Claws and Starships

When the results of Earth’s genetic experiments fled their makers, they took their own name as they left humanity behind; centuries later, the Pelted have spread into a multi-world alliance of cultures and languages, cribbed from Terra or created whole-cloth. Claws and Starships collects six stories of the Pelted, ranging from the humor of a xenoanthropologist on the wrong side of mythology to more serious works considering the implications of genetic engineering in a far-future classroom seeded with the children of those laboratories. Come stamp your passport and visit the worlds of the Pelted Alliance in all their variety!

Includes the novella “A Distant Sun,” and the short stories “Rosettes and Ribbons” (Best in Show anthology), “The Elements of Freedom,” “Tears” (Pawprints), “Pantheon,” and “Butterfly” (Anthrolations magazine).

Featuring six illustrations and an all-new afterword by noted fan historian Fred Patten.

Genre (setting): space opera (Pelted)
Tags: anthropology, history, humor, teaching, religion, family, games, furries
Rating: PG for emotional situations

Excerpt from Claws and Starships

Kellen propped a foot on the arm of a dark green chair and glanced at his teenaged students, seated in various levels of discomfort on the sofas, chairs and ottomans. He loved the first day of class, and the first day of this one in particular. The teacher pointed to a sturdily-built gray Hinichi wolfine: mostly human, with a fine covering of wolf.

"You, my friend. What's your name?"

"Uh, Derrick, sir. Derrick Lombard."

"Very good," Kellen said, "Tell me what class this is?"

Bewildered, the wolfine's eyes sought the others', hoping for support. "Err, it's 'Ethical Perspectives on History’, sir."

Kellen grinned. "Ah! Thank you, Derrick. That's just what I wanted to hear." An uneasy chuckle rose from the others watching, and he folded his arms across his chest. "As you might have guessed, I'm new here. My name is Kellen Grove. I ask that you call me 'Mr. Grove' so we can at least pretend you respect me, but otherwise my rules are as informal as my classroom. I like a lively discussion, so make free with your comments, particularly your jokes. I expect you to answer my questions; in return, I'll answer yours, no matter how hard. Make no mistake: there will be hard questions. This will be far and away the most difficult and interesting elective being offered during your last year of high school, and I'm gratified that you have all chosen to take it."

"History is the most difficult topic we're going to have all year?" a slim black human asked in an arch contralto.

Kellen laughed, his dark ears flipping forward. "What's your name?"

"Rachel Myers, sir!"

He slid off the chair. "Stand up, please, Rachel. I prefer to illustrate my answers concretely. You! The russet Aera there. Name?"

"Madeira, Clan Flait," was the wary reply from the slender girl more vulpine than humanoid.

"Stand up for me, please, Madeira. You? Donegan Unfound? Yes, thank you, just like that. You?" he turned to an ivory Karaka'An feline, her thin legs folded beneath her on the vast dark blue chair. Kellen faltered as he stared at her eyes. They were green? No, only one of them. The other was a yellowish lime color just similar enough to force the viewer to look twice.

"Margeaux Davis," she said in a shy soprano, lifting her odd-colored eyes to meet his.

"Ah, yes, stand for me, please, Margeaux."

Delivering himself a mental shake, he picked out two more students, then folded his arms across his chest again, tossing his black jaw ruffs behind his shoulders.

"Now," Kellen said. "Someone tell me what all these people have in common."

He watched with concealed amusement as they exchanged looks in none-too-covert bafflement. One of the braver ones managed to speak.

"In common, sir? I guess, they're all here?"

Kellen laughed. "That's a good start, but we're in History, not Physics. Any other ideas?"

"They're all two-footed," someone suggested from the back.

"Good!" Kellen said, fox-like ears perking. "Give me more on that track."

"They all have hands," said a male Phoenix, his own wings twitching.

The female human beside him added, "And they're all bilaterally symmetrical!"

A low rustle ran through the classroom as its members stared at the girl.

Kellen grinned. "Budding biologist, eh? She's right, though. These are all good observations, but you're citing the effects of a single root cause. Can you guess what it is?" He waited through the ensuing silence, then stood and walked behind Rachel, the black human. "How about 99% of their genome?"

"I thought this was History, not Biology," another human said, a lopsided smile on his face.

"It is History," Kellen said, finger snaking out to point at him. "Do you know your own? How the Alliance formed? Who formed it . . . and how they evolved?"

"We didn't evolve," a pantherine said. "Everyone knows that. The humans made us centuries ago."

"Precisely," said Kellen, resting against one of the taller chairs. "And the primary things that will engage us this year are the implications, complications and consequences of that decision. An ethical perspective, if you will. You may sit, everyone. Thank you for your patience." He turned to Rachel and said, "Do you understand now what I mean by this class being your most difficult this year?"

"Uh, I'm not sure," she admitted. "What's so hard about figuring out the implications of the first gengineering?"

"Did you know that seventy percent of the individuals who left on the generation ships to colonize the original Core planets couldn't successfully conceive and bear young?" Kellen asked, waited for her to shake her head. The rest of the class was staring at him now. "Do you know why?" Another negative. "Fully sixty-five percent of them had been engineered as sex toys. Because of concern that they would accidentally cause 'complications' when used, most of them were created without generative organs."

Since grim silence had been his intention, Kellen was satisfied with their response. "These are details adults don't share with children, for good reason. The creation of another sapient life form is an event fraught with ethical dilemmas. The solutions originally proposed and implemented for the first gengineered creatures on Terra were not always the best ones, and examining them is often cause for thought...and nightmare. You are no longer children. It's time for you to examine our shared history: its atrocities and tragedies as well as the positive outcomes that have become our birthright. That is why this is a difficult class."

"I see," the human girl said, subdued.

"You will," Kellen promised.