Welcome to a distant future full of possibilities where the enigmatic Floribans are here to
explore the galaxy.
Our humanity's alien best friends and their gift of the quantum space drive allows starships
to slip through the veiled dimension they call the Strange as they visit distant planets
and stars.
Come along with the astral navigators and their Floriban counterparts as they explore
the galaxy and build friendships that will change the course of history.
The Strange is calling you.
Welcome, friend-shaped entities, to episode six of the Strange Space Adventures podcast.
I'm Katie Silverwinks, author of the award-winning series of cozy, optimistic science fiction
stories this podcast brings to you each week.
I'm thrilled to be here with you in audio form once again to share the tales of Strange
Space.
This week we have another chapter from my debut novella, Feathered Friendship.
Our chapter this week is a bit longer than usual, but it's well worth the listen.
Without any further delay, here's this week's installment of Feathered Friendship, a Strange
Space Novella.
Chapter 13.
For the first time, Bernadette finds herself in the space that Mother's Flock occupies
aboard Venture.
It's bigger than the Bird Room, certainly, with doors along the internal hallway near
the entrance on either side which lead to three smaller sleeping nest rooms and a lavatory.
The central sitting area features a curving orange upholstered couch and two matching
chairs around a low table.
The walls are covered in cabinet doors hanging pictures and shelves full of books and interesting
objects.
There's also a wide viewport on the far wall of the open space, although at the moment
this is covered tightly by a shutter.
Bernadette enjoys herself flying around the space and perching in different places while
Mother is busy setting up a teapot and cups on the small table in the middle of the sitting
area.
There are a lot of interesting things to see, after all, between the collected objects on
the shelves and all of the different nooks and crannies for storage in the walls.
A few minutes after, Mother finally sits down in one of the chairs and pulls out her note-taking
screen.
A chime sounds at the door.
Come in, calls Mother.
A pair of new people enter, both wearing the same sort of dark gray uniforms that Navy
and Zoe do, although with one blue stripe apiece instead of two along the collars.
One of them is a dark brown human with no hair on his head but a long curly mass of
the stuff hanging down from his face.
He stands about a head shorter than the lighter-than-a-bird blue Florvin with shoulder-length silver hair
who accompanies him.
Good evening, Mother says, waving to the new arrivals.
Thanks for letting me borrow you for a bit on your night off.
Not a bother at all, Dr. S. The human chuckles warmly.
You saved me from getting dragged into a poker game with Cece's buddy from Ship's Operations
again, actually.
Which he enjoys when he comes with me, mind you, and only protests because he's terrible
at bluffing.
The Florvin nudges the human playfully with one of their upper elbows while both of them
are taking seats on the couch.
Oh, is that so?
Dr. Giggles then pours a cup of steaming liquid from the pot for each of the visitors to match
her own.
I'll admit my ignorance there.
Cards have always been more Zoe and Navy's pastime than mine.
Poker's something different from what those two play with the captain and Dr. Yoshida,
isn't it?
Bridge is a different sort of a game entirely, the human answers, and it's far too complicated
for my taste.
Hello, Dr. S. says the Florvin, waving their tail curiously.
You said you needed some extra eyes looking at one of your experiments.
Ah, yes I did.
Mother holds out her hand in front of her.
Bernie, come over here so I can introduce you.
Bernadette flits down from her perch at the top of the bookcase and lands gracefully on
Mother's hand.
She chirps happily and then turns herself so she's facing the two interesting people
Mother seems to have invited to meet her.
Why am I not surprised that the experiment you wanted help with has feathers?
The human shakes his head in a good-natured way.
Ooh, such a lovely color, though.
It reminds me a bit of one of my older sibs.
The Florvin smiles appreciatively and then turns their third eye up to Mother, keeping
their lower two on Bernadette.
Is this Cobalt's bird, then?
Or do you have another experiment going on that no one's told me about?
Yes it is.
This is Bernadette.
Say hello to the lieutenants, Bernie.
They're going to help me with the rest of the test I was doing with you earlier.
Bernadette fluffs her feathers and stretches out her wings, then bobs her head happily
at the two of them.
Hello!
Bernadette is a good budgie.
Hello, Bernadette, says the Florvin.
Nice to meet you, little bird, says the human, Cobalt's certainly talked about you enough.
Bernadette bobs her head again to each of them.
Nice to meet you, she echoes.
So what exactly is this test we're helping with?
Asks the Florvin with a curious twitch of their ears.
Well, says Mother, taking on the same tone of voice she uses when she's explaining some
task or other to Coby.
Bernie here met Zoe for the first time earlier tonight, who's pointed out something about
her behavior to me that Cobalt had mentioned too but that I hadn't seriously considered
before.
I've already run some preliminary tests with her, but I'd like to try it again with someone
else she hasn't met before today to see if what I'm suspecting is true.
And what exactly are you suspecting, Dr. S? asks the human, raising one of his eyebrows.
Oh, you'll see once we get started.
I wouldn't want to prime your impressions any more than I have to.
Mother smiles and gestures toward the two visitors.
Okay, Bernie, first question.
Can you tell me who these lovely people are?
Bernadette considers the question and tilts her head to take a closer look at the two
people sitting on the couch.
She thinks back through all the things Mother and Coby have said about the other people
who live outside the Bird Room in the bigger world of the Starship called Venture.
After a few moments, she's pieced together the information she needs and found the right
phrases in her vocabulary of imitated words to make answers.
Lieutenant Ciel is a good Floravan.
Bernadette happily bobs her head as she makes her declaration.
Ciel is Quantum Space Drive Engineer.
Ciel is Star Doctor.
She stretches one of her wings in the direction of the other person on the couch.
Lieutenant Freberg is a good human.
Freberg is Astral Navigator.
The two young officers look between Bernadette and Mother with matching stunned expressions.
If you brought us here to impress us with the phrases you're teaching your birds now,
Dr. S., says Ciel after a moment, recovering their composure with a bit of a laugh, then
consider me suitably impressed.
But was causing me an astrophysicist really too much of a stretch for her to learn?
Bernadette tilts her head to one side and considers this, then turns back to Mother
and flaps her wings to draw attention to the correction she apparently needs to make.
Ciel is impressed astrophysicist.
Very good, Bernie, says Mother.
Do you know what that means?
Star Doctor, Bernadette replies, quite pleased with herself.
Coby had explained to her in one of their one-sided conversations that the person they
talked about called Ciel was, in addition to their main line of work, a scientist like
Mother who studied big important things called stars instead of creature, but they hadn't
told her what Ciel's job was called.
She's happy to know that there's a proper word for it.
Freberg's eyes widen.
Okay, Dr. S., this has to be one of your more involved magic tricks.
How did you know to train her for prompts like that?
Believe it or not, I didn't teach her to say any of it.
Mother chuckles and takes out her hollow screen to make some more notes.
Bernie, she asks, gesturing with her stylus, can you tell the lieutenants the phrases Coby
and I were trying to teach you and Albert to say?
Bernadette chirps happily and bobs her head before beginning her recitation.
Bernadette is a good budgie.
Bird at work.
All clear, all clear.
Danger, move away.
Thank you, Bernie, just like that.
Mother smiles and looks back to Ciel and Freberg.
You see, we had just started with a few phrases that I'd plan to later try and have her associate
with tasks and the presence or absence of maasmas if it turned out my theories were
correct about her being able to sense them.
The rest of her vocabulary she's either picked up from Rico or from the conversations she's
overheard.
As far as I know, just now is the first time anyone's said the word astrophysicist around
her.
That's... well, it's outside my field, and Bird Intelligence is notable, of course, but
even your little friend Rico doesn't seem to understand what he says.
Ciel comments, looking at Bernadette intently and waving their tail.
And yet, your Bernadette here gives the impression she understands everything we're saying.
That's essentially what Zoe said earlier, which is why I've been testing her.
Granted, Cobalt's been talking to Bernadette as if she could understand them since long
before she started mimicking words.
Mother sighs lightly and holds up a hand before anyone can comment, which, yes, I know, I
talk to the birds all the time myself, even though I'm well aware they can't understand,
but I'm afraid I may have missed the significance of what was going on here, because I mistook
Cobalt's interactions with her for a combination of them having picked up that habit from me
and Bernie being something they'd latched onto as a way of coping with everything else
they're working through.
For what it's worth, Dr. S, Ciel says in a bit of a more quiet tone, their mind has
seemed far less troubled since you took them under your metaphorical wing even more so
since this little experiment of yours hatched.
I hope so.
Mother's tone falls to match.
I've been doing my best to support them.
The kid actually talks now and can handle being in the drive bay for a full jump cycle
without having a nervous breakdown.
Considering what they were like when Navy first picked them up from the Academy at Captian,
that in itself is a miracle.
Freyberg lightly strokes his beard for a moment.
Now, as for the bird here, I can't claim to understand any of the science involved.
But if it's just a matter of imitating words and you didn't teach her, how in the stars
did she know who we are?
Do you want to try answering that one, Bernie?
Asks Mother, returning to her usual interested scientist voice.
Bernadette stretches and refolds her wings.
Bernadette is a smart budgie, she tells them.
Mother talks to Coby.
Floravind pair with Navigator.
Freyberg is C.L. Zoey.
By that, says C.L., chuckling, I take it you mean you overheard them talking about us here
and there enough to know that Venture has two Nav-Quan teams and you've already met
the only other Floravinds on the ship and then figured out that Hans here must be my
counterpart because we came in together?
Bernadette bobs her head excitedly.
So you're saying this bird has the same level of intelligence any one of us does?
Freyberg raises both eyebrows.
I suspect she might, or something approaching it at least, says Mother.
If Cobalt's to be believed, Bernie's been acting like she could understand spoken language
since she got the last of her feathers.
But she's only been holding a conversation like this with the mixed phrasing you've just
seen since today as far as I know.
I'll have to ask them when they come in from the jump shift just how long she's been seeming
to respond to them.
Her use of language reminds me of kittens around the age where they're in between losing
their fur and hitting that first major growth spurt.
You know what I mean, Dr. S. Wright.
When they've got a general understanding of what the people around them are saying, but
they're still working out all of the proper phrases and words for things.
That does sound about right now that you mention it.
Freyberg pauses thoughtfully.
I'll have to ask Navy to help me do some comparisons between Bernadette's development and brain
patterns and that of Florvin Kitten's.
It'll be interesting to see how Navy reacts to this little development at all.
Ciel leans back into a more comfortable-looking position and lightly drapes their two left
arms along the back of the couch and around Freyberg's shoulders respectively.
Considering that you almost didn't manage to persuade them to let you continue the experiment
after they found out what Cobalt was carrying through the strange for you, I mean.
They've met Bernie a few times, but yes, I have a feeling I'm in for a proper lecture
from our dear Elder-in-Residence about all of this.
Mother shakes her head.
Not that I have any idea how the exposure to quantum space while she was developing
would have done anything more than make her sensitive to the presence of miasmas, and
I wasn't going to start trusting her and Albert for that for a few more weeks since she's
been so much slower to develop since she hatched compared to the average budgie.
And, because I have to help Cobalt run those tests for you since Zoe put their foot down
about you being allowed to work with bottled miasma again, I remember.
Ciel nods.
And your other subject isn't showing any of the same signs?
Albert is a normal bird, says Bernadette, hoping that the way that she fluffs out her
feathers when she says this gets across the tone she wants, since her imitation voice
can't accomplish the subtlety of tone that the tall peoples can.
Albert has told her that she's not a proper bird often enough that she feels it's only
right for her to turn it around and call him normal.
Other chuckles.
As far as I know he is, yes, we'll still have to run those tests with both of them,
but Albert's development has been perfectly normal and he hasn't picked up any of the
phrases besides his name.
For a budgie his age, that's not all that unusual either.
I would assume it takes a more extensive exposure to produce the effects we're seeing in Bernie,
but I have a feeling that this little experiment of mine is never going to be able to be repeated
for us to find out.
Considering that you seem to have raised a sapient life form simply by exposing it to
the strange on a regular basis as an embryo, CL shakes their head, gesturing vaguely with
their tail.
Well, no, I can't imagine Navy would let you ever pull a stunt like this again, much
less the rest of the council when they find out about your results.
My Nita's certainly not going to like it, I can tell you that much.
Ciela nods and grows quiet for a moment or two, taking a long sip from her cup before
looking back towards the couch.
And what do you think of it, CL, honestly?
As a fellow scientist, CL asks with a mixture of curious and serious tones coloring their
voice, or as a Florbin who's responsible for keeping you and the rest of the humans
aboard this vessel safe from the dangers of the strange when we're traveling through
it.
Both, I suppose.
CL pauses for a few moments, lightly rubbing at their temples with their free hand.
I'm not sure.
For one, I think this whole thing has been reckless to a certain extent, even if you
have been using the protocols we worked out, and that if it had been anyone in the galaxy
but you who'd tried it, the council would have demanded the experiments be stopped from
the moment they caught word of it.
You're fortunate that they've always trusted your reputation and good intentions, Dr. S,
even without Navy vouching for you, you know?
I'm aware of that, yes.
And the ethics of ever allowing your work here to be repeated, or, stars forbid, built
upon by anyone else who doesn't share your background with us and why we have to limit
the research into the strange that we assist with, or your understanding of when things
have gone too far.
That's a mess I don't even want to think about.
CL sighs and makes a vague gesture.
And it's more Navy's place to talk about that than mine anyway.
I know what you mean, yes, Mother nods.
But as far as the bird herself?
CL brightens and holds out one of her hands.
That I am sure of.
Bernadette takes this as permission to fly over and land on their outstretched fingers.
She flutters her wings for a moment after she lands, and then looks up with a curious
tilt of her head into the three golden eyes that are looking at her so intently.
Miss Bernadette, CL says, smiling.
Scientist me, and Florif and me both, are utterly fascinated, and think that you are
a brilliant little creature that the strange seems to have decided to give a chance at
being a person.
I'm not sure if you can understand this yet, but you're very lucky that Dr. S is your
parent and not someone else.
Mother is a good human, Bernadette chirps, although this whole conversation her new friend
has been having with Mother is indeed well beyond her understanding.
All the same, she's thrilled that they're actually addressing her like this.
She is at that, CL agrees.
They hold the hand that Bernadette is perched on closer to their counterpart.
Now, if you want to start picking up interesting phrases to add to your vocabulary, this is
your man.
He's a brilliant navigator, of course, if I do say so myself, they add with a grin,
but he's also something of an avocational expert on ancient human literature.
You wouldn't believe the sorts of words all of his books have in them.
C.C. really.
Don't go talking me up to be an expert.
It's just a hobby.
Harry Berg seems embarrassed, but only for a moment.
But if we're going to say that this bird is a person and part of our little Navquan
family, then yes, I don't mind helping Dr. S round out her education with some readings
from the classics, although I'm not sure how much good teaching her Latin would do.
He laughs, giving Bernadette a little nod.
Bernadette chirps happily and bobs her head at him in return, then flies back over to
perch on Mother's shoulder.
Mother lightly strokes her feathers and then smiles at the two people on the couch.
So you agree that she's showing enough signs of sapience, then?
I do, C.L.
chuckles.
We might as well ask her if she is at this rate, quips Freyberg.
What do you say, Bernadette?
Are you a sapient bird?
Bernadette considers the question, then tilts her head to one side and nudges Mother's cheek.
What's this? she asks, uncertain of the word from what little context she's heard it in.
If you're asking for a simple definition, says Mother, let's go with sentient life
form who is self-aware and can think and reason.
A person instead of just a particularly clever animal.
Bernadette is a sapient bird, she replies, proudly fluffing out her feathers and flapping
her wings for emphasis.
Yes, Mother says, laughing brightly.
I do believe you are.
That's where we'll leave our story for this week.
I hope you've enjoyed these latest chapters of Feathered Friendship.
Next week, we'll see what Bernadette's life is like now that her family is recognizing
her for the sapient bird she is.
If you've enjoyed the show, please leave a comment or review on your podcast source
of choice.
Reviews and recommendations are the best way to help grow the show so I can continue bringing
you more and better stories each week.
Be sure to subscribe, too, so you don't miss the next episode.
If you'd like to support this podcast and all of my other ongoing projects in the Strange
Space universe, you can join the Strange Space Fan Club.
It's free to join, and gets you access to perks like the Strange Space Encyclopedia,
banner transcripts, and the official fan club newsletter.
At Tire Tiers, you can also access the full archive of Strange Space stories on my website,
receive exclusive fan club merch, and more.
You'll find the link to join in the show notes.
Thank you so much to all of my existing fan club members, especially Astral Navigator
Tier member Sharon T. Hinton and long-running space adventurer Tabitha.
I am deeply grateful to all of my fan club members for making this podcast possible.
Thanks again for joining me today on the Strange Space Adventures podcast.
I hope your week ahead is filled with opportunities and joy.
This is Katie Silverwings, wishing you the best the galaxy has to offer.
Stay shiny!
The Strange Space Adventures podcast is brought to you by PEPtalk Productions LLC.
Strange Space is a trademark of Katie Silverwings LLC, and all content of this podcast is copyright
2025 to Katie Silverwings.
For more information on Katie Silverwings, Strange Space Adventures, and this season's
story, visit www.katysilverwings.com.