Category: Story

The Elephant Bride’s Bouquet

by Mary E. Lowd

A Deep Sky Anchor Original, August 2023

“There were strict rules about harvesting the plants in the arboretum, and no matter how much she’d always wanted to curl her trunk around the stems of the flowers and snap off pretty buds, she had never dared break the rules.”

Jeko lifted her trunk and trumpeted along with the latest Star-Shaker song which she’d turned up to completely fill her small room aboard Crossroads Station.  Her trunk swayed along with the beat, and the reptilian pop-star’s lilting, raspy voice was loud enough that Jeko didn’t have to feel embarrassed about her own brassy tones.  The elephantine alien never sang in front of other people, but she loved to sing when she was alone.  Especially when she was happy. Continue reading “The Elephant Bride’s Bouquet”

The Seamstress Robot and the Insect Bride

by Mary E. Lowd

A Deep Sky Anchor Original, July 2023

“Am-lei’s mother had, at least, enjoyed the benefit of having beautiful, colorful, butterfly wings that distracted humans from the Kafkaesque qualities of her actual body.”

The Seamstress Robot’s shop was a little hole in the wall in the Merchant’s Quarter of Crossroads Station.  The seamstress robot herself looked a lot like a giant mechanical spider — all spindly silver legs, overly jointed and coming to extremely delicate points, capable of grabbing, manipulating, and piercing fabric.  Also, generating fabric.  The seamstress robot, like an actual spider, could generate silk.  And synthetic cotton.  And synth wool.  And velvet, taffeta, patterned prints, fake leather… just about any material you could imagine could be generated, strand by strand, from the tip of her 3D printer leg. Continue reading “The Seamstress Robot and the Insect Bride”

Orange Sherbet Unlocks a Better Loot Box

by Mary E. Lowd

A Deep Sky Anchor Original, June 2023

“It was weird having Rocky Road’s dad’s voice coming out of the familiar panda avatar. It looked like her friend was here, but he wasn’t.”

Orange Sherbet logged into the Mythical Proportions VR Cafe as soon as her teacher closed the 2nd grade classroom Zoom for the day.  She’d already finished her homework for the evening, and the rest of the week for that matter.  The assignments were all way too easy for her, almost insultingly easy, so she’d been working ahead.  And she was far enough ahead that the whole rest of the day was hers.  Neither of her parents would bug her about wasting her time in the digital world, because they’d just assume she was doing homework, as long as she didn’t do anything to give herself away.  VR goggles were helpful that way — they kept nosy parents from peeking over her shoulder to look at her screen. Continue reading “Orange Sherbet Unlocks a Better Loot Box”

Ekko the Orca

by Mary E. Lowd

A Deep Sky Anchor Original, May 2023

“But Ekko wasn’t an ordinary orca. She was the last of her kind, the only one left after the spaceship above had sucked up the rest of her people, stealing them away.”

Ekko felt the cool currents of water rush past her as she swam with all her might toward the ocean’s surface.  Her powerful tail pumped; her belly muscles clenched and released, over and over, as she barreled through the blue.  Then with a mighty splash, she emerged from the blue of the deep into the blue of the sky, trading a thick atmosphere for a thin one.  Rivulets and droplets of water streamed off her aerodynamic body as she soared upward, leaving the Earth and its heartbreakingly empty oceans behind. Continue reading “Ekko the Orca”

The Farther One Travels

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Tri-Galactic Trek, December 2019

“Electricity sparked between the captain and the alien eel again, and this time Jacques felt sure that he had somehow shared the image from his own memory with the alien in front of him.”

The alien probe gleamed like a star, small and bright, on the Initiative’s main view screen.

“Can we get closer?” Captain Jacques asked.  The Sphynx cat’s pink ears skewed to the side, betraying his excitement.  The Initiative was in deep, unexplored space, and the presence of an artificial object of any sort implied an entire civilization that must have created it.  An entire civilization that the Tri-Galactic Navy had never encountered before.  Captain Jacques loved nothing more than first contact missions. Continue reading “The Farther One Travels”

Fact and Myth

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Tri-Galactic Trek, December 2019

“You’re relying on a blob of glowing space energy to be smarter than our ship’s computers?” the captain asked, aghast. Fact had no further answer than a simple, “Yes, Captain.”

Fact was not a fox, but it was easiest for the canine and feline crew of the starship Initiative to think of zir as one.  With snowy white silicon fur and yellow eyes flecked by actual gold flakes, zhe looked uncanny enough without worrying about whether zir creator had meant zir to be a cat or a dog.

Fact’s ears were too perfectly triangular to be a dog’s; zir muzzle was too long and narrow to be a cat’s.  Zhe was an android, and zhe didn’t mind being thought of as a fox. Continue reading “Fact and Myth”

Rapscallions

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in What the Fox?!, March 2018

“The chicken-alien was easily four times Lt. Vonn’s current size, and even if the puppy could knock away its blaster, those talons and beak looked fierce.”

Lieutenant Libby Unari, a black cat and science officer with a focus on botany, had a tray of biology samples in her lap — cuttings and sprouts, planted in soil samples — taken from a forest moon.  The moon itself hung like a green star in the rear window of the shuttle craft, receding into the distance as they flew away.

“That was a very peaceful away mission,” Captain Jacques meowed.  The pink-skinned Sphynx cat didn’t usually accompany away teams down to previously unexplored planets — at least, that’s what he claimed — but he’d made an exception for this forest moon.  He made a lot of exceptions.  “Why, I don’t think I’ve felt that relaxed since I was a kitten!”  Although, part of his improved mood may have had to do with all of the time he’d been spending in the lumo-bay lately.  “I should get off the bridge of the Initiative more often.” Continue reading “Rapscallions”

Katelynn the Mythic Mouser

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats, September 2015

“…Katelynn pounced on the yellowed pages. She nosed and pawed, flipping through the pages, until the book lay open to the illusion for Hydra.”

Jenna was almost asleep when she felt the weight of a cat plop onto the end of her bed.  She turned on the lamp on the bedside table and saw Katelynn, her aunt’s dirt-brown tabby, sitting on the bed’s patchwork comforter.

A tiny mouse hung by its tail from Katelynn’s mouth, twisting and squirming, desperate to get away.

“Oh!  Katelynn, thank you!” Continue reading “Katelynn the Mythic Mouser”

Encounter at Hoppalong

by Mary E. lowd

Originally published in Lost In Time, October 2019

“Usually, LeGuin was a shy cat. He didn’t let romance or sudden impulses overcome him. He felt more comfortable with computers and machines than with other cats and dogs.”

The starship Initiative glided through space, the technological culmination of centuries of work done by uplifted cats and dogs from Earth.  The graceful, swooping lines of the ship’s exterior twinkled with light from within, where the ship’s crew lived their lives.  Dogs and cats worked side by side, exploring the universe, searching out other species, and seeking the humans who had left them behind. Continue reading “Encounter at Hoppalong”

Jumping Jellyfish and Singing Salmon

by Mary E. Lowd

A Deep Sky Anchor Original, April 2023

“…if Trugger could summon fish and birds with his words and Jenny could control the movement of water with her mind… what could Kipper do? Did she have any magical powers in this strange, impossible land?”

Kipper placed her gray tabby paws on the metal orb.  It felt smooth and cool against her paw pads.  Jenny was explaining everything that she and the other otter scientists had learned about this particular, mysterious relic that they’d found in one of the deepest, most thoroughly locked and booby-trapped rooms in the ancient octopus base on Europa.  Trugger sounded fascinated.  But all Kipper wanted to do was touch it.  She felt compelled, perhaps by feline curiosity.  Perhaps by something intrinsic, something sinister about the orb.

“What are you doing?” Jenny asked, grabbing Kipper’s arm with a webbed paw.  “We don’t know if it’s safe!” Continue reading “Jumping Jellyfish and Singing Salmon”