Spatial Domestication 1

'With the advent of travel through our local spatial neighborhood, as well as habitation of the gravitationally absent space, it was only a matter of time until our smaller friends, be they furry, feathered, or scaled, came to join us. Unfortunately, while some of them may be exceedingly intelligent, they lack the proper mental faculties to properly understand concepts such as gravity in detail. Similarly, their physical faculties may be hindered by the lack of a constant and significant universally attractive force in the downward direction.

Many may be aware of the base cases that occur even in humans. Our sense of balance and orientation are rendered useless in an environment where balance is irrelevant and orientation can be thrown off by closing your eyes for an extended period of time. Some of the more well read also know of the threats of pregnancy in zero-gravity, gravity having the very important property of keeping a baby from spinning too much inside the womb and getting wrapped up in the umbilical cord.

Just as we have issues, our pets have similar problems.

Almost universal is the struggle without gravity. Unlike humans, animals largely lack the ability to move in the absence of gravity due to a lack of appendages capable of holding onto outcroppings. There are a few exceptions to this of course, birds and snakes being the most prominent, however the vast majority of animals that are taken into such an environment completely lack this ability.

As such, even with the introduction of artificial gravity generators, it is imperative that pets be acclimated to zero gravity to avoid health risks associated with panicking. This process is called Spatial Domestication among breeders and trainers.' - An excerpt from the Treatise on the Domestication of Companions in a Zero-G Environment, a required passage in every official training handbook by the Department for the Acclimation of Fauna in Space (DAFS).

Normally, Don would go into some sort of internal tirade on how he hated bureaucracy putting useless words and work in places where it had no place being. However he found this passage to be very fitting. The motivation was probably to create a base of knowledge, however small, in order to create logical connections to why certain actions are required in the training of animals.

He was actually unaware of the complications borne of pregnancy in space. He had spent the vast majority of life terrestrially, on Earth, so this topic had never come up.

He continued reading.

'Most training manuals would continue to use the words of this Treatise in order to expound the legal rights and ramifications that animals in space have. However, as the dog you will be tasked with training and/or taking care of, the rules for treatment and training are covered under military law. They are to be treated as certain ranks under the conditions below.

In cases of receiving orders, the dog is to be considered the rank immediately below the highest ranking officer in the vicinity.

In cases of carrying out orders, the dog is to be considered the same rank as the officer or soldier the orders came from. In the same capacity, any orders this canine carries out are considered the joint responsibility of both the officer who made the order, as well as the canine itself. To all extents and purposes, this means that dogs will share in the awards that similarly ranked officers received and not be able to be interrupted by sailors of lower rank.

Service dogs are to receive the same treatment as the highest ranking officer aboard the given ship, salutations excepted.

Any abuse or injury incurred upon a service dog is to be treated as an offense of similar nature to an officer of a rank higher than the highest ranked individual aboard the given ship. In the case that the General Superintendent, the highest rank the military possesses, is present in such a situation, the offending party will be executed as soon as evidence is presented and properly sampled. The only way such charges can be dropped is if the offending individual consumes the fecal matter of the offended canine.

The only exceptions to these aforementioned rules are those individuals with ranks not associated with the standard rank hierarchy.'

Don could have sworn that portion at the end applied only to him at the moment. DS was not a rank associated with the rank hierarchy. In a few of the conversations he had with the admiral, he had come to the understanding he was at complete liberty to disregard her orders, yet he had no power over her.

His current situation is something akin to an adjacent strike force. Willing, capable, and most importantly expected to help out with operations, yet not under the control of the leading officer of the force he was attached to. He gathered that he was still under the direct control of whatever office his rank was categorized under, some testing bureau in all likelihood, however he was given a nigh infinite level of independence as he had no direct superior in contact with him.

He had confirmed with Admiral Adirondack that as far as his orders were concerned, she was nothing but a liaison.

This still did nothing to change the fact that he was still clueless as to what his rank was, completely clueless as to his actual authority. In the attack on the harbor, he felt he would have been walking on eggshells ordering the deployable craft and capital ships to their targets had it not been for the express permissions he had received as well as the rapport he had built earlier with all mentioned groups.

Don felt his authority might actually be higher than an admiral's due to the way that Admiral Adirondack had asked for his input on the movement of the fleet in the wake of the attack. Of course it could also be the case that she had little knowledge about how fleet operations should be conducted independently and separated from a central supply and command structure.