Die On Your Feet

The Rebel General was dragged up the steps to where the Prince was waiting, as the Prince held his sword out to be sharpened.

"Kneel."

The Rebel General remained on his feet.

"My troops may be in chains, but they are still behind me. So I will not yield, especially to the likes of you."

The Prince smirked as the blade was to his satisfaction.

"So you'd prefer to die on your feet?"

"If that's my fate."

"Well, you're half right."

The Prince made a big show of laughing, hugging the Rebel General, and walking them inside.

Rumor grew fast.

Ensuring Survival

The ship, one of the last launched before Earth became uninhabitable, had an AI to watch over the cryopods with the humans, since it would take millions of years to arrive at its destination.

But, the designers understood that the AI might not be able to handle every possible situation. So, if needed, it would wake up a couple to handle a crisis, then live out their years and breed, raise their children, and then freeze them.

And indeed, millions of years later, the ship arrived and colonised a new world.

Just by a race not technically human any more.

Management Decision

The hack was a couple minutes in, and I was just getting somewhere when my computer went dead.

I looked up to my boss, looking very pleased with himself, holding the power cord to my computer.

"Hack dealt with."

I slammed a piece of paper in front of him and grabbed the power cord.

"Write down what you just did."

He happily did so, and signed it when I asked him to once I'd finished.

Not that it helped much dealing with the aftermath of losing all that data, but him getting fired did make me feel a bit better.

Market Stalling

"Excuse me, how much is this doll?"

I turned around and looked around, needing a moment before I looked down over my stall to see the young girl with a doll I didn't recognise from my stock.

"I'll need to see it, Miss."

She politely handed it over and quickly looked it over. I couldn't find a price label on it anywhere.

"Umm... Five dollars."

"Oh I can't afford that, sorry."

She walked away.

Now, I would argue that doesn't constitute a legal transfer of property, but the ghosts inside it clearly don't actually care about legal definitions of words.

Called In

I had mentioned my friend Paul was feeling a little lonely in passing. She immediately suggested a double date with her friend Bridgette.

I guess I stared at her for too long because she seemed a little miffed when she asked me for an answer.

"You understand I'm talking about Paul, right?"

"Yeah, he needs a bit of spontaneity in his life."

"That's like thinking the room is a little stuffy so let's set off a nuke. And what could she see in him?"

She mentioned a particular body part.

They're getting married in August.

I give them till November.

Contact [Meaning Physical Touch]

"Unidentified Starship, please identify yourself."

There was a long pause, then a voice replied over a very low radio band, sounding like they were speaking Galactic Standard for the first time ever.

"Us...come in [meaning permission to enter a location] no conflict."

I glanced at the clock, annoyed that I couldn't claim I didn't have time before my end of shift.

"First contact, very well. Please allow the drone to access your databank to translate."

No idea if they understood me, but when I sent the drone out they fired on it.

Which was good, the destruction paperwork's much lighter.

Above The Pacific

The fuel ran out 70 clicks out from land.

I checked my height. 30000 feet up, give or take. The average rule of thumb was you could glide 1 or 2 kilometres for every drop of 1000 feet. So double 30...

Not great.

I had a choice, in fact I had several, but most revolved around which basic approach to take.

I could hope for decent winds, hit the water a few clicks away, and wait for people to turn up.

Or I could lighten the load.

"Ok, so, we're gonna have to jump for it, you guys go first!"