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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a historical fiction story about someone working at a company that helped revolutionize early computers.

Posted in Historical Fiction on Aug 5, 2021

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✍️ 17 stories

“A Business Proposition” by Philip Clayberg

Submitted to Contest #82

From the outside, the building looked identical to the others on both sides of Charing Cross Road. The differences lay hidden inside. The signs above the doorway read, from top to bottom: BABBAGE & LOVELACE – PROGRAMMABLE ANALYTICAL ENGINES – EST. 1851.A horse-drawn omnibus came to a stop in front of the building. A stylish, well-dressed lady stepped off the omnibus and onto the dusty street. Moments later, the omnibus continued on its way, rejoining the traffic flow on the street.Noticing the dust on her skirts and shoes, she looked for...

35 comments 35
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“"Father of Computers" ” by Paula Dennison

Submitted to Contest #82

Tracy walked up the numerous steps past the bronze statue of Charles Babbage founder of The Babbage Institute of Computer Technology into a building supported by massive roman columns and plate glass windows. She opened the brass plated doors and the climate controlled air conditioning hushed past her. The ceiling was 20 foot high adorned with multiple crystal tiered chandeliers. This part of the building had been built in the early 1900s and housed exhibits of Babbage’s various computers and computational machines. Tracy had not the time t...

2 comments 2
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“MANCHESTER MARK 1” by HARSSH SINGH

Submitted to Contest #82

Trigger warning: rape   The year is 1949. My name is Melanie, I am 58 years old and I work as a cleaning lady at the University of Manchester. I have been a cleaning lady for 15 years now and before that I was a mother. I have arthritis and my ankles pain so much, that I sometimes feel that I cannot walk anymore. Which means that I have already walked to the end of my life and here I am, a nothing and a nobody.   I live in Ordsall, with Tom. We have 5 children. There’s Jamie, Johnie, Fred, Howard and Linda. Jamie, Johnie and Fred h...

2 comments 2
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“Where Credit is Due” by Claire Clayton

Submitted to Contest #82

They say all is fair in love and war. But, neither of those things are fair are they? Life is not fair. It is a battlefield full of winners and losers. It is made up of the avenged and the vengeful. I happen to be that latter. I have been vengeful for a very long time. Something was stolen from me many years ago and I intend on making that wrong right. Or at least right for me.  My name is Margaret Davenport. That name should mean something to you, though I doubt it does. My fame was indeed stolen from me by a man you have most certai...

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“Lifting weight of his Memories!” by Batool Mirza

Submitted to Contest #82

"Hey, I've these bundle of photos and video cassettes!, Can you fit them in your suitcase? Jack asked his wife Ellie who was already overwhelmed with packing kids and her things. "I'm already full, Jack! Go ask your boss to get you some extra space to carry stuff" Ellie replied. She hated his boss for changing the location that they were living in for so long . "You have a room filled of your uslesess memories and you want to fit that in my suit case ? " She said sarcastically to Jack. Jack was posted to another country by his boss a...

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“Observe” by Sara Blanch

Submitted to Contest #82

Before I get into this my story, I want to make one thing clear...especially to the humans I worked with to develop their computer technologies. I may not be human but I am not Fae...as shocking as it may seem not all supernatural creatures are Fae. Those tree hugging, nature loving hippies wouldn't know what a computer was even if it fell into their laps.  I am from the Elxen race, a type of humanoid beings, yet we much more technologically advanced. Basically we are humans in a few hundred years, we even have a planet similar to ...

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“BESK - The Living Device” by Georgia Krumova

Submitted to Contest #82

Come on – a my house, my house a come on I’m gonna give you candy Axel opened his eyes. He raised his hands and purred like a kitten as he stretched. Come on - a my house, my house a come on The song. The phone. Yes, his phone rang with that song. His favorite song. ‘Hello?’ Said Axel in a sleepy voice. ‘I have news. They accepted it! They accepted your project! Congratulations! I hope to see you today. ' ‘What?’ Axel rubbed his eyes. The stranger on the other end of the phone was saying strange things to him. He had dreamed something, but h...

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“Thinking Machines” by Nikhil Jain

Submitted to Contest #82

Alan was sweating. Something was missing. Something important. Even though he had been sitting for the past three hours, his muscles ached from the tension in his body. His cramped apartment was dimly lit and sparsely furnished, apart from the prominent bookshelf stuffed with abstruse mathematical tomes and a desk sprawled with reams of scribbled notes which were under interrogation from Alan's intense gaze.  "Bloody hell," he muttered under his breadth as he flipped through papers with inscrutible mathematical symbols scribbled over ...

2 comments 2
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“I Transmigrated After Death” by Janna Mae Lagno

Submitted to Contest #82

It's unbelievable but it's true.  I got transmigrated in another era of the world.  I still remember my past life  Where I was betrayed and being played by destiny. My mom left me when I was young and my Father is an alcoholic man. I have a sister whom I love the most.  My mother always tells me that I must protect her and take good care of her.  My sister is my father's favorite child. Between me and her my sister was the only one who goes to school-while I sweat water and blood working everyday to pay her school fe...

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“Maya's Revolutionary Design” by Melinda Madrigal

Submitted to Contest #82

Breanna Pierce has worked for Horizon Tech for three years, her specialty is computer tech design and developer. Breanna is the most important computer designer and developer at Horizon Tech and she is currently developing the latest version of Star-link, the most important computer Horizon Tech has. Star-Link has been around for generations, but star-link hasn't always been called star-link, the original name for star-link is called the Hart-computer created by Maya Hart. Breanna has always been curious about the founding of star-link a...

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“Second generation” by وداد أكرم

Submitted to Contest #82

Kamal was engaged in the study of the mathematical algorithm for miniaturizing the work of computer CPUs and despite all his attempts and his supervisor Luther, their attempts failed again and again . The five-person team was most interested in developing the first-generation PC by making it smaller, faster, cheaper and less heat-dissipating. "do you Could redesign the transistor , I want him to be smaller than it is in order to put it instead of valves large size."Luther. "Yes sir, I started working on it, maybe I'll finish it tomorro...

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“The Incident ” by Amanda Dunbar

Submitted to Contest #82

  It was August 23, 1951, I was heading for 1215 Walnut Street. As I trudged through the streets of Philadelphia I thought of how I had received my position at the Electronic Controls Company. I thought about how the Company was founded. I worked at the Electronic Controls Company. The company was founded in 1946 by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, my bosses. With the prospect of receiving some money, the company rented their first offices at 1215 Walnut Street in Philadelphia and began to hire employees. I was one of the first emplo...

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“''IT'S NOT THE END''” by Lindy West

Submitted to Contest #82

It was a decade when the wind blew , the sun came out to shine , the mornings passed and yet he was the one who had come to belittle the six letter word ''random.'' '' You is you but l is around you , lam not too afraid ''whispered life into his twisted like ears wrapping each word he could hear.THE CENTEREDThe horses came running towards him as he observed the skyline in the city of New York. Adrian was just a young adult who lived in a one roomed bedroom , his parents had all passed away and he had to look after sibling named Stephen. '' I...

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“Computer Pointer” by Martin Cambridge

Submitted to Contest #82

"What are you doing, honey ?" "My boss wants this typing ready for early tomorrow morning, for the important presentation he has to make. He has made many corrections and additions. I didn't want to stay late at work, so I told him I would put it on a floppy disk, take it home and finish it on the word processor there." "Was he surprised to hear that you had a word processor at home ?" "Yes, he was, until I explained that we had a pre-production personal computer at home, from the computer factory where you work." "Can you show...

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“...the fine line” by Lisa Wentworth

Submitted to Contest #82

Write a historical fiction story about someone working at a company that helped revolutionize early computers. She had beauty, brains and breeding...and I am so happy to say, is an ancestor of mine. The only [legitimate] child of Lord Byron, I often muse about that blood pumping through my veins; a historical poet and a mathematical woman had a child in society, who was highly educated. I have both the creative side and the logical side, but am far more comfortable in the former. Since Ada’s mother considered her father’s genius a kind...

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