An e-zine about spaceships, aliens, science, memory, motherhood, magic, and cats.
by Mary E. Lowd
I treated him like a role model
And he treats me like an acquaintance
Happy to say hello
Willing to acknowledge my greatness
So long as I make sure
My greatness is inarguable
He wouldn’t want to be accused of favoritism Continue reading “Uncle”
by Mary E. Lowd
Scheming, scheming
Piper is dreaming
Of glorious trouble
Glittering rubble
All caused by claws Continue reading “The Cat and the Christmas Tree”
by Mary E. Lowd
Without a shore
A wave curls inward
Flies outward
Nowhere to land
Everything stored Continue reading “Shoreless”
I’m watching episode three of Pluribus and the fleet of trucks and people that roll up to the Sprouts right after Carol insists she’s a really independent person is quite the sharp commentary on the concept of independence.
Well, I won the game of random Christmas movie roulette tonight with two unusually excellent finds: Continue reading “Pluribus, Christmas Movies, and Other Tidbits”
by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter.
Sojourner burst out of the ocean first, splashing the blue-and-green algae-laced water aside. The Wanderlust followed, emerging from the alien ocean into the clear atmosphere of a world with a pale yellow sky. The turtle and ship continued flying and growing, upward toward the yellow sky, carried by the last dregs of their momentum from the exploded asteroid base just far enough to coast into orbit above this random world in the Tetra Galaxy.
“Of all the places to end up,” Lt. Cmdr. Vossie observed pedantically, “a habitable planet was quite unlikely.” Continue reading “Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 23: Regrouping”
by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.
All eyes on the bridge turned from the viewscreen — as fascinating as Sojourner’s fight with the outsized tardigrade was — toward Lys, since everyone knew the caterpillar had the best chance of understanding what was going on. Lt. Diaz expected the caterpillar to be doubled over, her squiggle of a body bent into the shape of a hook, as she wrestled with overwhelming feelings of fear or anger. Any kind of emotion that would make sense during a fight. But that wasn’t what the Xolo-Lupinian saw.
Lys looked blissfully, peacefully happy.
“What the hell is going on?” Captain Carroway yeowled at the caterpillar. Continue reading “Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 22: Large Friends in Small Places and Small Friends in Large Places”
by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.
During their time traveling at the nearly quantum level, the Wayfarer’s child had learned how to fly close enough to the Wanderlust to share her hyperspatial slipstream without having to cling to the ship with her flippers. She had also chosen herself a gender and with a little help from Lys, a name: Sojourner.
When Lys passed along the message to Sojourner that it was time to get large again, the baby world turtle was excited. She’d found the fizzy frothing of Hawking radiation tickly against the underside of her shell where it was softer, and she looked forward to the universe returning to a scale she could more easily understand. Continue reading “Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 21: Several Sizes Up”
by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.
Regardless of the captain’s orders or their stations, all of the crew onboard the Wanderlust had gravitated to the bridge by now to watch the main viewscreen with openmouthed awe. Many a muzzle gaped at the fizzing, crackling static on the viewscreen. It didn’t look like the emptiness of space. It looked like they’d broken open the universe and found pop rocks fizzling in soda pop under the veneer.
“What are we looking at here, Captain?” Korvax asked, his squeaky voice unusually low and sedate. The gravity of their situation, the sheer bizarreness of it all seemed to have subdued him. Though, his pointy snout kept twitching, and his prickles stood out more than usual. Continue reading “Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 20: The Sudsy Fabric of Space”
by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.
The Wanderlust sped away at an unthinkable speed, so far beyond the speed of light that ancient human physicists who’d had epiphanies caused by falling apples would have never believed it possible. They flew away with a large turtle riding piggyback on them. They left the binary star system and the planet where Risqua was now stranded far behind in the blink of an eye. Down on the planet’s surface, the traitorous reptile-bird was watching the sky, and she saw the asteroid base explode, or rather it began as an explosion, but after the fiery beginnings breached the base’s containment systems, the entire craggy, asteroid-like moon quickly crunched in on itself, filling the hollow space inside. Continue reading “Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 19: Without a Goodbye”
by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.
The baby world-turtle and the Tri-Galactic Union spaceship flew towards each other, each shrinking, becoming smaller targets for the Zakonraptor vessels pursuing them. The Waykeeper’s child’s hyperspatial slipstream shrank in proportion with their body, but also, the ship and tortoise flew closer and closer, making up the difference. Like in Zeno’s famous paradox, they halved the distance between them, over and over, never quite reaching the other.
All around them, the asteroid base seemed to grow and grow like Wonderland after Alice tasted the mushroom. Except, of all the beings aboard the Wanderlust, their fungal officer — currently busy playing custodian to a lot of potted plants — probably had the least to do with this particular wild adventure. Continue reading “Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 18: The Strangest Dance”