Menu

Subscribe

Instant Story

Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #03211-H302: Better Than Expected

They're absolutely terrified of flying, so much so they've considered strong sedatives to be able to do this. It's their only chance at escaping from under an oppressive, cruel, polity's thumb. -- Anon Guest

Social engineering can be used for evil. Case in point, The United Shareholders of New Economy. In order to stop citizens fleeing their polity, most Deregger empires simply make it too troublesome for the wrong sort[1] to travel.

This one has spent a significant effort in making its citizens too terrified to travel. The news and media are overloaded with transit accidents, but only the transits involved in taking citizens away from The United Shareholders of New Economy. Transit to and from work is safer than one's own home[2].

As for the rest of the universe... Economeans are all bombarded with the images of Evil Aliens. Perverted Aliens. Disgusting Aliens. Regular Humans who have been corrupted by their wicked influence into lifestyles of pure dissipation. Rea had spent his lifetime steeped in such messages, but when it came to the choice between dissipation and slow death by unemployment, anything looked good.

Support me on Patreon / Buy me a Ko-fi

Continue Reading

Prompts remaining: 92 Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!

Challenge #03210-H301: Actually Fair and Balanced

A - "I'm innocent your honor, I didn't DO anything wrong!"

B - "You struck your employee for refusing to endanger their safety."

A - "I'm allowed to do that, though, they're my property, they work for me!"

B - Pinching the bridge of their nose in exasperation. "Ok, let's go over it again why that is NOT allowed in Alliance Space and why your employees are going to be compensated." -- Lessons

"It isn't Alliance Space, it's my space," argued CEO

Read more »

Challenge #03209-H300: In Defense of Whys

One thing I've learned of human children, they are very receptive to knowledge but you have to frame it in ways that will keep their interest. Otherwise, they will start the "Why?" game. And that can go on for a very long time. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Sometimes, the Why Game will go on regardless. There's strategies for that.]

"What'cha doin?" Ah, the catch-cry of the Greater Spotted Bored Annoyance. Evidently the activities for the day had lost their lustre and now

Read more »

Challenge #03208-H299: Breaker of Bad Habits

The Human is only four foot in height, even with the battle-hardened live-suit. The recruits for this new marine outfit are six to seven foot Deathworlders from level three, and a couple near level four Deathworlds. The Human teaches them why you don't laugh at someone just because they're smaller. -- Anon Guest

Gurhag's Grunts were supposed to be meeting the maddest, baddest Deathworlder to train them in new combat techniques. When a child-sized entity in a livesuit appeared and took up

Read more »

Challenge #03207-H298: Solution Evolution

They knew their name, Lillian, named after the lovely flower. They knew that they'd gotten hurt, possibly died. They knew they'd fallen into the mana pool. Now the pool was gone, but they could still feel the upwelling of mana, the raw essence of magic, everywhere. When the magi told them they were a walking, talking, mana fount, their body had become the container for it, they laughed it off. Now, they were learning to take pieces of amber and fill these

Read more »

Challenge #03206-H297: The One That Matters

An aged, wizened man. He wishes he could follow his wife, and his kids, and his grandkids into the great beyond. But, when he was young, and on guard duty, he had fallen asleep at his post, failing to raise the alarm when invaders got inside, and a thousand within the city perished as a result. Now, his gods won't let him die, until he has saved one thousand lives. One life for each that had been lost. Marking his arms and

Read more »

Challenge #03205-H296: A Parable For All

A village is evacuating en masse. Even the local dragons, normally holding such villages in disdain, are now grabbing as many people as they can safely carry in their paws, allowing humans to strap carry-baskets to their backs, and runners are warning away all travelers. The local mountain is emitting smoke, the rumble and scents mean only one thing, and though a very stubborn few refuse to leave, often to the tears of family members who are begging them to also evacuate,

Read more »

Challenge #03204-H295: Surgical Precision Strike

A Human and a Havenworlder are both trapped in a cargo bay of a medical transport ship. The Human is in a support frame due to an illness that had created serious malformations in the spine before they were rescued as one of the last few survivors from a failed Deregger colony. The door is forced open by the pirates and the only one to save them is a Havenworlder with a scalpel. The Human reassures the Havenworlder, "you're not as weak

Read more »

Challenge #03203-H294: A Machine With Real Heart

They had an android body, they were an AI, and yet, we fell in love. Some in my family tell me they're just a machine despite the AI within and cannot feel real love. But, how do you define a machine? Can we truly be together? We love each other, this is so hard. -- Anon Guest

What is life? What is real? Does it even matter? My family thinks so. When I met P3T3R Five at Docks and Locks, it wasn't

Read more »

Challenge #03202-H293: Hey There Li'l Partner

A security officer aboard a space station has a nice, quiet, day with little going on, and happily entertains a human child who is well behaved and delights in being able to pretend they're "helping". At least until the parents show up, thank the officer for finding their child, who'd been a little scamp and had run off, and their shift ends without incident. -- Anon Guest

"Well hello there, Wandering Star," Security Officer Bytto had spotted the small Human in a

Read more »

Challenge #03201-H292: Therapeutic Tales

The Havenworlders who were saved when the scaffold fell decided to visit the Human that saved them. The medics realized having the Human sit alone in silence, while it did help the body heal, was damaging to a human's mind and caused them to become agitated. So the medics invited the visitors to come, to chat, and explained that it helped a human recover. The workers who had put up the scaffolding incorrectly, which lead to the accident, also visited, to apologize.

Read more »

Challenge #03200-H291: Between a Rock and...

The human had, somewhat grudgingly to start with, accepted a job from a havenworlder who read too much from the infonets and didn't always understand the gist of what was put there. The job sounded dangerous, so they prepared for the worst. The planetary survey, a small ship just big enough for the human and a very, very small crew, was likely the most boring one they'd ever been hired as guard duty for. It was like being paid to go on

Read more »

Challenge #03199-H290: An Honest Mistake

Dear General,

It is true that your soldiers may outnumber mine.

But the ocean runs deep.

I am certain that you will run out of men, before the ocean runs out of space. -- Anon Guest

It only looked like a Graveworld. There were all the signs. Ruined buildings in the midst of assorted plants run amok. Domesticated animals turned wild, creating an ecology of their own. There were even apocalypse journals left where they might survive until discovery.

More Graveworlds were

Read more »

Challenge #03198-H289: I Am Not Here, I Did Not Die

There are many stories of first contact, what about a last contact? When a species is so doomed that no technology could help them recover? -- Alex

We are the Elm, and we are dying. We have accepted this, and send this to you. By the time you translate this message, we will likely be gone. Do not mourn for us, as we have had enough of mourning.

No grand mistake has caused this end. We have merely reached the end of

Read more »

Challenge #03197-H288: Dietary Restrictions

A Human has a very sensitive digestive system due to the damage done from multiple illnesses before they escaped the Deregger world they'd come from. Now working aboard a Havenworlder ship, they found even many of the Havenworlders' foods too harsh for their digestion, and had to explain why the foods they made, while nutritionally balanced, were bland even to the Havenworlders. -- Anon Guest

Human Roi was a Rescue. The crew of the Pohkit Ansee knew this on an intellectual level,

Read more »