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Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 24: You Can’t Go Back, But You Can Go Forward

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.

“We’re coming with you,” Korvax squeaked matter-of-factly.

When the time came to say goodbye to their Ollallan hosts, the crew of The Wanderlust lined up in front of the ramp leading up to their open airlock. A group of Ollallans lined up across from them, mimicking the crew’s orderly formation. Captain Carroway felt a burst of pride that her crew was already working together so smoothly. It helped that Commander Chestnut had clearly run a tight ship, so the Anti-Ra officers had been well prepared for blending into a Tri-Galactic Union crew. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 24: You Can’t Go Back, But You Can Go Forward”

Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 23: One Meal in Paradise

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.

“She had taken her ship to the far side of an unexplored galaxy, established diplomatic relations with the alien race she’d found there, and now she was indulging in pleasurable cultural exchange with them.”

Korvax bustled about, arranging all of the visitors to his adopted world into seats at the long table, alternated with local Ollallans, so that everyone could talk together while they ate.

The feast proved to consist mostly of sugar-crusted leaves, stewed fruits, and nut casseroles. Commander Chestnut, the two Morphicans, and Ensign Risqua seemed delighted by the fare, and to be fair, everything that Captain Carroway tasted was delicious. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 23: One Meal in Paradise”

Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 22: The Living, Breathing Forest

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.

“Beneath Captain Carroway’s paws was the back of a turtle, and above her head was a forest woven together into an entire, enclosed village.”

Under normal circumstances, Captain Carroway would never have stood for leaving her brand new ship totally empty on an alien world. But there hadn’t been anything normal in her life since she’d stepped aboard The Wanderlust. Everything had just been getting weirder and weirder, and she needed to roll with it or she’d break apart, shattering into a million pieces. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 22: The Living, Breathing Forest”

Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 21: A Strange, New Land

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.

“Captain Carroway didn’t believe in an afterlife — heaven or otherwise. … They all sounded silly to her. Or at least, they had until now.”

The electron torpedo flew away from The Wanderlust, shining like a tiny, shooting star on the main viewscreen. From the outside, it looked like it emerged from the armaments of a much larger, much more dangerous ship. In the blink of an eye, the torpedo collided with the closest Zakonraptor vessel, and the small ship erupted with fire that mirrored the fires it had been lighting below. Though, of course, unlike the fires on the turtle’s back, this fire didn’t last long, fueled only by whatever air had been aboard the section of the ship that was breached by the electron torpedo’s explosion. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 21: A Strange, New Land”

Voyage of Wanderlust – Chapter 20: Bluff and Bluster

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 mushroom and rabbit alien sang together, clumsily, neither of them any good at actually harmonizing.”

When Captain Carroway and Lt. Cmdr. Vossie found Ensign Mike, the fungal officer had crawled under one of the consoles in the small engine room and folded themselves up into a little ball under their mushroom cap so that their face was hidden and only their mycelial beard was visible. They looked a little like they were trying to remerge with the ship they had originally grown from and return to a simpler state of being. Continue reading “Voyage of Wanderlust – Chapter 20: Bluff and Bluster”

Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 19: Brainstorming

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.

“Her green eyes scanned over the rest of the officers in her crew, looking for someone with an idea that they weren’t quite brave enough to put forward.”

The Anti-Ra officers exchanged troubled, confused glances like they weren’t sure how to react to their new captain asking for their input. Ensign Melbourne adjusted one of his hearing aides while chewing on his lower lip with one of his fangs, seemingly deep in thought, very interested in impressing this captain who was finally giving him a chance to prove himself. But it was Lt. Lee — who looked out of place and discombobulated, like he felt it was wrong for a whole throng of off-duty officers to be hanging out at the back of a starship’s bridge unasked — who spoke first. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 19: Brainstorming”

Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 18: First Contact

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 alien spoke quickly, jabbering away with only the occasional break in his stream of words. The words sounded urgent, but also, completely indistinguishable for people from another galaxy who simply didn’t know the language.”

Captain Carroway’s heart skipped a beat. At least, it felt that way to her.

They were being hailed. By aliens from another galaxy.

The Tri-Galactic Union may have tried to throw her away on a suicide mission, but they had failed. She was on the far side of the cosmos, about to make first contact with aliens from the Tetra Galaxy. Answering this hail was possibly the most important thing that any captain in the Tri-Galactic Union had ever done. Or any officer. Or any uplifted animal from Earth. And she was ready for it. She would prove all the dogs who’d tried to hold her down, all the superior officers who’d tried to hold her back wrong. She would be immortalized in history books, remembered forever as the first cat to talk to someone from the Tetra Galaxy. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 18: First Contact”

Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 17: Turtles All the Way Down

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 glowing green trees began glowing even more brightly, more redly, more horribly. Instead of the gentle glow of phosphorescence, this was the horrible glow of destruction.”

Captain Carroway took her time in the multi-purpose room, synthesizing herself a cup of coffee. Well, as much as one can take one’s time with doing that. She punched in the order for coffee, then altered the order to make the coffee be hazelnut flavored, then changed it back to normal. As she kept changing the order, before actually synthesizing the drink, Captain Carroway found herself wondering about whether The Wanderlust would need to start conserving energy or supplies during the coming voyage. Could synthesizers run out of the types of raw matter they needed for synthesizing useful things like coffee? If they could, would it be possible to find replacements on planets or asteroids they passed? Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 17: Turtles All the Way Down”

Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 16: The Silhouette on the Viewscreen

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.

“But… what if the Tetra Galaxy was filled with nothing but giant, silent space turtles?”

The empty windows, framing nothing but endless dark, haunted Captain Carroway in her fitful dreams. The Norwegian Forest cat had never suffered the vertigo that plagued some officers when they first went on deep space missions, profoundly aware that the metal hull of the spaceship around them was a thin, breakable bubble compared to the unfathomable fathoms of vacuum all around. The stars comforted her. They felt like the bright points at the vertices of a spiderweb where dew collected in the early morning, implying a whole net of cosmic threads stretched around her like a hammock she could sleep inside, gently swaying in an intergalactic breeze. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 16: The Silhouette on the Viewscreen”

Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 15: Mycelial Conversations

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.

“Finally, Ensign Mike opened their mouth and said something Captain Carroway could never have expected, but in retrospect, it seemed perfectly obvious.”

During the few seconds Captain Carroway had to herself between meetings, she had just enough time to doubt every decision she’d been making and everything she’d said all day long to her crew.

What had she been thinking making an anthropomorphic toadstool who just happened to grow into a person on her bridge into an ensign without even talking to them first? That decision had been certifiably insane, and Captain Carroway dreaded what she might learn about Ensign Mike when they showed up and started talking to her. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 15: Mycelial Conversations”