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Every year, one person is sent to the moon. This year, though you hid in terror, it is your turn to enter the rocket.

Posted in Science Fiction on Jul 17, 2021

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✍️ 124 stories

Jax Off Ash (Part I)

Submitted to Contest #52

Author’s note: Once again, this story has the same characters as my first short story, Rebel Prince. Also my third short story, A Poem By A Star (No, Literally). This isn’t Part Three, so you’ll understand it just fine on it’s own, but you might want to read Rebel Prince and A Poem By A Star (No, Literally) first to gain better understanding and enjoy this more!“What on Ash?” I stared at the thing in Arava’s hand and my mouth dropped open.“No,” she teased. “Not on Ash.”“Whaddya mean?” I scrunched my face up. “And why are you holding a skull?...

173 likes 103 comments 103
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Follow Your Dreams (Part One)

Submitted to Contest #52

I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t do this!Alissa Robertson was in the bathroom, locked in a stall. She was sweaty and pale. She had thrown up 3 times, and she still felt terrible. Takeoff was in 3 hours. She wasn’t ready. She will never be ready. “Alissa?” A soft voice called from the other side of the door, knocking. “Are you there? The Daily Galette and other newspapers want to interview you. This is your big day!”“Umm, yes.” Alissa’s shaky voice said. “I-I’ll be out there in a second.”“Okay Alissa. Just call if you need ...

106 likes 44 comments 44
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The Curse

Submitted to Contest #52

Every year, one person is sent to the moon. This year, though you hid in terror, it is your turn to enter the rocket. You had always believed it to be a silly tradition anyway, for how serious could an old, yellowed and withered contract be? You could hardly even make out the words anymore. And besides, what was the point of following this tradition when it wasn’t even your country's main religion anymore? But you knew not to speak your skepticism aloud. You knew that anyone with the slightest bit of doubt in the goddess would be sent i...

76 likes 33 comments 33
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Bunny and June

Submitted to Contest #52

The notice came at two in the afternoon, on a paper smelling of lavender, old socks, and a hint of person who never bathed for lack of time. It was written in blue ink on a piece of standard stock paper and read as following: Resident Bunny Smokes must adhere to the procedures as soon as she can. She has been elected to be the next Moon Hostess. Failure to comply will result in execution at dawn by means of a.) cake b.) duck c.) inhalation of chalk d.) boring river walk e.) long lecture talk f.) finger and toenail lock Thank you for complyin...

73 likes 27 comments 27
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the earth looks better from a star

Submitted to Contest #52

We met on a long bus ride. I sat next to him, and his feet turned toward me. His whole body was on a diagonal in my direction, and I thought who does that? Who rearranges themselves to pay so much attention to a stranger?  I had books and binders on my lap. An hour into our conversation, he put one wrist on top of the pile. It was still early morning, blue night light filling the bus, blurring shapes and faces into silhouettes, an occasional street lamp or the moon highlighting one feature when its glow entered through the window, like ...

51 likes 7 comments 7
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Periculum Moon

Submitted to Contest #52

The moon rose.The same Earth moon that had risen when the name had been announced. And a knock had sounded on her door. She paced the empty room, her mouth dry, and her hands damp. She had been given a final meal of choice.  A suitcase had been packed with whatever she pleased. She packed it, but she didn't please. She had dressed on earth for the last time. Famous designers had been at her disposal, she could have chosen to wear a silver dress, with embroidered asphodels made of diamonds.She finally decided to wear a favorite...

48 likes 30 comments 30
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The Candidate

Submitted to Contest #52

She used to spend hours gazing up at the stars, my Mama. I gazed up at them with her. My small body pressed into hers, the two of us gawking at the tiny, twinkling orbs overhead. Faint music coming from the radio, long-since rescued from the junkyard and put to good use again, wafting around us. In those moments, it was just me and her. Against the bills piling up on the table in the rickety wooden house. Against the notice tucked inside my mother's sock drawer, the one I knew, even then, I wasn't supposed to see, but I peeked at it any...

42 likes 11 comments 11
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The Lunar Trip

B H

Submitted to Contest #52

There it was hanging on the wall, staring deep into my soul. I got my letter of acceptance a month ago and my parents got it framed and put one in my room and another in the living room. “ Dear Mr. Fernsby,  Thank you for applying for the Astronaut Candidate Program. We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected for the Annual Lunar Trip for the year 2050.  It is a pleasure to have you on board. We think your ideas on further lunar exploration are of great importance. You will be taken to the NASA Astronauts Corps, H...

41 likes 8 comments 8
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The Call

Submitted to Contest #52

I got the call. 13 days and 4 hours ago. I was due to go 6 days ago but they couldn’t find me. I thought they might go ahead without me, find someone else. But they didn’t. I’m in a dull room waiting for my safety briefing.Did you know that the Ancient Greeks began the tradition of putting candles in birthday cakes? They would bake a round honey cake and stick candles all over it as an offering to the mood Goddess, Artemis. The cake symbolised the moon and the candles the moonlight. Stick a candle in the moon on your birthday. Weird how trad...

36 likes 7 comments 7
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Mission Improbable

Submitted to Contest #52

Here’s a word of advice to anyone over the age of ten or so. Don’t get ideas into your head about hiding in a closet. It doesn’t work unless your closet or wardrobe is of dimensions that would get you into Narnia, never mind get you out of avoiding the person who knows that embarrassing thing about you, or who wants you to see to the laundry – or out of Project Luna. And this is the voice of experience.       You have to try to find somewhere else to hide, or to secrete yourself in plain sight.&nb...

36 likes 3 comments 3
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The Feathered Serpent

Submitted to Contest #52

Bryan turned his gaze toward old Mother Nature's night light. There had been a time when he believed that the moon landing was faked, when he believed that men had never even been past the stratosphere, but the only people who still held that belief were either too young to remember or too dumb to accept or both. He knew the truth, he was one of the fortunate, or unfortunate, few who were tasked with collecting the Q Program participants, but even if he wasn't, the program and it's purpose was no secret and never had...

33 likes 34 comments 34
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Moon Obsession!

Submitted to Contest #52

(Every year, one person is sent to the moon. This year, though you hid in terror, it is your turn to enter the rocket.) The Moon!    Fascination with the moon!   Obsession with the moon!    Terrified of the moon!   And of course the effect this moon focus has had on my life.  These are the things that haunt me.  I have gone from a normal functioning adolescent to this basket of worthless matter as the inevitable date approaches.  The day my name is called for the voyage to the heavens. I am ...

32 likes 11 comments 11
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Lunar Yeomen

Submitted to Contest #52

  There was no second knock. The front door cracked with a strong kick and slammed open. Heavy footfalls stormed the floorboards, rushing into the house. Leo listened to the soldiers coming, hidden in the closet. “Leonid Akulov,” a voice bellowed. “You have been selected for MERCY. Come willingly or we will use force!” Mankind’s Emergency Rescue Company of Yeomen. The words came automatically to him as he clenched to his knees, trying to prevent his heart from jumping out.  Footsteps ran up the stairs. They entered the adjacent roo...

32 likes 6 comments 6
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You're Next, Ms. Tesala (submitted 7/31/20)

Submitted to Contest #52

There was no escape from the sterile examination room. Melonia's palms began to sweat, and her respiration elevated as she began to hyperventilate. She acknowledged it was almost senseless to try to escape. Her eyes followed the thin line around the two doors next to each other. The door on the left lead to the Moon Project and the other to an unknown secret laboratory. She encountered no handles or buttons to open the locks of the air pressure doors. The entry door that captured an image of her iris remained locked. The steel cold table und...

31 likes 6 comments 6
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Sendoff

Submitted to Contest #52

January 1, 2342       We sat in front of the TV splayed out across the sofa munching on leftover candy from the previous day’s celebration. Volume on low as not to wake the others the news played across the screen. A slender, black-haired UNSEF official dressed in a tailor-made black suit explained the ins and outs of their program to a young, sharp-featured reporter who introduced herself as Mary Taylors.  “Every year a random eighteen-year-old is selected to become a member of our Moon colonies”. The ...

28 likes 2 comments 2
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