Welcome to your weekly dose of interesting reads. There are 15 Drabblers here who have taken over a year to produce these miniature marvels of prose. All we ask in return is a little applause, a few paltry votes, and an imaginary solid toilet paper crown encrusted with painted-on rubies.
Last week's winners were me, and Simoof. His guilt due to his overextended use of hyphens meant he let me set this week's topic "New Beginnings". I actually voted for him myself, but next time I vote I'll be sure to wear my glasses.
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!
Please vote. And a warning to all of the contestants don't vote for yourselves. Anyone caught voting for themselves will have their save file wiped so they have to start Elite from... a new beginning.
01 - Scorpio - THE OPTIMIST
An anarchy system had long been on Count Rolando's must-see list. From the escape pod viewport, The Count contemplated the fiery remains of his yacht plunging towards the ice moon, and the approach of the pirates Asp. His thoughts turned to the future : So what if a luxurious life of idle debauchery was over ? It was a new beginning; A new life of healthy low fat/low sugar diet and lots of invigorating exercise in the sun sounded quite pleasant. All those tales about the downside of plantation life were obviously exaggerated. Yes, the Count felt truly blessed.
02 - Goose4291 - Persona Non Grata
Abraham cleaned the knife with which he’d dispatched the merchant, who was slowly bobbing against the bulkhead of the ship, blood still seeping from his remains.
Showing no respect for his victim’s remains he casually pushed the corpse, which glided easily in the zero-g environment, through the Haulers airlock into his ship, Genghis’ Terror’
Securing the airlock, he remotely activated the Terror’s autopilot, setting it for a nearby star.
So Abraham Jones, feared corsair of Liaden, with an Imperial Death Warrant on his head, ‘died’.
A smile began to erupt on his face. This was a fresh start for him.
03 - Simoof - Elite: Dangerous? Soon!
The clock clicked over for the 3rd day of the new year.
The pilot mused. Strange; our journey through time is a continual forward flow, yet we seem obsessed with confining, segmenting and quantifying.
What is a year? It's the time that small dot does a loop around that larger dot. Zooming out it became so absurd he forgot what he was doing.
The first breath of the new year, a young pilot destroyed small undefended ships. Then the unjust death of an old friend.
Now, outside his cockpit floated carnage; decaying lifepods.
Soon, he'd be recharged. Soon, the wrath.
04 - Frank - The World Is What You Make It
All this fuss over little old me, and all because I'm so old I actually met the famous Mrs Ghinning. It seems strange that she looked ancient to me at time, and now here I am twice that age, standing in front of this audience.
Her enthusiasm was infectious. She looked at the lifeless world of Giardinonuovo and she could see the potential, a life's work she knew she couldn't complete.
This patch of soil was especially softened for me. A loud cheer erupts as I plant the first sapling. Those youngsters in front of me, this is for them.
05 - moose666 - Ave! Anno Nova, similis anno seneca!
"Welp, that's another year, and you know what that means?"
"Yup, sidewinder overload."
Twas ever thus, for as the most popular place for new pilots to get their licence was from the Eravate system, the surround stars were a handy place for new pilots to learn the ropes.
"Clive, what are you doing?, why are you fiddling with the atmospheric processor?"
"You'll see." Clive held up a small silver cylinder.
"Is that nitrous oxide?"
"Correctomondo!"
>Click< >Hssssssssssssss<
"Oh good grief, not again, you nearly got the sack last time!"
"What's life without some fun?, lets go see the newbie grinnings!"
06 - Erik Marcaigh - Karma
There's a school of thought that believes in reincarnation. No one has ever been able to prove it though. What does a soul weigh? How does it move? Can it come to harm? Be given new life to better itself, or to pay back karmic debt?
The cat had suffered the results of its owner's love for curry. The gas that emanated from the pilot was toxic pollution, one cloud after another, til one day its body could no longer hold out.
The new kitten had an old soul, and years of karmic debt to pay back. Mmmmm tuna farts.
07 - Listeri69 - Bringing In the Litter..........
Michelle you know a thing or two about furry things I've got these kittens'
What is the problem your majesty?....
I told my niece i would love some kittens I even went so far as to buy them a scratching sidewinder and a imperial litter tray with the face of the emperor on it.
Well it seems to me you are doing ze right thing your highness
Yes well I thought so too, its just they've just stopped...moving....
Were you doing anything when they stopped?
Well my niece told me it would be a good idea if i spaded them....
08 - Futuristic Kung Fu - A Psykic letdown
He stared at the holovid playing in front of him. He looked on, hands clenching and unclenching, as the one he had so much admired ridiculed him, wanting to shout out that he had no right to treat him this way, that he was missing all the little bits of genius he had inserted, even if it was not on the standard model involving the violent death of repugnant pests and oh-so-many-superfluous-hyphens, but he knew it was no use. He cried, as Psykokow, in his horrible Cobra, commenced booing. After this disaster, it was back to square one for him.
09 - MrMogadon - Mane Gloria
Darkness. Suddenly, Helios’ fiery chariot rushes from the night to strike the Space Port’s towering finger of glass; spreading multihued dapplings of light across the bated darkness below.
Emboldened, the glow drifts ever down, towards the lesser spires and towers, straining skywards for their renewed caress.
The dappled pools dissolve, merge and grow into brighter waves of light, casting foaming brilliance into the obsidian realm of night.
Like Nautilus rising from the waves, the city Centum Verba sheds the dark; until finally, fresh, bright, renewed; full of promise of untold potential, it stands defiant and proud, ready for another day.
10 - Galactic Midden - A Swindler's Lift
I giggled to control the terror. It was just me and the black, endlessly rolling amongst torn bulkheads...
Proximity tones announce an approaching T9 and I smile in glee. Soon this rescue patrol will take me beyond station security into first class for wine, canapés and the generosity of an efficient compensation clerk. How sweet and easy it was to repurpose and self-destruct an inebriated dumb trucker's "misplaced" ship.
Then fear returned.
This black and white T9 has distinctive patterning and faction emblems recognisable from 65954.341 kilometres away! Oh noooooooo, I repent, I'll change my ways, just don't mug me.
11 - Alien - New Beginnings
Alien mused over that week's drabble topic ... it was not going to be easy to write something witty, that was Frank's speciality.
Writing something funny was either Mr Winnard's or Simoof's area, although Alien was sure an overuse of hyphens would not be accepted two weeks running.
Cute and fluffy animals was Psykokow's method, and he often got a win.
Copy and pasting ... Alien began to realise Kow had probably done every trick in the book ... and then the sequel.
"I know!" exclaimed Alien ... "It's so rubbish it has to win!" Alien typed out the winning drabble's title "New Beginnings"
12 - insanephoton - Manumission
Dazed and blinking we shuffle from the stasis pod. Our stories are all so similar, victims of pirate raiders sold into slavery. Nothing of my old life remains. They even changed my name.
Nervously we wait for orders from our new owner. An elegant lady arrives. In a soft, reassuring voice she tells us that everything will be alright, that we've been rescued and are now free. Her people will help us get back home.
I start to sob but 'I've nothing to go back to...'
Gently she hugs me and says 'We can give you a brand new start'
13 - Darkoba - DIY Fix
"Nebula-Skimmer" had been hit by a small rock and was forced to land near a mining site on an otherwise deserted planet.
Frank, whose mining claim it was, stroked his grizzled chin and shook his head as he looked at the Cobra.
"Ain't no facilities around these parts." he grunted. "Yer'll hafta fix her provisional like."
"Here, try this." He offered a heavy bag. "It's cement with Nickel, Uranium, Vanadium oxide an' some other stuff. Add water, make a paste, smear it on."
Two hours later, the sealed Cobra departed.
"Can't beat that 'Frenchy's Common Cement NUVo' " Frank thought.
14 - Missleman - Breaking away
'interdiction detected. she tried to shake off whoever deemed her a target'
It was no use either throttle down and accept her fate or be pulled asunder by the massive force of the interdicting ship.
she shot out of supercruise her pursuer seconds behind.
Calculations ran through her head in milliseconds eventually settling on the run, hitting the boost,
fifteen seconds till she could supercruise out,
she opened coms trying to buy time from her pursuer, a curse word left her lips as she realized who her pursuer was
'Hows that 'New Begining' going he sneered at her opening fire..
15 - FelixBast - Hitting it for 600
The bulky gloves of the space suit made it difficult to hold the bat. As the bowler ran up to the crease he tightened his grip on the handle.
He swung hard and felt a jolt as ball and bat connected.
Watching the ball fly away from him, he gave a nod of satisfaction as it settled into a low orbit around the little moon.
It wouldn’t be coming back down for at least a half hour. When it did, he would have several hundred runs under his belt.
Yes, on this moon there would be some new big innings.
16 - Clef_Hanger - The Immortal
An eye peered intently through the lens of the powerful microscope.
The single-celled organism shat itself and split in two.
"Sorry. I always do that when the giant eyeball comes." Said one amoeba to the other before they both shat themselves again.
"What do you think it wants?" asked one of the crowd eventually.
"It's looking for something."
"Simoof." Somebody whispered. They all shat themselves again.
"I'm Simoof!" Said a small, defiant voice in the throng.
"I'm Simoof!" Said another.
"No, I'm Simoof!"
"I'm Simoof!" They all shouted together.
The scientist turned from the microscope "Dear god! It's starting again!"
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