Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 14: Yvette

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“There was something mesmerizing for a mouse about watching two cats play together, even if it was only verbally. Terrifying, beautiful giants who somehow managed to be benevolent in spite of the genetic, pre-uplift history of their species.”

After a week of hopping across the galaxy, cataloguing stars and background radiation signatures everywhere they went, The Lucky Boomerang wasn’t feeling like such a lucky vessel to the hopeful crew aboard.  They’d found no sign of humans.  No sign of alien life.  Nothing.

Just stars.

They were beautiful stars, and the squirrel navigator still seemed to be happy once she’d accepted the captain’s insistence that the crew was better off collecting data across a multitude of different sites rather than digging really deeply into one site. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 14: Yvette”

Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 13: Sequoia

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“Sequoia was not going to think about a foolish dog when there were stars waiting to fill her senses.”

Sequoia felt like she’d spent the whole meal on Europa playing some sort of game with Amelia, catching each others’ eyes and then glancing away, trying not to get caught looking at each other.  Except, she wasn’t sure if it was something they were both doing, or if it was all in her own head.  She didn’t know why the mop dog had stayed with the crew when she was so clearly opposed to everything Captain Kipper was doing.  And it made her feel all fluttery inside.

Or maybe that was the low gravity. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 13: Sequoia”

Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 12: Kipper

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“This bonded pair in particular — Nioli and Gy’krr — had played an important role in the preparations leading up to the octopus uprising, but had found themselves outcast after the uprising actually took place.”

Kipper watched the faces of her crew closely as they took in the sight of their newest comrades in arms… and tentacles… and flightless wings.  They might be more arms than wings, but those feathery raptor limbs had clearly evolved into bird’s wings in some branches of the family tree all of Earth’s creatures shared.  Well, all of them shared a family tree, except the octopuses.  From what Kipper had learned, octopuses were the one sentient race of creatures rattling around this solar system who hadn’t actually evolved on Earth.  Thank goodness for that, given that octopus technology was behind every piece of her plan to take The Lucky Boomerang out into the universe, searching for the wayward humans who’d forgotten to come home and check on the dogs they’d left behind waiting for them.  And, you know, the cats too.  Though, cats weren’t quite as much waiting.  Certainly not the ones on The Lucky Boomerang. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 12: Kipper”

Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 11: Yvette

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“…the other three mice appeared, also swimming and also drawn into the otter’s wake. He had become their planet, and they his moons.”

The atmosphere in The Lucky Boomerang’s engine room was riotously celebratory.  The engineers didn’t have the gorgeous, panoramic view of Europa that the bridge crew had been enjoying on the main viewscreen; though, smaller versions of the view were relayed to several monitor screens built into the walls.  But the engineers were the members of the crew who had done the hard work of properly calibrating the epsilon drive engines for the flight, and they were literally above and beyond the moon with the success of their efforts. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 11: Yvette”

Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 10: Kipper

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“Inspiring younger cats was one of her goals, and it warmed her heart to know she’d succeeded with at least one.”

“I’m staying,” Amelia said.

Kipper and Trugger looked at each other, uncertain.  The two of them and Amelia were the only ones left in the galley now.  It wouldn’t be easy to remove a stubborn dog — even a small one — from The Lucky Boomerang if she didn’t want to go.  If she wouldn’t go peaceably.

Several of the other crewmembers had already shown their reluctance to break Uplifted States law and continue on the mission as Kipper planned it.  It would be very, very bad for morale if those officers had to hear and see a government dog kicking and screaming as Trugger and Obsidian wrestled her out the airlock. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 10: Kipper”

Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 9: Sequoia

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“Sequoia was in space, for the first time, closer to the stars she loved than she’d ever been before, and yet her heart was distracted by the presence of a ridiculous mop-dog who probably thought of her as less than a full person.”

The last twelve hours of Sequoia’s life had been an absolute rollercoaster of emotions.  She’d learned during her months with the USSA that among the dogs of the Uplifted States, squirrels were stereotyped as flighty, impulsive, mercurial creatures, ruled by emotions as unpredictable as ocean waves during a storm.  That was nothing like how Sequoia had always seen herself.  She knew herself, and she’d always considered herself to be steady, steadfast, and certain.  As fixed as the distant stars in the sky which she treasured so much. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 9: Sequoia”

Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 8: Kipper

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“Kipper was about to ask her crew to assist her in stealing a spaceship.”

Kipper watched the day dawn through The Lucky Boomerang’s main viewscreen.  Everyone else was still asleep.  Later in the day, the smart glass of the viewscreen would be filled with readings and calculations, and under those, eventually, stars.

But for now, it was just a window.  And through the window, she watched the sky soften through shades of violet and pink into powder blue, decorated with clouds that bled gold and orange.  A view that couldn’t be seen from space, not like that. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 8: Kipper”

Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 7: Amelia

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“Riding this ridiculous contraption powered by blasphemous octopus technology was probably the closest Amelia would ever come to her beloved humans in the sky.”

That night, the crew of The Lucky Boomerang bunked down in the barracks, like they had every other night for weeks.  They needed to sleep.  They needed to be sharp for their mission in the morning.

But none of them could.  Sleep was an ethereal concept.  Something they could remember; something that happened every day; and yet seemed impossibly out of reach.  Impossible to attain.  And some of the crew wasn’t even trying. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 7: Amelia”

Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 6: Yvette

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“It was hard to believe at first… but the dogs and cats of the press here were treating Yvette like the star of the whole show.”

Months of waiting turned into a week of hurried rushing, seemingly over one restless, sleepless night.  All at once, Hedda declared the epsilon engine ready for field testing, and Captain Kipper handed out schedules to everyone.  Their amorphous days of playing cards on the engine room floor while occasionally consulting on the designs were through.  And suddenly, they were busy dawn to dusk with last minute health checkups, itemizing the onboard supplies to make sure nothing was missing, and most bizarrely — press events. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 6: Yvette”

Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 5: Kipper

by Mary E. Lowd

An excerpt from Otters In Space 4: First Moustronaut.  If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.

“She found it was easier to agree with Trugger’s bird metaphors than try to understand or fix them.”

As soon as she laid eyes on the curly-furred mop of a dog — bizarrely wearing one of their USSA-specific blue-and-silver uniforms — Kipper could tell that Amelia was not a dog who had any patience for waiting.

The gray tabby cat captain closed the laptop computer that she and Trugger had been working on — writing emails, searching directories for officials who could help them, and downloading form after form that didn’t quite fit their situation.  Nothing fit their situation.  She put the laptop aside and got up from the bottom bunk bed she’d been sitting on.  “Can I help you?” she asked the dog. Continue reading “Otters In Space 4 – Chapter 5: Kipper”