Xlurmc was late for work once again, and they knew it. Instead of taking the long way about, the decision to use the shortcut was programmed into his auto-guidance system, though not recommended.
With no galactic traffic to hinder their flight time, Xlurmc pushed his space cruiser to capacity. The stars were a streaked blur as he slipped into the shadow of the earth’s moon.
Blam. Flwap. Smash. Zwine.
In nanosecpars, the single species craft spun wildly to the left, and if Xlurmc had not been the top pilot in his class, he would have slammed into the cratered surface at a deadly pace. Instead, he stuck hard and bounced, having the high, jagged edge of a meteorite hole halt his trajectory.
The crash left them unconscious for a bit, long enough that once awake again, the space marshals were on hand.
“What happened?” the larger of the two asked.
“I was going along, minding my business, as this black and white thing, a cow, I think earthlings call it, jumped in front of me,” answered Xlurmc.
Suddenly, the marshal’s intraspace communicator buzzed.
“Excuse me,” it said, “And don’t wander off.”
The marshal returned with a few thumps of a clack-rush reed, checking their notes and asking, “So lemme see if we have this right. You were cruising past the moon when this cow jumped in front of you.”
“That’s correct,” Xlurmc said.
“While your story sounds unbelievable,” the marshal stated, “The fork and the Spoon over there saw what happened.”
The Old Blog in the Desert 