Pets in Space
STARDUST 2050. MY COPILOT’S in sickbay. That son of a rodent overdosed on meatballs for the second time in a single moon cycle. I warned Paavo to stop at three dozen, but I’m just his littermate, I mean commander.
Meanwhile, Admiral Halfspike, that hound who preempted me by three minutes at birth, texted caution. Marauding space poodles had been observed in the Fornax Cluster, i.e. mere megaparsecs from my ship. Given the poodles’ newfangled propulsion system, they will intersect with us in two days. Ironically, it’s poodles, not bassets, that are faster in a hound-dog mile.
I summon another of my littermates, I mean Ensign Cramer, to the poop deck. He brings a shovel and a waste basket.
To get here, Cramer squeezes through the hatch. Similar to Paavo, he has become depen
