Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge with a word limit of 300.
The prompts: This story must contain the words: earring, wheel and lamp
Pirate Secrets
“Yo-Ho, Yo-ho, a pirate’s life for me.”
Captain Half-Lip chanted to himself as he pranced in front of the mirror. He’d just wrapped a new scarf around his head and was impressed with how the red and blue design set off his dangling black earring.
The flickering light from the hanging gas lamp gave the perfect impression; an impression wholly dependent upon what one expected to see.
His crew would see a bloodthirsty savage. The jewelry, scarf and nearly everything he owned had at one time or another adorned someone else. The epaulets on his shoulders had once belonged to a British sea captain. His belt had held up the trousers of a man piloting a small scow that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The bracelets and earrings would say, “Behold ye scallywags. Look at the booty I have taken from the many young women I have known.”
The scarf, well he had picked that up in a little shop along the Barbary Coast.
The captain drew his sword and practiced his swagger and thrusts. The mirror watched him wheel and prance about. Frequently, the captain would peek at his reflection to see how he looked.
Yes, to his men, he was as fearsome as they came. But they were uneducated dolts, unable to see the truth that lay beneath.
Their leader was more complex than any of them could have guessed.
Half-Lip had a secret.
In the dim and flickering light of his sea cabin, the captain paused and looked closely at his reflection. Yes, the scarf and earrings did go well together. He liked that everything went with everything – how it made him look. How it made him feel.
He began to dance about again. He loved it when he felt pretty.
Word count 300
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Command Decision
Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge with a word limit of 300.
The prompts: This story must contain the words: needle, locket and plate
Command Decision
As the needle ship flew through the outer edges of the mist-like clouds from the newly discovered nebula, Captain Nagel sat alone on the command bridge, a small locket held in his hand. With a practiced twist, he opened it to reveal a picture of a woman with her arms around a younger version of himself. Clare had given this to him the night she told him they were going to have a baby.
Their first had been a girl. They named her Gwen, after Clare’s grandmother. Ben was next followed by the twins, Cher and Doug. As the memories came, he wasn’t surprised to find his life’s highlight reel was all about family. His success at work was a distant second when it came to what was really important.
Now their children had children. Clare had passed on more than two years ago.
He wouldn’t let himself dwell on that last thought. He would be with her soon enough.
He looked up past the locket where a red light was blinking on the command console. It signaled a missing cover plate over an external power suite. Without that cover, a single microscopic bit of space dust could bring the mission to a tragic end. Someone would have to go out and replace the cover. Someone would have to be exposed to lethal amounts of cosmic rays coming from the nebula.
Someone would die.
The Captain’s eyes shifted to the left where a green light indicated that the ship’s other occupant, Lieutenant Jackson, was still safely tucked away in his cryo-tank. Nagel knew Jackson; knew his wife and young son as well. He knew that his second-in-command was just beginning to create his own highlight reel.
Someone would have to go outside.
Without another thought, Nagel reached for his spacesuit.
Word count 300
The prompts: This story must contain the words: needle, locket and plate
Command Decision
As the needle ship flew through the outer edges of the mist-like clouds from the newly discovered nebula, Captain Nagel sat alone on the command bridge, a small locket held in his hand. With a practiced twist, he opened it to reveal a picture of a woman with her arms around a younger version of himself. Clare had given this to him the night she told him they were going to have a baby.
Their first had been a girl. They named her Gwen, after Clare’s grandmother. Ben was next followed by the twins, Cher and Doug. As the memories came, he wasn’t surprised to find his life’s highlight reel was all about family. His success at work was a distant second when it came to what was really important.
Now their children had children. Clare had passed on more than two years ago.
He wouldn’t let himself dwell on that last thought. He would be with her soon enough.
He looked up past the locket where a red light was blinking on the command console. It signaled a missing cover plate over an external power suite. Without that cover, a single microscopic bit of space dust could bring the mission to a tragic end. Someone would have to go out and replace the cover. Someone would have to be exposed to lethal amounts of cosmic rays coming from the nebula.
Someone would die.
The Captain’s eyes shifted to the left where a green light indicated that the ship’s other occupant, Lieutenant Jackson, was still safely tucked away in his cryo-tank. Nagel knew Jackson; knew his wife and young son as well. He knew that his second-in-command was just beginning to create his own highlight reel.
Someone would have to go outside.
Without another thought, Nagel reached for his spacesuit.
Word count 300
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