You are listening to the last story of the month for the Clark's World magazine podcast. Welcome to

September 2025, issue 228. As always, I want to thank you for your ongoing support, whether this is

your first time listening to a podcast or you've been here since the beginning, maybe somewhere in the

middle. Every subscription, every patreon.com for slash Clark's World contribution, every donation goes to bring you excellent fiction like the one you're about to hear.

And we cannot do this without you.

So I appreciate every little bit.

Our story is titled A World of Their Own is by Robert Falco.

Robert Falco is a Massachusetts resident who writes under the constant supervision of his

pet bearded dragon.

He loves gribly little creatures and all things related to outer space.

His work appears in Andromeda Spaceways magazine.

So my dear listener, I hope you can sit back, relax, and let me tell you a story.

Don't move.

Rico, too, froze.

Slowly, she angled her optics toward the creature that watched her through the crack and the drainage pipe.

A magpie.

Headcocked, its glowing eyes opened and closed with a mechanical aperture.

Its slick, rubbery body glistened from recent rain. Rain that would return.

Rain that would destroy. It'll get bored, Rico. Just keep still.

Easy for Basecamp to say, they weren't the ones with a diamond hard beak pointed at them,

encountering biomechanical wildlife was just part of surveying, and these creatures were why she

was here in the first place.

...