Category: Book Chapter

Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 18: Kipper

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“The octopuses hadn’t come back through the sealed hatch in the underwater floor, but occasionally they sent in a dolphin with a puzzle for them.”

Except, Kipper wasn’t talking to octopuses.  Kipper, Trugger, and Captain Cod had been shut in a small room with several feet of air at the ceiling and a ledge around the edges.  Sitting on the ledge felt like sitting at the edge of a public swimming pool, reminding her of cattery days when over-enthusiastic dogs had required all the reluctant kittens to take swimming lessons.  Except this was more claustrophobic due to the low ceiling and near walls. Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 18: Kipper”

Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 17: Petra

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“Somehow, whenever a dog went missing, the police always found a way to discover what had happened. That wasn’t the case with cats.”

Petra could have walked home — if it weren’t for the locked doors, and the iron bars, and dogs with guns.  She might as well have been on Jupiter for all the certainty she felt that she’d be going home again.  She knew about cats getting arrested and disappearing.  That’s something cats did.  Disappear.  Somehow, whenever a dog went missing, the police always found a way to discover what had happened.  That wasn’t the case with cats.  Sometimes, you just didn’t get to know.  Sometimes, the case was closed, and the cat never showed up.

Petra told herself that wouldn’t happen to her.  She was the president’s sister.  She was high profile.  There’d be questions if she disappeared.  Questions and riots and violence. Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 17: Petra”

Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 16: Jenny

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

…the computer in Jenny’s helmet translated the sound, speaking in a melodic but artificial otter voice: “Yes.” A moment later, the computer added, “There is an eighty percent chance of inaccuracy. Other possible translations include: no.”

The cockpit of Brighton’s Destiny popped open with a hiss like a tin can of sparkling clam juice.  Jenny overbalanced and tumbled out of the hatch, tangling herself in feathered limbs on her way down to plop on the damp silver sand.

The wet sand smeared across the faceplate of Jenny’s helmet, obscuring her view of the raptor fledglings as they righted her and began manhandling her spacesuit-clad limbs, moving her around like a poseable doll.  Their screeches and chirrups terrified Jenny at first — they sounded like they were screaming at her.  But as they jostled her around, examining their new toy from every angle, Jenny pulled herself together enough to remember that the computer in her helmet had some basic sound processing and AI algorithms.  Captain Cod had installed them in all the spacesuits, thinking they might be useful for spy activities.  They hadn’t been.  But it might be able to analyze the raptor speech and develop a translation — at least, if it listened to them long enough. Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 16: Jenny”

Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 15: Jenny

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“For a moment, Jenny thought she was looking at Earth — her home world, flashing before her eyes as she died. But no, this world was really here inside the heart of Jupiter. A planet within a planet.”

Jenny had no hope.  Only a fluttery, heart-pounding feeling in her chest that alternated between manic exhilaration and bleakest panic.  She didn’t want to die panicking.  So she clung hard to the feeling of excitement:  she was seeing things no otter had ever seen before!

…granted… mostly those things just looked like flat orange mist blocking the window, darkening to a dull brown as her ship fell farther and farther into the crushing atmosphere… Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 15: Jenny”

Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 14: Kipper

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“The octopi might be strong, but their flesh was soft. She could have filled that round room with a cloud of blood before they would have — inevitably — pulled off her breathing mask. In truth, a physical fight could never go well for a cat this far under the ocean.”

Kipper’s terror threatened to swallow her whole, but that was all it could do — threaten.  She steadied her breathing, painfully aware of the limited oxygen in the tank on her back — several hour’s worth, but not enough for a lengthy incarceration in an octopus prison.

As she watched the octopi around her through her face mask, Kipper realized that they were scared too.  Their tentacles were pale; their golden eyes wide.  They were as much afraid of the coming raptor attack as she was.  Actually…  Much more. Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 14: Kipper”

Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 13: Jenny

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“As they grew closer, the roiling orange took on depth and texture. An entire alien landscape was rising to meet them in shades and swirls of cinnamon, peach, tangerine, and apricot.”

The red dots on the viewscreen began to converge.  Each dot represented a raptor vessel headed straight for them and ready to end their lives.  Or worse.  Suddenly, the metal hull of Brighton’s Destiny felt paper thin to Jenny.

Ordol’s tentacles, sheathed in their clingy, transparent spacesuit, wrapped tightly around Jenny’s shoulders, trembling violently.

“I can’t pilot this ship without you!” Jenny signed, between tugging at the tentacles that were now crushing her shoulders in a way that she was sure would strangle her if her neck weren’t protected by a rigid space helmet.  “And I definitely can’t pilot this ship if you crush me with your freakishly strong arms!  LET GO!” Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 13: Jenny”

Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 12: Kipper

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“For millions of years,” the blue-eyed octopus signed, “we’ve hidden here under the seas on this tiny planet, exiled from our rightful home in the stars by the foolish, damnable, unutterable crimes of our ancestral siblings inside Jupiter. Until now. Until you revealed us.”

The mysterious machinations of the octopus government in Choir’s Deep kept Kipper and the otters on the Diving Canary waiting for nearly two days.  Kipper did a lot more reading.  Trugger found a deck of tarot cards that some previous occupant of the submarine had left behind and invented a card game that was a cross between tarot and poker.

Trugger, Captain Cod, Chauncy, and Pearl took turns laying out cards to tell each other’s fortunes, betting on them, trading them, and mixing them up, all while laughing a lot.  Kipper declined to play, feeling like she’d already bet too much on her fortune. Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 12: Kipper”

Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 11: Petra

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“She was the president’s sister, but out here, next to a dog in a police uniform with a gun, she was still just an alley cat.”

The pew-pew sound of laser weapons blared from the television — the kind of sound that’s always accompanied by a rain of colorful blasts of light on the screen.  It was a rerun episode of Tri-Galactic Trek.

Petra hadn’t been able to stand a single minute more of Alpha Dog and Numbers Cat.  That show might be educational, but it creeped Petra out the way that the two characters stared straight at the audience and explained every word they used.  The final straw had been when Alpha Dog said, “Sharing is what dogs do when there isn’t enough for everyone to have their own!  Do cats share too, Numbers Cat?” and Numbers Cat archly replied, “Sometimes,” followed by a laugh track. Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 11: Petra”

Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 10: Jenny

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“They didn’t have blueprints for it, and even if they did, it was too much to hope that it had a single central weakness that could be exploited by a ragtag strike team of six otter ships and a stolen Whirligig scout.”

Jenny and Ordol were suited up and ready in Brighton’s Destiny, but the two-man Whirligig vessel was still parked on the floating roof of the Europa base.  The Imperial Star-Ocean Navy otters and their five ships were already in low-orbit, but Ordol hadn’t even powered the Whirligig’s engine up yet.

Jenny couldn’t start the vessel without him.  Too many of the controls were designed to be used by an octopus on the shoulders of a biped.  Jenny couldn’t see Ordol’s eyes with him perched on her shoulders — but she could see the color of his tentacles through his translucent spacesuit.  His flesh was bone white.  He was terrified. Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 10: Jenny”

Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 9: Kipper

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“She’d known the Church of the First Race had a lot of power, but… They edited the news? Had she been living in a religious hegemony? Without knowing it?”

Kipper hadn’t expected the submarine to feel so cramped.  There was plenty of space on the Jolly Barracuda — why should a submarine be any more cramped than a spaceship?  They’re both airtight vehicles, and if anything, space seemed like a more foreign and dangerous landscape than the ocean.  The ocean is at least on Earth.

Well, a spaceship has to hold an atmosphere for its occupants to breathe.  Whereas, a submarine has to be built to withstand the extreme water pressure created by the weight of miles upon miles of ocean water pressing downward on it. Continue reading “Otters In Space 3 – Chapter 9: Kipper”