PANDORA

I watched the Nīpa's whiskers twitch and forced myself to take deep breaths, so my satisfaction wouldn't show on my face. He wasn't the first Nīpa I'd encountered with that particular tell. Most people never noticed, because the Nīpa's constantly sniffing noses made their whiskers twitch all the time. But this was a different kind of twitch, one I'd picked up on in nearly a decade of lingering in gambling dens. It followed a fast, short rhythm, tick-tick-tick, and made the Nīpa's pointy, rodent-like muzzle wrinkle. "Nīreep," the Nīpa said. His whiskers tick-tick-ticked all the faster. Ante-up, basically. I shifted my Kāchik bag in my hand, letting the stones roll beneath the worn leather as if contemplating. I knew what was in my bag. If this bluff went wrong, I'd have to make a run for it, and this was the last gambling den in the sector that I hadn't thoroughly plundered. I'd have to move, find a new shithole for me and my birds to live in. And I knew at an

Maybe it was because of that smile, which warmed her features considerably and made her body language seem less closed. Maybe it was just pure shock. I stared at her, a frank, blatant stare that would have gotten me a slap back home."Are you completely space-fried? What could you possibly want with me?"The captain leaned forward and gestured to my plate, which I hadn't touched in a while. Obediently I cut into my roast beef. The faint warmth coming off the plate itself kept my food from getting too cold, so it still tasted fine, but it was hard to eat. My heart pounded with anticipation, though what it was anticipating, I wasn't sure. I chewed quickly and thoroughly, swallowed past the lump in my throat, then cut another piece, waving it on the fork to demonstrate that I was following orders."Tell me, Xandri. Your opponent down there...how did you know to bluff?""Oh. Um..." Shit. The food churned in my stomach, along with disappointment. She really wa

Think she'll come?"Captain Chui Shan Fung glanced up from her holo-slate. Akcharrch, her Ongkoarrat companion, sat at the foot of Mr. Spock's ramp, scratching her belly with one of her three-toed feet. I suppose that might more properly be hands, Shan Fung thought. Aki had six, after all, and had never once expressed a preference.In truth, there were many things the Ongkoarrat never expressed preference on; they simply couldn't be bothered. They had no concept of gender at all, and the crew of the Carpathia had ended up calling Aki "she" due the pitch of her voice, which was-especially to human ears-vaguely feminine. Aki didn't seem to care what they called her, as long as her pilot seat was always ready and her copilots weren't utter rust-brains. For despite her vague resemblance to a bulky, two and a half meter long sloth-bear and the fact that she walked on all sixes, Aki was one of the best pilots in the known universe. It was an Ongkoarrat thing."I hope so," S

"There's our Carpathia," Aki announced. She didn't have to tell me. If it wasn't for the fact that she'd ordered me to strap in, I'd have had my face against the front viewscreen like a kid plastered to the display window of a candy store. A Crystalliad-class troop cruiser. I'd never expected to see one up close, mainly because they were all decommissioned years ago. She was built along typical lines, in the almost arrowhead-like shape favored by the Sanavila. Opaline shimmered in an ever-shifting array of colors along the curves of her hull. She didn't have some of the dramatic flair seen in other ships-her tails were curved back and only slightly longer than her spindle-but then, she was a warship; she didn't need flair. "She's beautiful," I breathed. Captain Chui chuckled. "I'm glad you appreciate her. Some people think I'm space-fried, cruising around the galaxy in a ship this old." "We-ll...I might have upgraded her hull to opaline-d, mys

Argh, I'm gonna be late again! Which way...damn it! It was only my third day aboard the Carpathia and I'd already discovered-the hard, humiliating way-that I was in no shape to navigate the grav-tubes. So I went everywhere on foot and spent most of my time lost in the ship's gleaming corridors. So far I'd been late for every meeting with the Xeno-liaisons team. Sure, I could've asked Carpathia herself for directions, but I didn't want to bother her. Being a starship had to be time-consuming. "Lost again, Ms. Corelel?" I managed to clamp my teeth around my first impulsive response-are you stalking me or something?-and turned to face First Officer Magellan. Like most Kowari, Magellan towered over me, standing, I figured, around two meters twenty-five, give or take just a little. Sometimes humans referred to Kowari as Viking kangaroos, and I guess I could kinda see why, though I didn't approve of the term myself. Their bodies were somewhat kangaroo-like