Today I have Ruby Lionsdrake on my blog, one of the fabulous authors of the upcoming Pets In Space 3: Embrace the Passion. She's talking about her cute pet in her Pets In Space 3 story. This is a picture of it and it's so adorable I wish I could have one!
Without further adieu:
I’m Lindsay Buroker, writing as Ruby
Lionsdrake in this anthology, and I was a serious Trekkie as a kid. My mom
introduced me to the original series when I was about five, and I adored it,
and I especially adored the "Trouble with Tribbles" episode. When it
came time to write a science-fiction-romance story centered around some alien
space critters, I immediately thought of those tribbles.
Of course, I wanted to do something a little different that could fit into my Mandrake Company universe (specifically, the mercenary ship where the rest of the series of sci-fi romances takes place). So I added some legs, antennae, and a bit more personality to my “tribbles” and called them Quashi. Instead of simply spawning a billion others of their kind, they help solve… oops, that would be a spoiler. Let me just give you a snippet from my story that introduces the Quashi:
Of course, I wanted to do something a little different that could fit into my Mandrake Company universe (specifically, the mercenary ship where the rest of the series of sci-fi romances takes place). So I added some legs, antennae, and a bit more personality to my “tribbles” and called them Quashi. Instead of simply spawning a billion others of their kind, they help solve… oops, that would be a spoiler. Let me just give you a snippet from my story that introduces the Quashi:
“Yes, according to the encyclopedia,
it’s a quashi from Vedana Moon,” Kor said. “Vedana has an atmosphere similar to
that of Old Earth northern and southern latitudes and was never terraformed,
though its relatively cold climate has kept it from being popular to colonists.
A finance lord owns the largest continent on the moon, but it remains largely
undeveloped. It’s the home to the quashi. They’re popular pets on Vedana, but
are somewhat unanimated in temperature ranges that humans prefer—they prefer
climates under zero Celsius. Their inertness at warmer temperatures makes
them…” He waved at the creature in Chanda’s arms; it appeared to be slumbering
now. “Unexciting to humans and children seeking more lively companions.”
Mandrake looked at Keys. “No chance
you can experiment on them?”
“You can’t experiment on something
that… that trills,” Chanda blurted.
Everyone in sickbay looked at her, and
her eyes grew abashed, as if she realized she shouldn’t chastise the captain of
the ship, but she lifted her chin and drew the creature closer to her chest.
“It’s moot anyway,” Keys said. “I
can’t run experiments on an animal native to this system. We need animals that
came from Old Earth and share mostly the same DNA as human beings.”
“Lab rats share mostly the same DNA as
we do?” Mandrake asked.
“Makes you feel less special to learn
that, doesn’t it?” Ankari asked him.
“Less evolved, at least.”
“Who told you that you were evolved,
Mandrake?” Kor asked.
You can find out what happens next in Quashi in Embrace the Passion: Pets in Space 3.
The pets are back in this new, exciting
collection of eleven original stories from today’s hottest Science Fiction
Romance authors! Feel the action and passion!
Embrace the Passion: Pets in
Space 3 https://www.petsinspaceantho.com
