It was still Tuesday night on the same day we landed in Egypt, but it felt like we’d been away for a year. Departure time was 12:17 AM local time, and since we were flying back through six time zones, Sona didn’t want to arrive on the US East Coast until well after sunset, which was at 8:28 PM. This time she ran more slowly, spreading out the 5745-mile flight to a little over 3 hours.

Java stretched and yawned so wide, Grace looked at him oddly and said, “I knew a cat once who yawned like that and his mouth got stuck.”

Java’s jaw snapped shut with a clop, which gave us all a laugh.

Straining against the prisoner leash tethering him to the wall, Mau growled, “You can laugh all you want, but now that you’re all fugitives, you’ll never be able to go home, so the joke’s on you. You can’t hide on Earth either, and when they drag you away in muzzles, I’ll be the one with the last laugh!”

Java called out, “Set a course for Shunk Street, Sona. Let’s drop him off in South Philly on the way home so we can see how far the Major’s attitude gets him with those tough Philadelphia cats.”

That set Mau back, nervously chewing his claws, and we had some peace from the grouchy cat for the rest of the trip.

MeMe and I watched Sona as she piloted the ship across the Delaware Bay. She showed us how to control the ship by moving your head and shifting your body. MeMe admitted she’d never be able to do all of that, but what interested her the most was how you could tell the ship where you wanted to go.

“If you get lost, you can say ‘ship go back,’ ” Sona explained. “Just never say, ‘ship fly home,’ or you’ll be in for a huge surprise.”

I finally got the chance to ask her the question that had been on my mind from the beginning. “How come you don’t fly up into space at light speed and come back down a minute later?”

Sona explained, “We need to collect energy near the ground. Your Earth has limitless power. People could fly planes and drive their cars forever if they tapped into the energy near the surface. We seek out pockets of higher energy, the way glider pilots look for thermals in the air, which is why I’m always swaying back and forth.”

Dancing with the ship, I thought to myself.

“And all this was figured out by little cats like you?” I asked.

“People figured this out a long time ago.” Sona told us. “They were clever and made a lot of things we use.”

“They made this ship for cats?”

Sona shook her head, “The androids build everything we can’t make ourselves. People disappeared from our planet a long time ago. We’ve seen videos of people on Earth, But I've never seen a human from our world. Even the pictures of them have all been erased. We assume they were human but they could have looked like anything.”

“You’re going to meet our favorite people soon,” MeMe assured her.

Sona opened an outside vent as we passed over our own familiar forest in the Pennsylvania mountains. With our mouths half open, eyes closed we flehmed excitedly, realizing we were finally home. When the ship was floating across the Matthews’ back field, Grace suggested, “We could hide the saucer in the barn tonight, as long as it isn’t hot.”

“It won’t start a fire. The bottom is ice cold.” Khui informed her. “We use energy in a different way.”

“But will it fit through the doors? How wide is this thing?”

Sona considered it. “Lets see, we’re 600 seeons edge to edge, which in our measurement is 19.2 cat-lengths wide.” She hovered down in front of the barn. “It looks like these doors open to 23.4. Do all Pennsylvania barns have such wide doors?”

“The previous owner built an airplane in there,” Grace whispered to Sona. “The Matthews bought the farm from his widow. They’re not farmers, the man down the road stores his hay in their barn.”

Sona smiled. “I’m a good pilot, Grace. You’re home now, it’s all over.”

Java, Grace, Khui, and I jumped out to see if we could get the barn doors open, a major feat for little cats, considering the size of the doors.

Across the yard, the four Siamese brothers JJ, Eddy, Watson, and Chocolate, had been hiding when they heard the saucer’s musical sound. Looking around suspiciously, Watson called out in a hoarse whisper.

“Hey, Java! Where are those metal cats?”

Eddy ran up, “Where’s MeMe? We heard they kidnapped MeMe. We were up all night looking for you guys. Where’d you go?”

“We ditched those metal cats in Egypt,” Java reassured his friend, cringing as he caught his sister’s eye, because she’d strictly warned all of us not to talk about the space cats or where we’d been.

Walking boldly up to the four Siamese brothers, I said, “Hey guys, give us a paw with the doors. We have to get this ship into the barn.”

Watson jumped in my face. “Open it yourself creep, you’re so good with doors.”

His three brothers stood shoulder to shoulder glaring at me, until Grace leapt to my defense in a rage. “Look you big dopes! Ridley risked her life trying to save all of us. She’s my friend, and she’d be yours too, if you’d only give her a chance.”

Chocolate stubbornly stared at nothing with fierce eyes, JJ ran away and hid in the bushes, Big Eddy looked at me sideways with his head down. Only Watson stepped forward, extending his nose in peace, but with a careful eye on my paw in case I made a swipe at him.

“Aww, sorry, Ridley.” Watson said shyly, his claws carving deep gouges in the dirt as he scraped the ground.

“Hey. It’s OK Watson,” I laughed. “Thanks for helping us last night, you were great! It took forever to clean off all that applesauce.”

This broke the ice when the others realized we’d been warriors together. Even JJ crept cautiously through the tall weeds to help us force open the heavy sliding doors on their squeaky wheels. After the ship finally glided inside, we heaved and groaned until the doors were closed again.

Flopping exhausted on the damp grass, we groomed each other’s sore shoulders and heads. Chocolate gazed upward to the top of the doorway.

“Maybe it’s time to oil the wheels.”

Grace said, “Are you nuts? I wouldn’t go up there if you gave me a manicure and massage every day for a month.”

She wrinkled her pretty pink nose at us as she squeezed inside under the broken board. We followed her in, wondering where to put Mau so we'd all be safe. We also needed someone to guard Mau’s glittering diamond collar.

Grace swore she wouldn’t touch it for a barrel of bats.

They should have made powerful Chocolate wear it, except he was afraid of what the other cats would think of him, as if they didn’t think things already. He suggested that all those diamonds would look better on MeMe so they clipped it around the little cat’s neck.

When I saw Mau glaring at MeMe with a look of such vile malevolence, I wished they’d thrown it in the Susquehanna River and let the water wash it into the nuclear reactor down at Peach Bottom.

Chocolate said, “We need to put this guy somewhere so he can’t get loose. He seems like a pretty desperate character if you ask me.”

Java hoped Mau would make a run for it, because Java had a bet with Watson for six shrimp that the evil rapscallion wouldn’t get farther than two cat-lengths before wild Chocolate permanently tattooed him with his homicide teeth.

“What about the chicken coop?” Eddy suggested. “The farmer reinforced it so the fox couldn’t get in. Can’t even dig under it.” Eddy sharpened his claws on the floor for emphasis. “All the chickens moved away to the neighbor's farm in March, so it’s empty. Mau couldn’t get out of there in a million years.”

As much as the chickens wouldn’t miss their old home, Java wouldn't miss the chickens either, especially Fritchie, the head hen who used to urge her sisters to rush out and peck him whenever he walked by.

Java hung back as we all stepped around him along the path to the coop.

“What are you afraid of, Java?” his sister scolded. “You think the chickens are going to attack you again?”

Java peered nervously under the wisteria.

“It's night time you fool!” Grace stamped her foot impatiently. “They're all sleeping over at the other farm. You're a big chicken yourself. That's what you are. A big furry chicken.”

Running in a circle around Java, Grace teased him with the closest thing to chicken sounds cats are capable of, which sounded more like, mreek, mreek, mreek, than anything in chicken language.

Java must have realized if he kept poking around in the bushes he was liable to wake up something that was actually dangerous. So he bounded past the group of cats, puffed up with renewed confidence, to take charge of a thorough examination of the chicken house.

Filled with interesting smells, the chicken coop at the end of the side garden was everything Eddy said and more. The top part had a house for the chickens to roost in and lay their eggs, while to the side of that was a little screened-in porch. The ground floor was secured all around with strong wire.

It seemed perfect to everyone but Mau.

After the door swung shut on our captive, Watson stuck a little twig in the hasp where a lock would have gone.

“Is that the best you can do?” Grace asked, looking skeptically at the thin stick.

Java sniffed around on the ground and picked up a bent nail between his teeth, saying, “A-ee-iss. Iss-is-setter.”

Grace looked at her brother strangely and wrinkled her nose.

“What on Earth are you saying, Java?” she demanded impatiently.

Speaking between clenched teeth, Java mumbled, “Ry-iss-ail.”

He tilted his head toward the hasp, raising his eyebrows meaningfully.

“Java! What’s wrong with you?” Grace stamped her foot. “Talk like a cat!”

Inside the chicken coop, Major Mau had been listening impatiently. Unable to restrain himself any longer, he snapped, “Can’t you see he’s trying to talk through his teeth! He said, TRY THIS NAIL!” immediately regretting his impulsive words, since he could have easily broken the twig and let himself out if he’d only kept his big mouth shut.

Once the door was secured with the nail, we finally felt safe from Major Mau for the first time all day.

Java was about to race across the yard to the house, but Grace stopped him and said to all of us, “When we see the other cats, we’d better not tell them anything about flying saucers or planet Alna or Egypt.”

“They wouldn’t believe us, anyway,” Java lamented ruefully.

It was almost 10 pm, so we were all hoping Susan would make us a delicious late supper. As we walked past the barn, Grace pushed me inside, while the others continued toward the house.

Out of their earshot, she told me, “We need someone to watch this ship. You can stay here and stand guard tonight.

“Why don’t you?” I pushed back, “Instead of making it all about yourself and all your friends!”

Grace snapped at me impatiently, “For one thing, if you show up without me, they’ll wonder what happened. They'll ask my brother a lot of questions and you know he can't keep his mouth shut. Mira can squeeze sugar from a lemon.”

“And what’s the other thing Grace? You think Mira will get me to tell her all of your secrets?”

“It seems like you’ve got more secrets than I do,” Grace sniped back. “I can just picture what you two were up to, you and that artful Egyptian cat, grooming each other in the dark.”

I hissed bitterly.

“All right, maybe I was out of line. But you know perfectly well these space cats could fly away with this ship. How would you ever get back to Egypt to see your boyfriend again? This is not because —”

“Oh all right!” I popped off, turning away from her. “Go ahead and have all the fun and leave Ridley here because she’s too uptight and strange to mix with your friends.”

MeMe head-bumped me. “I’ll stay with you Ridley. What’s a homecoming when you can’t tell everyone you’ve been anywhere?” She danced in a circle singing, Erkh, Erkh, Erkh.

This was why everyone loved MeMe.

Grace looked relieved. “Look kids, I’ll bring you something special to eat. And believe me Ridley, by the time this is over they’ll put your name up on all the poles and carry you down High Street on their shoulders.”

Like they do with lost cats, I thought cynically. It will be more like, across their shoulders tied to a pole.

But I had no choice. “All right, MeMe and I will look after this thing. You keep an eye on those three space cadets. But please bring us something to eat, we’re starving.”

MeMe head-bumped my shoulder, trying to nudge me out of myself. “I’m sorry Grace talked to you that way, Ridley. It wasn’t fair. You’re the most wonderful friend I’ve ever had! You risked your life for me, and you’re so beautiful. You’ve been everywhere, even down to Harrisburg and all the way to Philly. I think you’re amazing!”

I groomed her forehead, “Thanks, MeMe. After all we’ve been through, you and I will always be friends. Guess I never thought I needed friends until I met you.”

“Don’t forget Rose and Neko,” MeMe added, as if she ever needed to remind me. “But wait! I’ve got a surprise for you, Ridley. It’s on Sona’s ship.”

MeMe led me across the floor to the saucer and said the Alna words merl tsssik. The main hatch lifted up with a gentle whirring sound.

Turning to me with those big eyes filled with curiosity and wonder, she explained, “Mau doesn’t know about this. Sona helped me hide it.”

MeMe pulled the blue handle on the air lock door, popping it open with a hiss.

Inside was a sculpted wooden box, beautifully made with a curving inlaid top in the shape of a cat. It was the same box I’d seen Khui drag up from the catacombs.

“Pretty cool souvenir, don’t you think, Ridley? It’s ancient.”

“That took guts, MeMe, going into the air lock that way, after you were almost killed in there.”

MeMe looked me in the eye, “You know, Ridley, it took Sona more guts to open that door to help me stow this inside the ship. She feels terrible about what they almost did to us on Sunday night. Now she’s put her life on the line for us and she can’t go home. Sona told me about her father, how he died trying to rescue feral cats on Planet Alna, where she comes from.”

At the mention of Sona’s father, a dark foreboding swept into my thoughts like an evil mist. Maybe it was my own father reaching out to me, or just a premonition of something that was about to happen.

Picking up the rope in her teeth,

MeMe broke into my thoughts.

“Come on, Ridley, let’s pull this out of the ship

and see what’s inside.”