In Alien Hands: A World Or Two

The ship, part 2

I was looking forward to the convention. Grene, Vy, and I had been planning it for months, before I even left to get Holli. It was the biggest human convention for 5 galaxies. Humans from all over would be there, along with their owners. They had entire hotels booked for guests and their humans, which was special. I didn't want Holli stuck in a cage again after the debacle last time I took a flight.

Lyndsey was being a little brat, as usual. Holli was being quiet, amusedly watching Grene trying to chase Lyndsey down and collar her. Holli was sleepy, they had all been woken up at four a.m., Given their breakfast, then loaded into the van for the trip here. She was usually well behaved in public places, she left the disobedience to places where she wasn't in danger.

Grene finally called me over to help catch Lyndsey, who giggled and panted while I held her still. Holli was happy to stay with Vyelet, my older sister, and Aspin, her human. As with all of us, Vy was great with humans, not that she needed to be at the moment. Holli and Aspin looked like they might fall asleep standing upright.

With Lyndsey calmed down enough and collared, we marched them through security. They went through the scanner, which gave the guards a view of the inside of our pockets, preventing any kind of search. It was all very fast, no special precautions were needed.

We climbed into the shuttle to our gate, I showed Holli to hold onto the bar. The shuttle went incredibly fast, the bar was required to stay upright. Vy was desperately trying to get Aspin to hold onto the bar when the shuttle moved, both of them fell over. Vy got upright first, trying to help Aspin onto his feet. Aspin was sweet when he was well rested, but was grumpy the rest of the time. Vyelet loved him all the same, even when she had to drag him out of bed for an hour each morning.

All the humans seemed to have a hard time staying upright once the shuttle stopped and we stepped out, nearly tripping and landing face first on the floor. We had arrived just in time, the ship was boarding. Most of the passengers were heading to the expo as well, many had their own humans with them. Vy and I held our humans back while Grene went up and handed the various paperwork Peri had prepared. The boarding Secretary confirmed our humans' appearances before stamping each passport with a stamp of approval and waving us inside.

Unlike the ride to our home planet, we were flying first class to the expo. Holli seemed to marvel at our cabin, her eyes wide and filled with wonder. Lyndsey was chattering as usual, Aspin immediately crashed on a bunk.

"Guess that one's ours." Vyelet chuckled. Holli and Lyndsey were talking about something when Grene piped in. He made a point to only give them information when necessary, so I gave him a quizzical look.

"Holli said she only got crackers on the ride home, Lyndsey panicked. I figured you didn't want her whining the whole way, Merlin." Man, I hated it when he called me Merlin. The humans played for several hours before sleeping for 6 hours. I slept off and on, curled up in the bed with Holli . I didn't want to wake her, so I'd use the television from the bed while she slept. We ordered food, the humans all happily ate.

It was all-in-all an uneventful flight.

Published 11/10/18