Have you ever met someone, and instantly you connected with them on a deeper level than what is just on the surface. Was it your best friend? Lover? Maybe it was your job? For me, it was when I met my dog, Shadow, who I like to call “The Goodest Boy”. Shadow and I connected almost instantaneously. When we arrived at the adoption shelter, we were told by the lady working there that he was the last of his litter, and had been looked over by so many people. His personality was described as “gentle, easy to get along with, and happy.” In the words of the caretaker “We can put him with any other dog, no matter what size, age, or breed, and he gets along with them, we just don’t understand why no one wants him.” I believe he was waiting for me. It might sound silly, but nothing will make me think otherwise.

“How does he travel?” I asked her.

“Well, he hasn’t gone far, but he’s never given us issues before why?”

I looked at her, debating whether I should tell her the truth, or make up a story. I decided the truth would be better, “Shadow over here, is going to be the first dog on Mars.”

Before Shadow, the only pets around were fish and maybe rabbits. Most people didn’t want to pay the expense of having a pet, but my family and I, especially our four year old daughter, were eager to expand our family with four fur feet. I had been offered a job at a law firm, mainly dealing with litigations and conveyancing. Law firms on Mars mainly seemed to deal with this, not too much tax evasion and a few petty crimes, nothing huge. As martian real estate is becoming more desired by the wealthy of Earth, it gives opportunities for guys like myself, and my family, a fresh start.

Mars has four colonies right now, and as you can imagine the real estate is, as the agents say, “hot hot hot”. Well, I heard one agent say it, once. I assume others use it, or, at least they did. My family and I did a virtual reality tour of our new home on Mars, fully furnished courtesy of my new company, situated in Adiona. Apparently our returns on the house would be “incalculable”. Our house was about to become the house right by Mars’ new power hub, Jivo. By power hub, I mean literally, the expansion plans meant that Abeone would not be able to support the demand for Martian development, and so Jivo would become the source of Martian power, and it’s surrounding cities like Adiona and a future development code named “Saint Nick” by my sources, would be the new commerce hubs, making them more desirable locations than Abeona.

“Will there be girls my age daddy?” my daughter, Danielle, asked as we packed, Shadow laying on her bed, his black fur clinging to the sheets. Two months had passed since Shadow joined our family, his features hadn’t changed much, still thin and long, his eyes flopped on each side as he snored, blissfully unaware of the changes that would happen in just twenty four hours, and our new home in a week. I scratched Shadow’s head, he opened his eyes and looked at me, as if about to speak, but instead rolled onto his back, inviting me to rub his tummy. I did as my dog requested and asked the classic question, “Who’s a good boy?”

Normally my daughter would join in, but this time she came over to me, looked me in the eyes seriously and said “Shadow is the goodest boy” before burrowing her head in my shoulder. Her cries were silent, but Shadow knew. He got up, leopard crawled across the bed to us, and lay his head down in her lap.

I smiled at the two of them, “I agree,” I said, “Now, finish up and get some rest, we have a long day tomorrow.

Our Journey to Mars was easy, and Shadow was allowed to run around our passenger cruiser. He made friends with the entire crew, I suspect because they let him eat a lot of the leftover food after dinner time. Even the AI at the refueling station halfway between Earth and Mars took a liking to Shadow, having only experienced dogs from old Earth videos before, the AI enjoyed studying Shadow’s behaviour and personality. Being the first dog of Mars had a few benefits for him from the get go. Shadow soaked in every belly rub and ear scratch, maybe a part of him knew a lonely life would be waiting for him on Mars…

Over the next couple of weeks we settled into our new house, quite a modest apartment with a small garden area, and a park across the road. More greenery than you’d expect, but not nearly the kind of green parks on Earth. I expected more red, but the biomes filter out the rusty marian soils reflection onto our houses. The air tasted… sweet? It was unexpected, but Shadow loved it, having more energy than he ever had on Earth.

My first case was an eviction order. The court system was slow, mostly because there’s only one judge for the entirety of Adiona, and he plays golf on a Wednesday afternoon. This was my chance to get in with him. I had inherited my father-in-law’s old clubs, which, i should add, had not been used since they found a dusty home in my garage on Earth.

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I walked up to Judge Jude, “Mind if I tag along?” I asked, “Name’s Frederick Browning, I’m new to Mars.”

The judge looked me up and down, “ya ever played a’fore?” his eyes cool, his body language unknowable.

“Never, and I have no doubt I suck at this.” I decided there was no point lying to him, he’d find out the truth eventually. That is his job after all.

Jude looked me up and down and shrugged his broad shoulders, “Place your tee new guy.”

The judge made sure we had enough liquid courage to get us through the game, by the time we got halfway through the course I couldn't quite see where I was lining up my shot.

“Ya ain't so bad new guy. Ya bought a place yet?” Jude asked.

“Wife and I have a nice place in Adiona,” I told him while lining up my first shot of the thirteenth hole. I took the shot, right into the bunker.

“Between you an me,” Jude seemed to be lead in up to something, “Abeona is the place to invest.”

I chuckled, “surely not” Jude was teeing up now, “Everyone wants out there, Adiona and Jizo are going to be our new hubs, right?”

Jude took his shot, perfectly down the middle, it was uncanny. “My contacts on Earth aren't happy with Jizo. Too much real estate not being used, and the big wigs want their profits. They want to convert it.”

Personally, I wasn't convinced. I shrugged him off as we walked towards the bunker. Besides, what's the worst that could happen staying on Adiona?

Shadow slowly grew into the space. We let him run around the city with us off his leash. Some of the kids had never met a dog before, so for them it was quite an exciting experience. As much as Shadow would run off, he always came back. When Danielle was with us, he never left her side, and had decided his cosy bed on the floor was too far away and began to sleep on Danielle’s bed.

Over the next couple of months a sinister rumour started about Jizo. Water is intricate to life anywhere in the universe, and as the rumour goes everyone's water was being used to cool down Jizo’s nuclear reactor. I don’t know how nuclear power works, and I never believe a rumour without facts, but one day at the park in Adiona we tried filling up Shadow’s water bowl from one of the taps, but it was dry. We tried every tap and water point, nothing. Others had done the same, and a great fear loomed over us all. We ran back to our house, staring at onlookers who had begun queuing by the local community shop, others walking out with as much water as their arms could carry. Some carried too much, and dropped their bottles of water, which didn’t make it far before being swept off by nearby opportunists.

As suspected, our water was gone at home, and everywhere else. In hindsight, we should have immediately left for Abeona, but we didn’t, thinking we had more time to get our lives back into a suitcase again. We did not.

“Daddy, Shadow is scaring me” Danielle said, the hairs on the back of my neck curled up as I looked at my companion. Shadow’s hair was raised up, his eyes fixated on the biome, his breath short. He let out a sharp bark and ran to me, frantic. He grabbed Danielle’s blue dress and tugged at her, pulling her outside.

“What’s going on boy?” I asked him, expecting him to start speaking at that moment. He released Danielle and barked some more, scratching at the door. While other people we getting water, they failed to notice that our biome was beginning to collapse.

“Honey, grab your stuff we are going now!” I shouted, I scooped Danielle into my arms, Cathleen some bags. Her shock was evident, and her legs became weak.

“I failed.” she weeped.

“Failed who?”

“Everyone” she burrowed her head into her hands.

“We can talk about this later, we need to go now.”

We ran, Shadow leading the way. Selfishly, I kept the knowledge of the collapsing biome to myself, knowing in the panic everyone would run for the trains, and I needed to protect my family.

Shadow felt the same way. He led us through the chaos to the trains, and didn’t stop shivering even when the train left the station. I thought we were safe on the train, there was only one other family in the train with us, we’d beaten the crowds. We weren’t. As the train departed, a tremor shook the ground. The tremor caused the high speed train to flip onto its side and break into pieces. I thought we were dead, but awoke because Shadow wouldn't stop tugging at my shirt. He sighed as I patted his head. I saw Danielle and Cathleen collapsed, Cathleen’s leg clearly broken.

“Shadow, get Danielle out of here” I told him, not sure if he would even understand, but he did. Shadow began dragging Danielle out of the wreckage. “Good boy” I shouted. As always, Shadow came back, and dragged Cathleen out too. Instinctively, he began helping the other passengers too, four, five, maybe even six people, every time. My body ached, unable to move. I could see how tired Shaodw was, but he always came back to check on me. Finally, he started to inch me further to safety with every tug. As this tale goes it was not meant to be, the wreckage collapsed and Shadow and I fell hard.

“Shadow, are you okay?” I called out into the darkness. I heard a whimper in response and Shadow appeared, limping towards me. We were trapped in the wreckage now. I held my dog close and stroked his head, “You are such a good boy,” I told him over and over again. I noticed a small opening, just big enough for Shadow to get out.

“Boy, listen here, you have to look after them for me, Danielle and Cathleen, okay?” Shadow stared at me with his brown eyes, licked my cheek, and limped out of the train.

I’ve written this down, in the hopes that someone on Abeone might find this, and make sense of it all. Please look after my two girls, keep them safe. Also, maybe Mars should invest in some more dogs, they save lives.