Don’t Leave Home Without One (Friday Fictioneers)
THE DETAILS:
Friday Fictioneers: 1 picture, 100 words, scores of people from around the world sharing their creativity and vision. Feel welcome to join in; visit Rochelle Wisoff-Fields HERE to find out how.
THE PROMPT:
This week’s photo prompt courtesy of, and copyright by, Marie Gail Stratford who can be found HERE.
THE STORY:
Don’t Leave Home Without One
The Pictor is a lightweight spaceship capable of speeds to c/3. We’re a research vessel of 350, primarily civilian scientists: botanists, astrophysicists and the like. The rest are engineers to keep the ship moving and military, just in case.
The ship runs on crystal technology. Like everything in the galaxy, crystals run down. You’d’ve thought one of those eggheads would have planned ahead and packed a spare, but no. They leave it to me, 3rd Assistant Engineer Bill Henson, to get it fixed. A word to the wise: the Exxon station has no idea what a crystal-powered warp drive is.
Please visit the other Friday Fictioneers by clicking the little blue frog below. You’ll find just about every type of genre you could imagine and some really creative writers.
Michael B. Fishman
Michaelsfishbowl 
Reblogged this on keithgarrettpoetry and commented:
I remember and loved that show. Puppets and strings.
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Thank you for reblogging, Keith! I don’t think I’ve ever had a post reblogged before so this is cool!
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You had me at “Thunderbirds” 🙂
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They can keep all the wild special effects we get nowadays, I’ll take Thunderbirds any day. They were the coolest!
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I had forgotten about the Thunderbirds – they cannot be beaten! Awesome! Nan 🙂
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Nicely done and you really should always have a spare.
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Thanks, Yaral! Yeah, I agree, but too often hindsight is 20/20.
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Darn, I’ve never seen the Thunderbirds. This story is pretty awesome though! Sci-Fi.
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Thanks, Joy! You can find a lot of Thunderbird clips on Youtube but it’s better to watch the complete episodes if you can.
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Ok, thank you. 🙂
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Who doesn’t pack extras! Nicely done
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No one on my ship, I can tell you that! Thanks for stopping by and commenting 🙂
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Ha, brilliant!
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I do hope they make it. Being stranded in space beggars the imagination!
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And being stranded at an Exxon station in space makes it even worse!
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A nice piece of Thunderbirds-type Sci-Fi. It reads really well and successfully confuses me with all the technical jargon. I remember Thunderbirds, but I confess to siding with the Exxon station in not knowing what a crystal powered wap drive is! (Something from Star Trek would be my guess.) Being stranded in space makes for a great story. 🙂
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Thank you, Millie! The original Star Trek had a crystal powered drive but only (I think?) for their light speed engines.
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Love it when a bit of scifi pops up during Friday fictioneers. Great story, though it sounds like they’re in a bit of trouble.
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Thanks, Rachel and thanks for stopping by to read and comment!
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Those knuckleheads at Exxon need to do their homework. I enjoyed this fresh, sci-fi take, Michael. I hope the 3rd Assistant Engineer can come to the rescue. Perhaps, this will be his opportunity to shine!
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I have a feeling that before this is all said and done our 3rd Assistant Engineer might find himself promoted to Major! I’m glad you enjoyed it and happy that you commented!
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Dear Michael,
Clever story, brought to “life” by marionation. What fun. BTW, I don’t know anything about crystal warp drives either. 😉
Shalom,
Rochelle
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It’s never too late to learn, Rochelle. You never know when that knowledge might come in handy!
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You did! Amazing! I was going to try to incorporate that “Exxon” sign in the background but once I got writing, it didn’t fit. Love the story! My next hyper drive will have a full size spare crystal (not those rinky dinky donut ones) 🙂
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Only fly the best, that’s my motto! Thanks for reading and especially for commenting!
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But it’s just a matter of waiting for technology to catch up at exxon.. (or maybe they already have it but refuse to sell it till the oil runs dry)
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The later would be my thinking!
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Good sci-fi, Michael. I also think Bill Henson will come to the rescue..I love happy endings. 🙂 — Suzanne
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