short stories

Weekly Short Story: Galactic Postman

I often wonder what the future will be like long after I am gone. As a fan of science fiction, it isn’t hard to see where my thoughts would gravitate to. This story is based on mankind being able to do one thing but not the other. I feel like this would be the reality but who really knows? Without further ado, here is this week’s tale.

Artwork by Adobe Firefly

Galactic Postman

Station Marcus was the last message station between Earth’s home solar system and the Ragnar Minor System some 300 light years away. Ships could travel faster than light these days but the messages between worlds could not. Messengers and their space craft were required to carry message traffic between worlds. Samuel Reva could not think of any other job in the solar system that he would rather do than be one of only a few “Galactic Postman.”

Sam started his day with making the small trip from Earth to the message station. He thought about living aboard the station but Earth was so beautiful and open. Being cramped in a spacecraft to make his daily run was about all he could take before faint traces of claustrophobia would kick in and his anxiety would start to rise. Making the run to Ragnar Minor and back. It was just the right size trip for Samuel Reva.

The control tower signaled clearance for Sam to take the Pulsar 779 spacecraft out of the dock and into space. The station hanger was quite large and could accommodate various sizes of spacecraft from small courier vessels like the Pulsar series to the bigger space cruisers like the Titan IV. An intermittent blinking light on the console reminded Sam to acknowledge his digital cargo. A part of the procedure he felt was designed to remind them of why they were there and what they were supposed to do. He pressed the indicator and set a course for Ragnar Minor. It was an exercise he felt he had done a thousand times before.

One minute and twelve seconds later, the Pulsar 779 spacecraft that Sam had affectionately named “Miranda” fired up the hyperdrive and disappeared into the blackness of space. Gravity drives and dampening fields made this journey a relatively easy one. From the cockpit, the stars whizzed by at tremendous speeds while the navigation system constantly scanned ahead for obstacles. One wrong piece of anything in Sam’s path would be catastrophic to the little space ship. He often wondered while staring at the view about how long folks like him would be needed. With all of the advancements that humanity has made, surely communications between star systems couldn’t be that far from reality?

The emergency sirens began bellowing as Sam’s space ship fell out of hyperspace with a jarring motion that he didn’t think was possible. This had never happened before. Why did he drop out of hyperspace? After hitting a few buttons on his main console, it didn’t take Sam long to figure out why his ship came out of hyperspace. Ahead of his Pulsar 779 to the tune of roughly 2 million kilometers, was a large amount of military space craft. He could pick out everything from fighters to corvettes. He knew there was a war between two nearby colonies but hadn’t suspected that it had grown to this magnitude.

The console beeped to inform Sam that an errant missile had locked on to his craft and was bearing down on him. He had three minutes to figure out what to do. The first thing Sam did was to activate his distress beacon. At least if anything happened to him, the craft or what was left of it could be located and cargo retrieved. Couriers were supposed to be safe out here. He wondered why they would fire at him. His mind was running like a runner around a track. He needed to figure out what to do. His ship wasn’t designed for combat. Hell, he didn’t even have shields.

The only defense that Sam could think of was to try to move the ship out of the way at the last minute. With some hope, the missile wouldn’t be able to reacquire his ship but that was only speculation. He began scanning the area for a place to set down if he needed to. The idea also crossed his mind to eject the cargo. The data storage module had its own beacon so it would eventually be found by someone. There was only about a minute until impact now.

Sam made damn sure the right finger was on the right button as he prepared to move aside at the last moment before impact. The sweat collected on his collar and on his brow. He quickly wiped it off and then began counting down. Five, four, three, two, one…

The ship quickly jerked to the right and the missile barely clipped the space craft. Sam was knocked off his feet by the force of the missile’s thrust. Several harrowing seconds went by as Sam tried to access the situation. He was still in one piece. The missile probably traded paint with his craft but thankfully, did not impact. He felt like the luckiest person alive. His immediate space was clear and he could still see the battle raging in front of him. A corvette burst into pieces as missile after missile struck. Little blips of light were visible as fighters winked out of existence.

“Well, shit!”, Sam said out loud when he saw that the ship had automatically ejected the data core. He didn’t know the ship was capable of that. It was certainly never brought up with the senior staff. Now, he would be forced to make a decision about where to go. Was it closer to Marcus station or Ragnar Minor?

Sam began calculating a course away from the fighting. He’d have to move out to a distance of several million kilometers before he could make the jump to which ever station was closest. He didn’t have the equipment to retrieve the data core. A pair of simple grappler arms would have come in handy right about now. He lined up on the brighter of the two stars on the left and began moving his ship in that direction.

Two kilometers from “Miranda” a faint blue color radiated from the rear of the cylindrical object. The blue hue gained in intensity as the main engine spun up once again to continue the mission and make a Pulsar 779 space craft, nonexistent. On “Miranda”, a red light began blinking on the main console. A weary Galactic Postman looked up and into the space ahead of him.

“Well, shit.”

October 1, 2023 by Mike Williams Weekly Short Story

Weekly Short Story: The Cafe’

Harper Mallory looked down at her watch. It was one of those weird times of the day where she was torn between eating a late breakfast or having an early lunch. There was a word for it. There was a word for everything, she thought to herself. The day was a cloudy ominous one that seemed to threaten the people walking on Charles Avenue with a sudden downpour of rain at any moment. Harper realized that she wasn’t dressed for that and this day was turning into a dreary and unremarkable excuse for an early martini.

After walking for a few minutes, the answer to her earlier dilemma was staring right in front of her in the form of Dale’s Cafe’. She smiled. It was a Saturday morning and she didn’t really need to be anywhere but she just had to get out of that tiny apartment. It had been several months since her boyfriend Chris disappeared and she just wanted to put all of that behind her. She swore she could still smell his cologne on her pillow even though she had washed it many times since.

Harper walked up to the outdoor counter of the small cafe and ordered a coffee with creme and sugar. The older lady seemed pleasant enough and offered a return smile as she handed over Harper’s change. A few moments later with coffee in hand she made her way to a two person table as far away from the Barista as possible. People just weren’t her thing.

It felt something a little below sweater weather and the sky seemed to get a little darker. Harper stared at the coffee in her cup. Chris had been the perfect boyfriend for over two months. She couldn’t stop thinking about him. Where did everything go wrong? Days and nights of second guessing everything she said and did. Their final conversation resulted in a reaction. A bad reaction. She never saw it coming. Nary, a warning sign to be seen.

He wasn’t physically abusive. Harper had been in one of those relationships before and it ended pretty much the same way as her relationship with Chris had. Chris was different. She should have picked up on his obsession with cleanliness. She never thought it would lead to yelling. She really didn’t like yelling.

About half way through her cup and a few thoughts later, a young couple purchased a couple of drinks and took a seat several feet away from Harper. No waves. No hello. No eye contact. “Was this one of those spy situations?”, she wondered to herself. The man sported dark features and wore a baseball cap. She couldn’t make out the logo but it was probably a baseball team. She wasn’t into sports. The woman was blonde haired and petite. It was the kind of small that made Harper wonder if she was eating properly.

A few minutes later, things got more interesting. A hand slammed down on the table nearly topping over the couple’s drinks. The murmuring began to get louder and started to form into words. They were unkind words. The kind of words that hurt and all directed at the young lady. Harper tried not to look in their direction. She couldn’t help it. Tears started forming in the young lady’s eyes.

Harper’s heart began beating faster in her chest. This is exactly what her last night with Chris was like. His voice and his words cut like a knife. This woman. This young and frail looking woman was a victim in much the same way she had been all of those months ago. She caught the words “dumb, cunt, and worthless” as if the man didn’t care who heard them. The woman held her face in her hands.

That seemed to make the man yell even louder. All of the words could be heard now. It was so suddenly clear to Harper. The crime that this small woman committed. The crime that was so horrible that they had to leave their apartment and get their morning coffee elsewhere. No sugar.

Anyone watching the scene play out without audio would think that the lady must have cheated on him with another man. Because, why would he be so visibly agitated? Although a steady stream of people walked by the cafe’, no one seemed to care about the verbal violence playing out before them. A frightened little voice between bellows of anger and near hatred spilled into the cacophony of sound as the fighting continued.

Harper slowly stood up and gathered her things. She couldn’t let this go on much longer. She felt so much pity for this poor woman. She could make all of this stop. It was her duty. Much in the same way that Chris had to go away, so did this angry man wearing a baseball cap. She slowly walked up behind the man and brushed the tip of her index finger against his exposed and dare she say, sweaty neck. In the time it took for her to draw her next breath, the couple had vanished. First the man and within milliseconds, the small and abused woman to the notice of no one at all.

Harper looked up at the sky. It was still gray but seemed to be getting a little lighter. This day might not turn out to be a bad one after all. She smiled. “Miss, your mug!”, the lady behind the counter yelled out to her. “Oh, sorry. I must have been daydreaming.”, She said. After placing the mug back on the counter, Harper continued walking down Charles Avenue.

Somewhere in time a young blonde woman holds her baby daughter up in the air. The child laughing as though this was the best thing ever. Another older male child lays on the blanket next to her. The birds in the park are singing their morning tunes as the sun begins to rise over the park. She turns to her right and looks at a man pushing a young boy on a swing. She smiles. He smiles back and she thinks “This truly is going to be the best day ever.”

September 23, 2023 by Mike Williams Weekly Short Story

Weekly Short Stories

I was going to write this post yesterday but I got caught up in other things and never got back around to doing it.

I love giving myself challenges. I have challenged myself to write short stories during the busiest time of year and accomplished that. I have challenged myself to create a daily video for a year and not only did that but I am still doing it. I’m over 600 daily videos in to it.

This brings me to this post. My next challenge is going to be to write a small 1000-1500 word short story every single week. I want to do this for an entire year.

Once I commit to something, I usually do it. I wrote the first story this morning. It isn’t polished and the point of these stories is to write them. The idea is get the story down and move on to the next thing. Some will be better than others.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy writing them.

September 23, 2023 by Mike Williams Weekly Short Story

Bad Human Behavior Continues

I am having too much fun writing my current series.

The absolute dregs of society. People who project violence and sometimes hatred on others. Sometimes the violence is somewhat justified and sometimes it isn’t.

I can’t believe how much fun it is to write this kind of stuff down and have it form a cohesive story that is baked into a science fiction adventure.

Human violence. Alien violence.

Fun for the whole family.

Stay tuned.

February 17, 2021 by Mike Williams Short Stories

A Good Story

There are a few stories in this collection of short stories I am currently writing that I personally think are great stories.

The story I am currently working on highlights the very worst of humanity in the beginning of the story. It will progress to something else entirely and for reasons that only a science fiction story can deliver but I have to admit that I am having a blast writing it.

In one way it is a good thing but in another way, I find it sad that it is so easy to write how bad human beings can be to each other. There isn’t one of these scenarios that you couldn’t easily imagine as actually happening.

I can’t wait until these stories are published.

February 13, 2021 by Mike Williams Short Stories

The Next Big Thing

Last night I began work on the 5th story in my 60 Pages project.

I have already laid out the nine story ideas I want to use but surprisingly enough, I’ve been following the structure. I am picking and choosing the order that I am writing them out.

I may end up choosing to write different stories for the remaining four. I am not sure. There is really only one idea that grabs me. In addition to that, I’d love to write something about Marilyn Manson and undue process. Society has literally turned into a guilty before proven innocent mind set.

I’m so excited to be where I am in only a few short months. The basic premise for anyone who wants to become a writer is just…write. Keep writing. Write often. It doesn’t matter what it is or even how good those first few things are. It will get better over time. My writing still sucks but I feel like I am getting better at it. I do it everyday and in many different forms. I write a journal. I write a blog post. I write short stories. I write emails however, we won’t count those. That is the kind of writing I’d like to steer clear of but life pulls me in.

Ok. Wicked little post about nothing in general or possibly just a writing update.

Have a super sparkly day!

February 9, 2021 by Mike Williams Writing

Once Upon a Time on Earth

I just finished writing the fourth entry into my short story collection called 60 Pages.

I like this story and definitely felt like this could have easily been a novel. I even left the end of the story open for that purpose.

Here is a summary I wrote for it…

An alien fleet discovers that Earth has unlocked the powers of magic. In a universe still reeling from a previous conflict the goals are clear.

This new threat must be neutralized.

With help from an unlikely source, the humans prepare for the battle of their lives as they defend their world and their way of life from a threat light years more technically advanced than they are.

In the end, the only real question is who will win? Will the aliens save the galaxy from the new magical threat or will humanity survive to fight another day?

February 7, 2021 by Mike Williams Blah Blah Blah Writing