In Practice

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Arctic Fox Android, July 2025

“Once again, Melody stood very still, not wanting to be distracted by her own physicality as she sifted through the information stored in her brain, slicing through it at the right angle to think specifically about the ideas her parent had just highlighted for her.”

The android arctic fox, Fact, drew back the privacy screen zhe’d placed around zir portion of the engineering laboratory where zhe had been diligently working away for months on a secret project.  Inside the cubicle-sized space, a second, slightly smaller android stood, looking markedly similar to Fact with its snowy white silicon fur, dressed in a simple yet tastefully neutral outfit.  However, this android had longer ears, a more rounded muzzle, and larger back legs with longer feet than Fact.  Instead of a fox, this smaller android was a rabbit.  An arctic hare to match the arctic fox.

Fact looked immensely proud of the long-eared android which stood with its head tilted at a slightly awkward angle.  It hadn’t been activated yet. Continue reading “In Practice”

Time is a Double-Edged Sword – Part 3

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Arctic Fox Android, July 2025

[Part 1 2 3]

“The tools I would need to move the other end of the wormhole back to our own time would be available on the starship Initiative,” Fact said, “and the knowledge I need would require — at least — several decades of processing power for me to calculate.”

For all that the wormhole had looked impressive, Fact’s experience of stepping through it felt like nothing more than stepping through an open doorway.  One moment, zhe was in a dimly lit cave with stale, musty air; the next moment, golden sunlight constricted zir pupils and fresh, green-smelling air tousled zir silicon fur with playful zephyrs.

Fact looked around in surprise, having expected to find zirself in another cave, albeit in an entirely different set of time-space coordinates within the universe.  Instead, the fox seemed to have found zirself in a field of wildflowers, beside a copse of deciduous trees.  Birds sang among the trees, and happy children’s voices shouted in the distance. Continue reading “Time is a Double-Edged Sword – Part 3”

Time is a Double-Edged Sword – Part 2

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Arctic Fox Android, July 2025

[Part 1 2 3]

“I used to tell stories about the… other timeline,” Galen said. “When I was little, my parents praised me for my creativity, and their friends said I made the days of work go by more lightly with my fanciful tales. But as I got older…”

Stealing a shuttlecraft from a Tri-Galactic Union starship isn’t easy under normal circumstances.  It’s a lot harder during wartime in a highly militarized timeline.  However, Fact and Consul Tor had some unusual advantages on their side.  Between the arctic fox android’s ability to think faster than anything else aboard the Initiative — including the ship’s computer itself — and the photosynthetic green otteroid’s ability to sense and even mildly affect the emotions of everyone around her, the two-man team made surprisingly quick work of freeing a small shuttlecraft from the shuttle bay and zipping away from the Initiative as fast as they could, concealed by a burst of cogiton particles to scramble the ship’s sensor readings. Continue reading “Time is a Double-Edged Sword – Part 2”

Time is a Double-Edged Sword – Part 1

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Arctic Fox Android, July 2025

[Part 1 2 3]

“It felt to Fact as if zir crewmates wanted zir to be upset by the discovery of zir defunct, disembodied head. Like they were looking for a performance of grief that Fact simply didn’t feel and didn’t want to provide for the benefit of others.”

Gold-flecked yellow eyes stared into gold-flecked yellow eyes.  The gold flakes were real, twenty-four karat.  The yellow eyes, artificial.  Even so, one pair of eyes was animated with a simulation of life so perfect that it raised deep, philosophical questions about the nature of life itself.  For if an arctic fox android with snowy white silicon fur and a protonic brain can narrow zir eyes in concern at the discovery that zhe too will die someday, causing all the uplifted cats and dogs watching zir reaction to fight back tears, what more is required of a simulation before it becomes the thing itself? Continue reading “Time is a Double-Edged Sword – Part 1”

Brian

When I read the news, my body reacted like I’d been slapped in the face. I went back to bed, started doing French lessons in Duolingo, and made it my entire world to win first place in that week’s Diamond League tournament. I studied French all day every day for the rest of the week, barely stopping to eat or sleep.

When I remembered, near the end of that week, that the song “‘Til I Die” exists and realized that he had now died — and so he’s no longer thinking those thoughts — I doubled over like I’d been slugged in the stomach. Continue reading “Brian”

Lemon Joke, Mashup Ideas, Rewatching “The Offspring,” etc.

I’ve been watching Arrested Development with my teen. We’re in season two. He’s been laughing for several minutes at one of Tobias’s lines…

“I just found out my cellular telephone was a lemon.”

This is not even a joke. But apparently, my kid had never heard that idiom Continue reading “Lemon Joke, Mashup Ideas, Rewatching “The Offspring,” etc.”

French vs. Danish Duolingo

Learning Danish on Duolingo was a very different experience from learning French so far… There was less in the way of cutesy stories and characters. It was much more straightforwardly like studying with flash cards and simple exercises.

And since there were so few Danish lessons, it felt like I needed to do each and every one very carefully to get the most out of it. In comparison, the French lessons just go on and on, so I can race through them without worrying that I’ll run out of support if I’m not careful. Continue reading “French vs. Danish Duolingo”