Taking Space 2

- Crossroads -

We have a cat," Catherine exclaimed as she and Daniel walked into the mess hall the next morning.

Steven looked up from his cereal and over at Judy who Catherine held proudly in her arms.

"Ah, I'm not sure I'd call that a cat," he said after a few seconds.

Michael who had already finished eating gave his bowl to the droid behind the counter, walked over and started to pet Judy.

The other worldly animal cooed and started to purr. "It's cute where did it come from?" Michael asked.

"The female prison planet," Daniel said as he marched over to the hyperbolic cooling chamber to retrieve milk and cereal for himself.

Steven stood up and examined Judy. "Hm, it appears to be a cross between a bear and a feline."

"I know, and she is smart to," Catherine declared proudly pulling Judy closer and rubbing her head with her face.

Judy grunted in protest and try to escape her arms.

"On second thought seeing its teeth it may be classified more as a rodent," Steven noted.

"Judy is not a rodent," Catherine snapped.

In an effort to displace Catherine's ire Steven looked around the room and noticed Daniel pouring milk into his cereal. "Hey that's way too much milk!"

"No, it's not," Daniel instantly responded still continuing to pour milk into a giant bowl.

"It is too," Michael agreed.

Daniel put down the milk and hid the bowl from their view. "It is not, and it doesn't matter anymore. We have enough money to buy ten thousand cows if we wanted."

"Yeah," Michael agreed. "But that still doesn't give you the right to be hogwash!"

Daniel turned his back to them and retrieved a spoon as he looked around for something to change the subject.

"Hey, where is Stephanie?" He asked.

"Probably still asleep," Michael huffed still upset with Daniel for obvious reasons.

"No, we stopped at Zephyr's quarters on the way here to show Judy to her. But she wasn't there," Catherine said.

Seeing that his diversion was working Daniel looked up the ceiling and said, "Alf where is Zephyr?"

"That depends on which one you're talking about," Alf answered. "The ghost of the original Zephyr is currently delivering breakfast to your parents' quarters."

"Really?" Daniel exclaimed. "I thought ghost only came out in emergencies."

"I thought that to," Steven agreed. "That's strange."

Michael shrugged. "It must have something to do with not allowing non-lionhearted guest unattended access to Lionhearted assets. Where's our sister Alf?"

"She currently is on the command deck," the AI answered.

Daniel frowned. "Why is she there?"

Steven shrugged. "Alf, what is she doing?"

"Unknown," Alf declared. "She has activated privacy mode."

"Why would she do that?" Daniel asked.

"I don't know," Michael said. "But I think we should go find out."

***

Daniel was the first of them to get to the command deck but stopped dead in his tracks at seeing the dizzying site before him.