Anastasia the Super Dog in Space

Alicia Paintner

ISBN (Print Edition): 978-1-54396-096-9

ISBN (eBook Edition): 978-1-54396-097-6

© 2019. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Chapter 1:

New Earth Resettlement Date: 8:22:512

“Holy crap! Is that a puppy? On a spaceship?! My oxygen mix must be out of whack. There haven’t been any dogs alive in almost five hundred years.” Said Hailey to her ship recorder, right before she passed out.

New Earth Resettlement Date: 7:8:512

Ship Log; The Independence:

Well, ship, I am your new captain Hailey, and it has been suggested to me by a smothering Mother that I keep a log to document what I am sure will be a momentous adventure. In truth, I am scared shitless I will be a giant failure. I try very hard to come off as this tough badass bitch, totally in control of her destiny. But the truth is I am a giant goob that trips over nothing, laughs at her own jokes, farts at just the wrong time and is a constant work in progress. I seem to give people the impression I am a lot cooler than I really am, but I think that is only because I don’t care too much what most people think of me. I can take a punch, and I have been known to give pretty good on that score too. That has helped my cool factor. I don’t have an advanced education but I loved to read by myself as a kid, and I picked up a lot of stuff on my own. I don’t think I am all that great looking, but I get a lot of attention from men and women, so maybe that is my insecurities talking.

“Ship, halt recording. Make sure to change the encryption to the highest security level. No access to this file other than me unless I die and someone finds my floating corpse in a Ghost Ship. Restart recording.”

I purchased this ship from one of the religious divisions of our Caravan about four ten days ago. The family that had owned it previously were not very tech savvy and had let the CO2 scrubbers go bad. Unfortunately for them, they all died in their sleep. Fortunately for me, that put a stigma on the ship. Something about it being haunted. Whatever! Because of their silly superstition, I was able to buy this baby for a song.

It has taken me about four ten days to get it ship-shape as it were, but now I am ready for my maiden voyage. I am going to spend a few ten days hoping back and forth between the different ships in our caravan, but once I am confident I won’t die of something fixable I am off to my first adventure. My Mom doesn’t know I plan on leaving the caravan for 6-8 ten days; she is going to have a shit fit when I tell her. But, I need to break away from her and everyone for a while. I pretty much hate all humans. Well I love my Mom of course, and I like Joe, and I have some conflicting feelings about Chastity…but you don’t want to hear that. Let’s leave it with…I can’t wait to be alone, and I need to prove myself.

I am changing your name to The Independence. This ship is going to be a scavenger ship. I have done some buying and selling of scrap on the down low, but we don’t want to share that with everyone. Ok? Remember encrypted unless I am dead! We will pick up any piece of trash we come across, fix it up and sell it to whoever has the most credits. All the ships are so good at recycling any biologic debris that we never had to worry about picking up a bag of poop. I am thankful about that part of human evolution; humans finally learned to clean up their crap. But, there is an endless amount of space. We will find all kinds of good stuff, and I am determined to discover it and make my fortune.

Wish us luck ship!

Sept 3, 2097

Dear Diary.

This is Zarah Black, and I am going to start writing my story in hopes I can pass it on to the person I am putting all my hopes and dreams into this crusade. This person won’t be born for hundreds of years, but I have great faith that my Warren is going to guide them from Heaven to the road that will bring all animals back to life. I wish I had family that I could explain this all too, in hopes of them keeping my history and legacy alive. But all I have is are my beloved dogs, and they can’t tell a story worth shit! Ha ha.

I like to pretend everyone alive today knows who I am. However, I am just a silly old lady. I know this, but I try to put up a good front. A few facts are that I was, in my day, a movie star. I was in several nonsensical movies about a pretty party girl having all kinds of fun with boys and music with me in very little clothes. I had quite the figure in the day. I had lots of fun and made what I thought was a lot of money. I didn’t know what real money was though. I found out what REAL money was when I met the love of my life, the Wonderful Warren. Warren was much older than I and lots of people thought I married him because he was one of the wealthiest men on the planet. But hand to God, he was the love of my life. We turned our love towards our dogs and trying to preserve the animals of the world against a dying planet.

If my hopes come true, you are on one of the ships in the fleet that has left Earth for a new home planet. If that isn’t true maybe you are an alien that has come across my Zoosicle and rescued all the animals. I just know in my heart that something beautiful is going to happen and they will be saved.

The planet is spiraling out of control much sooner then anyone thought. We have only about a year left before we are completely out of drinkable water and breathable air. They have moved the departure date up to August 8th. I am so scared, not for myself, but for the animals. It breaks my heart to think of all the species that have perished already and what is soon going to happen to the ones that are left. I don’t care so much about the people. I know that is terrible, but damn it, they killed earth. They deserve what they get. I am glad some humans are going to get off the planet, but it burns my ass they aren’t taking any animals with them. My money is going to fix that.

I am going to call it a night now. The babies and I have much to do in the next few months before the launch. I have to meet with the team from the Bronx Zoo and the Engineering team in charge of the Zoosicle. And the best news is that Ramsey came through and got us a meeting with that stupid general. I have to make him understand how vital our project is. He has to guarantee everything is going to be taken care of correctly.

New Earth Resettlement Date: 7:8:512

Sure enough, her Mom was having a fit about it.

“What if something happens to you, how will we know?! How can we help you if you are in trouble?” Hailey rolled her eyes and kept going on her plans.

“I will send you messages back and forth from the vid pod I refinished. You can send me back messages. Send copies of the news vids too, ok? It will take a few days to get back and forth, but if you don’t hear from me in a Ten-day, then you can panic. Not until then Mom, promise!”

Mom couldn’t promise but tried to pretend to be brave. Hailey wasn’t buying it for a second.

New Earth Resettlement Date: 7:9:512

Ship Log; The Independence:

After I pried my sobbing Mom off my neck, I hopped over to the military ship for a quick visit with Joe. I was hoping for a little “wink wink nod nod” from him before I left. After all, I was going to be gone for at least Six Ten-days.

Joe lives on the main Military Ship. It is an excellent place to live in the caravan. The military has gotten their act together enough to cover the three things they care about the most; guns, food, and sanitation. In the typical military fashion, they did it in that order. It was probably best considering what a cluster mess all the ships caused. The first ten years they used those weapons to keep all the travelers in check. A good thing they did, if we are being honest. Each spaceship should have had its own hydroponics to grow vegetable, fruit, soybeans for proteins but again in their race to get off planet, a lot of spacers, having very little to no experience with growing anything managed to kill their crops to the point of starvation within the first year. Luckily the bug food source was almost impossible to kill. But man cannot live by bugs alone and soon these spacers that couldn’t keep a plant alive were trying to break into the military stores to get their hands on an orange before they died of scurvy.

The military made short work of them and made it very public. It only took half a dozen instances of a few overly hungry and desperate travelers being shot dead on live vid new feeds for people to realize the military had them right where they wanted them, and they needed to play nice. The military maintained they weren’t going to be ugly about sharing what they had. You didn’t have to donate a kidney or sign up for a lifelong career in the military. If your food or ship failed, you only had to sign up for 5-year stints to get what you needed. Of course, it ended up being much more like a prison sentence than an army career. The Earthen Military Brigade would give you as many calories as your body required (just), enough clean water as your body needed (just), enough air…..you get the point. What they didn’t tell you until it was too late was that they weren’t actually going to pay you and in fact, they were going to charge you for the clothes on your back, the shoes on your feet, the cot you were going to sleep on….again you get the idea. And they most assuredly were not going to tell you that those expenses were going to cause you to owe them more than you could ever give back in exchange by the sweat of your own brow. Your five years enlistment quickly became what was appearing to be lifelong slavery.

If we were looking at the Caravan ORG chart, the Army would be top of the list, followed closely by the wealthiest top One% (as in Earth’s hay day) and then the Religious groups.

Although I hate humans, I like Joe on the Military Ship. He is an ensign in shipping and receiving. He bought scrap I had scavenged from the Marietta illegally a few ten days ago for more than market value. He isn’t terrible. He is tall and kinda cute. I think he is cute in that way 18-year-old boys who are desperate are cute. He is cute in the way boys are when they have been locked in Catholic Ship all their lives. I met him his first Ten-day out of the Big House and on his own in shipping. He was so scared of screwing up that I was able to convince him I always got 5% over market value for my stolen crap. Then I felt so bad I had to do something nice for him to look myself in the mirror that night. We bump uglies every once in a while. I mean a girl had needs even if I hate all humans, except Mom.

Chapter 2:

She docked The Independence in one of the smaller bays and went looking for Joe and some food. Not necessarily in that order. She went to their mess hall and got a big plate of what looked like brown mud next to a pile of green slop. Yum! Their food never tasted good, but it was always very nutritional and filling. And for a girl starting her own scrap business and on a tight budget that was her kind of food. Right off she got lucky; Joe was there eating too. She sidled up to him and sat down next to him, bumping him on the arm.

“Hey, tuff guy,” she said to him. “Are you going on duty next? Or do you have some time to kill?”

Poor Joe blushed from the roots of his hair down to his toes. He stammered a little…”Hey Hailey, um yes I think I am…um I mean I have to go on duty in about half an hour, but sure yeah.”

His best buddy kicked him in the shins from across the table and gave him a “Be cool dude!” look. Dan had a lot more experience with girls than Joe did so he tried to straighten up and look cooler. Dan was the cutest trans guy Hailey had ever meet. If she had met him before Dan, she might be following that line instead of Joe’s. Hailey was glad most of the fleet had let go of horrible social mores of the religious ships. For most of the population, it was a non-issue. It was a good thing Dan had been born on a science ship and not the Catholic one, or he would still be Danielle and not Dan. He had all the best features of a girl, long thick eyelashes, beautifully colored skin with all the hard, masculine lines girls adored.

But, Joe made her laugh in general. He was such a goof, and it was so easy to have fun with him. He was not her forever guy. She thought he understood that, but he was so naive. She might have to have a talk with him about that soon. She was trying to be casual with Chastity and Joe, but she didn’t think any of them were built for that. Yet another sign she was not the badass she was striving to achieve.

“So Joe, didn’t you say you had some new vid game you wanted to show me in your bunk room?” She asked winking and making silly faces at him.

“No, that wasn’t me. I don’t have any new games.” Answered Joe confused, being a huge dork.

Dan kicked him under the table harder this time and said “If you don’t have anything to show her, I sure do. You want to come with me, Hailey?

It was then that Joe got it and said quickly…”Oh no! That was me, I forgot. Yeah Hailey, why don’t you come to my bunk room and see.” He stood up too quickly and knocked his plate all over Hailey and then in his hurry to grab it smacked his head into Hailey’s.

At that point, she was kind of past the old itch and said: “How about we just go down to my ship, and you see what I have?”

Joe nodded dejectedly and followed her out. She could see Dan shaking his head and thinking “That poor guy, that is what happens when you grow up on the Catholic ship. He is clueless.” Disgust was written all over his face.

The next group on the Org chart would be the massive spaceship for all the world religions that could get their act together in time to get their holy heinies off the Earth. So along with military ships, the fleet had massive spaceships for all the major religions. There was the Catholic ship that had scooped out the entire Vatican and placed it in what looked like a giant glass bottle with rockets. They had the whole Sistine Chapel. They had all the important Vatican’s museum contents. They had every piece of art, sculpture and every historical/spiritual document they could fit on board. They were not about to let any of “God’s treasures” be left behind. If it was God’s plan for them to find a new home, that meant the entire Church’s home was going with them.

And even though the church had relaxed in many of their long-held beliefs, one thing they did not relax on was Priests and Nuns marrying and having children. The church had realized women and men were equal and gone were the days of Priest being in the front and Nun’s in the background doing all the work. They were on equal footing at the time of the Exit. However, they weren’t going to succumb to bodily urges just because the world was dying. It worked out well for the Fleet that there was at least one massive spaceship that did not have humans breeding like rabbits. The Priests and Nuns realized they were not going to live forever and this was a multi-generational trip, so they did build in the equivalent of religious boarding schools. If you were a worker on a yacht and had a child at a time when a bed was not available you had the option of “donating” your child to The Church. This was not as bad as it sounds. You could still see your children occasionally, and they had it pretty good. The dorms on The Vatican were more spacious and the food tastier then a worker got on a yacht. The Vatican children took classes in primary education and religious training. They did chores such as cleaning their own spaces and the older children cooked food for the younger ones under the tutelage of the Nuns and Priests.

The Nuns and Priests knew that they needed the children happy and healthy so that they could take over not only the care of their ship when they grew too old but also to voluntarily choose to become Priest and Nuns themselves. They needed the younger generation to grow up feeling “the calling” so that the faith would not die. They required these children as much as the children needed them. It was a win-win for all of them. This is where Joe the Ensign grew up. It is why he was so sheltered and naive. He was an easy mark, but then those vast brown sad eyes could pour a bucket of guilt into anyone.

Hailey was pretty sure Joe was so embarrassed over his lack of cool, he made sure Hailey got an extra lucrative deal that day. He did make a point of telling her he was determined to get his shit together. He told her next time Hailey showed up on his ship; he would be ready for a little alone time. As she walked away, she saw him hitting his head against the bulkhead for a while. She couldn’t help but think he was such a poor dork.

March 20, 2097:

Dear Diary,

It was a hard day today. And I was so mean to Ramsey again. I am just so scared. Our fight started out after he told me the General wouldn’t see me when we tried to schedule an appointment with him.

“What the hell do you mean the General won’t see me!” I screamed at poor Ramsey. I knew I was being an ass to him. I wanted to scream at the General, but he wasn’t an option right now.

I am sure it was not a pretty picture, a short, plump woman with bleached hair teased to its limits screaming at a small man trembling in his Gucci’s.

“Please Zarah, try to calm down…” he said to me in a meek voice.

“Calm down?! CALM DOWN! Has that phrase ever in the history of humanity ever calmed a woman down?”

My four little white puffball dogs were jumping around my feet barking in a highly agitated timber. I could see that look go across his face, the one that said it was enough to make a grown man want to kick them across the room. But he knew who buttered his bread, and he really loved them too, so he just let me go until I ran out of steam. He also knew where he stood in the house compared to my little ankle biters, so he kept quiet and took his tongue lashing.

He tried to answer me, but before the words could leave his lips, I was yelling back at him.

“NO! Of course not! All that does is piss us off even more. Have you learned nothing in the forty some odd years you have been my personal assistant?!”

He thought I didn’t hear him say quietly under his breath “55”, but of course, I did.

My screaming ended abruptly, and the dogs instantly shut up and went running for their gold and diamond encrusted beds. He flinched knowing what was coming.

I said in a deadly quiet voice “Ramsey; we have been over this a million times. You became my assistant when I was 14 and starring in my first movie “Sissy Hits the Sand.” Fourteen plus forty equals fifty-four, my current age. If you were right and it was fifty-five, I would be sixty-two, and we can plainly see I most certainly do not look sixty-two. Isn’t that right Ramsey?”

He answered me in an automatic monotone “Of course, not Ms. Zarah.”

I took a deep breath to calm myself, fluffed my hair and smoothed down my dress. Then I turned in a circle looking for my little dogs. Within a minute I was in full panic mode again.

“Ramsey! Where are the babies?!” I screeched and started running in my gimpy, waddling sway of a run through the gilt-covered mansion. I had been in the great room, and I tore out of it and went bouncing off the walls to the library. The dogs were not there so I started running as fast as my fat little ankles could get me up the grand staircase and into my room. I crashed through the half-open door and fell to the floor in relief when I saw all four dogs curled up in their bed. Ramsey came puffing in after me saying, “I was trying to tell you I thought they had come up to bed.”

The dogs came running to me and jumped all over me, licking my face and hands and barking in their loudest voices.

“Oh Ramsey, I was so scared! I thought someone had taken them!” Ramsey thought I was overly silly about it, but then again given the times I had room to worry.

We lived in horrifying times, with starvation and disease spreading over the planet at an alarming rate. Ramsey and the dogs and I lived in a grand old home that had been swallowed up by the ever-encroaching tent cities. We had the best security system that money could buy, but given the desperation of most of the people on the planet nowadays that was no guarantee of safety. He had begged me for years to move to a safe military compound, but I refused to leave the beloved home Warren, and I had built.

Once I finally settled down, I asked him again. “What do you mean the General won’t see me?”

He heaved a giant sigh and replied. “Things are getting crazy. They have moved up the date for the launch. You know all this. No one has time to talk about animals they don’t care about anymore.”

“They would not have a way off this dying planet if it wasn’t for the gifts Warren and I have given humankind. You tell them I still have a few inventions they will want in my back pocket. If they don’t make time for me, I will not come with them, and I will take those schematics to the grave with me. You tell them that Ramsey. I am done playing nice with these people. I know they think I am a stupid, crazy old lady but I still have value. Got it?”

He nodded. He knew I was right on all counts. I could see he was worried about making them understand. I do love my dogs more than my own life, and I valued animals in general over humans, and they needed what I have.

Chapter 3:

New Earth Resettlement Date: 7:9:512

Ship Log; The Independence:

Hailey docked her ship, locked it down and went looking for Quesh. He knew she was always up for a free meal and the Vatican had amazing food compared to the Military ship. He had told her to message him when she got docked, and he would meet her in the cafeteria. She strode down the corridor with her shoulders back and a purposeful attitude. She wanted to give off an aura of a person in charge. She didn’t think it was working, but she lived by the motto “fake it until you make it.”

She was trying not to stare, but the majority of people were walking around with the traditional white collars for the men and black and white habits for the women. It always surprised her that they held on to that tradition. She made her way to the cafeteria where she found Quesh huddled over a plate of soft green vegetables. Nolans are vegans, and Hailey tried not to eat any meat in front of him. She clapped him on the back of his hard-shelled back and said, “Give me two minutes to get a plate, and I will be right back.” She went through the buffet and got a plate of roasted broccoli, fresh corn on the cob and a bowl of spicy black beans. She had no problem eating the genetically altered cockroaches humans had come to rely on for their protein needs, but they were so close in looks to Nolans it seemed very inconsiderate. If Quesh had not been sitting with her, she would have chowed down on the lemon garlic roasted bugs. Her mouth was watering just looking at them in line.

Nolans were the first “alien’s” humans came across after we left earth. It did not happen as we expected. We did not expect to barely leave our solar system, a mere twelve generations into the trip and come across an earth type planet occupied by the Nolans. The Nolans were not the ‘Epic Super Beings’ humans were expecting. They basically were a hair below them in the evolution ladder. It was extremely disappointing in so many ways. Her ancestors first spotted the little green planet about two years out from them. They could see from afar that the planet was half water covered and the other half created in a different shade of green. It was the first time they had seen green on a world in such a long time they were all insanely excited. They probably let that excitement get the best of them. As they started towards them, the best and brightest of humans began gathering as much information as they could. They took scan after scan and poured over every bit of nano information they could suck from those images. Then miracle of miracles! Shortly after the halfway mark, the humans started intercepting radio signals! They were hopping for something more technologically advanced than radio, but they were so desperate for their “first contact” that they did not let this dampen their excitement. They came to learn that instead of an advanced species they had stumbled across the alien equivalent of Amish in Space.

The Nolans are extremely proficient farmers. One of the reasons that they did not use advanced tools for farming was their bodies created this smelly slime like substance that worked as a very useful fertilizer. We, humans, were extremely disappointed that the Nolan were not going to be a help to our space-faring endeavors, but as luck would have it when we hit their planet, the fleet was having a terrible problem with a fungal blight on their soybean crops. It was potentially a disaster. Lucky for humans, while not rocket scientists, Nolans were a kind species.

They agreed to send 100 of their people with us on the next leg of our travels to help our crops. They knew it was a one-way trip, but for a few brave farmers, it was an honor they couldn’t pass up. The Nolans were vegans and able to eat our plants. They also brought a few of their plant species to help improve the variety of our meager crops. The Nolans seemed to like human company, and all took turns rotating through all the ships, regurgitating stinky, slimy enzymes on all the plants as they went. It was difficult at first for the humans to get used to living around what seemed to them giant cockroaches that barfed all over their crops. But they soon discovered the benefits to their plants more than made up for any cultural and biological issues they might have had with the Nolans.

Being new to the world of aliens humans sought to understand others by finding similarities between who they met and species from their earth past. It was easy to do with the Nolans because their first contact looked very much like the cockroaches they had turned into their protein source, on steroids. It was both shocking and disgusting! Their first contact with another intelligent species turns out to be very much like what they breed for food!

Hailey looked across the table at her friend, an insectoid look alike. He had a relatively small head, a broad, flattened body and a reddish-brown hard shell on his back. He had large compound jeweled eyes and two antennae. His mouthparts were on the underside of the head and included generalized chewing mandibles, salivary glands, and various touch and taste receptors. When they talked with the mandibles, their language sounded like a series of clicks and snaps. Their bodies were on average 4’ long and had wings that could carry them only short distances. They had eight legs with the two front having prehensile hands with thumbs on each side. The middle legs had claws that were quite intimidating. They had male and females as we were used to, but unlike humans, their reproduction was strictly regulated by the fact that females were only born when another female died. Ninety-four percent of the populations were male. They lived a very long time by earth standards – sometimes as long as 250 years. All Hailey saw was her best friend. He had worked with her Mom ever since she could remember, and he was more family than anyone else with whom she associated. Since she had known him since she was a child, she understood his speech like it was her own. She couldn’t mimic it, but they understood each other perfectly when they each spoke in their respective language. He helped her Mom a lot on the yacht since they were both plant geeks. She liked spending time with him because he was quiet. When he did talk, it was with common sense and no bullshit. He was very old at this point, so she treasured her time with him.

After lunch Hailey wanted Quesh to check out all her food plants for their O2 output before she left. She kept her plants alive for the most part, but she was not as good as her Mom. And she hated to admit it, but she did not have a green thumb like her hated sister Crystal.

“M. Hailey! How are you doing?”

“I am good Quesh. How are you? Any new gossip?”

“Funny you should ask that. I just got back from the Marietta. Your sister asked me to come over and see her roses. They had a little blight going on, and she was worried. I cleared it up.” Said Quesh.

She pulled a face. She hated her sister, and she hated that Quesh did not. She couldn’t figure out why he liked her. Crystal was a One Percentor.

After he saw the look on her face, he moved on to another subject.

“You know you are an ungrateful brat that is going to break your mother’s heart.”

Hailey rolled her eyes and shoved an overly large spoonful of the beans in her mouth.

“Nice diversionary tactic girly, but it won’t save you. How are you going to keep your Mother from jumping onto the side of your ship without a suit and trying to fly off with you?”

“Well,” said Hailey while batting her eyelashes and acting all smarmy “that is where you come in. You are going to be extra attentive and distract her as much as you can.”

“Little girl, that act doesn’t work on me, and you know it. I am a completely different species in case you haven’t noticed.”

She laughed and gave up the act. “Yeah, well it was worth a try. Can you, please help my Mom? I am going one way or the other, if you love her like I think you do, you will do this for me.”

“Oh nice, if your feminine wiles don’t work you go for emotional blackmail. Ok, fine. You know I will.”

“Yes, I did. But I enjoy any excuse to see you and eat the food here.”

Quesh made some gagging noise far back in his throat, hunched over and spat out a glob of green bile onto his food. “Well, mine needs a little pre-digestive fluid before I can get mine to stay down.” Others around them looked on in horror. Hailey had just taken a drink of her tea, and it came spewing out her nose, all over the table as she laughed uproariously.

“Oh Quesh, that never gets old. And the look on all these old sticks in the muds, priceless. I love you, man!”

After that, they fell into a companionable silence. After a hearty lunch, they headed back to Hailey’s ship. Quesh inspected all the plants, running his digits over some, tasting others. He checked her fluid levels by adding drops of water into colorful tubes that flamed red or green. When they turned red, he made suggestions on nutrient ratios. When they were green, he made happy clicking noises.

When they were done, he made to leave. She walked him down the gangway and then Hailey grabbed him with her strong arms. She hugged him and whispered “Take care of Mom” before she strode off again trying to look like a tough guy. It didn’t fool Quesh for a minute, especially as he caught her wiping a tear out of her eye as she rounded the corner.

Nov 25, 2097

Dear Diary: I made the mistake of watching the news this morning while eating my breakfast of ground-up bugs. God, it is terrible. Some stupid marketing genius came up with the name Aunt Annie’s Arthropod Patties to distract us from what it honestly is. But we all know it is a disgusting hybrid of cockroaches bred in vats and then ground up and formed into imitation hamburger patties. Most people don’t care what they eat as long as it fills their stomach these days. But I know we should have had a ton of Thanksgiving leftovers, but those days are long gone. Things are getting much worse, much faster than we thought it was going to go. I shouldn’t be surprised; we had seen it coming for hundreds of years. And yet the general population couldn’t seem to make themselves believe it.

Food has become more and more scarce and the time of eating a beautiful grilled steak or old-fashioned fried chicken are over. I miss real food so much. Ramsey and I could get real food through the black market, but I just can’t do it. How can I possibly eat well when people are literally camped outside our front door starving to death? Now I know you will get all high and mighty now dear reader. I can just imagine you saying…”But you keep those dogs, they sleep in gold and diamond-encrusted beds and eat better than the rabble outside your door…” There is truth to this, but in all fairness, Warren and I have given so much to humanity that I feel I deserve what little happiness I can eak out. It was a great sorrow to us that we could never have children. Our dogs became our family, and I am going to take care of my family, damn it.

To feed the population, we humans have to resort to alternative food sources. Oh my God, even the words make me sick to my stomach. As disgusting as it is, the only answer we have to hunger is bugs. Not just any old bugs, the bug that made the most sense was a genetically altered cockroach. I have to stop here and take a breath. Yes, it is horrible beyond measure. They can quadruple their numbers every two days. Scientists learned how to turn them in everything from a meat paste that could be cooked like scrapple, to breads and cheese. Yeasts were genetically altered to create yogurt and cheeses without any dairy. Genetically altered algae were used as a vitamin C and D replacement. Vertical robot worked farms replaced old family style farms. That was a necessity because they could not seem to control their population, and live-able land became more and more scarce.

That is because humans’ most massive problem seemed to be we kept having more and more children. I suppose it is some blessing that Warren and I never had any children considering the world they would have been born. In 1800 there were 1 Billion people on planet earth. By 2050 we hit 10 Billion and passed the tipping point. Most humans were still in denial, but a few bright lights started to work on plan “B.”

By 2018 SETI had spotted more than 4,000 planets that were potentially in a habitable zone circling an Earth-like star. The closest planet that had the right size, temperature, and energy from its star was KOI7711. Many years ago my dear Warren invented a propulsion method that is going to get us off the planet and on our way to the new planet. Before this crisis, I had held the patents very close to my chest to ensure the dogs and my creature comforts. But now I have given his plans to all the leaders all over the planet. You would think that would give me a certain level of respect. It has not, they still think of me as a silly old “B” rated movie star. If Warren was still alive, things might be different. That is fine; I still have some say in a few things. Let’s get to that later.

Now they are ramping up the evacuation of as many people as possible any way they can and launching off to find a new planet that could sustain human life. It does not seem to matter that we do not know precisely where those planets are. We have to go before we all starve to death or die of some plague created by overpopulation.

The news showed riots all over the world. There is a desperation that is breeding panic and mass hysteria. Because of these feelings of dread, world leaders are taking chances and doing things in ways that human had never done before. They have stopped fighting long enough to agree to some pretty outlandish ideas. They have thrown open the doors to their war bunkers and invited anyone and everyone that could get themselves off planet to do so. Governments built giant transport ships to hold their elite political powerhouses and military.

The newest thing on the news is that they are holding raffles to procure space on the ships for people that fit certain skill sets, such as welders, electricians, and plumbers. They are also holding raffles for BRAINY people such as doctors, teachers, and engineers that were nonmilitary. Private businesses built “luxury” ships to transport people wealthy enough to buy themselves a future. The same luxury ships offered transport to “the great unwashed” in exchange for, essentially, indentured servitude. Private individuals with the smarts and parts cobbled together small family ships that looked like glorified RV’s, and banded together with other like-minded families to travel together in gypsy-like caravans in the great ship’s wake. They have all worked together to form one large wasp nest of ships that will depart at the same time August 8, 2098, in what is going to be officially called “Launch Day’.

I am exhausted and broken-hearted. I am going to close now, and I will tell you about my project next time.

Chapter 4:

New Earth Resettlement Date: 7:10:512

Ship Log; The Independence:

Today I am going to go over to the Grah ship. Now when I say “ship,” I mean Juggernaut. This thing is larger than all human ships combined. The Grah are officially known as our “Overseers.” I learned about them in school. The next time humans ran across aliens after the Nolans, it was like being thrown into the deep end of a public pool. About 150 years after their first contact with the Nolans, Humans ran into their first alien spaceship. Humans were floating along, minding their own business when a giant spaceship jumped out of hyperspace right in front of them. It was ten times the size of the entire human fleet. And as soon as it hopped into their space, the new aliens sent out an electronic pulse that dropped all the humans into a sleeping stupor on the spot. While the Humans and Nolans were out, they scanned and collected every bit of information from our ships and bodies. Within minutes they had woken us up again, and it was apparent that we were in the audience of a superpower, and we were at their mercy.

I have seen vids of them on the news feeds, and have always dreamed about meeting them in person. Mom refers to them as our “babysitters.” I have never seen them in person, I have never had an excuse to go to their ship and bother them before. This seems like a perfect excuse. I don’t technically have to ask permission to leave the caravan, but it would be a safe idea to tell them I was going and what direction I was heading. Maybe they will take pity on a poor human young lady and give me some tools or tech I don’t have already. They aren’t known to be overly helpful to the Regulars, but what the hell, huh?

Hailey flew up to the Grah Ship as if she had every right to go for a social visit. Just as she started scanning the ship looking for an entry port, there was a flash, and she was knocked unconscious. When she woke up, she was alone in a circular white room. It was completely empty, and she was laying on the floor. There appeared to be no doors. “Crap!” she thought “this is just like what happened to the first humans when they met the Grah! We learned this in school. What the hell?” She started yelling out loud, “Hey! What the frick! Why did you do this to me? Where are you all?”

Finally, after what seemed like ages, a yet unseen door slid open in the wall and two Grah stuck in their heads. They did not completely enter the room. Hailey thought they were beautiful, delicate and alien. They had heads that were deer like, with what seemed to be antlers. She had learned in school the “antlers” were actually telecommunication appendages. She wished she could see their whole bodies. They spoke nervously in tandem,

“We knocked you out and brought you here because you set off our proximity alarms. We thought you were trying to attack us. We needed to study you and your ship without your interference. Random humans are not allowed to approach us without permission from us through your military first. Were you never told this?”

“No, in the typical military fashion they did not tell us Regulars. I guess I am the only individual stupid enough to come knocking without an invite.”

“What do you want?”

“Ok, I guess we are going to get right down to business…I am about to leave on a 6-8 ten-day trip away from the caravan; I was hoping to get some data on where would be a good place to look for good salvage. And maybe there is some tool or tech you think I should have for my little adventure?”

The two Grah turned their heads towards each other and said nothing for a matter of a few moments. When they turned back to her, they spoke again in unison. It seemed like they were even more agitated.

“The Grah occasionally help Humans as a whole species, but we do not help individuals. Go away and don’t come back!” There was a bright flash, Hailey’s eyes rolled back into her head and the next thing she knew she was waking up on the bridge of her ship with one hell of a headache.

“Jackasses.” thought Hailey. “I will show them! After some of my headache herbs and a nap, I have to get ready for Chastity. Screw those overgrown deer.”

Jan 1, 2098

Dear Diary:

Well, it is the first day of the New Year. This is the last year on Earth.

I had a random thought last night when Ramsey, the dogs, and I were having our champagne (yes, I have a little stockpile hidden away – sue me). I am sure we will meet aliens someday. I was wondering if they will have pets? That would be wonderful. And if they did have pets, what would they look like? I realize some of this thinking was champagne related, but still, …it is nice to think of something like alien pets vs. dying zebras and elephants for a change. I have to think if there is anyone good out there in space they will have pets too. It can’t be any good without a pet.