As my little girl strode down the street with me on her shoulder, I finally was able to see what she'd been looking at. All the way down the block, towering over the roundabout and the sidewalk, was the alien's spaceship. It was a giant, rounded thing shaped similar to the alien yo-yo lying on its side, except without the divot where the tubing connected. Nothing appeared to be holding it up, but a ramp extended down from its lower belly to the street, and it was this ramp that my girl was striding towards.

  No, no, no, this was no good at all! Any proper rat knew that scampering straight into the front door was not the proper way to infiltrate! Far too much danger of being spotted and kicked or chased with a broom. I nudged my little girl, but she didn't pay any attention to me so I had to scurry down her side to the ground.

  That brought her up short. "Snuggles? What are you doing?"

  I ran forward a few steps toward the bushes that bordered the sidewalk where we were currently walking, then turned to look at her over my shoulder.

  My little girl looked between me and the spaceship. "You don't want to come with me?" She sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

  Ugh, humans are so dense sometimes. I scampered up to her, nudged her foot with my nose, then ran back toward the hedge and stopped to look at her.

  "You want me to follow you?"

  Yes, thank you! That really shouldn't have been quite that difficult. I took a few more steps, then once again looked back at her.

  "Okay, I suppose." She followed me, and I led her around the bush—she was a little too large to go under it, which had been my first inclination—and into the yard of the house that bordered the road.

  We continued parallel to the sidewalk toward the roundabout, but partially obscured from the road by the bushes and trees that these homeowners had planted.

  It was a good thing we'd done so. After walking only a few feet, a group of four more aliens came down the ramp of the alien's ship and began loitering near its base. The little girl spotted them and froze before slowly bending down until her head was much closer to me. "You're so smart, Snuggles! They would definitely have seen us if we'd stayed on the sidewalk."

  Honestly, they might still see us. We could see them, after all. Fortunately, they all seemed fairly distracted for some reason, squawking at one another and making gestures that were even weirder than the ones Daddy and Mommy made when they were talking to one another.

  "What will we do, Snuggles?" said my little girl. "They're blocking the way onto the ship, and I think Daddy must be in there."

  She didn't need to fret; if I knew anything as a rat, it was that there's always another way in. We just needed to get close enough to find it.

  The two of us worked our way further from the sidewalk and began slowly making our way toward the intersection with the roundabout by traversing the side yards of the homes in the area. Fortunately for us, this area was big into bushes and trees, and not so big into large wooden fences, so we were able to make our way without too much difficulty.

  Eventually, we reached the house on the corner, and I spotted our likely way in. The alien ship was so large that it overshadowed not only the roundabout, but the street and sidewalk, as well. In the yard of the house across the street there was a large evergreen tree whose branches started right near the grass, and which had its upper branches partially crushed by the edge of the alien's ship.

  That tree was our entry point. Now we simply needed to get across the street without being spotted by the aliens who were still at the foot of the ramp. I watched the aliens closely, my little girl hovering nervously just behind me.

  "What now, Snuggles?" she whispered.

  Patience, kit. Any moment now…aha! One of the aliens let out a squawk and as a group they all moved down the street. One of them must have noticed our defeated foes.

  Although only two of them kept going, all four wandered far enough away from the spaceship's ramp that we were likely out of their peripheral vision.

  I chittered quietly to my little girl, and the two of us took off scampering across the street. Although my little girl's breathing was hitching like she was afraid again, we made it without being spotted, and took shelter under the evergreen I had spotted earlier.

  "Where—" began my little girl, but I was already working to climb the tree. "You think we should—oh, you're right! The branches are right up against the spaceship!"

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  I was making perfectly good progress, but my little girl still scooped me off the trunk and placed me on her shoulder before starting to climb herself. It was a bit awkward for her thanks to the yo-yo gauntlet, but she discovered that she could let the yo-yo hang on its weird connecting strand. She grumbled when it knocked against her knee a few times, but in good order we made it high enough up to access the top of the spaceship. The only really dicey moment was when my little girl moved from the trunk towards the ship itself. The branches of the tree were quite a bit thinner up here, and they bowed in a fairly dramatic fashion as she put her weight on them. Fortunately, she was able to throw herself forward onto the spaceship without making too much racket.

  The effort appeared to have cost her, however, as she set me down and sprawled on her stomach as soon as she was on the spaceship proper. "I'm sorry, Snuggles, but that was really scary. I need to rest a little."

  Well, that was fine. I nuzzled her and turned to go exploring myself.

  Before I could, though, she placed a hand on my back. "You'll…you'll come back, right?"

  Silly kit. I nuzzled her, groomed her shirt sleeve a little—although it didn't do much good—and after those reassurances she let me go.

  I admit, leaving the shade of the tree branches was a little difficult. I'd never been somewhere so utterly exposed before. Anything could be lurking up in the sky, and I'd never see it coming. After pausing to survey the area for a bit, however, I forced myself to move out onto the roof of the spaceship proper. My little girl needed me, and we couldn't be sure how long the spaceship would remain here. It would be catastrophic if we were still on the roof when it tried to fly back wherever it came from.

  The top of the spaceship was not particularly flat; it bulged and dipped in strange contours that made it difficult for me to navigate. As I tried to approach the central portion, I found myself stumped when I came across one such bulge that was particularly smooth and high. My little girl could probably get herself over it with a bit of effort, but I instead turned and began making my way around the perimeter.

  I found what I was looking for a quarter around the ring from where we'd climbed aboard. Nestled between a pair of those weird metallic swells was an access panel of some sort, made obvious by the hinges and recessed handle. I didn't have the leverage, size, or opposable thumbs necessary to try and open it, but with my little girl's help I was pretty sure it would give us unobtrusive access to the inside of the ship. I whipped around and scampered back the way I had come.

  When I arrived, my little girl was sitting up and peering down the street toward our apartment building. I grabbed onto her pant leg to get her attention. "There you are, Snuggles! I hope you found something. A whole bunch of those aliens just went running off toward our apartment. I think they found the aliens that you fought."

  We fought them together, thank you very much! But in any case, that was good news for us. I quickly led my little girl to the access hatch and sat back on my haunches expectantly to wait for her to work her magic.

  "Good job, Snuggles, I think this is a trap door of some sort!" She prodded at the recessed area where I assumed the handle was and frowned. "I can't get anything to move."

  Well, it was kind of a long-shot that there'd be external access that was unlocked. Presumably space wasn't quite as forgiving as the yards that usually surrounded human living spaces. I moved over to the hand she was wearing the gauntlet on and nuzzled it.

  My little girl gave me a skeptical look. "I know this yo-yo packs a punch, but I don't think it can force its way through a metal door."

  No no no. That wasn't what I was thinking at all. I ran along the edges of the trap door, then turned around the ran back along the edges until I reached her gauntlet, which I nosed again.

  "Oh! I did notice that the yo-yo felt hot when it was sleeping. I wonder…"

  My little girl carefully knelt and stared off in the direction of our apartment, although I wasn't sure if she could actually see anything from here, as the swell of the central portion of the spaceship rose higher than her head. Evidently reassured, she pushed herself to her feet, and did a couple practice throws of the yo-yo before winding up her arm and tossing it down hard to spin level with her shins.

  As the thing kept spinning, I noticed it was again starting to put out heat and a little light, just like before. My little girl carefully moved her free hand toward it before yanking it away. "Yeah, this might work." She grinned at me. "Never thought I'd use Walk the Dog quite like this, but…" She gently lowered the spinning yo-yo thing until it touched the line where the trap door met the rest of the spaceship.

  It took off fast enough that it surprised both of us, but while I simply sat back my little girl lurched forward and followed the yo-yo as it hissed along the edge of the trap door. I wasn't sure what would happen when the yo-yo hit the hinges, but surprisingly it passed through them like they weren't even there. When she reached the corner of the hatch, my little girl pulled the yo-yo back into the gauntlet with a jerk, and spent a moment just staring at it. I carefully approached the area where she'd been running it and gave it a tentative sniff.

  "I did not think this would work so well," said my little girl. She sounded nervous, and no wonder. Where the yo-yo had run along the metal of the spaceship it looked like something had taken an ice cream scoop and just gouged out the metal from one end to the other, leaving a divot an inch or so deep in its wake.

  I was really happy she'd never touched the yo-yo when it was spinning except with the gauntlet.

  She shook herself slightly, turned, whipped the yo-yo down into its sleeping position again, and after waiting for it to heat up, ran it along the next side of the door. I still didn't see what this had to do with dogs, but a couple more repetitions of this and she completed her circuit. After carefully stowing the yo-yo in the palm of her gauntlet and tentatively feeling the air near it with her free hand, she grabbed the recessed portion, said, "Here goes nothing, Snuggles!" and heaved it open.

  The hatch must have been lighter than she expected, because it shot completely out of the hole. My little girl let go of it in surprise, and it went clattering a few feet away down the roof. Not good! That racket was sure to have alerted any aliens that might be down below.

  Without waiting to see what she would do next, I scampered forward and vaulted into the hole.