The ship had to land, fortunately it wasn't cheese grater, but there was damage. The place they landed was freezing, locked in the dead of winter. The human protected the ship with an igloo, but what really saved the captain and the two small crew members besides the human? A big, fluffy newfoundland dog, and an equally fluffy, if a bit wriggly, husky. Who, for once, wasn't constantly complaining. -- Anon Guest
[AN: They might be lucky that one of them wasn't a Caucasian Shepherd Dog]
It was cold outside. The atmosphere was technically breathable, but not very nice. For health or for general attitude towards existence in general and existence in this place. Nevertheless, Human Joop was out there, making bricks out of snow. Ze had a shovel, a timer, a store box without a lid, and a livesuit good enough "to keep the wind off".
Whenever the timer bleeped, ze would stop what ze was doing, trudge inside the ship, and take a break for hot soup and hotter coffee.
It was the work of many hours to cover the ship over in snow, and Captain Xae got to breathe a little easier. Because Tiny, Joop's Newfoundland, got up from 'incubating' him and the rest of the crew to go greet their Human. Nanuk, Joop's Husky, soon trotted after for their share of pats and scritches.
The dogs were literal lifesavers for Xae, Ize, and Jyne by providing their warmth and fur as protection from the cold. The dogs were well trained and, according to Joop, the goodest puppers. The time window of Joop's excursions was enough to make hir dangerously cold from the exterior, and the crew dangerously warm from the dogs.
The break was welcome by all. Especially since the dogs' wagging also did some work for air circulation.
"Two thirds," announced Joop, cup in one hand and the other busy petting hir dogs. "About three more sessions and I should have the ship insulated."
"Why bother covering the ship in snow?" asked Jyne, stretching her legs. "The weather will do it for you."
"One, the weather will only do half of it. Two, not properly. This is all about air pockets. Atmosphere pockets. I'm making a ship-sized igloo to solve the temperature issues. Then I'll be relatively free to check the exterior without time limits. And bodge together some temporary mechanisms to deal with your comfort until we get the systems online."
"But first you rest," added Ize, joining Joop in scratching a dog.
"I rest when it's safer to rest," insisted Joop. "Gotta insulate the ship. And that's going to be a few more hours. Once this thing can retain heat... or a certain amount of heat... Then we don't gotta worry about going to sleep and never waking up."
Put that way, they were content to let the Ship's Human muck around in the snow.
They'd return to the spaceways alive, even if it meant spending a month getting the dog hair out of everything.
[Photo by photo nic on Unsplash]
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