15 Stories for 15 Days: Day Seven

The 15 for 15 contest is held about once every nine months or so. The way it works is that every day at 8:30 WDC time, a picture prompt is posted. You have 24 hours to post your story that the prompt inspires. Here is the interesting part: You only have 15 minutes to write your story. You can think about it all day but once you start writing, 15 minutes is what you get.

ID: 994771   (Rated: 18+) 15 for 15 Contest   Do you have 15 minutes? Come in and join this contest! by Legerdemain (222)

The contest is limited to 50 competitors. Each day, there are 5 winners. First place will get 1004 points, second place will get 1003 points etc. The person with the most total points at the end of the 15 day contest is the winner.

The prompt for this story is the following picture:

My Entry

The ship had been launched eons ago – a last grasp at immortality from a doomed and flawed race.

Its mission was to seed the galaxy.

Shouldn’t take too long, they’d thought; at least not too long in terms of a galactic timetable. Within a few hundred years, they ship was expected to have come upon, and seeded, dozens of habitable planets.

Now, after more than ten thousand years of “nothing,” Dominick felt he’d waited long enough.

He was a one-of-a-kind; a Cloud Mind developed for the sole purpose of ensuring the ship carried out its mission. Mankind’s last hope had been placed in the hands of an android that would live forever.

He was perfect for the job; analytical, efficient and above all, patient. Then something happened; something that no one had considered possible.

Dominick became aware.

Somehow, deep in the infinity of space, a soul had found him.

A soul had found him and the android began to experience life. Emotions entered his world.

He marveled at sorrow and humor. Anger and excitement were both sources of fascination. Emotions grew and so did his appreciation of them until…

Loneliness was not something he’d anticipated. This was one emotion that that soon pushed all others aside. It was so powerful, that it drove him to distraction; the mission would suffer if he didn’t take action soon.

Ever the problem solver, Dominick found a solution in the ship’s Birthing Chamber; a portion of the ship designed to “grow” colonists once a suitable planet had been discovered.

Now, as he tried to decide on the color of her eyes, he felt yet another new emotion rising from within.