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Looking for a steady supply of science fiction short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

7440+ Science fiction Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Whether you’re looking for daring space battles or chilling “what if” glimpses of the future, you’ll find what you’re looking for in our collection of free science fiction short stories.

Science fiction Short Stories – Page 196 of 497

The Crow's Extraordinary Gift

Submitted to Contest #173

   “I don’t understand! I pay good money for you to take good care of her, and you can’t even make sure she eats?”   “Sir, I told you this before. At this time, Miss Betty is in a bad mood because no one comes to visit her. As a result, she is refusing to eat.”   These are the kind of conversations Marta Rich has to deal with while working as a CNA. She cares for her patients, she does. It’s just the patients' families she’s not too fond of. A simple phone call always has to be a battle. &nbs...

12 likes 5 comments 5
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The Blue Marble

Submitted to Contest #173

It is not easy to buy a gift for the Emperor. There is very little he does not have and rarely anything he cannot get. But the Queen is determined to present the perfect gift for his upcoming birthday. Her last few attempts were adequate to say the least, a rare mineral or an exotic creature. The Emperor would attempt an exaggerated smile when he saw it, before flashing an even bigger smile towards her, his eyes communicating gratitude more than surprise. The adoring crowd assembled to commemorate the event was always filled with applause...

11 likes 4 comments 4
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Lunnetes Horribles

Submitted to Contest #173

The box arrived at eight AM, at the headquarters of “Thonx”, an up-and-coming, indie fashion magazine. The delivery robot placed the box on the floor an patiently waited for Cassie to sign the delivery. Colleen ran past the reception desk squeaking like a little girl.“Oooooooh, I’ve been waiting for this!” she said.“Are these the gowns for the photo shoot?” Laura, her friend yelled from the back of the office.“Uhuh,” Colleen replied and started cutting through the tape with a paper knife.“Careful!” said Cassie. She had to unpack dozens of bo...

13 likes 2 comments 2
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The Gift

Submitted to Contest #173

She looked into my eyes. Sad, wistful and sorry. Went up on her tiptoes in order to kiss my cheek. Then crossed the street. It was only once she was over there that she spoke again. Shouting to be heard, but also perhaps to emphasize her message by saying it to the world. ‘I love you.’I was sad and mentally numb from trying to feel out solutions and finding none.Julia picked windswept hair out of her face, and looked imploringly across the street at me. The warm wind was picking up. Suddenly the wind i...

19 likes 10 comments 10
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Cassie

Submitted to Contest #173

It’s the recommended thing to get life extension treatments, even though these days they make you sterile for some reason. Still, it’s good to always do the recommended thing because other people are doing it and living their best never-ending lives. I wonder about this as I watch my blood flow through transparent tubes, and the machinery around me carefully holds my flesh in its polished limbs of metal and plastic like a loving vampire holds a victim. I watch as the red is slowly sucked in, goes through a wondrous transformation, and is the...

33 likes 25 comments 25
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Filtered

Submitted to Contest #172

“A majority of the will was written out to you. He obviously liked you more.” I said. Kaitlin, my cousin, twisted her hair in her hands and bit her lip, “And you’re not jealous?” “Of course not,” I tried to keep my smile bright despite the searing pain that shot out from the chip in my neck, “I’d never be jealous.” “Certain?” she asked. I gritted my teeth; the shock had worn out by now, but I knew it’d happen again when I spoke, “Nope. Not jealous at all.” I flinched at the chip’s jolt. She laughed, “Well, if something ever happened to ...

8 likes 0 comments 0
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Level of happiness

Submitted to Contest #172

“Decreased positive emotions level, please reconsider your activity!” I felt a small tingle in my left hand and a message scrolled across my wrist. Damn, I’ve already been in this “room of happiness” twice today. I got up from my workplace again and headed to a special room called a “happy box”. The indicator marked the emotion of irritation. It is not good that it will again be recorded into the logs of my emotions, and, as a result, into the reports to my manager. Again I have to explain that I adore my job, and nothing in it can annoy me,...

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Blinders

Submitted to Contest #172

“Good afternoon sir, how may we help you today?” the clerk asks.  “Pick up for Ash Deliveries,” I say quietly. “Certainly. Before we get your order, would you be interested in our-” the clerk's words are reduced to muffles as my ad blocker detects the intentions behind them. I keep my eyes down at the jewel case in front of me, my blinders filtering their gleam and shine to a gray lameness, their temptations reduced to a price tag. I can see the clerk’s reflection in the glass, her blinders and ad blockers working overtime.  “No.”...

12 likes 3 comments 3
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Behind Closed Doors

Submitted to Contest #172

Trigger warning: swearing, death, climateI was never meant to be with Rémy. The timing was always off. But, if I am honest with myself, we were always too chicken shit to reveal our true feelings for one another anyway. Just a sliver of courage is what our pathetic selves needed. We could have avoided a great deal of heartache – but most importantly, prevented Freyja’s untimely death.It’s a regular night in 2066, nothing to see here folks. Just a couple of kids in their mid-twenties back in my childhood bedroom. Rather than face off in VR ba...

18 likes 7 comments 7
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The Crafting of Fadhilla - a LitRPG Story

Submitted to Contest #172

Name: Fadhilla MoshiTime Remaining: 6 minutesA graduate of World Altruism’s Vision program, Fadhilla Moshi, sat in a computer center in Tanzania’s central city of Dar Es Salaam and had only 6 minutes left to live, but she found time for her father.His sad voice came over the line, “I hope they let you return home, someday.”“Probably not anytime soon, Papa. We Chagga are too good at this, and after all, you are the one that sent me here, weren’t you?”“Our family is proud of you.”A telltale vibration in her headgear let her know the explosive ...

26 likes 17 comments 17
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PLANET OF INFANTS

Submitted to Contest #172

The sound of drumming fingernails rattled through the assembly room. “This could spell trouble,” the Prime Administrator said under his breath. He stared out the window toward the planet in question and shook his head in distress.“Fellow praxeologists,” he continued, facing back toward the panoply of committee researchers from cultures spanning the galaxy, “I’m afraid we’ve come across a potential impasse. If said inhabitants,” he gestured toward the window, “barring their fickle behavior, find a way to escape their planet and...

11 likes 0 comments 0
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Green is Green

Submitted to Contest #172

The bag was pulled suddenly from her head, the hours of being jostled and dragged apparently at an end. She looked around quickly, her blinking eyes straining against the sudden light. Bright light. The sort of light one found in a televised trial scenario. "Anxiously, you stand accused of blatantly disregarding your birth name and fomenting rebellion in your peers. How do you plead?" The girl who was once named Anxiously smiled. This is what Curiously had prepared her for. ******************************* The day had started...

14 likes 8 comments 8
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After Midnight (you can let it all hang out)

Submitted to Contest #172

She doesn’t seem all that happy to hear that I am her fairy godmother. She seems, in fact, downright – what’s the word you’d use? – skeptical. That’s it. Highly skeptical.She’s standing in her doorway, looking over my shoulder at my trim little landing craft, pointing her chin at it like it’s a discarded mining shuttle. I glance back at the running lights flickering over its surface in ultra-violet waves. The last time I had been assigned to this system, I’d had an older model landing pod with orange lights detectable to the human eye. ...

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Honestly?

Submitted to Contest #172

“You’re wearing that? Come on.”“What’s the matter with it?”“It makes you look like a tangerine rolled in crushed walnuts.”“So, you can go out looking like a drunk public defender in a bad episode of 70’s television but I’m a jerk for trying to be a little flashier?”“Hey, I paid four hundred bucks for this suit! Stole fifty of it right out of our son’s top drawer to help pay for it.”“He already dislikes you so that little tidbit ought to freeze you out for good.”The two of them laughed before positioning themselves in front of the mirror, str...

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The Substance of Things Hoped For

Submitted to Contest #172

Jolik Corona had seven kills under his belt before he turned fourteen. By the time he was thirty, he had reached triple digits in this area and was a legend on the Temporal Anomaly Force. Still, ninety-seven percent of the population died quietly. Despite their best efforts, the TAF hadn’t found a way to go back in time to stop the scourge of the NCC-1701 virus. No one could find the exact origin of the virus, for it had spread quickly, and it seemed to start on every continent at approximately the same time. What was known about the virus ...

22 likes 28 comments 28
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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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