1
KIERA
“Well, here we are—they’re probably waiting for us, so we’d better get moving,” Iyanna said, smiling at Kiera as she landed the extra—large shuttle on a huge landing pad just outside the massive Ba’ltzian Animal Rescue ship.
The BAR ship looked like what might happen if someone filled a really big shopping mall full of exotic, alien animals and shot it into space. It was enormous and bulky and the Ba’ltzians—who were alien animal rights activists—kept adding new rooms and habitats onto it to accommodate the new creatures they found in distress. It never landed on any planet—the Ba’ltzians preferred to send shuttles for animal recovery when they needed to. So it could afford to be massive and unwieldy since it never left space.
“We’d better get in there!” Kiera Stone tried to keep from jumping up and down in her seat in anticipation. As the head Zoologist of the Alien Animal Sanctuary located on Plo’nix, the second moon of Had’lor Prime, she was in charge of getting new animals to display and care for. It was her dream job and she absolutely loved it.
The sanctuary was sponsored by the Monstrum Kindred and she’d been given basically unlimited resources to work with, which made her new job even better.
The Monstrum were huge alien warriors who had come through a rip in the space/time continuum when their own universe was attacked and overrun by Darklings—horrible extra—dimensional creatures who fed on pain and misery and could strip the flesh from a living being’s bones in seconds.
Through a strange twist of fate, the Monstrum warriors often resembled Earth animals themselves, which seemed to make them more sensitive to the plight of neglected exotic beasts. And so their leader, Commander Rarev—who looked rather like a humanoid lion—had decided that an alien animal sanctuary was a good idea.
“For,” he’d said, when he hired Kiera to head the sanctuary, “Maybe if the humans visit and see other alien creatures being cared for and kept, they will more easily accept us among them. We need to broaden their minds.”
Kiera agreed with him there. The Monstrum had a big problem with PR—lots of people accused the women who mated with them of having “unnatural desires” because they looked like animals. Kiera didn’t believe that, though. To her, the Monstrum seemed nicer and more trustworthy than human men. Of course, part of that opinion might have to do with her love of animals…and part might be the fact that her fiancé had literally left her at the altar barely a year ago.
But Jerome getting cold feet—and subsequently running off with one of her bridesmaids—actually turned out to be the best thing that had ever happened to Kiera. It had forced her out of the rut her life had fallen into. She’d been the head Zoologist at Laury Park Zoo in Tampa—a nice enough small zoo with plenty of exhibits—but she’d always craved more of a challenge.
She wanted adventure…excitement…and a fresh start. And that was when Iyanna had called her from the Monstrum Mother Ship and let her know there was an opening. She’d explained that the Monstrum were building an alien animal sanctuary that was going to be open to the public once it was finished. The Monstrum would ferry interested humans to the sanctuary where they could view the exotic alien animals for free—from a safe distance, of course, because some of the creatures were quite fierce.
There were tamer and quieter animals there too, though. Kiera was especially excited about the petting zoo she was developing for kids. It included, among other things, some theebles from Hama’ba’ba Nine which looked a little bit like neon—colored kittens with beaks like birds. They echoed everything that was said to them in high, cheeping voices which made them absolutely hilarious in the right circumstances.
The last time Kiera had gone to visit them, she’d closed the containment gate on her thumb and had let loose without thinking. Suddenly, she was surrounded by a cheeping chorus of,
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” in high, angelic voices that echoed through the entire pen.
In the end, she cracked up laughing and forgot all about her hurt thumb. She was going to have to put a sign on the exhibit, asking people to watch their language, she thought, but she was sure the theebles would be a very popular part of the petting zoo.
There were more animals planned, both for the petting zoo and the sanctuary. Some were too dangerous to display, except from afar. Like the Vorn she’d acquired on Sap’sorn Delta last week. It had a thick, muscular body like an American Bison with a mouth that put any Great White shark to shame. It had three concentric rows of jagged, self—sharpening teeth and also tentacles on either side of its jaws, used for dragging hapless prey down its bright red gullet.
An animal that dangerous had to be kept at a distance. But as scary as it was, the Vorn still deserved a safe place to live and thrive.
Kiera wasn’t only collecting and rescuing cute, cuddly animals—she made sure the sanctuary had its fair share of predators too. As long as they were safely housed and separated, there was no reason why she shouldn’t have a Chooley from Aramath Six, which had fluffy gray fur and huge, adorable eyes that changed colors with its mood and a J’rax from Tonor Sepules—a horse sized creature—which had two scorpion—like stingers—one on its head and one on its tail—at the same facility.
“Oh, I can’t wait to see what they’ve got this time!” she exclaimed as she and Iyanna left the ship together and walked towards the entrance.
Luckily, the whole docking area was covered in a vast, invisible atmosphere dome so they didn’t have to wear any special equipment to breathe or stay warm.
“I know we’re here for the schoonies,” she went on. “But I’m sure they’re going to have other animal rescues that I’m going to want to get too.”
Iyanna grinned at her.
“You’re always so excited when you get to collect new animals. I don’t think you’ll ever be ready to stop growing that sanctuary.”
“Why should I? Commander Rarev said I could have as many animals as I wanted,” Kiera reminded her.
Iyanna burst out laughing.
“I remember how you were always bringing in stray kittens and puppies and God knows what—all else in college. Your dorm room looked like an animal shelter! Didn’t you get kicked out of the dorms in your junior year for having too many animals?”
“Well yes, but I couldn’t help it,” Kiera protested. “There were just so many animals that needed help!”
Iyanna shook her head.
“I’ve heard of the Universe’s Cat Distribution System—where a stray kitten or cat comes up to you and adopts you. But you seem to be a magnet for any stray animal anywhere in the world. Hell—in the entire galaxy!”
