A Gift of Koi

By Leigh Kimmel

Ancient and wise, the grandfather Koi knows at first sight that this human bears a hidden wound. But how can a mere fish, even one as old as himself, be of any aid to a human?

Astronaut Tyler Lanham had come to Grissom City, first and oldest lunar settlement, in search of the medical expertise he couldn't find on the far side of the Moon. When he sees the scar on the ancient koi's side, he knows he's found a kindred spirit.

But an enemy is stalking these lovely gardens. A danger that will change both man and fish.

A short story of the Grissom timeline.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Starship Cat Press
• Release date: May 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223374695

Book preview

This book is a work of fiction. All names of persons, places and organizations are fictitious or used fictitiously.

FUTURE: 宗文 李 FROM PIXABAY

Earthrise: NASA

Koi: NOAA

Font: Elementary Gothic Bookhand

Published by Starship Cat Press, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.

http://www.starshipcatpress.com/

The humans in this place called him Fu Manchu, on account of the long barbels on his snout and his advanced age. The Grandfather Koi didn't mind such gaijin ignorance. His own name, made up of scents and tastes transmitted through the watery medium in which his kind lived, would have no meaning to them. Over his long life he'd borne many human-given names in the many koi ponds in which he'd dwelt.

But none so strange as this pond. Being netted for transport had been routine enough, but not the terrible shaking and vibrations that had followed. During the worst he'd thought he must be dying. At length it came to an end and they poured him into this pond.

And what a pond it was, the water from the fountains falling in lazy arcs that splashed higher and farther than he'd ever seen. Overhead, the day-lamp fairly crept across the sky, while the night-lamp had grown vast and blue, and now hung fixed in one place.

Yet for all its strangeness he still enjoyed this place. He could now leap higher and farther than ever. Even better, no predators entered this garden to hunt his kind. He still bore a painful scar from a long-ago attack by an otter, a scar that traversed his lateral line and made pressure and vibration sensations on that side unreliable.

However, his eyes remained as sharp as ever, enough that he could see beyond the surface to watch the humans looking back, even recognize individuals among them. Here came the keeper of the koi pond, accompanied by six strange humans who schooled together tightly, watching one another for cues as to which way to move. One moved as if in pain—not any obvious wound to the limbs with which it supported itself in the perilous realm above the water's surface, but a deeper anguish, as though life itself had become a burden.

The other koi came out from their favorite hiding spots, poked their snouts through the surface tension in hopes of catching choice morsels. At least with the keeper here, they ran no risk of being tricked into