She was kinda cute, he thought, even for a mouse.She was kinda cute, he thought, even for a mouse. He had met his first Pendorian, and it was girl about his age. What was he thinking? She wasn't human. Well, there was Kallyn, the Katkin girl he had sat next to in school. He had fantasized about her once in a while, hadn't he? But a mouse? He suddenly recalled the book in his pocket, looking around for a public access reader. There was one just to the right of the forward viewport. He rose and wandered over there, sat down with his back to the wall and turned the vidscreen towards him. Slipping the book into the reader's slot, he keyed in "MARKAL." Markal: The 8th species introduced to Pendor, in the year 109 (Terra: 1993). Body structure is an anthropomorphic of the Family Muridae, or common rodent; in appearance they are comparable to the common Terran mouse, but they are more completely anthropomorphized than the Terran species Neorattus Norvegicus. The general personality qualities of the Markal are indistinguish- able from that of Human. Introduced after the "cultural settlement" of Pendor's first century and completely anthropomorphic (ref "Tindal" for a counterpoint), they have had little reason to develop a species-specific mindset of their own. |