‘Our scanners are picking up an anomaly.’
‘Give us a visual.’
Empty starscape blinked onto the screen. Distant stars like glitter. None of the expected confetti of asteroids. No planets or ships.
‘What is that?’ The captain pointed to a glitching pixel. ‘Enhance.’
The image locked onto the point. Zoomed.
‘Prrt?’ said the anomaly.
‘Is that … ?’
The glitching space cat rolled over and trotted across empty space toward the ship, tail quirked in a friendly greeting.