‘Close to the Edge’ – the theme for Shoreline of Infinity’s flash fiction competition 2023.
Winning story:
Fragments Against the Fire, by Andrew Knighton
Runners up:
Social Climber, by Anna Ziemons-McLean
Small Talk, by Louis Evans and Angus McIntyre
You can read the stories on the Shoreline website.
Congratulations to the winning four writers of three stories, and many thanks to everyone who sent us a story.
Small Talk
Louis Evans and Angus McIntyre
“I hate small talk! I wanna talk about real stuff—atoms, death, sex, magic, the meaning of life. About the override codes for the guidance computer! We need the override codes! Captain, you’re having a coldsleep nightmare; the AI malfunctioned and now we’re off course and falling into a black hole. Captain, you gotta focus, we need the override codes now, Captain, I’m begging you—OVERRIDE DENIED. REENTER CODE. WARNING. STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY AT 47%. WARNING. TWENTY SECONDS TO BLACK HOLE ROCHE LIMIT. OVERRIDE DENIED. REENTER CODE. WARNING. ALL HANDS, ABANDON SHI—”
“Yeah, I hear you. So, got any plans for the weekend?”
