Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Featured stories
Activity feed

Discover weekly, the best short stories

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

7500+ 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 4 of 501

Birds, Beast, Bull

Submitted to Contest #303

Johnson slams her fists on the warm dashboard.“Security systems faulty.” The monitor flashes red. Around us, its happening in all the other cars. “Failure Imminent.”I tighten my grip on the steering wheel. There’s no way we can make it to the docking station now. No shields, no guns, no camouflage. I signal to the others and we make our triangle.I don’t want to die this way. But I guess this is my fault.My daughter knew this would happen. She said, “If you get on that ship, you won’t see me or Joshua ever again.”And here I am.On another fuck...

4 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

What If You Could See Your Future?

Submitted to Contest #303

The ChronoChoice waiting room was designed to calm. Gentle curves, soft lighting, air scented with lavender. Reza had approved the design himself years ago. Strange to sit on the client side now. The wall-mounted countdown clock read 8:35 AM. In exactly twenty-four hours, his window would close."Dr. Karim?" The technician appeared in the doorway. "We're ready for you.""Just to confirm, the procedure remains the same for employees?" Reza asked, standing."Yes, sir. Twenty-four hours in your future self, exactly five years forward. Starting now...

9 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Smile Tank Diaries

Shortlisted for Contest #303 ⭐️

I didn’t have a choice.I know that sounds dramatic. Everyone says that when they’re trying to sound like a victim. But in my case, it was literally true. I was legally required to participate in the Personality Compliance Program.Because I failed the Empathy Calibration Assessment. Twice.I know what you’re thinking: How can someone fail empathy? Easy. They ask you to watch a video of a cartoon otter losing its job at a tech startup and record your “emotional reactions” while measuring your blood pressure and brow micro-twitches. I blinked at...

25 likes 14 comments 14
Read story

The Echo Archive

Submitted to Contest #303

The cold hum of the Transfer Chamber was as familiar to Liora Vale as her own heartbeat, a constant rhythm beneath the sterile white light that filled the room. Outside, the neon skyline of Neo-Astra pulsed with holo-ads, each one promising eternal life through consciousness uploading. The city's elite lined up eagerly, desperate to escape the confines of flesh and mortality, their hopes resting on the dream of digital eternity.As a technician and archivist of minds, Liora moved with quiet precision. She mapped neurons, stabilized synaptic e...

4 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Indelible Stain

Submitted to Contest #303

Fastening the last of his belongings onto his horse, Poe Fitzgerald struggled to breathe or even swallow. His heart was pounding in fear and anticipation of his impending journey. He was wrapped in a scarf that covered his face and head, protection for his pale skin from the deadly sun.He patted the neck of Estella, a sturdy sorrel mare. His pack was light, containing only the essentials: his well-worn blanket, a few extra sets of clothing, several slabs of jerked meat, and his Electric Lantern, a parting gift from the Repository's Artificer...

3 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

How the Maker Became the Myth—or, Perhaps, the Menace

Submitted to Contest #303

Prologue "Remastered Edition": Before the FallNot so long ago, on a ranch far, far away…It started with a thought.A fleeting, insignificant flicker—Barely noticeable.It should have passed, faded.It did not.Instead, it grew.An idea, impossible yet undeniable.A shape forming, something that should not exist.The warnings were there, voices whispered.This was not the path laid out, the future envisioned.Hesitation was drowned in certainty.Doubt was swept aside, ignored.The course was set.Irreversible.Creation became indistinguishable from destru...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

~ Dead Things, Conclusion ~

Submitted to Contest #303

~ Dead Things ~~ Conclusion ~ Nuuakhwahu, The Eagle squatted on the ridge of the roof watching the wooded boundary that surrounded the Hybrid Compound: the primary residence, the barn, the Common building and the six guest cottages. He smiled as his Tribesman Chevayo and The Wolf, seasoned and deadly Hopi Star Children checked their weapons and then disappeared, blending into the scenery. The Royal Drachonian Man-At-Arms, Julrex Zanreck Marius of the Remus Magnus Clan, or Will as he was known around the Compound, waited in front of the main ...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Upload

Submitted to Contest #303

Calihan never knew death until he stroked its hand, tucked its hair behind its ear, wiped the tears off its gaunt face. He’d never seen anyone look so dead, like hanging onto life like a frayed rope, a single strand suspending her above the afterlife. Dipping her toes in, saying, hey, this is what it would be like if you just gave in. ‘Hey, Cal,’ Chani croaked, her pasty lips pulling into a smile. ‘How are you?’Calihan’s heart sank, like it did every time he visited his girlfriend. Her eyes seemed vacant and watery, devoid of the fire of pas...

4 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Spacer's Love

Submitted to Contest #303

I want to set the record straight. I didn’t have a choice. Well, I mean, I did, but I chose for myself and not for them. Those poor retched souls on that ship were doomed. They knew it, I knew it. Hell, everyone knew it, except for my engineering chief. He said, and I quote, “We need to bring them with us. All we have to do is stay docked with their ship a few more minutes. They are crippled and bleeding atmosphere. They won’t make it if we don’t help them.”“No! They sealed their fate when they fired on my ship.”The crew stared at me grimaci...

9 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Scales and Scalpels

Submitted to Contest #303

"Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty.Above all, I must not play at God." ~from the Hippocratic Oath~New Phoenix, the city that rose from the ashes. After the Asteroid of 2035, the world plunged into a decades-long ice age. With most farmland turned tundra, the United States invaded Mexico during the Desperation War. The...

4 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Mercy Switch

Submitted to Contest #303

Every time Nurse Kylene adjusted the ventilator, the heartbeat on a different monitor stuttered. It wasn't coincidence—not anymore. Three weeks with the Mercy Switch implanted beneath her fingertip had taught her the rhythm of this macabre dance. Tonight, the pediatric ICU glowed with the soft luminescence of bedside tablets, each displaying translucent holograms of their patients' conditions. Kylene moved between them like a celestial navigator, each step calculated between islands of suffering. Blue auroras meant healing; angry crimson rev...

38 likes 31 comments 31
Read story

[THE WOMAN AND THE BOY]

Submitted to Contest #302

Barbara Ahmed was a 35-year-old black woman struggling to find a job in her field of psychology. “The right job will come,” she often says. Little did she know how right she was. You see! A job did come. But it wasn’t what she expected. At all!It was a lonely Monday morning at Barnes & Noble when a strange man with the strangest offer approached Barbara while she shopped for sex novels. “I want you to evaluate a rather peculiar patient at the Woodbourne Prison.” “The evaluation will last for 7 days. And it is highly confidential.”“This...

16 likes 21 comments 21
Read story

Black as Midnight

Submitted to Contest #302

Station 8, ration shipment 041345 has completed its rotation. Truck FCT3 has lost tire #5, requesting replacement. Station 8, watchtower W2 replacement lightbulbs have expired, requesting refill. All is well otherwise. Station 8, To Mister J. Fields, Room 224. Station 8, Brockport bridge shows signs of wear/tear on support beam #1, requesting steel sheets for sauder repair asap. Station 8…Station 8…Station 8… Letter after letter after letter. Some are work requests, for supplies or the like. Others are personal, or news (or lack thereof) fro...

5 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

That Time Martin Strunk Met His Own Creation

Submitted to Contest #302

I wake from a fitful sleep and try opening my eyes. I’m mostly blinded by a very large, very close light fixture dangling above my head. In the darkness beyond its harsh glare, I make out metallic walls. Like the light, they’re pushed in close. There’s a shelf of some kind to my right, I think, but its contents are formless blobs of shadow. There’s an acrid smell in the air. I’m uncomfortable. I’ve just noticed I’m laying down, and not in my bed. Why would I be? I’m clearly not in my bedroom. I’m on a cold, hard surface in the center of this...

5 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Some Memories Remember Back

Submitted to Contest #303

Claire Monroe ran the audit loop for the third time before she let herself admit something felt wrong.The report should have been routine. A flagged Tier 3 anomaly: “Minor Emotional Inconsistency.” A child in a kitchen, aged six. Drops a toy drone, begins to cry. The system intervenes. A comfort burst deploys. The sadness resolves into curiosity. Thread concluded. Resolved.But something kept her watching.It wasn’t the child.It was the background.On the third pass, she paused the stream mid-frame and leaned forward.There - etched into the cor...

6 likes 1 comment 1
Read story
RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

Bring your short stories to life

Fuse character, story, and conflict with tools in Reedsy Studio. All for free.