Housepets! In Space!

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

This fic takes place around 300 years after the events in Housepets! I hope you enjoy!

---------

Chapter 1: Stardate 18473.2

It’s been said before that space was the final frontier. And true, space is quite large and very nearly infinite. Not that we’ll ever find the edges, of course. There’s so much to do, so much to see out there. Unique phenomena not seen anywhere else can occur anywhere. Even seasoned veterans see things they’ve never seen before at least once a week. Earth’s explorers continually expand the realms of exploration, cataloging planets, stars, comets, and wormholes to completely fill in the edges of the galactic map.
The Planetary Exploration and Terrestrial Scientists teams are full of highly trained individuals whose goal it is to record as many celestial phenomena as possible without disturbing any budding civilizations.
The most elite team in the P.E.T.S. is the crew of the Starship SS Beagle, by far the smallest ship in the entire fleet. Clocking in at just under one third the scale of the standard Exploration class, the Starship Beagle has a crew complement of just one hundred. It features six phased energy beam banks, plasma shields, three micro-torpedo launchers, and the smallest subspace engine ever produced on Solaris C, the home planet of the P.E.T.S.. Nonetheless, it is the fastest ship in the fleet due to one major advantage it has- being crewed entirely by animals, the ship was literally built to scale of the standard Exploration class ship- it features all of the same floor plans and layouts, simply scaled down for its diminutive crew.
Today is the first launching of the ship following its completion in spacedock-

“Are you done narrating, or can we go ahead and launch?” Captain Katy James raised her eyebrow at her first officer, Commander Allen Whist.
Allen blushed, looking up. He hadn’t realized that the bridge had filled out so much while he was busy filing his log. “Oh… sorry. I guess I got a little carried away.” He waved a hand over the holodisplay on his arm, and the screen disappeared, merging back into his wristband like it was never there.
Katy smirked. “You mean, again.” She waved at the helmsman to launch, and the ship smoothly slid out of spacedock like it had done it a thousand times before, instead of this being the first launch. The raccoon snickered and nudged her friend. “I swear, you and those logs. You know nobody reads them. They don’t even bother saving them to the database.”
Allen, a dog of breed so mixed as to be unknowable, gave a shy grin. “I know, I know. But they always file their logs at the beginning of the old earth documentaries-”
“Television show, not documentaries.” Katy interrupted.
“- and I like to do it, too. Maybe we’ll have an exciting trip, for once.” He patted his seat. “Maybe the new ship will bring us some luck. Or at least make it all the way there without breaking down.”
“Fingers crossed. I heard the scientists had trouble scaling down the subspace engine to fit the ship, and they didn’t exactly TEST it outside of simulations…” Katy grinned and pulled up the holodisplay on her chair to log their launch and chart their course. “Also, we are NOT in the P.E.T.S.. We are STILL not.”
“I can dream.” He shrugged and pulled up his holodisplay to verify her course and send it to the helmsman, then stood up. “Well.. that’s another successful launch. Wanna get lunch?” The view outside the ship blurred, then went dark as they accelerated to subspace speed. He barely even noticed the twisting of his guts at the unnatural motion anymore. Space travel wasn’t anywhere NEAR as fun as it looked in the ancient entertainment shows. It generally only required a helmsman on the bridge to navigate around obstacles, and that was it.
She stared at him for a few moments, then nodded and stood up. “Yeah, all right.” She followed him out of the bridge.
On the way to the mess hall, Allen gestured with his hands as he spoke, as was his habit. “I’m just saying, we could be GREAT P.E.T.S., if they’d let us off the cargo detail. I’m tired of running supplies back and forth between spacedocks and stations and outposts. I want some REAL action.”
Katy scoffed. “Good luck with that. You know humans, they don’t trust animals to do anything actually important. There was a massive leap forward in equality during the Great Calamity of 2023, and then nothing for three hundred years. We’re still no better off than we were back then. Humans get all the important and exciting jobs, and we animals only get to do the mundane stuff like cooking, cleaning, and running cargo.”
They entered the mess hall, and Allen sighed. “You have GOT to be kidding me. It’s a brand-new ship, is it too much to ask for proper food synthesizers?” He stared grumpily at the four glass cylinders full of dried nutrition cereal mounted on the walls where the synthesizers would normally be on a full-scale ship.
Katy rolled her eyes. “Did you REALLY expect otherwise?” She picked up a bowl from the stack of dishes. “Add hot water if you don’t like it. It’s pretty good when you make it all soupy.” She pressed her bowl into the slot at the bottom of one of the dispensers, moving a piece of plastic to simultaneously open the bottom of the dispenser to dispense a serving, and block off the dispenser a few inches higher so it didn’t just all flow out. “Though I wish they would make it so they didn’t all taste the same no matter which flavor you choose.”
Allen dispensed his own portion and grimaced. “The liver and onions flavor is slightly worse, actually.” He stuck out his tongue. “Nasty. Tastes like iron.”
Katy laughed. “True. Still, it tastes like iron WITH the same flavor as the rest of them underneath it. I swear sometimes, they just fill them all from the same bag and SAY they’re different flavors.”
“I guarantee they do. Who would even notice?” He sat down and popped a piece of the dry nutrient cereal into his mouth with his fingers. “Mmph. They didn’t even give us the good stuff. This is the cheap stuff.”
Katy pushed a spoon at him with a scowl, then scooped a mouthful into her own muzzle. “Eugh… You’re right. This is even worse than the usual garbage.”
“Garbage would be better, honestly.” He rolled his eyes. “I hate breaking into my traveling snacks on the first day, but it might be better than eating this crap. Definitely don’t have enough to make it all the way to Alpha Centauri B and back, though.”
Katy rolled her eyes. “It’s not THAT bad. Save your snacks, Commander. That’s an order.” She took another spoonful and chewed it thoughtfully.
“You ever wonder what REALLY happened during the Great Calamity?” Allen spoke thoughtfully, popping a few pieces of cereal from his closed fist into his mouth, still ignoring his spoon.
“We know what happened. There were riots, and animals demanded their rights, so we were given them. It was chaos for a year or two, and then everything settled down.” Katy shrugged. “A lot of records from that time period have been lost, but the Calamity is one thing everybody remembers.”
“I meant, more specifically than that. What happened that they chose to riot THEN? Why not a year earlier? Or a year later? Why THAT specific time?” Allen scratched behind his ear, his leg twitching as he did so, then shook his head, making his ears flop around.
Katy sighed and rolled her eyes. “Nobody really knows that. There were news reports, but they were so worn out from overplaying and people using the internet thingie to modify them that big chunks of them are missing now. Nobody really knows what happened to trigger it.”
“I know, I know. But you still gotta WONDER.” He popped a mouthful of cereal bits into his mouth and crunched on each individual piece before chewing normally and swallowing. “It’s like, one day everybody was fine with animals just being normal pets, and then BOOM, all the animals wanted their rights. SOMETHING must have happened.”
Katy shrugged. “The way I see it, it doesn’t matter. Even if we DID know, it wouldn’t affect us now.”
“Well… maybe it would. We could recreate whatever part of it caused our rights to move forward, maybe move our rights forward some more.” He stuck his tongue out, grimacing at the cereal in his bowl. “Or at least get proper food synthesizers. This stuff is awful.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

Is it wrong that I read the "In Space!" part as dramatically as possible to emphasis the point about it being "IN SPAAAAAAAAAACE!" XP

Anyway I do really like the way this story has started out! Great work on it!

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Oh, I insist upon it. I hope you also read the intro like an old TV announcer or like the captain in the beginning of an episode of Star Trek.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 2: A man named “P”

After reporting to the bridge to check the course and overseeing the switch from the day shift to the night helmsman, Allen reported to his quarters. He sighed and slipped off his wristband, placing it on its charger and heading toward his bathroom to prepare for bed. Something rustled behind him, and he turned around.
Nothing was there.
“... Hello?” He stepped back into the room and looked around nervously. “Is somebody in here?” His ears went back, and his tail went between his legs. He lifted the sheets to check under the bed, then turned to the closet. “... Katy, if you’re in here trying to scare me…” He opened the closet and stared inside. Nothing. He sighed and closed the door again, then turned toward the bathroom. “... must have been the life support system cycling.”
He walked into the bathroom and stripped off his uniform, tossing it into the cleaning system. It hummed to life, tumbling his uniform in a tiny machine that cleared off the miniscule amounts of dirt that could be found aboard a ship that had never even seen the surface of a planet. It was more to deodorize than anything, he figured.
He stepped into the shower and sighed happily as it sprayed hot water at him through the specialized nozzle meant to use far less water than a normal shower, yet still feel high-pressured. He was glad he was a high-ranking commander, rather than a lowly ensign or something like that. Below a certain rank, you slept in a barracks and showered in a communal shower. There were stalls, but they weren’t really all that private. Once he was clean, he switched the shower to dryer mode. A heated overhead fan powered on, blowing hot air through his fur and agitating it until he was more or less dry. More efficient than towels, which was good for space travel, and all the water could get recaptured by the system and cleaned for reuse this way.
Just as he stepped out of the shower, the uniform cleaning machine spit out his uniform, washed, pressed, and ready for him to wear again. He gathered it up and laid it on the countertop to put on in the morning. He wouldn’t need it for bed, after all. He brushed his teeth and hummed to himself as he left the bathroom and back into his quarters. He was looking down at the floor, idly thinking about the book he planned on reading before bed, when he noticed something moving out of the corner of his eye. He looked up, then did a double-take.
Someone was in his bed. Or rather, someTHING. It had a lion’s tail, but a bird’s head, and wings sticking out of its back just behind its arms, which ended in yellow, clawed talons. Its feathers were blue, and its fur was a normal tan like a lion’s fur should be. It was wearing his pajamas. No, not his pajamas, but a fairly close copy of them. His pajamas still lay at the foot of the bed where he had left them.
He blinked at the creature, tilting his head. “... What are you?”
The creature smirked at him and tossed him his pajamas. “Your entire family line. Never surprised to see me, always with the unexpected questions.”
He caught his pajamas and started putting them on. “Are you who was in here earlier? I thought I heard something, but couldn’t find anything.”
The creature sat up on the edge of his bed, grinning. Odd, his head seemed to be above the ceiling. “Hard to hit such a fast-moving target. I overshot a bit and had to try again.”
Allen looked around. “Moving? You mean… the ship?”
“Bingo.” He grinned down at him. “As for WHAT I am… you never were all that interested in the ancient mythologies, were you, Allen? I’m a griffon. A creature that’s half-lion, half-eagle. Found in many mythologies on your world.”
“Ah. Fantasy stuff. Never really cared for that. Wizards and magic and all that nonsense. I prefer science fiction.” He finished putting on his pants and stood there in his pajamas, looking up at the griffon. “Another question. Why are you in my bed?”
“It looked comfy.” He grinned down at him. “I’ve been watching you, Allen. You’ve been bored of this job for some time, right? I could make it more… interesting, for you.”
He put his hands on his hips and stared up at him. “Interesting, how?”
“You have lots of interesting ideas inside your head. From those old space shows you like to watch. Not the newer stuff, though.”
“The newer stuff is too tainted by what IS. I like the older stuff, from before we invented the subspace drive. They were more worried about what MIGHT be.” He shrugged. “Call me a dreamer, but I like to think there’s more than just empty space out here. I want some excitement.”
“Excitement, I can do. But first, I need you to do something for me.” The griffon rolled over onto his bed again and looked at him upside-down, dangling his head over the edge. “See, I’m… playing a kind of game. A rather complicated game that you wouldn’t understand, but, well… See… I need someone to work for me. Kind of a… being my eyes and ears deal. Maybe just a TINY bit of fighting eventually.” He rolled back over and lifted his head to meet Allen’s gaze. “And in exchange, I can do you some favors. Make life out here more exciting for you?”
Allen stared at the big yellow beak that was pointed at him. A tiny voice in the back of his mind screamed that this was a bad idea. “... Why me? There’s a hundred other animals on this ship, why me specifically?”
“Oh, because your ancestor agreed to it, a long time ago. Of course, another one of your ancestors flat-out refused me for years, but let’s just focus on the one that said yes.” He did a complicated motion that ended with him sitting on the bed, his knees dangling over the edge as he grinned down at Allen. “You still have trace amounts of my power in your blood, even all these generations later. In fact, you could say, that if not for me, you wouldn’t exist at all. So, I thought I’d give you the first chance at being my new avatar.”
Allen turned away, thinking about it. Why did this sound too good to be true? Before he decided on an answer, the griffon spoke again, this time in Allen’s own voice. “We could recreate the Great Calamity, move our rights forward.” The voice returned to being the griffon’s own. “Isn’t that what you said? Paraphrasing, of course. I could do that for you. It would be a simple matter.” He leaned down. “And all you’d have to do, is let me watch through your eyes, accept… well, a power of sorts, and maybe, one day, do battle for me.”
Allen turned to face him, his ears perking. “You know what happened during the Great Calamity?! What was it?”
He chuckled. “Oh, of COURSE I know. I was there. I caused it, in a manner of speaking. Indirectly, mind you, but it would be a simple matter to do it again.” He leaned in close, so close that Allen could actually smell him. He smelled vaguely familiar somehow. “All you would have to do, is say yes.”
Allen opened his mouth, then closed it again, then opened it again. “Y-yes, I can do that. Just… help us get more rights, make life more exciting!”
A scroll appeared in the griffon’s hand. An honest-to-goodness SCROLL. He unrolled it, and handed Allen a pen with a smug smile. “Sign on the line, Allen, and it’ll be done.”
Allen grabbed the pen and, without hesitation, signed his name. The scroll glowed for a second, then collapsed into a ball of light and shot into Allen’s chest. He gasped and clutched at his chest as a warm sensation spread through his body. It didn’t hurt, it was just surprising.
The griffon smiled down at him with a smile that didn’t look completely kind at all. “I grant you the power of the Bloodborne Paladin.”
The warmpth continued to spread, then suddenly faded, leaving Allen feeling normal, but energized. “What was-”
“I told you I was going to give you power, didn’t I? Don’t worry, you’ll figure out how to use it. I COULD tell you, but then it would be no fun at all.”
He stood up and looked up at the griffon. Something came to mind, a question he should have asked already. “W-wait… what should I call you?”
The griffon paused. “Hmm… your mind is full of old shows. There’s one character in particular that I like. He used a single letter for his name and had extraordinary power beyond the scope of mortals. I think I’ll copy him. You can call me P, in honor of what your two ancestors used to call me.”
Allen blinked. He knew the character the griffon was referencing. He was chaotic, not at all on the side of the good guys in the show. That was probably not good. “P, huh? Well… now what?”
“Now, I need you to wake up.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

Nice to see that it is possible to enter into dreams and talk to somebody then get them to wake up afterwards. That is a gag that never gets old.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

It was just a dream! Or was it?!
Might possibly be a LITTLE trouble on the horizon for the SS Beagle...

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 3: Wake up

Allen sat up groggily and looked around. There was no trace of the strange creature that had been there what felt like seconds ago. He patted himself down. He didn’t FEEL any different. He gave a sigh and lay back in his bed for a few moments before rolling his legs to the side and standing up. “Ugh.. what a vivid dream. What a WEIRD dream.” He stumbled to the bathroom and began his morning routine.
Fifteen minutes later, properly dressed in his uniform and his armband, he started down the hall to the bridge. He couldn’t get the thought of that dream out of his head- what had that even been? It was weird. His wristband beeped, and Allen pulled up the holodisplay. It was a message from Katy: “You’re needed on the bridge ASAP.” He waved the display away and quickened his pace.
Upon his arrival on the bridge, Katy looked at him. “You’re late, Commander. Have a seat.”
Allen sat in his seat and listened to the night helmsman drone on and on about the course changes he had to make throughout the night, following along on his written report. He never understood why they had to give a written report AND a verbal report, but it was protocol, and protocol had to be followed.
Once the night helmsman finished with his report, the day helmsman took over, and Katy made the necessary course adjustments, sending them over to Allen, who approved them and sent them back to the helmsman’s console. The helmsman acknowledged the adjustments, and with that, Allen and Katy’s jobs on the bridge were done for the morning.
As they headed out the door, Katy nudged Allen’s hip. “It’s not like you to be late. What’s up?”
Allen shrugged. “Overslept. I don’t even remember going to bed last night, I must have forgotten to set my alarm. And then I had this really vivid dream. It… well.. I don’t remember a lot of it now, but there was this blue griffon, he wanted me to call him P, and something about the Great Calamity… I don’t know.” He opened the door to the cargo bay for her, then followed her in.
As they began inspecting the cargo to make sure it was secure, he told her what he could remember of his encounter with P. “And then it was like, I don’t know, my whole body felt warm, and he said he’d given me some power or other. I don’t know, it was probably just something I ate causing really weird dreams.”
“Sounds really weird. Not weird enough to be worth being late for morning reports, but weird. Now we’re going to have to rush all day in order to get our rounds done on time.” She counted up the cargo barrels in the row they were in, then frowned. “We’re one short.”
“It’s on the floor over there.” He motioned to a barrel that had rolled off against the back wall. He walked over to the intercom button and pressed the call button. “Hey, we got a loose barrel down in row seven. Can I get a lift team to come put it back?” That done, he climbed up the ladder to the shelf to check the rigging. “They must have forgotten to secure that one, all these other barrels look secure enough.” He tugged on the straps. They didn’t budge. He moved over to the other side of the same shelf and tugged on the straps. They slipped right off. “Looks like they forgot to secure the one on the end all up and down this line. Be careful.”
He started down the line, securing the barrels, and Katy rolled her eyes up at him. “Get down here, Commander. That’s not your job.”
He stuck his tongue out at her. “Commander’s prerogative. It’s the most exciting thing that’s probably going to happen on this ship.” He climbed down from the shelving and waved the lift crew through with their forklift.
Katy rolled her eyes. “You know, you’d think someone who had achieved the rank of Commander would be mature.” She started walking down the line to the next set of racks. The ship jostled gently, and a barrel rolled off the end of the rack and started falling directly toward her head.
Allen gasped, watching it fall as if in slow motion. He started running forward. “Look out!” He raised a hand and swatted the steel barrel out of the way, knocking Katy backward and onto the ground with his other hand. The barrel bounced across the cargo bay, and he turned and pulled Katy out of the line of rolling in case another one fell. “Captain, are you okay?!”
She looked up at him, shaken, and nodded. “Y-yeah, I think so, thanks to your quick thinking. How did…?”
He looked over at where the barrel had stopped bouncing and was slowly spinning and wobbling in place. “I don’t know. Adrenaline? They must have loaded an empty by mistake.” He helped her up. “Let’s get you to Medbay just in case.” He took her by the hand and led her out of the cargo bay, but not before stopping and pointing at the lift crew. “Resecure every barrel on every shelf. Make sure it’s done right this time. Someone in Spacedock screwed up big time.”
He escorted Katy to Medbay and had the ship’s vet look her over. She seemed uninjured except a minor bruise where Allen had shoved her. The vet also insisted on examining Allen’s hands, especially the one he had used to smack the barrel aside, explaining that he could have broken his hand and just not felt it yet because of the adrenaline. When she found nothing, she seemed shocked, but let the two go back to their duties.
“Well… that was certainly exciting.” Allen stated as they made their way back to the cargo bay.
“You’re telling me. I think you saved my life, even if it WAS an empty barrel.” She reached back and tried to smooth out her fluffed-up tail. “I still can’t get my fur to settle down.”
He once again held the door for her to enter the cargo bay, and the lead of the lift crew ran up and saluted her. “Ma’am! All barrels have been resecured, and the damaged one has been sent down to repackaging! We took the liberty of completing your inventory check, Ma’am, while we were resecuring the cargo!” He handed her the clipboard she had dropped when the barrel nearly fell on her.
“Thank you. Damaged barrel?” She took the clipboard and glanced it over.
“Yes, ma’am, it’s the darndest thing I ever saw. The barrel that nearly fell on you- the entire end was caved in. It must have hit the floor just right to compromise the structure. Fortunately, none of the cargo seemed damaged. Repackaging will send you a report once they’ve finished repacking the container and have sent it back to us for storage.”
“Thank you, crewman.” She nodded and turned to exit the cargo bay. Once the door was shut, she spoke to Allen softly as she headed to their next stop. “So much for your empty barrel theory. You must have just gotten lucky and hit it right in the middle of an artificial gravity cycle.”
Allen nodded, looking a bit pale. “We could both have been seriously injured. I never understood why they insist on full gravity in the cargo bay. It seems to me like of all the places reduced gravity would be useful, the cargo bay is the most… well… useful.”
Katy rolled her eyes. “Humans make dumb decisions and expect us all to follow them.” She paused and looked at him. “We’re going to have to split up to get back on track with our day one duties. With this morning’s delay and the incident in cargo, there’s not enough time to go check every system.” She waved her hand over her wristband, bringing up the holodisplay, and navigated to a coin flip program. “Call it in the air. Loser has to check the engine room, database room, and life support. Winner gets astral mapping, comms, and shuttle docks.”
Allen quickly called out “Heads” as the coin started flipping and tumbling, groaning when it landed on tails. Katy grinned and patted his shoulder. “Have fun running all over the ship, Commander. I’ll see you at evening debrief for helm changeover. Try to be on time this time, will you?”

[Amazee Dayzee]

I think that this chapter came out very wonderful and like the direction it is heading in! Really can't wait to see what the next thing that comes up is!