• “Woo-hoo!” Captain Sanchez shouted, hopping up and down on the white, sandy surface of the moon.

    “Okay, Captain calm down,” said the senior officer, Colonel Glen.

    “Sorry sir, it’s just I can’t believe we’re here on the moon,” Sanchez exclaimed as he somersaulted in the air.

    “It is a little exciting, I guess.” Turning to the third officer he asked, “How are you doing Lieutenant Ford?” the colonel asked his younger officer as the younger man also jumped up and down excitedly.

    “This is fun, look what I can do,” said Ford as he did a cartwheel.

    “Nice, but I bet you can’t do this,” Captain Sanchez interrupted. He did several backward somersaults in a row.

    “Will you grow up?” Colonel Glen said, rolling his eyes.

    “Sorry, sir, it’s just the moon is really cool, better than I had imagined,” Lieutenant Ford apologized to his commanding officer.

    “Not you, Ford, I expect this kind of behavior from a kid, I was talking to Sanchez,” Colonel Glen said to his subordinate.

    “Right, of course...Hey!” Lieutenant Ford whined, “I’m not a kid.”

    “How old are you, Ford?” Sanchez asked.

    “25,” he replied.

    “Then... you’re a kid,” Sanchez said.

    “Well at least he’s actually a kid and doesn’t just act like one, like you,” Glen ribbed Sanchez.

    “What ever,” Sanchez said as he rolled his eyes at him.

    “Meroww!”

    “Hey, did yall just hear that?” Ford asked his superiors.

    “Yeah, that wasn’t you?” Sanchez asked.

    “No, it sounded like a cat,” Ford replied.

    “That’s impossible, how would there be a cat on the moon?” Glen piped up.

    “I don’t know, but I could’ve sworn it was a cat, I have like 5 of them back home,” Ford said with a little panic in his tone, remembering a particularly scary comic book he had read about cats on the moon.

    “Are you implying there are alien cats on the moon, Lieutenant?” Sanchez asked.

    “It is possible, I’ve read in a few graphic novels about cats in space, and there was one about them on the moon,” Ford said importantly.

    “You mean comic books?” Sanchez asked raising an eyebrow.

    “No, I mean ‘graphic novels’,” Ford argued.

    “Exactly, they’re called comic books,” Sanchez stated.

    “Oh, for crying out loud, would you two just shut up. We’re not here to argue about whether comic books are called ‘graphic novels’ or not and there is no such thing as cats on the moon,” Glen shouted at his subordinates.

    “Okay then what’s that?” Ford asked, pointing to something behind Glen.

    Glen turned around to see what his young lieutenant was pointing at. Sure enough it was a cat. “That...is a cat,” he said in a whisper.

    “I told you so, there are cats on the moon,” Ford said.

    “What do you know, the kid was right,” Sanchez said.

    “But, how is that possible?” Glen asked, shocked.

    “I don’t know, maybe alien cats don’t need air like us and can walk on the moon,” Ford suggested.

    “That’s ridiculous, and I’m just wondering, why would a cat be here in the first place?” Glen asked turning back to his subordinates.

    At that moment, there was a tap on his shoulder. He turned back around and was facing a tall bald green man. “Perhaps I can answer you question. That’s my cat, Leroy, who I brought with me to collect moon rocks,” he explained.

    All three of the humans looked at him in shock.

    “You look at me as though you’ve never seen any of my kind, before,” he said to the men.

    “W-What are you?” Glen barely managed to say.

    “ I am Klaus, part of a genus that your kind refers to as ‘Aliens’,” he said doing air quotations with his long skinny green fingers.

    “Why are you here?” Glen asked, gesturing at his surroundings.

    The tall green guy chuckled at that. “Like I said before, I’m here with Leroy to collect rocks,” Klaus said.

    “That’s it? You’re not gonna suck our brains out, or take over the world, or anything?” Ford suddenly asked.

    “What the...” Glen began to say.

    “Kid, you’ve been reading way too many of those graphic novels,” Sanchez interrupted.

    “I believe that I’ll have to agree with these two,” Klaus said gesturing towards the two older men. “My kind is not like that, we’re actually quite a peaceful genus. I, myself, am very friendly and enjoy meeting new people. Leroy and I travel all around the galaxy, collecting moon rocks, among other things. It’s always interesting to learn about the different cultures, as we’ve traveled, and I’ve come across an amazing game that I’ve seen just about everywhere. ”

    “Oh yeah, what’s that?” Glen asked him.

    “A game, I believe your people refer to as ‘Chess’. We call it ‘Knreen’ on my planet. It’s the same thing, just has a different name, and I’ve discovered it to be a galactic game. Another activity that is mostly galactic, would be base-jumping,” Klaus replied to the astronaut.

    “Base-jumping, seriously?” Glen inquired.

    “Yes, base-jumping, I noticed it’s not all that popular on your planet. The only person I’ve heard of doing it on there would be my favorite Earth actress. I do it at least once a week back home. We have 2 mile jumps,” Klaus said proudly.

    “You must have really tall buildings for two mile jumps,” Glen commented.

    “Yes, we do, Some buildings are built just for base-jumping. I’ve won four titanium metals for it.”

    “It’s a sport?” Glen asked him curiously.

    “Yes, where I’m from it is. It’s like your ‘Olympics’.” Klaus pulled out small rectangular object and said, “Whoops, look at the time. Come Leroy, it is time to go.”

    “Merow,” Leroy said truculently as he walked towards his owner.

    “So long, friends, nice chatting with yall, may you live many good days,” and with a great flash of white light, Klaus and Leroy were gone.

    “What exactly just happened here?” Sanchez asked the others.

    “I’m not entirely sure,” Ford replied.

    “Neither am I,” Glen said, “but we need to pack up, we’re taking off for Earth in about an hour.”

    The two other men just stood there.

    “Let’s move,” Glen shouted when they didn’t respond.

    “Yes, sir,” they said simultaneously.