The Panda's Dream: Barsk, #1.8

By Lawrence M. Schoen

A Panda on a space station is plagued by dreams and nightmares of an Elephant child. Can a Capybara therapist set him free?

 

Years have passed since the Ailuros Ciochan, a Panda, was relegated from his usual work as a space station cargomaster to spend an afternoon "babysitting" Pizlo, a six-year-old boy and a Fant (that disgusting race with their hairlessness, the disturbing motion of their trunks, their oversized ears, and their rank odor).

Pizlo was only there for a few hours but the trauma of the experience haunts Ciochan. He's having terrifying dreams in which the boy torments him with speciic threats of his family's death.Ciochan has risen in rank and is now stationmaster, and when the Alliance learns that his dreams are making his work suffer they send Bronjo, a Capybara therapist, to aid his mental health.

Can she alter his world view and help him to use the figment of his dreams to reshape reality?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lawrence M. Schoen
• Release date: Dec 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9781951391669

Book preview

The Panda’s Dream

THE PANDA’S DREAM

LAWRENCE M. SCHOEN

Paper Golem LLC

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted, in part or whole, by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from both the copyright owner and the publisher.

The Panda’s Drean © 2023 Lawrence M. Schoen

This book is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.

Cover Art by Jerome Stueart

Book design by Lawrence M. Schoen

Author photo by Valerie Schoen

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-951391-66-9

Vers. 231229

For Lauren

I have a bag of coins for you…

Please share them as you see fit.

CONTENTS

The Panda’s Dream

Above Barsk

The Dream

The Therapist

Black and White

Doubt

Childhood vs. Reality

A New Tale

Other Stuff

Dramatis Personae

Acknowledgments

About Lawrence M. Schoen

Also By Lawrence M. Schoen

THE PANDA’S DREAM

LAWRENCE M. SCHOEN

Paper Golem LLC

THE PANDA’S DREAM

ABOVE BARSK

Ciochan stood in the space station’s otherwise empty crew lounge, gazing out at the cloud-shrouded planet below, Barsk. The world was home to every Fant in existence, a race reviled for their rank odor, lack of fur, ginormous ears, and weirdly elongated and prehensile snouts. Centuries earlier they had been rounded up from every mixed world where they’d built communities, and exiled to a single rainy world that no one else wanted. The full irony of the situation was revealed when the disgusting Fant discovered resources on their new home that existed nowhere else, but the agreement that kept them isolated prevented anyone else setting foot on the planet. And so, an orbital station was created to maintain their isolation and handle exports, keeping everyone content.

Ciochan was an Ailuros, known as a Panda by most other races of the galaxy’s Alliance, burly and squat, his fur black and white, though most of it went hidden beneath the light blue jumpsuit that was daily uniform. The majority of the workers on the station were also Ailuros, solid and steadfast in their jobs. Two years earlier, Ciochan had been the station’s dockmaster. It was an excellent position and he excelled at it, but it all went sideways when two Fant showed up on the station without warning. Both were male. The adult, despite being