Quick Reads – Deep Sky Anchor

Eschewing the Upgrade Path

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Maradia’s Robot Emporium, March 2025

“The one that looks like a forest from one angle but a nebula from another angle, and either way it’s goddamned beautiful and somehow full of teardrops? That takes more than mere hardwiring.”

KL-2 was designed to paint murals. That was all. The clunky little robot rolled through the corridors of Crossroads Station on treads that could have been more efficient, scanning walls with sensors that could have been more precise, looking for blank wall spaces that could use embellishment, and then it filled them with artistic scenes, designed to appeal to the multitudinous alien species who lived on the station. KL-2 was an expert at knowing what kinds of colors and designs would look most pleasing to various species’ eyes. Continue reading “Eschewing the Upgrade Path”

Build-a-Pet

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Hexagon, Issue 9, June 2022

“…she’d seen an older kid playing it earlier, and that kid had left with a brand new purple and green cuddle dragon nestled on her shoulder!”

Leslie yanked the toggle on the Build-a-Pet arcade machine with one hand and mashed the big round buttons with the other. On the screen looming above her head, a colorful, twisted ladder bent and spun around, and large friendly letters spelled out words she couldn’t read yet. Though she did recognize the letter L. She knew that one from her own name. Continue reading “Build-a-Pet”

The Dragon in My Toe

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Hot Chocolate for the Unicorn and Other Flights of Fancy

“I can’t see the dragon, but I keep thinking about how pretty it looked in the X-ray in black and white.”

A tiny dragon burrowed into the big toe on my right foot, curled up around the joint, and lives in there now. Well, sleeps there. It seems to sleep all day long, like a cat in a sunbeam. Except, a dragon. In my toe.

Most of the time, I don’t notice it at all. But sometimes, the dragon shifts in its sleep, writhing and rearranging, and I feel all the spines along its back and long, coiling tail scrape and screech against my bones, brightening my foot with pain like lightning forks across the sky. Continue reading “The Dragon in My Toe”

Eight Ways

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Theme of Absence, September 2021

“…the silhouette wasn’t moving right. Not like Blake. Not like a person at all.”

Blake had heard octopuses were smart, but it was hard to believe, looking at the blurring mass of muscle. He scooped the hand net into the cold water of the storage cell, like a plastic tub set into the deck of his small fishing boat. Tentacles writhed in a squirming reddish brown mass below. He couldn’t even make out a single individual creature in there. Just limbs. Squishy, slippery limbs. Continue reading “Eight Ways”

The Dancing Swords

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Hot Chocolate for the Unicorn and Other Flights of Fancy, December 2024

“You cannot see. You cannot think. Or remember. The pain is everything now.”

First, you tear the eyes out, digging your fingertips into the sockets around them, squishing the bulbs to get your fingers under them. They’ll be slippy, and you’ll have to squeeze hard while yanking out, or the eye won’t come.

Once you have the eyeballs pulled out of their sockets, rip quickly to tear them from the gooey threads still connecting them. When they come free, throw them at the floor. Stomp on them with your boot. The heavier the boot, the better. Continue reading “The Dancing Swords”

Birthday

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Every Day Fiction, June 2017

“All I want to do is not deal with this question, get through one more day without crying or yelling in front of Layla.”

“If you could do anything in the world for your birthday — anything at all — what would you do?”

My daughter, Layla, mirrors the question that I asked her last month about her birthday when I was looking for clues as to what I should give her, what kind of party I should throw her. She’s only five, too young to be looking for clues. Continue reading “Birthday”

One Sheep

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Allasso, Volume 2: Saudade, April 2012

“She needed one sheep to jump through hoops, one sheep to balance on a giant ball, and one sheep to fly on the trapeze for her circus act.”

There was once a sheep that could have been a sheep with fifteen other sheep, all living on a farm. But, one day, a man came and invited that sheep to live at the petting zoo with the pygmy goats, pigs, rabbits, and Shetland ponies there. So, that one sheep joined the petting zoo.

Then, there were fifteen sheep left. Continue reading “One Sheep”

Small Smooth Pebble

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Every Day Fiction, October 2015

Jenny felt inside her pocket. There was a small, smooth pebble that she’d been hiding since she was tiny. A multi-dimensional creature had appeared to her and begged her to keep it safe. If she dug her fingernail into it…

But she mustn’t. She mustn’t. She had to be strong.

See, it was the self-destruct button for the universe. Continue reading “Small Smooth Pebble”

Speed Questing

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Commander Annie and Other Adventures, November 2023

“The plesiosaur wasn’t showing up as an attackable creature. She flipped open her adventurer’s log and scanned through it, trying hurriedly to find the right quest text and read it.”

QuestCrusher20 zipped through the zone, zooming from one quest to the next without reading the text. She didn’t need to. Just follow the dots on the game map, and like breadcrumbs they led her from a cluster of satyrcorns to kill for their horns to an area strewn with mecha gears that the friendly robots of Robotica needed her to gather. Quest after quest, she could figure them out on the fly, and it only slowed her down to read the flavor text or listen to the NPCs tell their backstories. Continue reading “Speed Questing”

Greatest of Them All

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Commander Annie and Other Adventures, November 2023

“She could be all the creatures the soul had seen and more beside.”

Once upon a time, there was a soul that wanted to anchor itself into the world. The soul watched all the creatures in the world, trying to decide what shape its anchor should take.

The mouse was small and could explore tiny places.

The deer had long legs and could run through the woods.

The bird had wings and could soar through the sky. Continue reading “Greatest of Them All”