An alarm blared. Jer tightened his grip on the wrench, leaned over the comp chair, and frowned at the hab screen. “Another storm already?”
“We haven’t yet restored all the outages from the last one.” Aster didn’t take her gaze away from the cryoglue oozing in a steady line from soldering iron. “Better hurry. Dust or meteorites this time?”
“Both.” He shut off the alarm with his free hand and began tightening bolts. “Wish they’d spent more time figuring out the met reports before setting up a hab.”
His words were a familiar complaint, as were her reply. “Ten year cycle meant a ten year wait, and then we’d have lost the planet.”
Behind the couple flicked a fluffy tail as Peaches scurried to her littermates, belly low to the ground and ignoring all the safety warnings as she overrode the safety locks in her tunnel. There would be time before the storm to restore the calm path of plastic tubes and bubbles.
She popped mewling into the room with her elder sister and the newly decanted kitten. “Alert! Alert! Storm warning!”
Lord Fluffernut raised his hackles and hissed through a mask of grey and white fur. “We must protect the human crew, little one. This is our calling upon this planet. They cannot see the space bug threat.”
Lightning raised a tiny white-toed paw and licked it, exposing wickedly sharp claws. “I kill space bugs?”
“And cuddle in laps during the storm,” Peaches added, smacking the button that reestablished the plastic tunnel path properly for the miniature morale crew. “I like that part.”
“But mostly,” Lord Fluffernut continued, grandly smoothing his whiskers with a self-conscious paw, “We will chase and kill the space bugs.”
“Protect humans,” Peaches added, nodding gravely. “It’s a critical duty. Are you up for it? You’re newly decanted.”
Lightning puffed out his chest. “Show me the bugs.”
Lord Fluffernut went to the computer and smacked some buttons. “Here. This is a recreation from the storm two weeks past. I chased this space bug during the storm for hours.”
“We chase the red dot,” Peaches agreed. “Lord Fluffernut is our leader because he is tireless in chasing the red dot until the bug vanishes.”
“The humans cannot see it,” Fluffernut said sadly. “They laugh and laugh but have no idea what danger they are in.”
“How kill?” Lightning flexed his claws again.
The room grew quiet.
“Get ready,” Fluffernut instructed stiffly and stalked over to the litterbox area with great dignity. He paused before entering. “Make sure your air bubble collar is working. There is a special storm room.”
“Perhaps you will be the one,” Peaches finally whispered to the kitten. “Perhaps this will be the storm where we figure out how to end the space bug menace.”
***
This week, Leigh Kimmel prompted me with: Another storm? We haven’t restored all the outages from the last one.
I also included last week’s prompt from Becky Jones, because last week was hectic and I failed: The cat ignored all the safety warnings.
My prompt went to Cedar Sanderson: “That’s not a typo.”
