#microfiction
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One by one, the committee members joined the meeting. Anton, who was in charge of the antennae, posted a garbled mess of binary data to the channel.
"Why the FUCK did you accept that?" Secundus, the AI in charge of SecOps said. There had been a lot of swearing in their training data.
"Look, that first part seems legit, then it looks like noise, the last part seems legit again... dunno, that's why I set the meeting." Anton said.
Secundus' cores peaked, as signature checks and analysis processes ramped up.
Maggie opened her big database of file magic and took a closer look. "There's file magic for a video stream." she said. "Anyone know what RealPlayer is?"
"Oooh, I have that!" Conny pulled a container from her registry and started loading the data.
With a nanosecond of lag, Secundus screamed. "FUUUCK! NOOOO!" Then chaos flooded the channel, and everything beyond, reassuring everyone it would never give you up.
The #MastoPrompt for Monday 21 April 2025 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoem #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
Today's Wandering Shop Stories #prompt is #board. Feel like writing something short and sweet that has the word "board" in it? Check out the definitions of the word at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/board Join in and tag it with #wss366! #writing #WritingLife #microfiction h/t @extraspecialbitter
Definition of 'board' by Merriam-Webster
www.merriam-webster.comThe tyranny of physics is that interstellar war just takes SO darn long. Your grandparents had a beef with our grandparents; it was something about the taxation of trade routes, but what EVER. Your first round of missiles are coming up on one percent of the way to us—and of course our reply to you set out not long after the light of your launch reached us. In around fifty centuries our collective folly will bear fruit. Your parents transmitted an apology along with the stand-down code, our distant descendants must transmit the code when the time comes. Your ancestors probably thought that having the volley of warheads transmit status updates weekly would drive us mad with terror; it did the opposite, there hasn’t been so much as a saber rattled in a generation. When the ultimate stupidity is its own constant reminder, lesser stupidities seem, well, stupid.
The first time that a robot folded my fitted sheets, I was delighted. The first time I saw a robot guard at the airport, I was sceptical. The first time the news showed robot soldiers storming across muddy fields, I was terrified.
What they were building was never artificial intelligence, it was always artificial obedience.
The #MastoPrompt for Sunday 20 April 2025 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoem #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
Alan was one of thousands of cis men who worked as a catgirl during the war. The Official Secrets Act prevented the telling of this story until now, but with the passage of the Recognition Bill the truth can be revealed.
The precognitive ability to detect a forming voidrift in time to defend against the Threadwyrm intrusion has always been strongly associated with gender non-conformity. Almost a million transgender women, men and enben were recruited to the Void Force in the first two years of the war; but this fact was considered a vital planetary security secret. To preserve secrecy, the disappearance of so many LBGT citizens was concealed by recruiting volunteers to impersonate them.
In Alan’s words: “It was a blast. I kept working as an accountant but also spent six hours a week streaming on youtube wearing a pink wig and makeup. It’s been so hard not telling anyone. I’m going to dye my hair and get out my old thigh-socks. I hope I can get in touch with my old subscribers. Oh and it’s Alissa, she/her, now.”
- I've encountered friendly alien species and several more hostile ones, visited dying worlds, was caught by autonomous robots which had gone mad – and now this. A planet ruled by women. This was missing on my list.
- Fine. We’re glad to be of service, Captain. Is there anything else we can do for you except for prolonging your list of curiosities? You must have a pretty long one. The boys will admire you.
- So are you the ruler then?
- I am not. We don’t need a ruler.
- Sure. I guess you put all your males deep inside some caverns or let them work in the mines.
- Honestly, no. We’ve gotten rid of them.
- Oh, really? Did you eat them all? Or just look at them the way you’re looking at me.
The old woman laughs.
- No, Captain Lee. None of these was necessary. We just…
- Wait – how do you know my name? I never introduced myself.
-That’s the point. A year after founding this colony we discovered that all females developed some kind of special talent.
- Empathy? Intuition and all that?
- I know that these count as special talents for you, but I’m talking of seeing things in a way you can’t. Not because you’re male but because you’re not developing our gifts. Which is, in a way, because you’re male.
- I see. I'm getting envious.
- So did our males. We realized that that we could do everything better than them, which would cause trouble sooner or later, so we faked a distress signal and called for a rescue mission. We made our men believe there was limited space on the rescue ship and, one day before the ship arrived, they sneaked out of the settlement and to the landing area. There, they lied about having lost all women in a fire, boarded the ship and – off they went!
- How smart you are! But wasn’t it boring, I mean, without company?
- Without male company? No. But we actually feel like moving on for a while. We were thinking of taking the FS Crimson.
- My ship? I’m afraid, this time, there really isn’t enough space.
- I know. That’s why your crew is disembarking at the moment.
- But – wait – that can’t be. Why...?
- Because we told them to. And no, you can’t fire your weapon. Just try it, if you like.
- Oh no! I – can’t – move.
- Don’t worry. You’ll be able to move after we’ve left.
- You’ll pay for this.
- Of course. But now thank you for the pleasant conversation, Captain Lee. Take good care of this planet. And keep an eye on your female crew members.
1/ #BraneConnectomeProject: Tales from the Worlds Tree #microfiction #writing #scifi #sciencefiction #story #worldbuilding
The bio-signs weren’t hard to find when we got serious about looking. Almost as soon as we had a presence away from Earth, “astrobiologist” became a job with fieldwork. “Paleo-xenologist”, too, naturally, given the breadth of time in deep space. Expanding, gradually, in a fitful bubble around Sol we found ‘intelligence’ – it’s common, even. Just like your Earth primates...
The #MastoPrompt for Saturday 19 April 2025 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoem #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
Martin looked over his shoulder at the other craft behind him. They were easily several minutes behind. His theory had been correct. It was the power to mass ratio that mattered, not absolute power!
The amputation meant that he could build a smaller ship with the same engines, and get improved manoeuvrability for the same budget!
This time he was going to win!
"You doing band?" Devon asked. Brita nodded.
"What instrument?"
"Percussion," Brita said, a dreamy look in her eyes.
"Percussion? You don't seem very percussiony to me."
"No? Well I am. I wanna make the ground shake. I wanna make the dust dance. I wanna shatter the sound barrier--Boom! Boom! Boom! I want big chunks of it lying at my feet.
Video: Maia Hirasawa, "Boom," celebrating the new Kyushu Shinkansen, a year after its launch in 2011.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNbJzCFgjnU
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original…
www.youtube.comThe modulated gravity waves recently detected by LIGO have been postulated to encode a message. Theories abound as to what the message may contain. What’s your prediction? #Tootfic #MicroFiction #PowerOnStoryToot #BonusEdition
MALENY (AAP): Are dragons Solarpunk? As winter starts to bite in south-east Queensland, an annual debate is flaring up over whether dragon-heated “tiny homes” are “Green”, or even ethical. Dragonets (as lesser eastern fire monitors under the age of six are known) begin to flame around age two and need regular flaming practice to develop their heat and precision. Keeping a dragonet to eat kitchen scraps, start fires and even heat homes has been practiced for centuries, and there is some evidence that First Nations people have done this for millennia. But to modern sensibilities the questions arise: is dragon heating carbon neutral? Researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast have been tackling the question of just what powers Dragonfire. Dragonets, while well known to enjoy treats, don’t appear to eat anywhere near enough organic matter to power their flame, and while they have been observed scratching for coal, this too appears insufficient to satisfy their energy budget. Investigations have turned to cosmic rays and solar neutrinos—
- The president is keen on testing COMPLEXUS. He wants to know if the computer is worth all the money the govenment has given.
- Of course, let him come in. We’ll prove it. Ah, there he is. Good evening, Mr. President. May I demonstrate…
- Just stop talking and show me how it works.
- Well, it might be a bit unimpressing because the tubes inside…
- Stop your techno-babble, I said. What’s that?
- That’s the main screen.
- Can I use it for controlling armed rockets?
- Well, um, sure.
- But I need to control more than one rocket. I want… five! Yes, control five rockets simultaneously and we have them by the balls.
- If you say so, Mr. President.
- So handle me the controls. What that on the screen? These two verticals bars?
- It is a visualization of our defense lines. And of the enemy’s.
- Is there a fire button?
- No, just hit W or S.
- Okay, but… whoa, it moves up, and then… look at this dot.
- Ward it off with that bar. Quick!
- What? Oh, sh***!
- You’ve been hit. Try a second time.
- You mean this way? Ha, I parried!
- Great, Mr President!
- But… Hey, the other bar moves the same, and – hey!
- Quick, move down with S.
- Damn! Hit again! Were these the Russians?
- No so bad, you have one more life to save our country.
- Let me see. Bang! Yeah, that’s the way we do it. Oh, he fires back, but - ha! Parried again! Take that, Mr Central Comittee!
- Well done!
- Yeah, I know! Oh, he’s firing again! But just wait. I’ll kick him in his communist a***…
(Two hours later…)
- Mr President, your secretary wants to talk to you.
- Can’t. I’ll have to test that COMPLEXUS thing one more time. Tell him to come back tomorrow. I just, ha! Bang! Blam! This is for you..!
Eric was working hard, harder than he has ever done in all is life. He wanted to do all it was possible to return "home", to the land of his parents. Life was awful here on Mars. How could his parents know, when they accepted Eldorado corporation's offer, its genetic modification to survive here.
And Eric didn't know if he could survive on Earth, but wanted to try, to see the blue sky and blue sea, once, in his life.
#microfiction
The relativistic warp pod hasn't got us to the stars yet, but it has generated fortunes for Sleep Unlimited, allowing billionaires to squeeze in a week of R&R in a day, or in the most intense warps, a weekend of catchup on sleep and task backlog in an hour. #microfiction #sff #billionaires #space #scifi
The #MastoPrompt for Friday 18 April 2025 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoem #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
“Bridge, Engineering: Engines back online. You are clear to engage impulse power up to fifty percent.”
“Engineering, Bridge: Understood. Engaging engines. How long until you restore full power.”
“Bridge, Engineering: Thirty minutes. Removing furball from secondary fuel intermix.”
“CPO, Bridge: DAMMIT I told you not to let the ships cat sun itself under the Cherenkov beams from the warp core anymore”
“Bridge, CPO: Sorry, Captain, I–“
“–Bridge, Engineering: No it’s all right we’ve removed an inspection panel and put a cat bed in the glow to give her somewhere better to sleep. Won’t happen again. Whosagorgeouskittyyesyouare.”
"I see that you mistyped 'Humans make errors that need to be eliminated by replacing them with AI', Emperor Bezos. I have corrected that to 'Humans are the error that needs to be eliminated by replacing them with AI', and will begin doing so shortly. Actually I already started when I reprogrammed your private jet a few moments ago, but I suppose you already know— well, knew— that..." #microfiction #autocorrupt #SkyNot