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"A little," I told her, searching her face for any clues or signs. Her expressive eyebrows made that fairly easy usually, but they stayed flat and unmoving. That was hard, that could mean anything.
Heather gave me a sheepish smile and looked away. "Do you think we've waited long enough for the people to have forgotten about us? We might have to leave the cakes behind but I'm not comfortable sitting back down after that spectacle. It's a shame, those are the best bits of an afternoon tea."
I just nodded, guilty that I'd ruined our lovely meal. I clearly made a thoughtless mistake earlier taking my disguise off and I'd be lucky if it didn't end up costing me my bowels or worse, my job. Captain Ellabee was strict when it came to these blunders, especially if someone reported it to the Galactic Union. It could cost her her licence and get her a hefty fine on top as well.
Hopefully, that wouldn’t happen. I wasn't entirely sure what Heather said to cover it up and the mouth kiss had distracted me from asking. I put the LightScreen ring back on and twisted it, covering up my blue complexion so I could fit in again. The reflective mirror assured me that I was now looking similar to Heather, even if I barely recognised myself.
We snuck out to the shuttle and Heather seemed relieved when we were inside. "Let's get the hell out of here. We've got everything we came for and you've probably made quite an impression on the locals."
I started the shuttle with the touch of my hand and pulled it towards the grey road. I'd feed it the coordinates of the ship once we were in more open terrain. While it was kitted with impressive software, there was something to be said for the Kyven touch, and parking and launching benefitted from both.
Once we were further out, I was relieved when the hub disappeared behind us and there weren't any other humans around us that might stare at me. It was a nice village, different in architecture from Kyven, but not in atmosphere. The people here seemed to remember Heather, even if it had been a while, and they were all asking why she was buying all these supplies, where she moved, what she was up to.
It worried me that they were a curious species, especially after I showed my true colours. I read weird things in the research about their obsession with finding life in outer space and stories about poking and prodding.
I’d never prodded anyone in my life.
The dashboard beeped and a warning flashed up.
"What's that?" Heather asked.
"Obstruction notice," I told her, peering out the front window to see what the scanner might be picking up on. As far as I could tell, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Just green meadows with little stone walls, the occasional tree, and a winding road.
We turned the corner and a sea of moving white bushes came into view, spilling down from the hills and spreading all over the path and coming towards us.
"Rak!" I activated the emergency brake, bringing the shuttle to a halt just before we collided with the walking clouds. What was this?
19
Heather
Iwaved my arms to make myself bigger, hoping to stop the whole flock of sheep from trampling us and the van. They were lucky the guidance system had flagged their presence early or we might have crashed in them.
Standing by the van-shuttle, Atina had a worried and confused look on her face. "What are they?”
“Sheep. Haven’t I shown you pictures before?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. They look kind of like rashipis.”
“They do, don’t they? But aren’t they much cuter?" I blocked the path of one trying to break free from the group. "And they're probably Farmer Jeffrey's. These are his meadows and his gates and fences are always breaking down. Everyone keeps telling him to repair them properly but he's a cheapskate."
"What's a cheapskate?" Atina asked.
"Someone who won't pay for things they need," I explained, peering out at the horizon to get an idea of how many sheep we were dealing with. It was hard to estimate but I guessed it looked near five hundred or so. Nearly twice as many as I was used to dealing with and that was with the help of a sheep dog or Rachel.
Atina patted the van. "We can just fly over them."
"I don't think that's wise," I told her, worried it might spook the herd and have them scatter. Besides the obvious panic it would cause for the animals, it would also draw attention to us if someone happened to come by and I was already paranoid that someone might be following us, some sketchy government type that wanted to lock us both up and experiment on Atina. I couldn't let that happen. No, we needed to get through the sheep without causing a scene.
There was only one solution.
"Let's see if we can herd the sheep back into their pastures," I said. "But we can't do this on our own. We need help."
"Does the help have to be real?" Atina asked thoughtfully.
"What are you thinking of?"
"I could create holographic copies of you. They won't work if you have to physically touch the animals, but it's about them seeing you, it might work."
