"C'mon," the alien said as he patted his lap. "Sit." Bastian raised an eyebrow. "What? Why?" "Sit. Here." Normla gestured toward his lap with both hands. "Can't have you standing when we make a Hyperspace jump. And it's a one-man cockpit, so..."
"Can't I just...Iunno, sit in the back? There's chairs back there."
"I guess," Normla sighed. "But you can't really pilot the ship from back there..." With a knowing smile, he turned toward the little panda, noting the sudden wide-eyed expression on the little creatures face.
---
Got quite a few sillier ideas like this that I kinda wanna do, but always end up doing clown titties instead.