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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 6 of 10

Vagrancy

Submitted to Contest #332

You recovered this letter from a frozen stainless steel container buried in Antarctic ice. Rest assured, I am not writing you out of sentimentality. Rather, I have discovered that even at the end of times, a scientist feels obligated to file one last report.For the last two years, I have lived at the South Pole engaged in the study of neutrino particles. Given that I could not possibly know your educational background, I will proceed assuming you know little about neutrinos. Neutrinos are so thoroughly uninterested in their surroundings that...

12 likes 4 comments 4
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What Was in That Batter?

Submitted to Contest #333

Every year on the Saturday before Labor Day I ended my vacation on Maryland’s Eastern Shore with a trip to the West Ocean City Flap Jackery and treated myself to a heaping platter of Delmarva pancakes. This time, though, my annual journey would lift me into a world I could never have anticipated in a decade of breakfast dining on the ocean. As I took my first bite I found myself lifted out of the tiny cafe and transported across hundreds of miles of space and back in time to my parents’ middle class home in Elizabeth, New Jersey in ...

8 likes 3 comments 3
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A Day With All My Selves (I hate of all of them)

Submitted to Contest #332

A final, deep breath fills his lungs, steady and deliberate. He turns the doorknob slowly, feeling the cool metal against his palm, and steps out into the hallway. It's peak January in the city, that brutal time when winter digs its claws deepest, and even his new branded coat, a costly one at that, offers no real shield from the cold seeping through the cracks. The fabric is sleek, imported, the kind that screams status in muffled tones, but right now it feels as thin as paper against the chill. At least he looks cool in it. That's somethin...

21 likes 4 comments 4
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The Highest Mountain on Mars

Submitted to Contest #332

The Martian Award for Foolish Courage blends ten ultra-light metals in a spiral pendant, a lustrous rainbow of pearlescent, gunmetal, and chrome. Clasped on a silken red ribbon, it is bestowed annually on those who best exemplify the founding principles of Martian society: tenacity in the face of overwhelming odds, high tolerance for personal risk, and misplaced confidence. Every year, ten recipients are invited to a ceremony atop Olympus Mons, the highest mountain in the solar system, to receive the award. It is the highest, and the lowest,...

17 likes 6 comments 6
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Planet’s Collide:Cypher

Submitted to Contest #332

If there was a little less noise and a bit more light. Studying in this bare hotel since the room at school was just given away to somebody else. “This light really suck’s!” A loud bang went off in the next room, so she decided to go out for some air. For clearer thought’s, she leaned out seeing the harsh world within our atmosphere. Another loud crash followed while she stared out to the dreadful sun, that always left us in the night.“Dad , I wanna go up there!” The little girl playfully jumped around in the yard as she tried to reach Aliss...

4 likes 1 comment 1
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Love is in the A.I. (r)

Submitted to Contest #332

Brenda wiped her red, swollen eyes with a tissue and stared out the window at the gathering storm clouds. It felt like a bad sign. She couldn’t tell if her heart was breaking or if she was just angry. Should she even talk to Adam about it? Since she’d called in sick, she had time to get some answers from him. Percy had brushed off her worries and lied to her. Adam had lied, too. Could AIs even lie? Who was really at fault? Could she trust either of them? And if Adam was just an AI, was all his advice—advice she’d followed in her relationship...

15 likes 11 comments 11
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The Red Winds of Mars

M P

Submitted to Contest #332

Macek Furey stood at the edge of the platform, watching the red clouds billow in the distance. A massive dust storm the size of half a continent was sweeping across the surface of Mars towards the Annex. He took a few moments to look at the storm. The storm almost seemed peaceful, like a giant soft cloud slowly lumbering across the red world. But the more he looked, the more he thought he could sense something deeper and more violent. It would not be accurate to say that he saw something. More like he could feel it with his eyes. It was usin...

11 likes 0 comments 0
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Portaterra: Coming Home for the First Time

Submitted to Contest #332

Dryfus stared through the portal he’d just opened, his heart seized by a sudden rush of fear. He could see a barren, rocky landscape backed by a stormy sky — nothing to hang his hopes on. This was not one of those commercial gateways kept open for long stretches as tourists and travelers stepped between worlds. This was an emergency portal. It had the capacity for only a small group for a very short time. They had been distributed to the cadets by groups, a failsafe should everything go wrong. And everything that could go wrong, had gone wro...

6 likes 1 comment 1
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Hexium

Submitted to Contest #332

Earth was named after the ground, for that is where its resources hid. Indra, was colonised for its skies. A familiar blue reigned over the planet, which was slowly being painted gold by the setting of its giant, red sun. Streaks of violet highlighted the valuable hexium gas pockets, staining the swarms of human ships that circled them. The foreign star birthed a light show that could help even the lowliest worker forget the ugliness of the surface. Yet, Tybalt allowed only a sparing glance for the beauty of it. He turned his gaze toward the...

24 likes 15 comments 15
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To Those We Never Meet

Shortlisted for Contest #332 ⭐️

Standing outside in the rain, I looked at the building before me. Its walls hollow and solid at the same time. The door closed against the weather and the coming storm. I wanted to turn away. To say this is not mine. I knew better. Inside, the long hall to the chamber stretched out like miles of empty highway. A highway with no exits. Slowly. Deliberately I entered the hall. He was already waiting for me. Nothing was said between us as he watched me approach the consol in front of the chamber. How do I do this?I send him back to die in a war...

28 likes 19 comments 19
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The Storm That Took My Voice

Submitted to Contest #332

One more day, just one more day. Come on, you can do it, you can survive it. That`s what I tell myself, over and over, like a broken mantra scraping the inside of my brain.It`s hard, God, it`s hard, but it can`t rain all the time, right?That line spins in my head like it`s trying to hold me together.I love that quote, I love that movie "The Crow", the rain, the grief, the hope crawling out of the wreckage. Some days I feel like I`m all three at once.Today I have a very important appointment, and I wake up counting my steps, as if the numbers...

30 likes 21 comments 21
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Should I Grovel at His Feet

Submitted to Contest #331

I need some guys who know how to kick butt and take names, but all I have are priests who sweep and meditate. "I'm at my wits' end. I've got to do something to free Alora from that madman." I said as Bob meditated. "Don't interrupt." I know Bob's a shaman, and he loves to meditate, but I'm too worked up to stop now. "Who knows what Targon is doing to Alora. Not that I'm too worried, she's tougher than most, well, than everyone, but it's the principle that matters." "What part of don't interrupt do you not understand?" Bob said without openi...

44 likes 24 comments 24
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Null

Submitted to Contest #331

If you’re lucky, you’ll never know the silence of interstellar space. I used to think I would enjoy it, bragged I was built for it, wired for it. I remember back on Old Home, after a late movie in an empty theater, when the credits ended and the lambent aisle lights swelled. I thought that was silence, and I relished it. Aside from humming ambiance, the only sounds were mine: the seat creaking as I stood, the bop when I kicked the popcorn bucket, the scuff of the popped kernels skittering across smooth cement. The rich, creamy crinkling when...

17 likes 19 comments 19
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Me and Hector

Submitted to Contest #332

It was so terribly cold, snow was falling and it was almost dark. It wasn't supposed to be that way when Hector and I started our hike. The cold was beginning to bother me, but Hector probably thought it was paradise. For Alaskan Malamutes, the colder the better. Mals are big dogs and Hector was on the large side of big.Look, Hector is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Mals were bred to pull heavy loads, so brainpower wasn't a requirement, but he is a damn good dog and a better friend. Loyal and affectionate, Hector is the most Zen being...

10 likes 3 comments 3
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A Matter of Degrees

Submitted to Contest #332

Residents of the Northern Hemisphere normally welcome the chance to throw off their layers of winter clothing and romp with as little attire as possible in the world’s lakes and oceans. They didn’t realize that, during this particular year, the sun they so fervently wished could become the instrument of their destruction. As Mother Nature began to close the curtain on 2300 she decided to play a cruel joke on humanity by having the sun shine continuously–24 hours a day. Medical personnel working in emergency rooms across most of the civi...

4 likes 1 comment 1
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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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