Category: Short Story

The Tesseract

Posted on by Bill Kandiliotis in Adelon, Science Fiction, Short Story, Writing

The featureless salt desert spread out to infinity. The horizon; is nothing but a smooth chrome landscape under a dark taupe sky. The type-2 moon’s gravity helped her along, but the cold surface seemed to sap the warmth out of her suit with every step.

Ashley Isuuza couldn’t complain. She’d craved adventure ever since birth, and no adventure was worth taking without the prospect of death associated with it. So in theory, her little stroll across Obirus b III exemplified the very essence of a perfect, eventful life. Yet Ashley suspected she wasn’t going to live to tell her story.

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Nagasaki

Posted on by Bill Kandiliotis in Science Fiction, Short Story, Writing

Jekka felt cold, the rain and the southerly breeze blowing from the bay not helping her situation. Had she time to plan she would have worn her florincoat. Instead, her impromptu escape into the Free Zone had left her running through backstreets wearing only a matching Vesper Morales bra and panties set, a pair of silicon geta and a RaiBox in her hand.

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Sonic Crab

Posted on by Bill Kandiliotis in Defect, Flash Fiction, Post-Apocalypse, Science Fiction, Short Story

First published on writing.com for a scifi flash-fiction competition, but the moderator never called a winner, in fact, the forum page just disappeared. So, this could be the winning entrant.

Victor heard the sonic crab.

The short bursts of ultra-bass tones echoed across the night-bound, dead-quiet city. He suspected the auton may have already detected his presence when he entered the supermall district. No matter how discreetly he travelled, these autons were sound-sensitive. As well as emitting audio, these things detected it.

Listening.

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Proxathlon

Posted on by Bill Kandiliotis in Astronomy, Science Fiction, Short Story, Space, Writing

Agent Nasani felt the impact on her chest. The freefall suit could withstand a beating, but the human catapult formed by Team Artemis smashed Nasani so hard that her weightless body was sent back to the periphery.

Thirty seconds.

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Permian Spring

Posted on by Bill Kandiliotis in Short Story, Writing

First published on Wattpad

Apparently, they aren’t even reptiles.

With skin covered in scutes, boasting a vertebral sail and powerful jaws, this thing looks like a fat, bear-sized lizard, but Russell Hansard seems to think the wildlife around here predates the dinosaurs by fifty million years. Out of the two thousand surviving passengers on board the Cruise Ship Eudora, Mr Hansard is the only one who claims to be schooled in palaeobiology.

Too bad he isn’t here to see this monster. Somehow it managed to get into the ship and feast on an elderly couple lodging in one of the balcony cabins.

“It’s the biggest one yet,” I gasp, having abandoned living in fear; embracing this impossible, marvellous world.

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The Fright Machine

Posted on by Bill Kandiliotis in Defect, Flash Fiction, Short Story, Writing

Hacking robots can be lots of fun. Celebrating April Ghouls Day at horrorscribes.com with this flash fiction entry.

Sawtooth froze.

His clown quartet went from performing a slo-mo at the crossing lights to lunatic postures, ridiculing the angry driver. The black Audi inched closer, but when Mr Axe showed off his plastic hatchet, the motorist reversed and made a wide turn to avoid the colourful foursome.

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Offshore

Posted on by Bill Kandiliotis in Flash Fiction, Short Story, Steampunk, Writing

This flash fiction piece took out the inaugural Punk Out: Wattpunk Contests and Prompt challenge.

As the electrical generator housing was hit with a deafening crash, the entire offshore installation was jolted with a sudden, violent force that reverberated through the metal structure. The lights flickered and then went out completely, leaving the interior quarters in pitch darkness. The installation manager, who had been monitoring the situation from his control room, felt his heart sink as he saw the screens go blank and the alarms fall silent.

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Sublevel

Posted on by Bill Kandiliotis in Flash Fiction, Short Story, Writing

Narkvosu just wanted to survive.

At least long enough to complete his quest. He could care less about ever returning to his home city. Alone, he explored the last obstacle to his journey, an ancient cavern carved out long ago. Concrete and steel are now dust. Bedrock exposed. Nothing remained, the running creek, the moister and gangumoss making short work of what was once probably a vast urban habitation. If one could not define any of the telltale signatures of a past civilisation, the sub-level appeared just like a long natural cave.

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Dead Drop Society

Posted on by Bill Kandiliotis in Short Story, Writing

When access to the internet and information becomes inaccessible to a vast majority of the population, dead drop networks spring up everywhere. But someone needs to maintain this free access to information, otherwise, the population remains mired in ignorance and cut out of the wealth cycle.

*first appeared on Wattpad

Mateus Fiel knew of the fierce territorialism between rival scanbob gangs in the area. He chose to ignore it, the score proving too lucrative to pass up. Venturing outside of his home exurb constituted a risk. Many did so to engage in leisure activities, and many more did so for business opportunities. Mateus did it for both reasons, so he considered the risk he took this time around as absolutely justified.

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