Author: marylowd

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.

---

Lys could hear the commotion around her.  She heard the captain — the gruff cat with green eyes who she’d waited to meet for many years — get called away to consult on something in the engine room.  She heard the kind squirrel man chittering to her about trees, branches, and roots.  Something spiritual, something comforting.  She could hear the sound and meaning, but the actual words had become muffled as her body tried to withdraw deeper inside itself, shedding the outer skin that was supposed to still be her, still be her for many more years.  She could feel the filaments of the mushroom creature’s hands extending out, infiltrating the space under her skin, between the old self that was trying to die and the new self — crystalline and unfinished — getting ready to begin. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 26: The Many Branching Futures”

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.

---

“Captain?” Ensign Melbourne meowed from the pilot’s seat.  “We have company.”

“The Zakonraptors are back?”  Captain Carroway had barely been back in her captain’s seat long enough to get comfortably settled.  “Already?  We scared them away for less than a day?”

“I guess so,” the white tomcat meowed acerbically, the tip of his tail twitching in a way that betrayed the concern his dry tone tried to belie.  “We don’t have any better weapons than when they were here last time, but this time it looks like there’s a lot more of them.  Do you think Ensign Diaz has any more ideas or clever tricks hidden up her sleeves?” Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 25: Returning to Where It All Began”

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.

---

When the time came to say goodbye to their Ollallan hosts, the crew of The Wanderlust lined up in front of the ramp leading up to their open airlock.  A group of Ollallans lined up across from them, mimicking the crew’s orderly formation.  Captain Carroway felt a burst of pride that her crew was already working together so smoothly.  It helped that Commander Chestnut had clearly run a tight ship, so the Anti-Ra officers had been well prepared for blending into a Tri-Galactic Union crew. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 24: You Can’t Go Back, But You Can Go Forward”

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.

---

Korvax bustled about, arranging all of the visitors to his adopted world into seats at the long table, alternated with local Ollallans, so that everyone could talk together while they ate.

The feast proved to consist mostly of sugar-crusted leaves, stewed fruits, and nut casseroles.  Commander Chestnut, the two Morphicans, and Ensign Risqua seemed delighted by the fare, and to be fair, everything that Captain Carroway tasted was delicious.  Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 23: One Meal in Paradise”

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.

---

Under normal circumstances, Captain Carroway would never have stood for leaving her brand new ship totally empty on an alien world.  But there hadn’t been anything normal in her life since she’d stepped aboard The Wanderlust.  Everything had just been getting weirder and weirder, and she needed to roll with it or she’d break apart, shattering into a million pieces. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 22: The Living, Breathing Forest”

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.

---

The electron torpedo flew away from The Wanderlust, shining like a tiny, shooting star on the main viewscreen.  From the outside, it looked like it emerged from the armaments of a much larger, much more dangerous ship.  In the blink of an eye, the torpedo collided with the closest Zakonraptor vessel, and the small ship erupted with fire that mirrored the fires it had been lighting below.  Though, of course, unlike the fires on the turtle’s back, this fire didn’t last long, fueled only by whatever air had been aboard the section of the ship that was breached by the electron torpedo’s explosion. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 21: A Strange, New Land”

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.

---

When Captain Carroway and Lt. Cmdr. Vossie found Ensign Mike, the fungal officer had crawled under one of the consoles in the small engine room and folded themselves up into a little ball under their mushroom cap so that their face was hidden and only their mycelial beard was visible.  They looked a little like they were trying to remerge with the ship they had originally grown from and return to a simpler state of being. Continue reading “Voyage of Wanderlust – Chapter 20: Bluff and Bluster”

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.

---

The Anti-Ra officers exchanged troubled, confused glances like they weren’t sure how to react to their new captain asking for their input.  Ensign Melbourne adjusted one of his hearing aides while chewing on his lower lip with one of his fangs, seemingly deep in thought, very interested in impressing this captain who was finally giving him a chance to prove himself.  But it was Lt. Lee — who looked out of place and discombobulated, like he felt it was wrong for a whole throng of off-duty officers to be hanging out at the back of a starship’s bridge unasked — who spoke first. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 19: Brainstorming”

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.

---

Captain Carroway’s heart skipped a beat.  At least, it felt that way to her.

They were being hailed.  By aliens from another galaxy.

The Tri-Galactic Union may have tried to throw her away on a suicide mission, but they had failed.  She was on the far side of the cosmos, about to make first contact with aliens from the Tetra Galaxy.  Answering this hail was possibly the most important thing that any captain in the Tri-Galactic Union had ever done.  Or any officer.  Or any uplifted animal from Earth.  And she was ready for it.  She would prove all the dogs who’d tried to hold her down, all the superior officers who’d tried to hold her back wrong.  She would be immortalized in history books, remembered forever as the first cat to talk to someone from the Tetra Galaxy. Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 18: First Contact”

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.

---

Captain Carroway took her time in the multi-purpose room, synthesizing herself a cup of coffee.  Well, as much as one can take one’s time with doing that.  She punched in the order for coffee, then altered the order to make the coffee be hazelnut flavored, then changed it back to normal.  As she kept changing the order, before actually synthesizing the drink, Captain Carroway found herself wondering about whether The Wanderlust would need to start conserving energy or supplies during the coming voyage.  Could synthesizers run out of the types of raw matter they needed for synthesizing useful things like coffee?  If they could, would it be possible to find replacements on planets or asteroids they passed? Continue reading “Voyage of the Wanderlust – Chapter 17: Turtles All the Way Down”