Very great and exciting. Seems the mission ended up being aborted early, though based on her reaction at the end, I have a feeling I know who she came across.

So one thing I'm actually hoping gets answered at some point is that Grace comes from anthro earth. But there's also humans who presumably come from our earth. I don't know if that's a mystery to be revealed later or what, but it's definitely on my mind.

Admittedly, the ending is probably a bit rushed and I'm secretly hoping that the answer to who she found in her sleeping pod wasn't too obvious. I do appreciate you saying you thought it was exciting though, thank you for that.

To be honest, I haven't really thought of a good excuse for that yet. Kind of thinking just glaze over that detail, what do the origins of the human race matter anyways? Currently, my only other thought would be "Oh, we call our planet Earth, too!" but that, obviously, is just plain stupid. Still giving that thought, but I can't think of a good excuse at the present.

Thank you very much for having looked through this one, very much appreciated.

It’s fine if it is obvious. It’s really difficult to pull of a real twist and as long as it makes sense for the reader and isn’t teased along too long that’s what matter.

So maybe it’s my world buildy brain, but to me that was something that stood out and has gotten me speculating, because it’s weird. If you want I can send you over the theories I came up with. You can either steal one or maybe it’ll inspire you.

Being that I'm not quite as adept at world building, I would appreciate your thoughts on the matter. I did, however, think up while writing my initial response one explanation that might work, if require massive suspension of disbelief from the reader.

Work in progress:
Grace - "So... where do you humans come from?"
Juniper (Grace's only human companion with a name (for now at least)) - "Oh, who the hell knows? Humans have been around for so long and our original home world was destroyed over a millennia ago from a civil war that left the planet uninhabitable. Details kind of got lost in history and we prefer to consider ourselves natives from whatever colony planet we came from."

That's a seriously destructive civil war, I mean I knew the 2024 US elections were going to be intense, but wow.

Celtic, please no more, my lungs hurt now from laughing at that one!

;)

Actually, we probably shouldn't joke about these things...

Lots of action in this one. I did enjoy the excitement.

I'm grateful to hear you enjoyed it. I did enjoy putting together the action in this one, but was a bit worried that perhaps it kind of fell flat.

Thanks much for having read through it, I'm grateful you'd do that.

Wonderful! Very intense and exciting for certain.

I'm a big fan of Grace and her adventures, I'm glad we got to see her again and I can't wait until we get the big reveal to who is in the pod with her!

I'm very glad to hear you thought it came across well enough, thank you for that.

Grace's adventures are probably the trickiest to write for me, but I do enjoy a challenge. It means a lot that you seem to like her as a character.

Very much appreciate that you'd read through this, thanks much for that.

Space sucks.

(Has legitimately spent the past ten minutes trying to come up with a funny pun to follow up on that, but has failed miserably.)

I did in fact enjoy that joke more than I reasonably should have, thank you for that. Very much appreciate that you'd look this one over, most grateful for that.

Yeah, especially with a Dyson Sphere!

Any time FtD my friend, any time ;)

Very well written FtD and much enjoyed…

Vix

I'm grateful that you would say so and that you enjoyed it. Thanks much for reading through it, always appreciated.

Had me at the edge of my office chair the whole time! What a thrill ride! When that missile came in and the glass shattered, my heart was pounding a mile a minute (or maybe that was from the four shots of espresso )
Is Grace a recurring character in your stories? It felt like there was so much to her backstory, and I'd love to read more.

It's quite the thrill to hear that you seemed to enjoy this one, I do hope the espresso at least helped to get you into it when the action kicked in.

Grace started as a one-off character for a past Thursday Prompt, but my mind wandered elsewhere during a slow workday and I thought up a rough storyboard for her. I'm on-and-off working on a novella for her that I've dubbed "The Darkest Oceans" and it is my first (amateurish) attempt at a sci-fi.

I very much appreciate that you'd read over this one, thank you much for that.

Of course! It was an absolute pleasure 😊 I’ll be sure to dive into “The Darkest Oceans” soon. Best of luck writing the rest of it; I’m sure what you’ve got so far is just as good of a read as this one here 😉

I'm guessing the pod-mate is Conrad, or someone who looks like him? Intense story FtD, and I suspect it was something more than just a dream, but how was she rescued?

I note Roidh's comment below, personally I've always like it when anthros and humans share a setting, and in my opinion* it doesn't really need an explanation other than it's an alternate reality where humans and other animals became sentient.

"Flipping the compact device open, the familiar, if alien and only
legible through the chip in the back of her brain, glyphs welcomed her back."

I want one of these, seriously that's very cool.

"Whether Sahja had heard her or not, she
could not tell as the alien lifeform had no ears to flick nor did anything in his body language
tell her what he might have been thinking."

As is this, a nice point that an anthro would rely on set of ears, tail and other body language to convey and understand emotion, humans must confuse them.

"the Convergence"

Speaking of world-building, what exactly is this?

"With just a glance, she had already
identified the oncoming projectile as a high explosive, ship-to-ship missile"

VAMPIRE! VAMPIRE! VAMPIRE!**

Also this part was a little confusing, you describe it as having a high-explosive warhead but it functions more as an armour-piercing missile, as in it penetrates the hardened glass of the bridge but doesn't detonate inside the ship?***

*the correct opinion, because it's mine and therefore correct by definition ;) Only kidding, Roidh likes world-building as he said.

**if you get this I'll be super-impressed!

***I've read way too much of this stuff.

Well, concerning the pod-mate, that would be telling. It all was just a dream scene though, sorry if that is a bit of a cop out; wanted the drama and intensity of being lost in space but I can't just kill off my protagonist... although...

I was considering just glazing over the explanation for why humans are not coming from Earth, but Roidh's helped me think of something that could potentially work. Now it's just a matter of implementation. (Thanks again, Roidh!)

I'm thrilled to hear I managed to pique your interest with some of the sci-fi gadgets. Sci-fi definitely isn't my forte and is a bit of a challenge, but it is a fun challenge nonetheless.

It's riveting to hear you enjoyed that little interaction as I was hoping it would elicit some intrigue in how Grace views and analyzes her new coworkers.

The "Convergence" is basically my version of the Council races from Mass Effect for this story is all. It's the alien government that keeps the peace throughout the known, civil sections of the universe.

I'm afraid I won't be earning those bonus points, sorry. If you don't mind, what was that in reference to?

Admittedly, I noticed that and meant to go back and fix it but fell asleep again and then forgot. Can we chalk it up to how it was all just a dream until I remember to get it fixed up?

Thank you very much for having looked over this one, always greatly appreciated.

Awwwww, well that was certainly a realistic dream! And interesting about the human origin thing.

Actually one of my favourite aspects of sci-fi is all these neat gadgets and things like that, my favourite sci-fi author Iain M. Banks was of the same opinion. And you may not write much in the genre but this is really good so far!

"The "Convergence" is basically my version of the Council races from Mass Effect for this story is all. It's the alien government that keeps the peace throughout the known, civil sections of the universe."

Ah OK, I see, thanks!

"I'm afraid I won't be earning those bonus points, sorry. If you don't mind, what was that in reference to?"

It's the NATO codeword for an incoming ship-to-ship missile, which is both creepy and awesome, imagine being on the deck of a ship and hearing that come over the tannoy!

"Admittedly, I noticed that and meant to go back and fix it but fell asleep again and then forgot. Can we chalk it up to how it was all just a dream until I remember to get it fixed up?"

Sure, though if it was a dream you could probably leave as is, dreams don't tend to make sense after all ;)

And y/w, any time!

That's quite interesting, I definitely wouldn't have guessed that's what the VAMPIRE! meant. Now I know to be afraid and not think Dracula is manning the helm if I hear that while on a ship! Thank you for sharing.

If Dracula was manning the helm I believe I'd still be concerned! ;)