We Are Both Mammals

Thirty-year-old human Daniel Avari awakes in a hospital bed to find that he has been the victim of a terrible accident that he does not remember. He should have died, but instead he has been the unconsenting patient of experimental surgery: he is now permanently joined by a synthetic hose to a thurga, a non-human native of the planet on which Daniel is living and working. He will spend the rest of his days physically joined to a stranger; to a living life-support system in the form of a member of another species … if he still wants to live. The gentle, possum-like thurga has volunteered to spend the rest of his life keeping Daniel alive, but Daniel is not convinced that he wants such a gift.
A short science-fiction story. Not gory nor graphic, but contains adult themes.