The Wild One
Author: Iain Macleod
Orbital mechanics was never my thing but this’ll be the last time I ever have to do the math so it’s all good. Unnamed asteroid floating in the belt around dwarf planet Estera is traveling at X velocity and ill be traveling at top speed once I pass the station at Esperia LaGrange one which means I’ll have to start my death playlist when I’m 138000km out so that I hit that mother fucker during the high point of Wild One by Suzi Quatro and leave this fuckin’ world behind for good. It was a toss-up between that or Jawbreaker by Cruel Intentions. Both fuckin ace songs.
Sweet. Coords plotted, autopilot programmed and whiskey poured.
What most people don’t know about this particular asteroid is that it’s loaded with the highly profitable and very extremely unstable substance Lithiterium, known to you and me as cold gold or to the soulless bloodsucking corp that took over this system as cash fucking money.
Engines firing full blast feels like being pushed back into the seat hard and is still a hell of a thrill after all these years. Guess I never grew up. G forces ease up as we reach max velocity and I hit play. Monster by Reckless love. Volume up volume up volume up. Knock back the whiskey and pour another.
Picture of Kate, my kid, above the main control panel. She died about two years ago after the corp refused our insurance. Twenty-three fucking years I worked for those bastards. A pre-existing condition they said, as if the lung condition she and half the population had wasn’t directly related to the pollution they pumped into the atmosphere. I tried taking it to court. They fired me then sued me and won. I tried appealing, they bought the court and it went nowhere. I tried to kill some executives but I couldn’t even get near them. Guess I can’t hit them directly but I can cost them a fuck lot of money and go out with a bang. ZZ Top blares out of the speakers, fuckin’ legends.
The emergency override light starts blinking. I disconnected the actual overrides from the nav circuits before I even left orbit, but the light coming on is a nice reassurance that my math ain’t wrong.
Knock back the last whiskey. Picture of Kate in my hand. Suzi Q fucking blasting out of the speakers.
I’m the wild one, motherfuckers.
The Past
365tomorrows launched August 1st, 2005 with the lofty goal of providing a new story every day for a year. We’ve been on the wire ever since. Our stories are a mix of those lovingly hand crafted by a talented pool of staff writers, and select stories received by submission.
The archives are deep, feel free to dive in.
Flash Fiction
"Flash fiction is fiction with its teeth bared and its claws extended, lithe and muscular with no extra fat. It pounces in the first paragraph, and if those claws aren’t embedded in the reader by the start of the second, the story began a paragraph too soon. There is no margin for error. Every word must be essential, and if it isn’t essential, it must be eliminated."
Kathy Kachelries
Founding Member
Submissions
We're open to submissions of original Science or Speculative Fiction of 600 words or less. We are only accepting work which you previously haven't sold or given away the rights to. That means your work must not have been published elsewhere, either in print or on the web. When your story is accepted, you're giving us first electronic publication rights and non-exclusive subsequent publication rights. You retain ownership over your story. We are not a paying market.
Voices of Tomorrow
Voices of Tomorrow is the official podcast of 365tomorrows, with audio versions of many of the stories published here.
If you're interested in recording stories for Voices of Tomorrow, or for any other inquiries, please contact ssmith@365tomorrows.com