Intelligent Design

With three of his four bladders full, C'Bre Rah's blue abdomen stretched taut and burned from the weight of his bloated gut. He glared at the orange light bulb above the double doors an arm's length away. The Board of Directors' meeting continued, and none of the four department heads of Research and Development dared take a break lest they be called to justify their projects.

Shifting on the cold metal bench didn't relieve the ache in C'Bre's back, but he hoped it reduced the waffle-like indentations on the backs of his four legs. He fought the urge to rub the corded muscles bunched around his spine and, for a moment, envied Dunsay's quivering gelatinous mass slumped against the air-return manifold.

Sighing, Dunsay oozed further through the metal grates covering the cramped hallway floor of LifeNeeds Corporate Starcruiser and relieved himself in a vibrant red stream from the swollen orifice on the right side of his spotted pink body. The acrid smell of urine mingled with the fear and stale air filling the narrow corridor. The steel pipe above Dunsay's head misted water on the hall's four occupants.

C'Bre used his webbed fingers to catch the droplets in his triangular palms, then spread the moisture over the leathery skin of his four legs. The pale blue skin deepened to cobalt.