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Sjan Evardsson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2019

Stories (287)

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Library

314 Followers

9 Following

287 Stories

2845 karma pts

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No Good Option

Few things are as disheartening as being given a choice that is no choice at all. Technically, it was a choice, but the only options were bad or worst. If she called the vote for the resolution, Earth would become a vassal state of a multi-star-system empire for which citizens were resources to be used as the empire saw fit.The other option would be not to call for the resolution, at which point the blockade of gargantuan warships protecting Earth would leave. Without their protection, Earth would have to fight off the other group of warship...

2 likes

The Captain's Garden

The gardens were far more lush and inviting than they’d ever been. A heady aroma of flowers, evergreens, and loam greeted every visitor. Butterflies flitted between the flowers, worms and isopods burrowed in the dirt and converted detritus to nourishing soil. Beneficial fungus and bacteria worked together with the bugs and plants, while springtails kept their tiny selves busy preventing runaway fungus. A water feature in the center housed spirulina punching far above its weight class in converting CO2 to oxygen. Jack looked on the garden wi...

4 likes

Town Nine, Idima

Henri was a war reporter, now. Reporting was both his vocation and his calling. He hadn’t planned on being a war correspondent, but he was in the right place at the right time…or perhaps the wrong place and time. He was still divided on that.He had been on the planet covering the people affected by the arguments between the beetle-like Rinikians and the furry, six-limbed Atalans. The argument had played out in the Galactic Unity for months. Both claimed ownership of a star system that wasn’t worth the effort to colonize.There was no love los...

2 likes

All I Have Left

Gabrielle picked up the phone and called the only number stored in her contacts. When the voice on the other end answered, she said, “Soph, it’s Gabs. Could you…come over? I think I need some help.” Sophia gave a light knock at the door. The woman who answered looked nothing like the woman she’d known. Gaunt and disheveled, her once rosy skin gone pale, her eyes sunken and tired, she swam in clothes five sizes too large. Her normally vibrant orange hair was dulled. The apartment showed no sign of having been cleaned, thick dust on every su...

4 likes

1420 MHz

“Speak now.” The interviewer sat back in their seat, letting the camera run.“It’s hard to describe. To paraphrase Dickens, it was the best time of my life, it was the shittiest time of my life. Maybe both and neither at the same time, like Shrödinger’s cat. I guess we can open the box now and see which way the waveform collapses.“Not that I’d change anything. The lack of sleep, the shitty little room I could barely afford on my part-time wages, meals consisting of whatever I could scrounge from the kitchen at work. No one tells you how hard ...

3 likes

The Last Moon

When I first met her, she was pale, emaciated, yet her smile was warm. She was dressed in a loose robe-like gown that showed the sharp angles of her joints when she moved. She carried a bundle of flowers she attempted to sell to everyone who passed by. There was something in her golden eyes that was both desperate and crafty, wild and careful. I watched for a short time, as she failed to sell a single flower, before I approached. “How much are the flowers?” I asked. “Whatever you feel is fair,” she said. I opened my wallet, pulled out a ...

3 likes

Big Tom

Thomas “Big Tom” Wilson pulled strips of meat out of the smoker. The hard needles the trees dropped from time to time made an excellent smoke source, somewhat like applewood. The meat came from the small creatures he caught in traps around his garden.He turned off the smoker’s burner coil and doused the still-smoldering needles in the tray above the coil. Satisfied that he wouldn’t waste any smoke fuel, he carried the strips of meat into the cabin he called home…or rather the emergency shelter he called a cabin he called home.After a day spe...

3 likes

Refugees

Jordi held open the door. “Welcome to the cat shelter.” “Knock it off,” Pen said. “I hear anyone, including you, refer to the Strallins as ‘cats’ again, they’ll be relegated to the loading dock.” Jordi led Pen to her new office. “What about the Strallins that refer to themselves as cats — or as nekomimi?” “What are you talking about?” “When they first got here, a Strallin found an old manga somewhere. They thought it was some sort of prophetic thing that we would have drawings of them.” Pen stopped in front of her desk and rubbed her te...

5 likes

Cups and Balls

“I’m knackered. Glad that’s over.” - “You? All you did was sell me out, you Judas. I had to do all the work.” “I’m terribly sorry. I thought he was another tourist. I have a hard time getting simple directions in this city, and I speak English.” - “Yeah, we’ve all heard it…New York sucks and everybody’s awful.” “When I saw a tall bloke in cosplay trying to get anyone to acknowledge him, I stopped to see if I could help. He just said, ‘Show me magic,’ so I thought he was looking for a street performer.” - “You thought that was cosplay?” ...

5 likes

Not Until the Job Is Done

Maria Cointreau looked up at Indri, the tall creature hidden behind the wall with her. Standing on four legs, with two arms with odd joints, four compound eyes, and smooth, grey skin, she looked like a praying mantis from a fever dream. The human-made sub-machine gun she carried just reinforced the image.“I’m out,” Maria said, lowering her assault rifle, “but if we can get to the warehouse by the river, we can re-supply.”“We lost. It’s time to leave.”“Bullshit!” Maria Cointreau spit on the ground, blood mixed with her spittle. “As long as we...

6 likes

Bleeding Through

It was there again for just a split second, then it was gone. A flash in the eye; something off-kilter just a bit. I couldn’t tell what it was, but it made me think I might be losing my marbles. If I hadn’t been too nervous to try when it was offered in university, I would blame it on it acid flashbacks. I pulled my hair into a ponytail and tied it with the spare band I had around my wrist. It served as an excuse to stand outside for a moment longer to gather my wits. The reception had that sterile, cold, hospital feeling down, complete wi...

3 likes

Fighting Monsters

During my second year in the academy, I was still trying to decide what I wanted to specialize in. At that point, it didn’t matter; I was going to do anything that got me into space and away from the outer colonies for good. One afternoon, there was a test of a new vectoring thruster built by the engineering students. It was supposed to be super-efficient or some other thing. There were several of us watching on the periphery; just something to occupy our free time. They were testing on the perpetually “Coming Soon” soccer pitch. It hadn’t...

5 likes

Compliance

There were at least six cameras around the parking lot Grace could see without craning her neck. There were another nine she’d seen as she entered the lot. The counting wasn’t voluntary, it was more an annoying tic. She tried to relax in her car, waiting for the Compliance Office to open, but there was no comfortable position in her tiny commuter one-seater. She looked at the ticket summons on her phone again. “Presence in a restricted zone.” Convenient, she thought, that they can mark an area restricted with no warning and collect fines. ...

4 likes

The Freeze

The only thing worse than a poor night’s sleep is the day after. When it happens every night, however, the days turn into a smear of half-remembered impressions as the world passes by at what feels like double or treble speed. He answered the knocking at his door. “You here to wake me up? You’re a few hours late.” “You’re dragging again.” There was a hint of pity in her voice. “I’ll be fine,” he said. “Just like you haven’t been all week?” She moved closer to where he couldn’t avoid her gaze. “You look like a raccoon, and I know you have...

4 likes

A Lady Scorned

She clapped her leathery wings in rage, her eyes glowing like hot coals. Her champion had not only let her down, he’d flat-out betrayed her. As usual, only her favorite brother was here to comfort her.“Relax, sister.” Pride placed his arm and one wing around her. “You knew there was a chance to lose, and you took it.”“Yeah, sure. You can puff yourself up with ‘at least I tried’ but that doesn’t cut it for me; I have to win.”Pride stood, holding his sister close. “There will be others,” he said.“He was to be my champion. I thought he was stea...

5 likes