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

The wind seemed to be lessening, but Pit didn't trust a true visual, not with this monotonous grit. The HUD confirmed his suspicions, however: the gusts were losing speed and coming more irregularly now. He dropped a mental marker for Certainty on the map. He didn't want to leave the once-shiny ship without at least giving her a chance to take him back off this hellhole of a planet.


Ravenna quickly led them to a narrow, switchbacking path carved into the plateau wall. Pit went second, trailing the Koolie by only a few inches. He was glad for the face shield, certain he'd be sneezing like crazy from Ravenna's fluffy tail hairs.


Minna came behind him, sometimes reaching down to touch the base of his tail when she wasn't sure she was going the right way. Fionn took the rear, hobbling slowly, watching behind and above for attackers.


Chapter 41