The scene opens in the ship, which is cruising on autopilot toward a distant Neptune. Lionshine is relaxed in her captain's chair, and Pebblepounce is trying to 3D print an entire Lego set while Alderwood and Shadepelt play war with a deck of cards. Greenface stands awkwardly to the side, before approaching the two cats on the ground.
"Uh, can I play?" he asked awkwardly, just as Shadepelt's king trumps Alderwood's queen.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" wailed Alderwood. "That was my last face card!"
"One minute," muttered Shadepelt to Greenface. "Let me beat this plebeian first."
Alderwoods deck of cards gets lower fast as Shadepelt takes all his twos and threes with queens and stuff. She's about to win, when--
"Hey, we're about at Neptune!" crowed Lionshine as the approach alarm blared and the lights took on an angry red hue. "Oh, right. I'm supposed to fly this manually now..."
Lionshine takes the ship out of autopilot, muttering something about stupid media, and seizes the controls and pulls up slightly to get in a good course.
Unfortunately for the rest of the crew, the slight tilt had caused everything to roll around, and Shadepelt and Alderwood's game cards are mixed together.
"Fox dung!" spat Shadepelt. "Eh, I would have beaten you anyway."
Lionshine carefully flies the ship into the planet, and Alderwood suddenly looks around.
"Wait, we're in Neptune??" he mewed aloud. "What about Uranus???"
Lionshine sighed. "We've mentioned this already; we're skipping it."
"WHAT?? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Lionshine sighed again. "Be quiet, Alderwood."
"But Uranus is my favorite planet!!!"
"Too bad."
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO--"
"SHUT UP, ALDERWOOD." The yell came from Shadepelt, who had her paws over her ears.
"NEVER!"
Annoyed, Lionshine takes her brother and forcefully stuffs him in a space suit, tying the tether of the suit to the doorknob.
"Now," she mewed, sounding a bit less stressed. "Who wants to see some more of Neptune?"
The rest of the cats let out a half-hearted cheer as the ship sails further into the gas giant, toward whatever waited beyond.
by Ember
YOU ARE READING
Are We On Mars?
Science FictionWhen the Catmint 9 ship launches into space, the rowdy crew of four is ready to explore the solar system in a mission issued by the KGIS (Kitties Go Into Space) corporation leader, Astro. But, every plan has its flaws, and it all starts with one cat...
