"Prepare to receive Ambassador," came the message from the other ship. "His excellency, Quelf Tharkol, Minister Plenipotenitiary--and his pet."
"I'm ready," I said. "Our airlock's open."
Slowly the lock of the other ship slid back and two space-suited figures appeared--the Ambassador, Quelf Tharkol, and his pet. The Ambassador was invisible within his spacesuit but he stood upright and looked to be about the size of a man. I was happy about that; it's always a lot easier to negotiate with a humanoids-type alien than with something totally bizarre.
I chuckled when I saw the space-suited cat--for so I thought of it. It was cat-size, in a little form-fitting spacesuit, and it scampered after its master on four legs, space-suited tail wagging behind. It was sort of a cute little thing, I thought; no wonder its master didn't care to leave it behind.
"Transfer is completed," said the captain of the other ship. He closed his lock, and pulled away from us.
I gestured to a crewman standing by. "Show the Ambassador to his room," I said.
When the Ambassador and his pet were in their special fluorinated stateroom I called them on the special television hookup I had set up between them.
They had taken their spacesuits off and were lying sprawled out in their green murky atmosphere, the Ambassador in his bunk and the pet in his. I could hardly see into the room over my circuit but I could see that the Ambassador was very human and that the pet was pretty much like a cat, except that he had sharp-clawed fingers instead of the soft little pads a cat has.
"Everything all right in there?" I asked.
"Fine, just fine. How long will it take to get to Earth?"
"About three weeks," I said. "We'll be going into warp any minute."
I didn't expect to have many dealings with the Ambassador. I had been told that he would have his own food supply and naturally he was confined to his fluorinated stateroom. So we settled down to a pleasant return trip.
But on the second day of warp I was awakened from sweet dreams by Whitey Durbin, the Night Engineer. He shoved me around in my bunk until I opened one eye and said "Whatsamatter?"
"Cat? What cat? You crazy, Whitey? Lemme go back to sleep."
But he was obstinate. "The Ambassador's pet. It's out of its room."