Chapter 11

The Quatyl ship approached the alien ship at a tenth of the speed of light. It was a rather slow approach for ships of that type, but to the human occupants of the Starship Explorer it was as if the ship just appeared out of nowhere. Beac stared at the image of the ship that was projected on the monitor in front of him. He could sense Quatyl and one, possibly two, other species aboard the ship. He was about to tell the Margot to open communications with the other ship when his Slathern started making noises.

Amazed at what he was hearing, Beac didn't know what to make of what the Slathern kept repeating. The other Quatyl aboard the ship listened to the message wondering which of them was causing the Slathern to say, 'Send a Dromat to the ship with two Slathern. We will provide translation services.'

'What do you think that means?' Beac finally asked his science officer, Dear.

Stating what everyone already knew, Dear answered, 'There are others like us on board that ship. I don't understand why they want two Slathern. They should have some of their own.'

Beac could sense the Quatyl and one other kind of life form on the other space ship, but he couldn't control them. Feeling slightly sick to his stomach, he was afraid that the Quatyl were being held hostage. His mission was to find out as much about the new species and report back to the Quatyl Space Exploration Agency. Feeling every Chronon of the seventy three thousand Chronons (approximately one hundred years) since his hatching, he said, 'Send a Dromat with two Slathern.'

His wife, Bear, said, 'I've sent them.'

As the Dromat marched to the shuttle with two Slathern, Beac said, 'I wonder who the other Quatyl are."

The Captain tore his eyes away from the screen that showed the monster space ship floating in front of their ship. If they hadn't been tracking its approach, it would have appeared to have materialized out of nowhere. It still arrived much earlier than they had been expecting and its arrival had caught the Captain by surprise. It had approached at close to twenty times the speed of light and slowed to a tenth of the speed of light at the last minute.

The Starship Explorer was a large vessel by human standards. It was a rectangular box that was almost four hundred and fifty meters in length, a hundred meters in width, and fifty meters in height. An aircraft carrier could fit inside it with great ease. The ship on the screen was almost twice as big.

Knowing that it was rather late in the game, Captain Klein turned to Ann and said, "Sound the alarms."

"Yes, Captain," Ann replied hitting the button that had been under her finger ever since the huge craft had appeared in front of them.

The Captain was disgusted at his decisions. Only ten minutes earlier he had sent the two fighter pilots to the mess hall to eat before the ship arrived. Recalling that bad decision, the Captain said, "Tell our fighter pilots that it is a Code Scramble."

It took Ann a few seconds to locate Ken and Kim in the mess hall. She activated an intercom in their area. She announced, "Fire King and Ice Queen, this is a Code Scramble. I repeat. This is a Code Scramble."

Ken dropped the sandwich that was inches from his mouth and rose in one motion ready to run to the fighter. Kim took a bite of her sandwich before setting it down and then rose. When he looked at her, she covered her mouth with a hand and said, "You never know when we'll get another chance to eat."

It made sense. No one said that they couldn't eat on his way to the fighter. Ken picked up his sandwich and took a bite out of it. Together with Kim, he took off at a fast walk towards the landing bay. Chewing his food, he asked, "What would I do without you?"

"Never learn any manners," Kim replied after swallowing her bite of her sandwich.

Swallowing, Ken said, "That's a good one."

Kim said, "I wish I had remembered to bring a bottle of water to wash down this sandwich."

The pair turned the corner and entered the hallway that led to the landing bay. They had gone about halfway down the hall when they both came to an abrupt stop. Their way was blocked. Finding it impossible for them to get into the landing bay, Ken asked, "What's going on?"

"I don't know," Kim said looking down the hallway. Not quite sure what she was seeing, she said, "You better tell the Captain."

Ken touched his communicator to call the bridge. He pushed the talk button and said, "Captain, there's something strange going on down here."

The Captain flipped the switch on his communicator and asked, "What is it?"

"The Quatyl have gathered in front of the door to the landing bay," Ken said. He was surrounded by the little animals doing their little happy Quatyl dance. That was the one where their rear end leapt about. He added, "I've never seen them this excited. They are all dancing around."

Considering the monster ship parked in front of his ship; the Captain was not in the mood to listen to a story about what someone's pet Quatyl was doing. He replied, "We're a little busy up here at the moment. Get into your fighters and launch."

"Yes, sir," Ken answered watching Fire and Ice dance around. They were so excited that they didn't even notice that he was there. He shook his head and wondered what to do with the rest of his sandwich. He stuffed it into his mouth and looked at Kim. She rolled her eyes at the huge wad of sandwich he was trying to chew and turned to look at the Quatyl.

This was a Code Scramble which meant that there was an alien craft in the vicinity. It was imperative that they reach their fighters and go out to investigate. Kim tried to step over the Quatyl to get to the landing bay, but they wouldn't move out of her way. She knelt down and picked one of them up. After setting it down behind her, she was shocked when it raced around her to return to the door. Kim said, "This is strange."

"Yes, it is," Ken said after deciding that trying to clear the Quatyl out of the way was a lot like trying to move a sand pile by taking sand from the bottom of the pile and putting it on the top.

Kim knew it would take too long to get all of the owners down there to carry off their Quatyl and time was of the essence. She looked over at Ken and said, "I know how to clear the Quatyl out of here."

"How?"

Rather than tell him her answer, Kim slinked over to him in a sexy walk. Ken's eyes opened wide and then a grin spread across his face. A second later they were exchanging very passionate kisses. Hands explored areas of the body that shouldn't be explored in a public place.

As their passion rose, they expected to hear a stampede of feet as the Quatyl fled. Instead, there was a low growl of very upset Quatyl. The volume started low but increased as more Quatyl started growling. The first thing that came to their mind was that someone had arrived that the Quatyl didn't like. They looked around trying to spot the individual who had provoked the reaction until they realized they were the only ones there.

Ken looked down at the Quatyl stunned by their behavior. He backed away staring at them. They should have all run off, not growled at them. Quatyl only growled at bad people. Upset, Ken said, "This doesn't look good."

"Better call the Captain again," Kim said staring at the Quatyl with hurt feelings. By this time, the Quatyl were back to dancing around in front of the door. There was no way she would force her way into the landing bay if it alienated all of the Quatyl.

Up on the bridge, Captain Klein watched as a section of the alien ship opened and a small craft exited. Considering the size of the main ship, it was hard to tell how big the small craft actually was. He kept waiting to hear that his pilots were getting ready to leave, but so far there was no word from the fighters. He turned to the weapons officer and said, "Prepare the torpedoes."

"Yes, Captain," the woman answered. After a second, she asked, "How many?"

"All of them," the Captain answered. Considering the size of the ship, he wasn't going to risk being caught short of torpedoes. For all he knew, the ten kiloton atomic warheads would have the same effect as throwing rocks. He figured that if he got enough rocks in the air, that they had a chance of at least one lucky hit.

Down in the hallway to the landing bay, Ken reached for his communicator. He touched the talk switch and said, "Captain, we have a problem."

Using his communicator, the Captain asked, "Ken, where are you?"

Ken answered, "I'm outside the landing bay."

"Why aren't you in your fighter?"

"I told you. The Quatyl are acting weird. They are outside the landing bay. Kim and I can't get to our fighters," Ken answered.

"The other ship has launched something that looks like a fighter. We need you out there to intercept them if they should turn hostile," the Captain said.

"Sir, every Quatyl on board this ship is standing in front of the hatch that allows access to the landing bay. We can't get to our fighters," Ken said thinking it was a rather stupid design to have only a single access point to such an important part of the ship.

"Move them out of the way," the Captain ordered. Heads were going to roll over this. Quatyl were supposed to be kept in quarters, the Quatyl Playroom, or the cafeteria. There was no excuse for them to be running around loose.

Kim made her way over to where Ken was standing and said, "Captain, the Quatyl are really acting weird. You need to see this."

"We've got a monster ship in front of us with a fighter on its way towards us. I can't go down and take care of a couple of Quatyl," the Captain said.

"It's not a couple of Quatyl, Captain. It is every Quatyl on the ship. They even growled at us when we tried to move them out of the way. That includes your Quatyl, sir," Kim said.

"This is no time for jokes. I left Siegfried in the Quatyl Playroom," the Captain said about to lose his patience. The comment about the Quatyl growling did concern him.

"Siegfried is here, Captain. There are almost a hundred Quatyl in the hallway, sir," Ken said.

The insistence that Siegfried was there gave the Captain a moment's pause. He looked over at James and asked, "He wouldn't joke about my Quatyl, would he?"

"No, sir," James answered with a frown. No one made jokes about the Quatyl like that. Worried, he said, "Sir, this must really be serious. I'd never admit that a Quatyl growled at me. I wouldn't even joke about it."

Stunned by what he was hearing, Beac listened as the Quatyl from the other ship used his Slathern to explain the history of the expedition that had crashed on Earth. The story about how the ship had been destroyed and how the eight original Quatyl had made their way out of the swamp was the kind of thing that could become the stuff of Quatyl legends.

For Beac, the desire to ask questions was almost overwhelming. It was frustrating being unable to interrupt for additional details, but there was no way for Beac to communicate with the Quatyl on the other ship until the Slathern arrived there. Until then, all he could do was listen to the story.

It was with great unease that he listened to the part about not being able to control the giant beasts. It verified what he had already sensed when approaching the ship. He tried to imagine what it would be like to have giants towering over him that were just as likely to step on him as feed him.

Bear, Beac's mate, thought the story was so moving that she relayed it via the other Slathern on the ship. Thus it was that the entire Quatyl crew listened to the story about how the survivors had ultimately assured their survival by turning the giant beasts into pets. More than one Quatyl aboard the ship wondered what it would be like to have a pet.