Science Fiction Microstory Contest discussion
Please help me in congratulating S.M. Kraftchak. January 2016 champion of the Science Fiction Microstory Contest
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Well done Sharon.Now for your punishment- find us a good theme!
Congrats, Sharon! Not in anyway surprised at the outcome. Yours was far the better story imho. I also had a bit of a slip up with my voting, otherwise it would have been a done deal for you much sooner. :-) Now to business - shall we get practising on summat to do with snow?
Congratulations, Sharon. And J.J. Terrific stories from both of you.
Thank you all for your praise. I am humbled because I consider this a very high caliber writing group overall with multiple views and certainly a gift for the critical eye that is often a tough sell.J.J.- I was not surprised to find you a contender, because your stories are almost always on the mark-Great Job!
Congrats to Sharon and all the finalists. A very strong selection of stories this month.
Congratulations, Sharon! A lovely story.
February's writing prompt has been posted.
Copyright by S.M. Kraftchak
(734 words)
Alexander leaned forward on his knees to catch his breath. He had arrived at the Bridge to Nowhere. His headlamp revealed a narrow rock bridge that seemed to end mid-air, a thousand feet above the desert valley, but it wasn’t the real end, he hoped. Alexander’s hand went to the round warmth nestled in his backpack on his chest. He had promised Rajiera that he would return her egg, their egg, to her home world.
He knew Rajiera was different from the moment they met. That’s what had made him fall in love with her. By the time he knew her true identity, his heart only saw a soul he loved and for whom he would do anything. He’d never forget as long as he lived, and hopefully that would be longer than the next ten minutes, their last moments together on the night she had transformed and laid her egg. It had been exhilarating to hold her as her skin turned a vibrant, smooth-scaled blue and her human features elongated to reveal her true form. And then when she had laid their egg, there were no words, except profound joy.
That night had also been the beginning of a three-day-long nightmare that spanned several hundred miles of rugged terrain. They had been laying face to face, their slowly hardening egg between them, when lights stabbed through each window and an electronic voice called over a bullhorn, “This is Homeland Immigration Service. Send the alien female out and no one gets hurt.”
She bolted from bed with a screeching hiss, drew the curtains, and returned with my backpack and a handful of towels. Gently she encased the egg in several layers and slid it in the backpack as she spoke. “You must take our egg back to my home world. She will never be safe here.”
“No! I’ll protect you,” I had foolishly announced as I rolled out of bed hasten into pants and a shirt.
Rajiera grabbed my upper arms with her claws. “I love you for that, but you don’t stand a chance against them. I’ll buy you the time you need to get away. Go to the basement and pull out the canning shelf. There’s a passageway that runs out to Croger’s barn. The egg will show you where to go when you get there. Just put your hands on it, like this,” she guided my hands onto the nearly hard shell. “She’ll show you the way to the bridge to nowhere.”
“But-”
“Go now while there’s still time,” she said as she slipped my backpack straps onto my shoulders securing our egg to my chest.
Just then, a window shattered and a canister of teargas clattered to the floor.
The rest is a blur: choking on the gas; fear of being caught in the long dark earthen tunnel; looking back to see our house ablaze; miles of relentless pursuit. It would soon be over.
Five feet from the visual end of the Bridge to Nowhere, an electronic voice called over a bullhorn. “Alexander, stop. Just hand over the egg and your nightmare will be over.”
Alexander turned his headlamp off and slowly raised one hand to shade his eyes from his pursuers’ spotlights as he took two more sideways step toward the end of the bridge.
“Stop! Don’t go any further. You don’t need to do this. It’s dead. It died in the fire.”
“No!” He shook his head and wailed to the stars. “You don’t understand. I loved her, and I’ll never let you have our...” His hands slid protectively around the backpack. His body seemed to melt like he would collapse to the ground, but suddenly he turned his back and sprang to the end of the bridge.
Alexander heard the crack of several gunshots behind him and felt a burning pain in his shoulder and his side as he felt his body fall into the darkness.
*
The sound of different pitched trilling purrs returned Alexander’s awareness. Laying on a soft bed of moss, he opened his eyes to see a lush green tree shading him from a bright sun. “Rajiera?” His hands jumped to his chest, and then fell to his side after finding the egg still there.
Three faces like Rajiera’s transformed face blocked his view of the tree. “She’s is gone?”
Alexander closed his eyes and wrapped his hand around the egg. “Not completely.”