Fantasy Drabble #67 “Tiamat”

It’s playing with us.

For a week it bumped the ship below the waterline at random intervals. The timbers had started to crack, so we’re quite glad it stopped.

But then it grabbed Hastings from the deck. It didn’t eat him: it held him under the water for half an hour then tossed his corpse back onto the ship. Captain ordered everyone below decks. We’ve been drawing straws to see who mans the ship’s wheel and for how long. So far it’s snatched Reese and Mayfield. Those poor souls it ate.

We’re still three weeks out from the Virginia Colony.

Fantasy Drabble #66 “I Kissed A Girl (And I Liked It)

For my sociology experiment I decided to study how gender affects social interaction. I used a spell to switch bodies with my best friend, Hix, for a day. I picked him mostly because I can trust him not to take naked cell phone pictures of me in the mirror and post them on Myspace.

I hadn’t counted on his girlfriend being around. Mia has always annoyed me. But suddenly her laugh is a lot less grating, and she smells nice. She’s very pleasant to talk to. We’re seeing a movie later. It’ll be strange going back to finding her annoying.

SF Drabble #103 “America Loves You, Freeman Dyson”

“How big is it?”

“A little over one hundred eighty million miles in diameter.”

Someone whistled. The Captain turned ostentatiously in his chair to look around at the bridge crew. “What, is that big? What’s that in football fields?”

The Envoy said, “What is a football field?”

“Never mind. Your civilization, it’s inside this shell?”

“That’s correct.”

“Along with a star.”

“G type, only a little smaller than your own.”

The Captain peered up at the Envoy. “So if you’re powerful enough to build this, what could you possibly want from us?”

The Envoy smiled. “Come inside, and find out.”

SF Drabble #102 “The Centauri Cup”

The Polpolgu ship is impressive: fast, maneuverable. My chief thinks they’re twenty years ahead of us technologically; the Polpolgu are certain it’s forty.

But we have an advantage ourselves: humans have been in this system for nearly a hundred years. We know the orbital path of every object larger than a pebble, mapped every gravitational anomaly. We have the home field advantage.

My ship will be the first across the finish line. I can’t wait to see the look on the Polpolgu Captain’s face when the Viceroy hands me the trophy. I hear they turn bright colors when they’re angry.