Category: Book Chapter

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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Sequoia felt like she’d spent the whole meal on Europa playing some sort of game with Amelia, catching each others’ eyes and then glancing away, trying not to get caught looking at each other.  Except, she wasn’t sure if it was something they were both doing, or if it was all in her own head.  She didn’t know why the mop dog had stayed with the crew when she was so clearly opposed to everything Captain Kipper was doing.  And it made her feel all fluttery inside.

Or maybe that was the low gravity. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 13: Sequoia”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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Kipper watched the faces of her crew closely as they took in the sight of their newest comrades in arms… and tentacles… and flightless wings.  They might be more arms than wings, but those feathery raptor limbs had clearly evolved into bird’s wings in some branches of the family tree all of Earth’s creatures shared.  Well, all of them shared a family tree, except the octopuses.  From what Kipper had learned, octopuses were the one sentient race of creatures rattling around this solar system who hadn’t actually evolved on Earth.  Thank goodness for that, given that octopus technology was behind every piece of her plan to take The Lucky Boomerang out into the universe, searching for the wayward humans who’d forgotten to come home and check on the dogs they’d left behind waiting for them.  And, you know, the cats too.  Though, cats weren’t quite as much waiting.  Certainly not the ones on The Lucky Boomerang. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 12: Kipper”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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The atmosphere in The Lucky Boomerang’s engine room was riotously celebratory.  The engineers didn’t have the gorgeous, panoramic view of Europa that the bridge crew had been enjoying on the main viewscreen; though, smaller versions of the view were relayed to several monitor screens built into the walls.  But the engineers were the members of the crew who had done the hard work of properly calibrating the epsilon drive engines for the flight, and they were literally above and beyond the moon with the success of their efforts. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 11: Yvette”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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“I’m staying,” Amelia said.

Kipper and Trugger looked at each other, uncertain.  The two of them and Amelia were the only ones left in the galley now.  It wouldn’t be easy to remove a stubborn dog — even a small one — from The Lucky Boomerang if she didn’t want to go.  If she wouldn’t go peaceably.

Several of the other crewmembers had already shown their reluctance to break Uplifted States law and continue on the mission as Kipper planned it.  It would be very, very bad for morale if those officers had to hear and see a government dog kicking and screaming as Trugger and Obsidian wrestled her out the airlock. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 10: Kipper”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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The last twelve hours of Sequoia’s life had been an absolute rollercoaster of emotions.  She’d learned during her months with the USSA that among the dogs of the Uplifted States, squirrels were stereotyped as flighty, impulsive, mercurial creatures, ruled by emotions as unpredictable as ocean waves during a storm.  That was nothing like how Sequoia had always seen herself.  She knew herself, and she’d always considered herself to be steady, steadfast, and certain.  As fixed as the distant stars in the sky which she treasured so much. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 9: Sequoia”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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Kipper watched the day dawn through The Lucky Boomerang’s main viewscreen.  Everyone else was still asleep.  Later in the day, the smart glass of the viewscreen would be filled with readings and calculations, and under those, eventually, stars.

But for now, it was just a window.  And through the window, she watched the sky soften through shades of violet and pink into powder blue, decorated with clouds that bled gold and orange.  A view that couldn’t be seen from space, not like that. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 8: Kipper”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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That night, the crew of The Lucky Boomerang bunked down in the barracks, like they had every other night for weeks.  They needed to sleep.  They needed to be sharp for their mission in the morning.

But none of them could.  Sleep was an ethereal concept.  Something they could remember; something that happened every day; and yet seemed impossibly out of reach.  Impossible to attain.  And some of the crew wasn’t even trying. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 7: Amelia”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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Months of waiting turned into a week of hurried rushing, seemingly over one restless, sleepless night.  All at once, Hedda declared the epsilon engine ready for field testing, and Captain Kipper handed out schedules to everyone.  Their amorphous days of playing cards on the engine room floor while occasionally consulting on the designs were through.  And suddenly, they were busy dawn to dusk with last minute health checkups, itemizing the onboard supplies to make sure nothing was missing, and most bizarrely — press events. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 6: Yvette”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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As soon as she laid eyes on the curly-furred mop of a dog — bizarrely wearing one of their USSA-specific blue-and-silver uniforms — Kipper could tell that Amelia was not a dog who had any patience for waiting.

The gray tabby cat captain closed the laptop computer that she and Trugger had been working on — writing emails, searching directories for officials who could help them, and downloading form after form that didn’t quite fit their situation.  Nothing fit their situation.  She put the laptop aside and got up from the bottom bunk bed she’d been sitting on.  “Can I help you?” she asked the dog. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 5: Kipper”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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As soon as the scruffy white dog insisting she was the ship’s new second in command left the engine room, Josie signed with her delicate hand-like paws, “That is one grumpy mop of fur.”

Obsidian’s color shifted from the angry shade of plum he’d become to a self-satisfied shade of soft peach.  He signed with the tips of three tentacles — which grew so thin at the very ends that they weren’t much larger than a mouse’s paw:  “I’ll believe she’s second in command when Captain Kipper tells us so.  Besides, I’m here as an independent advisor, directly from the octopus oligarchy.  I don’t answer to dog politicians.” Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 4: Yvette”