Chapter 13

James sat at the table in the dining hall looking at the Dromat standing in the corner. He wondered why Cousin Itt was standing when it could have been sitting. Ann was at work sending messages back to the space station and he was feeling a little bored. Getting up, he walked over to the Dromat and said, "Hello."

The Dromat stared at James recognizing him as one of the humans that had been present when it had arrived. As far as the Dromat could tell, that made James one of the more important people on the space ship. It understood the greeting, but hadn't quite figured out how to vocalize a reply. Its mouth was not exactly configured for making the 'l' sound.

James gestured to the Dromat for it to follow him. Having nothing better to do, the Dromat followed James over to the table. When James pointed to the chair, the Dromat sat down and watched James. James went around the table and sat across from the Dromat. James studied the Dromat. The pair looked at each other for a minute. The minute turned into three minutes. Each wondered if the other would be completely satisfied doing nothing more than staring at the other one. Finally, James asked, "What are you?"

The Dromat looked at James for a few seconds and decided that it was time to introduce itself to him. Nervous, he told James his name, "Dro Mat."

Surprised at actually getting an answer to his question, James turned in his seat and announced, "Hey everyone. Cousin Itt is a Dromat!"

One of the members of the crew asked, "How do you know that?"

"When I asked Cousin Itt what it was, he said Dromat," James answered. He turned back to Cousin Itt and, pointing at him, said, "Dromat."

Not realizing that his entire species was going to be called by his name, the Dromat answered, "Dro Mat."

"Hey, it really does talk," someone else said.

That kicked off a half hour of discussion at all of the tables. Much of the discussion concerned why it hadn't talked until that time. Some folks thought that it was because it was really a spy sent there to learn about them while others thought that it was just making random noises. To tell the truth, there was a contingent that thought it would actually talk like Cousin Itt from the television show.

For the most part, James and the Dromat just stared at each other for a little while longer. After deciding that the Dromat wasn't going to volunteer any more information, James asked, "Are you hungry?"

The Dromat understood what James was asking although it would be hard pressed to break the stream of sounds into individual words. It decided to answer the question with a word that it had heard a lot around the dining hall. With great difficulty, he answered, "Yez."

James smiled and said, "Stay right there. I'll be back."

The Dromat had figured out after watching people interact in the dining hall that the smile was not the threatening expression that it had thought it was. It had seen the creatures use that expression without the situation escalating into violence. He wasn't quite sure what the smile meant, but that didn't matter too much to it. Relieved that it hadn't done anything wrong, it repeated, "Yez."

James went over to the serving line and grabbed a tray and a spoon along the way. Once he reached the line, he said, "Hey, can you put a little of everything into individual little bowls so that the Dromat can taste it?"

"As far as I know, the only thing Cousin Itt eats is mashed potatoes," the guy serving the food said. He looked over at the Dromat with a bored expression. After watching the visitor stand around all day, he wasn't all that impressed.

"That's all he's tried," James said, "Maybe if we give him a little of this and that, he might find something else he can eat."

The guy serving food shrugged his shoulders and went off to find some little bowls. All he had were the small bowls for ice cream. While he was there, he put a little ice cream into one of the bowls. Returning to the counter, he put a spoonful of every item in a bowl. By the time he was done, James had to get a second tray. It wasn't that the variety was all that great; it was just that the trays were small.

James returned to the table balancing the two trays. He set both trays in front of the Dromat and gestured to the dishes arranged on them. He said, "Try each of them and see if you like it."

The Dromat tried a little of each dish. Some of the foods were horrible and its reaction caused James to laugh. It was like watching someone shake out a feather duster. There were a few foods that it really liked. One of them was the green beans. After eating an almost miniscule part of a green bean, it returned to consume the whole portion. The Dromat said, "Ood."

"Ood? Oh, you mean good," James said. He made a mental note that Cousin Itt liked green beans. He also noticed that the Dromat understood at least two words of English and could use them in the proper context. He smiled at the thought of switching over to German and seeing how it reacted.

The Dromat tried a small piece of shrimp. The shrimp happened to taste like one of the greatest delicacies of its home world. The Dromat pointed at the shrimp and said, "Ood. Ood."

James smiled when the Dromat nearly inhaled the shrimp. He said, "You really like that."

It was the ice cream that won the taste test hands down. The Dromat had never tasted anything so good in its entire life. After the Dromat had finished tasting everything, James got a meal for the Dromat consisting of shrimp, green beans, boiled carrots, and ice cream. The Dromat ate one of the finest meals of its life. It seemed like every other bite was accompanied by the exclamation, "Ood!"

For Captain Beac, the moment of truth had finally arrived. It was time for him to head back to his ship. His greatest fear of the moment was that the humans might have subtly established some sort of control over him and would prevent him from returning. It was with some surprise that the humans escorted him to the ship and waved goodbye. Of course, Beac wouldn't have recognized the wave for what it was without an explanation from the other Quatyl aboard the ship.

The trip back to his ship was just as long as the trip over, but it seemed to Beac that it was a lot quicker. The beasts had confused him. On one hand they were huge, untamed, and energetic. On the other hand they were extremely gentle and caring with their Quatyl. The one thing that was extremely surprising was that the food they provided was the best he had ever eaten.

On returning to the ship, Beac went immediately to his safety pod and relaxed for the first time in four chronon. Living outside of his safety pod was not his idea of fun. What had truly made the time horrible had been the fact that he was surrounded by giant beasts almost all of the time. He kept imagining that one of the beasts would step on him. The assurances of the Quatyl aboard the other ship that the beasts very seldom stepped on them did little to mitigate his fears.

The other Quatyl were interested in his experiences and pestered him with questions. They listened with rapt attention as he described how big the beasts were. They were shocked to hear that the Quatyl about the other ship made love noises to the beasts. They would question Captain Beck about other things, but they kept returning to questions about the Quatyl making love noises to the beasts.

For the most part, the other Quatyl aboard the ship were confused by his report. That they would be confused by the report shouldn't have been too much of a surprise to anyone. Beac was confused and he was the one making the report. The idea that the huge beasts mating could drive a Quatyl into a mating frenzy was just too absurd to comprehend. He didn't even know how to report that to the others.

Far more disturbing to Captain Beac was the assessment of the beasts based on the Gnord suite of tests used to assess intelligence, aggression, and emotional stability. There was nothing average about the beasts. They either scored very high or very low on every measurable category. The specific combination made it a very dangerous species. He wondered how to report that to the Quatyl Space Command.

Dro Mat, as he was known to the others aboard the ship, had returned with Beac. The servants listened to him talk about his experiences there. That there existed a race that was totally immune to the Quatyl was a real revelation. Of course, they didn't need him to tell them that. The Quatyl had discussed the matter many times over the past few cronons.

Far more significant to the servants was the fact that the beasts aboard the other ship hadn't tried to control him. This was seen as very good news, but not everyone believed him. A good number didn't believe his stories about the food. They just assumed that memories had been placed in his brain or something equally as nasty.

After the excitement of being able to talk with their pets had worn off, the Quatyl in the playroom had realized they were facing a horrible problem. It was Ice who started the discussion when she said, 'I just realized that we might have a really big problem. Our pets might not like us after they learn more about us.'

Surprised by the suggestion that their pets might not like them, Siegfried asked, 'Why?'

Ice answered, 'They might view our control of the servant races as slavery.'

The comment caused all of the Quatyl to turn and look at her. Having accepted that they couldn't really control any of the species on Earth, this was not something that any of them had considered. They had never viewed their control over the servant races as a form of slavery, just as a matter of course. The servants were just an extension by which they interacted with the world around them.

The problem was that every Quatyl on board of the ship knew how their pets felt about slavery. There were still lots of programs on television about the history of slavery and how evil it was. Of course, the slavery presented on television was a lot different than the kind of control that Quatyl had over the servant races. The Quatyl knew that the proper term was Mind Control.

Mind control was an often repeated theme in science fiction and was typically viewed in a negative manner. In many cases it was viewed as being worse than slavery. People felt that the mind was the last bastion of freewill. One might be controlled in the physical world, but there was nothing wrong with imagining doing bad things in their dreams.

The exception was in erotica where it allowed the man with the ability to control minds to be surrounded by a horde of women who would fulfill his every sexual fantasy. It was always a male who controlled others. It was also always the case where he always had sexual fantasies that required a horde of women.

After a full minute of silence, Starman said, 'They have animals that work for them.'

'None of those animals are intelligent enough to use tools, ' Fire said.

This was an explosive issue. Terrified at the consequence of a bad decision, Siegfried suddenly realized that he didn't want to be in charge. If it wasn't handled well, every Quatyl on Earth could end up losing their pet. In fact, they could create the dangerous enemy that every Quatyl feared. He asked, 'Does anyone have a suggestion?'

'We could ask a Gnord. Well, we can if there is one on the other ship, ' one of the Quatyl said.

'That would take too long, ' Siegfried said thinking that it would take the Gnord twenty or thirty years to come up with an answer. After thinking about it, he decided that it would take a Gnord even longer than that to find the best solution.