Short Story by Eric James Stone
Read for Escape Pod by Kij Johnson (text also online)
A delightfully silly little piece about a vegetarian, Buddhist, modified T-Rex who has to help some AI's fix the teleportation network if she wants to get home. But they have trouble explaining advanced technology to organic beings, giving her a mission statement roughly equivalent to the title.
Bokeerk (the dinosaur) gets to the thingamajig with some help from a sentient, trigger-happy gun, and then finds herself teaching Buddhism to an alien intelligence. Fortunately, it takes to Buddhism rather well, because the entire conclusion of the story (basically a Deus Ex Machina), relies on it not wanting to cause harm to any living being.
Over-the-top silliness in a science fictional frame, this story achieves what it is going for, but leaves something to be desired in the ending. Still, it is lightly amusing, exciting, and about as far from cliche as you can get. I'd recommend this to children, or people who want to kill half an hour after a long day.
3 dino-Buddhists out of 5.
Originally published in Analog
Friday, February 4, 2011
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