August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- VICTORY TO HEX

[Ursa major]

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, August 23 2013​

Voting Ends at 11:59 pm GMT, August 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 and genre​

Theme:​

Change​

Genre:​

S o c i a l .. S F​

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

 

[Tywin]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Rehabilitation

He silently thumbed through the photos.

Cynthia, with the thick brown hair.

Olivia, with the creamy skin and laughing freckles.

Janelle, who only whimpered for a minute.

Christie, whose blood had stained the carpet.

That was before the Wardens helped him.

The Wardens had a perfect record.

He smelled his neighbor before he saw her, citrus and soap and lavender.

Her smile bright and inviting as she passed.

The Wardens had a perfect record.

 

[Mith]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Clone no more​

“We’re ready to grow the first batch.”

She walked the aisle, clipboard in hand, admiring the empty tanks.

“Wait, we can’t do this.”

“Professor, this is your dream, you’ve spent years at this.”

I moved closer to the nearest tank.

“I’ve changed my mind. It’s wrong. We can’t play God.”

“But…”

“Cloning is wrong, dangerous. Who do we think we are?”

I smashed the fragile glass of the first cloning tank.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

In pain we live


The coal is hot in my fingers. I lick it and taste charred tongue. Hurt, damn you, hurt.


Our leaders brainstormed through three change models and voted to use Earth’s single granted gift to end pain. We celebrated. I visited the dentist and when he drilled, I smiled.


I turn to my Seynara, my love. Watch her take her final breaths; lay my head against her. Hurt, damn you, hurt. Time stretches and there’s nothing.

 

[Abernovo]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

When the Time Comes


The door closed with a soft hiss.

"But I want to go!"

"I know, bug, but you know only adults are allowed."

"'S not fair." He wanted to slam his door, but it too slid quietly shut. "And don't call me 'bug'. I'm not a baby any more."

#​

He started awake. Something felt wrong -- his legs were trapped. It felt like...a chrysalis. He relaxed. At last! A week and he'd be hunting humans too.

 

[Bowler1]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Outside… darkness dwelled.
‘They used to throw food away!’
Flames danced in innocent eyes huddled around the fire.
‘They could travel faster than any horse.’
The children laughed.
‘They ruled the world working with machines.’
The children gasped, glancing nervously into the dark.
‘That changed when the machines turned.’
One little boy started to cry, clinging to his sister.
‘So all good little children hide when the bell sounds… yes?’
They all nodded… they knew.

 

[ratsy]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Classes are Grate

He looked up and saw the bottoms of shoes through the grates.

Here Sam waited for the upper class to drop anything of use. Coin cards, food - anything at all.

It was today that everything changed. Sam heard a thud. Someone had dropped a reader!

He turned it on to see if it worked. It flashed and a title sat front and center on the device.

Sam struggled but got the words out. “Rrrevvollluuution”

 

[Venusian Broon]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Aiming For The Perfect Human Psychology


The couple on my couch had had issues - OCD and depression mainly.

“We want to change,” she told me.

~​

Weeks later I saw her, bruised and trembling.

“He hit me in a jealous rage. I begged him to stop,” she sobbed. “Thank you. We both felt more human.”

Introducing complex personality flaws into sentient androids was notoriously difficult. Even I, the programmer, couldn’t tell if her tears were of joy or of pain.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

The New World Order
​

The government had gone too far this time. Before, it had left audio recorders to pick up private conversations. It had left cameras in every home to monitor potential “antisocial” behavior.

But now they began to raid homes where they had no cause to do so. Innocent people were being rounded up and prosecuted. And the worst of it?

Everybody cheered when we were being hauled away, never to be seen again.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Election Day

Kallie tried to pay attention to the flickering holos of candidates floating above her terminal. If her choices were inconsistent she risked having her citizenship level reduced. For a moment she envied the Basics, able to sleep or play on Election Day. She wondered if her Active status was really worth all the work involved. Eight hours later she collapsed into bed. Election Day was over. Thank goodness it only came once a week.

 

[Luiglin]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

9 to 5

The coffee tasted stale but it was hot and provided that much needed synaptic kick.

He flicked a switch to be engulfed by a barrage of lights and screens of rolling infinite data.

Anything changed? Nope. Log it.

He grabbed a slice of pizza from the last watch, leaned back and plonked his feet on the console.

See space they said, the final frontier they said, to boldly go they said.

Yea right.

 

[RoninJedi84]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Curiosity Kills?


When M1122-84 was born, they watched.

As he thrived academically, as he toiled endlessly, as he fell in love, as his offspring were born; they watched.

Each change they integrated only disproved their hypothesis.

M1122-84 was happy, faith in his deity unshakable.

But one day, Y’suanns’ht turned to his assistant, bearing an inquisitive countenance.

“Let’s see what happens when we introduce infidelity.”

“Should we dispose of his revolver?”

Y’suanns’ht smiled.

“Of course not.”

 

[Hex]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

All the way in

Fat, white hands, posh black coat, Alphaman comes down alley. “You, Epsilongirl. You meld?”

I flash my iden-key. “Fifty creds -- all the way.”

He fumbles down his security boundaries, crashes into my neural core and starts grunting away.

Don’t notice me slither into him.

One push, he falls – all the way in.

One twist, we separate.

#

“No!” the girl screams.

“Melding’s dangerous.” I grin, and shove her away with my fat, white hand.

 

[Dream Walker]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Puppy Love

“Oh dear, I can’t decide. They are all so sweet and fluffy looking."

“But remember the hair is removable. We can have them groomed to your specifications.”

“Really? And they are easily housebroken?"
“Within a week maximum.”

“Oh look, this one seems to be trying to get my attention.
I must have one as a pet. What did you say the name was, again?”

“They called them 'Men'.”

 

[Glen]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

The Long Haul

We stop hoeing to listen to angry shouting outside the compound. Will we need to protect the walls? No. A bird sings in our orchard.

‘Are you Ok?’

Kate nods. ‘A bit scared.’

I step over the row of cabbages to hug her.

Out there the economy of short-term self-interest crashes, like a skyscraper falling through weak foundations. Our community, like this rich soil, is built with love for the long-haul.

 

[stormcrow]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Outside In

Time-worn and watery eyed, Aunt Rose fixed me over her wire rimmed spectacles.

“It’s the smells I miss the most…” she began,

“...my dear sister Lily and I would walk in the gardens breathing summer…” her eyes, alive,

“…before the purifications, before the neutralisations. Yes dear, life was risky, but plants, oh, you’ll never know the beauty!”

“I have footage, 3d prints, I know flowers.”

Her eyes narrow, “Synthetics my petal: flowers, scents, even you.”

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

We Who Are About To Dine, Salute You.​

‘Why gene-splice us this way?’

‘To follow their orders better. To understand them.’

She didn’t. ‘But why all the animals?’

The older werewolf sighed. An old argument. ‘Wish you ate grass?’

‘Grass never begs for its life.’

***​

An obscenity left the minotaur’s throat as the younger werewolf’s fangs entered, then he drowned in his own blood.

The humans crowding the stadium cheered, but she barely heard them.

Her cubs would eat beef tonight.

 

[TacticalLoco]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

The Meeting
​

You can travel halfway across the galaxy and a bar still looks like a bar.

She was siting at the back, spilling a vibe that could wither a Korvidain spider. She was alien; the new paradigm, the connection.

Me? I was the lawman; muscle, action, protection. It had cost lives and money to arrange our meeting.

But if we could pull this off there would be a new power structure in this part of space.

 

[BetaWolf]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Exile Awaits (75 words)

Carina stepped off the hydrolift at Level Zero. As instructed, she had packed enough breathable nitrogen for herself and the infant pressed against her hip.

The Pentarch pulled her firmly towards the transport, their way lit by the gas giant that dominated the night sky.

She reluctantly followed his lead to the waiting shuttle. Once aboard the Dragon's Wake, she huddled against a bulkhead, balancing Nemo on her knee. Moving forward meant not looking back.

 

[johnnyjet]

Re: August 2013 -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE -- READ FIRST POST

Curtains

The installer, a slim young black woman in unflattering coveralls, told Allen she was finished.

"Thank you." His tired, gaunt frame remained in the easy chair.

"You can open and close the steel-reinforced curtains individually or together," she said, handing him the remote. "Press here for an instruction wiki."

"They'll stay closed."

She shrugged. "It's not that bad."

"Times have changed."

"Maybe." She checked her holster. "Well, gotta go, sir. Keep safe."