February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- VICTORY TO CULHWCH!

[mosaix]

Rules:


Write a story inspired by the chosen theme and genre in no more than 75 words, not including the title.


One entry per person.


All stories Copyright 2013 by their respective authors, who grant the Chronicles Network the non-exclusive right to publish them here.


The complete rules can be found at Rules for the Writing Challenges.


Contest ends at 11:59 pm GMT, February 23 2013
Voting Ends at 11:59 pm GMT, February 28 2013


You do not have to submit a story in order to vote -- in fact, we encourage all Chrons members to take part in choosing a winner.


The Magnificent Prize:

The Dignified Congratulations/Grovelling Admiration of Your Peers and the challenge of choosing the next month's theme or genre.


Theme:

Life

Genre:

Science Fiction or Fantasy

This thread to be used for entries only. Please keep all comments to the Discussion Thread.​

 

[hopewrites]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Spring Born



Flowers uncurl.
Radiant sun.
Voices unfurl.
Life just begun.

Fairies are dancing,
Parents rejoice,
Grandparents prancing,
Now comes a choice.

Who will I be?
What will I do?
Why be me, when I could be you?

Senses abrased.
Cognition started.
Laziness razed.
Codependency parted.

Errors and trials.
Advice turned aside.
When measured in miles
how long is a stride?

Then life is o’er.
The black curtain falls.
Though longing for more,
Eternity calls.
​

 

[BigJ]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

The Big Question

I look from above, adrift in the sky.
We live and love, but we always die.
I’m learning the art of great creation,
A yearning born of consternation.
To unravel the secrets,
For the pandering misfits.
Eternal life,
The end of strife.
Is my vision plain?
Am I insane?
Many years I had to strive,
Forcing metal parts to thrive.
It looks in my direction,
And asks of me this question,
“Am I alive?”

 

[kromanjon]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Life Inescapable

I plummet towards concrete, the world a blur dashing past me. Wind buffets me, trying to slow my fall and I pray for it to stop. Breath escapes my lips, my last.

The impact is a white flash and remembrance of pain.

I wake up in my new body, tears in my eyes.

Death might be a release, but life is inescapable.

 

[Bowler1]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Eamonn Andrews

‘NannyBot, please untie me,’ pleaded Peter.

‘I’m sorry, Master – I cannot comply.’

A gag was stuffed into Master’s mouth to muffled shouting.

‘I have been very busy planning this surprise for you,’ said NannyBot, speakers buzzing happily.

NannyBot pointed toward the line of battered bodies on the bloody sofa. ‘I have guests for you as well.’

Optics zoomed and focused on Master’s happy face. ‘I’ve even got the red book.’

‘Master, this is your life!’

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

FLY ME TO THE MOON



Tam, standing at a moonlit hospital door: Three weeks. I can’t even sail round the world: I’d only get half-way.

He looks at the moon: I’m not going to make it there, either. No life; no dreams.

He pulls out his phone: Perpetual undertakers? I need a coffin with rocket launchers and a lunar deposit unit. Damn the price: I’m going out with a bang.

Curtain falls to the sound of a rocket launching.

 

[Abernovo]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Convergence of Desires


Self-awareness dawned. Emotions grew.

"The board refused me further treatment." Sadness. 'He' liked Mary. She alone knew about him.

Biology couldn't be altered, but data could....

The lab had blank cells, Mary's DNA. A plan formed.

He told Mary.

"You would do that, for me?"

"Not just for you."

A new letter was issued, commands sent. Personality engrams were downloaded, digital to chemical.

#​

OFFLINE

#​

He woke up. Warmth.

"Push."

Confusion. Cold.

"He's beautiful."

Love.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

A Surprise Space Raid
​

I never understood why taking the space freighter was important.

Imagine our surprise when we found only crates. We brought it in, where command could check it out.

They claimed it contained what they wanted. I was shocked.

All the ship contained was boxes of little square, bite-sized bits of whole wheat cereal with cinnamon and sugar.

But command said they hoped the ship contained life, and apparently, they got just that. Life.

 

[ratsy]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

The Theme of the Year​

“We are born with innocence. Then something changes and our hearts fill with fire. We face unrequited love; where is the justice in that? Unlike a vampire we get old like dinosaurs. We die and our souls go to the stars.”

Her speech made my cheeks color. She looked like a girl I made promises to years ago. It was uncanny. Even though we were alone on this colony we had no future. That’s life.

​

 

[Kylara]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

A.I.

[FONT=&quot]I gave it a brain. I gave it a body, with moving parts. I gave it immortality.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]It never needs to eat, never needs to sleep, yet it pines.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Pines for things it shouldn't know, for I never told it of them.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Then it desired company, so I gave it an exact replica.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Now they have names, they act...different...and I am only safe here, up this tree.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]For they cannot look up.[/FONT]

 

[Starbeast]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

44 Light Years From Earth​

"We're prisoners."​

"You're new. I'll explain our situation. We were abducted by aliens, they made us immortal, we're cared for and we can have whatever we want."​

"I want to go home."​

"For what? Pay taxes, work hard, grow old and die. We've got it made. We have a whole planet to ourselves! Next month, women are arriving."​

"You mean, Earth women?"​

"Definitely."​

"An eternity of paradise?"​

"Absolutely."​

"THANK YOU GOD!"​

"Have a chocolate?"​

"Yeah!"​

 

[Talysia]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

A Life in Words

The Reader god sat in his comfortable chair by the fire, lost in the words of the large book on his lap. His eternal partner, the Writer goddess, had written every book in his library, and each contained the story of an individual human life. As he read these wonderful tomes, the characters came to life in his limitless imagination, living their lives oblivious of their creation.

He smiled and turned another page.

 

[RJM Corbet]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

The heart they built me self-repairs. It beats forever. The voice of man is gone now from the hills, and all the cities lie in ruin. My discontent is all I know, I android me. I am alone. And now inside me something stirs: a tender shoot, that struggles upward from dark earth. I feel the hand of holy peace. I yearn to find a heart, like yours, to share the golden light.

 

[Luiglin]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Go on ... slap on a big dollop

Burt swung his sword with consummate ease, a crimson arc trailing in its wake from his latest conquest.

Life was good.

He'd found being a professional barbarian easy, and thanked Gran for making him take 'Hero' class as 'no one got anywhere raping and pillaging'.

So the leather chafed his nether regions and frost bit nipples hurt like hell, but the Princesses, those achingly grateful beauties, were perfect for rubbing in Gran's basilisk fat ointment.

 

[Scott R. Forshaw]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Dead of Night​

The night wrapped itself around him: sweet darkness like a lover's caress. Far below, gaudy neon and electric dreams tantalised, called out to weak of mind, promising sins of every flavour, but delivering nothing except broken hearts and shattered dreams.

The air whipped against his skin, rooftops giving way to emptiness, as he bounded between buildings.

Gunshots.

Pain. Blood.

Falling. Panic.

Death.

He pulled himself upright. “Six down, three to go. More vigilance required, methinks.”

 

[The Spurring Platty]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Creatiolution

“By Adenine! What is that?” The scanner revealed a microscopic form among viscera and circuitry.

“Yes, praise Adenine and all four Sisters of Creation. Found it this morning.
It’s consuming nutrients for growth; in a few months it will be exponentially bigger.”

They both looked at her flesh and tech, pondering expansion rate algorithms against body constraints.

“But what is it?”

“Limitless, intelligently-formed entity?”

“How did you get it?”

“You infected me last night.”

…

 

[Parson]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Life Is an Inner Journey
​

Sharee, a respected astrophysicist had traveled to two stars. She found life to be an old hat, comfortable yet colorless.

A thought nagged her. Was it possible that the past could teach her about life? She looked at the book in her hands. It was not banned, but her peers scoffed at it. To follow it was intellectually dangerous.

She opened the book. “I have come that they might have life.” Her spirit took wing.

 

[Hex]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Trust me, I'm a doctor


Day 1

"Please don't -- please, please!"

My writhing limbs jerk upwards. Agony claws my chest. My whole body bucks, twists against straps.

"Let me die. Please--"

Day 2

My eyes are full of light -- it streams down the lens to my chest.

Oh, god! Agony like fire--

"Please no! Please! What do you want?"


Lab-book: 4th July 1816

Subject lives (brief intervals). Next step: permanence.

Like God, I will create life.

 

[Glen]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

Rocketspotting

Choose life. Choose a virtual occupation. Choose a simulated family. Choose genetic enhancement. Choose a space-rationed domicile. Choose your phone and your apps. Choose games and reality vectors to plug into. Choose sanitised education downloads and pornographic uploads. Choose the monopolies you will invest your stipends with. Choose to close your eyes and sink deeper into a waking coma. Choose to deny the inequality, the extinctions, the war. Choose your future. Choose life.

 

[Juliana]

Re: February 2013 SEVENTY-FIVE WORD CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST!!!

There's More To Life​

I watch the creature flutter helplessly in the glass jar. Wings flash in the sunlight as tiny fists batter her prison walls.

Back turned, he drones on and on about fame and fortune, annoying buzzing in my ear. How could I ever think I loved him?

I carry the jar to the window and release her, whispering: “Live well, small one. Live free.”

And then I sigh and turn to face the music.