Beckett didn’t approve of anyone “playing” with Stuart, so he tried to interrupt Corbin. But his efforts came too late, Stuart was hooked.

“What do you mean ‘menu’?” Stuart started shifting back and forth nervously.

“Think about it, Stuart,” Corbin said, ignoring Beckett. “When you go to a restaurant, they hand you a big book with a lot of pictures of food in it, right? This is the same thing. This tells aliens, whoever finds the satellite, ‘come to earth. . eat human’.”

Stuart snorted. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“It’s an ad,” Corbin continued. “It says, we’re on planet number three and we’re tasty.”

“Why would the government do that?” Stuart asked, sounding somewhat mystified.

“He’s just kidding, Stuart,” Beckett interjected.

“Am not. This is the government advertising their willingness to trade us for some crazy alien gear. Seriously Stuart, why else would NASA send drawings of naked people into space? Trust me, Uncle Sam would trade you for a fancy new ray gun in a heartbeat.”

Stuart increased the pace of his shifting and began rubbing his hands together.

“Fortunately, we don’t need to worry about that, do we Stuart?” Beckett said trying to calm Stuart.

“What do you mean?” Stuart asked.

“You said it yourself. NASA never got any of those satellites into orbit. That means there are no satellites flying around for aliens to find, right?” Beckett flashed Corbin a “shut up now” look.

Corbin ignored him. “Of course NASA got those satellites into space. How else do you think we got those great close ups of Jupiter, Saturn,” Corbin rolled his head toward Beckett, “and Uranus.”

“I need to think about this,” Stuart said. He began scratching his forehead. “You might be right. I never believe the government. My mother says I’m crazy, but she’s the crazy one. She believes everything the government tells her. You guys don’t believe what the government tells you, do you?”