United Creatures Universe Stories

For Danny Bartlett, an eight-year-old red fox who spends half of each year living on his family's freighter, it was just another stop at Mars to drop off and pick up freight. But for the adults around Danny, survival as spacers, creatures who operated small freighters or otherwise worked in space, striving to do more than live upon the basics provided by the United Creatures, the society set up across the solar system after the fall of mankind, the rise of sentient creatures, and sentience wars, this was another day in the struggle to thrive rather than simply survive. Note that while the primary protagonist is a child, this story has not been written explicitly for children, but for a general or adult audience. This story contains profanity and weapons, including the use of weapons, terrorism, mentions of gambling, substance use, and references to bodily functions. This story mentions miscarriage and child endangerment.

Danny wants to get back to space. But his Grandpa, Arthur Bartlett, is dying in Phoenix, and his family must deal with that. The young fox and his family travel there, risking missing Danny's birthday with his beloved Uncle Mark, not that it could be what he wants with Mark in Criminal Rehabilitation. But when they do get back into space, their new co-pilot, an older fox named Skip King, turns out to be someone nobody in the family expected.

Mark Bartlett messed up. He let himself be pressured to carry unknown cargo on his family's freighter, putting the red fox spacers in danger. Now, he's in the custody of the UC Fleet on the frigate Sparrow, facing the consequences. Ensign Patrick Bass has two secrets. First, he's a mole for Human's First!, a terrorist organization that wants humans to be in charge and dominant in the Solar System. Second, he's in love with a male wolf, two things that his Fundamentalist upbringing says are irredeemable sins. Their fates are about to collide.