Otters In Space – Chapter 5: Kipper in Mexico

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space: The Search for Cat Haven.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“Dogs are for Earth; otters for the oceans. Truly, it’s cats who are meant for space.”

The guard flicked his ears in the chill desert air.  Mornings were cold, but it would be hot when the sun got overhead and started beating down.  During the day, it was no place for the thick, full mane of a rough Collie; but, right now, it was a bit nippy for a smooth one.  The guard dog scratched the barrel of his rifle against his chin.  A car was coming. Continue reading “Otters In Space – Chapter 5: Kipper in Mexico”

Otters In Space – Chapter 4: Kipper Flees to Mexico

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space: The Search for Cat Haven.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“It was true that cats didn’t have to show ID when an accompanying dog vouched for them — an outdated, demeaning, but, in this case, doggarned convenient law.”

After a quick sweep of the alleys surrounding the bar, Kipper thankfully concluded that Petra wasn’t lying, bleeding to death in any of them.  Though, even with a big black dog tailing her, watching her back, Kipper still felt like jumping at every shadow.  And her heart stopped when she saw a crumpled bag beside some trash bins — in the dark, it could have been her sister.  But Trudith was very reassuring and convinced Kipper that if anything had happened to Petra — if thugs had dragged her out of the bar or caught up with her outside — she would still be pretty close.  Close enough that they would have found her. Continue reading “Otters In Space – Chapter 4: Kipper Flees to Mexico”

Otters In Space – Chapter 3: Kipper Gets in a Fight

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space: The Search for Cat Haven.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“…Sammy the bartender whipped up the best milk froths in New LA. That’s what made All Cats Go To Hell worth the trouble.”

After Kipper finished her exciting day of balancing accounts, and Petra finished her last-minute canvassing of the water-cooler dogs, the two sisters headed down to their favorite hangout, deep in the heart of Old Town.  The bus ride between Luna Tech and All Cats Go To Hell was short and, unlike that morning, uneventful.  The walk from the bus stop to the bar’s front door, however, always made Kipper a little nervous.  And tonight she was extra jumpy, seeing shadows everywhere. Continue reading “Otters In Space – Chapter 3: Kipper Gets in a Fight”

Otters In Space – Chapter 2: Kipper Makes a Discovery

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space: The Search for Cat Haven.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, or skip ahead to the next chapter.

“As soon as they left, the cop-dogs would laugh their heads off at the silly cats and dump the scrupulous notes in the wastepaper basket. Nothing would get done.”

Three blocks through the alleys was farther than the Chow cared to follow Kipper throwing bottles.  So, Kipper was able to emerge onto the main street and limp the last two blocks to Luna Tech.  She wasn’t bleeding, but her paw pads were filled with slivers.  Before entering the Luna Tech lobby, Kipper leaned against the outside of the building and took a moment to carefully dig the glass shards out of her paws.  As she was working, Petra came around the block and sauntered over to stand beside her injured sister. Continue reading “Otters In Space – Chapter 2: Kipper Makes a Discovery”

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”

Otters In Space – Chapter 1: Kipper in a Dog’s World

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space: The Search for Cat Haven.  If you’d prefer to read in e-book or paperback form, learn more here.  Or if you want, skip ahead to the next chapter.

“But cats don’t go into space. They live in the inner-cities, working low-paying jobs, and the dogs like it that way.”

The bus stop sign and shelter were in front of a giant, white church.  The Church of the First Race was an historical building, preserved from the time when humans still walked the Earth.  It dwarfed the taller but smaller-scale high-rises around it.  It was the oldest building in New LA.  Kipper had been inside once and sat on the monstrous pews, but, like most cats, she didn’t feel comfortable with First Race doctrine.  It was a dog religion — they preached that humans, the First Race, had left Earth as emissaries to the stars and would return to bring all the peoples of Earth into a confederation of interstellar sentience.  Someday. Continue reading “Otters In Space – Chapter 1: Kipper in a Dog’s World”

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”