Community Event / Creation Bring this page close to the candle to read it. Drabble #186: Alone in the dark

Pick three of these stories

  • 01 - Edith_The_Hutt - Explorer's End

    Votes: 9 56.3%
  • 02 - Mathew of Tegalus - It's all he has left...

    Votes: 1 6.3%
  • 03 - Galactic Midden - The Test

    Votes: 3 18.8%
  • 04 - Frank - The Practical Joke

    Votes: 9 56.3%
  • 05 - phong - The meter maiden

    Votes: 1 6.3%
  • 06 - Simoof - Alone in the Dark: Stranger Feelings

    Votes: 6 37.5%
  • 07 - Listeri69 - Alone In The Cargo Bay...

    Votes: 2 12.5%
  • 08 - Steph - OMD (Terrible Pun Alert!)

    Votes: 1 6.3%
  • 09 - Alien - Alone In The Dark ... Together

    Votes: 2 12.5%
  • 10 - RoyalHankey - Package Number ur2urn8-ddwqdk-yhhgh60-3g53d2-9escruu#getonwithitkow, go to collec

    Votes: 2 12.5%
  • 11 - Commander Sir Samuel Vimes - Is there love in the cold black heart of an assassin?

    Votes: 2 12.5%
  • 12 - FelixBast - It's dark out there

    Votes: 3 18.8%
  • 13 - Sneevus - A good little soldier

    Votes: 5 31.3%
  • 14 - Entarius Fusion - writing a drabble is not the hardest thing to do at all,

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    16
  • Poll closed .
6719332759_0300d8a8bb_b.jpg


Well done Vimes, a worthy winner. His choice for the week is "Alone in the Dark". There were a few pun responses, but none were about a bank transaction during a power cut.

Psykokow hosts the Abraka-Drabble live reading show and "comedy" hour at 7pm GMT, Fridays on...
HUTTON ORBITAL RADIO! http://streaming.radionomy.com/HuttonOrbitalRadio (audio only)
LAVE RADIO! http://laveradio.com/ (audio only)
TWITCH! http://www.twitch.tv/psykokow/ (audio & visual)
and will also be uploaded to his You-tube channel & anywhere else he can inflict the world with our drabblings!

Come back on Sunday night to see how well your Drabble has done. At least come back before Monday 15:00 to check if you're the one that has to provide us with a topic.

Please vote. And a warning to all of the contestants, Don't vote for yourself or else I'll torment you with a pun worse than the one I've already made.






01 - Edith_The_Hutt - Explorer's End

In six hours the rescue ships would arrive. They would find Sam’s wrecked Cobra in a sunlit crater just as he’d described: cold, inoperable and dead.

In four hours the sun would crest the crater wall, vaporising accumulated ice, wiping the crater dry.

In two hours the batteries powering life support in Sam’s EVA suit would deplete, a few minutes later he would be dead. The next few hours were the last he’d ever have.

Character is what you are in the dark, so they say.

Sam stepped onto icy surface of the moon and began to build a snowman.





02 - Mathew of Tegalus - It's all he has left...

Tavenar ended his shift of manually sorting through the scrap heap that had become the Hutton Orbital Scrapyard.

He got back to his quarters, and silenced the lights.

All went dark, except for a small bedside lamp.

On the wall above said lamp: A ragged, aged propaganda poster stared at him.

"Join me!, and help the Empire prosper!"

It was all he had. His sole possession in his plight.

At this point Aislings portrait was burned into his memory. This was all he had left of his old life, this and memories, of a time in light and friendly company.






03 - Galactic Midden - The Test

The Orcian places his hand upon the slick black surface and the ancient stone rises with a soft, low frequency whisper. Guardians? He'd never imagined the stories were true.

He gulps as the obelisk slowly obscures the only light from a dim distant star. An alcove appears. Within is a panel, markings unfamiliar.

He checks his decryptor, "You stand before a small building, surrounded by darkness. Light shines through the window.

>........................... //enter//"

The Orcian types a command, {enter building}

"You are inside the building, an eight petalled flower glows beside a manuscript and a feather."

{take flower}

"You will die..."





04 - Frank - The Practical Joke

"Not funny Jerry! Turn the light back on!"

..."Jerry! Come on! I know it's all my fault. I should never have entered this abandoned ground station with a man-child who's bored to tears."

..."Damn you Jerry! Not funny! How the hell did I end up in the salvage business with someone so infantile? You win! I'm scared! Please turn the light on?"

Jerry knew how to press Tim's buttons. He knew about his fear of the dark, and despite all Tim's pleading he was never going to switch that lantern back on. Not now that he was a half-digested corpse.





05 - phong - The meter maiden

Joost awoke to the pounding on the door.
Still groggy from lack of sleep,he stumbled through the gloom, mumbling to himself as he groped for the keypad,thumping it once when it failed to activate,then moving across to the manual access bypass.
The hatchway soughed open, juddering to a halt after a couple of inches.
Lit only by the dim glow from the emergency lights in the corridor he saw Mildred,hand outstetched in an unmistakeable gesture.
Still bleary,he dropped a five-cred piece into her cupped palm.
"Thanks," she said "you'll get it back when we land"





06 - Simoof - Alone in the Dark: Stranger Feelings

Finally. Peace confirmed his solidarity.
It wouldn't last long so he'd need to move fast to take advantage of this rare moment.
He fired up the huge visual display turning the sound down. He'd need to be able to hear if anyone was returning. It was all about the visuals anyway. Sound and story - so weak and laughable.
Snacks lay within reach all around him. He turned the lights off too. Even he was slightly disgusted at what he was about to do, he did not want to see.
Alone in the dark, he double-clicked on the Space Citizen icon.





07 - Listeri69 - Alone In The Cargo Bay...

Darkness...Kow hated the rebooting process.
Especially after his glow-potato batteries had died, and maybe one of his kittens. It did have a habit of sleeping next to the garbage disposal.
'shoootongg'...
'Who's there?' Kow splutted as he heard a strange whining noise coming from the cargo bay...
'slurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrp clicccck uuuhhhherrrghhhh schlick ferp'
"THARGOIDS" Kow thought, "in my cargo bay"... Balls my brother is in there..'Moof..Moof' he hissed out..
'Arghhharhhhh ohhhhh slurrrrrrrggg OH GAAAAWWWWD!!'
Kow burst through the cargo bay door laser in hand
Moof stood naked looking at Kow, he gestured with his magazine 'Erm Thargoid? he went that way'





08 - Steph - OMD (Terrible Pun Alert!)

I'm so excited! They asked me! Yes, me! I thought that they were joking but they said that the triangle solo is the most poignant piece in the whole symphony. The Barnard's Star Orchestra, what an honour! All those fan letters I wrote, all those bunches of flowers. They finally paid off.

Right here goes, I'm right on time. I'm so nervous. What if I don't ting when I should?

In I go! Oh... What's going on? Why is it so dark in here? Where is everyone? They said 2am, I'm sure of it.

Orchestral Manoeuvres (alone) in the dark...





09 - Alien - Alone In The Dark ... Together

Someone had let a wild monkey into the room for the lift controls on Hutton Orbital. He'd barricaded the office door to stop anyone getting in.

The monkey was having fun. He'd watch the monitors and wait until someone had gotten into a lift on their own. He'd then stop the lift between floors. And it was even funnier for him if he also turned off the lights.
The board of emergency call lights was flashing like a Christmas tree.

The radio crackled, it was Psykokow ... "OI SIMOOF! GET BACK TO WORK!"
Simoof gumbled something about never having any fun.





10 - RoyalHankey - Package Number ur2urn8-ddwqdk-yhhgh60-3g53d2-9escruu#getonwithitkow, go to collection point A please

Simoof landed his Python at the co-ordinates provide by his brother provided.
He was to meet up with a pirate named moose666.
He then suddenly heard a big load bang and sounds of engines turning off.
He couldn't see what it was as it was night time.
Get left his Python and met up with Moose666.
Mouse666 gave him a packet for his brother.
They both returned to their ships.
Simoof turned his lights on to see a Cutter taking off.
He looked outside and noticed, bench's and bin's.
His Python wouldn't start and he was alone in the park.





11 - Commander Sir Samuel Vimes - Is there love in the cold black heart of an assassin?

His commander had said "it's for the greater good."

Nowadays whenever he sat alone in the dark he recalled a long list of names and heard over and again the futile pleadings on comms channels. When he'd read the obituary about the murder of the child prodigy and his political activist father by a 'mysterious assassin' finally he knew he'd been wrong to follow orders.

He still had his stealthy ship so now he was once again alone in the dark.

Waiting.



This time however he knew the killing would bring light and hope to millions on the planet below.





12 - FelixBast - It's dark out there

The ship was powered down and sat motionless amongst the stars.
Inside the cockpit, the pilot was lying on the cold deck, curled up in the foetal position. He was twitching and mumbling franticly to himself.
“How can this be? How could this happen? There’s none left. It’s all gone. All gone. I thought I checked. I know I checked! There was enough. Was there enough? But now there’s none. None. No more.”
A single tear trickled down his cheek and then his eyes opened wide as despair rolled over him again. “I have to fly 5,000 light years. Sober.”





13 - Sneevus - A good little soldier.

It's been hours since they woke me. So far nothing, just plenty of time to think.
Thinking about the cold in here and the lack of lights. Thinking about the
reasons for being here, and what's yet to come.
I admit the waiting is starting to wear down my resolve.
Following another's orders, just a pawn for a cause that I didn't
really have any say in, the idea of killing in their name.
That noise, the doors are about to open. It's time.
You know what? Screw these guys.

::Explosion Detected::
::Telemetry Lost::

Final Report:
AI Missile considered failure.





14 - Entarius Fusion - writing a drabble is not the hardest thing to do at all,

all you got to do is write some words and put them in the row,
and count them,
100 words is what your aiming for,
no more words, for heavens-sake we told you this before,
write 100 words no more,
for a drabble cos the word count'll know.
what will you do,
your epic tales are up by two,
we'll cut two words or else you'll see,
the darker uglier side of me,
and now we'll vote for our favorie 3 this week,
but remember TJ's due to get no votes more than two.

la la la,

2 Vote TJ!



 
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Thanks for posting the poll Frank, can I get my title corrected though.

The word "Post" comes from copying the icon :)
 
Thanks for posting the poll Frank, can I get my title corrected though.

The word "Post" comes from copying the icon :)

That'll teach me for editing the post in the dark. I've fixed as much as I can. I've flashed the Mod-Signal from the top of Gotham City Police station. Hopefully one of those brave heroes will now be aware of our plight.
 

Yaffle

Volunteer Moderator
That'll teach me for editing the post in the dark. I've fixed as much as I can. I've flashed the Mod-Signal from the top of Gotham City Police station. Hopefully one of those brave heroes will now be aware of our plight.

Sorted.
 
Whoever wins ... I'd love to do a picture if the topic next week was Burns Night (cause, you know, it is on the 25th ;) )
 
Congrats Edith & Frank ... and Frank finally gets a mug :)
(Don't do what Edith did and post a picture of you holding it on FB ;) )
 
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I couldn't be more delighted with that result. The best Drabble won, but I still get a mug <beam>

My half of the topic will be... LUCK
 
Congrats Edith & Frank ... and Frank finally gets a mug :)
(Don't do what Edith did and post a picture of you holding it on FB ;) )

Congrats Frank, a well-deserved win :)

I'm all for mug winners posting photos on FB of them with the drabble mug, that way I'm not the only one :D

My topic for this week is: A Backup Plan
 
You could always, you know ... write a great drabble, get lots of votes and win, and thereby have the ability to choose a topic for the following week ;)
Every week I write a Drabble I write a second Drabble that I would use if I ever won. I've never needed it yet.

- - - Updated - - -

Would you have preferred Carnivorous Space Elves? 'cause I was like 50:50 on that or something sensible...

Yes, I would have.
 
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