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

Tristan's rough hands gripped his scruff, dragging him across the floor. Quilli bodily heaved Ravenna at Tristan, and the man caught her by the choke collar. Her yip turned into a gurgle as the collar dug into her throat. Tristan hauled both daugments out of the room and into the hall.


It was filled with carnage. A massacre. So many of the Canuum who had stayed behind had spilled their blood on that floor, on those walls. They'd spilled the blood of Tristan's people, too.


The five large heat signatures Pit's HUD had detected materialized out of the shadows. Through his blurring vision, Pit could make out fangy underbites, shiny black carapaces, and multiple beady eyes.


Tristan somehow had five of the lethal alien predators under his control. Pit went limp with fear. He knew how effectively these creatures could destroy in an enclosed space.


Chapter 57