Octopus Ex Machina

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in ROAR 11, July 2022


“How did you do this?” She was sure, deep under her fur, that the octopus was behind the snow. “And why?”

The thing that surprised Lora most about being an otter was that her face was round, and her nose was round.  Everyone thinks of otters as long.  With their sinuous spines, like weasels and ferrets, they’re big ol’ fuzzy noodles.  But when Lora looked at her face — round.  So round.

When Lora had been a cat, her face had been full of corners and edges; triangular ears, articulated muzzle; even the shape of her eyes had been filled with crescents and sharpness.  Continue reading “Octopus Ex Machina”

Too Many Jangleberries

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in The Lorelei Signal, January 2023


“…am I truly a human dreaming of being a bizarre alien giraffe, shopping for groceries in an asteroid belt? Or am I the giraffe, dreaming of being a human?”

Franzi swung her long, giraffe-like neck from side to side, surveying the tightly filled shelves of the grocery aisles on this asteroid shop-mart.  There were too many brands of jangleberries to pick from — she didn’t know which kind she’d like best, and somehow, the existence of so many brands made her feel like she shouldn’t have to settle for anything less than her absolute favorite type of jangleberry. Continue reading “Too Many Jangleberries”

Hide the Honey

by Mary E. Lowd

A Deep Sky Anchor Original


“…once you find a hidden stash of honey, you simply must eat it. No other option. None at all.”

The bear’s paws were covered with honey.  It dripped from her claws in sticky, amber droplets.  It clumped her thick brown fur together between her paw pads.  Everything she touched, her paw came away leaving a ghostly paw print behind, a gleaming sheen of sugar where it had been.  She could touch nothing without giving herself away.

“Where are you?” the bear’s sister cried. Continue reading “Hide the Honey”

Their Eyes Like Portals

by Mary E. Lowd

A Deep Sky Anchor Original


“Over time, the sister cats learned to cast their portals farther and farther away from themselves, no longer needing to touch the air with their claws to rip reality open.”

Emerald and Amber were each named for the rich, gemstone color of their eyes.  Other than that, the sister cats looked the same — each with fur as black as the night sky and elegantly curving whiskers as bright white as shooting stars.

Other cats in the neighborhood shared whispered rumors that those bright white whiskers could grant a wish to a cat brave enough to fight the pair and yank one out.  No cat had ever tried.  The other neighborhood cats knew better than to challenge Emerald and Amber.  It was too important to stay in their good favor. Continue reading “Their Eyes Like Portals”

Cosmic and Miley

by Mary E. Lowd

A Deep Sky Anchor Original


“She didn’t find it fun when the chickens killed her best friend with their laser eyes, and her entire universe reset, meaning she’d failed in her life’s one goal.”

Holly’s bedroom looked like a scene out of Roger Rabbit or one of those other movies that mix animation and traditional film styles to make it look like cartoon characters and normal human beings live in the same world.  Holly knew there were a bunch more recent movies like that, but her parents mostly only let her watch movies that had come out years before she was even born.  They weren’t subscribed to any streaming services, so everything they watched came from a huge wall of bookshelves filled with actual DVDs. Continue reading “Cosmic and Miley”

The Elephant Bride’s Bouquet

by Mary E. Lowd

A Deep Sky Anchor Original, August 2023


“There were strict rules about harvesting the plants in the arboretum, and no matter how much she’d always wanted to curl her trunk around the stems of the flowers and snap off pretty buds, she had never dared break the rules.”

Jeko lifted her trunk and trumpeted along with the latest Star-Shaker song which she’d turned up to completely fill her small room aboard Crossroads Station.  Her trunk swayed along with the beat, and the reptilian pop-star’s lilting, raspy voice was loud enough that Jeko didn’t have to feel embarrassed about her own brassy tones.  The elephantine alien never sang in front of other people, but she loved to sing when she was alone.  Especially when she was happy. Continue reading “The Elephant Bride’s Bouquet”

The Seamstress Robot and the Insect Bride

by Mary E. Lowd

A Deep Sky Anchor Original, July 2023


“Am-lei’s mother had, at least, enjoyed the benefit of having beautiful, colorful, butterfly wings that distracted humans from the Kafkaesque qualities of her actual body.”

The Seamstress Robot’s shop was a little hole in the wall in the Merchant’s Quarter of Crossroads Station.  The seamstress robot herself looked a lot like a giant mechanical spider — all spindly silver legs, overly jointed and coming to extremely delicate points, capable of grabbing, manipulating, and piercing fabric.  Also, generating fabric.  The seamstress robot, like an actual spider, could generate silk.  And synthetic cotton.  And synth wool.  And velvet, taffeta, patterned prints, fake leather… just about any material you could imagine could be generated, strand by strand, from the tip of her 3D printer leg. Continue reading “The Seamstress Robot and the Insect Bride”

Orange Sherbet Unlocks a Better Loot Box

by Mary E. Lowd

A Deep Sky Anchor Original, June 2023


“It was weird having Rocky Road’s dad’s voice coming out of the familiar panda avatar. It looked like her friend was here, but he wasn’t.”

Orange Sherbet logged into the Mythical Proportions VR Cafe as soon as her teacher closed the 2nd grade classroom Zoom for the day.  She’d already finished her homework for the evening, and the rest of the week for that matter.  The assignments were all way too easy for her, almost insultingly easy, so she’d been working ahead.  And she was far enough ahead that the whole rest of the day was hers.  Neither of her parents would bug her about wasting her time in the digital world, because they’d just assume she was doing homework, as long as she didn’t do anything to give herself away.  VR goggles were helpful that way — they kept nosy parents from peeking over her shoulder to look at her screen. Continue reading “Orange Sherbet Unlocks a Better Loot Box”

Ekko the Orca

by Mary E. Lowd

A Deep Sky Anchor Original, May 2023


“But Ekko wasn’t an ordinary orca. She was the last of her kind, the only one left after the spaceship above had sucked up the rest of her people, stealing them away.”

Ekko felt the cool currents of water rush past her as she swam with all her might toward the ocean’s surface.  Her powerful tail pumped; her belly muscles clenched and released, over and over, as she barreled through the blue.  Then with a mighty splash, she emerged from the blue of the deep into the blue of the sky, trading a thick atmosphere for a thin one.  Rivulets and droplets of water streamed off her aerodynamic body as she soared upward, leaving the Earth and its heartbreakingly empty oceans behind. Continue reading “Ekko the Orca”

The Farther One Travels

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Tri-Galactic Trek, December 2019


“Electricity sparked between the captain and the alien eel again, and this time Jacques felt sure that he had somehow shared the image from his own memory with the alien in front of him.”

The alien probe gleamed like a star, small and bright, on the Initiative’s main view screen.

“Can we get closer?” Captain Pierre Jacques asked.  The Sphynx cat’s pink ears skewed to the side, betraying his excitement.  The Initiative was in deep, unexplored space, and the presence of an artificial object of any sort implied an entire civilization that must have created it.  An entire civilization that the cats and dogs of the Tri-Galactic Navy had never encountered before.  Captain Jacques loved nothing more than first contact missions. Continue reading “The Farther One Travels”