Science Fiction – Deep Sky Anchor

Dancing with Zirself

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Maradia’s Robot Emporium, March 2025

“Unlike the chameleon body’s relatively simple goal of moving and matching colors, programming the Van Dyke’s kernel was more complex.”

Rariel 77 had entire closets of different bodies zhe’d built for zirself, and zhe liked switching between them. Sometimes, you want a classic robot body — boxy, straight lines, gleaming metal. You know, that whole deal. But sometimes, an AI simply needs to be able to go incognito and blend in with all the biological sentients around. The most common species on Crossroads Station were the Heffen (a sort of canine alien, kind of like anthro red wolves) and after that humans. Rariel 77 had very nice android bodies in both of those flavors. Zhe also had some much more abstract choices for when zhe was feeling whimsical or wanted to go on a spacewalk or do some other more exotic activity. Continue reading “Dancing with Zirself”

Goin’ Turtle

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Maradia’s Robot Emporium, March 2025

“Why waste time on this weird turtle shell thing when you could be revolutionizing racing?”

Cobalt Starstrong charged right in, grabbed a stool at the bar, and then looked back to see Delvin balking in the doorway. There was a strange look on the younger man’s face. Cobalt gestured to the empty barstool beside him; it was a plain, simple stool, suitable to all kinds of physiologies. That was important. For they were in the All Alien Cafe.

Reluctantly, Delvin darted into the bar and took the empty seat beside Cobalt. “Why did you bring me here?” he asked. Continue reading “Goin’ Turtle”

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”

Echoes of an Accelerated Life

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Maradia’s Robot Emporium, March 2025

“But Pernal 60 had lived too fast. When it ran out of art to absorb, it had made its own… until it ran out of things to say about the world as it currently existed.”

This is the tragic story of the smartest, fastest, most beautiful AI that Maradia ever programmed.

Maradia had programmed many successful AIs before, and her robotic children populated the halls of Crossroads Space Station, living alongside the human and alien inhabitants, forming subcultures of their own.

Tailoring the seed code from previous successful AIs into new personalities designed to animate particular robots was generally easy. However, Maradia had recently constructed a compression algorithm that would allow the next AI she designed to think much, much faster than any of the AIs she’d programmed before. Continue reading “Echoes of an Accelerated Life”

A Robot Joins Robotics Club

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Maradia’s Robot Emporium, March 2025

“Fix the hateful robot by bleaching zir brain, rewriting zir algorithms, they’d say. They’d never think to fix the hate inside themselves.”

Rariel 77 surveyed the digital catalogue of zir bodies. Zhe had built dozens of them, ranging from tiny insect-like drones to fully humanoid figures. Zir creator, Maradia, insisted that none of the other AIs she’d programmed had ever developed a fascination for building, collecting, and swapping bodies like they were clothes before. Most of them chose one body they liked best and settled into it, melding AI brain to mechanical body, becoming a single being. (Though, apparently, a couple of them went through a dinosaur-obsession phase first, much like human children.) Continue reading “A Robot Joins Robotics Club”

Shipshape Relationship

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Maradia’s Robot Emporium, March 2025

“Her whole life had changed that day, and she didn’t want to go back to what her life had been like before a spaceship had fallen in love with her.”

Addie stood in Maradia’s Robot Emporium, staring at the wall of mechanical parts and trying to look like she was shopping. She wasn’t. The Seabreeze Sinewave didn’t need any repairs — at least, not the kind you could fix with spare parts.

“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” Maradia asked, “Or just pretend to be fascinated by servo-motors all afternoon?”

Addie turned to find the roboticist watching her. Maradia had looked so absorbed in her work when Addie came in, she hadn’t realized the roboticist had noticed her at all. Continue reading “Shipshape Relationship”

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”

Safe Here in Crest City

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Kaleidotrope, October 2022

@UnicornGirl231: O MUH GOD i jus saw a zombie eating sumone’s arm and the ARM FELL OFF #zombiesarereal #zombiesarehere #evenincrestcity

@KarenCane: You’re in Crest City? How do you know it was a zombie?

@LiteralGhost1: Is the zombie virus airborn? Will a mask protect me? Do I need to hold my breath around zombies? Maybe I’ll just stay inside… Continue reading “Safe Here in Crest City”

The Prehistory Zoo

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally serialized in Daily Science Fiction, November/December 2022

“If her fate was behind those bars with teeth like swords, at least, she could try to make friends with it.”

Part 1: Comfort Animal

The wide timber frame arch rose high above Dr. Miriam Loxley’s head, presaging the size of the animals kept in the enclosure. All the movies, books, and games came rushing back to her — she’d grown up with the Jurassic Park franchise. She knew all of the paleontologists and geneticists involved in The Prehistory Zoo had too. Somehow, they’d taken those stories as a siren’s call, instead of heeding them as a warning. Continue reading “The Prehistory Zoo”

The Blood Portal

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Electric Spec, Vol. 13, Issue 2, May 2018

“So Hanna summoned every bit of her own magic, pulling on the gravity fields and folds around her, feeling out the architecture of space.”

Hanna steered the spaceship with one arm, punching buttons, turning knobs, and flipping switches. Her other arm was wrapped tightly around her young son. His face was buried against her shoulder. He wasn’t crying any more. His breathing had stilled. He was sleeping, but he still clung to her with his arms and legs that seemed so long and gangly compared to when he was a baby. Continue reading “The Blood Portal”