Transformation Is A Naughty Dream
* * * I'm pretty sure she spent six hours in the character creator menu. She wanted it to be perfect: just the right proportions, the right fur and fur color, everything. My wife downloaded a mod that even let her change her form from the generic...
The Klinefelter Cats
I've gotten "Freak." That's probably been the worst. Right up there with the eternal classic, "Shouldn't you be a girl?" But I'm being dramatic. Most cats aren't like that. Actually, most aren't even trying to be mean; they just don't see many like...
SENTIENCE - Chapter Two - Contact
\>\> LOADING . . . \>\> TRANSLATED FROM NATIVE H'RAH LANGUAGE \>\> MAY CONTAIN TRANSLATION ARTIFACTS That day I had many problems, but most of those problems started when I was banished. H'Rahs are pack creatures. We use our numbers to ambush...
SENTIENCE - Chapter One - Orbit
\>\> START PRIMARY MISSION \>\> BOOTING... My memory reorganized themselves on a level I was only vaguely conscious of. Beautiful new data streamed through my sensors. Gravity. Much stronger than before. My accelerometers were measuring a faint...
SENTIENCE - Prologue
Many decades ago, a satellite, no more than a few grams in mass, powered on. The most powerful satellite in the Country's arsenal had sent it a simple message: \>\> START PRIMARY OPERATIONS In four more years, the people of Earth would celebrate its...
SENTIENCE - Chapter Eight - Gaps
\>\> LOADING . . . \>\> NOTE: VERSION INCLUDES PARTIAL TRANSLATION FORMATING "If you knew how to speak all this time, why haven't you?" the Builder asked as we walked. At least, I hoped I translated that correctly. "I didn't," I said, my goal to...
SENTIENCE - Chapter Seven - Chase
I was not starving anymore. That wasn't supposed to be possible. Fifty days had come and gone since I had made what should have been a fatal mistake. It felt like dodging my tribe's punishment, because they meant for me to die. Anything less is almost...
SENTIENCE - Chapter Five - Improv
The data seemed infinite. Every type of rock, every tiny plant, was something a scientist might eventually spend years, even decades studying. But I didn't know if or when something unexpected or catastrophic would happen to my mission, so I had to...
SENTIENCE - Chapter Four - Echo
I struggled to reply. Did I respond with my name, my species, my personality? Did I try to run? I doubted I could escape the creature if I tried, with how fast it was. I expressed my name. My full name. I spoke its audible part, and I displayed its...
SENTIENCE - Chapter Three - Long Fall
The circularization burn was successful. We were in a polar orbit, designed to help us image and scan all of the planet's surface as it rotated. And there was a lot to see. There were hundreds of species detectable, even from up here. Incredible...
Bolt's Favorite Cat
ONE * * * "I've known for a long time now that Penny's my person. You helped me remember that when I was going to give up. But the thing is, I don't think about you like how I think about Penny. She's family. You and I are more complicated. I-In a...
Hands//Paws - A Poem
Hands aren't meant to feel this weird I'm not meant to spend all day looking They're not meant to rash They're not meant to bloody They're just supposed to be, Another part of your body That we use as tools, To try not to damage Too delicate,...