Ad Astra Per Rodentia

When humans built cities, rats came, lured by abundant food and the tiny ratty spaces between walls. When humans crossed the oceans, rats followed. Rats took what the humans discarded and grew fat; they prospered like no other species.

The new ships, the star ships, were supposedly vermin-free, closed ecosystems, but rats are clever.

Now, the cities are burned and irradiated, the crops dead, the ships disintegrated. Rats inherit once more the refuse and detritus of humanity, and learn.

Squeak proud, brothers and sisters. We will travel now where the humans could not and squeeze into the crawlspaces between stars.