The Sausage Dog of Doom! (5 page)

‘I’m sorry I doubted you all,’ said Oscar, and began a swift sniffing tour of the spaceship, yapping his way through the millions of questions he still had about the
Spacemutts. Poppy and Butch took turns to answer him from their stations, while Rocket returned to the central hub to finish analysing the
Dogstar
’s security data. All of the
information seemed to be in order, until he noticed that one of the files was missing.

‘WOOF,’ said Rocket, calling out to the ship’s computer.

‘Yes, Captain?’ replied the female voice.

WOOF was short for World Orbiting Observation Facility, which among other things involved gathering data from far across the galaxy and feeding it through the central hub for the captain’s
sharp-eyed analysis.

‘We seem to be missing one of the spy-ball satellites,’ said Rocket, double-checking the screen and keying in the location code. ‘Can you show me which one it is so that a
replacement can be dispatched?’

‘Right away, Captain,’ said WOOF.

The monitor over the hub immediately displayed an electronic map of the galaxy and a scrolling list of numbered coordinates. One of them began flashing red and the map zoomed in on its
location.

‘Jupiter?’ said Rocket, as an image of the giant gas planet filled the screen.

‘Affirmative,’ said WOOF. ‘The signal was lost one hour ago.’

‘That’s unusual,’ said Poppy, swinging round in the cockpit seat. ‘Meteorites often take out satellites in deep space, but we’ve never lost one this close to home
before.’

‘The spy-balls are very small,’ said Butch, who had made them all himself using tennis balls and tinfoil. ‘Jupiter’s gravity field could easily have sucked one in. The
planet is like a massive magnet to anything that comes too close.’

‘Can we go and fetch it?’ yapped Oscar, feeling left out.

‘I think we’ll have to,’ said Rocket, rolling out a star map to calculate the distance. ‘We can’t have a blind spot in our own solar system. Jupiter is only twenty
minutes away from Earth travelling at the speed of light, which is too close for comfort.’

said Butch, pulling levers and adjusting pressure valves until the back of the ship groaned and hissed with the sudden surge of power.

said Poppy, programming the instruments on the pilot’s control panel before resting her paws on the acceleration levers.

‘Countdown whenever you’re ready, Butch,’ said Rocket, bounding over to the pilot station. The captain saw Oscar sitting in the middle of the floor yapping unhappily to himself
and called him up to the front of the ship. ‘There’s a better view from here, little one,’ he said.

The dachshund hurried forward wagging his tail excitedly and Rocket lifted him up on to the control panel. As Oscar stared through the observation window howling with excitement Butch began the
countdown.

he barked.

On the count of one, Poppy pushed down on the levers and the
Dogstar
shot though the starry night like a blazing comet, passing Earth’s moon in the blink of an eye, swerving around
Mars and weaving through the rocky asteroid belt on its way to Jupiter. As they travelled at the speed of light, only one voice could be heard asking the same question over and over again.

yapped Oscar, unable to contain his excitement. He only stopped asking when the great orange ball appeared in the distance, growing larger and larger until it filled the observation window with
its churning surface of swirling storms.

‘WOW!’ gasped the new recruit as they entered the gas giant’s orbit.

The mini dachshund was used to feeling small next to bigger dogs and humans, but compared to the supermassive planet Oscar felt like a tiny speck of dust.

‘Impressive, huh?’ said Rocket, returning to the central hub.

‘Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system,’ said Butch, shutting down the light-speed engines and stabilizing the ship. ‘It’s bigger than all the other planets
put together!’

‘And it has lots of little moons!’ said Poppy, hopping down from the cockpit to stretch her legs. ‘You might be able to spot one yourself if you look very closely.’

‘There’s one!’ yapped Oscar, pressing his nose against the glass as he scanned the starry sky. ‘Though it’s a bit of a funny shape. More of a lumpy blob than a
proper round moon.’

The Spacemutts all stopped what they were doing and raced to the front of the ship. There they leaped up to the control panel in time to see a pale, hazy object creeping over the north pole of
Jupiter.

‘It’s leaving the planet’s gravity field,’ gasped Poppy, as the strange shape continued to rise instead of following a circular lunar orbit. ‘Maybe it’s a
runaway moon?’

‘One that bounces off its own magnetic field?’ Butch frowned. ‘With the speed that thing is travelling it’s more likely to be a rocket, but Jupiter has no solid ground to
launch from.’

‘It’s not a moon or a rocket,’ said the captain.

‘How can you be sure?’ asked Poppy and Butch.

‘Because it seems to be changing course!’ said Rocket.

The Spacemutts’ mouths dropped open as the white blob slowly halted its upward trajectory, paused in mid-air and then took off in another direction.

‘Where’s it going?’ yapped Oscar, jumping up and down to get a good view through the observation window as Rocket, Poppy and Butch all leaned forward at the same time.
‘Can we follow it?’

‘No need!’ said Rocket. ‘It’s heading straight for us!’

As well as changing course, the colossal object was picking up speed, growing larger and more distinct as it shot towards the
Dogstar
. And the closer it came, the more vivid and
unbelievable it seemed.

‘It can’t be,’ said Poppy, as the true size and shape were revealed.

‘What is it?’ pleaded Oscar, jumping higher. ‘Is it a bird or a plane?’

‘No,’ drooled Butch. ‘It’s a giant bone!’

‘Correction,’ growled Rocket, as the massive morsel soared overhead, dwarfing the
Dogstar
and casting a vast shadow over it. ‘It’s an alien airship
shaped
like a bone. And it’s not heading for us – it seems to be right on course for planet Earth!’