Pluribus, Christmas Movies, and Other Tidbits

I’m watching episode three of Pluribus and the fleet of trucks and people that roll up to the Sprouts right after Carol insists she’s a really independent person is quite the sharp commentary on the concept of independence.

Well, I won the game of random Christmas movie roulette tonight with two unusually excellent finds: Continue reading “Pluribus, Christmas Movies, and Other Tidbits”

Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 23: Regrouping

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter.

“His bright eyes looked genuinely concerned, and Lt. Diaz felt embarrassed that he’d seen her despair.”

Sojourner burst out of the ocean first, splashing the blue-and-green algae-laced water aside.  The Wanderlust followed, emerging from the alien ocean into the clear atmosphere of a world with a pale yellow sky.  The turtle and ship continued flying and growing, upward toward the yellow sky, carried by the last dregs of their momentum from the exploded asteroid base just far enough to coast into orbit above this random world in the Tetra Galaxy.

“Of all the places to end up,” Lt. Cmdr. Vossie observed pedantically, “a habitable planet was quite unlikely.” Continue reading “Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 23: Regrouping”

Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 22: Large Friends in Small Places and Small Friends in Large Places

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“What are we supposed to do with a giant tardigrade?!” Captain Carroway exclaimed, furiously.

All eyes on the bridge turned from the viewscreen — as fascinating as Sojourner’s fight with the outsized tardigrade was — toward Lys, since everyone knew the caterpillar had the best chance of understanding what was going on.  Lt. Diaz expected the caterpillar to be doubled over, her squiggle of a body bent into the shape of a hook, as she wrestled with overwhelming feelings of fear or anger.  Any kind of emotion that would make sense during a fight.  But that wasn’t what the Xolo-Lupinian saw.

Lys looked blissfully, peacefully happy.

“What the hell is going on?” Captain Carroway yeowled at the caterpillar. Continue reading “Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 22: Large Friends in Small Places and Small Friends in Large Places”

Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 21: Several Sizes Up

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“It was Sojourner, and the baby world-turtle was tussling with a pinky-brown shape.”

During their time traveling at the nearly quantum level, the Wayfarer’s child had learned how to fly close enough to the Wanderlust to share her hyperspatial slipstream without having to cling to the ship with her flippers.  She had also chosen herself a gender and with a little help from Lys, a name:  Sojourner.

When Lys passed along the message to Sojourner that it was time to get large again, the baby world turtle was excited.  She’d found the fizzy frothing of Hawking radiation tickly against the underside of her shell where it was softer, and she looked forward to the universe returning to a scale she could more easily understand. Continue reading “Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 21: Several Sizes Up”

Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 20: The Sudsy Fabric of Space

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“By some tacit agreement, the whole crew kept watching the main viewscreen in silence.”

Regardless of the captain’s orders or their stations, all of the crew onboard the Wanderlust had gravitated to the bridge by now to watch the main viewscreen with openmouthed awe.  Many a muzzle gaped at the fizzing, crackling static on the viewscreen.  It didn’t look like the emptiness of space.  It looked like they’d broken open the universe and found pop rocks fizzling in soda pop under the veneer.

“What are we looking at here, Captain?” Korvax asked, his squeaky voice unusually low and sedate.  The gravity of their situation, the sheer bizarreness of it all seemed to have subdued him.  Though, his pointy snout kept twitching, and his prickles stood out more than usual. Continue reading “Discovery of the Wanderlust – Chapter 20: The Sudsy Fabric of Space”