Deep Sky Anchor – Page 145 – An e-zine about spaceships, aliens, science, memory, motherhood, magic, and cats.

Chrysalis Party

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Kaleidotrope, June 2018

“The larval stage of the K’shellican life-cycle lasted nearly twenty human years. Plenty of time to make friends and build attachments that felt like they would last forever.”

Jade’s belly was full of food from a dozen star systems, but she felt hollow. It was her place, as Moryheim’s closest friend, to pour the glass of Khenani-catalyst wine that would begin her friend’s change. Having attended dozens of K’shellica chrysalis parties, Jade had thought this time would be no different. It was always hard to say goodbye to her K’shellican friends, but she now realized it was much harder to pour the wine herself.

“It’s time,” Moryheim urged with her rumbly voice. Continue reading “Chrysalis Party”

The End of BoJack

I started rewatching BoJack Horseman when my dog died. I’ve now finished rewatching BoJack Horseman… somehow this has not resurrected my dog.

On my first time watching the end of BoJack Horseman, I kind of wished BoJack had actually died, and the final episode had been only about the other characters, especially Diane and Princess Carolyn. Continue reading “The End of BoJack”

The Air in the Valley of the Wind

We’ve been rewatching Studio Ghibli movies this week, because the seven-year-old doesn’t remember them. Tonight’s movie is Nausicaa, and it’s upsettingly thematically appropriate…

We also cannot breathe the air without masks right now. Continue reading “The Air in the Valley of the Wind”

Less Valuable than the Concept of a Fetus

Climate action…
Racial justice…
Reproductive rights…
Healthcare for all…

They’re all connected. They’re all about not hurting people.

You can’t have one & skip the others. Because the callousness necessary to deny any of them will leak over into the one you care about.

‪All the good things you want in life, you’re more likely to get them if you live in a world with kind and compassionate leaders who care about your needs.‬

‪But a truly kind and compassionate leader who cares about YOUR needs will care about the needs of EVERYONE.‬

Kindness and compassion can’t deny science, because fundamentally, science is nothing more than a process for figuring out what’s real.

Denying reality is neither kind nor compassionate. It’s delusional, dangerous, and cruel.

I’m still mad that after literal years of me dragging my whole family down to the Bay Area (from Oregon) for holidays that my in-laws cared more about peace and politeness (meaning me keeping my mouth shut about the hatefulness of forced-birthers) than about seeing any of us.

It really messes with your sense of worth when people that you’ve cared about for years make it clear that you mean less to them than THE CONCEPT OF A FETUS. Not, like, even ones they really know or have investment in or EXIST. Just, like, the idea that some MIGHT exist.

Because there are literally people out there who will vote for stupidity and cruelty, figuring those are acceptable collateral damage, just to protect the IDEA of fetuses. And yes, it’s just the IDEA, because there are LITERALLY NO FETUSES out there fighting for their rights.

You know why fetuses don’t fight for their rights? BECAUSE THEY’RE LESS ALIVE THAN GRASS. A cat will scratch you to make its feelings clear. A dog will bite. ACTUAL BABIES CRY. Fetuses are fucking nothing. And the fetishization of them is goddamned sick. GODDAMNED SICK.

Apparently when I get angry, I use the word “literally” a lot. Correctly… but possibly unnecessarily.

The toxic smoke in the sky; the virus carried invisibly by other people; and the hate, cruelty, and incompetence from the republicans in charge…

It feels like being in Ghostbusters 2 when the pink slime, charged with bad feelings is ready to make the whole city boil over.

When you’re more gentle with the feelings of people causing harm than the feelings of people they’re harming, that’s not kindness. It’s complicity.

The beliefs of forced-birthers are fundamentally hateful and violent, because they dehumanize people with the mixed fortune of having uteruses.

Pretending otherwise is participating in that dehumanization.

The Fire In Her Claws

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Daily Science Fiction, April 2020

“How could they ask someone to take her claws away? How can hate look so much like love?”

Apricot dozed in her cat-carrier, enjoying the warmth of the sunlight pouring through the car window and down through the grated metal top of her carrier. She had an old, rough towel to sleep on, and she was extremely comfortable. The occasional bump in the road roused her out of her semi-sleep, and she heard her humans in the front seat of the car talking. Continue reading “The Fire In Her Claws”

The Cats Won

The cats have stolen my tiny DS9 figurine that lived on the back of a toy turtle on my desk.

I’d say, “This means war,” except… I think it was actually the final blow in an ongoing war.

The cats won. I give up.

The cats are in charge now.

Two Bengals

Now that I have two Bengal cats, when I go into the kitchen unexpectedly, I get twice as many long-faced leopard stares, saying “Why doth thou intrude into Our sovereign kingdom?”

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

I finally watched the 2008 “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” It’s very pretty—shiny orbs; Keanu Reeves. But I wish he’d gotten to give the little speech at the end about how humanity needs to shape up. I was looking forward to that and would have enjoyed it. Ah well.

Reading to Kittens

The kitten is a surprisingly effective tool for getting the seven-year-old to read. Just ask them, “Why don’t you read this book to the kitten?” and suddenly their ability to concentrate on a book easily triples.

Better than the Writer who Wrote Them

There are some incredibly powerful, empowering women, written by men who see women as lesser.

All I can think is these sexist men wrote empowering women by accident, seeing them as ideas & plot devices, in some cases brought to life by talented actors. Continue reading “Better than the Writer who Wrote Them”