In a future where interstellar travel is only possible for humans by stowing away like rats in the walls of alien ships, few choose to travel far from home.

Indeed, Sister June never strayed beyond the boundaries of the dome on Mars that housed her commune. And she never intended to wake on the journey from that dome to another on the far side of the universe.

But a pair of stowaways drain too many resources from the other travelers, forcing all of them as well as the man entrusted to transport them to their destination to spend the journey meant for cold sleep awake and in each other's company.

The stowaways are like no one Sister June has ever met before. Brash and assertive, they show no fear at making their opinions and desires known.

But as strange as they are, they just might be more worthy of trust than the man hired to keep her and her people safe.

"While the Rat's Away," a science fiction short story which originally appeared in the pages of Analog Science Fiction & Fact Magazine.