Catalina sighed happily. She was back home on Titan, with her whole family. It was good to be home.

Suddenly, a shrill siren went off. Cat and her family cried out in surprise and covered their ears.

Suddenly, Cat sat up in her bunk. It had been a dream. But the sirens were still going off… What was going on?

"Cat!" Rosie exclaimed. "We need to get to the command post!" She waited as Catalina scrambled out of bed and the two girls ran to the command post of the Christa.

When they got to the command post, all the others were already there. Everyone was in their pajamas, including Commander Goddard and Ms. Davenport.

"What's going on?" Bova asked sleepily.

"There's an unauthorized ship docked in the landing bay!" Harlan exclaimed.

"Who does it belong to?" Radu asked wonderingly.

"We're going to find out in a minute," Goddard said. "Rosie, see if you can make a communications link to the ship."

Rosie fiddled with the controls on her console and said, "Okay, Commander, we've got a connection."

"Thanks, Rosie." Commander Goddard said. He then looked towards the view-screen and spoke loudly, "Attention, pilot, please identify yourself."

A female voice then came over the loud speaker. "My name is Mera 491, sir. I-"

"Mera?!" Catalina interrupted excitedly.

"Cat?" the voice cried back.

"Oh, my gosh, Mera, I can't believe it's you!" Cat shouted. "We'll open the airlock in just a second!" She jumped down from her spot at engineering and rushed for the door.

"Just a minute!" Goddard barked. Cat stopped in her tracks and looked sheepishly at the Commander. "Do you know this person?" he asked, though it was quite obvious that she did.

"Yeah!" Cat said. "She's a friend of mine from the Starcademy! She got there two days before we boarded the Christa."

The Commander looked doubtful about letting a stranger come onboard his ship, but Ms. Davenport then said, "Yes, that's true, she is a student at the academy. A bit of a misfit too." Then she murmured, mainly to herself, "I wonder how she got way out here."

Accepting Ms. Davenport's verification of this girl's attendance at the Starcademy, Goddard sighed and said, "All right, let's go let her in. I'm sure it's freezing out in that landing bay."

Running ahead of the others, Catalina quickly pressed the button on the airlock controls to let her friend. Just as Radu and Harlan were arriving at the airlock, a young girl walked onto the Christa. Radu stopped dead in his tracks and stared at her.

She was beautiful. She had light brown that stretched to her lower back and gentle green eyes.

And she was Andromedan. Radu smiled. Just looking at her was wonderful.

"Mera!" Cat cried happily.

"Cat!" the girl cried back. The two friends hugged as Radu and Harlan stared.

"Oh, great!" Harlan muttered under his breath. "Just what we need. Another Andromedan."

Radu shot Harlan a look that said, "Shut up, Harlan, you have no room to speak, you don't even know her." Luckily, Harlan didn't see it.

"Mera!" Catalina squealed again. "How did you get all the way out here?"

"Oh, I'll explain that later." Mera assured her. "But are you guys okay? How's Suzee?"

"Oh, no!" Harlan groaned. "She believes in Suzee, too?"

Cat ignored Harlan's nasty comments and said to Mera, "She's fine. We're all okay, too, but we sure miss everyone back home."

"Everyone at the academy is worried about you! They immediately sent cadets out to find you guys the minute they realized you were gone." A frown came over her face. "Of course, they decided to send me, because every teacher had a problem with teaching Andromedans." She growled angrily. For a moment, they were all silent, not knowing what to say. Mera shook her head, pushing away the memories of her first few days at the Starcademy.

"So," Cat said, "How did you get way out here?"

"That was the weirdest part!' Mera exclaimed. "There was this giant wormhole that sort of engulfed me and threw me out in the depths of space. When I found out how far away I was from the Starcademy, I was sure I wouldn't make it. Then I-"

"Wait a minute!" Harlan exclaimed. "You mean you went through the white circle too?"

Mera looked up and for the first time noticed the other two that were there. The one that had spoken to her was human, and the one standing beside him was Andromedan, just like her. He had blond hair that stretched down to his lower back, and shimmering blue-grey eyes. He was staring at her, and for one moment, their eyes met. Both of them quickly turned away, blushing incredibly.

"Um, uh," she stuttered to answer Harlan. "Um, yes, I guess so. Is that what it's called - a white circle?"

"Yeah, that's what Thelma called it." Harlan said.

At the sound of her name, Thelma appeared out of nowhere. Mera looked Thelma over and smiled.

"Thelma," Catalina said, "This is Mera. Mera, I'd like you to meet Thelma."

"Pleased to meet you, Thelma." Mera said, smiling and blushing a bit.

"Pleased to meet you." Thelma replied.

Harlan glanced from Radu to Mera to Catalina and cleared his throat. Cat looked over at her friends and suddenly realized something.

"Oh, grozit!" she cried. "I'm sorry! Mera, this is Harlan Band, and this is Radu 386. Guys, this is Mera 491."

"Hi." Harlan said as pleasantly as he could to an Andromedan.

Radu smiled and said, blushing, "Hello." He could barely look at Mera, he was so shy and embarrassed. He stared at his shoes, trying to hide is beet red face. Had he looked up at her he would have seen that she was just as shy and nervous as he, and she was blushing even more.

Cat grinned when she saw that the two were both blushing. They obviously both liked each other.

"Come on, Mera, let's get to the command post so you can meet the others." Cat said, grabbing Mera's hand and dragging her through the halls of the Christa.

When they reached the command post, Harlan and Radu went to their stations as Cat began to introduce Mera to the rest of the crew.

The rest of the crew seemed a bit shocked that the girl was an Andromedan, but none were bothered by it.

"Mera, this is Rosie Ianni, Bova, and Commander Goddard. You already know Ms. Davenport." Cat showed her around the comm-post.

"Hi!" said Rosie cheerfully. "If you want I'll show you the bunkroom and everything." Rosie began to lead Mera to she and Cat's quarters.

"Wait a minute." Ms. Davenport stopped them. "Mera, how did you wind up all the way out here?"

Mera told her story all over again. By the time she had finished, Commander Goddard was furious. How could the people at the Starcademy have treated this girl so terribly just because she was an Andromedan? Though Goddard himself had fought in the war against the Spung and Andromedans, this girl was obviously very kind and sweet. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got.

"You all are dismissed." he said. "You can all go back to bed."

All of the cadets rushed back to the bunk rooms. They were all tired and wanted to get back to sleep.

"Here you go, Mera." Cat said, handing the girl an extra pair of pajamas. "These should fit you; you're about my size."

"Thank you, Cat." Mera said. "I am so glad I found you guys! I was so scared that you were dead!" She paused for a moment. "I was pretty scared that I would be dead too." She lowered her voice a bit. "My oxygen supplies were running really low. If I'd been out there much longer, I wouldn't have made it."

Catalina's eyes widened. "Oh, my gosh! We were really lucky that we found you! Oh, my gosh!"

Mera just nodded. "Hey, Cat?" Her voice dropped to just above a whisper. "That guy I met earlier - Radu? He seems really nice. Is he?"

Cat grinned. This was just what she had been hoping for. "Yeah, he's a really nice guy. You ought to talk to him some tomorrow, and show him how nice you are..." Her voice trailed off.

Mera blushed. "I don't know. Maybe..."

In the boys' bunkroom, Radu laid in bed thinking.

"Hey, Harlan?" he whispered timidly. He heard the Earther sigh.

"What is it?" Harlan grumbled.

"Uh… Um…" Radu stuttered, trying to figure out just what to say. "Uh, how do you know if a girl likes you?"

Harlan grinned. "You like Mera, don't you?"

"Uh huh." Radu nodded sheepishly, though Harlan couldn't see him in the dark.

"Just talk to her, man." Harlan said. "If she likes you, she likes you. If she doesn't, well then, maybe you can get her to like you. I dunno, she probably does already. I've never seen a girl blush so much."

"Is it good that she blushed?" Radu asked nervously.

"I dunno, I think so." Harlan shrugged. "Hey, you like her, and you blushed. You blushed big time!" He laughed.

Radu licked his lips and pulled the blankets up around him.

"Maybe I will talk to her. Maybe…"

* * * * *