Ad Astra :: Star Trek Fanfiction Archive ^{Beam me up, Scotty.}

"Does someone want to tell me why my cargo bay has suddenly turned into a barnyard?" Pike asks, pitching his voice to be heard over the chaos. Several animals hop past his feet, similar to Earth frogs, except larger and with dark brown fur.

His security chief pauses in her attempts to round up a few of the furry frog-creatures long enough to come to attention. "They were in one of the crates we beamed up from Arcadia, sir," she says, fixing her gaze somewhere over his left shoulder. "It seems there may have been a security breach."

"I'll say," Pike replies, trying his best to keep a straight face. "Well, let's get them all rounded up and returned to the planet, and then you can figure out how no one noticed these stowaways before they escaped onto my ship."

"Yes, sir," La'an replies, in a tone that implies some poor ensign is going to have a bad time once she catches up with them.

Another furry frog hops past, croaking loudly, and Pike reaches down to grab it before handing it to her with a smile. "Look on the bright side, Lieutenant," he says. "At least it wasn't spiders."