Books SFF Bestiary Cats (and Other Pets) in Space: Corinna Bechko & Danny Luckert’s The Space Between How would pets fit into the plans for a generation ship? By Judith Tarr | Published on March 10, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share Good science fiction makes me think. The story or novel or film will entertain me and I’ll engage with the characters and immerse myself in the world. Then when it’s over, parts of it will stay with me. I don’t usually read graphic novels. My brain wants either blocks o’ text or straight-up moving pictures. But Corinna Bechko answered my call on Bluesky for science fiction with cats, and The Space Between ticked not just that box but also the generation-ship box. And it’s well drawn by Danny Luckert and has interesting characters and riffs on themes that are both timely and classic. The novel is a collection of stories strung along the timeline of a generation ship, the Dodona, en route to its destination, hence its title. There’s plenty of human drama and political conflict. We see how the ship and its culture evolve and devolve as its voyage goes on. Buy the Book The Space Between Corinna Bechko (Author) and Danny Luckert (Illustrator) Buy Book The Space Between Corinna Bechko (Author) and Danny Luckert (Illustrator) Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Humans aren’t the only passengers on the ship. In the first story, there’s a cat. Later, one of the main characters trains and breeds dogs and experiments with genetic engineering. Eventually we find out that there’s a whole habitat in a remote area of the ship, stocked with a range of flora and fauna. The existence of this habitat and the presence of the animals is controversial. The Originators, the people who built and launched the ship, were divided as to whether animals should be included at all. Especially “useless” animals like dogs and cats, which consume resources but can’t be eaten. At first the ship’s designers isolated the animals, but by the time the first chapter of the novel begins, cats have made their way out into the lower levels of the ship, where the lower classes live and maintain the algae vats that provide food and life support for the ship. It’s illegal for anyone above what’s the called the starline, the point at which it’s possible to see the stars, to have a cat, or for that matter any animal. That changes when a pilot ends up below, is locked in a cell, and befriends a cat. Nobody knows how the cat gets in, any more than anyone knows how cats got out of the zoosphere in the first place. They’re there to hunt rats, supposedly. Rats that may or may not exist. But there the cats are, and they’re there to stay. In Chapter Two, nearly fifty years later, another animal has appeared: the dog. The attitude is still that pets are not useful. A child might have one as a plaything, but she’s expected to grow out of it. Bee begs to differ. She has a plan that involves genetically engineering dogs. That’s a newly controversial issue, since one of the big conflicts of Chapter One was the selective breeding of humans for specific traits. What Bee is doing runs into questions of relative ethics. Is it ethical to breed animals when you decline to do the same to humans? By Chapter Three, ten years later, one of Bee’s experiments has produced a puppy with trichromatic vision. Bee makes sure to let the dog, and us, know that she has no intention of breeding for sapience. “Don’t get too smart though,” she says. “Sometimes you’re better off not understanding some things.” Bee’s goal is to breed a dog that’s more suited for space travel. That could lead to developing humans who can live in what she calls marginal environments—such as a starship with failing systems. This is not an academic exercise. The Dodona is in serious trouble. It’s gone off course and may never reach its destination. Parts of it are falling apart. Food supplies are running low; everyone’s on rationing, including Bee’s dogs. Correcting the course requires breaching the containment of the zoosphere where animals have been living and breeding since the ship was launched. The humans who care for them have been keeping their existence a secret for fear that the area will be shut down and the animals ejected into space. That’s where the cats came from, and where Bee got her dogs. Other species have so far managed to stay confined. One in particular, right up against the airlock, is downright dangerous. Sugar gliders are little, cute, and very quick and agile, and they can eat just about anything—and they’re prolific breeders. If they get out, they’ll overrun the ship. But if that’s what it takes in order for the ship to survive, then that’s what has to happen. Chapter Four, some fifty years after the breaching of the zoosphere, introduces a cute little cat-creature named Mabel. We quickly learn that though she looks like a small, stripey, round-faced cat, she’s somewhat more than that. She acts like a cat, licks her butt like a cat, has a cat’s sublime lack of respect for rules and boundaries, but she can spread her sails and glide. She’s a sugar cat, a genetically engineered hybrid of cat and sugar glider. She’s a much-loved companion, whom her person regards as an extension of himself. She’s far from the only animal companion on the ship, but her species is unique. It exists only on the Dodona. It’s a culmination of what Bee began: experiments in gene splicing that have also resulted in the creation or re-creation of such useful substances as aspirin. Humans on the ship are still leery of such things. They believe it’s unnatural. But they’ll need the technology if and when they reach their destination. In the end, “useless” animals turn out be not only useful but essential to the survival of the humans on the ship. Especially the cats, who go where they like and do what they please, and open the way for the dogs and the sugar cats. They take over the Dodona in much the same way it’s believed they first moved in with humans. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. Humans need animals. We’re not meant to live in isolation from other species. It’s as true on the Dodona as it was, and is, on this planet where we all evolved.[end-mark] The post Cats (and Other Pets) in Space: Corinna Bechko & Danny Luckert’s The Space Between appeared first on Reactor.