In our last episode, the maiden voyage of the commercial space travel startup “CatAstrofy” took an unplanned detour.
And get it they did.
As the passengers stretch their legs and collect souvenirs around the space ship, Andy and Peng head off to get a better sense of where they are.
The rover prepares to mark this important milestone in the usual way.
It’s a terrible temptation for Andy, who is a notorious photo bomber.
Peng warns him that the selfies are streamed directly to NASA where his sudden appearance is sure to stir up trouble. But asking Andy to forego a photobomb? That’s like asking Godzilla to cross Tokyo off his Roadtrippers itinerary.
Moments later...
The images began trickling into mission control…
where they caught a few eyes.
Okay, ALL the eyes. The resulting torrent of instructions caused the rover to leap around in a rollicking hornpipe with Andy holding on for dear life.
“Now you’ve done it!” shouted Peng. “If they announce they found life on Mars and produce a cat pic as proof, they’ll look like nutterz and lose their fundin’ — and it’ll be OUR fault!”
Andy pondered this as he watched the mast camera spin wildly in search of him. Then he had an idea. What if they didn’t find life on Mars? At least not for long...
He slipped down, pressed his back against a dusty tire, then executed a face plant on the ground nearby. The rover soon found him.
A hush fell over Mission Control.
As the rover shook its fist at the sky in existential turmoil, the two cats made good their escape…
...and raced to the space ship.
They quickly boarded all the passengers, plus an unexpected guest
and streaked back to earth
where a phone call was taking place.
Yes, it’s not the first time Willow has encountered Andy. Ever since she arrived at the White House, he’s been sending her fan mail by the bushel. This batch is from last week alone.
She advised NASA to keep the incident on the down low — they didn’t need the bad press, and anyway, the public has enough on its mind right now. “You don’t have to outright lie,” she said. “Just say something vague, like you found some carbon or something.” That done, she turned to other business.
Exactly, Willow. Keep your friends close but your fanboys closer.
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