ROO ROO! cried Wednesday over the comm system, her voice seeming to shake the entire ship, as the Captain barked, “ ok Del, thank you for that, 5 minutes on.my…Mark!

Wednesday Delenda said far more in that bark than humans can hear, she was selected for the mission due to her nuanced speaking abilities. In this she said,

Engines, Go

Life support, Go

Dens secured, Go

Pups in stasis, Go

Take it away Max

The ship was a late model dual X fusion drive that ran on any matter that was injected, power being based on mass of course. Roughly dog boned shape with living quarters in front and drive in back, 300 meters long, and 6000 tons of frozen kibble ice for ablation up front, she could pull .75c but not this trip. After the discovery of the wormhole in the G ring of Saturn it became a 6 month cruise to Saturn then a jump that took 344 earth days, then 6 more months to the Gstar.

The humans that made the first return trip had no hibernation and on arrival back on earth only 2 survived. They did however make a fine survey of the system up close, revealing an anomaly we hadn’t seen in any exoplanetary observations, three earthlike planets in the same orbit. Two very much like home, green and temperate, slightly larger but not an issue for dogs. Planet three was tidally torn and rotating 46 degrees off of the ecliptic plane, it could spell trouble in the future, more calcs needed to be done.

Besides command there a total of 128 unfixed pairs representing all the major groups of dogs and 13 litters of pups, all in hibernation. The pups will be 6 months old when they awaken, ready to hunt. Elon sent a pack of 64 robodogs to help with the real ones, and supplies were fully stocked for several years.Command would stay awake until the wormhole, then climb into a hibernation den until Gleise.Captain Max made the call,”This is it friends, sniff your loved ones and pray, see you all soon”,5,4,3,2,1

”ROO ROO ROOOOO!“

Dogspeed, and may the Canidae prevail”

6 months later,

“Captain, 6 hours from the wormhole but I pcked up an anomaly on our six” yapped Pixie

Goat, tell me what you see, barked Max

“ need a millisecond Cut off to get a view in 5,4,3,2,1

, gimme a second,”

“Max, we have three Bereaved ships coming at .95c, 4 hours til contact, oh, weapons are at station”

Thanks, growled Max.”command room, now” 

Max headed down to see Cat, the only one who might make difference. “Cat, what do see? Fight or run?”

“Max,its too simple, of course you run, Now. We are more nimble and can run the wormhole faster than they”

puzzled, Max asked” how do you know?”

We don’t, was Cats response.

Knowing we had the resources we ran up to 1.2c for about5 minutes then coasted into the wormhole, safe? No. Engineer Tuppance came to me personally with the news, if we drive through hole at this rate we will be crushed beyond atoms, he took over propulsion for a bit and we were back on track, good dog.

We left the Bereavers far behind, and settled into our dens for a years nap, hoping to find a new home for all creatures.

Life finds a way

In space there is no smell,

Do dogs dream, oh yes,

But never dwell on the past,

Every day is fresh and magic,

My people, my treats,

They know