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Amalgam Universe

A 2266-post collection

Challenge #04504-L120: Unarmed? Unlikely

The pirates corner the human space-trucker and grabs the human's pup as a hostage The human's pup doesn't fight back with teeth, but the odor that soon incapacitates the pirates is one all dog owners know all too well. -- Anon Guest

[AN: For a handful of seconds, I thought you were talking about a Human infant]

Trucking is a boring job, so it's no shock that truckers in any environment find things to do during their work hours. For life on the road, company is necessary for sanity. For life on the space lanes, that's doubly so.

Chatting on the comms doesn't always work. Some transit lanes are bare of real-time conversation. Podcasts and audio drama can only entertain for so long. The routine of maintenance and meals could only keep a soul from shattering for so long. Thus, it was not surprising that many space truckers had pets. Some were nonstandard, some were stereotypical, and some were as ordinary as milk and cereal.

Trucker Smith had a new puppy, which filled a great many hours with training, play, and cleaning up various puppy-messes. Canid Squiggle was a happy, yappy terrier and already a joyful plague on any and all shipboard pests. He was still teething, too.

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Challenge #04503-L119: So Long, and Thanks...

"If you're listening to this, I told the Last Lie. Please don't cry. You are all my family and you rescued me from a fate worse than whatever it is I faced before the end. Instead, remember me with joy, and tell people about me. So that, through you, I can keep living." -- Anon Guest

The eyescreen portion of his livesuit helmet told him his survival chances had dropped to a fraction of a percent. It also told him that the

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Challenge #04496-L112: Little Friends

The large galactic laughed when the human told them about an eagle that was their best friend. A bird? A fluffy thing with no brains?

Then the person opened the carrier of the napping bird. It was a Harpy Eagle.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uK2eh7GOXz4 -- The New Guy

[AN: I am doing zero research into whether Harpy Eagles can be trained like falcons]

Horg was always amused by Humans and their pets. The dinky little Deathworlders had a knack for

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Challenge #04493-L109: Purity Flaw

They wanted their population sick enough to be too tired to fight back, but strong enough to work. Then someone introduced the immunoflu and when they tried desperately to stop the spread, their secret came out. -- Anon Guest

Any time a polity's leader starts going on about 'purity' and the strength derived from it, you know that polity is in for a bad time. And so are its people. Not just the ones who are deemed imperfect or impure.

Worse still

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Challenge #04491-L107: Important Safety Measures

All HUMANS agreed, after this incident, Stabbies were forbidden, well mostly. At least all the intelligent ones who cared about others. People loved their Stabbies, but now, the "blades" were soft rubber or foam with harmless, to as many as possible, red dye.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04182-k164-death-by-stabby -- Anon Guest

The news spread fast. The regulations were debated for a lot longer. Obviously, the Ships' or Stations' Humans needed enrichment and Stabbies were the lowest cost version of that. You

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Challenge #04488-L104: Trustworthy

Lilicoon has tea with her friends Jay and Mr. Sunshine. She laughs as she recounts her time as a "skitten-sitter" and some skitties decide to sit in the laps of the three, making it more amusing, and a good afternoon.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04259-k241-volunteered-kitten-sitter -- Anon Guest

They had been amiably chatting about everyday nonsense when the half-grown skitten invited itself into her lap. Where it immediately settled to grooming her tail floof. Lilcoon interrupted her train of thought and

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Challenge #04484-L100: C'mon, You Know You Wanna

Humans teach some of their Galactic friends how to ride various ride-able animals. -- Anon Guest

Two bovines, three equines of varying sizes, a collection of ungulates, and a gently-swaying elephant. After that, the species available were diverse, bizarre, and generally accepted to be as dangerous as every imaginable hell. The Humans looking after the animals probably explained it all.

The saying went, If it's too big to fit in their house, the Humans will try to ride it.

This was not

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Challenge #04480-L096: One Thing in Common

Interest groups, they need somewhere to meet, and talk and do their thing. ranging from 'Stitch and Bitch' in a friendly coffee shop, through small rooms and spots in Public Libraries even 'the equivalent of 'Car Boot meets' Some one or being who shares your interests and sometimes has stuff to swap or sell or you just prop each other up. -- She Who Knits

Humans, it is well-known, need their packs. Those packs don't need to be Human,as it is

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Challenge #04477-L093: Instructions Unclear

Each human has their own fitness level. Don't judge all by the few you have met. And remember, everything in moderation, even getting into better shape. -- Anon Guest

Humans were supposed to be unstoppable. They were meant to be relentless. Witnessing one sitting and wheezing was alarming. The mobility aids were even more alarming. The exo-frame and the cane in combination made Kar initially believe this might be a low-grav Human adjusting to Standard Gravity. They were sitting on a bench

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Challenge #04474-L090: Save the Starfish

The entire group were coughing, obviously, seriously, ill. Jay and his mentor Sunshine knew they needed treatment quickly, or they would not make it. But they were also hesitating, conditioned to remain lest their former overlords find out. Fortunately, they knew how to intimidate an individual into doing what needed to be done. In this case, scare them to entering the transport so they could get medical care, and off this forsaken rock. -- Fighting Fit

Jay always thought they were merciless.

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Challenge #04472-L088: A Sign For Some

Friendly Local Paintball Game Garners Galactic Attention, blare the headlines! Warriors battle for supremacy! Human team is DEFEATED!

The day that shocked the whole of the Alliance, and caused entire worlds to break out in parties. To say that the humans had a Silly Season on Earth was the understatement of the century.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04168-k150-clever-move -- Anon Guest

The last moments were all over the infonets. For some reason, an archival image of a speed-skating victory emerged to

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Challenge #04469-L085: When in Doubt...

A: are you sure this building is up to spec?

B: trust me I had the best engineers working on this project everything this geometrical perfect to ±0.003 tolerance.

A: I may be a lowly contractor, but the wall is 92° from where I’m standing.

B: I-impossible I had it tripled checked before installation!

A: there’s a mountain goat licking for salt around 90 m above us -- Anon Guest

Architect Blaine looked up. Sure enough, the beast in

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Challenge #04467-L083: Wastenaught

"What are you doing with all that plant waste and old clothing you're shredding?"

I'm going to make homemade paper.

"Paper out of clothing and old plants??"

Yep, it's going to be a very pretty soft green. -- Anon Guest

The thing about space travel is that it's difficult to take everything with you. Since it is the longest possible trip from A to B, taking everything for the trip means even more fuel expended to push it all towards B. Or

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Challenge #04466-L082: Breakable But Better

In the early days, when humans were first officially recognized by the alliance, not a lot was known about them. Imagine the shock, and a little bit of fear, when injuries, including internal bruising, though no bleeding, and broken bones, not only didn't send the human into shock, but also didn't require full sedation or surgeries. And even more surprising was their recovery rate! -- New Guy

First, there were a few incidents. Close encounters, near misses, glimpses in unfamiliar territory. And

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Challenge #04465-L081: For the Greater Good

The planet's population was quarantined due to an illness outbreak. "Pure Life" groups kept trying to stop the Galactics and their allies from going in, even trying to use force, because "adaptation is the only way for a population to become immune." The humans with common sense laugh at them and plow through, saving it from becoming a dead world. -- Anon Guest

For every advance in science, society, and technology, there's at least one band of lunatics willing to oppose it

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