Write a story about a character who wakes up in space.

Posted in Science Fiction on Mar 22, 2024

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✍️ 50 stories

“Lazaretto in Space” by Jonathan Page

Submitted to Contest #243

Enzo dreams of home. He cannot remember how long he has been away or why he is in space. Only that he wanted to go. But why? Why did I leave? The dream is so real that it is more real than reality. Family and friends are laughing. Sitting around a picnic table with a buffet, including a bowl of tossed salad, ten ears of freshly boiled and buttered corn stacked in a basket and steaming, a plate of grilled cheeseburgers, split poppy seed buns with pesto mayonnaise, sliced tomato, garlic, and onion. He looks around at these familiar faces, but ...

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“The Joyriders Club” by Howard Halsall

Submitted to Contest #243

Chewing Juicy Fruit during a Border Enforcement interrogation isn’t a great idea. “Lose the gum, kiddo!” Officer McNally said, reaching for his waste basket. “Who says so?” “You’re on the Moon now,” he said, proffering the bin. “That’s our rule here.” I had one last chomp on the gum, plucked it from my mouth in a pincer movement and flicked it into the hovering receptacle. “Thank you, Erika,” McNally said, passing the bin to his fellow officer, w...

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“Revising The Drake Equation” by J. I. MumfoRD

Submitted to Contest #243

We often say life is abundant, but intelligence is scarce. Through a century of search, humanity has found the Drake Equation overly optimistic, its predictions littering the cosmos like discarded dreams. Humans were utterly alone.The archeologist bound across the surface of Kepler-186f’s barren third moon, her boots leaving transient impressions on the ancient regolith, a palimpsest soon to be overwritten. Gravitational anomalies had pinged the moon’s survey drones weeks ago, yet the high-res images revealed nothing but more lunar desolatio...

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“E. Nigma” by Nicholas Thomas

Submitted to Contest #243

An alarm was going off. I awoke with a start as I sat up in my bed. The alarm was coming from a small box on the stool beside me. I reached over and turned it off and took a look at my surroundings. I was in a small room that was chromatic in appearance and seemed spotlessly clean. There were no windows and no door to be seen. Aside from the stool next to my bed which held the alarm clock, the only other things in this room were a mirror, and a calendar hung on the wall. I stood up out of bed and stretched...

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“First Contact” by Kristina Lushey

Submitted to Contest #243

Space is infinite, at least that is what we are always told. In the words of Star Trek “Space, the final frontier.” As I looked up to the sky above, a small smile danced around the corners of my mouth. Are we truly alone, or are there other beings in other worlds looking up at their stars in the sky and wondering the same thing?I was interested in the stars ever since I was old enough to stand on the big base telescope my dad had, and look at the constellations together, such as, Orion (The Hunter), the Great Bear (Ursa Major), and of course...

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“GOD'S GAMBIT” by Darvico Ulmeli

Submitted to Contest #243

In the eerie silence of the hibernation capsule, God stirred reluctantly from a slumber never meant to cease. His consciousness emerged like a shipwreck survivor clawing its way out of unconsciousness, only to be assaulted by the cacophony of chaos that greeted him. The first sensation to pierce the veil of sleep comes from the blaring alarms, their shrill wails slicing through the tranquil atmosphere like a serrated blade. Each piercing note reverberated within the confines of the capsule, amplifying the sense of urgency gripping God's awak...

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“Planning Her Escape” by Holly Witte

Submitted to Contest #243

Tess woke up remembering something from the days before. She had been only a child then and the story was old at that time, so it was amazing that what she recalled was so vivid, so fresh in her bones. The story had terrified her the first time she heard it, yet something drew her to read it over and over in the decades that followed. Maybe there was a message in it she was supposed to discover. It was a Ray Bradbury science fiction story called All Summer In A Day about people who colonized Venus where the sun came out o...

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“The Ruler of the Moon” by Patricia Restrepo

Submitted to Contest #243

For a second or maybe hours, she feels a heaviness that presses her onto a spongy-bouncy-like surface and debris poking at her back, and then a heat that rises within her starting at the sole of her feet and on through her eyes. “There is a sandstorm,” she thinks as an American flag comes into focus. " Finally,” she says faintly as her forehead is stamped by a man in a strange suit with ‘You have arrived.’The last thing she remembers is the thrill she felt seeing the joy in his eyes when she told him she was going to the moon.She didn't mean...

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“Aliens on the Mend” by Pete Gautchier

Submitted to Contest #243

Aliens on the MendI did not grow up in Roswell, NM. I was not enticed by the alien aura that permeates the atmosphere of this fine town. I am a guy who needs visual evidence to support any theories or special scientific mumbo-jumbo. Many years ago, I bought a few remote, parcels of land throughout Chaves County. My hook was farming. Farming peppers (hot, and I mean hot like ghost peppers). Sounds strange, but I had this sixth sense that peppers would become popular in the coming age with all this “culinary finessed” eating. So, I moved my hu...

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“Justice for Everett Thomas” by Marek Sunda

Submitted to Contest #243

I woke up with a complete sense of serenity. My body was relaxed, and my mind was calm. There were no thoughts entering my mind. Floating away, I simply enjoyed the weightlessness that came with the absence of any cognitive input. First, I heard my own breath, grounding me in presence. The ever-present tranquility that dominated until a few heartbeats ago had now receded. I slowly opened my eyes with difficulty as the eyelids felt heavy. I instinctively tried stretching all my limbs, but my legs didn’t move an inch despite tensing my muscles...

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“Away Day” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #243

This dream was strange, even for a dream it was strange. What was stranger was that Mo remembered the dream. Mo knew he dreamt, everyone did, but seldom did he have any recollection of where his mind wandered to at night. Of the dreams that did make themselves known to him, most were those that occurred between his alarm and the small window of snoozing. He didn’t trust those dreams as they were impossibly long for the seven minute window he had available in which to drift off. Maybe they were dreams of dreams. He hoped not, because there wa...

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“227 Months” by Kenneth Love

Submitted to Contest #243

227 months, 14 days, three hours, 72 minutes, and 88 seconds; I wake up on the 15th day with my breath lingering over my lips as ice crystals, and my limbs devoid of most of their feeling. I use my shivering hands to grab my bed sheets, big, puffy, and electrically heated, and fumble them around my body. The next few minutes I spend curled up, shivering in my blanket trying to get warm before I even attempt to get out of my bed. The floor, like I thought, is ice cold to the touch. I wince the first few times I make contact with it, and,...

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“A MATTER OF SURVIVAL” by Charles Corkery

Submitted to Contest #243

A MATTER OF SURVIVAL The Shuttle He opened his eyes and knew, immediately, that something was amiss; no headache, no blurred vision, no sluggishness of his central nervous system, no disorientation of any kind. With growing trepidation, he turned to his right and, swallowing his anxiety, gazed at his digital, countdown screen: frozen at 9 years, 5 months, 3 weeks, 6 days and 19 hours. He had been in cryosleep for just 5 hours! What the f**k! Glen Thomas, Commander of Deep Space Shuttle, Commodore V11, noted for his coolness under pressur...

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“Two Worlds Collide” by Kathy Walsh

Submitted to Contest #243

Johnny just couldn’t believe it. The football coach just informed him that if he didn’t get a better grade in his astronomy class, he wouldn’t be able to suit up on the team. He shuffled home with his head hung low. He hated astronomy. Nothing made sense to him. All this discussion about things flying around somewhere he couldn’t even see was crazy. And then the teacher telling him to remember that his mom serves him noodles. What the heck does that have to do with space? His mom greeted him as he let the d...

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“The Probe” by Joseph Keener

Submitted to Contest #243

"2.1 tonnes of steel." The thought was like an ignition switch. His brain turned on, the deep dream of unconsciousness vanishing in an instant. Before the questions, before the wondering and the panic, the line of thought continued, sailing through like the meteor he was. "9.6 tonnes of carbon in various forms. 1.5 tonnes of copper to conduct energy. 7.9 petajoules of energy to run a theoretically infinite amount of data off 1.5 tonnes of silicon, gold, palladium, gallium, aluminum, germanium, platinum, nickel, zinc, and experimentally grown...

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Write a story about a character who wakes up in space.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 50 stories

“Lazaretto in Space” by Jonathan Page

“The Joyriders Club” by Howard Halsall

“Revising The Drake Equation” by J. I. MumfoRD

“E. Nigma” by Nicholas Thomas

“First Contact” by Kristina Lushey

“GOD'S GAMBIT” by Darvico Ulmeli

“Planning Her Escape” by Holly Witte

“The Ruler of the Moon” by Patricia Restrepo

“Aliens on the Mend” by Pete Gautchier

“Justice for Everett Thomas” by Marek Sunda

“Away Day” by Jed Cope

“227 Months” by Kenneth Love

“A MATTER OF SURVIVAL” by Charles Corkery

“Two Worlds Collide” by Kathy Walsh

“The Probe” by Joseph Keener

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story imagining 'what if' one historic invention had never happened. How would our world be different now?

Write a story with a strong sense of place. How is the setting of your world the same as, but different to, our own?

Write a story from the point of view of a non-human character.

Write a story where time functions differently to our world.

Contest #243

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

283

Contest entries

113

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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