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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

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

“Otherworld” by Laura Bogner

Submitted to Contest #243

OTHERWORLDBy Laura Bogner Calliope slept fitfully. Winter in Joshua Tree had been unusually cold and the wind howled through the windows in her cabin as she tossed and turned pulling the covers around her like a mummy. She had been to The Palms earlier that evening. Corona, the beer not the virus was on special but these days it seemed the virus was all anyone talked about.  Millions of people around the world had died, businesses big and small had been closed forever, people were protesting against racial injustice across the globe an...

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“Remember Astrid” by Matthew Lambert

Submitted to Contest #243

Is the world burning? I blink my eyes open to the glare of amber light, and a suffocating heat prickling my skin and filling my lungs. There’s a throbbing pain inside my skull and everything’s blurred, as if a dense fog envelops me.   I try to roll over, but my arm is snagged. Above me a dark figure drifts by. I peer hard at it. Human, but unmoving. A corpse? I call out, but receive no reply. Around it a cloud of tiny specks swirl like snowflakes in a blizzard, only so slowly it’s as if time itself is grinding to a halt. I reach up...

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“Space Adventure To Paradise And Back” by Odile Glatz

Submitted to Contest #243

Space Adventure To Paradise (And Back)What, where am I? My head feels so strange, like a clamp is pressing in on either side of my face. So this must be space..Tim’s eyes darted around through his helmet to the great blackness beyond. After a minute, he could see little dots of light, but they seemed very far away. He felt compressed in his space suit, and wriggled in it as best as he could, seeking a sense of freedom, but the part encasing his feet was so heavy. Of course, to combat weightlessness.       &...

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“In The Cosmos, Out The Flames” by Itisha S

Submitted to Contest #243

He couldn’t open his eyes. Despite his currently unknown circumstances, he didn’t have it in himself to be brave enough to have a look. He couldn’t think, his head pounding at a level that could only be described as other-worldly. He wondered whether others felt like this, the way he had felt for so many years. Can this even be considered something new? He merely considered it a more profound experience, a more mature extremity of his anguish. He concluded that no, it was worse, because normally his legs wouldn’t go numb the way they were ri...

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“Dragonfly” by Jeffrey McDonald

Submitted to Contest #243

“Dragonfly come in, Dragonfly we read catastrophic failures in the crew deck, propulsion, life support, and guidance, do you read?” The crackly voice asks.Mission control has lost communication only a week after leaving the lunar surface on its way to Mars. The first manned rocket with solar sails that give it the look of a Dragonfly had performed flawlessly on numerous missions, until now. Sirens blare, and warnings sound. Inside the ship, debris floats aimlessly here and there bumping into panels and a member of the crew floats motionless ...

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“The Suit” by Jacqui James

Submitted to Contest #243

How in the hell did I end up at the front of this demonstration rally? I look down at my feet as we move towards Parliament House but something's not right. I bend over to look closely at my feet and I realise, my shoes aren't even touching the ground? What the Hell? I don't even know what this demonstration is about. Wait, what does the sign that I'm holding say? "SPACE CONSCRIPTION IS A HUMAN VIOLATION!" I remember these people, this scene. I saw it on the news the other night. I agree, vehemently, but I didn't agree to this. I never said ...

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“The Space Stowaway” by George Wallace

Submitted to Contest #243

Henry stirred, he stretched, his mouth felt so dry with the whisky he had been drinking. He could not remember at first where he was, then he remembered he had come to fix the problem on the space capsule. Life had not been good. His girlfriend dumping him last night. He fixed the problem without difficulty. Then a wee nip had been called for to drown his sorrows. Only the wee nip became a big nip, then a larger one, and the bottle finished. The pilot’s seat was so comfortable Henry had closed his eyes for a few minutes and nodded off t...

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“Unknown Motive” by David Willett

Submitted to Contest #243

The sterile corridors of the generation ship Astrolabe had never seen such shades of red. Lakes of the rouge liquid pooled up on the floor whilst branching off into vein-like rivers. The smell replaced the vessel's stale recycled air with a metallic scent unfamiliar to Quinton. He looked at the mechanical instrument in his hand and then back down to the motionless body. It was the source of the colour decorating everything, even Quinton.           He was breathing so fast that he feared ...

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“Terms and Conditions” by Jules Murphy

Submitted to Contest #243

Terms and Conditions“Ok Ella, last question:What would you say your biggest challenge would be if you do get into the Big Brother program?” A giggle and whispers from the other candidates behind her. Ella shifted, tilting her head as she pretended to ponder the question. The other girl had a cool manner, dark eyes piercing into Ella’s as though seeing through her insincerity, the girl’s sharp bob and dark rimmed glasses consciously edgy. Bet they don’t want ‘Not vaping for six months’, Ella thought. But what kind of candidate were they ...

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“Insignificant Disappearance” by Brent Baldwin

Submitted to Contest #243

He awoke naked on a bed without sheets or blankets in a featureless room he did not recognize. “What the fu—?” “Good morning Mr. Smith. I hope the bed is comfortable for you.” Startled, Brian Smith sat up and turned his head towards the voice. What he saw now was even more startling. Before him stood a slender, seven-foot-tall nude female with faint blue skin holding a computer tablet made only of light. He blinked extra hard in an attempt to make his surroundings make any sense. “My name is Zindara-gee. I am a scientist specializing in alie...

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“The Adventures of Jay” by Taquindle Remington

Submitted to Contest #243

Act i: AsteroidI opened my eyes. My groggy eyes. Boy was I tired! I needed some coffee. Coffee and eggs. Yes, I need it now, or imma be in a bad mood. But wait, I feel so weightless. This doesn’t make sense. I ain't that light. I have been in the gym. Plus. Wife Number 1 says I’m getting bigger. Barnacles…“Yo Big Jay, why do you keep hitting your head against the wall?”Oh no, he’s on to me. It’s a nervous tick. I can’t tell him that. He’ll think I'm soft. I ain't toilet paper. I'm hard like a spelling test.“Jay, you know I can hear you. Look...

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“Heartbeat” by Adalilly Chu

Submitted to Contest #243

I like to imagine things, a lot of things. Sometimes I like to imagine myself being locked in a library by myself, enjoying the peacefulness that staying alone with the smell of ink gives me; sometimes I like to imagine flying a kite in the middle of nowhere and then lying down on the ground when I get tired and watching the sunset; sometimes I like to imagine running out of the hospital and finding freedom that is in theory too far away for me to catch, but in my imagination, anything is possible. I can hold onto freedom closely in my arms ...

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“There Were Fifty Of Us” by Aidan Kuemmerle

Submitted to Contest #243

...Ending Cryo-homiostasus......placing intro vanis component......Injecting adenosine......Injecting Histamine......Injecting trimethylxanthine......Heating......open...... complete...     My first breath of air is a gasp. It feels like I am being born all over again. The air is cool and stale; on its wisps, it has the familiar metallic stabs that stars collect. The next breath is more controlled. It had to be the training that commanded me to stay calm and look around.     "Dammit," I whisper to...

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“Fifteen Seconds” by Rachel Hudson

Submitted to Contest #243

Fifteen.Elsie’s eyes fluttered open, peppering the darkness with distant stars. Shards of metal and plastic streamed before her, and her outstretched hands bore the marks they left behind. Long, blonde hair floated before her eyes, threatening to obscure the space station from her vision entirely.Fourteen.The side of the space station gaped open. A fiery tongue twitched out and dissolved as it licked the hollow air, trailing smoke through aimless splinters. As the pieces silently crumbled before her, one word forced its way to the front of E...

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“Scorched Grounds” by Michael Post

Submitted to Contest #243

“This is the last time I’m letting that prick tell me what to do,” someone mumbles to themselves as I force my eyes open. “Oh, thank Neeve you’re awake, brother. That thing got you pretty good, didn’t it?”That…thing? What thing?And why is this person blue?“I’m sorry, what’s— ”“Oh, no, don’t worry,” the humanoid alien says, pushing me back onto the bed. “There’s no point in exerting yourself too much. Not after what happened.”“What did happen?”“Oh, Gods, don’t tell me you don’t remember.” The alien flaps his strange hands around in fear. “He ...

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Contest #243

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