Series
Maradias Robot
The Words in Frosting
Gary was a humanoid android, programmed to experience the complete range of human emotions. Right now, he was sad. His broad shoulders slouched, and his head hung, framing his handsome face with his beautiful raven hair. He had been designed to be beautiful. Chirri wasn't sure…
by Mary E. Lowd
Clever Hansel 2000
Engleine paced nervously, her hooved hind feet echoing on the metal floor. Usually, the sound soothed her--it made her feel light and cosmic, reminding her that she lived on Crossroads Station and no longer a backwards dirtball of a world. There were stars beneath the metal…
by Mary E. Lowd
The Emperor's New Bird
The ruby-throated avian twirled, emerald wings beating in a blur, frothing the air with graceful gusts of wind that swept through the emperor's branches and leaves, delighting his eye-petals with the sight of the frenzied dance. "A marvel of genetic engineering!" the emperor…
by Mary E. Lowd
Salvador Dali Smile
"My brain isn't working right." Roia378--gleaming and silver, everything a robot should be, strong, aesthetically pleasing, a sculpted work of art that could build a stone castle with her bare metal hands--clutched her head, as if it ached, but she was not designed for pain or…
by Mary E. Lowd
The Fisherman's Robot
Sebas7 opened her mechanical eyes to see limpid human eyes staring at her. She recognized them as human eyes by using a pattern-matching algorithm on her massive internal database of labeled images. "Hello, friend. Don't worry, you're perfectly safe." The words had meaning in…
by Mary E. Lowd
Shiny Red Chassis
Reeree3 was an assistant robot; a prototype with a complex combination of scarab-like jointed legs and little wheels on a tread. Right now, she looked like a cross between a sad ladybug and a frightened wheelchair. Her shiny red carapace was blotched with rough orange patches of…
by Mary E. Lowd
Prototype Dino 1
Maradia's fingers flew over her keyboard as she uploaded the reservoir of files that collectively were Wisper, an AI program she'd been writing over the last several months, to Prototype Body 1. She ran a quick check to make sure the files had uploaded properly, and then she…
by Mary E. Lowd
Too Cuddly
"Where did your plush exterior go?" "I stripped it off." Anxlo7's shiny metal interior gleamed, skeletal and mechanical, without the cinnamon brown teddy bear fur that usually covered her. "But now you look... scary," Maradia said to the robot she'd designed for Crossroads…
by Mary E. Lowd
Twelve Days of Snow on Crossroads Station
When the snow began falling inside Crossroads Space Station, all of the aliens stopped what they were doing and held very still. The snowflakes caught on long fuzzy manes and feathered wings; they pinged lightly against hard insectile carapaces and shimmering reptilian scales.…
by Mary E. Lowd