Hi, I'm Lavar Burton and this is Lavar Burton Reads.

In every episode I hand pick a different piece of short fiction and I read it to you.

The only thing these stories have in common is that I love them and I hope you will too.

Now of course you all probably know that I have a little bit of experience with first contact.

Well, at least on screen.

And I'll talk about that more at the end of the episode.

But I do love a story about the meeting of two species, two cultures, two beings that

were not previously sure of one or another's existence.

And this story is about first contact but probably not in the romantic way that we often

think about it.

I think this story speaks to the tenacity, the dedication and patience required of scientists

that push and pull between our own and others' opinions, others' desires, others' needs.

This story is by the Hugo nominated author, Carrie Vaughn, who wrote The New York Times

best-selling series of novels about a werewolf named Kitty, along with several other contemporary

fantasy and young adult novels.

This story was first published at Tor.com and is part of her collection, Amarillus and

other stories.

I really hope you like it, but before we begin, one last thing.

To remind you of the yearning we feel, to know the universe even when we feel bogged

down.

We embarked on a journey to the stars with a question first framed in the childhood

of our species and in each generation asked a new, with undamaged wonder, what are the

...