The Sausage Dog of Doom! by Michael Broad Page A

female voice of WOOF, the spaceship’s onboard computer. ‘The Dogstar is orbiting Earth above your location and all systems are prepped
for boarding. How many dogs need teleporting this evening?’
    ‘Three and a half,’ Rocket said with a smile, watching the mini dachshund dashing around on short little legs, clearing away toys and bowls as Poppy and Butch had done.
    ‘A half?’ said WOOF. ‘That does not compute, Captain.’
    ‘Make that four,’ said Rocket, remembering that WOOF was a computer and didn’t really understand his jokes. ‘Over and out,’ he added, and moved into position.
    The three Spacemutts watched as Oscar bunched up his blanket and trotted to the middle of his kennel, yapping so many questions that he didn’t even notice when the overhead dome-lights
flickered on and off.
    ‘In space, no one can hear you yap!’ smiled Rocket as four shafts of light shot down from the ceiling.

    ‘No one except us,’ Poppy and Butch sighed together.
    The four dogs suddenly sparkled and shimmered in the brilliant light beams and then disappeared one by one. Rocket was the first to go, quickly followed by Poppy and Butch. Oscar was the last to
leave, but before he vanished the sausage dog stopped yapping long enough to utter a very loud ‘HUH?’
    Far across the solar system, the clockwork Mouseship hovered in close orbit on the dark side of Jupiter where it could not be detected from Earth. At the observation deck, Lady Fluffkins
watched as a giant hose pumped gas from the planet into a vast white balloon that wobbled in the sky.
    ‘It’s working, Majesty!’ gasped Baldy. ‘It’s beginning to take shape!’
    ‘Of course it is, you cat-shaped worm!’ hissed the empress, green eyes glaring at her mammoth masterpiece. ‘This has been years in the making. Nothing can possibly go
wrong.’

    The hairless servant’s wide eyes widened even further as the colossal blob continued to swell, blotting out the stars and filling the inky night with its dazzling whiteness.
    ‘It is the most wonderful thing I have ever seen!’ Baldy whispered.

    growled the empress, pulling on sunglasses to protect her eyes from the sudden glare. ‘Would you like to take a moment to think about that?’
    The meek minion gasped when he realized what he’d said.
    ‘Er, except for you, M-M-Mistress!’ he stammered. ‘Nothing in the whole universe is as wonderful as you. You are the most wondrous of wonders!’
    ‘Yes, I am,’ spat the empress, flicking the underling away with a swift swish of her tail before kicking the levers to shut off the hose. ‘And my cunning craft is finally
complete!’

    ‘Does that m-m-mean . . .’ said Baldy, looking slightly more petrified than usual.

    ‘Yes,’ said the empress. ‘It is time to load my deadly weapons!’
    ‘Are they really as deadly as they say?’ whispered Baldy.
    ‘Deadlier,’ grinned the empress, drumming her claws on a monitor that was showing a live feed of Earth. ‘They will devastate that little blue planet and complete my empire by
morning, and there’s nothing those fleabag dogs can do to stop them.’

Jumping to Jupiter
    As the four teleport beams sparkling on the transportation deck of the orbiting Dogstar faded away, four dogs were standing in their place. The three regular Spacemutts
quickly bounded to their stations, leaving Oscar gazing about the spaceship with wide eyes and an open mouth that was uncharacteristically silent.
    The stunned sausage dog saw Poppy in the cockpit, her expert paws moving over the controls as she switched the Dogstar from autopilot to manual. He saw Rocket standing upright at the
central hub, scanning data from local satellites and deep-space telescopes. Then he looked around to find Butch snuffling through his toolbox and examining the engines at the rear of the massive
metal craft.
    The dazed dachshund shook his head, making his floppy ears flap, then he leaped from the deck and made up for lost time by yapping