Tag: OiS2

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 2: Jupiter, Deadly.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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Trudith heard barking as she approached the Campaign Headquarters early in the morning.  The blinds were closed against the harsh slant of morning light.  Trudith couldn’t see inside, but she recognized Lucky’s voice shouting.

The door burst open, rattling on its hinges.  Lucky stalked out past her, barely bothering to throw a grumbled greeting her way.  That wasn’t like him.  He was a genial, pleasant dog most of the time.  One of the easiest people to get along with that Trudith had ever met.  He probably had to be, she figured, to survive being married to Petra. Continue reading “Otters In Space 2 – Chapter 23: Earth”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 2: Jupiter, Deadly.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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The entire ship wasn’t transparent, Kipper realized.  The room with the airlock where Trugger and Kipper had emerged from their disguise boxes had opaque ceilings.  The room with the octopus tank did too, as well as several of the hallways.  For all Kipper knew, she was slumped against one of the opaque parts of the ship right now.  Her tired body wanted to believe, but her paranoid cat’s mind couldn’t stop thinking about how much the surface of the sail ship reminded her of the one-way mirrors she’d seen in cop shows. Continue reading “Otters In Space 2 – Chapter 22: The Great Red Spot”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 2: Jupiter, Deadly.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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Many light minutes away, deep in the middle of night on her side of the planet, Trudith slaved away, scribbling mathematical figures and variables in a notebook.  She was working on solving physics equations that — by a bizarre coincidence — described the way light bent through transparent surfaces and bounced off of reflective ones, much like the surface Kipper had collapsed on, exhausted.  Like a one-way mirror it was transparent on one side and reflective on the other.  The equations defining it’s properties were fascinating. Continue reading “Otters In Space 2 – Chapter 21: Earth”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 2: Jupiter, Deadly.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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As Kipper made her way around the edges of the cavernous room, the clear floors and ceiling began to make more sense to her.  Raptors came and went through various archways, flocking over the bubble-like floor with a spring in their strong legs and a swing to their feathered arms.  Based on their build, Kipper would have been surprised if they could actually fly; their wings didn’t seem large or broad enough relative to their overall mass, but, in this setting, they looked like dark birds, winging through the Jovian sky. Continue reading “Otters In Space 2 – Chapter 20: The Great Red Spot”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 2: Jupiter, Deadly.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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The thick red smog whipped past Kipper as she flew haphazardly downward in her strange box-ship powered by the jetpack on her back.  She felt the cold through the rubbery fabric of her spacesuit, and dancing wisps of red clouded her field of vision.  Kipper’s paws gripped tight to the front edge of the box, and her feet braced against the back. Continue reading “Otters In Space 2 – Chapter 19: The Great Red Spot”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 2: Jupiter, Deadly.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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When Trugger arrived at the airlock, he found Kipper in a box.  It was a lightweight storage cubby, crammed full of spacesuits, with spacesuits draping over its sides.  It rested on the floor of the corridor, rocking and rotating lightly in the currents of oxo-agua.  When it turned so Trugger could see inside, Kipper was barely noticeable among the other spacesuits.  If she turned her head so the faceplate of her helmet looked away from him, there’d have been no way to tell she was anything other than another empty suit. Continue reading “Otters In Space 2 – Chapter 18: The Great Red Spot”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 2: Jupiter, Deadly.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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As usual, Trudith’s plans didn’t work out quite the way she expected.  Keith took her to his church, and he showed her where the senator usually sat.  However, instead of settling into a long discussion of the senator’s behavior at church, leading into a heart to heart about the senator’s intentions, all Trudith learned about was Keith. Continue reading “Otters In Space 2 – Chapter 17: Earth”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 2: Jupiter, Deadly.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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The spiny wedge of an alien sail station loomed ahead on the Jolly Barracuda’s viewscreen.  Every otter on the bridge grew deathly still looking at it.  Bewhiskered faces with oval noses and serious expressions stared straight at the behemoth in front of them.  Then, one by one, they turned to look at their captain.

Shifting uncomfortably under the combined gaze and the weighty Jovian gravity, Captain Cod eventually signed, “It’s big, isn’t it?” Continue reading “Otters In Space 2 – Chapter 16: The Great Red Spot”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 2: Jupiter, Deadly.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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Two days ago, Trudith was a dog on the up and up.  Her alpha was the only honest politician, and she was his right hand dog.  Today, she was a dog back to her old tricks; trailing, eavesdropping, spying, and — kind of — kidnapping.

Trudith didn’t want to be the old dog who couldn’t learn new tricks, so she put her all into doing things differently this time.  She didn’t break into Senator Morrison’s lavish estate; she didn’t contrive for him to “lose” his phone; and she certainly didn’t corner one of his lackeys in a back alley and offer to rough him up either more or less depending on the quality of his information. Continue reading “Otters In Space 2 – Chapter 15: Earth”

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 2: Jupiter, Deadly.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

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Flippant comments turned into full-fledged half-baked ideas so quickly on the Jolly Barracuda, it made Kipper’s head spin.  She wanted to scream, “Don’t listen to me!  I’m not qualified to make recommendations!”  But the Jolly Barracuda was already flying full tilt toward Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.

Next time, Kipper would know better than to let her paws wander around forming signs on their own.  She’d keep them tight in her vest pockets, like they were now.  Of course, that presupposed there would be a next time, and, watching that Great Red Spot swell, closer and closer, on the central viewscreen, Kipper wasn’t at all sure about that. Continue reading “Otters In Space 2 – Chapter 14: Jupiter”