Author: marylowd

Between Projects

I finished the Tri-Galactic Trek story I was working on last night! So, that means I can release COLLIE COMMANDER next month, but it also means I have to decide what I’m working on next…

I have several projects already underway that I could go back to, but I might want to do NaNoWriMo, which would mean sticking to shorter projects for the next two weeks. And I do have a lot of short stories I could be working on… Continue reading “Between Projects”

Nexus Nine – Chapter 12: Resolved

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Nexus Nine.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1 or return to the previous chapter.

“Mazel had never actually seen the chip that had become part of her brain before — it had been removed from Darius’ brain and put directly into hers while she’d been unconscious on a medical bed.”

In the morning, Grawf walked with Mazel to the medical bay, by way of Scharm’s Bar where they each had a bracing mug of hot jumaria nectar.  Once Mazel felt good and jittery from the jumaria nectar, she figured she was ready to face Doctor Jardine — who probably didn’t need jumaria nectar to feel energetic.

When Mazel hesitated outside the doors of the medical bay, Grawf put a giant paw on the small cat’s shoulder.  She didn’t say anything.  They hadn’t talked about Mazel’s fear, uncertainty, and general quandary since their brief conversation aboard Star-Skipper 1 the night before.  Sometimes, it helps more to spend time with someone and not talk about your problems.  Just take a break from them. Continue reading “Nexus Nine – Chapter 12: Resolved”

Nexus Nine – Chapter 11: Big Decisions

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Nexus Nine.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“When a god asks you for a favor,” Quincy said, “you don’t pick and choose what parts of the favor you want to do.”

The tension aboard the shuttle was palpable.  With every minute they waited, Mazel expected a Hiviiarchy warship to find them.  When an answering message from Bataille finally came, the Morse code translated to:  “Sending probe.  Standby.”

With bated breath and scanners running, Mazel waited for the probe.  Finally, bright lines of color flashed across the shuttle’s main viewscreen, dimmer than they’d been before but recognizably an opening to the nexus. Continue reading “Nexus Nine – Chapter 11: Big Decisions”

Nexus Nine – Chapter 10: Visions Revealed

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Nexus Nine.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“By the grace of the Unhatched, I swear,” Omoleura said, “I cannot wait to give my Rheun-self back to you, and would never have taken it if there had been any other way.”

Omoleura heard Neera’s sad song, and zhe dragged zirself, limping and in pain, out of the barracks and toward the front of the shuttle.  Quincy hopped after zir, gallumphing about how the insect was supposed to stay still until the medical foam on zir talon hardened.  The frog had replaced his expensive color-changing shirt with a simple synthesized one in plain, bright green.

But Omoleura couldn’t stay out of the way when zhe could hear in Neera’s voice that something was so clearly wrong. Continue reading “Nexus Nine – Chapter 10: Visions Revealed”

Nexus Nine – Chapter 9: Cracking Eggshells

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Nexus Nine.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“Mazel knew Neera had been a freedom fighter, killing Reptassan occupiers as little as a year ago. But watching her face off with these insects made that whole, arcane history more real.”

While Mazel and the rest of her team — minus Omoleura the traitor — waited for the Carapids to return, Quincy lightened the mood by telling stories.  Most of the frog’s stories seemed to end with the moral:  “And so the soggy swamp swallowed them up, along with everything they had and everyone they knew.”

After a while, Unari suggested that the rest of them should steal the frog’s color-changing pants as well as his shirt and watch captioned episodes of “Small Dog, Big Heart,” but Quincy objected both to the idea of being left naked and to the idea of having everyone stare at his legs for entertainment.  So, they were left with his swamp stories. Continue reading “Nexus Nine – Chapter 9: Cracking Eggshells”