I haven’t posted in almost a month, chiefly because it’s been a busy month, and I haven’t managed to finish any of the books I’m reading. Nor have I had much time to work on any fiction–a little background work for a story, but that’s it. That’s how life goes, I suppose. At any rate, I feel like my skills are getting a little rusty; and so, in the absence of the long stretches of time it takes to write anything of length, I’m trying my hand at something I can do in the brief stretches I have available: flash fiction.
The term is loosely defined, and different authors implement it in different ways. I’m pulling mine from an ongoing series of writing prompts on another blog titled The Prediction. Each week the author of that blog runs a small flash fiction contest in which your entry must contain three selected words. Entries must be 100 words or less (not counting the title), and must be in the genres of science-fiction, fantasy, horror, or noir. I’m too late to enter this week’s contest (which would be a first for me anyway), but I’ve put together a story from this week’s prompt anyway. Naturally, due to word count constraints, there’s not much development in a flash fiction story; it’s a question of how much impact you can get across in a few words. I don’t consider this attempt to be very good; but it’s my first, at any rate, so there’s room for improvement. Thanks for reading!
This week’s prompt: Must include the words ‘deadlock’, ‘intercept’, and ‘maiden’.
Turnabout
“You won’t intercept them. They have eighteen hours on you.” The prisoner grinned, his teeth stained with blood. The guard moved to hit him again, but I stopped him.
“You know the war is at a deadlock.”
“Not for long,” he said. “When the Maiden gets home with that data, we’ll be able to crush your fleet.”
“Maybe. But I wouldn’t count on it.”
His grin faltered. “And why is that?”
“You’re assuming I want to catch them.” This time, I grinned. “We worked much too hard to plant that bioweapon. No, that ship is right where I want it.”
Timewalkerauthor 