Signals from the dust

Gerlatschee woke up in his pod-tent, with red dust coating his short black spikes, giving them weird coloration.  He felt his central spike buzz and light up, and knew he was receiving a special message from home.  He focused, so that he could receive the message in his thoughts.  "Gerlatschee!  You must come home this minute! A war has broken out and a rumor started that only a male hero can save us!"  The voice of his mother came loud and clear through millions of miles and Spacejunk.   "You could do it!  It's a once in a lifetime chance!" Then, suddenly, his mind went blank.

He rolled over and stretched his wings, and peered out of his pod-tent towards the reddish horizon.  His trip to Mars had been uneventful, a welcome break from the dull pod-tent poster-making company where he worked.  It was a great chance to get off the planet, into Solar Sysem One, near Earth.  It was said that there were STRANGE creatures living on Earth.  They had a weird name, like humanes or something of that sort.

As it was still early, and his personal robot Clyde was still sleeping, he decided to take an early morning flight.  He pulled on his flight vest, strode out of the pod-tent, gave his wings a mighty flap, and was Mars-borne.  He felt better up in the sky.  He could see everything.  He could see his planet, Grassamassa, just over the horizon, rising, like their second sun did, by the light of the first.

Flying higher and higher, Gerlatchee sailed past the stars and planets and into the third solar system. He saw a planet ahead with a flat area that appeared perfect for landing. He supposed that from the rumors, this must be LaCraw, the desert planet of the Third.  Apparently at night, when the orbits of the three moons overlapped, the landscape rolled into pure Greek fire.  Even when the one small pond in the center of the planet was overcome in flames, and much later in the rainy season, the elements tried hard to fill it into a lake. But each year it became smaller, from lake to pond to puddle.  And the milkshake star needed water very badly.  Since this was one of the few water sources in the third solar system and it was becoming smaller by the year, the Charchees and Klinkits were getting desperate to save it.  But now, a fight had brokebn out between them about whether the milkshake star should put marachino cherries or regular cherries atop the vanilla milkshakes.