The Star Within (Poohpavel)

Prologue

"That's cool!" Michael chanted out of nowhere, cutting his captain off mid-explanation. His teammates sighed, too used to their coworker who gets excited for every mission.

"Michael, not now," Garfield talked to Michael calmly. Garfield was always the calmest one in the team. He always had a glint of affection when he looked at his teammates, especially Michael, even though the other was older than him.

"Captain," Sailub turned to his side, facing Pavel who called him. "You mentioned two stars before. How about the other one?"

"Oh, Mebsuta? That star was reportedly missing." His answer received nothing but confusion, which was shown on the space feline's face, his head tilted a little, ears twitched in curiosity. Sailub snorted, finding his coworker's feline antics cute, "Don't worry, our mission just requires us to focus on Mekbuda fragments."

Pavel nodded before turning back to the screen as his captain continued presenting the list of humans they were assigned to meet in order to retrieve the fragments hidden in their chests. The profiles came with pictures, names, and other information to help them with their mission; even the abilities the humans possessed were stated. Until the last profile, a profile of a human that Pavel thought was handsome with his youthful face, yet having a cold stare in some of the photos of him.

"And the last one, Pooh Krittin. He is a University student, majoring in robotics and AI engineering."

"Why isn't the profile showing the abilities he possesses?" This time, the oldest in the team, Ping, finally spoke. His dark eyes read the profile once again before facing his captain for the answer.

"Well, about him, a strong radiation from the Mekbuda fragment could be detected from him, but all investigations failed to discover what ability he gained from the fragments. But one thing about him..."

Sailub clicked the keyboard to show pictures of Pooh with other people. There were pictures of Pooh in the university, in public transport, in concerts, and even with his social media followers. "...he seems to always be around other people who also have the fragments."

There was a pregnant pause in the room as all the living beings in the room digested the information. Sailub watched his teammates; Ping leaned back in his chair while sighing, Michael unconsciously played with his tail in excitement. Garfield was reading Pooh Kritttin's profile again. Benz had his head on Pavel's shoulder, he yawned, probably thinking of sleeping. And lastly, Pavel, the feline cat, was looking at each teammate too before his eyes landed on Sailub, who was already staring at him.

"Pavel, I'll assign this kid to you," Sailub said to Pavel. He tapped on the keyboard to send the human's profile to the space cat. A second later, a ding could be heard on Pavel's watch, signaling he received the information.

The space cat nodded, he tapped his watch and a hologram of Pooh Krittin's profile came into view. The feline decided to immediately study the human of his mission while his captain continued assigning the others to the rest of his teammates.

Sailub knew he made a good choice by handing the odd, must probably the hardest person in the mission, to Pavel. The feline alien was a warrior with a reputation for completing missions with utmost efficiency, gaining respect and achievements after completing each mission successfully. He was always the top space officer of all times but refused to get promoted as he was comfortable and loved working with his teammates. However, he won't tell the latter to his coworkers though.

Pavel walked to his designated room. Being the top worker, he was given some benefits as he gained his own office in his room. Only he, Sailub, and Garfield, Sailub's right-hand man, have their own office in the spacecraft. To his delight, his office provided him some privacy as he could lock himself away from his teammates, especially the troublemakers, Benz and Michael. Those two love to annoy their feline member and once cracked his office password, resulting in Pavel having to set a new one just a month after having his office. Unfortunately, his teammates already cracked the new password without him knowing, which was supported by their captain, as everyone knows how workaholic the feline was. Sometimes it is necessary to ambush his office to drag him out of the designated room.

A ding was heard before an approval from Sailub came in the text on the screen. Pavel sent a short 'thank you' before connecting his computer with the main computer of the spacecraft. Opening the weapons room, he chose a small and light CCTV device to use. He put the device in the teleportation capsule and set the destination to Earth after installing Mr. Krittin's information and other instructions needed in it. A second later, an access of the device view was connected to his computer.

It was nighttime in Thailand, Pavel figured as the device traveled in the dark. After around 5 minutes of waiting, the device finally landed on the roof of Pooh's condo. Pavel tapped on his keyboard, controlling the device around in search of any access to the human's house. When he successfully entered the house, Pavel found Pooh sitting quietly, working in his supposed bedroom. The male was wearing round glasses, switching between his textbook and laptop as he typed unfamiliar codes. That reminded Pavel to study the human language again because it's been ages since his last Earth mission.

"I think I'll continue tomorrow," Pooh said to his phone before unlocking it, which Pavel quickly copied the password.

Pavel watched Pooh pulling his glasses off, putting them on the table before he rose from his chair and walked to his bed. The human sighed; Pavel thought he had a long day. The feline controlled the device to move somewhere for him to have a better view of Pooh. The male now had his phone on the nightstand, shifting on his bed, preparing himself to sleep. Later, no movement could be seen from the human as he had his eyes closed.

The space cat stretched on his office chair, thinking it was time for him to rest too. His paws unconsciously kneaded the soft pillow on his lap lazily. He purred at the thought of his soft bed before focusing back on his device. He made sure the device was perfectly positioned out of anyone's view while at the same time still giving him access to monitor the human.

The feline was about to close his computer when suddenly a sigh could be heard in Pooh's room. His ear twitched as he quickly focused back on the human on his screen. Pooh shifted on his bed, clearly wide awake. The human reached for his phone and a strange object, which later turned out to be wireless earphones, was pulled out from it. He unlocked his phone again. The light from the screen illuminated his face, and Pavel noted that the human was scrolling through something as the light colors shifted.

Pavel couldn't hear or see what was on Pooh's phone screen, but he could imagine it after a while as Pooh had his hand on his clothed crotch.

"Damn teenagers," Pavel sighed, but then quickly corrected himself because apparently Pooh was not a teenager. However, the human was much younger than him, especially since Pavel is a space feline species. He might be 27 years old if he follows the Earth's flow, but on his planet, he could be in his 30s.

Just as he predicted, Pooh now had a box of tissues by his side. The human cursed as he hurriedly pushed his pants down to his mid-thighs to free the organ known as the human reproductive system by Pavel.

Out of nowhere, a faint click could be heard behind Pavel. The space cat stiffened before quickly freezing, blurring the screen and shutting down the speaker of the device before facing his captain, who was standing with two mugs in his hands. "Stop trespassing in my territory, Uncle."

Off duty, all the members prefer to call their captain "uncle." It started as an inside joke between them. Sailub's first mission when they were new as a team had him disguised as a middle-aged man with a love problem. Michael and Benz were amused by the fact and proceeded to call Sailub "uncle" all the time. The nickname then became a thing.

Sailub shrugged his shoulders, "This whole spacecraft is supposed to be my territory."

He handed one mug to Pavel, eyes locked on the blurred screen. "I'm sure this kid is healthy," he blurted out, to which Pavel just snorted.

The feline took a sip of the coffee. His mind then wandered to ideas of ways he could use to approach the human. It wasn't a lie that he was looking forward to this new mission.