Lionshine is bent over the control panel, paws scrambling across the screen. Alderwood excitedly stands beside her, and the rest of the crew is waiting behind her with wide eyes.

"We're approaching Saturn... we're going to stop by the rings, if I can find a large enough platform to land the ship on," she explained briefly, sounding vaguely out of breath.

Alderwood's grin grew even wider. "I can't wait to have a ring pop," he mewed, but none of the cats seemed to notice him. They all were too focused on the vast gas planet in front of the, with its swirling surface and the rings that stretched around it. As Lionshine piloted them closer and closer to the bands, it became obvious that they were not made of gas or ring pops.

Alderwood visibly wilted as his sister landed the ship, Greenface immediately rushed off to the bathroom, and Shadepelt turned to the crew's captain.

"Can we go, like, jump on them?" she asked hesitantly. 

Lionshine nodded, turning toward her brother, who had crumpled into a ball of fur on the floor. "Uh... Alderwood? Is something wrong?"

"My ring pops!" he wailed loudly. "I wanted ring pops..."

Pebblepounce blinked a few times, looking unsure. Lionshine just shrugged and walked off with Shadepelt toward the closet, and the two toms were left together. "I... I'll help you," Pebblepounce stammered, not knowing quite what to say.

"You'll get me ring pops?" Alderwood asked with a sniff, sitting up.

The gray tom paused. "Well, I don't think there's a ringpop recipe, but I can make you rock candy," he suggested, holding his breath as he waited for the brown tom to answer.

"That works!" Alderwood cheerfully responded. "Thanks!" 

Alderwood pads off to his room to wait, while Pebblepounce, now stuck making rock candy, heads toward the kitchen. Lionshine and Shadepelt are suiting up and stepping into the airlock.

"Are you ready?" the black she-cat mewed softly as the pressure stabilized, the computer announcing it quietly. 

Lionshine gave a nod, glancing out into the field of floating rock and ice. "Got your tether?"

Shadepelt held hers out to show the astrocat when the door creaked open, exposing the vast space in front of them. 

Lionshine quickly grips onto the ring around the door, sliding over toward the hook on the side. She hooks her tether in, and on the opposite side, so does Shadepelt. 

"Let's go!" the golden she-cat meowed excitedly, and she pushed off the wall of the ship.

Meanwhile...

Pebblepounce leafed through a thick book, trying to balance a large pan on the table while holding up the cookbook. "Water, sugar, corn syrup," he muttered to himself, hoping the supply of cooking supplies provided by Lionshine and Alderwood's mom would suffice. "Powdered sugar, food dye... and cinnamon oil." 

He set the cookbook down and pushed the pan further onto the table before jogging toward the cupboard. The tom quickly found sugar, corn syrup, powdered sugar, and food coloring, but the cinnamon oil was nowhere to be found.

"I guess this pure sodium that's in the cupboard will work," Pebblepounce told himself, pulling out a container labeled: DO NOT COMBINE WITH WATER. 

He mixes the water, sugar, corn syrup, and food coloring in the pan, which quickly starts to boil.

"Sweet," Pebblepounce meowed excitedly, laughing at his pun. "Now for the cinnamon oil, er,  sodium." 

The tom pulls over the little bottle of powder and unscrews the top. He takes a tablespoon and scoops out an appropriate amount, hovering over the bowl. 

Pebblepounce poured it in, and a boom echoed through the spaceship.

My search history consists of: What does Saturn look like close-up, rock candy recipe, how much sodium do you need to explode in water, and what are explosions in space like. 
⌁ Rio ⛈⛈