Challenges (1st Place)

Fifteen months of solitude left Tedd groping for anything to keep his mind occupied. He tinkered with the dilithium crystal mix chamber for what seemed like the fortieth time in the last two days. Optimum level according to specs was 99.1%. He’d only gotten a maximum of 96.2% which meant at least another five weeks at his current pace.

His wrench slipped and he mashed his hand against the manifold.

“Damn it! This whole flipping ship has it in for me.”

“Command not recognized,” the ship’s computer chirped.

“Command not recognized,” he mocked.

“Warning. The automated collision system is unable to compensate. Please calculate new course.”

“What?” Tedd wandered to the control seat, tossed his hat on the co-pilot seat, and saw several blinking green and red lights.

Tedd scanned the flight path, recalculated his trajectory, re-input it and pressed enter.

“Warning. Collision imminent. Please calculate new course.”

“This thing is nuts. There’s no collision imminent. There’s only a star system and a few planetoids.”

Tedd sat back in his chair. Nothing to hit. Trajectory is fine. Plenty of fuel. Shielding is fine.

“Computer. Main viewer on.”

The screen popped on and the resolution cleared. Tedd’s eyes widened.

“What’s that?” He pointed to a massive object that filled the width of the screen. “Computer identify the largest object on the monitor.”

“The object on the monitor is the remains of a planetoid.”

“What is the cause of these remains?”

“The planetoid exploded as a direct result of a supernova.”

“Holy hell! That thing is huge! Computer turn the ship 180 degrees!”

“Acknowledged. Warning. Collision imminent. Please…”

“Shut up!” Tedd punched numbers into his navi-computer. His heart raced.

“It’s going to overtake us. Unless…”

Tedd stared at the number. “I get the optimum mix level to 99.1%... in ten minutes.”



297 Words


Flash Story
Limited to 300 words
Must contain: race, green, hat