Challenge #02024-E200: Remarkably Similar
[ a race of sapient felines encounter Humans and their pets ] -- Anon Guest
Ahnrau hadn't expected a close encounter like this one. She had been hunting valuable asteroids when a shard of a distant impact sent her vessel spiralling out of control. The last thing she remembered before the spin blacked her out was identifying another vessel on a collision path...
She was messed up. She could feel it. But... she was also on the mend. The room she was in was white. Almost painfully white. And the being in the room with her was wearing a white livesuit. They were roughly the same shape as Ahnrau, but there was something about the body language that didn't read as felinoid.
They moved slowly, showing empty hands in a non-aggressive posture. "I speaking GalStand. You grok?"
Meeyahndans had had encounters with the Galactics. Ahnrau accepted the trader tongue of GalStand Simple as a temporary lingua franca. "I speaking GalStand. Where and what being this?"
"Where being ship mine," said the alien. "Name calling Adventurer. What being medbay. Think machines not knowing biology you. Self doing best. Self name calling Lu." And with that, not making any sudden moves, they de-obfuscated their face plate.
Ahnrau almost bared her claws from shock. She was in the hands of one of the famous Deathworlders. A Human! And she wasn't dead. It was that fact alone that told her that she wasn't going to die today. The other fact was that Meeyahndans also had a reputation as Deathworlders and, to say the least, she and this odd furless creature were probably on an even standing. "You Human. Self Meeyahndan."
And since neither of them were members of Galactic Society, they didn't have to fret about sudden onset ambassadorship. With a common language in GalStand Simple, they could work out a few things. Like proper treatment for Ahnrau's injuries. Immunisation regimes for the diseases they could plausibly give each other. Food. Necessary ablution facilities[1] and the like.
And when Ahnrau was finally able to leave quarantine and check on the state of her vessel[2], she met the other crewmember of the Adventurer.
Her instincts and her peripheral vision initially classified the being as a baby, but Human Lu quickly reassured Ahnrau that this was an adult lifeform. A non-cogniscent pet. Common species name: Cat. Actual nomenclature: Tinkle.
Ahnrau got plenty of time to inspect the animal up close. Mostly because Tinkle was a very friendly cat and took every opportunity to snuggle into a lap and accept scritches. Tinkle was not a baby. The brain casing was too small and she didn't have thumbs. And she didn't speak Meeyahndese. Some noises were eerily close to real words, but they never made it all the way.
But it was soothing to have something close to a kit around the place. It made the loneliness of her situation so much less.
Human Lu gave Ahnrau a 'lift' to her nearest convenient port, on the understanding that Ahnrau would perform a similar favour to any stranded Human she or her clan encountered. Technology was explained, purchased, black-boxed, and outright copied for valuable material in trade.
It was true. Deathworlders could get along if they set their minds to it.
[1] Many Galactics familiar with Terran Cats in general and Skitties in particular assume that Meeyahndans would need a container of sand for eliminating biological waste. This assumption is false. Everyone present uses the low-G toilet in the same way - in a state of near-permanent confusion and reading the instructions with a baffled squint.
[2] One good sneeze away from being a total write-off, in case you're interested.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / sherryk]
If you like my stories, please Check out my blog and Follow me. Or share them with your friends!
Send me a prompt [37 remaining prompts!]
The footnote about the instructions for the low-G toilet cracked me up XD