"Mew."

The music was loud enough to drown out the conversation going on next to her, but Reyna was immediately drawn to the noise. It was out of place in a party environment.

"Mew," it made the sound again. She couldn't immediately place where it was coming from, but she was determined to figure out where. She bent over and started to crawl around, listening for the sound again.

Jake was staring at her quizzically, their conversation interrupted by her unusual behavior. "What's going on?”

"I hear something." Reyna put her hand up as if to tell Jake to be quiet.

"There's music going, and a bunch of people are talking. You definitely hear something." Jake's sarcasm was enhanced with the amount of alcohol he imbibed.

"Shut up, smartass," she snapped back. "I meant that I hear a small noise that isn't supposed to be there."

"Oh?" He immediately set aside his drink and stood up. As an engineer, Jake responded to a lot of tickets that were about as vague as Reyna's comments. Usually they weren't big issues, but his best friend never joked about that kind of stuff.

"Well, what did it sound like?" He asked.

"Like a cat."

"How would a cat get on board?" Jake hadn't seen a cat since he left for basic. He actually hadn’t seen any Terran animals since he left Earth. The Intergalactic Council severely restricts movement of non-sapient creatures outside of their home planet due to the potential for them to overrun native fauna or carry diseases that other species aren’t resistant to. The United Federation of Terran Nations learned that fact firsthand when The First Contact occurred.

"If I had to guess, it probably came onboard after we docked on Ophelia when the asteroid knocked out all the systems,” Reyna offered. “Stop asking questions, just help me find it."

The two dropped down and started to move around the quarters, putting their ears to the walls to catch another meow. It was slow going. Almost half of the ship was gathered in Kyle and Chris’ quarters to let loose, and despite it being the size of a small hotel suite, taking a step in any direction got Jake and Reyna face to face with someone’s legs. They muttered a barrage of sorrys and excuse mes as they kept bumping into people.

Reaching the other end of the room, the two stood up straight.

“Nothing?” Reyna asked.

“Nah.” Jake responded. “Thought I heard it near the table but that was just the song.”

“I can’t believe that that song got to number four on the galactic charts. Why was the artist recording animals in the first place, and why did a major label decide to pick it up and promote it?” Reyna was not a fan of the music that the twins played. In fact, she doesn’t listen to any songs from the last forty years unless others do.

“Well it wasn’t the first time that happened. Remember when the Cloods discovered that Human song from centuries ago about a fox?”

Reyna rolled her eyes. It was just like Jake to remember something so obscure to try and justify something as asinine as the song. He listens to so much music from so many planets and genres, it’s a surprise that he had any space left in his noggin for anything else.

The music had changed, and Reyna and Jake were able to take their minds off of the topic. They looked around. Strobe lights that the twins jury-rigged from parts they found in the maintenance closets turned the room into various shades of magenta, blue, and green. A few people were jumping up and down on the pong table, angering the foursome that were playing there. The two groups were shouting at one another, but the music was loud enough to drown them out from where Reyna was standing. She was struggling to think that they would ever find the cat.

“Wait! I think I heard it!”

Reyna turned around. Jake was crouching next to the door. He had his left ear pressed against it and stuffed a finger in the other. He motioned for Reyna to join him. She bent down next to him.

“I just hear footsteps,” Reyna admitted. Wait, were the steps getting closer?

The door opened, and Reyna and Jake were knocked down. They both stood up grabbing their heads. A chorus of, “Close the door!” rang out amongst the party-goers, which fell silent just as fast as it started. The two stood up, looking at the crowd. Kyle was running to the speakers, and Chris was going for the lights. Everyone else was stood at attention. Jake and Reyna were confused, but then turned around to face Commander Poach. She was in a t-shirt and shorts and her hair was frazzled in the back.

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“I don’t mind that you all are letting loose, I really don’t,” she said. “But I am trying to SLEEP after pulling a double shift and I can hear y’all JUMPING UP AND DOWN. By all means, keep partying, but please SHUT UP!”

Everyone still stood rigid and avoided her gaze. No one dared move in fear of Poach getting any more excuses to yell at them. She stood at the door, scanning the room for what felt like hours before she finally left. The silence lingered even after her footsteps faded away.

It was in this silence that everyone heard an unmistakable sound.

“Meow.”

It felt like it echoed throughout the room. Everyone was looking in all different directions. The room became lively again. Some sank to the ground, looking underneath the furniture. Others got on the table and stared at the ceiling. The word "cat" was thrown around often.

Reyna stood around watching the show in front of her. Every second that passed it seemed more and more likely that someone else would find the cat. Her hopes were being dashed away.

“Hey,” Jake’s hand touched her shoulder. Reyna snapped back to reality. “I know where the cat is.”

“What? Where?”

“Just over there.” He led her to a corner of the room hidden behind a desk doubling as the drinks bar. Thankfully, it seemed like no one was interested in drinking at the moment. “You can hear the cat just behind this panel.”

The panel was a part of the wall. It was smaller than the rest, as if maintenance worked on that specific part and quickly patched it up. The two put their ears to the panel. They waited, but they eventually heard the distinct sound of a young cat.

“Okay, how do we get it outta there?” Reyna asked.

“You’ll probably need one of these.”

Reyna and Jake turned around. The twins were standing above them, right between the wall and the desk to block any exits from the small space. Kyle was holding a small plasma cutter that would surely be able to cut through the paneling.

“How’d you know where we were?” Reyna asked.

“We see everything in this room.” Chris’ expression was one of amusement, but his crossed arms showed that he was serious. “We have a couple cameras and we were watching them to see if we could find the cat, but we found you two instead.”

Reyna scrunched her face in disgust. “Do you watch back the tape when you hang out with Sophie?”

“Shut up!” Chris waved his hand to dismiss the comment. “Listen, we have something you want, and we can give it to you for a price.”

Reyna and Jake looked at each other. “Uh, what do you want?” she asked.

“The cat can be yours,” Chris started.

“But we want to hang out with it exclusively on the weekends,” Kyle finished.

“We’ve always wanted a pet since we were little, but our parents had always said no. We thought that being on our own would give us the time to get one, but you know, galactic laws and stuff.”

“That’s why we want to take care of it on the weekends, when our responsibilities are lessened. You’ll have majority custody so we don’t have to take care of it much,”

“And we’re less likely to get in trouble for the cat if you’re around it mostly.”

Reyna shuddered. She never saw the twins as good parents to either humans or animals. They had been written up for an incident with non-sapient creatures on Plotara, not to mention they didn’t really shower often nor keep their room clean.

“We understand your concern,” Kyle seemed to have read her mind. “But we’ll be really good to it. Besides, it’ll only be a couple days a week.”

Reyna froze up, but thankfully Jake was there to save her from the confrontation. He stood up to face the twins. “Fine, but let’s put that down in writing.” He pulled out his universal transceiving equipment and opened up a document editor. He started to write up a contract.

----------------------------------------

“...and lastly, no more than four pictures with the cat taken per weekend.”

“Okay, that sounds good.” The twins agreed to Jake’s terms, and they and Reyna signed the contract. A ping sounded from Kyle’s UTE, letting him know that he received a copy of the document. Reyna was relieved that Jake was there to help out. She wasn’t particularly confrontational, and any unknown situations froze her up, which is why she spent so much time in the ship library to study as much as she can. Jake was the more confident one of the two, and he seemed to know when to take over. He didn’t include himself in the terms of the cat’s custody, but Reyna was definitely going to let him hang out with it, sans contract.

“Alright, here you go.” Kyle handed over the plasma cutter to Jake. “Like we talked about, we’ll distract the rest of the party so they don’t take the cat first. Please take good care of it.”

They left and joined the crowd. Chris went over to the speakers to pump some music back. In a matter of seconds, the rest of the room was dancing again, albeit a little quieter than before Commander Poach came around.

“Thanks, Jake.” Relief washed over Reyna.

“Don’t thank me yet. We still have a cat to rescue.”

Jake took the cutters and started to work on the panel. It hummed with energy, leaving a glowing trail where it was a few seconds before. He was careful to trace the outline of the patchwork panel in an effort to leave as little evidence of tampering as he could. Messing with the ship was grounds for a reprimand, and Jake was already on thin ice with his superiors.

After a long minute, the panel was fully cut. Reyna reached for the cold edges of the cut and pried the panel towards her. She took out her UTE and turned on the flashlight function. She shone it into the hole.

The cat was tiny, barely a few months old by Reyna’s best guess. She picked it up and took a good look at it. Half of its face was orange, while the other was gray, and she could see that it was female. The rest of the kitten’s pelt was predominantly orange, with gray streaks imitating tiger stripes. The underside and it's fluffy tail, however, was mostly white.

“She’s so cute!” Jake and Reyna said at the same time. Reyna gave her a big hug, then passed the cat to Jake. He put an arm underneath her legs and gingerly put her near his chest. He started to rock his arms back and forth like he would a baby.

“I can’t believe we are gonna have to give her up every weekend to the twins.” Jake said.

“I’ll probably make up a bunch of excuses to keep her in my room. No way I’ll let them mess with her.”

Jake handed the cat over to Reyna. “Do you have a name for it?”

She thought for a second. “I’ll call her Lara.”