Month: August 2023

Otters In Space 2 – Chapter 22: The Great Red Spot

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 2: Jupiter, Deadly.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“We can’t hide out here singing about penguins until the Jolly Barracuda gets back. We’ll have company long before then.”

The entire ship wasn’t transparent, Kipper realized.  The room with the airlock where Trugger and Kipper had emerged from their disguise boxes had opaque ceilings.  The room with the octopus tank did too, as well as several of the hallways.  For all Kipper knew, she was slumped against one of the opaque parts of the ship right now.  Her tired body wanted to believe, but her paranoid cat’s mind couldn’t stop thinking about how much the surface of the sail ship reminded her of the one-way mirrors she’d seen in cop shows. Continue reading “Otters In Space 2 – Chapter 22: The Great Red Spot”

Otters In Space 2 – Chapter 21: Earth

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 2: Jupiter, Deadly.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“Trudith took her new mental workouts seriously…”

Many light minutes away, deep in the middle of night on her side of the planet, Trudith slaved away, scribbling mathematical figures and variables in a notebook.  She was working on solving physics equations that — by a bizarre coincidence — described the way light bent through transparent surfaces and bounced off of reflective ones, much like the surface Kipper had collapsed on, exhausted.  Like a one-way mirror it was transparent on one side and reflective on the other.  The equations defining it’s properties were fascinating. Continue reading “Otters In Space 2 – Chapter 21: Earth”

Otters In Space 2 – Chapter 20: The Great Red Spot

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 2: Jupiter, Deadly.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“Kipper had grown nearly used to the idea of dinosaurs hiding out in the skies of Jupiter. Creeping around their ship, dodging them, how could she not grow used to the reality of them?”

As Kipper made her way around the edges of the cavernous room, the clear floors and ceiling began to make more sense to her.  Raptors came and went through various archways, flocking over the bubble-like floor with a spring in their strong legs and a swing to their feathered arms.  Based on their build, Kipper would have been surprised if they could actually fly; their wings didn’t seem large or broad enough relative to their overall mass, but, in this setting, they looked like dark birds, winging through the Jovian sky. Continue reading “Otters In Space 2 – Chapter 20: The Great Red Spot”

“But you won’t always have a calculator with you…”

I remember arguing with my parents and teacher at about the age of ten as to whether I needed to memorize my times tables given that I could always just use a calculator.

I did not memorize my times tables. Calculators are awesome. This has never hurt me.

Also, I minored in math at a top tech college. So, it’s not like I can’t do math.