Lionshine leaped into her seat, curling her tail around her paws as she locked the seat-belt around her midsection. She swiveled the chair around, facing the crew. "Ready for liftoff?" the captain called out.

Shadepelt is using unfolded cardboard boxes to build a wall between Greenface and her. Alderwood is messing with the screws on the bottom of the chair. Pebblepounce is doing jumping jacks. Greenface is attaching a trashcan to the front of the seat, testing the vomit-angle into it.

"C'mon guys!" Lionshine meowed, sounding annoyed. "Pay attention, would ya'?" she hissed.

Pebblepounce stopped jumping up and down long enough to respond. "Sorry, we're just antsy cause we're behind schedule by a few suns," he meowed breezily, moving to his chair.

Lionshine's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "A few suns!" she shouted. "How did we go over schedule by a few suns!"

"The rover was pretty slow," Greenface meowed, finally satisfied with the trashcans's placement. "The trip to the village took maybe half a sun there, and we spent a lot of time talking." He gave an awkward shrug.

Shadepelt steps back from her cardboard wall, satisfied. She gives it a push, but it holds.

"Well we need to get up as soon as possible so that Chief doesn't slit our throats," Lionshine meowed quickly, spinning her chair around and facing the complicated dashboard. She started typing in controls, her paws sliding across the glassy surface.

Pebblepounce leaps into his chair, muttering French under his breath. Greenface braces himself for the launch keeping his muzzle on the edge of the trashcan. 

"Commencing liftoff in three... two... one!" 

The rocket lurches into the air; Greenface lets out a string of curses and stuff his muzzle deep into the can. 

Lionshine settled back into her chair as they entered space, the pace steadying as Greenface rushed off to the bathroom. His paws churned through the air for a moment, free of gravity, but as Lionshine flipped a switch, he dropped to the ground and sprinted to the bathroom.

"Gross," remarked Shadepelt, padding to the front of the rocket and peeking out of the window. "Are you going to call the Chief yet?"

Lionshine nodded. "Yeah, we can do that once the signal gets a bit better." As the small blue speck on the horizon slowly grew larger, a small square in the corner of the ship's dashboard gained more visible green bars. "We need three more bars." They sat back for a few heartbeats, momentarily forgetting their petty arguments.

The screen beeped, and anxiously, Shadepelt clicked the 'call' button, then hit the 'KGIS' logo.

"What are you doing!" hissed Lionshine as the screen loaded. The shadowed face of a ginger-furred tom appeared on the screen; both Pebblepounce and Alderwood turned the the front of the ship, realizing something important 

Shadepelt gave the ship's captain an awkward shrug before turning to the screen. "Hello Chief!" she called brightly, waving her tail at the screen. "We're about three million miles away from Mercury right now, but the engines are still going, so we'll be getting there a lot faster." 

The chief let a growl escape his mouth. "You're behind schedule," he hissed loudly, leaning forward so that the dim light from the screen made his face slightly more visible. A large, crescent-moon shaped scar stretched around his right eye. Realizing that they could see him, the chief retreated back into the shadows. 

"We know, chief," began Lionshine. "But—"

"Well fix it!" shouted the KGIS director. "I have a public to please, a trip to Mars to set up, and a unit of scientists that are rebelling against the lab work conditions! I don't need to deal with your trip problems."

"Fine, I will," muttered Lionshine. She hung up on the Chief, feeling a spark of rebellion in her chest as she switched from the autopilot tab to the ship condition tab. "Warp speed up to... five." She slid her paw up a small dial, then pressed confirm.

For a while, all seemed fine. Lionshine grabbed her KGIS-approved tablet and did some reading about the surface of Mercury, as well as the civilization that was observed there. Shadepelt was muttering complex engineering problems to herself, then checking herself by scratching the work out on paper. Greenface was still in the bathroom. Alderwood was chewing on a catmint stem in the corner of the room.

Shadepelt gets up, putting down her scrap paper and looking out the window. Concern lights her yellow eyes.

"Uh, Lionshine?" she asked carefully, glancing at the she-cat.

Lionshine looked up from her book. "What do you want?" she grumbled. "You already ruined the Chief's mood, and mine today, so what else are you going to mess up?"

Shadepelt pointed her tail out the window. "We're headed straight toward a rogue asteroid," she explained briefly. "C'mon, we have to redirect the course!" 

Lionshine dropped her book. "We don't have enough time!" On the ship dashboard, she turned on the reverse thrusters, but the rocket's momentum was  too strong. 

"This is your fault!" cried Shadepelt as she rushed toward the back of the ship, not voicing her plan. "You're too stubborn!"

Confused, Lionshine watched as Shadepelt leaped into a spacesuit, tethering herself and pulling the cord outside. The black-furred warrior jumped into the airlock, sealing the door behind her.

Alderwood groggily opens his eyes from where he was sleeping. He yawns, then pads to his sister's side.

"What's happening?" he asked sleepily.

Lionshine sighed. "Shadepelt is committing suicide because I'm dumb and forgot the map a new course after upping the warp speed, so as a result we're going to slam into an asteroid and all die!"

"Can I have your Pawbook account then? I want to make your followers like my pictures?" Alderwood asked as Shadepelt, in a suit and tethered to the ship, became visible outside the window.

"You're going to die too, shut up," Lionshine responded harshly as they drew closer to the asteroid. 

Pebblepounce joined them, a towel tossed over his back. "What did I miss? I was working out." For effect, he started running in place, the towel falling onto the ground.

Shadepelt presses a button on the edge of her glove, powering on a jetpack that was strapped to her back. It propelled her forward, and the tether stretched out as she flew further away from the ship.

Lionshine picked up the towel and whacked his side with it. "You were watching WhiskerTube videos," Lionshine meowed, rolling her eyes as the gray tom's antics. "We could hear it. And we're all going to die today."

Pebblepounce sighed, plopping into his chair. "I wonder if I could understand the language of demons..."

Lionshine let out a soft laugh, padding up to the dashboard and turning on the suit-cam. A grainy image of Shadepelt's face (enclosed inside the helmet, of course) appeared next to another camera feed of the space in front of her.

Shadepelt was nearly next to the asteroid now, far away from the ship. She extended her paws out, eyes narrowed slightly. The chunk of rock was about the size of a small tree, and Shadepelt took a deep breath.

"Is she going to save us?" wondered Alderwood. "From Lionshine's mistake?"

Hurt, the golden-furred warrior shouldered her brother and leaned closer to the glass. "C'mon, Shadepelt," she hissed for a moment, then darted up to the ship's dashboard again.

Lionshine starts changing a few settings, making the ship veer slightly away from the asteroid. 

Shadepelt, on-screen, gives a shove to the asteroid. It starts spinning in the opposite direction.

"I saved us!" Shadepelt exclaimed, the microphone in her helmet picking up the mew, just as Lionshine shouted: "I saved us!"

⌁ Rio here with a [late] chapter :D Hope you enjoyed. ⌁