Author: marylowd

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”

Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 14: Two Ways of Being Morphican

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.

“It was very strange for Vossie knowing that his computer implant was walking around The Wanderlust, being an officer in its own right now.”

As soon as Captain Carroway could, she ducked out of the festivities, dragging Lt. Cmdr. Vossie along with her.  Unasked, Ensign Werik followed along.  Captain Carroway led the two Morphicans to her quarters.  In addition to allowing her to grab a moment of privacy here and there, her quarters seemed like the best place for her to have private conversations with a subset of her crew. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 14: Two Ways of Being Morphican”

Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 13: Moving On and Mourning

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.

“Howls died off one by one as officers ran out of breath, until only Ensign Diaz’s voice still rose like a primal cry of pain, echoing throughout the ship.”

“Um… Captain,” Lt. Lee woofed hesitantly.  “You do realize that the… uh… intergalactic spaceship is in the wrong direction from us.  Away from home.  And traveling farther away every minute.”  The young Papillon might be out of his depth, but he knew what he was clinging to.  Home.  He wanted The Wanderlust to make it home.  Fast and soon. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 13: Moving On and Mourning”

Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 12: Fungal Surprises

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.

“I am a physical manifestation of The Wanderlust’s onboard AI,” the toadstool answered mushily…

With some degree of trepidation, Captain Carroway led her new first officer and most worrisomely dissatisfied officer off of the bridge towards The Wanderlust’s multi-purpose room.  When they arrived, she announced, “I’m going to synthesize a cup of coffee.  Does anyone else want something?”

Ensign Diaz narrowed her eyes but didn’t say anything.  Commander Chestnut asked for a cup of eucalyptus tea sweetened with honey.  Captain Carroway made a point of taking extra long fetching the coffee and tea from the synthesizer so that Chestnut and Diaz would have a moment to talk as they settled at a table on the opposite side of the room. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 12: Fungal Surprises”

Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 11: Briefing the Crew

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’d wrapped her wing-like arms around the pot like the tree growing from it was the most precious object in the entire universe.”

In order to address the full crew as much as possible at one time, Captain Carroway led the way to the shielded barracks door with Commander Chestnut following her.  The squirrel looked noticeably curious about how the Norwegian Forest cat would handle this.

Captain Carroway placed a paw on the control panel beside the door, causing it to slide open, still shielded by shimmering quantum energy.  Standing in front of the opened, shielded door, the Norwegian Forest cat tapped her paw against the comm-pin on the breast of her uniform, opening a communications channel to the bridge of The Wanderlust.  Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 11: Briefing the Crew”

Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 10: Wearing a New Uniform

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.

“How do you know I won’t fight you at every turn, undermining your authority in front of our crew?”

Only a few days ago, Janessa Carroway had despaired of ever reaching the rank of captain.  Her canine superior officer had been holding her back, and there’d been nothing she could do about it.  She’d thought she would never have her own ship or crew, and the weight of her desire for that leadership role had felt like it would crush her.  She had craved captaincy like a newborn kitten craves milk. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 10: Wearing a New Uniform”

Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 9: A Delicate Conversation to Navigate

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.

“Maybe he was secretly planning rebellion and mutiny… but she didn’t think so.”

Captain Carroway entered her quarters to find the golden-mantled squirrel captain carefully examining a framed piece of art on the interior wall.  It was a painting of the ship itself, The Wanderlust, flying through a swirling nebula — one that was much more colorful, bright, and appealing than the Dirt Cloud.  It was an utterly generic work of art.  The kind that starship designers put in a captain’s quarters before the actual captain comes aboard and personalizes their space. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 9: A Delicate Conversation to Navigate”