Sneak Peek—Stories from The Expanding Universe Anthology #4: ‘Mothers’ by C.M. Simpson

There are 20 short stories in the latest volume of Craig Martelle’s The Expanding Universe anthologies. Today, with Craig's permission, we are taking a sneak peek at the start of my story, ‘Mothers’. Here’s how it begins:----------------------------------------------------------------
No warrior is so fierce as a mother with young; and, when mothers band together, enemies need beware.
Talie watched the alien ship spin, a huge disk, looking continents wide, and she felt her heart sink. Somewhere, in that monstrosity, her little girl was hiding. Her little girl, who wouldn’t be anywhere near as afraid as she should be, and nowhere near as cautious as Talie would like. Her little girl, who would be quick to remind her that thirty-two wasn’t little, and that she had a child of her own—a bonafide ship-talker who had listened to her grandmother far too much, and, at ten, stowed away on an enemy troop carrier so she could make a difference where it mattered.
Dammit! Talie thought. It is all my fault.
It was her fault, too that the child’s mother had gone after her. It’s what mothers did—and now there were two little girls who needed rescuing.
Which was why Talie was here—because mothers had mothers, too.
“Take me in,” she said, although there was no need to say where.----------------------------------------------------------------Would you like to read more? 
The Expanding Universe #4 is now available on Amazon. You can also find Volume 1, The Expanding Universe: An Exploration of Science Fiction Genre , Volume 2, The Expanding Universe: Exploring the Science Fiction Genre , and Volume 3, The Expanding Universe 3: Space Opera, Military SciFi, Space Adventure, & Alien Contact! on Amazon in paperback.