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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of science fiction short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

150+ Science fiction Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Whether you’re looking for daring space battles or chilling “what if” glimpses of the future, you’ll find what you’re looking for in our collection of free science fiction short stories.

Science fiction Short Stories – Page 4 of 10

What Cannot Be Replaced

Weekly Contest #338

The pages nearly tear against my calloused fingertips, stripped thin from years of desperate turning. They hold fingerprints and dried tears from those before me, feverishly searching for answers that were never there. I know I am looking for something I will not find, and calling this a book is an insult. It should be hauled by horse and buggy, given its size—pages bound together over time, not meaning. It’s not a book. It’s a trap. Labeling policy as literary—as if tens of thousands of pages have ever brought anyone justice. My eyes skim t...

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Plan-Verse Corp. Future Strategy Memo: Narrative Case Study

Travis Smith

Weekly Contest #338

Plan-Verse Corp. Corporate Office Altasia blew the dust off of the brown leather-bound volume entitled “Plan-Verse Manual: One-Thousand Greatest Upkeep Disasters, Vol. 3. (300-399)” (Plan-Verse Corp.: We Manage Your Planets!) and threw it open, all the way to the index. She ran her finger down the page furiously and felt a bead of sweat find the unfortunate path into her eye. “Dammit!” She shouted with a tone that indicated an attempt to respect the whisper policy, but not the presence to actually keep quiet. “Shhhh!” cut into her ear from a...

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The Transtemporal Urgency Readiness Department

Weekly Contest #338

The glass door materialized in the frozen moment between seconds, its brown lettering gleamed. Transtemporal Urgency Readiness Department. Captain Zex'thor the Annihilator, Scourge of Seven Galaxies, stood before it with his three remaining tentacles clenched in profound irritation.Inside, fluorescent lights hummed like a funeral dirge. The office was beige. Walls with dirty, tattered wallpaper, oscillated green and light blue tiled flooring, filing cabinets stretching into impossible distance, with the faint smell of old coffee and existent...

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You are not alone

Weekly Contest #338

CW: Strong language, Suicidal ideation, Recovery ‘-Ever wondered how it would be to have a superpower? What would you use it for? Would you save the world, or rule it?-’That message was on a plaque by the entrance of a sterile office space in the garment district. The supergroup meets every Wednesday at 8 pm. Mind you, this is not an elite team of superheroes that would join forces to fight some intergalactic villain. Members here are struggling to come to terms with their extraordinary abilities, without.. You know, destroying our world.T...

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The day I discovered Alchemy wasn't a Gimmick

Weekly Contest #338

Warning: Somewhat vague reference to waterboarding near the end ---------------- It’s an old thing. Brown, leather bound, nothing embossed into the cover; it resembles a boring little journal.I was told by my mother of its status; a family relic. Something passed down through generations and generations. The date was never written anywhere in it, so all are unsure of where, exactly, in the family line this book spawned in. One thing is for certain; it dates back to a time where alchemy was heralded as the answer to all problems.The way to le...

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Farewell Address

Scott Speck

Weekly Contest #338

Farewell AddressThe hall was packed, every seat taken as the ceiling lights dimmed. Then he appeared – Doctor Simon Torrance – tall, strong, his neatly combed hair glowing silver. A roar of cheers and applause filled the hall as everyone rose to their feet, cell phones flashing as he strode beneath an enormous banner reading “Happy Retirement Doctor Torrance!”He was the most brilliant genetic engineer of all time, and the founder and Chief Scientist of Torrance Genetics. After three decades of world-changing discoveries, he was one brief hou...

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The Carvers

Ian Walker

Weekly Contest #338

Who decides reality? Do historians determine the past from the eyes of the present? Are all of our lives determined by the will of those who dare to write them in their own words, imprinting their dispositions on us? “They’re coming, we have to finish quickly,” a man in a dark brown hood quietly relayed to another, similarly dressed being. The incoming party’s footsteps echoed across the cobblestone walkway as their whispers grew louder. The flickering of their flashlights grew closer and made their whispers all the more fractional.“We don’t...

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The Facsimile of the Silver Key

Weekly Contest #338

CW: Mental health, Physical violence, gore or abuse My dear nephew, This letter carries my innumerable errors but confesses to one. I ask you to absolve me of my arrogance by burning this, the book, and my body. Take custody of the package, never open it, and ensure it never leaves your possession. My travels concluded this must come to pass. I curse and credit the elusive Jared Porter simultaneously, for his ilk would never have alerted me to what the cosmos had in store for us all. He was a learned vagabond, granted modest scholarships fro...

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The Archive of the Unlisted

Paul Collier

Weekly Contest #338

The book was already open when I found it, which felt rude. It lay on my desk between my government-issued study tablet and a cup of synth-coffee that tasted like regret. Its spine was cracked. Its pages were yellowed. Its existence was illegal in at least twelve clearly posted ways. I stared at it for a full ten seconds, waiting for the apartment’s monitoring system to scream. It didn’t. That was problem number one. Problem number two was the title, printed neatly on the first page in dark, confident ink: THE ARCHIVE OF THE UNLISTEDA record...

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GN-3648

Weekly Contest #337

CW: Body horror. My mother always encouraged me to shoot for the stars. Each cloudless night we gazed into the inky depths of space together, wondering what lay hidden beyond the infinite, twinkling specks. I dreamt of pioneering a rocket ship to places far beyond the reach of a telescope’s eye. I pictured myself as a celebrated captain, an inspirational hero who hungered for discovery and thirsted for adventure. I imagined planting a flag on planets across the galaxy, and spending the rest of my days purposefully lost in the endless echo of...

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Red on the Cement

Argentina Newman

Weekly Contest #337

“Oh my god, oh my god…OH MY GOD!” a faint, faded and feminine voice echoed out around me. Her voice was full of tremor and fear, and desperation for someone to save me.A piece of glass shattered, but I couldn't tell, or see where. “You get the hell off of him, right now!” Andrea threw herself onto the man who were roughly man-handling LJ. He retorted by pushing her back against the wall of the garage.My head was spinning, and I felt my weight being harshly carried by someone else. My arms were locked into a position, and this heavy weight s...

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MORE DISTANT THAN I COULD IMAGINE, BUT I LOVE HER!

Lawrence Cromwell

Weekly Contest #337

Our relationship began as so many do, online, but turned into a fly-by love affair. My heart was immediately captured by her message because of her refreshingly unique introduction. Her message was concise, but it said everything to me: “For me, you alone are my destiny.” Even though this message completely captured my heart and “Love Conquers All” had always been my philosophy, I realized that there could never be a meeting between us, and our love was destined to be fleeting at best. I replied, in the best way to sum up my feelings: “My lo...

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A Way Out

Huda Khan

Weekly Contest #337

A Way OutBreaking News:A previously unknown planet has been identified within the heart of the Milky Way. Initial scans confirm the presence of life, with an estimated population of nearly ten billion intelligent beings, identified as humans.Following a preliminary investigation into the planet’s history, scientific authorities and the planetary government have jointly issued an immediate ban on all travel to the planet. Effective immediately, any attempt to reach this planet will be considered a criminal offense, punishable by lifelong impr...

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Y2K Bones

Weekly Contest #337

cw: murder, gun violence, sexual abuse, grooming of a minor Tanner Knight, 68, is watching Tanner Knight, 4, shoot his uncle on VHS with orange foam bullets. Though it’s only pretend, both four-year-old Tanner and sixty-eight-year-old Tanner want the same thing. Their uncle dead. “Oh,” groans his uncle on screen in pretend-pain. “Oh,” he groans again, louder now, kneeling down on the brown carpet covered in fragrant green Christmas tree needles. Tanner reloads his weapon, complements of Santa, then points it at his uncle’s purple-spotted hea...

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Beyond

Liz Thomas

Weekly Contest #337

It was another rainy day in Cosmopolis. The buildings reflected a silver light in the puddles that formed on the streets of the city. The air was cool, the streets were mostly empty, but the quiet was disturbed by sirens echoing in the alleys. Detective Loxley arrived at the newest crime scene, his hair damp and a cigarette between his lips. "Is it him again?" he asked while snapping on some gloves. "Same signature. Strangulation, no signs of struggle, no prints, and she was a Leaper," the medical examiner declared. The detective nodded whil...

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