“Dave,” pleaded Chanelle, the Simeon’s pampered and beautiful girlfriend. “Can you go and get my hat? It’s blown away again.”

Dave sighed as Chanelle, a thoroughbred Beagle from the renowned Dalmat region, stretched her legs out to show off her stunning looks and pedigree. “This is so demeaning,” he muttered as he bounded across the beach to catch up with her straw bonnet. “It’s like playing fetch.”

“It’s a good job you’re so pretty,” he smiled, covering up his irritation as he lay back down on his towel.

“I am, aren’t I?” she giggled, admiring herself in her pocket-mirror whilst checking that her lipstick hadn’t smudged and her hair hadn’t tangled.

For the umpteenth time this holiday Dave bit his tongue. “We’re on the beach! Everyone’s covered in sand, how can you be so vain?” he thought.

This was Dave and Chanelle’s first holiday together, and Dave was sure it would be their last. Being the Simeon, the leader of the Rearguard Beagles, was a stressful job and he had been really looking forward to a holiday. Despite there not having been a war in the Outer Galaxies for thousands of years, there was still much for a defence strategist to do. There were always ships patrolling, spies to deploy and protect, officers to train and a whole army’s worth of equipment to maintain. And it was even harder when he had to do this in secret, under the radar of HEDGEHOG from whom the Rearguard Beagles had been hiding for years. The Simeon knew that if they got a whiff of the Rearguard Beagles’ existence their army would be split all over the galaxy and his home, Lexon, would be vulnerable to attack.

All of this meant that the Simeon was knackered. He had wanted a nice relaxing holiday to switch off from the day job, and just be Dave for a bit. Unfortunately, coping with his irritating and demanding girlfriend was proving more stressful than work.

Dave lay back and pretended to be asleep. It was a whole five minutes before he heard Chanelle whine for his attention again.

“Dave…”

Dave shivered as a shadow passed across him, but he kept his eyes closed tightly.

“Dave… Are you awake?”

“Can’t you just shut up for one minute?” he thought, whilst keeping his face as still as he could. He was determined that he would get some peace and quiet on this holiday.

“Dave!” Chanelle repeated, shaking him vigorously. “We need to move!”

“What?” Dave barked, wide awake in a rage.

He opened his eyes to see a smoking spaceship plummeting from the sky towards them. Dave and Chanelle moved more quickly than they had ever moved before.