A Game Of Inches
Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer
We had barely a minute. The ship was breaking apart. The floor dropped from beneath my feet and then crashed back into me, buckling my legs and smashing me up into the bulkhead. The captain screamed into my earpiece. “Run Ensign, run! It’s our only chance!”
Rubbing the back of my head I gathered myself and clambered forward. I was not even qualified for this. I was but a simple refrigeration mechanic, trained to maintain the Canadian built air conditioning system in the officers’ quarters and forward lounges. But apparently all the senior engineers and mechanical staff had been killed or lost with the separation of our main engine. I was now our only hope.
I burst into the upper observatory and dropped through the service hatch into the maintenance bay. Frantically I searched for the unfamiliar controls to the powerful ion lander engine. The captain’s broken screams were now incoherent as the ion shielding blocked most of the signal. But I knew the gist of what he was saying.
I scanned instructions on a massive control panel with its hundreds of lights and switches. Suddenly the captain’s words burst through the static, “…ever mind that. Just undo the side access and rip out the main switch harness…
Before his words trailed off I reached into my trusty tool pouch and procured what I thought was the correct socket driver. I leaned over and spied the etched imprint on the access panel. “Made In U.S.A.” I shrugged and popped the driver over the bolt head and turned. And the wrenched skipped… I couldn’t believe it. Maybe in my haste I had pulled out the wrong driver. Lightning fast I expertly popped it back into its clip and grabbed the next size down. This one would not go on. Incredibly it was too small! Again I read the words, “Made In U.S.A.”
The captain’s screams broke through the static, “Ensign! It’s all over, we’re all…..”
I looked from my metric socket driver to the imperial bolt head on the access panel and, as the atmosphere was sucked from around me, I cursed the human race.
The 365 Tomorrows Free Podcast: Voices of Tomorrow
This is your future: Submit your stories to 365 Tomorrows
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