This is the eighth in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing from 2nd December 2012 until the 1st December 2013. It’s intent is to keep me writing throughout the year, and not just in November. you can find out more about the challenge here.
Light Speed, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 10th December 2012
Word count: 1,000
Theme: random acts of violence, crazy, anthropomorphic animals, revenge
The story:
Captain Twigg stood up from his chair, faced the camera’s squarely and held out his hand.
“Next stop…” he held a pause for longer than was comfortable, “Alpha Centauri.”
It was all horribly contrived to Second Lieutenant Carlisle, who was sat two meters away, facing away from the cameras, gladly. He considered it an honour to be on board human kind’s first manned faster than light ship, but he also knew far too much about the cluster fuck this mission had already become. For now he must focus on the mission, those were his orders.
Without skipping a beat he reported on time, “Vector eighteen, three hundred kilometres per second.”
“Hmm…” the captain sat back in his chair thoughtfully, “We need to go faster.”
“Increase velocity, thrusters to maximum, helm,” first lieutenant Jordan Sinclair ordered.
“We’re on schedule,” the Second Lieutenant pointed out, wary not only of the mission parameters that called for no heroics in testing the new engines, but also the thought of being stranded where no one could come rescue them.
“We’re going beyond human knowledge, Second Lieutenant,” the Captain stressed the Lieutenant’s rank, “The people of Earth aren’t looking for safety, they want to see us fly high. The collective breaths of an entire world are holding on to see what we can do, let’s not let them suffocate,” all the time looking at the camera. Second Lieutenant Carlisle realised this would go in his blog tonight, an tale of the Captain’s bravery in the face of the cowardice of his underling.
Continue reading “Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 9: Light Speed”
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