THE PLANET OF THE CATS!

Juni drove the Jeep with caution through the wooded and hilly mountain road. She looked over at the little gray cat in the passenger seat with apprehension.

"Senpai, this old road is dangerous! It's not worth driving through here for some burned up space rock!"

Doctor Aarie looked back with a reassuring and encouraging glance, making an emphatic motion with her index finger.

"Nonsense, Juni! Don't be so nervous! According to the ancient map at the University Library, we're almost though this old trail road and we'll be near the site where the witnesses think the meteor impacted! Just think of all of the potential scientific knowledge we might gain from it! You're driving just fine, I'll keep my eyes out for any potential obstacles, okay?"

Juni hunched over the wheel, pedaling and steering the Jeep with care as it broke through some old growth covering the trail. Her eyes widened in surprise as she saw the flat area ahead of them. Aarie smiled and nodded with confidence.

"Exactly as the map said it would be! Hmm, look- the ground has a fresh scar ahead, and there's what appears to be some smoke over in that wooded area! Drive on and follow the scar!"

Juni's ears tilted back. Something wasn't right.

"Ahh, Meteors don't leave traces like this do they? Don't they normally just leave an impact crater!?!"

Aarie took some photos of the torn up ground and motioned Juni to drive on.

"Purrhaps, but we know so little about such phenomenon! We may find something new and scientifically exciting! Hurry! My feline curiosity is soaring!"

Juni winced and nodded as she drive the Jeep slowly forward.

"That's what I was afraid of!"

As Juni drove, she began to realize that this had to have been a massive meteor to have left a path large enough for the Jeep to be able to fit within the large furrow in the ground. She gulped and looked over at Aarie, who was her normal smiling and enthusiastic self. Juni's tail fluffed and swayed as the Jeep grew near to the thin wisps of smoke.

Juni's pupils grew in shock as she saw what was lying at the end of the path.

"MEEP! That's NOT a meteor! It's- umm, what IS it!?"

Aarie's eyes narrowed as she reached for her camera and began to photograph the object. it looked like it was made of some kind of steel, but it was obviously rather crumpled and dented from the hard impact and long slide on the ground.

"It's certainly not a natural phenomenon, Juni, you're quite correct. It's some kind of Feline-made object."

"Feline-made!? It came from space! It's some kind of ALIEN object!"

Aarie smiled and jumped out of the Jeep.

"Well, purrhaps some kind of Felinoid life form similar to us created this on another planet, or even star system!"

Juni's whiskers folded back as she gripped the wheel as hard as she could.

"M-maybe they're not friendly! We should go back and get the Army!"

Aarie chuckled and shook her head.

"Hmmm... we'll approach with caution."

"Nyah! YOU approach with caution, senpai!"

Aarie laughed and clutched her camera.

"Oh come on, Juni. Don't be such a you-know-what! Just follow me and take notes. If anything happens to me, go back and get the Army! Okay?"

The two intrepid felines walked carefully around what began to appear to be a wrecked spaceship. They found a hatch lying next to the wreck, and the opening it once covered.

Aarie peered inside as Juni closed in carefully.

"Amazing! It seems some type of emergency power's keeping some of the lights on! The technology is amazing!"

A groan emanated from within the hull of the wreck. Juni jumped straight back and ducked behind a boulder.

"MEEP! Did you hear that! S-something's in there!!"

Aarie's ears titled and twisted.

"It doesn't sound like some wild animal that's made its home inside this vessel. Maybe it's some other feline that's discovered the wreck-"

"-And something happened to them! We're next!"

Aarie pulled out a small flashlight and leaned further into the hull of the spaceship.

"N'yello!? Is anyone in here?"

A painful groan came from deeper within. Aarie called inside

"You sound injured! Can we help you?"

A few seconds passed.

..."Yeah."

"Don't worry, alien spacefarer! We'll see what we can do! Juni! Help me out here! It sounds like the alien needs assistance!"

Juni carefully crawled forward and turned on her flashlight to augment the dim emergency lighting inside the wreck. She followed Aarie , ducking to avoid jagged pieces of the hull and tossed-about equipment.

Aarie caught the dark sight of an arm and grabbed it, turning her flashlight at the face--- she yelled in total surprise,

"NYAAAAH! A HUMAN!"

The human wrenched her arm, still in Aarie's grasp, in return.

"TAKE YOUR DAMN STINKING PAW OFF ME, YOU DAMN DIRTY CAT!"

Juni dove behind a wrecked computer and yelled

"MEEEEP! IT CAN TALK!!!! THE HUMAN CAN TALK!!!!!!"

Aarie grabbed the human's arm tighter and shook it.

"N'yes, Juni, it can talk! And I'll have it know that I took a nice hot shower this morning! Who's filthy here!?"

"Ow! My arm's kind of broken! And what the hell are you two talking for!?"

Aarie looked with disdain at the injured human as Juni grabbed a broken piece of ship to use as a potential club.

"Hrm! Cats can talk, of course! I'm more curious as to how an inferior species like a human can speak!"

Juni waved the bar of metal with menace and spoke very, very slowly.

"You be very careful, talking human! One false move and I'll smack you! Doctor Aarie, it's injured, so be careful! You can't trust a cornered wounded human like this!"

Aarie nodded slowly then carefully let go of the human's arm.

"So, human-"

"The name is Aya, Astronaut Aya Waverly."

"Astronaut? Hrm!"

"Well, I was the pilot of this ship..."

Aarie chuckled.

"Pilot? Purrrrrreposterous! No human could be intelligent enough to pilot a spaceship!"

"Bull! We built this ship as an experimental test ship, something went wrong. I ended up in orbit around your planet and crash-landed."

Aarie shook her head in disbelief.

"That's crazy! Humans could never have built a spaceship! In fact, we're still working on that ourselves! I'm certain some kind of felinoid civilization built this and used you as an expendable test subject before they actually crewed it with felines!"