William Shatner reached out to an astronaut currently in space on Twitter and received a response that has ignited the imagination of fans across cyberspace.

Shatner, Captain James T. Kirk of “Star Trek” fame, has become a pop culture icon of sorts and his time helming the USS Enterprise has cemented his legacy among fans of the show. The idea of space, traveling to distant worlds, encountering even stranger things on those worlds, has led generations to look up at the stars and wonder what is out there.

The idea that Shatner would reach out to an astronaut currently in space is something out of fan fiction, but the Internet is full of surprises, and on Wednesday, Shatner boldly reached out on Twitter to Chris Hadfield.

Hadfield is a Canadian astronaut currently aboard the International Space Station as a flight engineer. While on the ISS, Hadfield has been active on Twitter, answering questions and sending photos of locations around Earth. Wednesday was no exception, as Hadfield shared spectacular images of the Australian wildfires, Lake Ontario, the Mojave Desert and Los Angeles before Shatner decided to send him a quick message that instantly went viral on the Internet.

Shatner tweeted to Hadfield, “Are you tweeting from space? MBB” to which Hadfield responded in the best way possible, “Yes, Standard Orbit, Captain. And we're detecting signs of life on the surface.”

The conversation delighted fans of “Star Trek” and spurred further talk between Shatner and the Canadian Space Agency to continue the chat between the Captain and the Commander. Previously, as part of a CSA contest, Shatner took a photo with a 2-D cutout of Hadfield.

Australia Twitter Space International Space Station