Kate yelped as she saw the thing in the doorway. It was white, limned by a soft golden glow, and vaguely bipedal from what she could make out. Further observation gave the being a shortish muzzle, pointed vulpine ears – and a long, bushy tail.

Kate detached herself from her shock for a moment and frowned at that. Whatever this thing was, it sure as sugar wasn't Terran in origin. She knew of a few alien races that apparently had tails – Voisard, Rooveks, Amari – but none of them looked like this. The idea of making contact with a new race briefly thrilled her, before bringing her back to the fact that she was hopelessly lost in just about every sense of the word. She sighed and addressed the interloper with a tired and somewhat annoyed "Hi."

"Hi, Katherine," the being said; its voice was mellifluous and cheerful, and took her aback. Aliens were supposed to talk in hissing, growling voices, and they definitely didn't say "Hi". Kate was also taken aback by the fact that it was calling her Katherine; pretty much everyone called her Kate.

"Who are you?" Kate carried on. "Where am I?"

The being stepped into the kitchen – Kate was highly doubting this place was really Summerkin at this point – and smiled at her. It wore a long, flowing robe that shimmered teal in the sunlight, and it was covered in writing that Kate couldn't decipher. This thing definitely seemed like an alien, she thought. "Where are we?" it asked, echoing her inquisitive tone. "Well, that's a question for later."

"No, I think it's a question for now," Kate pressed as politely as she could. "I want to know where I am, and who you are. I just got lost, and now I'm here. I should be burning up in the Ammarkan Star, not wandering around in some dream world. Not that I wouldn't pick the latter over the former, but..." Kate threw up her hands. "Just tell me what's going on. I'm so confused. I'm so scared!" She dropped her helmet and threw her paws up in upset and frustration.

One more step brought the rest of the being into view; it was lupine, with a wide, expressive muzzle, elegant markings on its face, and soft light-grey fur. Kind auburn eyes regarded her, and in spite of all that was happening, Kate felt... comforted.

Despite that, Kate sighed. "Please. Just tell me."

The being nodded slowly, never losing that smile. "Katherine, you're home."

"I'm home?" Kate cried. "How the heck am I home? My family don't even know I'm here! Sure they're talking about me, but try getting their attention! It's like I'm... not quite on their level."

"Well," the being went on, "you are more or less correct. While we're not quite on your home world, we are there in this moment."

Kate was about to fire off another heated inquiry when the alien's words reached her. "This is Summerkin – right now?"

"We are seeing events on Summerkin as they happen," the being said, still smiling warmly. "I know your fears, Katherine Holloway. I know you are afraid. You fear that your family will forget you, that you will be abandoned by the very people who created and raised you."

"Yes," Kate mumbled, her head tilting toward the floor. "I'm afraid of that." She was aware of tears on her face, and she looked to the being – and then to her distraught family. "But they haven't forgotten me. They're in bits over me leaving. I've only been gone a day, and..."

"Several days, actually. But time is no factor, Katherine," the being told her. "A day, a month, even a year – your family will always love you no matter how far you are from home, or for how long you've been that far."

Kate wiped her muzzle. "I know. I don't even know why I've been so worried about it. I know they love me, that they won't forget me. But the dreams, and the fear... it's just so terrible. And it's convinced me of horrible things."

The being swept her paws into the air – Kate was more or less certain at this point that it was female – and the Holloway kitchen, along with the house and the rest of the meadow and Summerkin disappeared, replaced with a black void. Unease peppered Kate's newfound relief, and the thoughts, the fears, returned.

"Space – your space – is a very dark realm, Katherine," the being went on. "It is the place between stars, between light, between planets, between life. For the unwary, it can be death itself. Without protection, you cannot survive in it. And it can seed the darkest things in you. Fears, anxieties, petty worries – these can mutate and grow within the purest of hearts, within the happiest people." The being extended an arm, and opened a long-fingered paw; a brilliant light coalesced in its palm. "But there is light. It comes from things equally dangerous – stars. But the light – the light is different. It can warm you, make your spirit soar." A long, serpent-like creature emerged from the orb, flying into the space between the being and Kate. It spun, looped, and dived through the air before returning to the orb.

Kate was awed by it all, and found that there were no words to describe any of it.

The being continued. "And it can come from within you." She gestured, and Kate felt a surge of emotion – warm, energizing, joyous emotion – that left her glowing like a torch.

"Wow," Kate cried, finding a word at last. "You, uh, you still haven't told me your name..."

The alien cocked her head as if in deep thought. "I go by many names," she said.

"You do?" Kate asked as the glow receded. "Huh. Must be confusing." She waggled her fingers, still dizzy from the... whatever had just happened. "Uh, tell me which one you're most used to, then."

"My name is Amaterasu," the being said, her aura twinkling.

"Amaterasu," Kate repeated quietly. Something sparked in her mind, and she found herself wide-eyed. "Amaterasu? The Amaterasu? The Japanese solar goddess – that Amaterasu?"

Amaterasu inclined her head in a slow nod.

Kate blinked. "So, where are we? I mean, really?"

"We are at a crossing," Amaterasu told her. "A crossing between your world and another. I found you adrift in space and brought you here, though the darkness did not make it easy to guide you to me."

"You found me near the Ammarkan Star?" Kate asked. "Well, thanks for rescuing me."

"That's what you call it?" Amaterasu chortled. "The Ammarkan Star?"

"Why?" Kate asked her. "What do you call it?"

Amaterasu giggled. "Home."

"Kate! Kate!"

An eye-mangling flash of white brought Kate back to reality; she sat bolt upright and coughed. Her throat felt like it was on fire, and the rest of her wasn't much better. A good deal of blinking brought the world back into focus, and she noticed the comforting hum of machinery, the tang of recycled air, the folds of a blanket – and oh, of course, the pair of anxious faces hovering nearby. Tabby Cat, Red Panda – both of them seemed familiar to Kate. She cleared her throat and shook her ears out – they'd become plastered to her head – and rubbed sleep from her eyes. "What happened?"

"She's okay!" the Tabby Cat – it was Aaron, the engineer – cried. "Oh, Kate, you're alright!"

Kate stretched, getting some feeling back into her limbs. She noticed a lack of weight on her, and saw that the suit was gone; she was back to the old jersey-and-pants combo, though the pair of socks sticking out of the far end of the blanket told her that her boots had also been removed. Kate reckoned all of that was for the best, considering that her fur felt like hot wool.

"Everything okay, jellybean?" the Red Panda asked her nervously.

Kate nodded; this was the ship's medical officer. "Thanks, Agnes. Where am I?"

"Med-lab, on the Falstaff," Aaron told her, his whiskers twitching. "You've been out cold for three days. You sure you're feeling alright?"

"I was unconscious for three whole days?" Kate cried, the revelation shaking all traces of fug from her head. The rest of the world came crashing into sharp focus, giving her a good view of a blue-walled room that smelled of disinfectant and was filled with trays of surgical implements and bags of emergency medication.

Agnes hit a call button, and three others entered the med-lab in due course. Names came back to her, too, and she recognized the others – Poodle, Cat, Lemur. Memories came with all of that, and the explosions went off again in her head. "We were fixing the telescope," she breathed, informing herself of the fact as much as she was summing it up for everyone else. "There was an accident."

"Your line got detached and we lost you for a moment," Aaron said. He cocked a thumb at the Lemur. "Hutcherson here got us off our original course and blasted after you. Got dangerously close to the Ammarkan Star, too."

Hutcherson chortled. "All part of the job."

"You rescued me," Kate mumbled.

"Well, Captain Miller did," Aaron laughed. "She suited up and reeled out to pick you up."

Miller nodded. "Hey, the safety of my crew comes first. And Kate, I know you're only here for a brief while, but you're still part of it." The Poodle smiled. "I'm so happy you're alright."

"We all are," Gareth the Cat put in.

Kate was a little embarrassed with all this attention, and so she decided to divert a little of it. "Did we get the telescope back up?"

Aaron smiled widely. "Yeah. I fixed it after we got you back onboard. The hull's still holding, but I layered on some Procoline just to be sure." He snorted. "We'll be a week in drydock, but nothing too heavy."

"So Gareth's getting the pictures, then." Kate found herself smiling.

"That I am," Gareth said happily. "We had to move away from the sun before we got fried by radiation, though. Lucky you were wearing a suit with extra protection, Kate. It sucked up a fair few Sieverts before Miller caught you."

"So did mine," Captain Miller put in.

Kate made an executive decision not to think too hard about how close she'd come to... well, not living, and smiled again. "I'm feeling quite lucky right now," she squeaked.

Another short round of hilarity afflicted the crew; it passed momentarily, and a tangible air of relief descended on the med-lab. "Oh, and another thing," Kate added, "I'd prefer it if you didn't tell my parents about all this."

"Why?" Captain Miller asked her. "You afraid your parents might never let you go into space again?"

Kate chortled. "No. My mother would eat your face if she found out."

Captain Miller laughed at that. "We have to report incidents, Kate. I'll take my chances. Besides, no one's at fault here. From what Aaron told me, it was a random malfunction."

"We ran full tests on the equipment before we set out," Aaron put in.

Kate lay back on her pillow, staring up at the ceiling. "It's okay. I think I'll just lie here for a bit."

Miller folded her arms. "Alright. Agnes, keep an eye on Holloway and make sure she's feeling well. Everyone else, back to your stations."

Aaron turned to Kate on his way out. "Feel better, kiddo."

Kate smiled. "Thanks."

Despite Agnes's misgivings, Kate felt well enough to get up shortly after, and Captain Miller personally made her a breakfast of SynthaMeat and gel-paste – dislike it as she might, Kate knew she had to keep up her strength.

Especially after three days conked out.

Aaron sat with her, making sure she didn't fall flat on her muzzle and generally being a dutiful superior. "You liking the gel-paste now, then?" he commented as Kate wolfed a spoonful of it down.

Kate waited for her brain to cease vibrating before answering. "Yep." She spoke the truth; the sugary rush was giving her a real lift after waking up and feeling like she'd been bludgeoned with a table leg. She tried not to look too closely at the plateful of demolished SynthaMeat remains, though, in an effort to hold everything down. On that note, she also made a mental note to change as soon as possible – her jersey was beginning to smell like Dog.

And that weird dream – Kate had briefly worried that radiation from the Ammarkan Star had penetrated her suit and affected her mind, but Agnes had given her the all-clear after several scans. She could still remember bits and pieces of it; something about a Japanese deity and her family missing her. She concluded that her subconscious had been trying to make her feel better, and took from it what she could.

"So," Aaron chirped. "How are you enjoying your first crew position?"

Kate snorted, but couldn't stop herself from laughing a little. "It's adequate," she said primly.

"Well, then. You can't ask for anything more, can you?"

"I suppose not," Kate said, finishing her gel-paste and letting her fluttering eyelids turn the world into a zoetrope. "And now I'm going to be awake for the rest of the year." She shoved the plate aside and rested her face in her paws. "And the rest of my life."

Aaron sipped at a Fizz-Shake, if not with enjoyment then with a sense of necessity, and smiled. "Three days of sleep and a plate of gel-paste do have that effect." He licked his whiskers. "You still feeling alright?"

"I guess," Kate said, reflecting that she pretty much was, aside from the fact that she no doubt smelled like one of Rebecca's cheeses. "A bit sticky, though."

Aaron grinned. "Shower's in the dorm."

Kate sat on her bunk in the dorm, fresh-furred and almost identically dressed – she didn't have much time for fashions, so she opted to wear the most basic clothing as possible – and looking through her holdall, which had blessedly been in the place she had left it. A box of cookies was indeed inside, baked by her mother, and of course there was the customary note in card form. Kate opened it, to read:

My lovely Kate,

I can't believe how quickly you've grown – my tiny little pup, now an engineer going into space!! Your father and I are so proud of you, baby girl, and we love you to the ends of the universe – and maybe just a little bit further.

-Mom

Kate closed the note and set the box aside on the bunk. "See you soon, Mom," she whispered. She felt a wave of comfort tingle through her, as if she were being held ever so gently in a gloved paw. The dread she had felt before was replaced by anticipation – she was looking forward to getting home now, and could already picture her mother's wide beaming smile, brighter than any star.

It was odd, she thought as she lay back on her bunk, playing idly with the note. Try as she might, now she couldn't think of Summerkin, or her family, without smiling. She picked up her Mandy Roo book and read for a while.

A short while after, Kate could have sworn she heard someone laugh. It was a short, effeminate giggle that faded as soon as it had started, and she blinked, making another mental note to check up on those radiation scans with Agnes. She shook her head, smiled, and stood, wondering if Aaron or one of the others wanted help with anything.

Or a cookie.

THE END