Author:
In another lifetime, August was a punk kid running a writing-themed e-zine in 2002 and participating in online survivor writing contests; these days, she’s a punk pseudo-adult with an office job and a studio of her own.

Meet Pitney Scolan. Pit, for short. He’s a decorated general and a venerated leader of the sprawling human race. He’s protected his species' colonies from vicious native animal populations and hostile alien life. He’s fiercely introverted, and he’s really looking forward to retiring on his personal planet in the very near future.

Except…now he has to be a dog.

A daugment, to be specific: a cybernetically enhanced canine, previously the doting pet of Pit’s biggest rival, General Tristan. It’s the only way to escape certain assassination.

So Pit grudgingly allies himself with a pair of well-meaning scoundrels and sets sail for seedier space in hopes of escaping Tristan’s clutches. What he finds instead is a galactic conspiracy to force him to make friends.

Daugment

Now that Pit had slid out of his idle thoughts and into analysis mode, he realized he hadn't seen any daugments. Maybe they were rarer here, or they preferred to stay indoors for some reason. It had been a hot day, yes, but it seemed like the usual sort of oppressive wet heat that one becomes accustomed to in an oceanside city.


He shook his head. It didn't matter if there weren't any daugments. Fewer canines, fewer conversations he'd have to have at eye level.


Fewer conversations period, for that matter.


A more pressing need arose than futile speculation: he was starving. And thirsty.


He peeled himself away from the window and dropped off the window ledge. At the sound of his weight hitting the floor, Ravenna said quietly from the little bathroom, "Pit?"


Pit sighed. He wasn't sure exactly where they stood, after his nasty comment, though he couldn't recall what that comment had been. "Yeah?"


Chapter 28