“You’re so ornery, Zara,” said Emily, adjusting the chihuahua’s translator.

“It’s in my blood,” Zara retorted.

“Your ancestors were little brats, too?”

“Brats? They ruled the Ice Age! Battled saber-toothed cats! Hunted for—”

“Their own food?”

Zara sheepishly eyed the treat jar. “Some traditions are best left in the past.”

David Dezell Turner is an astrodynamics PhD student at the University of Colorado Boulder. When he isn’t giving directions to real spaceships, he’s writing about fictional ones. Check out more of his work at daviddezellturner.com.