It was well past ten on Monday night, by the time the saucer streaked down the Chesapeake Bay. The four of us were standing by the windows watching the lights of Maryland slipping away as our world disappeared behind us. Seated on their purple cushions, just like the night before, Sona piloted the ship, while Khui whispered a constant babble of Cat Language to his floating screens.

The skinny doctor scratched at hers with her claws.

Of course Grace didn’t want to sit on any of the purple cushions lined up along the wall. She wanted to go home. Stamping her foot, she looked down into the center terrace toward Khui.

“You’re going to let us out of this refrigerator right now or I’ll—”

“Or you’ll what?” Khui snapped, waving her away. “Sit down and shut up, you stupid looking thing.”

Cats didn’t talk to Grace like that.

“Me? You’re talking to me?” she spat. “You’re the stupidest looking moggy I ever saw! No wonder you’re blue, living in this ice box. Turn up the heat, you cold-blooded skink!”

MeMe pulled her back toward the row of gravity cushions. “Don’t talk to him Gracie, he’s very dangerous.”

Grace whispered irately to MeMe, “You said these creepy things were lizards. Seems to me they’re nothing but a pack of rude alley-cats.”

Trying to calm her down, MeMe whispered, “We’ll be safer if we all sit on these purple pillows and wait for a chance to escape.”

That seemed reasonable, so I obediently sat on the cushion at the end. MeMe took the one next to me, indicating the third cushion for Grace. She sniffed it suspiciously, carefully stepped onto it, circled three times, before settling down gingerly with her tail wrapped tightly underneath her.

Java was standing away from us, hunched against the wall, trying to stay warm. Grace regarded her brother sympathetically, “Come over here next to me, Java. MeMe says we have to sit on these purple things.”

But Java wouldn’t budge.

Although it wasn’t her fault, I knew MeMe must have felt responsible for the way we’d fallen into this trap. Java had been her closest friend in the dark days when she first arrived at the farm and she adored him. She rubbed her whiskers against his cheek affectionately and groomed his ears.

“We’ll be alright, Java. Sit with us and we’ll think of some way out of this.” But it wasn’t any good. I had an idea about what might help him relax, so I whispered in his ear. Java grinned at me and eagerly stepped over to his place on Grace’s left with an expectant smile. Not willing to trust the cushion, he lowered himself suspiciously, ready to spring away in an instant if the thing made a grab for him. He wriggling sideways to get comfortable and gazed around the cabin with a hopeful smile.

Grace looked at her brother in astonishment.

MeMe leaned over to me. “What did you say to him, Ridley?”

“I only told him how great his picture will look in the history books as the first Earth cat in space, and how they might even commemorate him with a stamp.”

MeMe was appalled. “But Ridley, that was a French cat named Félicette way back in 1963, and they even got her name wrong on the stamp.”

“Well, don’t tell him ‘til we’re back on the ground,” I whispered back.

The saucer was skimming the long swells over the Atlantic Ocean, kicking up clouds of spray. “Sure wish we knew where they were taking us.” MeMe wondered anxiously.

I’d seen something on Sona’s monitors, so I told her, “They’re searching for a cat named Raya. She’s famous because she never came back.”

Grace glanced around. “With this crew, I should think not.”

“The place is called The Hall of Departed Cats.” I told them.

“Sounds like a railroad station.” MeMe suggested.

“Or a funeral parlor,” Grace murmured grimly.

Speculation about departed cats was interrupted by a portly blue cat, sporting a diamond-studded collar edged in gold, who stepped down the curving stairway from the upper deck.

He introduced himself in the Common Cat Language with only a slight accent, “I am Major Mau, leader of this expedition.”

Grace shivered. “Why is it so cold in here?”

Mau slow-blinked politely. “It is familiar to us, like our native world.”

Flashing the kind of smile you see on crocodiles, he beamed, “I couldn’t help overhearing you talking about Raya. She is a great legend where we come from. Raya flew an expedition to Egypt 3447 of your Earth years ago. We have returned to Earth to solve the mystery of her disappearance, when she and her crew of explorers failed to return to our home planet.”

Grace wrinkled her nose. “That was an awful long time ago. By now they’re all dead and gone. I mean, they are dead? Right?”

Pressed against his sister to keep warm, Java looked up with a shiver.

Mau stepped closer. “Yes, they died a long time ago in Egypt. No one from our world knows what happened to them. Possibly the ancient Egyptians left some clue to help us solve the mystery. We might uncover some...uh...relics of her expedition.”

Grace narrowed her eyes at Mau, asking the question on everyone’s mind. “So what is it exactly you want with us?”

“With a toothy smile, Mau tried to reassured us, “We have traveled to Earth on a mission of peace. I have chosen you to be our goodwill ambassadors in our search for antiquities.”

Four small cameras floated down in front of us. Mau said pleasantly, “Thank you for volunteering for this important mission. You are our—”

“We didn’t volunteer,” Grace cut him off. “You kidnapped us!”

Mau looked surprised. “I was told you came aboard freely.”

“You’re nuts! Those horrible purple monsters of yours broke into our house!” Grace was getting upset. “We were electrocuted half to death! My fur’s never going to be the same . . . and I’ll have you know—!”

Mau cut her off. “An unfortunate mistake. I assure you they meant no harm.”

Grace leveled her eyes at him. “Let me remind you, Mister Blue Cat, those purple metal monsters trespassed on the Matthews’ property and stole valuable things from their house. We’re all witnesses and, believe me, I’m going to report you to the police as soon as we get back. Just see if I don’t!”

This was not the wisest thing to say if we hoped to avoid floating in specimen jars. And anyway, even if we did get home, who would believe a story like that, especially from a cat?

Mau smiled indulgently. “I was told one of your members recklessly sabotaged this ship, putting the lives of my crew members at risk. You can understand they needed to make the necessary repairs before they were discovered.”

“Well, they were discovered. They were on TV.”

Mau’s smile vanished. “They didn’t tell me.”

“You can’t hide, you know. Cameras are everywhere.” Grace gave him an arch look. “When Bill and Susan find out you’ve kidnapped their favorite cats, they’ll come after you. It’s illegal to steal a pet.”

Mau smiled benevolently, “Well, never worry, my dear. You will return home safely with much to tell your friends.”

Grace opened her mouth to speak, but Mau raised his paw.

“Now I’m going to ask each of you for a small favor. As goodwill ambassadors, please say a few words to our Emperor Haah, and to all the cats back on our beautiful Planet Alna, about your lovely home and how happy we are to meet one another.”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Grace sniffed.

MeMe and I didn’t look like we’d convince anyone of anything, so Mau turned to Java. Already anticipating his face on a stamp, Java was brimming with goodwill for Emperor Haah and all his cats. He started off with a list of his favorite foods, from anchovies, to katsuobushi, shrimp, and sashimi.

“OK OK, enough about food.” Mau cut him off impatiently. “Talk to the camera about our bond of trust and friendship,”

But Java had more to say. He turned to his favorite TV shows, the ones that had to do with balls, especially baseball, basketball, golf, tennis, and ping pong, but not football which no one had ever been able to explain to him in any way he could reasonably understand.

“That’s enough!” Mau shouted, finally working himself into a rage. The four cameras regrouped behind him.

As Mau retreated up the curving stairway, he said over his shoulder, “Engineer Khui will serve refreshments. Have a pleasant journey.” His cameras swarmed after one by one like a school of minnows.

A plate floated down from the ceiling with attractive treats in the shape of cats with little kitty-cat ears.

Grace looked at them suspiciously. “I’m not eating that.”

Khui insisted, “These delicious treats will make your journey pleasant.”

When he made the mistake of shoving the plate in her face, Grace swatted it away with her paw, sending cat treats with little kitty cat ears flying around the deck.

“Eat them yourself, if you think they’re so special, Mister Flea!”

Grace and Khui locked angry eyes before he returned to his swarm of screens. When Grace glanced over at her brother, she noticed he’d picked the floor clean all around him and was stretching out to bite another.

Grace screamed, “Java! What did I tell you about eating things off the floor!”

Java flinched back with a guilty look.

“You don’t know what those things are made of !” she scolded. “They might have outer space germs! . . . or worse!”

Java’s eyes flew wide. Faint with dread, he spent the next half hour inwardly analyzing every gurgle and twinge in his belly for the first sign of anything unusual, until he slipped away into a deep sleep.

As the ship approached the Sinai Peninsula, Sona skimmed across the desert so Dr. Mina could perform some detective magic with an imaging device that looked down below the desert floor.

As if a blanket had been pulled back from the Earth, in the ship’s monitors, we could see relics, treasures, statues, even entire towns buried beneath the shifting sand. We passed over vaults containing great wealth and knowledge, store rooms filled with scrolls, the wisdom of the ancients. The doctor examined chests containing precious gems, and bars of silver and gold, but none of this was the thing the blue cats were looking for, so they hurried on.

Finally, Dr. Mina held up her paw and the saucer quietly descended back to earth under the bright clear light of a gibbous moon.