Parallel Pet

Isla recognised nothing around her. The terrain seemed familiar but at the same time wholly strange and foreign.

The last thing Isla remember was the captain ordering warp speed, as they entered the wormhole, then everything went squiffy and now she was here. Alone. Looking around, Isla was baffled by the marked absence of debris and wreckage from the craft, that should have been present had the ship crashed. Maybe she was thrown from the ship during the descent.

Checking that nothing was broken or dislocated, Isla stood upright. The atmosphere seemed oxygen-rich, as there was a large crack in her visor and Isla had not shriveled into a prune-like husk of a human. 

Isla removed her helmet and placed it nearby. The terrain also seemed to have a gravity field, similar to that of Earth. She could feel the heaviness of her spacesuit weighing her down. This placed Isla in a quandary- remove the spacesuit and explore unfettered or keep it on for additional protection until she could establish just exactly where she was?

Isla removed her spacesuit. The protective undersuit, she decided, would certainly be enough to protect her against anything too harmful. She removed the knife from the holster on the outside of the suit and placed it in the waistband of her undersuit. She wasn’t expecting danger, but she wasn’t prepared to be caught unawares either. 

The terrain around her was a lush forest. The foliage on the trees seemed similar to that of the common ash tree on Earth- except the bark of the tree was purple and the leaves bright yellow. Bright blue fern grew along the forest floor, creating a lush landscape. Isla found it very curious that this forest reminded her so much of the forest that grew outside her home town on Earth, right down to the footpaths and their markers. Frowning, she decided to follow the footpath south. If this forest was indeed similar to home, it means that the city limits would lay three miles south of where she was now. 

“Would you look at that?” muttered Isla to herself, spotting the town, exactly where she thought it might lay. “Hopefully the townsfolk are friendly.”

Isla headed into town, cautiously ducking behind objects to remain out of sight.

“What are you doing in town, silly?” Isla froze, hearing the voice behind her. She had been spotted. She turned around and looked into the face of a humanoid man. His face looked in the wrong order with his lips being situated on his forehead and his eyes located on his cheeks. But the rest of him seemed anatomically correct for a human.

“Oh, sorry, I thought you were someone else,” he said, without moving his lips. Isla frowned at this. 

“How do I understand what you are saying but you’re not talking?” Isla asked, a bit embarrassed that this is the first question she asked a potentially alien race. He laughed, again without changing his facial expression at all.

“We communicate telepathically,” he said, telepathically. “What is your name?”

“I’m Isla,” she said, extending her right hand.

“Ok. My name is V-54-XN. But you can call me Seamus.” He didn’t take her hand. 

“Why are you so friendly to me? I am a stranger,” Isla asked, whilst moving her lips. She hadn’t quite mastered communicating telepathically, she didn’t think.

“I know you,” he said. This thoroughly confused Isla. “Come, let me show you,” he said, taking her hand. Within an instant, they were in a house. A house that looked almost identical to the one she grew up in.

“This is my house,” said Seamus, or V-54-XN. Seamus, let’s stick with Seamus.

“My parents’ house looks exactly the same,” said Isla.

“I know,” said Seamus. “You see, in town, I thought you were my sister.”

Isla laughed. How could an alien think she was his sister? But Seamus wasn’t laughing, not even telepathically. 

“How can that be?” Isla asked.

“Isla, you are on Earth Sector 135. It is an Earth similar to yours, with a life and family similar to the one you have on your Earth. When I saw you today in town, I thought you were my sister because you look like her. She is away on a mission for the Galaxy Gazette, looking for new life forms on Xenoniva.”

“But… I still don’t quite understand. Am I in a parallel universe?”

“Yes. You are from Earth Sector 14- a primitive version of our planet. Your species is the only humanoid species who are ignorant of the fact that there are universes outside your own existence.”

Isla was stunned. Not only was she in a parallel universe, but she had also found her parallel universe family. 

“I’ll be right back,” said Seamus, suddenly disappearing. Earth really was primitive because she certainly didn’t know how to teleport.

Isla looked around the room. There in the corner was a fuzzy shape. The shape seemed translucent and solid at the same time. Presently, the shape stretched shook itself and bounded to her. Isla realised that this was a pet.

The shape was curious to behold. It had no discernable features such as feet or eyes or a mouth. The fur, a term Isla was willing to use loosely, was an iridescent pink. The shape hovered above the floor, seemingly weightless.

“Ah, I see you’ve met Vephrik,” said Seamus, reappearing silently beside her. 

“What is he?” asked Isla, fascinated.

“He is similar to what you’d call a dog on your Earth. But we call them Scuugals. Do you want to touch him?” Seamus asked.

“Can I? It seems that my hand would go right through,” said Isla.

“Wait.” Seamus reached down and pat the shape on the underside. Within an instant, the creature transformed into a solid shape. With the iridescence lifted, Isla could make out features of the pet’s face. She bent down and touched him. His whole body quivered with, Isla hoped, excitement. 

“Who’s a good boy?” A bright green blob protruded from the animal’s face. “This is so fascinating!” 

“Do you want to feed him? It is time for his snack,” said Seamus.

“Yes! Please!” Isla was a bit embarrassed at how excited she had become at feeding a pet- something she considered a chore back home.

Seamus placed a hand on her shoulder and they were in the kitchen. Man, teleporting was such an efficient way of traveling. Vephrik, uh, materialised a few seconds later, as transparent and featureless as when she first saw him.

“These are his favourite snacks.” Seamus opened a tin, revealing the contents to be slimy worm looking things. The smell was not very pleasant. 

Isla pulled her nose up involuntarily. Thankfully, Seamus laughed. 

“I know the smell is off-putting to us, but look, little Vephrik is salivating already!” 

Sure enough, a puddle of green liquid had accumulated underneath the animal.

“Uh, how do I..?” Isla had no idea how to feed an alien dog.

“Like this.” Seamus demonstrated by removing a stinky worm from the can and hovering it above the animal’s back. The skin pulled to the sides and where Isla had expected the spine to be, a row of teeth gleamed. Seamus dropped the worm into the hole. A gulping sound was heard and the worm was no more. 

Smiling, Isla grabbed a foul-smelling sausage from the tin in Seamus’s hand and hovered the sausage above the animal. Again, a large mouth opened to receive its treat. 

“I want one,” exclaimed Isla. Seamus laughed. 

“ I have good news for you!” said Seamus. “I went to communicate with my sister, Illi, to see if there was a way to get you back to your dimension. She has a colleague in town who would be willing to help you!”

The news overjoyed and saddened Isla. She did want to go home, of course she did, but at the same time, there was so much to explore here. Just imagine the data she could collect and take back To Earth with her. Well, her version of Earth anyway. 

“Thank you Seamus, for the effort of finding out how to send me home,” Isla said graciously. 

“Don’t worry. I prepared the spare room for your stay,” said Seamus.

Isla smiled, reaching for another sausage.