Chapter 1 - A bunch of pets “If I don’t do it now, I will never do it…” When I heard about this new animal café that opened recently in my city, I really got attracted to it and wanted to visit badly. Unfortunately, I was all alone and rather shy, so going to a brand new place that had a social function was not an easy thing for me. ...
The collar and blinders limit your field of view. You cannot see the entirety of the craft. It stretches out of eyesight, but it appears to be one single chamber. The side that your feet stretch towards is “down,” for you, and farther down appears to grow larger and wider. “Up,” the side which your head points toward, tapers off. The entire room seems vaguely cone-shaped, but only vaguely. Incomprehensible designs seem to take up what little “wall” space is not used by other receptacles. ...
Dr. Wells lay in her improvised seat aboard the Soyuz capsule grinning from ear to ear. It had taken her years to get to this: the college work, application to the space program, the astronaut training. And now here she was, strapped into position aboard the Soyuz which had just docked with the International Space Station. As the hatch opened, the three other cosmonauts unlatched their belts and floated freely about the cabin. Wells had to wait. She was in a special fourth seat configuration, which she was told, had never been used before. It was so exciting to be making history! ...
“Are you going back to Tom?” Marci Gotz didn’t answer her older sister at once. She closed her suitcase and applied her thumb to the thumb-locks, sealing it, before saying: “No, I’m not. I’m going to join the Hostage Corp, and neither you nor Tom will ever see me again.” Jane sputtered. Marci brushed past her sister, suitcase in hand. “Are you nuts?” Jane finally managed when Marci reached the front door of the small rented house. “Tom is infinitely better than one of those blue beasts!” ...