Fortnightly Writing Competition! SCI-FI (Winner announced)

[Dualnames]

Theme

Well, it's random yes. It can be funny yes, it can be harsh yes! And it's the theme you've all never wished for!

Sci-Fi Stories
Rules:
-The story must be science fiction based. Using original stories is allowed!
-Random elements are allowed!
-No word limit!
-Horror/Comedy/Romance and everything is allowed.

Spoiler

-No Douglas Adams stories. I won't be subjective..

[close]

Started at 25th of Jan 2010
Ends on February the 10th
Vote!

Winner:
Discordance!

[Atelier]

Tomorrow's News
Published before it happens

10/2/30010 (18 Creds)

FIRST STEPS ON EARTH!
HUMAN LANDING MISSION SUCCESSFUL!

At 39:61fh this morning, humans colonised another planet. The research mission, Apollo HURT (Heavy Utility Research Team) touched down upon a rocky outcrop on Earth; forever a symbol of mystery in our skies, and finally within our reach. The first reports are sketchy, although astronauts describe a planet likened by some to a sci-fi flick. There are indications of river beds once, now dry, and the temperature is an unbearable 653º. It is a land entirely different from our native Mars.

As yet, it seems unlikely humans will be living there any time soon. The land is scorched black, and geiger counters indicate huge levels of radiation; likely a huge blast, or some other catastrophic event, occurred sometime in its history. The air is poisoned by smoke; our 310th Century filters are only just able to keep our brave explorers alive.

But what can we expect to discover from this mission? Well, some scientists hope it will cast light upon our own hazy past. Studying samples brought back by the team later next year might provide useful starting points. Importantly, humanoid remains scatter the surface of the Earth, as if blighted by an 'apocalypse', joked one mission director. Supercarbon dating the bones tells us they are from around the year 4010. However, nothing living has yet been spotted roaming the wastelands.

The fact that our nearest neighbour is incapable of supporting life gives many religious communities hope. They believe it is proof we have come to Mars - a place manageable with a little technology - through a calculated decision by some higher power. This marks a new flagstone in the history of Mars, where we finally begin to understand our origins.

[Oliwerko]

I somewhat didn't expect a topic like this  

Gonna be one hell of a challenge if I will try for a poem  
I like challenge.

[Jim Reed]

I hope to enter this one.

[Dualnames]

Adding a date to help you guys motivate ends on 10th of February!

[ashmc2]

I hope we start getting some stories. I love Sci Fi and need my fix.

I have one on the way, but I have to work out a few flaws and finish typing it up. Finger-pecking takes time.

[Darius Poyer]

A mission to Jupiter

"Space, we all float in it...", this is how former Captain Henry Jamla begins the first and only chapter of his biography and final report on the progress of leading the first manned mission to explore Jupiter and its moons. It goes on to read; "...and our ignorance will never exceed our curiosity, because of this, we are now lost."

The pretentious nature of Captain Jamla's writing style was relatively well known ever since he tired to publish a book of poems back in 2098. because when no publisher wanted it he gave out free copies to anyone who worked under him, saying, and I quote "just in chase you know somebody". A strange man indeed but between his bad attempts at poetry he tells us what happened to him and his crew of 120 men.

"Yes, I am afraid i will be forever lost in this empty vacuum, because now I am fully certain that i am the only one left. The entire crew is gone, and I have been locked in this room for 36 days."

"When everyone goes crazy can you define anything by rational means?" The captains writing became hard to read in the following sentence, but it could have been either "Lieless underground dog-men" or "Lifeless by ground, god & men", regardless it doesn't seem to make allot of sense, this is followed by; "because I have seen good men become killers and lepers."

"The first man who died was a field researcher who came back with a cold, it started to infect the entire medical staff, before it suddenly disappeared, you must all know, to never go near this horrid gas-giant. for it will devour you."
By disappeared I assume that he means that this disease he refers to in this text seemed to heal temporarily.

"Then the nurses and doctors became crazed, killing and eating everyone, but they didn't have allot left in their well of life, as their bodies fell into pieces.", probably refers to the aforementioned leprosy.

"This text is all i will leave behind, for you must all know the fury of the eye, and to never stare directly into it, that researcher did not, and now, we are all dead..."

"It ends there sir."

"Not very long..." Dr. Gordon replied, "It certainly strengthens the case against him."

"I figured as much sir, he was acting strange towards the end but we all figured it was cabin-fever."

"It could still be that, just a very severe chase, but most likely we are looking at a permanent psychosis, especially considering what you just told me."

"I must return to my duties Doctor." I said as I handed the notes to Dr. Gordon. "Kind of freaky though isn't it", i inquired.

"Try not to think like that, it might have you end up like Mr. Jamla" The doctor said with a grin. "With only three months left before we might actually be orbiting Callisto, it is a little eery though, i must say."

"I'm guessing we try to keep the specifics from the general crew then Doctor."

"Yes, it would just cause unnecessary stress."

"Very well sir. I suppose i will see you later."

"Have a good day", the doctor said as the door closed between us.

In the back of my head i find it hard to ignore what Mr. Jamla wrote, however bad it was and no matter how insane he got i cant help but realize that we don't know what we might find so far out in space with our blue-eyed curiosity.

[discordance]

Here is a happy and uplifting little story about space.

Expedition

"How long have we been away?" the captain mumbled on the fifteenth day after the crash.

I was so busy watching the screen that I didn't hear him at first. He had to reach over and touch my arm. Even that simple action caused beads of sweat to stream down his forehead.

"How long?" he asked again.

I blinked and tried to collect my thoughts.

"Nearly two months, sir," I said at last.

"Then they'll be sending someone soon," he said hopefully.

"They probably sent someone a long time ago," I said. "We haven't reported in nearly three weeks now."

He nodded and leaned back against the seat, closing his eyes. I paused to watch him, watch the breath escape in bits from his body. He was rubbing his arm rhythmically with one hand, right over the place where he'd been bitten. In a few days he would be dead and I would be completely alone, and I knew nobody was going to rescue us.

Finally I turned my attention back to the screen, but now I couldn't remember what I'd been trying to do. Had I already tried to fix the comlink? Yes, many times. How many times had I checked our remaining oxygen levels? Too many times. What was I doing now? Trying to get the engines to respond again? Well, it was something to do. I got to work. The clicking of the keys and the movement of the numbers across the screen was oddly comforting. It lulled me into a strange sense of peace. I was almost tempted to close my eyes.

The captain suddenly burst into a raspy coughing fit. I paused to look at him.

"Do we have any more water?" he gasped.

"Have to save it, sir," I said.

He shook his head. "I need it."

"Have to save it, sir," I said. "You don't want to die out here, do you?"

"No," he muttered. "Need it. I need it. 'S an order."

"I can't give it to you, sir," I said.

He wheezed into a fitful silence. Later that evening when I tried to give him his ration I realized he was already dead. For the best, perhaps.

I switched off the screen and sat there in the dark for a while. It seemed very quiet without the sound of the captain's harsh breathing. I reached out and touched his face gently with one finger. I could feel the place his lips had curled around when he smiled, the way he always did when I came to work in the morning. "Just four days till the expedition," he would tell me. "Imagine! Four days!" I would smile and nod and try not to betray what I knew. He'd talk about his old days in the forces, about all the old battles he'd fought in and the bugs he'd killed with his bare hands and about the glory of space and the final frontier. The world had always seemed very different to me but I never had the heart to tell him that. His stories were so beautiful and I wanted to believe them, and sometimes I did believe them, but only when he was lost in the telling.

After a while I put on my helmet and hooked up the oxygen tank. If the dial was reading right I had four hours.

I scrounged around for tools for a while, but all I managed to find was a crowbar. It was enough to pry open the hatch door, at any rate. The dead bug in the back was decomposing and the stench was nearly unbearable. I paused to admire the burnt bit of the wall where my frantic blasts had landed, and the spot on the bug's face where the captain's unerring shot had landed. I'd never admired him more than the moment when he fired that gun and the bug fell down, bleeding blackly. He'd turned to me and grinned the way he always did. Then the bug got back up and went for his throat. It got his arm instead, but that was enough.

I pulled his body out through the hatch. I turned down the cover of his helmet so I wouldn't have to see him grimacing at me. I had a look at the landscape. There between the hills was a place that looked about right.

It took me a long time to get him over there and even longer to dig the hole. When he was finally buried I only had a few minutes of oxygen left. Not even enough time to say a prayer, really. I tried to think about something that would make him happy, but all I could see was the face of the General as he told me what was going to happen when he sent us out. It was an impossible mission to recruit for, of course who would volunteer to go on a suicide mission? I don't know what drove me to volunteer, me with a bright future at the academy, was that worth giving up for the sake of an old man and his obsolete dreams? Not really. Not when the oxygen ran out and my lungs started screaming. Yet strangely it was somehow comforting to know that he hadn't died alone. Someday when there were no people left alive in the universe, the bugs would land on this planet and find us lying here together, and then they'd know that the human race wasn't entirely consumed with their own ambitions. That someone was willing to give up their future to help an old man live out the last of his ridiculous dreams. If they were capable of understanding that.

The last thing I saw were the stars. Not that it mattered.

[ashmc2]

Sorry it became so long of a piece.

Apocalypse Journal

If you are reading this I hope the world is a different place than it is as I write this short journal. A better World. A healed world. I write this in hopes that it is a help to someone still trying to survive or as a quick record of how we as a world fell. I'll start by telling you that it has been close to a year since the terrorist attach first decimated the world that I knew. It would be hard to give an exact time if I hadn't found a digital watch. But even that luxury won't help me forever because the batteries die. Sorry for the rambling, I am distracted because I have to focus more on the safety of myself and a young girl and her pup. I have been protecting her for a few days now.

Depending on how much time has gone by, people will likely have some misconceptions. Let me clear these up as much as I can with the facts I personally have witnessed and the info from before the mass media went down.

Looking at the cities people will likely think it was nukes that caused the end of our advanced society. That is not the case at all. The nuclear bombardment was a desperate act of a desperate world. People will also think the mutants were a product of the nuclear fallout, yet once again they would be wrong. Although nuclear radiation in high doses will affect DNA, these mutations have affected the entire human genome. These evolutionary mutations happened over days and weeks, not centuries and millennia.

We know that someone at the Center for Disease Control developed the most sophisticated virus ever devised from a highly contagious smallpox strain. In the beginning it wasn’t apparent that it was a two-stage virus. The terrorist/terrorists then introduced the virus into the Atlanta International Airport ventilation system and infected thousands instantly. Within 72 hours the virus went global. The CDC and every disease center worldwide worked none stop, but no cure was found. People wore masks everywhere. I remember the pictures from TV reports and it was the same all over the world. Government closed their gates. Airplanes and other mass transit systems were shut down. Hospitals no longer took patients. It became anarchy. The government tried to use the military to control the multitudes and protect hospitals and business. Commerce broke down within the first few weeks. All monies went defunct. Soon the military even failed as martial law was ordered. 


It was estimated that almost every single human being worldwide was infected by the virus. Yet some people were unaffected by the virus. My wife and son weren’t that lucky. They slowly passed away in those first few months. Imagine caring for your loved ones, but couldn't stop death from taking them. Imagine caring for your sick loved ones and being totally healthy. My heart turned black and cold as I watched my wife and child turn black with ulcers and wither and die away, leaving the pain far behind. No more pain.



Within the first 3 months following the attack 90% of the Earth's population was dead. That was 6 billion lives lost to this horrible act.75 million people were thought to be left alive worldwide. It was the worst mass human near-extinction event ever to face mankind. This virus made the bubonic plague look like the common cold. But as with the bubonic plague, some people survive, whether from partial or full immunity. And just as happened to culture and society during the Black Death, it led to the world into the dark ages.

It was total anarchy. Everyone looted - everyone. You had to eat and money didn't exist anymore. A bartering system took effect. Roving gangs took all that they could carry. They raped and pillaged like Viking’s of old, except they had no honor and bucked all of society’s rules.

The contagious aspect of the smallpox super virus and total die-off ended in about 3 months. Many people also died from the diseases that arose from the decomposing bodies. There were mass burning and burials to try to help with sanitation and contain disease. There were a lot more burnings than burials happening. You never forget the smell and sounds of piles of humans burning. The sickening sounds of crackling fat and the sizzle of hair and skin. The loud pop as the guts bloat beyond capacity and burst will haunt my dreams forevermore. Buildings were stripped of combustibles to fuel the funeral pyres. Gangs of roving executioners roamed the streets and killed the infected to add to the never-ending fires. Many people that realized that they were infected committed suicide finding a quick death preferable to a slow lingering pain-filled death. I hardens a man to see the things that holocaust brings. 

People realized that the contagion was over and it was time to rebuild. Slowly people began to organize in small communities and defend themselves against anti-social gangs. They thought the worst was over. We had lost much but we could begin to heal. But they were wrong. A new pestilence erupted into the populace lucky enough to survive the “first” apocalypse. It soon became apparent that the virus was a two-stage virus. People began to mutate. They got large tumors and their bodies and began to contort into horrid shapes. Their hair changed on their bodies, especially on the tumors and head. They lost most head hair and grew hair on their tumors. Their speech became imbecile, immature, and primitive. It was like they retro-evolved. The mutated humans soon became antisocial and they started to change. They began to attack people and eat the human victims uncooked with their bare hands.

Once again some humans remained human, not mutated and entirely unaffected by the virus’s impact. This time there was no global information flow, so I really have no idea how many of us were unaffected and left alive. It appeared that this second stage of the virus wasn’t infectious. I noticed that people that were injured and escaped didn't become infected. At around 6 months I didn’t see any more transformations from human to beast. All I saw was death and disaster. The outbreak of flesh-eating beasts was so devastating and threatening to humans’ new precarious rule on earth that governments launched a full-scale nuclear assault on all major cities of the world. For those keeping count, that is 3 life altering holocausts in 6 months.

The transmissions that were heard gave people 24 hours notice to exodus. There was no way that I could make it out of the city in that time. So once again many humans died during the initial blast or in the fallout that came after. I used my 24 hrs to stock and prepare my humble abode. It was/is a janitor/maintenance closet at the below ground, bottom level of a parking garage. Luckily I wasn’t at ground-zero or no planning whatsoever would have helped me survive. I only left the closet a few times during the first few months after the nukes went off to avoid the main effects of the fallout.

I emerged once again and like every other time some people survived. Sadly a lot of mutants also survived. Soon after I reemerged normal folks thinned out here in the city, hopefully they left the city, but I am afraid most died to the mutes. I still see the occasional person, but they are usually being pursued by the mutes at the time or are so antisocial that I cannot interact with them.

There seems to be different species of these mutants. I gave the different types that I have witnessed names that remind me of their characteristics. Here is an inventory of the types of mutants that I have encountered and their characteristics and other thoughts I have on them that I feel might help:

Zombies: There are more of these than any other type of mutant. These guys are slow and lethargic. You can merely jog past them as they slowly turn and begin following in your direction. They don't use weapons. They are only dangerous in mass or if you dead-end yourself. Even then a strong man with a weapon can kill a dozen and still get away. They moan constantly so it is hard for them to sneak up on you.

Toads: These mutes are extremely fat to say the least. They are usually just squatted in the middle of streets. They are like lazy jackals as they sit and wait for other mutants to kill prey. At that point go and eat on the kill, often fighting off other mutes for a larger portion of the kill. I really named them toads because as they breathe their throat puffs up in the front and then collapses back down. Luckily this gives them a weak spot. Their tumor-adorned heads and fat bodies are very hard to bypass to get to the vital organs. You would be wasting your time with a blunt weapon. Everyone I saw has huge tumors on their heads and necks. They would never catch you as you leisurely pass by, yet miserably they scream the most horrid ear-piercing shriek the moment they see animals and humans. Then, as you likely guessed, all mutes in earshot come-a-running. Once again go for the throat; it pops easily while inflated. It seems to be more skin than muscle. I would say that you don't see these too often, but when you do, hide or kill them quickly or you are going to be up to your eyeballs in mutes.

Batters: These don't really look any different than Zombies but they wield weapons. They also are faster than the zombies. They move at a jog-like gait. Luckily they are very stupid and don't have much skill with their weapons. When they get into range they use a constant lumbering overhand swing. They don't seem to tire; they just keep swinging. There is not a lot of power behind their swings, but if you get knocked down you are likely done for. They are the most dangerous with bladed weapons or edged metal pieces. I didn't categorize these as bladed mutes and blunt weapon users because they don't seem to have a preference. I have knocked a large knife from a batter before and had it pick a forearm-length plank of wood when the knife and plank were side-by-side. I would estimate these guys to be the second most populace type of mutant I see. Don't corner yourself goes without saying, but I have to say it anyways. If you get too many batters after you at once you better look for an exit or you are likely mute food. The best way I have found to deal with theses mutes is to run at top speed until you are out of visual and audible range. They forget what they were doing quickly and go back to roaming.

Runners: These mutants are quite tall and muscular. Runners are fast and seem to have a berserker rage. The only real positive with these mutes is that they are dumb and don't use weapons. Once again, they are fast. They have the normal mutant flaw of a short-term memory. If you get out of range they lose all recall. They randomly wander searching for food and once they see a target they go into full-speed charge mode. You better hope you see them first because they come running at top speed. They tackle first and pummel and rip you apart. If they spot you, likely in the end, you will have to deal with them, because it is just too hard to get them out of your sight.

Gollum: These are likely the most dangerous mutants I've met. They are smarter than the other mutes and don’t forget about you the moment you walk out of their sight. Luckily they are the rarest mutes that I have encountered. They have skinny wiry bodies and they run in a primate like gait, using their arms to walk just as much as their legs. They aren't very fast using that odd jog-like gait. Their hands have long razor-sharp claws that they use to rip their prey apart. They also have pointy needle-like teeth that are in rows like a shark. I have witnessed Gollums ambush victims by hiding up high and jumping onto the victim's back reminiscent of a large cat.


I am going to ramble a bit here and wind this journal up so I can prepare for our long dangerous journey. Once you are out of visual sight or earshot most mutes start to randomly wander again. They seem to forget about you. Weird short-term memory issue, but great for survival. Animals have invaded the city now that the population has dropped so low and there is no car traffic. At least it gives the creatures something else to eat besides humans. They are all cannibals or more like opportunists. If it is editable they will eat it. They will chase humans and animals until the end, then and only then, will they turn back to eat any of their own dead. Mutes are fairly evenly male and female. Males on average seem stronger, while females seem a bit quicker. They have no goals but to eat. This is Darwin's theory on natural selection in overdrive. Mutant Types hopefully they are sterile or this is going to get real ugly. I would hate to for this to be how our species meets its end.

Some radio communication still exists. There is a message looping that tells of a colony to the north of the city.

I leave you now to fight my way to get this little girl and her dog to the north human colony. It is amazing what we took for granted: food, water, safety, sociality, culture, technology and on and on. The world had become decadent in our majesty. We were jacked-in; communication and gourmet food and drink in an instant. But all that is gone now.

I couldn’t help my family but I can help jenny. I already saved her from becoming a snack to a batter that had her cornered. She deserves more. She deserves better than the life I have chosen to live. Jenny deserves going to sleep safe and secure, knowing she will awaken to a fresh meal to fill her belly. So it is time for me to quit my self-loathing and get this little girl and her pup to the colony.

I leave you now to fight my way to get this little girl and her dog to the north human colony. Come and find a better life. We are going to try.

Wishing you well, Dax

[Oddysseus]

Man, tough competition this round. But I promised myself I'd enter this comp, so I banged this out tonight:

The Job

She shakes her head and sighs and turns away.
The sound of her retreating footsteps is the only goodbye I get.
Maybe it's for the best.

When I strap on my protective vest, I hear no lecture about
the dangers I haven't considered. About the risks I'm taking,
and how unacceptable they are.
When I slide my laser pistol into its holster, I hear only
the sound of oiled steel on battered leather. The sound of precision.
When the door slides open to the brightness outside, I stand still
and hear... silence.
I wish myself good luck. I shut the door to my empty house.
I think about the job.

The hideout is just as dismal as my snitch described it. One floor
rotting corpse of a pharmacy in the slums. Condemned, abandoned, dripping
with graffiti and pockmarked with lowlifes and mutants.
They scatter like rats as my team creeps up.

"How you wanna do this?" growls my Second. He knows me so well, he mouths my response: "Hard and fast."
The door disintegrates with one blow from the hydraulic rammer.
The Juniors chuck smoke cans through the front windows. I'm in and down on one
knee before the glass shards hit the floor.
My pistol's set on Stun, so I let loose on anything that swears or moves. I've got plenty of targets to choose from.
Automatic fire lights up the smoke like lightning in a stormcloud.
I drop two perps. Their eye sockets crackle with discharge from the stun rounds.
Someone slips into the backroom.

I shout orders uselessly into the din. My men are roaring and bullets are tearing the air.
I dive into the backroom. Everything is going to hell, but I'm gonna do this one thing right.

As I struggle to my feet, laughter bubbles up from behind me. It's punctuated by a single shot
that knocks my pistol across the room and under a chair. My ears are ringing, my head is reeling, but
all I can think is... I recognize that laugh.

It's my laugh.
And the face that follows the gun emerging from a swirl of smoke - it's my face.

"Hello, handsome." Says my voice. My lips curl in a smirk.
In the next room, my men are dying. Drowning in a hail of bullets I led them into.
If I live through tonight, that snitch won't.

"Clones." I say finally to my imposter. "I hate f***ing clones."

"Oh, but your wife won't. Your wife's gonna love me, Officer. Your boss, too.
You've done a good job, warming up my life for me. But now it's time for you to be put out to pasture."

Now it's my turn to smirk. "My wife left me this morning. And the Chief said I'd be out on my
ass if another sting went tits-up under my watch." A long moan from one of the Juniors
goes up like a wolf's howl. "You want my s****y life? Take it."

The bastard takes my advice literally - he's aiming for my heart, but winds up clipping my shoulder
as I lunge for him. He plugs me two more times as we crumple to the ground. "Why won't you just die?!"
He shouts.

"I dunno. Habit, I guess." I jam the gun under his chin, and squeeze his finger on the trigger.

At least now I can finally prove my wife wrong.
Now, I'm only the second-ugliest sonofabitch on earth.

[ddq]

And now, for your intermission, and not as an actual entry, I present...
SPACE: The Haiku
The cosmos call me,
I have dreamed of every star.
Weightless and unbound.

There's some seriously good stuff all around, keep it up! See my sappy poem and realize how much better you are!

[Dualnames]

Well, looky looky, some entries.. wonderful to all so far! I've had some thoughts some laughs some smiles whilst reading them. So I'll just leave this competition open to those that plan on entering literally last minute.

[Dualnames]

I loved all of your entries, but discordance's last sentence really made the score. Also best quote is certainly by Oddyseus, a very witty story indeed. Congrats to all. Disc, you have my vote!

[Atelier]

I thought usually the winner was decided by the other entrants, with some time for voting?

[Dualnames]

I thought usually the winner was decided by the other entrants, with some time for voting?

I think it's on the host, but okay, then, let's have a voting! Vote for your favorite entry folks!

[discordance]

In that case I'd like to vote for Odysseus. Rockin.

[ashmc2]

I vote AG. A little short but I liked the concept.

[uncle-mum]

I can't recall if it's good form to vote if you didn't enter (which I intend to but I've finally started work on a new game and didn't want to get distracted) but if I can my vote goes to Discordance.

[Dualnames]

I can't recall if it's good form to vote if you didn't enter (which I intend to but I've finally started work on a new game and didn't want to get distracted) but if I can my vote goes to Discordance.

It's fine by me!

[Atelier]

Slightly cheeky of me calling for a vote, but I vote for discordance anyway.