Amalgam Universe

A 2338-post collection

Challenge #01436-C341: Bizarre Reactions

Dinosaurs in zero g -- OohLookShiny

Of all the things evolution in space has wrought, of all the new species discovered in long-abandoned space stations... This one definitely took the cake.

They started as small pterosaurs, and their prey were some kind of bipedal herbivore. Like all saurians, they also had feathers. There was also an ample supply of cockroaches, as well as the plants that had once been in the agri section and had since gone wild.

Everything had gone wild.

The cockroaches had done what cockroaches do best in microgravity. They grew spikes and beyond thirty times their original size. The pterosaurs didn't seem to care about that, and ate them anyway.

The herbivore of this infant biota changed to digest all of the vegetation that was now growing wild. They also developed a grasping hand so they could anchor themselves when they were grazing. They developed extra ocular organs so they could watch behind them if they were occupied with other things.

And, as the science team found out, a means of locomotion that was also -er- jet propelled from their digestive system.

Just bouncing off of walls wasn't enough. These bouncing herbivores also farted their way to freedom.

As for the pterosaurs... their wings were made for steering only, and their legs adapted to intersect and use any launching surface.

Toq'therin found it all fascinating, until she looked over at the ship's human. She had that grin again. "Sheila? Please do not say anything ill advised?"

Too late. Sheila spread her lanky arms wide and proclaimed, "DINOS... IN... SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE!" and then started humming something to herself.

Humans. They all had their own bizarre little quirks.

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Challenge #01435-C340: Slow Progress

Don't put my ai into something and expect me to be nice to you. -- SeaDragon1012

"Got'cha body," said Gunther, aka call-me-mister-damnit. "Fac'shree sec'nd."

Grammar was still a sticking point. From what she'd seen of the news channels on this planet, a slurring grammar had become normal. Mary let it slide.

"You checked that it was working, right?"

"Yeh, it pass'd full Diag. And it's gotta r'mote thing so y'ull still do the imp'rtant stuff."

Which meant printing him food. Mary had

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Challenge #01434-C339: Pack Bonding is Strange

Someone who doesn't understand all the hoopla over puppies and kittens gets a more unconventional pet and loves it to pieces -- OohLookShiny

I'm not everyone. They say everyone feeds the Skitties on the sly. I don't. They say everyone will say 'hello' to a dog or coo over a kitten or a puppy. I don't.

I mean, sure, they're cute and all, but... I'm just not into them. I've heard all the arguments, by the way.

"Humans are pack animals..." Yeah

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Challenge #01433-C338: Pressing Suit

Courting gifts given in hope of acceptance, they vary from culture to species. -- Knitnan

On the mating rituals of Galactic Species...

As a whole, the mating habits of Galactic Society are so wide and varied that one may be excused for missing the signals of another. For example, most species gift food to their desired mate, but the solitary and territorial B'la'b'lankh sing[1] for their mates.

To the Vigin, a food-gift of meat is the deadliest of insults, while to

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Challenge #01432-C337: Very Wrong Number

Phone numbers and... unxpected... results. Your choice, the FBI story, the Red Phone story, both in one, or one of both. -- RecklessPrudence

Not many people called her on the comms. Even Rael was satisfied by sending her Pings. Text messages somewhere between chats and emails, as she understood it. Some methods of communication had homogenised since the eighties.

Phones were the biggest. She didn't have a phone as she knew it. The closest she had to a phone was a set,

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Challenge #01428-C333: Educational Amusement

A bird prompt for the Numidids: The story of Kevin-the-deathworlder and the deathworlder bird. (Even their birds are brutal!) -- RecklessPrudence

"...and even... photographers."

The scene cut to a camera-wielding human cautiously pursuing a Killdeer plover doing its broken-wing act. He was making soothing cooing noises, but they were clearly not working.

The person behind the camera was giggling.

The bird floundered aimlessly around as the photographer attempted to capture it without hurting it.

After a total of five failed attempts to

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Challenge #01427-C332: Illegal Saviors

Someone going through human archives, and they find this story and the key phrase of it:

"It may be ‘illegal’, but those who risk their liberty to ~save the world~ should never be reprimanded, no matter what those in power say." -- RecklessPrudence

When the people of Pre-Space Planetary System #J4N3T-111811260516 finally get into Galactic Society, they'll find some funny things in the archives. If they go looking.

My name is Leon. And technically? I'm a criminal.

GalStands&Legs - that's

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Challenge #01425-C330: Corrupted Signals

Truly showing someone you love them. -- RecklessPrudence

Mating displays in the common human are more than perplexing. Subtle signs of affection are usually missed and overt signals of hostility are misinterpreted. The dominating culture of an individual can lead to confusion when meeting an individual from another...

"Hey babe."

"I'm working." Kiri didn't even look up from her work. Didn't acknowledge him.

"All work and no play makes Jill a dull girl," said Don. He thought he was being flirtatious. She

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Challenge #01423-C328: Avoid The Greens

People discover, quite by accident, that aliens and spicy food don't mix, and that capsaicin is considered a deadly toxin by most species. -- YizukiKhons

[AN: Yeah sorry I'm late. I had to mind Miss Chaos through an exploration of QUT and some of the courses available there.]

Lynn had been trading with the Hyracont for some time. After years of setting up blind trading arrangements, she got to know a brave few. In their own livesuits, of course. There was never

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Challenge #01422-C327: Some Things Don't Work

"Kill it with fire!" -- OohLookShiny

It was a joke amongst the Glunk Cleanup Detail. They were a mix of either the most dedicated cleaners, or the most incorrigible of criminals. And both were under careful watch from rescue teams, but for different reasons.

And all of them knew that flamethrowers had negligible effects on the Glunk.

Well. All of them that weren't new.

Once in a great, long while, someone who was unfamiliar with all the tried-and-failed methods of cleaning up

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Challenge #01421-C326: Finding Need

"The world has need of you." It's a poem by Ellen Bass. Write something based on it please. -- Knitnan

[AN: You can read the poem over here if you're interested.]

Space is big. It's easy to imagine that the dark gulf doesn't care for the whims of one small scavenger and their ship. It was easy to feel like one tiny candle in a vast expanse of hungry darkness.

And doing EVA, checking out some empty and dark hulk... it was

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Challenge #01414-C319: If it Ain't Broke...

"If it isn't broke don't fix it." -- Knitnan

It was a rule every JOAT broke, sooner or later. The desire to tweak, finesse, and otherwise improve something in their radius of activity would become overwhelming.

Tel found it extremely difficult resist, stranded on a comms station that had barely enough life support for technical staff. She had edible algae making her air, and a daily supply of algae cakes that kept her alive. But also bored out of her skull.

At

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Challenge #01411-C316: Hammer of Peace

"There's no need to fear, I come in peace,"

"Well first of all, everything you just said is a lie,"

"And second of all?"

"You're not what I'm afraid of." -- OohLookShiny

Clair the Mercenary took shelter beside the Phemeropt behind the boulder. "I know there was a distress call," she said. "Your colony is in danger and we don't know why."

"Erinacs," whispered the Havenworlder. "They've eaten all of our scouts."

"Ah," Clair stood up and got on the comms. "We

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Challenge #01404-C309: Fluff

Actual or mental popcorn. --Knitnan

They were sitting together on the couch, with buckets of butter-flavoured popcorn, and watching an archived entertainment as part of Ambassador Shayde's greater day job.

Rael gradually acquired the sensation that this particular entertainment had little worth.

"Is there a message behind this?"

"Eh... no' really."

"Is it art?"

"I think it's s'posed'a be funny," she said, dripping popcorn into her waiting mouth. "I don't get a lot of it."

"Me neither." He frowned at a

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Challenge #01400-C305: Incomprehensible Biology

Human females become the most feared aspect of humanity when aliens realize that they regularly bleed once a month as part of their reproductive cycle. -- YizukiKhons

When venturing into the wild spaces, those territories outside of the Galactic Alliance, it is vitally necessary to have at least one human on the crew. Their pack-bonding and protective capabilities were highly prized in wild space.

Such was the case with the TikTavi, where the ship's human had a name unpronounceable by the crew.

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