Menu

More apps built by Reedsy

Assemble a team of professionals

The writing app for authors

Writing courses, events and memberships

Get your book reviewed

Weekly writing prompts and contests

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Write a story where the power goes out on a spaceship or submarine.

Posted in Adventure on Mar 30, 2021

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 86 stories

In the Dark

Winner of Contest #58 🏆

His grandfather had lived out his childhood in a house overlooking a busy railway line. Greg lost count of the number of times he’d heard the story about the night a fire closed the line further out of town.‘Woke up suddenly,’ Grandpa said. ‘Nine forty-three precisely. The silence woke me – should have been the Birmingham night train coming through. I couldn’t sleep after that, sat up watching the empty lines and knowing there was something wrong.’Greg had been fascinated to hear the story as a child, moving on to boredom in his teenage year...

274 likes 90 comments 90
Read story

The Dragon Warrior-Part 2

Submitted to Contest #58

 Author’s note: This is the continuation of The dragon warrior. This can be read as a stand-alone story. But, for a better understanding, you may want to read the first part.After the tough battle with the Kaals I received the warrior’s trophy from the President. After all, I am the Dragon warrior. But, after receiving the trophy, I was given the police job. But, not inside the air conditioned police station, instead in the scorching sun as a watchman. I was saving the city from rogues and thieves. They were the only criminals I knew he...

171 likes 182 comments 182
Read story

space love

Submitted to Contest #58

On the space ship there was the Captain, Spirit and her Co-captain and girlfriend Sky, along with two of their friends/crew Ash and his girlfriend Moon. "Come on Spirit where are we going this time??" Moon asked. All of them had left on the Space ship when they were fifteen and now all of them were nineteen. "Moon...Ash....you know what happened and we won't ever be able to go back, this is exciting and fun to explore and find planets!" Spirit told the two. Though as she told both of them this she didn't even seem to be focused on them, ...

72 likes 118 comments 118
Read story

Relation Ship

Submitted to Contest #58

In this world, only two people matter.There’s you—to be referred to only as such, because Maya won’t call you anything resembling “Dad.”And there’s Maya, who is your everything.Maya will now take the lead, because she always takes the lead. But bear in mind that your role in this has left just as many scorch marks, if not more so.🚀The only thing that could ruin Captain Maya’s day is an asteroid field. It looks like the Cosmic Divinities must be tuning in, because lo and behold, that’s exactly what her ship blunders into.“Don’t just stand the...

50 likes 73 comments 73
Read story

Every Grumpling Knows

Submitted to Contest #58

Every Grumpling knows that the Everpresent Moon is made of delicious, delicious cheese.Every Grumpling also knows that this delicious cheese moon is very, very far away.A good Grumpling spends his days toiling in his garden of sensible, accessible Grumpling crops: turnips, rutabagas and yellow onions. After a time, he develops a slump in his shoulders known as the Grumpling Stoop, the sign of a good Grumpling. What a good Grumpling does not do is stare at the Everpresent Moon, wondering such frivolities as “Is it Provolone, Gouda or Swiss?” ...

44 likes 15 comments 15
Read story

Four Cows Being Milked By Mimes In A Submarine While A Naked Woman Sings The Battle Hymn Of The Republic

Submitted to Contest #58

"The Emerson Affair is the term generally used to refer to an incident that occurred on July 7 of 2001 in which 32 people lost their life while taking part in an art exhibit inside a submarine which was submerged in the San Francisco Bay. The name comes from the artist who had created the exhibit, Tyla Emerson, who was also killed in the accident."Thus begins the Wikipedia article that talks about the day my mom died. It's so cold and precise that it gives me chills every time that I read it. I hate that this is her legacy. When you type her...

30 likes 16 comments 16
Read story

What a Neefv Gotta Do to Eat This Crew?

Submitted to Contest #58

“Hey Frank, you’ve got something in your teeth,” Celeste pointed at his reflection as she stared into the mirror, obsessing over her already perfect blonde hair.“Oh, okay.”“It’s not okay.” She handed her crewmate a container of floss. “Fix it. We can’t travel across the galaxy looking hideous, can we?” Celeste puffed up her curls.“Who are you trying to impress? There’s only like four people total on this spaceship.”“Exactly.”Tired of fighting with a girl who could argue her way to a week of free meals by asking to see the manager, Frank took...

29 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

A Second Sleep

Submitted to Contest #58

Author’s Notes  Some may perhaps remember the reluctant astronaut Tabitha from my earlier story “Mission Improbable”, but I hope this story can also stand alone.    I would also like to add that though it is, of course, a work of fiction, WG Sebald, Max to those of us privileged to know him, was a real, and wonderful person, and "The Rings of Saturn" is a real, and wonderful book. It’s almost a proverb in itself that proverbs have a contradictory proverb – on the lines of look before you leap and he who h...

29 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

"As Planned"

Submitted to Contest #58

"Everything will go exactly as planned."Those haunting words kept circling lazily through Lieutenant Commander Thomas Bartlett's mind as he frantically pounded on the keyboard, trying to find a loophole, a way out, an answer.The screen at which he was looking at was anything but impressive, the opposite of which seemed to be the main trait aboard the Magnificence III. It generated a weak light, as it was being powered by the double back-up generator, lighting the lieutenant commander's drawn facial features in a sickly way. “Come on Mag...

28 likes 11 comments 11
Read story

A Little Bit of Blue in the Black

Submitted to Contest #58

Some people think the depths are quiet, peaceful. Serene even. Those people are wrong. There is no quiet here. Even without the hum of generators and the constant blares of alarms. Under the crushing pressure of fifteen hundred meters of water, the hull itself creaks and moans. Two-inch-thick steel contorts and twists in agony. A soda can straining to stand against a malicious boot. No quiet, only darkness. And despair. We’ve been stuck for the past twelve hours. Something hit us, some sort of electromagnetic surge. We still don’t know what ...

27 likes 9 comments 9
Read story

Scientist's Submarine Odyssey

Submitted to Contest #58

Once there was a submarine. With a family that lived in it. Mr. Artemis. And Ms. Artemis. And 2 kids. Jane and ben! One time ben said “I hope we can go deep today" “Maybe" said Jane smiling. There were reaching the twilight zone. “Is that a piece of moving coral?” Said Ben. “Actually that’s called a frogfish ben, there try to attract prey by using a little thing fish like. Kind of like a fishing pole, and then they gobble the prey up in six milliseconds”. Said Jane. The frog fish was cool. “We are reaching the midnight zone” said Ms. Artemis...

25 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

The Silent Hum

Submitted to Contest #58

There was always a hum. Always had been, and always should be. So when Tobias woke up, and the world was quiet about him, he knew at once that something was wrong. It took him a few moments to work out what the problem was however. The background hum was so much a part of his world now, as it had been for the past two months, that normally he didn’t notice it. It was like actually noticing the sun was up, rather than just seeing that it was light. He wrestled out of the blankets, which were all tucked up under his legs to keep the chil...

25 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

She was Me and I was You

Submitted to Contest #58

“You was waiting for a friend, ‘till you turned and saw the end, watched her lips turn bright and blue, and in that moment knew, that she was me and I was you.” The words feel raw in my throat, scraping callously against my tongue and teeth. My hands shake as I flip through the notebook for the umpteenth time. No more entries. No more scrawled words. Why had I written this? When had I written this? Why couldn’t I remember? To the surface of my foggy mind bobs the soothing voice of Thomas, our resident doctor. “Hypoxia can cause memory loss,...

24 likes 10 comments 10
Read story

On the Drift

Submitted to Contest #58

Trapped in the darkness of the cockpit, I look around the blank screens on my console and feel a sense of dread begin to well up in my chest. It has been some time since the overhead lighting had cut off throughout the ship. The only remaining source of illumination is the piercing red streaks of the emergency lights that sporadically dot the metal grating of the floor. To be honest, it only seems to give everything a hellish red tint, rather than providing any sort of practical light source to work by. I imagine that will impede the Reco...

24 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

A Waiting Game

Submitted to Contest #58

We're drifting. We've been drifting for a long time - that's how we save fuel and energy, especially if we don't have any specific destination, but it seems our conservation efforts haven't been enough because Rust is telling everyone not to panic and saying that we'll all be fine if we just remain calm. Outside, a scattering of stars is reflected in my glasses - a thousand globes of fiery plasma hanging in an ice cold vacuum. There's silence out there - silence and peace and darkness and a surprising amount of dust. Space isn't as clean as ...

22 likes 14 comments 14
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about someone who purposefully causes a power outage.

Thriller and Suspense – 145 stories

Write about a character who’s stuck in an elevator when the power goes out.

Thriller and Suspense – 251 stories

Write a story about someone feeling powerless.

Narrative – 283 stories

Write about a family who decides to camp out in the back yard during a power outage.

Funny – 111 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel