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May 12 - August 1, 2025
For the past few days, Nugget had been on a warpath clearing out the neighborhood. This time, her sights were set on her grown daughter. Tulip, aka Train Wreck, had recently come into power in the Pluto tribe after murdering their last matriarch. Like mother, like daughter, I suppose.
The room was lined with rows of cylindrical tanks filled with green liquid. I peered closer at their contents to see the face of a sleeping woman floating in the tank. Her round face looked serene. Long braids fanned out around her face. A few tapped their beaded ends against the glass. The hair rose on the back of my neck as I took in each tank, noting that every one of them held a person. I rubbed my eyes, trying to wake up from the nightmare. Yet when I looked around again, the pods and their occupants remained. Worse still, I noticed that all of them were women. Reality sank to the pit of
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“Four years of schooling. This internship is the last thing I need to get my doctorate. I could have been on the streets hoeing myself out with my friends and having a great time. Could have taken a train to New York City and gallivanted around Broadway like my cousin Jubilee! Or just married that boring Harvard doctor or whatever the fuck he studied like my mom wanted. But noooo, I had to have dreams, I had to have aspirations of saving the stupid fucking planet. My research team gets funding to help protect your whole environment, and you just…you just kill me!”
“I’m just—so done. I’m so done, and I hate you,” I hissed, shaking my fist at the lion. “I hope you choke on my bones after you eat me! I hope they find this escape pod and probe your ass. May your entire family line be cursed with hip dysplasia! I hate you, lion!”
When I didn’t feel his fangs sinking into my neck, I peered down to see his head nuzzled against my chest. “Um, sir?” The lion untucked his head from my chest to look me in the eye. My gut sank, eyes watering at the beast’s horrid breath. He grunted, then a large pink tongue shot out and licked me square on my mouth. “Ew, that’s so nasty,” I said, wiping his spit off my face. He shook his head, his nose curling as if he tasted something he didn’t like. When he licked his chops, I noticed his gums had
The lion groaned. “Look, you and I just went through a very traumatic experience together. An experience like that forms a bond. We’re basically brothers now. More importantly”—he sat down and grinned—“I’m a lion. Meaning I don’t know how to move this”—he looked around the ship before turning back to me—“box. The only reason I followed you is because I know your kind is good with this sort of thing. You’re always riding around the desert, singing your songs and shouting,” he said. Rearing back on his haunches, he waved his front paws in the air, no doubt mimicking an excited tourist. “Now, be
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“Hello there, my name’s Lokbaatar, but you can call me Lok. Tell me, gorgeous, are you the one that fell from that star?” “Star? Oh! The space pod, yes, that was Toto and me.” He grinned wide. “It seems wishing stars do exist. Tell me your name, Stardust.” What kind of isekai shit is this? I wasn’t sure how many laws of nature I was breaking by being attracted to aliens, but his grin was a little sexy. “I’m Do—”
A puzzled expression settled on his face before he looked down at his butt, his eyes widening in horror as he noticed a small dart protruding from his rear. He reached and plucked it out. Confusion turned to anger as he quickly turned his accusing gaze toward Lok. “You shot me with a dart?”
The once-invisible vessel now shimmered into view, revealing its sleek and compact design. It began to spiral out of control, hurtling toward the ground. The sounds of snapping branches and breaking twigs filled the air as the saucer crash-landed, skidding across the forest floor like a skipping stone until it came to a stop.
His body shuddered before he fell to his back, wings akimbo. “You’re a class A species,” he said, voice hollow. “Not animals at all, you’re a class A species. Stars above, the war crimes we’ve committed. The Galactic Federation is gonna have our heads. I’m going to get demoted to a waste collector, if the natives don’t just kill me first.”
The Owlish snapped upright. His bright feathers puffed up until he resembled a distressed cotton ball with eyes. “No!” he cried, getting to his feet. Whirling around, he threw a metal ball on the ground. Its cracked screen revealed a web of fractured lines, mirroring the shattered hopes of the alien. With deep breaths, the Owlish snapped his attention back to us. Straightening his back, he waddled a few steps closer.
marauders.
The Biwban grew frenzied, almost falling off his perch in his attempt to get away after I snatched the weapon. Just before he landed on his face, he remembered he had wings and corrected himself before hopping farther away from me. “Subject 4, please remain calm!”
He flattened himself against a tree, whimpering when the spear brushed against the feathers of his belly. “And trust me Sub—Dory, I’d love to do that for you. But…” I pressed the spear into his belly, not enough to break the skin, but enough to make him shiver. “But what?” “We…we just don’t have the funding for that.”
My knees hit the ground before I could even pretend
“Isn’t she?” His face brightened, a direct attack on my heartstrings. He slapped her side. “Blossom, call your boyfriend.” She shifted her weight back on her feet and blared a tune into the sky. Lok produced another flower from his pocket and tossed it to Sol. “You get him, good luck.”