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

Pit gulped, then almost threw up. Luckily Ravenna held his jaws closed and he couldn't, so somehow he wrenched back control of his digestive system and waited for something in her demeanor to change.


Suddenly Ravenna gasped and whined and started forward, releasing her jaws. The thrust of her powerful chest sent Pit sprawling in a pile of his own ears and paws. He lay there, unwilling to move until she'd said something, proving she was rational again.


"Pit, I'm so sorry," she babbled after a moment of silence except for her panting. "I don't know what's come over me. I don't know what's going on."


"Ravenna," Pit said, with false calm, projecting as much of his general's commanding tone as he could manage under the circumstances, "Ravenna, you're right. Don't drink the water. Come with me, we're going down to the lobby."


If the water wasn't safe, presumably nothing was. That in and of itself was alarming enough that he didn't want Ravenna to realize it in her condition.


Chapter 29