didn't voice that concern. The communications channels back to the headquarters of the Space Exploration Agency were busy while he was trying to get clear instructions on how to proceed. None of the scenarios put forth by the Gnord had included the possibility of what had happened with the original Quatyl crew.
The Dromat had followed the Quatyl side of the discussion with interest even though the only part of it that it could hear was the words from Captain Beac. It kept looking at the Humans and trying to figure out why they weren't affected by the Quatyl. For the first time in its life, it actually felt a little hope that life in the galaxy was about to change.
When the long exchange with Captain Beac was over, James and Ann went to their quarters with their Quatyl. All four of them were exhausted. Ann dropped onto their bed and said, "I'm glad that Stardust is going to stay with me."
"I know what you mean," James said. He sat down on the bed beside her and said, "I wish my grandfather was still alive. I think he'd be very proud to learn that all of the Quatyl consider him to be the first pet."
Starman looked up at James from the floor. Looking down at his pet, James winked and said, "Now that you can't argue back, we can all agree that we adopted you as pets. So there!"
Starman just looked back at James taking in the fact that the beast's tongue was stuck out at him. There were times when James reminded him so much of the first pet. He had a feeling that there were going to be a lot of interesting conversations in the future. James was a remarkably clever pet.
The thought also dawned on him that over the past hundred years, the Quatyl on Earth had developed a sense a humor. He had thought it was rather funny when James had declared the Dromat to be Cousin Itt. When his pet had watched the television show, he had watched it as well. It wasn't until the Dromat had been standing in the landing bay that he had realized that Cousin Itt was remarkably similar to a Dromat.
Still struggling with the idea that the Quatyl were a space faring race and not an overly intelligent animal, Ann said, "I still find it hard to believe that a Quatyl is in charge of that huge ship."
"I think there are going to be a lot of scientists who are going to be very embarrassed," James said with a smile. He thought about all of the studies that had proved that Quatyl intelligence was instinct.
"You can say that again," Ann said.
"You do know what this means?" James asked.
Seeing the twinkle in his eyes, Ann was almost afraid to ask. She asked, "What?"
"The next time some psychologist says that they've scientifically proven that I'm crazy, I can point to the Quatyl and tell them that science doesn't know everything," James said.
Laughing, Ann said, "That won't stop them from locking you up."
"Probably not," James said snapping his fingers to indicate another great plan foiled by the vulgarities of reality.
She yawned and said, "I've got to get some sleep. Why don't you put out some food for the Quatyl?"
James looked over the edge of the bed and saw that the Quatyl had already gone into their den. They would wake up in the middle of the night and find the food that James had left for them. James thought for a moment that redefining the relationship with the Quatyl wouldn't be that bad of an idea. The thought of waking up in the morning to find breakfast waiting for him was rather intriguing. He grinned at the idea of using that argument on Starman.
The Dromat in the landing bay had basically been ignored during the entire discussion. When the discussion was nearing completion, it was decided that it would remain on board of the ship. Under control of a Quatyl, it was directed to the cafeteria where it took a position in the corner of the room under the watchful eye of one of the crew members.
This might seem like a rather indifferent treatment of the Dromat, but it was used to it. In fact, the Dromat was actually having the best time of its life. The one thing that amazed the Dromat was that once the Quatyl that had been controlling it had left the cafeteria it was under the extraordinary condition in which it wasn't being controlled. Rather than create a problem, the Dromat decided that it was in its best interests to just wait and watch. While the entire trip had been spent doing very little, it had watched the humans and found them to be very fascinating.
About three hours after arriving at the cafeteria, it had figured out how things worked in the room. It went over to the line and picked up a tray. At the silverware station, it picked out a spoon. The Dromat recognized the spoon for what it was since spoons are one of the few universally common eating utensils unlike the spork which is a uniquely human invention.
Pushing the tray along the little ledge like the humans had, it examined each of the foods trying to figure out what to get. Not knowing what would be good, it finally pointed to a white puree.
The guy behind the counter looked at the Dromat and just dished out a serving of mashed potatoes. Without missing a beat, the guy said, "There you go, Cousin Itt."
The Dromat took the tray over to a table and sat down in one of the chairs. It was actually rather nice not to be standing. It took a taste of the mashed potatoes under the watchful eyes of everyone in the room. Everyone in the room watched it eat since they all wondered what it would think of the food. The Dromat leaned forward and, in a very dainty manner, it used the spoon to shovel a mouthful of food into its mouth.
It must be admitted that the Dromat found the mashed potatoes to be a rather bland and uninteresting dish, but it finished the serving that was on its plate. Having observed others return their trays to a conveyor belt, the Dromat disposed of his tray in the same manner.
The Dromat returned to the corner and stood there watching the activity in the room. It was slowly picking up some details of the language. It figured out pretty quickly the words of greeting and parting. It took a little more time to determine that a laugh was a verbal reaction to humor. The Dromat had heard of humor, but the time spent under the control of the Quatyl had made very few things seem funny. The interactions among the people seemed to be rather complex.
From time to time a person approached and tried to talk to the Dromat. Not understanding what was said, the Dromat just stared at the person. After a few attempts to get a reaction, the person would give up leaving the Dromat to work out what it was the person was trying to communicate.
All in all, the Dromat was having a very good time.
A very unhappy and nervous Beac sat in the shuttle craft as it made the long voyage to the other ship. In terms of space voyages, it wasn't long in terms of time or distance. The primary reason for his discomfort was the fact that he had to leave the safety pod of his vessel in the middle of space. The other reason was the dread of what he was going to see that made it a long trip. Each second that ticked by felt like an eternity.
The shuttle landed in the bay with a slight jarring that sent his heart into overdrive. The Captain's wait hadn't ended. The landing bay still had to fill with an atmosphere and warm up to a level that wouldn't be hazardous to his health. After what seemed like an eternity, Siegfried let him know that it was safe to leave the ship. Quatyl did not talk to themselves, but if they did then Captain Beac would have said, 'It's never safe to leave the ship.'
When he had been told that the beasts were big, Beac had imagined something about the height of a Gnord. The reality of looking up them put his imagination to shame. His first thought was that the humans were intimidating the Quatyl into co- operating. Beac stood at the door of the shuttle staring at the beasts. The Earth Quatyl were only a sixth the size of the beasts that stood beside them.
Captain Klein stared at the Quatyl unsure what he was supposed to do. He had never imagined that he would be the first person to make contact with an intelligent species from another planet. That Captain's Manual didn't have an entry for that. All he knew was that the little Quatyl looked terrified. He didn't want to scare it off by stepping forward or making any gesture that it might find threatening.
James watched the two Captains looking at each other with a smile on his face. After about thirty seconds had passed, he said, "This is just too exciting."
Captain Klein looked over at James and said, "Shut up."
"I tell you. The suspense is just killing me," James said with a smile.
"We're meeting the representative of an alien species for the first time and it has to be done right," Captain Klein said.
Looking down at Starman, James said, "I don't think it is the first time we've met a representative of this particular alien species. I've been living with them my whole life."
The Captain looked down at Siegfried for a second. Wanting to slap his forehead with the palm of his hand, he said, "You're right."
Captain Beac watched the exchange between the two beasts wondering if they were arguing over which one of them would get to eat him. One of the beasts made noises in his direction. The Quatyl with him translated the words using the Slathern, "Hello. I'm Captain Klein. Welcome aboard the Starship Explorer."
"I'm Captain Beac," was the translated reply. There was a long pause while he considered what to say next. This situation was just as awkward for him as for Captain Klein. He added, "Thank you for inviting me over."
Captain Klein stared at Captain Beac wondering what he was supposed to do next. After a minute, Captain Klein said, "Do you want to see the rest of the ship?"
"I guess," answered Captain Klein not really wanting to leave the shuttle.
Siegfried could see that the Captain Beac was very uncomfortable. Using the Slathern, he said, 'I can suggest that we stop by our meeting room. We can have some food brought in for you.'
'Will there be beasts there?' Captain Beac asked looking up at the monster standing in front of him.
'Not really, ' Siegfried answered, 'The only time our pets come into the room is to drop one of us off or pick us up.'
'That would be good, ' Beac said thinking that he might learn more by talking with a bunch of Quatyl away from the beast than walking around the ship.
Siegfried looked up at Captain Klein and said, "Let us take him to our meeting room. I think he needs to talk to us alone."
"I suppose that is reasonable," Captain Klein replied thinking it rather unusual taking advice from his pet. The problem was that he didn't have any better ideas.
Captain Beac didn't know what to expect when he was led into the Quatyl Playroom. The walk to it had exhausted him, but he wasn't going to accept the offer to be carried. The idea of being held by one of the giants terrified him. Now that he was at the destination, he looked around dismayed at the primitive conditions in which the Quatyl lived. The alphabet board on the floor highlighted the obstacles that the Quatyl had to overcome in order to survive.
The Quatyl in their dens watched Beac with interest. Ice used one of the guinea pigs to say, 'This little animal is the best form of communication that we found on Earth.'
It took Beac a moment to realize that the squeaks originating from the cage was a form of communications. Dismayed at the cumbersome form of communications, he used the Slathern to say, 'You must be miserable.'
Using the Slathern, Fire said, 'Not really. They take pretty good care of us. I imagine that things will get a lot better now that we can talk with our pets.'
'They are really your pets?' Beac asked.
Starman answered, 'That is a matter of some contention. The beasts insist that we are their pets, but we know better. We adopted them.'
'Pets, ' Beac said trying to grasp what it meant to have a pet.
'That's right, ' Fire said.
'They aren't controlling you in some way?' Beac asked.
'No. They are very hard to train though, but we think that by talking to them in their language it'll be easier, ' Siegfried answered.
'They are very big and frightening to look at, ' Beac said.
'You get used to them, ' Starman said.
Disrupting the conversation and sending Beac running into a den, James entered the room and squatted down. While placing a couple of bowls on the floor, he looked in the den as he said, "I brought a variety of foods in case you're hungry."
Starman went over to James and rubbed his head against James' leg. He said, "Thank you, James. You're a very good and thoughtful pet."
"And you're a pain in the ass sometimes," James answered reaching down and running his hand along Starman's back. The Quatyl purred shocking Beac.
"Be gone, pet. Go off and do pet kinds of things," Starman replied experimenting with putting a royal tone to his voice via the Slathern. It was actually pretty successful.
James chuckled and stood up. He bowed and said, "Yes, your highness."
When James left the Quatyl in the room all shook their heads at the exchange. Amused by Starman's comment, Ice said, 'You are starting to talk like your pet.'
Beac was still shocked at hearing love noises emerge from the Quatyl. What was even more shocking was that none of the other Quatyl had reacted as if it was strange. He emerged from the den and asked, 'Why did you make love noises?'
'That is how we train our pets. Beside, it feels really nice when they rub your back like that, ' Starman answered.
'Really?' Beac asked unable to imagine it. The idea of being handled by such a large clumsy looking beast was truly frightening. He wondered if that was how the beasts controlled the Quatyl.
'You've got to try the food. My favorite is the pale green food, ' Ice said identifying the pureed peas by color.
'I like the yellowish one the most, ' Fire said identifying the applesauce.
Hoping that it wasn't drugged, Beac went over and tasted the pureed peas. He was surprised by the flavor and said, 'This is good.'
'All of the foods they serve to us are pretty good, ' Siegfried said. His particular favorite was the boiled seaweed.
Beac tried the applesauce. It was sweet, cold, and wet. It was the best thing that he had ever tasted. Stepping back, he stared at the bowl and asked, 'What is this?'
'That is applesauce. It is made from a fruit that grows on their planet, ' Siegfried answered. The idea of actually cooking vegetables had been a very novel concept for the Quatyl.
'It is very good, ' Beac said. He ate a little more of it before trying the food in the next bowl. That bowl contained pureed peaches and it had a very different flavor from anything that he had ever tasted. He decided that he really liked the peaches. Shocked at the wonderful foods that he had tasted, he said, 'You eat very well.'
James returned to the bridge still laughing at the exchange with Starman. Not exactly trusting James when he was chuckling, Captain Klein asked, "What's so funny?"
"I just had a little exchange with Starman. That little critter has a good sense of humor," James answered.
Captain Klein stared at James in horror. Shaking his head, he said, "You're like some sort carrier of an infectious disease. Everywhere you go people catch your sense of humor."
Everyone on the bridge laughed at the comment. James smiled and said, "Maybe if I hang around you long enough, you'll catch my disease."
"No thank you," the man replied shaking his head. He added, "I might have to put you in isolation to protect the rest of us."
James laughed at the idea and said, "Hey, that's a good one. I think my evil plot to infect you with a sense of humor is working."
"I wasn't joking," Captain Klein replied with a smile. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he wondered if he had already been infected.
James went over to the sensor console and sat down. He scanned the area of space in which they were parked. He noticed that the two other ships were still standing off at a distance of two light years. Looking up, he said, "Those two other ships are still out there."
Not particularly worried about the other two ships, Captain Klein said, "Continue to watch them."
"I'll write a routine that will sound an alarm if they move in our direction," James said getting to work. As he typed, he realized that he should have done that as soon as they had parked in space.
"Good," Captain Klein said with an approving nod of his head. It always amazed him how quickly James could transition from acting like a clown to being a very serious person. He turned to look at Ann and asked, "What is going on with Cousin Itt?"
Without looking up from her console, Ann answered, "It is still just standing in the cafeteria."
"Can it talk?" Captain Klein asked still trying to figure out what role the shaggy alien had in this entire thing.
"I don't know," Ann answered glancing at her monitor. She was watching the Dromat patiently standing in the corner of the cafeteria. It was watching the activity taking place without much of a reaction. Of course, the alien features made it difficult to assess what the Dromat was thinking.
"Is it eating?" he asked.
Looking up from her console, Ann answered, "Yes. It had some mashed potatoes last night. I told the cook that if it didn't ask for anything today to prepare some more mashed potatoes for it."
"Good thinking," Captain Klein said. The hairy alien was a real puzzle.
James looked up from his console and said, "The alarms are programmed. If either of the two ships moves, a short beeping noise will go off and the screen will highlight the ship in red."
"Good," the Captain said settling into his chair.