Tagged: sci-fi
Air Gap
Flash Fiction Month 2023, Day 28
“Remind me again why they didn’t just drop this thing out of orbit?”
“It’s a lot easier to scrub a computer virus out of an existing refinery platform than it is to launch the million tons of metal it would take to build a new one.”
Hash cast a glance around the bodies strewn around the docking bay. “I’m worried that’s not all we’ll be scrubbing.”
“Be glad this place depressurised.” Shim tapped his helmet. “No decomposition in a vacuum.”
Hash took a closer look at the nearest corpse, sprawled by the airlock. There was a scar at the base of the skull, and the telltale outline of a battery harness beneath the neoprene jumpsuit. “That just trades one problem for another. There’s a lot of silicon in these stiffs…” Continue reading
Episode V: The Empire Types Back
Flash Fiction Month 2023, Day 23
It is a dark time for the rebellion. Although the Death Star has been destroyed, Imperial troops have driven the Rebel forces from their hidden base and pursued them across the galaxy.
“Son of a nerf-herder!” yelled Franz Yolo, pulling the Vanadium Aircon sharply to the left. “What was that?”
“HRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!” trilled his hairy companion, Spewchowda.
To aid in this mission, the dreaded Imperial Starfleet has employed a new weapon: a near-impenetrable wall of expository text scrolling across the galaxy. For too long had the war been fought with epic space battles and laser swords. Now foremost in the Imperial arsenal were detailed descriptions of taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems. Continue reading
400 Bad Request
Flash Fiction Month 2023, Day 10
Lieutenant Anderson watched the approaching platoon from beneath a thin sheet of foam insulation, backed with foil. It would go some way towards stopping his body heat from giving away his position. The first shot, however, was another matter.
Putting the cross-hairs over the torso of the nearest machine—there was no need to compensate for wind speed or bullet drop—he pulled the trigger. There was no gunshot: only the whip-crack of the supersonic projectile blasting out from between the rails, followed by the futile bang of a reactive armour plate attempting to deflect it. The shot kicked up a cloud of earth on the far side of the target, the red-hot slug ricocheting off the ground to form an inverted comet in the sky.
The remainder of the platoon immediately trained their weapons on the window.
Anderson rolled to the floor, a hail of tungsten tearing through the foam insulation just beside him. The railgun—and its hefty recoil compensation system—was already searing hot, the air rippling above the barrel’s heat sinks. Still, if all went well it would only need to handle three or four more shots. Anderson ejected the spent supercapacitor and loaded another from his satchel, shoving a fresh slug into the breach of the weapon as well. Continue reading
If You Can’t Stand the Heat…
Flash Fiction Month 2023, Day 7
Challenge #4: Write a story that features someone who is considered “the worst,” is written in the second person, and has a word count of exactly 333.
“We need a profiterole tower now!” barks the voice on the radio.
Instinctively you take the whisk from the counter of the orbital drop-kitchen, but immediately drop it. As you stoop to grab the precious implement from the floor, a searing plasma bolt screams past your chef’s toque. Startled, you accidentally kick the whisk away.
The whisk rolls beneath the foot of the Centauriian megasoldier thundering towards you. His ceramo-titanite battle-boot skates across it and he topples backwards, accidentally stabbing himself in the throat with his own laser-bayonette as he crashes to the floor.
“Get baking! Quickly!” Continue reading
The Whole World in His Hands
Flash Fiction Month 2023, Day 3
The lights overhead flickered as the tone of the machine changed: a dull hum rising to a piercing whine.
“Professor?” Nathaniel gave a nervous laugh as he stepped from the model to the intercom. “The frequency’s a little high.”
That was an understatement. Ruth glanced back down the hallway at the toughened glass box that housed the torus, the plates already shivering in their frames.
Catching her eye, the Professor raised a hand.
“Bear with me,” he said, leaning over the microphone. Continue reading
Separated by a Common Language
Flash Fiction Month 2022, Day 1
“Baas luk usuck mall Bussak-luk mal baasllub.”
“Your presence in this place is an affront to the Bussak Empire,” explained the translator, the Bussak naval fatigues comically oversized on his human frame.
Captain Hensley regarded the diplomat—also most likely some kind of military officer, based on the trophies dangling from his sash—sitting across the table. Naturally he had to smooth this over, but he sensed it would not do to show weakness here.
He spoke to the translator, but kept his eyes locked on the diplomat. “Tell your master that the craft his people intercepted was an uncrewed probe, launched long before our time.”
The translator winced and turned to the diplomat: “Buckall luk ackbull mall bulmall. Baas mack mal ulmaack.”
“Ulmaack?” The diplomat’s three eyes narrowed. “Subamy mall mack bulmall mal Maaruck-luk!?”
A gutteral roar rose up from the Bussak warriors gathered round the perimeter of the chamber. Hensley caught a few concerned whispers from his own crew behind him. Continue reading
Sussing It Out
Flash Fiction Month 2021, Day 14
“I think we’re safe now.” Tyrone walked over to the blinds covering the window and pulled down one of the flimsy plastic strips. Through the tiny slit, the car park looked quiet.
“Please don’t say ‘I think we’re safe now.’” Maia groaned. “That’s what people say in movies right before something horrible bursts out of them.”
There was a tense silence. Tyrone looked around the small crowd gathered in the back office of Thompson’s Aquarium Supplies Ltd.
“Yeah?” he said, after a significant pause. “Well, given that that hasn’t happened, I think we really are safe.”
There was another, admittedly slightly less tense silence.
“So what exactly are we dealing with?” asked Maia, eventually. Continue reading
Star-Crossed Lovers
Flash Fiction Month 2021, Day 13
Challenge #6: Write a story with a randomly selected perspective, tense, emotional theme, and optionally word count.
My randomly generated challenge was to write a third person present tense story of exactly 111 words, on the theme of love.
They move in the same circles, altitude 2,000 kilometres. He has watched her his entire life—it is his duty to know the enemy—and yet each passage of their death-marked love reveals something new. There is poetry in the firing solutions she selects. In the way she silhouettes herself against the wreckage of the ISS. In the way she conceals her close-in weapons system with her peripheral radiator array. He knows everything about her, except whether she feels the same way.
When the planet blooms, he intercepts her orders before his have arrived.
He does not activate the countermeasures.
She does not fire.
It might as well be a kiss.
If you’ve enjoyed this story, you can find my work from previous Flash Fiction Months collected in these books:
Click any cover to find that book in your choice of format.
Forwards Forever
Flash Fiction Month 2020, Day 30
“Four more minutes.”
“Are you sure?”
“On the first run? Hardly. But we’ve got a ten-year window to land this thing. Provided it performs within five percent of expected parameters, Lab 7 will be ready at the point we re-enter Earth’s frame of reference.”
“And if it isn’t?”
Professor Dodgson chuckled. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve kept the place clear all along, just in case we show up early. They’ll definitely have it cordoned off if it turns out that we’re late.”
Professor Hammond was quiet.
“Once we confirm the magnitude of time dilation the chamber can achieve, we’ll be able to navigate with absolute precision. The return journey will be trivial.”
Still Hammond said nothing.
Dodgson put a hand on his shoulder. “We have—quite literally—all the time in the world.”
The remainder of the four minutes passed in silence. Continue reading
GUNBABY Available to Play in Spring Thing Festival
If you follow me on Twitter, you might already have heard about GUNBABY, the narrative game about a baby with a lot of guns. Well, I’m happy to announce that it’s now available to play as part of 2020’s Spring Thing Festival!
If you’re looking for something calm and gentle to play during these tough times of ours…this isn’t it. However, if you fancy an interactive tale of comedic ultraviolence and not much else then this might be just your sort of thing all the same. You can click here to jump straight into the game. Continue reading
Damon L. Wakes 