You are listening to a Clarkshold magazine podcast. I'm your host and narrator, Kate Baker. Welcome to

painstaking by Rich Larson, which has been brought to you by your support. So thank you if you

have subscribed, if you've chucked a few bucks our way via donation, if you've gone to patreon.com

for it slash Clarksworld. We cannot bring you these stories each and every month without this support. And you let me continue to do what I love to patreon.com forward slash Clark's World. We cannot bring you these stories each and every month

without this support, and you let me continue to do what I love to do. Our author, Rich Larson,

is no stranger here to Clark's World. We've got many stories that we've published over the years.

Rich Larson was born in Niger, has lived in Spain in the Czech Republic, and is currently

based in Canada.

He is the author of the novels Annex and Imir, as well as over 250 short stories,

some of the best which can be found in his collection's Tomorrow Factory.

The sky didn't load today and other glitches.

And his latest book, ChangeLog, his fiction has been translated into over a dozen languages, among them, Polish, French, Romanian, and his latest book, ChangeLog. His fiction has been translated into over a dozen languages

among them, Polish, French, Romanian, and Japanese, and his Clark's World story, Ice, was adapted

into an Emmy-winning episode of Love, Death, and Robots. And if you like what you hear, please,

I implore you to go back to an even greater cold to come.

Malam, Malam, Malam the Scourge, the indomitable Captain Holly.

Lull, said the Scorpion, wants pawn term.

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

Mars can smell meat cooking over charcoal.

Before he was recruited, before the procedures, the scent was foreign to him.

He survived on Tuo and onions as a child.

Meat turned to stomach the first time he ate it.

...