Are We On Mars?

Chapter Forty-Two

Alderwood is sitting in the back of the hallway, giggling as he presses the buttons on a small machine. Greenface, carrying his magical bottle of pills, turns the corner to see this.

The white tom's eyes widened. "Uh, Alderwood... what are you doing? And is that from Neptune?" He crept closer, staring at the strange, foreign technology. 

The brown tom grinned. "Yep! I got it from the big mall. Isn't it pretty?" 

He turns the machine around; light glints off the rough metal. 

Greenface gave him a slow nod. "S—sure, but don't you think it could be dangerous. I think I should go get Lionshine. She—she'll know what to do." The tom, before Alderwood could protest, spun on his paws and darted down the hallway. He padded into Lionshine's quarters.

The golden-furred she-cat looked up from her book, which was titled "How To Deal With An Annoying Brother That Enjoys Picking Up Spacetrash And Collecting It In Your Home." She meowed, "How can I help you?"

"Alderwood took something from Neptune," replied Greenface, tail twitching.

Lionshine groaned, tossing the book onto her bed. "Great! He's always doing this... stupid ball of fur!" 

"He has a thing for spacetrash?" the engineer asked, green eyes wide as he watched her get up and start gathering some supplies.

The captain of the S.S. Catmint shoved a garbage bag out of the door, tossing a few pieces of strange-looking technology on top of it. "Any trash, but yeah, he's always enjoyed using the space elevator to get to the moon and bringing home the most useless things he can find. He's a bit of a hoarder, really."

Lionshine pushes past Greenface, out of the door, and heads down to her brother, muttering something about Alderwood taking a bath.

Meanwhile...

In the control room, Pebblepounce was vibrating with excitement. "Guess what, Shadepelt! Guess what!"

The black she-cat looked up from her phone. "You found a pill in the emergency kit that'll get you to shut up?" she complained, yellow eyes narrowing. 

Ignoring her insult, Pebblepounce presented her with a cloth-covered object. "Take a real guess!" He placed his paw at the bottom of the object, looking anxious to remove the covering. "C'mon!" 

"Your own sanity."

Pebblepounce responds by ripping off the cloth.

"A 3-D Sorry board!" he exclaimed. "Built for a zero-gravity experience and tons of fun with the family."

Frowning, Shadepelt spun the game board around, reading the instructions label tacked to the back. "Why are you quoting the directions?" she asked.

Pebblepounce shrugged. "Will you put on a spacesuit and come play it with me?" he begged, grabbing a set of pawns from the top of the game. "I'll let you be black!" 

"I can't refuse that offer," sighed the she-cat. "I think I left my space-suit in the boiler room. Lemme go check."

"I still don't understand why you can't sleep on a couch or something. Isn't it uncomfortable in there?" asked Pebblepounce as she started down the hallway.

Shadepelt shrugged. 

Meanwhile...

Lionshine dropped the plastic bag into the airlock. The doors sealed shut, and soon it was sucked out into space. "There." She gave a glare to Alderwood. "Now you need to go take a bath." Tail twitching, she stalked off toward her room.

"A bath?" the tom asked incredulously. 

Greenface suddenly looked sick. "I—I forgot I needed to take my pills." And with those words, he vomited all over Alderwood.

Lionshine paused, glancing back at the toms. "I guess you'll take a bath now."

By Rio. ⛈