In Alien Hands: A World Or Two

The ship

You know how i like to give Merle trouble on occasion? You probably thought that was strange of me. Why would I cause this dog-man, who lived and cared for me, problems? Why would I, on occasion, purposefully disobey him, for no reason other than fun? That was how it worked. Dog-men had complete control over their human's lives, so we took the opportunity to take back control in occasion. I'd never run away, hurt someone, or myself, but it was nice to cross my arms and refuse every once in a while.
Anyone who thought I was strange for this never met Lyndsey. Anyone who thought of Merle as incredibly patient for not smacking me every time I disobeyed definitely never met Grene. Lyndsey, Aspin, and I were all leashed, being led by our Dog-men, Grene, Vyelet, and Merle, respectively. I had decided several minutes ago that now wasn't the time to rebel, but Lyndsey had decided the opposite.

Aspin and I were just having our ID's put on before security checks at the space port, but Lyndsey was darting away from Grene, shrieking happily while he gave chase. The stranger Dog-men found it amusing, children giggling at her disobedience. Grene had simply been trying to put her ironically-named dog-tags on when she decided she wanted to have some fun.

Merle ended up handing me to Vyelet, his sister, so that he could help his older brother catch Lyndsey. It was all very amusing to me, though Aspin wasn't as amused. He was tired, it was still early morning. Aspin was not what one might call a "morning person". We'd all been woken up far too early, Aspin and I having to be dragged out of the bed.

Lyndsey was a morning person. I'm confident when I say that earlier in the day was the first time I'd seen her sleepy in the morning. Aspin had insisted he'd rather have stayed up all night and through the day, rather than "teasing him with sleep only to be woken up".  We didn't really ever have a good idea of what time it was throughout the day, but we knew the general time.

Merle held Lyndsey still while Grene put on the tags and collar, she was still giggling. The collar was a type of bracelet, one we couldn't undo or unhook from the leash. It was to keep us from getting lost, like holding a child's hand. It used to bother me, but didn't by this point.

With Lyndsey finally under control, we began to go through security. The lines weren't nearly as long as TSA on earth, the superior technology made it faster to get people through. Where you'd have to empty your pockets and such on earth, you just needed to go through a scanner here. We were through in 30 seconds, including our papers and ID's being checked.

The terminal was similar to the one we arrived at when I first came to this planet, it was huge. It seemed like you could land a jet there several times over. I stayed close to Merle, I'd hate to be lost in such a big place. We got on a shuttle, Merle showed me how to hold the pole. I held on immediately, but Aspin didn't. He was busy sulking. When the vehicle lurched forward, he fell over. Vyelet had to help him to his feet while he muttered something about mornings.

The vehicle went incredibly fast, it was very hard to stay upright. at times it felt like I was falling towards the back of the shuttle, the only thing keeping me from falling was the bar I clung to. Lyndsey was loving the experience, like she was on a roller coaster.

Eventually, it came to a stop. Merle, Grene, and Vyelet seemed fine, but Aspin, Lyndsey, and I were wobbly. We nearly fell into a pile on our way out of the shuttle. It took us a few minutes of stumbling before we could walk a straight line, our dog-men giggled at us the whole time. I had to be helped back to my feet several times.

When we arrived at our gate, people were already boarding. Grene handled the papers while we stayed behind with Merle and Vyelet. The female dog-man behind the counter looked at each paper, stopping to look at each of us. She stamped each paper, handing them back to Grene. We were then marched into the ship.

There were other humans on the ship, which was a change from the trip there. Grene had told us we were going off-planet, but not where or why. It all seemed pretty laid back, no one seemed concerned, maybe they were even excited.

The ship had much more space than the one I had ridden before. The last ship was much more like a commercial airplane flight back on earth, this one was more like first class. We had enough space to stand and walk around, comfy chairs and beds were available. We even had toys, which was a vast improvement over the first one.

There was a gate set up to keep us in our cabin, it went up to Merle's chest, so it was above our heads. We probably could have scaled it if we tried, but our dog-men would catch us before we got our foot up. They removed our leashes, leaving the collars on us. We all settled into our space, each of our dog-men claiming a bed for us to share with them. We usually had our own beds in the human room, but we didn't have qualms over sharing beds with our dog-men.

"When I rode here, they only gave me crackers." I explained to Lyndsey, who had been confused when I wondered if we would be fed.

" we'll get real food, won't we? " Lyndsey asked Grene, she loved her food.

"Yes, you will get normal food, no crackers." Grene responded, in English. He didn't understand the nuances of English, but got by fine. He didn't speak to us in our language often, usually only when he felt we needed to know something. Otherwise, he was like any other dog-man.

"But I wanted crackers." Lyndsey smirked at her dog-man . He understood sarcasm, he had to. We used it so often he'd constantly be confused if he didn't. He roughed up Lyndsey's hair as a silent response. She fixed her hair for a few moments before turning back to me to ask me more about my experiences on the ship ride. She was clearly disappointed to hear that I thought this flight was going to be vastly different than my previous one.

The ride itself wasn't very note-worthy, though we did get some good food. We played with each other and our dog-men half of the way, and slept the other half. We weren't certain where we were going (they liked being cryptic) but I hoped it would be fun.

Published 11/6/18