Laika was barking frantically. "Quiet!" I protested as I turned over in my sleep. A moment later I was awake and cold with fear. I didn't dare open my eyes. Reason told me that there were no dogs in this world and that a quarter of a million miles of space and five years of time separated us. "Open your eyes, you fool. You're dreaming," I told myself.
I looked around the tiny room and felt lonely and sad. I remembered the first time that I saw Laika back on Earth. I found her one summer evening while I was driving to Palomar and it was impossible to leave the tiny puppy by the side of the road. I picked her up and by the time I arrived home at the astronomers' residence, I knew I wanted to keep her.
After a few months of training, she became the only dog to be allowed into the Observatory. She was beautiful and intelligent: she even seemed to understand when I was talking about stellar evolution with my colleagues.
I hated leaving her for more than a few days at a time, so she accompanied me on short joumeys. On one of these trips we were staying with friends but they weren't too happy at the idea of a large dog in their home. "She's very good, she won't make a noise," I said, but in the middle of the night she woke us all up. Laika was barking frantically and trying to get out. I raced to open the door and let her out into the foggy night. The Earth suddenly started to move and all I could think was "I never knew that earthquakes made such a noise."
The Red Cross helicopter didn't rescue me until quite late the next morning because I refused to leave Laika behind. Looking at the shattered house containing the bodies of my friends, I knew I owed her my life.
After that Laika and I were always together and we used to go on long walks in the mountains. Those walks came to an end with my transfer to the new Observatory on the Moon, because Laika couldn't go with me. Sadly, she died just a few weeks after I left. But five years later on the far side of the Moon, Laika was barking in my dream. Her warning gave me time to put on my emergency suit and press the alarm, as the tremor cracked the Observatory walls.
My house to day was going through the blue light window. I seed the car moving past trees, but no trees were actually there in my mind space. The metal things were floating above ground level position markers.