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Jack is dying. All alone on his ship, he is the last person alive, and soon he won't even be that. Adrift in the vast expanse, he has little chance of rescue and an even slimmer chance of survival. In 200 or more words, tell the reader how Jack came to this fate and whether or not this is the final chapter in his life.

You're a cop, a loose cannon who doesn't play by the rules. You've got an angry chief shouting in your face and a mayor breathing down your neck. In 300 words or more, explain why they're mad at you this time, and what crime they've given you 48 hours to solve before they throw you off of the force.

Nothing.

That's where everything came from. That's where everything was going to return to. And at this moment in time, that's what was happening as Jack tried in vain to start the engine of his ship.

“Come on, come on! Please!”

He beat his hands futilely against the hull, collapsing on to the floor as he sank downwards. There was no engine, no help coming, and no hope. The last one was the worst. Hope is what kept men going, the overlooked resource that fueled creatures when they had nothing left to run on. And now, he was out.

He was alone.

He hadn't been. Before the explosion. Before the accident. There had been a crew. His crew.

Now they were just bodies.

By dumb coincidence he had avoided their fate. By sheer dumb luck, he had been in the latrine when the airlocks were overrode, when the oxygen had been vented out to the black. He had been frozen in terror as he heard the thumps and distant grinding of metal on metal as the unknown thing had cut in to the cargo hold of his ship, as it had carelessly sliced the fuel line to the engine bay. But luck swings both ways. After silence had filled the space where air had once been, Jack realized that surviving the suffocation meant he was here to suffer a much longer, agonizing fate. And life support was fading.

Life support had done its job. There had been emergency power, for a time. What little oxygen had been in the reserves was pumping meagerly throughout the ship. But the auxiliary power was running out, and so was the air.

Jack picked himself from the floor. He was feeling light headed. Probably just stress.

He took slow, pained steps from the engine bay to the galley of the ship. He paused as he came to the porthole, one of the few tiny windows to the outside.

It was beautiful. It was terrifying. A literally infinite expanse of vast emptiness, of unlimited opportunity. Open stars, and anything could be out there. All of that emptiness was now pressing down on him, was forcing itself against his ship and seeking every possible way in. It buried itself on every side. All of that infinite space, and he was trapped within mere feet of suffocation in every direction. It was maddening.

His gaze broke from the porthole as another thud made the ship shudder. There it was again. Those long, echoing sounds. The grinding of something, something attached to the ship. The scream of metal being torn apart by fellow metal, being ripped from its shape, consumed. The body of his ship being taken unto something...something else. At any moment, it could breach the interior. At any moment, he could join his crew in the freezing suffocation of space.

“Albatross class vessel ND-64-Y7, this is the Vladivostok. We've picked up your distress signal. You are out of sensor range. We're having difficulty pinpointing your coordinates. Please respond, over.”

Hope! At long last, hope! Hope surged through him, reinvigorated him, gave him life! It was raw, unfiltered hope that pushed his failing body. It threw him up the stairs that passed now empty crew quarters. It propelled him beyond the meager living area towards the the bridge. The transmission played again, echoing and merging with the sounds of heavy thumps and dying metal.

“Albatross class vessel ND-64-Y7, this is the Vladivostok. We've picked up your distress signal. You are out of sensor range. We're having difficulty pinpointing your coordinates. Please respond, over.”

Jack reached the opening of the bridge, impatiently beating on the automated door as it began to slide open.

“Albatross class vessel ND-64-Y7, this is the Vladivostok. We've picked up your distress signal. You are out of sensor range. We're having difficulty pinpointing your coordinates. Please respond, over.”

He was so close! He could not recall the door to the bridge ever taking so long. It was agonizing. An eternity compacted and squeezed in to the span of mere seconds. The door split as each side began to slide in to the walls.

“Albatross class vessel ND-64-Y7, this is the Vladivostok. We've picked up your distress signal. You are out of sensor range. We're having difficulty pinpointing your-”

THUNK

The doors stopped. The lights were overtaken by black. Jack's feet left the floor as the gravity generator went offline. Whatever was cutting in to his ship had taken out life support. And now the hope he had been running off of, had been fueling him, was running out.

“Albatross class vessel ND-64-Y7, this is the Vladivostok. We've picked up your distress signal. You are out of sensor range. We're having difficulty pinpointing your coordinates. Please respond, over.”

He reached his arm through the crack of the door, swiping desperately for any purchase that might pull him through. The rest of him floated helplessly on the other side, trying to keep himself held and find any way to slide inside the door. But it was impossible. He reached and fell short. The soft red glow of the emergency beacon illuminated the space around it as it floated through the bridge. Jack reached out for the beacon still, but it was out of reach itself.

“Albatross class vessel ND-64-Y7, this is the Vladivostok. We've picked up your distress signal. You are out of sensor range. We're having difficulty pinpointing your coordinates. Please respond, over.”

The metallic ripping was getting louder. He knew as a primate on some distant planet, as some ape from millenia past, that whatever assailed him was getting closer. He struggled more.

And he failed.

“Albatross class vessel ND-64-Y7, this is the Vladivostok. We've picked up your distress signal. You are out of sensor range. We're having difficulty pinpointing your coordinates. Please respond, over.”

It was all around him now. The grinding. The ceaseless explosion of alloy being torn away. It was being consumed all around. And through the chaos, he could still hear parts of the transmission. The hope, the salvation, the promise that everything would be okay, if he could just reach a little further.

“Albatross class vessel ND-64-Y7, this is the Vladivo-”

Everything became louder.

“-ked up your distress signal. You are out of sensor range. We're having difficulty pinpointing-”

The rooms behind him were collapsing to whatever monstrosity had overtaken his ship.

“-You are-”

The metal grating consumed everything.

“-over.”

Writing Prompt 1:


Writing Prompt 1 Results:

Winner: Lucid:

Submission:


Runner(s) Up:
Illusion
Submission:

You're a cop, a loose cannon who doesn't play by the rules. You've got an angry chief shouting in your face and a mayor breathing down your neck. In 300 words or more, explain why they're mad at you this time, and what crime they've given you 48 hours to solve before they throw you off of the force.

"My daughter is DEAD." The police commissioner was red in the face as he bellowed the words at me as rain fell in sheets against his office window. "YOU were the one who was supposed to stop that... that MADMAN. You talk about protecting this city? Then explain to me why I'm going home tonight to an EMPTY HOUSE?"

The mayor was standing on my other side, the two of them flanking me as if to keep me from getting away. He pursed his lips, shifting his weight and refolding his arms, a dark scowl on his face. He's inserted himself into this meeting as a show of authority. He hasn't said much so far, but we have a history -- I know he doesn't like me. The feeling is mutual. "Yes, please, explain it to him. Explain why you disobeyed my DIRECT order. I'd like to hear what sort of justification you have. I want to know why you think that you can get away with your brand of vigilante justice and yet you can't -- no, you WON'T do what it takes to keep this from happening!"

I narrowed my eyes, remaining silent. I'm not going to let him get under my skin. The commissioner and I don't always see eye to eye, but I respect him, and I value his opinions. I really DO feel bad about his daughter. But the mayor? He's a corrupt crook with the backing of the mob, and he only won because his opponent did something embarrassing.

"WELL? Are you going to SAY anything?" The mayor just officially blew his cool.

I spoke up for the first time to say, "Not to you."

"WHAT?! I'll have you thrown out of this city! What makes you think you can act like this to me?"

"Because..." I paused for dramatic effect, letting the thunder crash. "I'm Batman."

RULE NUMBER 202: A LESSON IN PAIN.

I'm Brock Brockstein, after a nuclear radiation from the local Obviously Evil Factory I was given kung-fu powers. I became a loose cannon who doesn't follow the rules. I narrate everything I say because I say it very cool. I work as a cop in Danger City where there is danger. My mortal enemy Dr. Professor Brocko Brockenstein was my best friend, but after a falling out with Mecha Stallin bringing him to the dark side with fresh chocolate chip cookies. It's been my mission to clean up Danger City and win back the friendship of Dr. Professor Brocko Brockenstein from Mecha Stalin.

So chief, I got a tip from a shady ostrich named Tom who I will not name due to witness protection bullshit that Dr. Professor Brocko Brockenstein kidnapped a bus full of orphans. So I surfed my motorized mecha whale into Obvious Trap hotel. There Dr. Professor Brocko Brockenstein has been mutating Orphans into bizzare freaks using the same toxic radiation that gave me my kung fu powers. So I did what any cop in my situation would do. MURDER THEM ALL. Using my sick kung-fu power I eliminated the mutated orphans from their misery of cool super powers and went to face Dr. Professor Brocko Brockenstein. But I was shocked to find out that Obvious Trap hotel was actually a trap to get me close to the toxic in attempt to get rid of my powers. Dr. Professor Brocko Brockenstein was successful. AT GIVING ME EVEN MORE RAD POWERS! The toxin gave me the strength of a nuclear holocaust with sunglasses, and I beat the shit out of Dr. Professor Brocko Brockenstein with my explosive nuclear fists.. Of PAIN! I blew up half the city with my explosive fists. I then arrested him from harboring away from FRIENDSHIP.

SO CHIEF. I did you a favor blowing up half the city. And to the Mayor... MY GOD. The nuclear toxic waste came from the Obviously Evil Corporation that was owned by.. THE MAYOR. He's trying to take me out in attempt to clear out the city of any JUSTICE. NOT ON MY WATCH. I'm going to break into the Mayor's son's birthday party and take him out so I can be hailed a hero from all the little boys and girls. So if you'd excuse me chief.. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED WITH A LESSON IN PAIN!