Category: My Stories

This is the 95th in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

Sol’s Children, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 6th March 2013

Word count: 992

The story:

“Its true then?” the Emperor asked.

“I’m afraid so sire,” the lead solar scientist, Royston Miller, said bowing low. “Its the sun’s natural evolution, no one I’ve spoken to knows any way to affect something like this. In five to six years the sun will rapidly expand, and all signs indicate the Earth will be swallowed with a couple of decades at the most.”

“And that’s certain?” the Supre Marsborn, the Emperor’s Scientific Adviser asked.

“No, it may not expand as much as we fear, but even the minimum expected expansions would increase the temperature’s on earth, most of the outer layer of rock would become molton, rivers and oceans would dry up,” Royston said hesitantingly.

‘How many people could we evacuate to the colonies, Admiral?” the Emperor asked.

A gruff old man cleared his throat buying himself time to consider carefully, “Not as many as I’d like Sire. In four years we might make it to a billion, maybe a few more if we kept up ship building. But in reality it would be at most a few millions, the outer colonies couldn’t cope with more. There’s also the problem of the several separatist movements, this could push them over the edge which would make things harder.”

The Emperor nodded his thanks to the Admiral for his comprehensive, albeit depressing, report. “Okay, ladies and gentlemen, gather the best, the smartest. We need a plan to save Earth, or everyone on it. We can not let the future of humanity die with a dying star. We must survive.”

Supre Marsborn bowed, “I will see to it your highness.”

The room was cleared, leaving his divine Emperor July Windsor to slump back into his ancient throne.

Continue reading “Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 95: Sol’s Children”

This is the 94th in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

Polish Haven by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 5th March 2013

Word count: 991

The story:

The kids were excited, this was there first time in an aeroplane, at six and eight it was possibly the most exciting moments of their life.
Their parents were less fussed, it had been a stressful day, last second packing, trying to keep the two young boys clean, and getting through the airport. It was their first time flying, and it was nerve racking.

The mother rested her head on her husband’s shoulder, he smiled and patted her hair.

“We made it,” he said reassuringly.

She sighed wearily. The flight was only a few hours, then the chaos would resume as they gathered their bags with two over excited kids fit to burst, that’s if it wasn’t sooner.

The seat belt sign came on, the kids were already fastened in, but mother checked just in case before strapping herself in.

“Its strange, you know, that Daddy wanted us to come in holiday right away,” the mother said.

“Carol, you know what Henry is like. He can be a bit odd sometimes,” the father said, just them Carol noted on odd expression in Simon her husband. She was about to comment when the plane started moving, and she forgot in the fear and excitement as the plane got into position to taxi.

Several hours later the plane landed in Krakow, Poland. The kids predictably were all over the place with excitement.

“Can we back now?” the six year old Lewis asked, speaking at the speed of light.

“Soon, my love,” Carol said having lowered herself down, “First we’re going to explore a new country.”

The words didn’t mean much to the boy, until his mother likened it to Dora the Explorer.

Continue reading “Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 94: Polish Haven”

This is the 93rd in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

Mail Call, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 4th March 2013

Word count: 729

The story:

“Bring her round three degrees starboard, and ceiling minus two degrees, and then cut engines,” the man on the end on the end of a tinny intercom instructed.

“Left over, and down,” the space suited pilot repeated casually, but they followed the instructions perfectly. There was a soft bump, a click, and inside the ship there was a hiss as pressure was increased inside the ship, as an earth like atmosphere was breathed into the ship.

“Docking complete at oh six thirty seven,” the pilot reported. Checking the atmosphere read outs, they decided it was safe to remove their helmet.

The first thing that came spilling out was long wavy red hair, then as the opaque helmet came completely clear the lovely features of a young woman appeared. She unclasped herself and walked back into the craft and through the airlock where an official met her.

“You’re a day late,” he said sternly without bothering to introduce himself.

“Excuse me,” she said giving him a glare that immediately caused him to wither, like he’d been struck by a pin and his pomposity was leaking away. “I am never late, in fact I’m here a full day early.”

“Oh,” he said, “Then the earlier delivery hasn’t made it.”

“There wasn’t any news of delays, before I set off,” the pilot said.

“Pirates most likely, they’ve been getting more brazen in these parts sadly. We’ve commissioned the Garda for more patrols, but the needs of one space station aren’t considered important enough.”

Continue reading “Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 93: Mail Call”

This is the 92nd in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

The Head Hunter Letter, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 3rd March 2013

Word count: 705

Info: Woohoo this story gets me past the quarter mark. Going to do a top 5% when I hit the big one double zero.

The story:

To my successor,

I am a corporate head hunter, photographs of my many success stories line the walls of my office.

No, I don’t work in recruitment, directly anyway – though thanks to my efforts plenty of people have gotten promotions and new jobs. The focus of my job is quite literally hunting people and bringing them low, destroying them. I mostly do work in the private sector, it’s less morally ambiguous.

If you’ve got a problem boss, maybe he’s an arsehole, maybe he refuses to retire, or maybe it’s a colleague or a competitor compromising everything your trying to build, (usually a bank balance, if I’m being honest), and you don’t care how it happens, I can fix it. Scandals, controversies, on personal and professional levels are my specialties. I sniff them out and expose them, and if there’s nothing, I’ll create one. And I do all this at fairly competitive rates, and with the utmost discretion. Except for the pictures on my wall, but they’re only ones that I feel wouldn’t undo my good work, I might be an egotist, but I’m not mad.

How did I get into this business? Well it started a few years ago, I was a corporate schmuck. For nearly ten years I towed the company line, did everything that was asked of me, yet I had risen as far as I was going to get. There were too many settled people higher up the ladder, those that weren’t were either job swapping in to new areas, or were consultants that effectively filled temporary holes I couldn’t seem to fit into.

Continue reading “Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 92: The Head Hunter Letter”

This is the 91st in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

The Life of Toad, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 2nd March 2013

Word count: 738

Info: a few days late with this one, playing catch up. Bish bash bosh, here they come….

The story:

Toad awoke with a start, he was immediately alert and on the look for whatever had woken him. Two bright dots in the mostly darkness peered at him. Toad crept forward, and the growing dots proved to be from a cat, the weak security light reflecting in curious eyes.

“Go to sleep Cat,” he said dismissively, crawling back into his nest of cardboard and newspaper.

An hour or two later Toad awoke again with the return of dawn. He gathered up his few belongings, his creature comforts, a spare pair of socks he wore only at night, or when the weather was really cold so they’d last longer, a pack of chewing gum, and a half eaten burger he’d collected the previous day, a sign on cardboard that was weathered and faded, and sixteen pence left from his previous day’s begging.

He left his back alleyway and ventured into the town centre. Sitting outside a McDonald’s, out of the way of the binmen and street cleaners, he ate his burger, imagining it was fresh and that he’d just bought it from the restaurant he was outside of.

“Oi, clear off,” the restaurant manager said running out to chase him off before the breakfast crowds arrived.

Toad didn’t argue, there was no point. He went across town to one of the last public toilets, there was a small group of homeless men waiting for the cleaners to clean out, so no one would kick them out.
After that he went towards the train station on a route frequented by the wealthy and well fed, near coffee shops and newsagents.

The begging was poor, but it was that time of month. That said he had enough for a coffee and a buttered bread roll from the market place by lunch time.

Continue reading “Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 91: The Life of Toad”

This is the 90th in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

Race Track, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 1st March 2013

Word count: 998

Info: a few days late with this one, playing catch up. Bish bash bosh, here they come….

The story:

“This is the Pagani Huayra,” the salesman said, “It’s as fast as you could possibly want, and it’ll do fourteen miles per gallon, which is pretty good for a super car.”

“Hmm,” the man in the expensive suit said, “Does it come in black?”

“Of course,” the salesman said with a smile.

“Great, I’ll take it,” the man said.

“Let’s go do the paper work,” the man said with a smile, imagining the commission.

He was a little shocked when the man presented him with a bag of euros, but he gracefully accepted the payment, after verifying it was real.

The paperwork took an hour, but the man drove out of the exclusive dealership, in one of the world’s most exclusive sports cars. The dealer waved good bye and went off to arrange a security van collection for the money,

The man in the Pagani Huayra meanwhile was pulling into a warehouse.

“Good you got it, any trouble?” an attractive young woman asked.

“For this much money, few questions asked,” the man said climbing out of the car.

Continue reading “Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 90: Race Track”

This is the 89th in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

Diligent, The Recruit, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 28th February 2013

Word count: 951

The story:

“A ship like this gets in a lot of scrapes,” the recruiting sergeant said. “This isn’t a safe life, but it is profitable.”

“Transporting strawberries?” the prospective recruit said with a smile.

“Precisely,” the sergeant said ignoring the man’s joke.

“So what’s she carrying fighter wise?” the recruit asked.

“Three scorpion class fighters with the manoeuvrability mods,” the sergeant said. The recruit was sold.

Four days later Riston Stoker, the prospective recruit, boarded the Diligent. Officially the Diligent was a transport ship, but everyone knew she was really a pirate space ship, even SBO had used it’s stories to create a holo show, Free Men of Space.

“Welcome aboard the Diligent,” the recruiter said as soon as Riston crossed the airlock.

Continue reading “Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 89: Dilligent, The Recruit”

This is the 88th in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

Day at the Shops, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 27th February 2013

Word count: 771

The story:

“This isn’t what I had planned,” John Johnston said as he popped out of cover to fire his colt at whichever targets were presenting themselves. It was a big powerful and noisy gun, but also accurate, two of the five remaining attackers went down wounded or dead. John returned to cover.

“Yeah like I expected the same thing,” Luke Riley said, “What the hell missions have you been on to warrant this response?” he popped up from cover and sprayed the enemy position with an uzi before returning to cover. “I fucking hate uzis, on my last clip.”

“I’ve been off rotation for five months,” John said, as he waited for the gun fire to stop ringing against the marble planter in the mall, then he popped up and fire two more shots, taking another gunman down. “There’s one of theirs down over there,” he pointed at a dead body, “I’ll cover you.”

Continue reading “Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 88: Day at the Shops”

This is the 87th in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

Applications, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 28th February 2013

Word count: 541

The story:

Within five years the world was beyond altered. Five years. I was a teenager when we hit the Green Cliff, oceans rose, weather became devastatingly unpredictable, vast super storms that lasted months and flooded continents, and being above the water didn’t help as there were winds strong enough to break a man and carry him miles away.

The wheels of industry were smashed to smithereens, either directly or because of a lack of resources. I remember the news prophesying millions of deaths, but it was more like billions. I was painfully aware of this because I was with my dad in a government bunker, front row seats to the end of the world as we knew it.

Five years later things calmed down, we left our shelters to make a new life. Then the snow and the ice came in winters, summers were hot and dry, but as the years swung between we learned to cope.

It doesn’t matter, life goes on, but it’s a struggle. There isn’t enough to go round, there are those that choose to take from others. There are diseases the super storms dug up, and summers as affective as any genetic lab created, that if your lucky took you quick. Too many were slow debilitating diseases that robbed you of good friends inch by inch.

Continue reading “Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 87: The Apocalypse Challenges”

This is the 75th in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

Applications, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 25th February 2013

Word count: 1000

The story:

“This is the biggest and most powerful computer in the world today,” the photogenic scientist Wolf Hammersmith said to the packed auditorium. “Its official name is the IBM LX9154H, but the guys working on it having given a much more meaningful name, Deep Thought, in honour of the computer from Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.”

“Excuse me Doctor Hammersmith,” a journalist said standing up, “But didn’t Deep Thought give an incomprehensible answer?”

Wolf laughed jovially, “The answer entirely depends on the questions. Our Deep Thought has a series of questions to understand, and then research the answer. This computer is the equivalent of the Large Hadron Collider. It will devote itself to answering the most important questions of our humanity, but as a computer it lacks the bias of human philosophy.”

“So there’s no AI?” another journalist in a blue suit asked.

“Just the opposite, the framework of this machine, from its hardware to its operating system is to mimic the function of key areas of the human brain. It has already developed a highly rudimentary personality, and can validate questions that refer to itself.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?” the blue suited journalist pressed.

“It can’t build evil robot versions of itself, I can assure you,” Wolf said with a laugh.

“How can you be sure?” the same blue suited journalist challenged, much to the growing frustration.

“I don’t know what Sci Fi nonsense you’ve got up there at whatever magazine you work for but I can assure you that’s just not possible. I can teach a child about nuclear physics, but I cannot expect that child to apply that knowledge, they have neither the education nor the tools for practical application. It’s the same with LX9154H.”

“I only ask because I received an email traceable back to your department, voicing these concerns,” explained the blue suited journalist, “And my name is Adam Gibson from the Times.”

Continue reading “Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 86: Applications”