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Write about a character preparing to go into stasis for decades (or centuries).

Posted in Science Fiction on Oct 15, 2020

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✍️ 108 stories

The Stasis Experiment and How Not to React to It

Submitted to Contest #62

“Welcome to the Fredrickson Internship,” Dr. Levon Fredrickson said with the world’s cockiest smile on his face. “As you know, we’re the largest government-funded psychology program in New Beckom.”He gestured for his interns to clap. Hesitantly, they did.“Thank you. Thank you. Now, we’ll start by conducting my most famous psychology experiment: The Stasis.” Dr. Fredickson clicked a remote and a presentation shot across the lecture hall wall. “In this experiment, you will all be assigned one subject that has agreed and signed a contract to be...

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Planet Nine Project!

Submitted to Contest #62

(Write about a character preparing to go into stasis for decades (or centuries).)Renae sat before her mirror critically studying her own features. Her hair color, like harvest wheat in the sunshine, was natural looking. She wore it long and she enjoyed twisting it around her fingers creating ringlets. She was very aware that men often turned to look, at least briefly, when she entered a room or meeting. She was in the prime of her life. Her age, fitness, career and relationships were right on target.&n...

26 likes 5 comments 5
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Drifting Among A Sea Of Stars

Submitted to Contest #62

The ship exploded out of the wormhole just barely holding together; massive blast holes littered the hull while laser fire had melted parts of the titanium armor plating into a sort of goo. The jump rattled my brain, but I managed to win the battle of willpower and spat out words.“Status Report!” I hissed.“Sir, Multiple hull breaches have been detected and life support systems are falling!” said a crewman to the right of me.“Cut the engines and reroute power to the main life support systems! I don’t want us to have come all the way just to d...

24 likes 3 comments 3
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Taken Memories

Submitted to Contest #62

They said I would be disoriented. That the present and past would be lumped together and pureed into a mixture of confusion and deliria. At least I think. I can’t quite remember anything clearly anymore. “Darling Breanna dear.” People in ironed white coats wave their hands in front of me, vying for my attention. I am not stupid. I can see, I just don’t want to. They can stay in the blur that was my peripheral, the white wall was the only constant in the blend of reality. 1,2,3,4. They ask me to count. It is not algebra I struggle with. N...

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Montis Absentia Pt. VII

Submitted to Contest #62

The man who staggered out of the shadows looked an awful lot like Rasputin.He shambled towards them, hands raised in a zombie’s posture.The man had grey and tatty clothes, little more than rags, which hung from his bones. He wore no shoes, and his feet scraped across the concrete, naked and raw. Beard long and bedraggled, hair matted and wild. His eyes shined like black coals in his pale, wrinkled face.Steve glanced at Mary. “What the hell is he? Mary, is he real? Is—” he wet his lips “—is this one actually there?”They’d retreated as far as ...

22 likes 1 comment 1
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A Letter to Stella

Submitted to Contest #62

There is much to be said for the light of the stars, for the rose-clouds over the setting sun, for the taste of newness in the early morning air. There is much to be said and even more to be missed, but there is so little time. I think I will miss most the memory of the curve of your mouth, the crinkle of your cheeks right before you smile. It’s impossible to know, really, until I have been kissed by the light of the stars for centuries and wake up someday in a new world.I do not know many things, but I know that the worst punishment will be...

21 likes 11 comments 11
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Dr Lions' Den

Submitted to Contest #62

“My dear, I think it is a wise decision to opt for palliative care,” said Dr van Allen. “Unless ….”      “Unless what?” Tess demanded, her tone far more peremptory than she had meant it to be. Before going to see Dr Van Allen, she had been entirely firm in her mind. She was not remotely interested in any of those medical breakthroughs that only meant another couple of months with ever more toxic and debilitating doses of chemotherapy. She’d had enough. She wasn’t exactly resigned to it, but c...

21 likes 2 comments 2
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Suicide Mission

Submitted to Contest #62

               When they talk about saving the world, people generally leave out how much paperwork is involved. None of the wily YA heroines she’d read about had ever joined the rebels and then immediately signed NDAs or wrote their living will. Maybe the authors skipped that part on purpose. She smiled at the thought of the heroine having to tell her two equally handsome and equally broody love interests that she was too busy to make out and cry; she, instead, had t...

20 likes 4 comments 4
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LiveLater, Inc.

Submitted to Contest #62

“FED UP WITH THE PRESENT?”The question was elegant in its simplicity and design, laid out in bold eight-inch lettering, white Helvetica against a black background.The overhead lights flickered and the subway car rocked as it rounded a bend in the tracks. The passengers swayed in unison. Daniel Feldman mouthed the words silently as he read and then nodded to himself. He looked around. Morning rush hour. Men and women on their way to the office, black and grey suited, ties in acceptably bland shades of blue and red. One nearly indistinguishabl...

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Davie's Locker

Submitted to Contest #62

"Lay your head here my, boy."This was it. A cold unwarranted fear washed over him as he lay to rest upon the body shaped casket. It was white and soft to the touch. As he looked up all he could see was the remainder of the old guard."Will it hurt, grandpa?""Not at all," He turned to Ida at his side. His weapons instructor. She fetched a needle and some gauze. "Now I'm going to inject you with amoxsophine. Do know what that is?""Yes, it is a muscle relaxant and dehydrant. This is to prevent any injury during the cryophase of my homeostasis." ...

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History Repeats Itself

Submitted to Contest #62

ACT I. The Backstory. Next month the Teatro Rosalía will be presenting a play on the legend of Saint Ero, abbot of Armenteira Monastery. The playwright is a newcomer to the genre of stage writing, but rumor has it she’s pretty good. She has already published very well-received reviews in local newspapers and on the internet. She is extremely pleased that the theater group of the university has selected her work to staged in late October, which is their kick-off month. The Grupo Bentevexo is the best in Galicia, too, which is even more reas...

18 likes 4 comments 4
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She Exists in my Dreams

Submitted to Contest #62

        The email appeared in my inbox late one night. It was well past midnight and I was nowhere near sleep, just mindlessly scrolling on the internet. That was pretty typical for me these days. Sometimes I had booze to lull me to sleep, but it was coming up on the end of the month and my stash was long gone. I had honestly been too lazy to go back out to the grocery store, not even for food. I’d spent the past few weeks existing on mostly pizza and takeout.        ...

17 likes 1 comment 1
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Dreams of the Planet Spoon.

Submitted to Contest #62

Dreams of the Planet Spoon Henry looked at the patches on his jacket, the edges worn with time and training, he folded the cloth neatly by the bed where he would sleep for the next one hundred and twenty-three years. Alpha Ursae Majoris a star in the Big Dipper constellation was embroidered on the small hexagonal fabric. A small, stitched planet orbited it: Kermode. That was their destination. The letters “H.O.R.A.S.” labeled the patch and from the jacket he looked to his right where Charlie and Rose stood. To his left was Adrienne, Jan, ...

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The Bear

Submitted to Contest #62

The Bear is going to sleep. She picks up the phone and calls Roger at the cave. Roger is eating a dead rabbit and when the phone rings, he looks up, rabbit blood pooled at the corners of his lips, and decides not to answer. Roger is aware that the Bear is just about ready to go to sleep, because it’s that time of year, and the rabbits are getting clumsier, but also less tasty, and so he knows that the Bear is going to hibernate soon, but for much longer this time, because she’s getting tired of waking up, and he knows he should answer th...

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Escape Trajectory

Submitted to Contest #62

“Some witness protection scheme this is,” Sheena muttered as she stared at her reflection in the glass of the unit. Automatically she tried to adjust her hair, only to realise that there wasn’t enough of it left to adjust. With her hand still halfway to her head she sighed and stared deep into her own eyes. “Is it worth it?” “What was that?” Yohan asked as he blundered into the room. “Nothing,” Sheena replied. Her words were lost in the thunderous crash as Yohan tipped the stack of boxes he was carrying to the floor. “Sorry?” Sheena ...

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