Category: Story

Gone, Not Forgotten

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Red Setter Medic, May 2026

“The serum was a quantumly entangled dead virus, designed to inoculate against any variation of that virus across all possible multiverses.  Dr. Keller’s plan had been to devise the ultimate vaccine.  But it hadn’t been ready for testing.”

The starship Initiative was docked at a space station close to the border between Tri-Galactic Union and Reptassan space.  There had been a lot of turmoil along the border lately, skirmishes between independent worlds and the Reptassan Empire.  Sometimes, Dr. Keller felt like it’d be easier if everyone was uplifted dogs like her and her daughter Leslie.  Dogs are pack animals, friendly, gregarious, and outgoing; they naturally want to get along with each other.

In fact, the red setter’s daughter had immediately struck up a friendship with the daughter of a Lupinian diplomat who’d be traveling on the Initiative from this station to the next.  Lupinians weren’t uplifted dogs, but they were canines — wolf-like and wild-grown.  The Lupinians had developed sentience all on their own on their small world, right at the border of Reptassan space, and Lakoina was traveling with her daughter Tava on a mission to speak on behalf of her people and the fate of their world to the Tri-Galactic Union. Continue reading “Gone, Not Forgotten”

I, Hive

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Red Setter Medic, May 2026

“I think you should have a name!” Leslie suggested, excitedly.  “We could help you pick one.  What would you like?  Something fancy and pretty?  Something short and cute?”

Most of the dogs and cats who crewed the starship Initiative spoke very fondly of away missions.  They liked getting their paws on the solid surfaces of real planets or asteroids, feeling fresh air in their whiskers, and enjoying the view of an unobscured sky.  Doctor Waverly Keller heard them speak with excitement about visiting strange new places on their missions, meeting weird new kinds of animals, and just basically broadening their horizons.

The red setter doctor, though, didn’t feel the same way.  Sure, she enjoyed taking shore leave to a beautiful world for her vacation as much as the next canine, but she did not look forward to away missions.  As the ship’s chief medical officer, Dr. Keller was rarely called on to join an away mission if it didn’t involve assessing casualties or providing emergency resuscitations. Continue reading “I, Hive”

A Dubious Hypothesis

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Techno-Tabby Engineer, February 2026

“An entire universe of star systems and populated planets had narrowed down to a bubble of water-retardant cloth with an orange cat and white fox inside, cuddled up in sleeping bags on either side of a lantern.”

Lt. Jordan LeGuin rarely turned off the augmented data streams in his techno-focal goggles that constantly ran through his field of vision, keeping him informed and entertained, but he had a lot to think about.  The orange tabby had spent the better part of the last week at an engineering conference on Starbase 17, and he was on his way back to the starship Initiative now.  His brain was full enough of ideas.

LeGuin didn’t need anything more to process right now.  He just wanted to let all the ideas he’d crammed into his mind attending talks and demonstrations during the last week settle into place.  And besides, sometimes while piloting a shuttle craft, it was nice to simply allow the infinite stretches of void around the small vessel to envelop him.  Space is really, really big, and sometimes the tabby liked to be reminded of that. Continue reading “A Dubious Hypothesis”

Cuckoo’s Conundrum

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Techno-Tabby Engineer, February 2026

“Hearing the tone of awe in the bird’s voice, Lt. LeGuin realized he might have an opportunity here.”

Jordan LeGuin was a cat more than worth his stripes, and he had really beautiful, bright orange and fire-red stripes that only mildly clashed with the more muted tones of his Tri-Galactic Union engineer’s uniform.  He’d worked hard to earn that uniform and each of the golden pips on his collar that marked him a lieutenant.  He was a naturally smart cat, but that wouldn’t have been enough to make him the chief engineer of the starship Initiative without years of training and studying.  For better or worse, Lt. LeGuin was more comfortable reading technical papers and balancing equations than trying to navigate the uncertain waters of most social interactions, so he’d been able to sail far on the sea of intellectual meritocracy. Continue reading “Cuckoo’s Conundrum”

Bravery Lessons

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Ursine Exchange Officer, August 2025

“Only Ensign Mewly continued fighting his honey golem without any apparent progress.”

Most weeks, Grawf taught her Ursine martial arts class in one of the starship Initiative’s exercise rooms which had tumbling mats for a floor and a full-wall mirror where her students could watch their forms.  But this week’s class was special.  This week, the bear was holding her class in the lumo-bay where a grid of blue, glowing hexagons covered the walls, floor, and ceiling.  Her students — who were mostly uplifted cats and dogs from Earth — filed in and took their places standing around the much larger bear expectantly. Continue reading “Bravery Lessons”

The Trouble with a Glorious Legacy – Part 1

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Ursine Exchange Officer, August 2025

[Part 1 2 3]

“It was a point of pride among Ursines that they’d evolved sentience entirely on their own while the far more technologically advanced Earth mammals had needed to be uplifted by some furless primates in their distant past.”

Grawf sharpened her ceremonial knife until it gleamed like a crescent moon.  Then holding the curved blade lightly in her heavy ursine paws, the bear-like alien slowly, carefully sliced off a wafer-thin edge of honeycomb from the bustling, buzzing hive of bee-like insects in the corner of her quarters.  She placed the deliciously thin, sticky wafer atop a steaming slice of crusty bread, fresh from the real, clay oven in the other corner of her quarters.  She’d had to get special permissions to keep a clay oven onboard the starship Initiative, but it was essential to these weekly religious rites. Continue reading “The Trouble with a Glorious Legacy – Part 1”

The Trouble with a Glorious Legacy – Part 2

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Ursine Exchange Officer, August 2025

[Part 1 2 3]

“Grawf was surprised, in the end, that any of her zumble-bees took pity on the imposter bear and chose to join his new hive.”

Bear brains don’t zip and race from one idea to the next, constantly hurrying and bouncing around like shiny metal spheres in a pinball machine like cat brains do.  And they’re not relentlessly, doggedly focused like canine minds, unwilling to let go of an idea like it’s a particularly enticing stick that needs to be chewed on once they get ahold of it.  So, Grawf walked with Braklaw to her quarters in silence, simply focusing on the task ahead of her:  dividing her zumble-bee hive and grafting a branch of her zinzinar shrub without damaging either precious being. Continue reading “The Trouble with a Glorious Legacy – Part 2”

The Trouble with a Glorious Legacy – Part 3

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Ursine Exchange Officer, August 2025

[Part 1 2 3]

“At first, the vine cooperated… but when it realized that Fact was trying to break part of it off, the bracken fought back…”

Grawf was largely able to return to her usual duties while Braklaw was confined to his quarters by the pain and fatigue of his gene therapy treatments.  Though, she did check in on him twice a day — once in the morning and once in the evening — to see if he needed anything.  She felt a strange sense of loss with her role as a teacher of Ursine studies suddenly suspended.  So, it was with a certain twisted delight that she heard from Lt. LeGuin that the ship’s engines were struggling against unexplained interference with their power and they’d have to decrease their speed, drawing out the length of the voyage to Ursa Minuet by an additional week or two. Continue reading “The Trouble with a Glorious Legacy – Part 3”

In Practice

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Arctic Fox Android, July 2025

“Once again, Melody stood very still, not wanting to be distracted by her own physicality as she sifted through the information stored in her brain, slicing through it at the right angle to think specifically about the ideas her parent had just highlighted for her.”

The android arctic fox, Fact, drew back the privacy screen zhe’d placed around zir portion of the engineering laboratory where zhe had been diligently working away for months on a secret project.  Inside the cubicle-sized space, a second, slightly smaller android stood, looking markedly similar to Fact with its snowy white silicon fur, dressed in a simple yet tastefully neutral outfit.  However, this android had longer ears, a more rounded muzzle, and larger back legs with longer feet than Fact.  Instead of a fox, this smaller android was a rabbit.  An arctic hare to match the arctic fox.

Fact looked immensely proud of the long-eared android which stood with its head tilted at a slightly awkward angle.  It hadn’t been activated yet. Continue reading “In Practice”

Time is a Double-Edged Sword – Part 3

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Arctic Fox Android, July 2025

[Part 1 2 3]

“The tools I would need to move the other end of the wormhole back to our own time would be available on the starship Initiative,” Fact said, “and the knowledge I need would require — at least — several decades of processing power for me to calculate.”

For all that the wormhole had looked impressive, Fact’s experience of stepping through it felt like nothing more than stepping through an open doorway.  One moment, zhe was in a dimly lit cave with stale, musty air; the next moment, golden sunlight constricted zir pupils and fresh, green-smelling air tousled zir silicon fur with playful zephyrs.

Fact looked around in surprise, having expected to find zirself in another cave, albeit in an entirely different set of time-space coordinates within the universe.  Instead, the fox seemed to have found zirself in a field of wildflowers, beside a copse of deciduous trees.  Birds sang among the trees, and happy children’s voices shouted in the distance. Continue reading “Time is a Double-Edged Sword – Part 3”