Sheep-Eaters: Science Fiction

The sheep are friendly, open-faced, and inquisitive. They still have the rudimentary hands that they were given to allow them to crew during the voyage. The mutagen rate had dropped a lot more than expected, but they had formed their own odd society by the time the humans woke up from their long sleep in rad-hardened coffins frozen down to below zero. The sheep performed the duties assigned them and were rewarded by the ship pellets. The most interesting thing was that a fault in the computer killed one of the crucial reward circuits only 10 travel years from the final colony--and the sheep kept performing the task. Without them, the entire colony would have flown straight into the sun. So it is sickening that the reason they are kept now is because they are good for meat. Even though we are on starvation rations as we get the colony up and running, a good quarter of the colonists have voluntarily become--not vegetarian, but non-sheep-eaters.


Inspiration: Cake's "Sheep Go to Heaven" -> Googled "sheep" ->
Suffolk (sheep) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffolk_(sheep)
Jump to: navigation, search. A 7-month-old Suffolk ram. Suffolk sheep are a black-faced, open-faced breed of domestic sheep raised primarily for meat. Contents ...
Story potential: High.
Notes: Hmm. The challenge here would be dancing around the various cliches.