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

I didn't grow up believing in second chances. You did it right the first time, or you'd fucked it up. That sticks with me to this day. Only now it sounds more hopeful, because I might have fucked it up, but I also got a hell of a second chance. And if the universe decides to grant me a second chance, who am I to say no to the opportunity to right my wrongs?


And to write my rights. See what I did there? Yep. Good. Just making sure it translates when you write it down. Wouldn't want my wit lost on future generations.


~ General Pitney Scolan, live interview, WinStar Solar System News, December 14th, 2609, 71:00 local time.


Eighteen months after the events on Arich:


The clock read 06:50:00 hours, Prowess Standard Time.


Sixty robotic arms came alive in the atrium. Some lifted stringed Earth instruments of every size. Others lifted bows. One lifted an Algoraban flute to a wind tube.


The arms rose on light, anticipatory hydraulics.


Chapter 61