Effing Feline, astronaut! #wewriwa

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I, Effing Feline, like my pet human’s stories about outer space — but wouldn’t they be astronomically better with feline heroes and heroines? Just imagine!

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Today’s snippet from Constellation XXI continues picks up shortly after last week’s. After positioning her tugship to intercept any spaceships coming in through her sector, she looks at family pictures to remind herself what’s at stake in her job.

Then she waits.

After another painstaking double-check of all systems, Sienna the cat reclined her command chair — step one of the trance procedure — and then followed the other eight steps involved in entering the high-alert repose that would allow her to function for seven days.

Boredom and routine were good. Boredom and routine were her friends. But as Sienna the puddytat drifted through clouds of cotton candy into the cozy depths of trance, she wished something exciting would happen so she could convince the doubters — including, she was annoyed to discover, herself — that she was worthy of one of the most exacting and underappreciated piloting jobs in the galaxy.

* * *

The visor of Sienna’s the puddingtat’s flight helmet cycled from jade to burgundy and back in a soft, ever-brighter rhythm that nudged her out of trance.

Incoming ship!

She jerked straight in her command chair even before it was fully upright. Gravitational-wave sensor eight displayed an insignificant dot, but when she magnified it to maximum, the dot grew a short tail that wiggled like a stringfish tadpole. Sienna thought the command to turn on the communication channel to Rampart-G space station cat house, her ‘home’ during this six-month tour of duty, so she could report the approaching ship.

Effing Feline here again. My edits make this a much better story. You agree, of course — don’t you? Before you answer, remember my claws!

Be sure to check out the other great writers in Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday.

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Constellation XXI

Rediscovering Love at the Worst Possible Time

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Although Sienna Dukelsky had been the most promising student pilot at Keening AstroSpace Academy, she inexplicably settles for a routine, unglamorous job guiding incoming spaceships to safe berths at Farflung Space Station. Rumors blamed her startling decision on heartbreak after Crispin Hunt, the love of her life, got expelled.

Approaching Farflung years several later, Crispin’s freighter is met by Sienna’s tugship. Love rekindles, though dampened by old betrayals. And when her ship loses power while aimed straight at the space station, Sienna must confront astonishing secrets about Crispin and his cargo—secrets that make hers the most important job in the galaxy.

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