It’s been days without food, and Danny is starving. It feels like he’s been on this spaceship forever. His stomach grumbles, he’s desperate for a meal, but he has work to do – important work. He starts humming his favourite song to himself, Twinke Twinkle Little Star. Not the CocoMelon version, he’s too grown up for that. After all, he’d just turned seven, and seven-year-olds don’t listen to CocoMelon. At least, that’s what he thought. “Danny, do you copy?” said a static voice from his walky-talky. “We have a problem.”

“Yeah, Dad- Sir, I’m here. But you forgot to say ‘over’. Over.”

“You’re right, sorry. Over.”

“What’s the problem? Over.”

“We’ve had some motion detected at Outpost C53. Over.”

“But it’s been abandoned for years. Over.”

“Turns out there’s been some recent activity, but all the cameras are out, so we need someone to go over there and check it out. The real problem is that no one’s brave enough to go.”

There was no response.

“Danny, can you hear me?”

“Yeah, but you didn’t say over. Over.”

“This is ridiculous,” he muttered under his breath. “Are you brave enough to investigate it, Danny? Over.”

“I am. I’ll fly over and investigate. Wish me luck. Over.”

“Good luck, Danny. Over.”

Danny started flying toward Outpost C53, humming a different song this time. The outpost was a wreck. The thrusters had been destroyed, the food supply had been finished, and the escape pods had all been used, but that happened years ago. What could possibly be roaming around a dump like Outpost C53? Anything important there must have been destroyed already. ‘Maybe it’s just a Space Rat,’ thought Danny. (‘Hmm, what should I call them? Space… Rat… I know! I’ll call them Sats for short.’) ‘Maybe it’s just a Sat.” He flew closer and closer to Outpost C53. There was no sign of movement apart from the debris scattered around the once glorious base. Danny made a *swoosh* sound as the ship landed silently.

He got out of the ship, wearing his favourite Darth Vader shirt and mask. He took out his old flashlight that he’d found at school last year and switched it on. The base was empty and quiet. He stopped humming a while ago but doesn’t remember when. Now there was just the sound of his footsteps – exactly the type of noise he didn’t want to make. He couldn’t see much through his mask, so he walked slowly, peering at every corner to ensure the area was safe. It might have been if it weren’t for a strange scratching sound he couldn’t seem to place. Every ten seconds, there was this noise. Sometimes in front of him. Sometimes behind him. Sometimes above, sometimes beneath. Odd.

After turning for centuries in the labyrinth that was his house with the light switched off, Danny began to close in on the noise. It was in the room at the end of the hall to the left – he was sure. ‘This is it,’ he thought. ‘I’m going in. 3, 2… 1-‘ His dad came walking out of the room with his phone in hand. “Sorry, Danny, I need to take this,” he said, walking back down the corridor. “I know it’s urgent, I’m on my way.” “Oh…” said Danny with a sigh. “This again.” The colour drained from his once happy face. His dad had to work again. Now he had to finish the story all by himself.

Danny took small, apathetic steps inside the room to the left, hoping to find something - anything. He walked into the room like he had just lost his dog. No matter what he found, it wouldn’t cheer him up. He checked the corners – his standard procedure. He, oddly enough, heard a strange scratching noise coming from behind the bed. He didn’t know whether to look or not. For once, he had no idea what it was. The bed looked innocent enough. It couldn’t be an alien, could it? No, those don’t exist, his dad told him. He reached out his hand cautiously, not knowing what to expect. His hand couldn’t quite fit behind the bed, so he laid down to look underneath. With his flashlight in hand, he looked under the dark bed. ‘Huh, nothing,’ he thought. He heard the scratching sound again. He looked to his left. Nothing. Scratching again. He looked to his right. Nothing. ‘Where’s it coming from?’ he thought. Puzzled, he stood up and turned towards the door. There it was. Danny was mortified. This was it, fight, flight, or freeze. Staring him in the face with dead, beady eyes was a real-life Space Rat – a Sat. “AAAAAAAHHHHH,” he screamed, running past the corridor as fast as he could, dashing back to his bedroom. “MAYDAY. MAYDAY. WE NEED TO EVACUATE!”

He slammed his bedroom door shut and took off his mask, panting. “We need to take the escape pod back to Earth,” he said, but no one else was there. He grabbed his toy rocket, ducked under the covers of his bed, and spun the rocket in the air. “Oh no,” he said. “We’re going to crash!” He made a deafening noise trying to imitate the flames of something falling out of orbit. The noise was piercing, hurting his ears. He was impressed with himself until he stopped, but the noise didn’t. It got louder and louder, closer and closer. He removed the covers and looked outside his window. Had he caused this? In the darkening sky, brighter than any dim star he could see, was a huge flaming mass falling straight down toward the nearby forest. His deep brown eyes could barely stand the bright flaming ball piercing through the window. Call is ignorance or sheer stupidity, his first instinct was to run into the forest and see what it could be. An alien? A Sat? A meteor? Or maybe, just maybe, a friend?