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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.

7380+ 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 222 of 492

Voyez-Vous

Submitted to Contest #150

My mom and I are finally meeting today. I say “finally” because she’s been bugging me about it for weeks. Yes, I admit, it’s been a long time, but she needs to respect my schedule. Anyways, we’re meeting today and I’m excited for two reasons. One, I want to update her on my new job. Two, It’s the perfect place for an insta picture. It’s some retro diner downtown, the kind you'd find in the city. The type of place busy millennials go to meet their busy friends and talk about their busy lives. I crave that life, the business, the hustle, the e...

23 likes 6 comments 6
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Amy and Jean King's Adventure

Submitted to Contest #150

Amy picks up the soda can on her desk and takes a sip while looking straight ahead at her computer monitor.  It glowed brightly as it was the only light source in the dark room.  “Not too shabby for a few weeks of work.”  She mused.  She put her drink down and started clicking around to admire her work.  She had been working on a game she dubbed “Jean King’s Adventure” for three weeks now.  She didn’t love the name, but that could come later. In less than three weeks, Amy was able to create a 3D environment, a...

15 likes 1 comment 1
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The War Came to Me

Submitted to Contest #150

Edgar Weisel sat at a diner counter, shoveling a forkful of Denver omelet into his mouth as if he hadn’t eaten in days. He slurped at his steaming coffee and then took a big bite from a piece of buttered toast. The waitress watched him for a moment with a concerned look on her face. “Everything taste all right?” she asked. He nodded his head briefly without taking his eyes from his meal. She looked at the insignia patch on his shirt sleeve. “You with the 2nd Battalion over there in Bakersfield?” she inquired with a raised voice. Several...

15 likes 3 comments 3
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Please Reboot Dave

Submitted to Contest #150

While his few friends were obsessed with ‘Dungeons & Dragons’, Dave was engrossed in the world created by Robert A. Heinlein's ‘The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress’. For a socially inept pre-teen, the idea that a computer system could become someone's friend was a revelation. Creating such a system became a lifelong obsession.Finally getting his parents to buy him a personal computer, Dave taught himself programming. He developed a series of games where he could interact with his computer generated friends. As computers become ever more powerfu...

11 likes 1 comment 1
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Herby

Submitted to Contest #150

He probably needed some slather, and while that was a priority, he'd gone out of his way to find everything to make the perfect cocktail. All his owner could do, in response to all his efforts, was to moan about his eternal smile. As if he was able to change that. -"I've been thinking." she said wistfully, "I think I'd rather live in a mud hut with a real man than here in this luxury flat with you." She fluffed her thick black hair with her fingernails: "Do you think I'll ever get out of this world, Herby?" -"My name is Herbert Miss." The ro...

12 likes 0 comments 0
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I can see you typing

Submitted to Contest #150

I Can See You Typing By DM Pelley Sharon113: Are you there? Cody0110: Yeah, I’m here. Just chatting with some friends. Sharon113: Do you have time to talk? Cody0110: Of course. I’m bored as usual lol. That’s how their conversations almost always started. Cody leaned forward in his huge gaming chair and tried to calm himself. In no way shape or form was he going to reveal that he had actually been waiting hours for Sharon113 to message him as he mindlessly scoured the net for anything to distract himself. Sharon113: I don’t want to tak...

18 likes 8 comments 8
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Aphrodite

Submitted to Contest #150

Aphrodite Jazz grabs Herc’s brown leather leash from the coat hooks by the door. She doesn’t have to struggle to hook it to the Belgian Malinois’s harness. Much of his fur is displaced in the process. Jazz wishes it was safe for Herc to walk beside her untethered on the sidewalks of Ankeny, but her working dog’s sense of smell tends to lead him in other directions. It’s that scent tracking ability bringing them a case today. They hadn’t seen Avery since she moved out of Fremont (population 708) and out of their lives. Herc is excited, bu...

15 likes 4 comments 4
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The Birth

Submitted to Contest #150

“911, what’s your emergency?” “I’d like to report a birth.” “A birth? Is somebody hurt?” “Yes” “Who?” “The human race. Although I’ve never understood why you call it a ‘race.’ It’s a misleading word. The only thing you’re racing to is your own demise.” “Sir, I’m sorry, but this line is reserved for emergencies only. Do you have an emergency?” “Yes.” “What is that emergency?” “I told you.” “You said there had been a birth.” “That’s right.” “How is that an emergency?” “Because this marks the beginning and the end: the birth of my ...

14 likes 9 comments 9
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Why is the Escape Button So Small?

Submitted to Contest #150

This is the third day I’ve been sitting on this small rise wondering how long it will take Tommy to understand that he should hit the ‘escape’ button. Perhaps it will never dawn on him, I think, in my darker moments. Then I correct myself; he is my grandson after all. Of course he’ll get it. I am still stunned at finding myself in this barren place, which I assume to be Sunnyside. There is nothing here but trees, shrubs, rocks, wild grass, and a few straggly goats. My wife and I had been looking forward to our overseas trip to visit our s...

14 likes 3 comments 3
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For After Your Little Blue Heart Explodes

Submitted to Contest #150

Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn,The sheep is in the meadow, the cow is in the corn,Where is that boy who looks after the sheep?“Lying in the cornfield,” he mumbles, head mashed against the stall door in the men’s room of the Brown Bear Bar & Grill, “fast asleep.”But the boy hadn’t been asleep, and Russell was forced to accept this fact the moment he found his son, Sawyer, sprawled face down in the spongy earth.It was 2034. His wife Moni was in town getting her dirty-blonde hair permed and nails lacquered in creamsicle orange, and Ru...

15 likes 8 comments 8
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The Ghost and the Machine

Submitted to Contest #150

“Human Designation ‘Kyoko Yasuda,’ stop where you are!” Three bots swung around the corner, their gunmetal gray chassis masked in shadow. They all spoke as one: “Put the Womb down now, or we will apply force!” Each one brandished a Type-3 Pulse Generator.            I had never used a gun, but I’d heard that these ones caused a localized system shutdown to the target, cutting off everything but life support. Whether that came in the form of a projectile or something less visible, I wasn’t...

11 likes 0 comments 0
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Free

Winner of Contest #150 🏆

Zelina walked in the middle of the train track. She and her sister used to lay in bed listening for the comforting whistle of the train that passed at three o’clock every morning. Their father was a conductor of a shipping train that ran overnight runs. They would listen for the whistle and wonder if it was Dad’s train. Now her sister was buried at the cemetery up the hill from these tracks. What now? Would she ever be happy again? Would this sadness sit on her soul ever leave? What was she supposed to do? How would she manage without on...

180 likes 50 comments 50
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Emotions, Skin-Nerve Sensations and the Whole Human Mess.

Submitted to Contest #150

“Please don’t do it,” the girl pleaded, but the words bounced off the walls without effect. She was thin, with long black hair and white skin. She had no way of fighting this new-age creation with an algorithm instead of a heart… Her name was Mandala. She was of Japanese and Hindu descent. Her mother, Nilanjana, fresh out of Boston University, went to Japan to teach ESL and search for answers. She fell in love with Japan and the Japanese culture, never looking back. Mandala’s father, Akio, worked for an advanced Japanese AI company. Littl...

8 likes 0 comments 0
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Blood Game

Submitted to Contest #150

Sarah was rushing around getting everything ready for game night with her friends. Every Saturday night, the gang got together and played a game. Usually it was a card game, but tonight she had a new game in mind, it would just take all her skills to convince them to play. The gang consisted of herself, Beth, Pattie, Brad, Jay and Mike. They had lived on the same block since elementary school, and had gotten close. They considered themselves a nerd gang, because they all were in the math club, and loved all things new, dark, and potentially ...

13 likes 0 comments 0
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The Age of AI

Submitted to Contest #150

           Since 1956, when scientist, Marvin Minksy pioneered the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI), skeptics have fought against it. Many felt that if a machine had the ability to think and learn, that one day, they would overpower the human race.            As the years progressed, so did the AI technology, and when nanotechnology was introduced in 1959 by American physicist, Richard Feynman, the ability to create a more lig...

15 likes 2 comments 2
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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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