Are We On Mars?

Chapter Twenty-Five

Beeping and whirring filled the cabin of the Catmint 9 as Lionshine attempted to reactivate the autopilot. She looked increasingly frustrated until, finally, she gave up and slammed her paw down on the dashboard.

"Who designed this stupid thing?" she meowed, glaring accusingly at Shadepelt.

"Don't look at me!" said the black she-cat innocently, "It was him who invented that 'stupid thing'. " She gestured towards the bathrooms, where the sound of retching was currently emanating from.  A look of unconcealed glee crossed her face as she realised Greenface had done something wrong.  

"Well, then," said Lionshine, her contempt for Shadepelt evident in her manner, "You wouldn't know how to fix it! I'll just have to wait for the more intelligent engineer..."

Aggravated, Shadepelt leapt up to help Lionshine. She looked at the autopilot settings and immediately knew what was wrong. 

I wonder how I can make myself look intelligent, Greenface look bad and Lionshine look stupid at the same time, wondered Shadepelt. She decided the best course of action would be to work the autopilot, blaming the fault on Greenface and claiming all KGIS astro-cats had to learn how to fix it in their training. This, she thought, would make Greenface look bad and Lionshine stupid, which is probably the most realistic possibility open to me at the moment. 

With a flourish, she quickly set the autopilot for Jupiter. She looked at Lionshine with the air of a teacher speaking to a very thick young student. 

"I had thought KGIS taught all their asto-cats how to do that. Weird, huh?" Shadepelt had to put all her effort into not smirking at the look on Lionshine's face. "Also, to me that looked like a mistake in the engineering. It's all fixed now, but it could have seriously impacted our course..."

Lionshine was going to have a word with Greenface. At least, she would as soon as he came out the bathroom.

"We're going to have to take those solar panels down." Shadepelt thought aloud, "They'll get damaged by Jupiter's atmosphere."

"Sure, right," meowed Lionshine distractedly. "Send Pebblepounce out."

Within ten minutes Pebblepounce was geared up and ready to go. Though Shadepelt's laid-back manner suggested otherwise, the solar panel fix was rather urgent.

"That feel alright, Pebblepounce?" she murmured, as she fixed the last piece onto his suit. Swiftly, she attached the tether onto his back and then locked it into the spaceship wall.

"Well... Good luck!" Shadepelt knew that however it may seem, space was always dangerous.

"V redu bom – I mean, I'll be fine." Pebblepounce smiled, cockily.

Shadepelt slipped out of the airlock and shut it behind her. She watched through the tiny glass port-hole as Pebblepounce, complete with space suit and helmet, floated out the hatch. She couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding as, seeing her anxious face, he gave the cat equivalent of a thumbs up. He looked away, he face crumpled in concentration as he attempted to take the solar foil off the surface of the ship. 

Alderwood was complaining about the fact you didn't get Pokemon in space, Greenface was in the bathroom and Lionshine was pacing outside the door, waiting for him to get out. 

So Shadepelt was the only one to see the sharp looking rock heading for Pebblepounce. Shadepelt was the only one to see it move nearer and nearer to his thin, fragile tether. Shadepelt was the only one to call out to him, in vain. And Shadepelt was the only one to see the rock sever his tether and send him drifting out into the vast infinite emptiness of space...

Written by Arty! 🐈