At the same time, animals – dogs, cats, birds – began to communicate with each other without any difficulty. It turned out that they had long understood each other, but simply did not have the opportunity to say it out loud. Understanding and co-ordination enabled them to actively discuss current events and even plan their actions. The animals gathered to listen to each other, understand the reasons for the strange state of people and decide what to do about it.

Thus began the real era of animal diplomacy. The animals held peaceful conferences, argued, and developed strategies and action plans. They managed to find a common language and cooperate with each other, despite the diversity of species.

The longer the animals gathered and discussed their plans, the more it became clear that they were decidedly anti-human. Their anger and indignation increased with each new day of indifference and misunderstanding on the part of people.

Finally, the animals decided to start a war against humans.

The war began unexpectedly and mercilessly. Animals used their instincts, speed, and strength to fight humans. They knew how to complete their mission, and they were determined to reach their goal.

People, in turn, lived in fear and fragmentation. They had no understanding of why the animals went to war, only misunderstanding and fear. They tried to organize a defense, but they did not have unity and coordination of actions. There was only panic and confusion.

The war continued for several years, and with the destruction of the city and the worldwide panic, almost nothing was freed from the influence of animals. People realized their helplessness before the animal world. They finally realized that the impact of the animals was so strong that they can no longer control what is happening.

People tried to communicate with each other with gestures and somehow arrange resistance to animals, but this was a bad idea, because animals that saw people waving their hands at each other passed this information to predators.

People had to escape from predators, pretending to be animals, dressing in their vestments. But one day everything changed, as it turned out, one animal decided to stand up for people and started a rumor among its relatives that people are just like them, they just don't grow hair.

One day, frightened people began to feel that they wanted to talk, and it happened so suddenly that for a long time they were silent and started talking loudly to each other.

The beasts who found out about this quickly agreed to pretend that they couldn't speak, and everything went back to the same place, when people communicated, the beasts were silent.

Box

In the gloomy world of humans, sleep enveloped my consciousness, my hands and feet were cold, but I needed to sleep, and I began to doze off.

…angry birds with distorted faces and a feathery mane danced clumsily around me, pressing in with their sharp beaks. Something in the area of my knee was biting excessively, like a bee pretending to be a flying fly.

But suddenly I woke up abruptly and saw a man approaching the garbage can.

– Why do they throw it in that bright box?" And where do they get food on this cold day, now nothing grows and it's hard to hunt? I thought as I watched the car pull out of the yard.

I sat quietly by the side of the road, like a grown manthrowing out bags that smelled like food. "They probably print it at home, since it's not a pity to throw it away," I thought again, remembering my own planet, where they worked very hard for food and in the end we had to move to this planet to save ourselves from starvation.

At the time of the flight, as my parents told me through the tradition of generations, the dogs quarreled and swore to get to the blue planet, which was the third in a row from the bright star, to stop communicating with each other, and everyone will continue to survive in their own way. Yes, we are dogs.

So we lost the connection and secret knowledge of our progenitors, and nowwe are forced to beg in towns and villages in search of food. We continue to communicate through thoughts between other dogs, without making any sounds, occasionally barking, pretending in front of people who occupy a supreme position here that we do not know how to talk.

Parsec to Earth

– Aloise, I don't even know how to say this, but I'm quitting my job, – Jessica said in an uncertain voice, trying to hide the worry in her eyes. She worked in the company's labor dispute department.

– What? Are you serious? Aloys looked at his colleague in a daze, – but why? You recently got a job with us, I think it was just last spring.

Jessica sighed, trying to find the right words.

– Aloise, this job is just not for me. All those long hours spent in front of the computer, soulless reports, endless meetings, – her voice dropped to a whisper, and she slowly turned her head in different directions, for some reason, although you could tell if she was mentally denying what was happening or just stretching her neck, it was impossible to say for sure.

– But we both know that this job is chosen not because of our own desires, but because of the inability to find something better. The economy isn't at its best right now, – Alois said, trying to find a common language with Jessica.

– I want to become a writer, I want to create and share my ideas with people. This is something that really excites my heart, not the processes and documentation and not the sad faces when hiring and firing from work.

– You're going to fire yourself now, you're the head of human resources, – Aloys laughed loudly, and Jess joined in.

Aloys looked at Jessica thoughtfully and nodded slowly.

– I understand you, Jess. This work does not always bring joy and satisfaction. And if you are confident in your abilities and your passion for writing, then you should pursue your dream.

– Thank you, Aloys. Your understanding means a lot to me. And I know that the decision to leave this place is the right move for me, although I may regret leaving my job after a while and losing the income that I would have received if I had worked for a fixed job, small but guaranteed.

John smiled and shrugged.

– I wish you nothing but success, Jess. I am sure that you will become a great writer, and your stories will inspire many. Good luck in your creative journey!

Jessica smiled, a sign of Aloyse's understanding and support warming her heart.

– Thank you, John. I also hope that our paths will cross again in the future, – she smiled coquettishly.

Aloys went outside, where the sun was less hot and the wind was coming in from the bay. He stood up and silently looked towards the river port and then up at the sky. Everything that had happened in his life before was completely unrelated to what he had planned, or rather planned.

He spent three years assembling a teleporter in his garage, and once, accidentally directing a beam at a neighbor's garage, he even sent it somewhere. The police came to investigate the theft, but they couldn't find any evidence, so the case was quickly closed.

The investigators also went to his garage, but apart from strange devices with wires, they saw nothing and quickly left.

– Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow…, – said Alois quite loudly as he saw a girl in a beautiful dress passing by.

– Do I know you? – Hearing his words, the girl asked, slowing her pace slightly.

Without replying, Alois got into his car,which was no different from the others, except that the bodywork was slightly dented in several places and there was rust on the hood. But he had spent all the weekends of the last few years on his spacecraft, trying to fly to the first planet outside the solar system and quickly get back to Earth.

He did not want to stay on other planets, he did not understand at all those who wanted to fly to other planets forever, leaving all their relatives and friends here. Flying, or, more precisely, moving through space with the help of his teleporter, interested him as a scientific event, rather than just a tourist trip.

The idea was quite simple. Charge the device through a plasma generator, accumulate enough energy to overcome the light barrier in flight. Drop the flag with the license plate of his car from the ballast, and then use a powerful telescope to find him from the ground, announce that he was there.

The whole event was supposed to take a couple of Earth days. And Aloyz planned to return to work early next week, but he might be late at most. But, given his high position in the company, his absence from work for a couple of hours would not have been noticed by anyone, because he never held personal receptions and conducted all business through an electronic secretary.

He wasn't going to take any food with him, because he was on a diet, and secondly, he just didn't have time to make a full bathroom in the cabin, although he took water and a package of chocolates with him.

The entire flight was supposed to take five minutes, Earth time, and ten hours of preparation to wait for the convenient location of the Earth side to teleport to a nearby planet that he had selected from the astronomical reference book. There was nothing to breathe, but the main thing was that the temperature was almost earth-like, so there was no need for extreme materials for the body of the teleportation device.

To protect himself from the aliens, he took his own annihilator. Taking a deep breath, he wheeled his phone out of the garage and closed it. It was already dark, and the stars were beckoning.

Sitting down behind the chair, he closed the cockpit light and began to fasten himself to the seats, but when he accidentally touched the launch lever of the quantum accelerator with his elbow, the engine began to grunt, and the picture changed to darkness, which after a while he felt that the device had landed on some metal. It was pitch-black, and you couldn't see anything but the same stars, but with different brightnesses, and here they were more grouped around a single spot.

– It's a nebula, okay, but I don't know where I am, I guess I should go back, there are no aliens.

Alois remembered that he had forgotten his camera to shoot, but he remembered to drop the flag on the surface of the planet, which he did with a simple push of a button.

The control for the return involved a reverse inversion by means of a lever latch in the opposite direction.

– Time to go home, – he muttered to himself.

A moment later, he was indeed in the place of his garage on the outskirts of the city, but he felt that he had landed on something high. After making sure that the gas analyzer for the outer atmosphere was turned on, Alois made sure that it was Earth, and opened the cockpit light. I took a breath of fresh air and got up, but I couldn't get down right away. He couldn't think of anything else to do but just jump down from the height. He succeeded, but he fell a little on his left side and closed his eyes a little from the slight pain he experienced.

When he opened his eyes, he found that what he had "landed" on had actually come with him, it was the garage of a neighbor who had disappeared after being accidentally annihilated.

– And how will I explain this event to my neighbor? Okay, I'll figure something out, but the flag never came back, it got stuck between the roof of the neighbor's garage and the teleporter, " Alois said almost aloud to himself.

He placed the teleporter in the garage in "home" mode, but the neighbor's garage remained standing crookedly in the middle of the road.

– If anything, I wasn't here, – the homegrown astronaut thought, and got into his old car and drove home.

He got to work on time, even managed to sleep at home.

From work, he called Jessica, who had recently quit and wanted to become a writer. He told her everything as it was, but she laughed and said that she would probably start her literary work with a fantasy novel, although she was going to start with romance novels. Alois had never felt so funny, he wanted to fly through space with a teleporter, then tell and prove his flight with the flag and marry Jess. As a result, she laughed at him, and the neighbor will also try for a long time to find out the reason why his garage first disappeared, then appeared, while he saw him Aloyza often in the garage, and he will definitely pry him. – I haven't been anywhere, I haven't seen anyone, that's all! – I said aloud this time and, getting into my old car, after work, I drove towards the river port in the hope of meeting a girl.