Winter 2013 Short Story Contest!

[Jenrak]

Here.

[Nazi Flower Power]

Splinter Southern Hemisphere contest? Probably be just you and me but you never know.

Nope, just trying to eradicate Northern Hemispheric bias

Northern bias is best bias!

[Gidgetisms]

Possibly in

[Nazi Flower Power]

Where are the stories, you guys? Don't want this thread to get lost...

[Nationstatelandsville]

Where are the stories, you guys? Don't want this thread to get lost...

Once Christmas break starts new week, I imagine more (hopefully including mine) will start pouring in.

As such, might I suggest moving the end date back to the 2nd? That's when most people go back and would give them the entire break to work with.

[Anollasia]

DELETED

[Jenrak]

I've made it January 3rd, for those people with lives.

[Mushet]

What exactly do you mean for this contest only?

[Seljuq Kyiv]

Is there a prize to be won?

[Nazi Flower Power]

What exactly do you mean for this contest only?

Just don't use something that you have already posted elsewhere online, and you should be OK.

If you took a creative writing class and wrote the story for your homework, don't tell us. I'm not sure if Jenrak meant to exclude stories that have been used for English homework, but we have no way to check for that, so if you don't tell us then nobody can give you a hard time about it.

[Mushet]

What exactly do you mean for this contest only?

Just don't use something that you have already posted elsewhere online, and you should be OK.

If you took a creative writing class and wrote the story for your homework, don't tell us. I'm not sure if Jenrak meant to exclude stories that have been used for English homework, but we have no way to check for that, so if you don't tell us then nobody can give you a hard time about it.

What if I post it here first and use it for something else later

[The New World Oceania]

I need to edit what I've written, but it will be here some day.

Is there a prize to be won?

I may or may not hunt down the winner and beg they become an NSI editor. I don't think there's ever been a prize offered in these story contests, though, and I don't see why they'd start now.

[StellarGate]

First story!

Familiar Souls, Unfamiliar Territory

It was late.

In space, time was a relative thing. Every planet had a different day length, some races even measured time differently, it could get very confusing if one was not use to the ever changing hours and endless darkness of space.

However the woman standing looking out her view port was.

Kara Harrington wasn't the tallest woman in space, she would never claim to be extraordinary at anything. With shoulder length brown hair and amber eyes, she had a natural beauty about her, her shape kept from the simple fact that in being in the Terran Navy she had to stay fit. She was also a telepath with many powers that most regular telepaths might not have.

However, this natural beauty was something she rarely used. Her makeup was basic, hair often pulled back in a simple ponytail. She did not go out of her way to make herself beautiful unless there was a very good reason. She was a ship captain, so sometimes when she was called in for an exercise debriefing, she would put on some make up and one of her better uniforms, but that was it. Kara was one of the galaxy's lucky accidents of birth. She had been born to the famous Jessica Harrington of the Terran Empire. Her mothers exploits were legendary, and it didn't help that Kara was named after her mother's best friend, Kara Larson, who's constant support for the Terran Empire (despite being in an entirely different navy) had made her an icon as well.

This meant any chance at a normal navy career went right out the airlock.

Kara knew that she'd gotten command of her current ship, a City-class cruiser named HMS Vienna, with some help from someone, she didn't know if it was her mother or a friend of her mother, but while she was pretty good at commanding a ship in action, she was still a bit young, even for a rising star.

Turning away from the viewport she went over to her desk and sat down, pulling up the report on what was to happen.

The fleet she was in was short a few squadrons of cruisers, and the Royal Cresian Navy had offered up some of its newer cruisers to help fill the gaps. The Terran Navy had accepted as a sort of friendly gesture, it would of taken a few weeks, but the Terran Navy had the ships, it would of taken time. The RCE on the other hand, just had them available for sending out and the Empire couldn't really say no to a friendly joint operation. The Cresian ships were supposedly new, very new. The RCE favored the gravitic wedge in its ship designs, but these cruisers were suppose to lack them and still able to keep up with the Terrans, most likely a ship design from the now extinct race of assimilators called the Reconzi.

Her com chimed and she accepted the call. It was the voice of the officer of the watch, a young lieutenant desperately in need of some command time, even if the ship was just sitting around doing nothing. "Ma'am, we've picked up some energy signatures consistent with what the Royal Cresian Navy provided for their new cruisers."

"Thank you Lieutenant." Kara said, grabbing her hat off the corner of her desk. "I'll be right up."

---

As Kara strode onto the bridge she looked over to the plot and was pleased by what she saw.

The sleek looking ships she saw sitting in formation with the rest of the ship looked nothing like the usual double hammerhead shapes she was use to studying when it came to RCN ships. However they looked glorious, there wasn't a communications array out of place on that design and she whistled softly at the sight.

"Damn, quite an upgrade." She said under her breath as she took a seat in her vacant command chair. "Tactical, what can you tell me about them?"

The tactical officer looked up from his displays and spoke. "Well Captain, they're streamline design must of been hard to design. While I'm detecting weapons systems, I can't see them on visual, meaning their all inside the hull until their tactical officer lets them lose. Ascetically it could probably swim in the water and not get wet and fly through the sky and make most birds faint with jealously, its a real step away from their normal design and the fact that they have a few squadrons of it means they plan to adopt in some serious numbers rather then just having one or two for testing." He paused, tapping some numbers into his console. "From the specs I have here, their armed mostly with energy weapons as their main choice of weapons and missiles are a far secondary. Lasers and grazers are standard, though I'm sure this 'Quantum Beam Laser' of theirs is just a copy of our Quantum Disruption Beam. Also from the specs, its armor is pretty thin, relatively speaking though it makes up for it in what I'm calling some pretty heavy ass, excuse me ma'am, shields. It built with an AI on board and its crew is lighter then normal, but that's normal considering the heavy lean these things have on their AIs compared to our own vessels."

Kara nodded. "So in any exercise, knocking out the AI would be a good idea, too bad the AI core is probably as well protected as the bridge is."

"Ma'am." The com officer drew her attention. "Admiral Kreto is signalling, all captains are to report aboard the station for a briefing immediately."

"Finally." Kara said with a small grin. "Maybe we'll get to do something interesting." Some of the bridge crew laughed at that and she left the bridge.

---

It took a few minutes for her shuttle to get a place to land in the station and she was greeted by a harassed looking Lieutenant and a small honor guard who snapped to attention. She returned the salute and watched as another craft, a Cresian pinnace touched down on the other side of the bay, then her attention turned back to the Lieutenant as the young man led her to the lift at the same time as another captain and his guide. She looked up and gave him a nod of greeting. It was a Cresian captain, wearing his distinctive black and gold uniform with pale gray wings, brown hair with the tri-colored streaks, and murky blue eyes. The Cresian was much taller then she was, reaching at least 8'. He wasn't any higher ranking then she was, in fact, they just might be around the same age, (which spoke volumes as Cresians lived a lot longer then humans and thus their careers tended to be slower,) and they stepped into the lift and one of the lieutenants punched in the destination.

They arrived quickly and were shown into the room. Kara found the chair with her name on it and she sat down and turned to chat with one of her fellow cruiser captain. She noted that the Cresians were sitting across from her and the captain she had rode the lift down with was sitting across from her, though his attention was currently absorbed by another Cresian human captain sitting near him.

The noise of the hatch opening one last time caught everyone's attention and they stood as Admiral Kreto, a Terran human man with hair that had already turned gray despite the fact that he had a while before death would claim him, stode to his seat and motioned for everyone to sit.

"Thank you all for coming, as you know this briefing was about..."

---

Kara covered her mouth as she yawned and waited patiently off to the side of the shuttle bay. The Propylons operators on the station were swamped with requests so she decided to go the old-fashion way. Anyways, she liked looking at her ship from the outside, it might not be the most elegant looking thing in the universe, but it was her command.

"Captain?" the musical accented male voice camefrom behind her and she turned around. It was the Cresian captain again.

'What can I do you you Captain..."

"Moroe." He said with a smile. "Captain James Moroe of RCNS Silver Wind. I felt kind of bad not introducing myself on the lift earlier even though it seemed everyone was in a rush to get there." He folded his hand behind him, probably under one of his three sets of wings, and asked, "May I ask your name?"

"Captain Kara Harrington, HMS Vienna." She held out her hand. "Nice to meet you." As the other captain shook her hand there was a flash of recognition in his murky blue eyes, she was use to seeing that, if the looks didn't tip them off, the name always had them make the connection.

"Nice to meet you as Captain Harrington," He responded, his musical accent practically melting her name into sounding like the most beautiful word in the galaxy. "I know we'll be busy over the next few days, but when you get a chance, how about you come aboard and I'll give you a personal tour of my command?"

"I am highly interested in your offer Captain, but as you said, we'll be quite busy, finding time to spare will be hard." Kara said as her shuttle touched down. "Thank you and have a nice night Captain Moroe."

---

Five days later, Harrington got her chance.

As her shuttle crossed the gap between the two ships as admired the sleek look of the ship, noting the insignias it had painted on it showing what squadron it was a part of. It really was beautiful and she sat back as the pilot came up into the Boat Bay of the other ship and landed. The hatch opened and she saluted the honor guard there and then returned the salute of Captain Moroe who waited off to the side.

'Welcome aboard the Silver Wind Captain Harrington." He said as he waved the honor guard away and led the human to the lift. "I was impressed the way you dueled Golden Apple yesterday, that maneuver you pulled off could not have been easy."

"It most certainly wasn't." Kara replied. "We pushed our ship to the max, my engineers were getting mad at me, 'highlord' blood or no." She joked and the Cresian gave a small chuckle.

"Oh all captains do that at least once, pissing off engineers is what Cresian captains do best." The liftcar finally arrived and the pair stepped in. "We'll start with engineering on that note..."

---

".... I'm impressed by the array of ways your weapons can work Captain." Kara said as they entered the final destination on the tour, the captain's day cabin for a small meal and discussion. "I'll admit I was a bit peeved that your navy 'stole' our Quantum Disruption Beams when I heard the name but they work a bit differently, don't they?" Kara sat down in a chair around a small table and reached for a slice of cheese, she studied it before eating it, noticing its slightly tangy chrisp taste.

Moroe sat down across from her. "They are quite a bit different, we studied what we could from your navy, then used the designs we got from the Reconzi." He sat back, studying the holographic star map of the local area glowing on the ceiling. "It was certainly different from anything I learned in the Academy, but I adapted."

Kara nodded. "That's good," She took another slice of cheese and a cracker while Moroe helped himself to a some sort of bread and butter. "You've been doing well in the exercises so far, I can't wait to see your drive in action." She gave a small grin, "You were quite mysterious about how it worked."

"With good reason." Moroe replied with a grin of his own. "I can't let the enemy in on my secret now can I?" He laughed slightly and Kara suddenly frowned. That laugh sounded familiar, though where had she heard it before...

Suddenly Moroe became serious at her look and he sighed. "Something wrong?"

"You..." She paused for a moment. "You sound familiar." She sat forward, studying his face. "Do I know you?"

Moroe didn't answer immediately, instead he rose and walked over to the viewport, showing the station the were currently sitting in orbit around. He ran his hand through his hair and she watched with fascination as the brown turned to a very light blonde. He turned back around and his eyes were no longer murky blue rather white a dull orange shot with silver.

"I use special nanites to change the color of my hair and eyes, can't do the same for my wings, but do you recognize me now?" That musical voice sounded familiar now as well and Kara dug through her memories of people.

Then it hit her.

"Francis Larson?" She said in complete disbelief. "I haven't seen or heard from you in years, where have you been?"

Francis Larson sat back down. Kara and Francis had been close friends when younger, Kara, along with her twin brother Edward, had always like playing with Francis, who was the child of Kara Larson, the person Kara Harrington was named after. He had grown, the last time she had saw him was as a tall awkward preteen going into MiddleSchool.

He sighed again. "I disappeared right off the map right before HighSchool. In Cresian culture, children can live on their own at quite a young age, right out of MiddleSchool. You see I wanted to go into the navy, but I didn't want to be recognized as Francis Larson, child of Kara Larson, I wanted to be my own person, rise on my own merits rather then leeching off the system. So I built a new identity for myself, bought a small apartment on Cresa, got a job and generally lived like any other teen wanting to be free of his parents might."

"The navy isn't going to get mad when they figure it out?" Kara asked and Francis shook his head.

"No, the RCN has a contingency to deal with it, as Supreme Commanders always disappear off the map and rise on their own merits under a different name in their chosen branch of military before revealing themselves. Its so no one judges them as their future leader and gets scared of accidentally setting themselves a death trap for later. The RCE wouldn't want a Supreme Commander that's a complete jackass as a leader and any heir which acts this way is likely to be removed from the chain of succession."

Kara listened intently before saying, "Then you must of done something pretty spectacular to get a command this young in your life without help from your mother."

"Yeah, I was aboard a destroyer hunting a pirate when the pirate got a missile through our defenses. Our XO had already been killed and our bridge crew had been thinned down by another earlier hit. The captain was knocked out and I was the highest ranking one left awake. I was able to capture, and kill, all the pirates, take the ship as a prize and save the lives of the crews they had captured as slaves. I've been on fast track, very fast track, though I suspect I might take a break from the navy for a while to allow my peers to catch up with me, maybe get into programming, or AI studies."

"Sounds like a plan." Kara said with a smile, she looked at the chrono on the wall and flinched slightly. "I should get going."

"Of course." Francis said, waving his hand over his eyes and hair and they reverted back to their former brown and murky blue colors. "I'll escort you back to your shuttle."

He was about to reach for the button to open the door when Kara gave him a friendly hug. "Its nice seeing you again Francis."

"It was nice seeing you too, Kara." He said, then reverted back to professional as the door opened and he led her to her shuttle. "Feel free to come back any time Captain Harrington."

---

As the weeks went on Kara often visited Francis aboard his ship, the two filling each other in on the years they had been apart and reminiscing on the things they did when they were still children. I


Kara looked up at the chrono. They were taking a day break in the exercises, more then enough time to go visit Francis, and she stood, fixing her working uniform. "Richard, you have the bridge." She said. "I'm going over ot the Silver Wind if you need me."

"Of course Ma'am." Richard said and something in his voice made her look up. Her XO wasn't looking at her, rather at a report of some sort, but something in his tone of voice had made her stop. It wasn't bad, just odd, and she gave him a look before turning to continue down to the shuttle.

---

There was no honor guard, she had Francis get rid of the formality as it must of been getting tiresome for the marines to have to greet her so often. Instead, Francis, as Captain Moroe, greeted her with a polite smile and they would talk on they way to his day cabin where they would engage in conversation ranging all over the place. The two could talk for hours, and it wasn't above Francis to show her tactical recording of exercises so they could find flaws in each others tactics and correct them.

"Captain Harrington, what a surprise." Francis said with a smile as he escorted her to the lift. "I had a feeling you would come over."

"A feeling? I told you directly." Kara replied. The Cresian chuckled, Cresians were telepaths as well, but they were only telepaths and empaths, they could not move stuff around with their minds as Kara's type of telepathy could. "Anyways, we just have to discuss that last exercise and that extremely dirty trick your squadron of ships pulled."

"Ha!" Francis said as the lift stopped and the two exit, walking down the nearly empty passage to his day cabin. "You call it a dirty trick, I call it tactical excellence." He pushed the button outside his door and it open, he gave a small bow, letting Kara in first and then followed her in.

She immediately sat down on the couch facing the viewport, currently filled with stars and other ships, and sat back in the comfort of his day cabin.

Francis sat down on the other end, staring out at the stars and the two stayed silent. Kara could feel something was bothering him and she turned her amber eyes to him. "Francis, what's wrong?"

"Its nothing bad, I can assure you." He said and she felt the truth in his words, "But there have been rumors going around."

"Rumors?" Kara asked. "What kind?"

"That you and I are dating." Francis said, looking at the Terran captain. "Its hardly without proof. You come over here quite often and we often spend hours locked away in my day cabin talking. All it takes is an active imagination to fill in the gaps." He snorted in amusement. "The officers of the watch have even started to ask people that com for me if I'm needed immediately or if it can wait, 99% of the time they call back later or leave messages for me sort through after you leave."

"Oh."

Francis nodded, turning to stare out the viewport again.

"I can bet the same thing is happening aboard my own ship." Kara said. "I've noticed that my com traffic seems to drop whenever there is a break long enough for me to come over here. I'm guessing they're just a bit more subtle about it." She smiled a bit. "I noticed my XO had a tone in his voice when I told him where I was going, I understand what that was now."

"So are we?" Francis asked and Kara frowned.

"What do you mean?"

Francis turned to face her. "Are we dating? I mean..." he paused, obviously a bit unsure, "Even if we make it an official secret, its going to be hard for me to keep my secret identity, especially if Admiral Harrington gets wind that your dating someone."

"You mean the fact that she'd probably have you background checked forward and backwards by intelligence and someone would stumble over who you are and break the news?" Kara guessed and Francis nodded with a bit of a smile.

"Correct." then his smile faded. "I enjoy being with you Kara I won't deny that, its different from when we were children, we've both changed so much over the years, its like I met you all over again. A beautiful woman that is a naval captain and around my age? Its almost perfect."

"We're both navy though." Kara pointed out. "After this our deployments will probably be very different considering we are from two different navies. We won't even be able to see each other as often as my mother and father did, probably less. Do you think a commitment could hold over that many light years?"

"I'll admit, for a Cresian it would probably be very hard." Francis rubbed the back of his neck. "But I would like to think I have the willpower to keep such a commitment."

Kara sat back, studying the Cresian at the other end of the couch. "Then yes."

"What?"

"Then yes, we're dating..." She paused. "If that's alright with you." She slid down the couch to sit next to Francis and the Cresian smiled as he looked down at her.

He wrapped his arm around her and she leaned against him feeling the warmth of his body as he adjusted to allow her to get closer.

"You going to be staying a while?" Francis asked and Kara nodded, not taking her eyes off the view outside the ship.

Francis rested his chin on her head. "Good." He said softly. With that he fell silent, content to enjoy the moment for all it was worth.

[Nazi Flower Power]

Is there a prize to be won?

Bragging rights.

I won the last one. If I wasn't a judge for this one, I'd make some joke about how you don't want to let the Nazis win again.

Just don't use something that you have already posted elsewhere online, and you should be OK.

If you took a creative writing class and wrote the story for your homework, don't tell us. I'm not sure if Jenrak meant to exclude stories that have been used for English homework, but we have no way to check for that, so if you don't tell us then nobody can give you a hard time about it.

What if I post it here first and use it for something else later

We can't stop you from using it for something else after the contest ends.

First story!

Familiar Souls, Unfamiliar Territory

It was late.

In space, time was a relative thing. Every planet had a different day length, some races even measured time differently, it could get very confusing if one was not use to the ever changing hours and endless darkness of space.

However the woman standing looking out her view port was.

Kara Harrington wasn't the tallest woman in space, she would never claim to be extraordinary at anything. With shoulder length brown hair and amber eyes, she had a natural beauty about her, her shape kept from the simple fact that in being in the Terran Navy she had to stay fit. She was also a telepath with many powers that most regular telepaths might not have.

However, this natural beauty was something she rarely used. Her makeup was basic, hair often pulled back in a simple ponytail. She did not go out of her way to make herself beautiful unless there was a very good reason. She was a ship captain, so sometimes when she was called in for an exercise debriefing, she would put on some make up and one of her better uniforms, but that was it. Kara was one of the galaxy's lucky accidents of birth. She had been born to the famous Jessica Harrington of the Terran Empire. Her mothers exploits were legendary, and it didn't help that Kara was named after her mother's best friend, Kara Larson, who's constant support for the Terran Empire (despite being in an entirely different navy) had made her an icon as well.

This meant any chance at a normal navy career went right out the airlock.

Kara knew that she'd gotten command of her current ship, a City-class cruiser named HMS Vienna, with some help from someone, she didn't know if it was her mother or a friend of her mother, but while she was pretty good at commanding a ship in action, she was still a bit young, even for a rising star.

Turning away from the viewport she went over to her desk and sat down, pulling up the report on what was to happen.

The fleet she was in was short a few squadrons of cruisers, and the Royal Cresian Navy had offered up some of its newer cruisers to help fill the gaps. The Terran Navy had accepted as a sort of friendly gesture, it would of taken a few weeks, but the Terran Navy had the ships, it would of taken time. The RCE on the other hand, just had them available for sending out and the Empire couldn't really say no to a friendly joint operation. The Cresian ships were supposedly new, very new. The RCE favored the gravitic wedge in its ship designs, but these cruisers were suppose to lack them and still able to keep up with the Terrans, most likely a ship design from the now extinct race of assimilators called the Reconzi.

Her com chimed and she accepted the call. It was the voice of the officer of the watch, a young lieutenant desperately in need of some command time, even if the ship was just sitting around doing nothing. "Ma'am, we've picked up some energy signatures consistent with what the Royal Cresian Navy provided for their new cruisers."

"Thank you Lieutenant." Kara said, grabbing her hat off the corner of her desk. "I'll be right up."

---

As Kara strode onto the bridge she looked over to the plot and was pleased by what she saw.

The sleek looking ships she saw sitting in formation with the rest of the ship looked nothing like the usual double hammerhead shapes she was use to studying when it came to RCN ships. However they looked glorious, there wasn't a communications array out of place on that design and she whistled softly at the sight.

"Damn, quite an upgrade." She said under her breath as she took a seat in her vacant command chair. "Tactical, what can you tell me about them?"

The tactical officer looked up from his displays and spoke. "Well Captain, they're streamline design must of been hard to design. While I'm detecting weapons systems, I can't see them on visual, meaning their all inside the hull until their tactical officer lets them lose. Ascetically it could probably swim in the water and not get wet and fly through the sky and make most birds faint with jealously, its a real step away from their normal design and the fact that they have a few squadrons of it means they plan to adopt in some serious numbers rather then just having one or two for testing." He paused, tapping some numbers into his console. "From the specs I have here, their armed mostly with energy weapons as their main choice of weapons and missiles are a far secondary. Lasers and grazers are standard, though I'm sure this 'Quantum Beam Laser' of theirs is just a copy of our Quantum Disruption Beam. Also from the specs, its armor is pretty thin, relatively speaking though it makes up for it in what I'm calling some pretty heavy ass, excuse me ma'am, shields. It built with an AI on board and its crew is lighter then normal, but that's normal considering the heavy lean these things have on their AIs compared to our own vessels."

Kara nodded. "So in any exercise, knocking out the AI would be a good idea, too bad the AI core is probably as well protected as the bridge is."

"Ma'am." The com officer drew her attention. "Admiral Kreto is signalling, all captains are to report aboard the station for a briefing immediately."

"Finally." Kara said with a small grin. "Maybe we'll get to do something interesting." Some of the bridge crew laughed at that and she left the bridge.

---

It took a few minutes for her shuttle to get a place to land in the station and she was greeted by a harassed looking Lieutenant and a small honor guard who snapped to attention. She returned the salute and watched as another craft, a Cresian pinnace touched down on the other side of the bay, then her attention turned back to the Lieutenant as the young man led her to the lift at the same time as another captain and his guide. She looked up and gave him a nod of greeting. It was a Cresian captain, wearing his distinctive black and gold uniform with pale gray wings, brown hair with the tri-colored streaks, and murky blue eyes. The Cresian was much taller then she was, reaching at least 8'. He wasn't any higher ranking then she was, in fact, they just might be around the same age, (which spoke volumes as Cresians lived a lot longer then humans and thus their careers tended to be slower,) and they stepped into the lift and one of the lieutenants punched in the destination.

They arrived quickly and were shown into the room. Kara found the chair with her name on it and she sat down and turned to chat with one of her fellow cruiser captain. She noted that the Cresians were sitting across from her and the captain she had rode the lift down with was sitting across from her, though his attention was currently absorbed by another Cresian human captain sitting near him.

The noise of the hatch opening one last time caught everyone's attention and they stood as Admiral Kreto, a Terran human man with hair that had already turned gray despite the fact that he had a while before death would claim him, stode to his seat and motioned for everyone to sit.

"Thank you all for coming, as you know this briefing was about..."

---

Kara covered her mouth as she yawned and waited patiently off to the side of the shuttle bay. The Propylons operators on the station were swamped with requests so she decided to go the old-fashion way. Anyways, she liked looking at her ship from the outside, it might not be the most elegant looking thing in the universe, but it was her command.

"Captain?" the musical accented male voice camefrom behind her and she turned around. It was the Cresian captain again.

'What can I do you you Captain..."

"Moroe." He said with a smile. "Captain James Moroe of RCNS Silver Wind. I felt kind of bad not introducing myself on the lift earlier even though it seemed everyone was in a rush to get there." He folded his hand behind him, probably under one of his three sets of wings, and asked, "May I ask your name?"

"Captain Kara Harrington, HMS Vienna." She held out her hand. "Nice to meet you." As the other captain shook her hand there was a flash of recognition in his murky blue eyes, she was use to seeing that, if the looks didn't tip them off, the name always had them make the connection.

"Nice to meet you as Captain Harrington," He responded, his musical accent practically melting her name into sounding like the most beautiful word in the galaxy. "I know we'll be busy over the next few days, but when you get a chance, how about you come aboard and I'll give you a personal tour of my command?"

"I am highly interested in your offer Captain, but as you said, we'll be quite busy, finding time to spare will be hard." Kara said as her shuttle touched down. "Thank you and have a nice night Captain Moroe."

---

Five days later, Harrington got her chance.

As her shuttle crossed the gap between the two ships as admired the sleek look of the ship, noting the insignias it had painted on it showing what squadron it was a part of. It really was beautiful and she sat back as the pilot came up into the Boat Bay of the other ship and landed. The hatch opened and she saluted the honor guard there and then returned the salute of Captain Moroe who waited off to the side.

'Welcome aboard the Silver Wind Captain Harrington." He said as he waved the honor guard away and led the human to the lift. "I was impressed the way you dueled Golden Apple yesterday, that maneuver you pulled off could not have been easy."

"It most certainly wasn't." Kara replied. "We pushed our ship to the max, my engineers were getting mad at me, 'highlord' blood or no." She joked and the Cresian gave a small chuckle.

"Oh all captains do that at least once, pissing off engineers is what Cresian captains do best." The liftcar finally arrived and the pair stepped in. "We'll start with engineering on that note..."

---

".... I'm impressed by the array of ways your weapons can work Captain." Kara said as they entered the final destination on the tour, the captain's day cabin for a small meal and discussion. "I'll admit I was a bit peeved that your navy 'stole' our Quantum Disruption Beams when I heard the name but they work a bit differently, don't they?" Kara sat down in a chair around a small table and reached for a slice of cheese, she studied it before eating it, noticing its slightly tangy chrisp taste.

Moroe sat down across from her. "They are quite a bit different, we studied what we could from your navy, then used the designs we got from the Reconzi." He sat back, studying the holographic star map of the local area glowing on the ceiling. "It was certainly different from anything I learned in the Academy, but I adapted."

Kara nodded. "That's good," She took another slice of cheese and a cracker while Moroe helped himself to a some sort of bread and butter. "You've been doing well in the exercises so far, I can't wait to see your drive in action." She gave a small grin, "You were quite mysterious about how it worked."

"With good reason." Moroe replied with a grin of his own. "I can't let the enemy in on my secret now can I?" He laughed slightly and Kara suddenly frowned. That laugh sounded familiar, though where had she heard it before...

Suddenly Moroe became serious at her look and he sighed. "Something wrong?"

"You..." She paused for a moment. "You sound familiar." She sat forward, studying his face. "Do I know you?"

Moroe didn't answer immediately, instead he rose and walked over to the viewport, showing the station the were currently sitting in orbit around. He ran his hand through his hair and she watched with fascination as the brown turned to a very light blonde. He turned back around and his eyes were no longer murky blue rather white a dull orange shot with silver.

"I use special nanites to change the color of my hair and eyes, can't do the same for my wings, but do you recognize me now?" That musical voice sounded familiar now as well and Kara dug through her memories of people.

Then it hit her.

"Francis Larson?" She said in complete disbelief. "I haven't seen or heard from you in years, where have you been?"

Francis Larson sat back down. Kara and Francis had been close friends when younger, Kara, along with her twin brother Edward, had always like playing with Francis, who was the child of Kara Larson, the person Kara Harrington was named after. He had grown, the last time she had saw him was as a tall awkward preteen going into MiddleSchool.

He sighed again. "I disappeared right off the map right before HighSchool. In Cresian culture, children can live on their own at quite a young age, right out of MiddleSchool. You see I wanted to go into the navy, but I didn't want to be recognized as Francis Larson, child of Kara Larson, I wanted to be my own person, rise on my own merits rather then leeching off the system. So I built a new identity for myself, bought a small apartment on Cresa, got a job and generally lived like any other teen wanting to be free of his parents might."

"The navy isn't going to get mad when they figure it out?" Kara asked and Francis shook his head.

"No, the RCN has a contingency to deal with it, as Supreme Commanders always disappear off the map and rise on their own merits under a different name in their chosen branch of military before revealing themselves. Its so no one judges them as their future leader and gets scared of accidentally setting themselves a death trap for later. The RCE wouldn't want a Supreme Commander that's a complete jackass as a leader and any heir which acts this way is likely to be removed from the chain of succession."

Kara listened intently before saying, "Then you must of done something pretty spectacular to get a command this young in your life without help from your mother."

"Yeah, I was aboard a destroyer hunting a pirate when the pirate got a missile through our defenses. Our XO had already been killed and our bridge crew had been thinned down by another earlier hit. The captain was knocked out and I was the highest ranking one left awake. I was able to capture, and kill, all the pirates, take the ship as a prize and save the lives of the crews they had captured as slaves. I've been on fast track, very fast track, though I suspect I might take a break from the navy for a while to allow my peers to catch up with me, maybe get into programming, or AI studies."

"Sounds like a plan." Kara said with a smile, she looked at the chrono on the wall and flinched slightly. "I should get going."

"Of course." Francis said, waving his hand over his eyes and hair and they reverted back to their former brown and murky blue colors. "I'll escort you back to your shuttle."

He was about to reach for the button to open the door when Kara gave him a friendly hug. "Its nice seeing you again Francis."

"It was nice seeing you too, Kara." He said, then reverted back to professional as the door opened and he led her to her shuttle. "Feel free to come back any time Captain Harrington."

---

As the weeks went on Kara often visited Francis aboard his ship, the two filling each other in on the years they had been apart and reminiscing on the things they did when they were still children. I


Kara looked up at the chrono. They were taking a day break in the exercises, more then enough time to go visit Francis, and she stood, fixing her working uniform. "Richard, you have the bridge." She said. "I'm going over ot the Silver Wind if you need me."

"Of course Ma'am." Richard said and something in his voice made her look up. Her XO wasn't looking at her, rather at a report of some sort, but something in his tone of voice had made her stop. It wasn't bad, just odd, and she gave him a look before turning to continue down to the shuttle.

---

There was no honor guard, she had Francis get rid of the formality as it must of been getting tiresome for the marines to have to greet her so often. Instead, Francis, as Captain Moroe, greeted her with a polite smile and they would talk on they way to his day cabin where they would engage in conversation ranging all over the place. The two could talk for hours, and it wasn't above Francis to show her tactical recording of exercises so they could find flaws in each others tactics and correct them.

"Captain Harrington, what a surprise." Francis said with a smile as he escorted her to the lift. "I had a feeling you would come over."

"A feeling? I told you directly." Kara replied. The Cresian chuckled, Cresians were telepaths as well, but they were only telepaths and empaths, they could not move stuff around with their minds as Kara's type of telepathy could. "Anyways, we just have to discuss that last exercise and that extremely dirty trick your squadron of ships pulled."

"Ha!" Francis said as the lift stopped and the two exit, walking down the nearly empty passage to his day cabin. "You call it a dirty trick, I call it tactical excellence." He pushed the button outside his door and it open, he gave a small bow, letting Kara in first and then followed her in.

She immediately sat down on the couch facing the viewport, currently filled with stars and other ships, and sat back in the comfort of his day cabin.

Francis sat down on the other end, staring out at the stars and the two stayed silent. Kara could feel something was bothering him and she turned her amber eyes to him. "Francis, what's wrong?"

"Its nothing bad, I can assure you." He said and she felt the truth in his words, "But there have been rumors going around."

"Rumors?" Kara asked. "What kind?"

"That you and I are dating." Francis said, looking at the Terran captain. "Its hardly without proof. You come over here quite often and we often spend hours locked away in my day cabin talking. All it takes is an active imagination to fill in the gaps." He snorted in amusement. "The officers of the watch have even started to ask people that com for me if I'm needed immediately or if it can wait, 99% of the time they call back later or leave messages for me sort through after you leave."

"Oh."

Francis nodded, turning to stare out the viewport again.

"I can bet the same thing is happening aboard my own ship." Kara said. "I've noticed that my com traffic seems to drop whenever there is a break long enough for me to come over here. I'm guessing they're just a bit more subtle about it." She smiled a bit. "I noticed my XO had a tone in his voice when I told him where I was going, I understand what that was now."

"So are we?" Francis asked and Kara frowned.

"What do you mean?"

Francis turned to face her. "Are we dating? I mean..." he paused, obviously a bit unsure, "Even if we make it an official secret, its going to be hard for me to keep my secret identity, especially if Admiral Harrington gets wind that your dating someone."

"You mean the fact that she'd probably have you background checked forward and backwards by intelligence and someone would stumble over who you are and break the news?" Kara guessed and Francis nodded with a bit of a smile.

"Correct." then his smile faded. "I enjoy being with you Kara I won't deny that, its different from when we were children, we've both changed so much over the years, its like I met you all over again. A beautiful woman that is a naval captain and around my age? Its almost perfect."

"We're both navy though." Kara pointed out. "After this our deployments will probably be very different considering we are from two different navies. We won't even be able to see each other as often as my mother and father did, probably less. Do you think a commitment could hold over that many light years?"

"I'll admit, for a Cresian it would probably be very hard." Francis rubbed the back of his neck. "But I would like to think I have the willpower to keep such a commitment."

Kara sat back, studying the Cresian at the other end of the couch. "Then yes."

"What?"

"Then yes, we're dating..." She paused. "If that's alright with you." She slid down the couch to sit next to Francis and the Cresian smiled as he looked down at her.

He wrapped his arm around her and she leaned against him feeling the warmth of his body as he adjusted to allow her to get closer.

"You going to be staying a while?" Francis asked and Kara nodded, not taking her eyes off the view outside the ship.

Francis rested his chin on her head. "Good." He said softly. With that he fell silent, content to enjoy the moment for all it was worth.

Yay! A story! I didn't read it yet, so I have no idea how good it is. I just want people to enter so these contests don't die.

[Paixao]

Arg! Would've loved to do this but I won't be able to get something in by tomorrow D: ((

Maybe next year...

[Nazi Flower Power]

Arg! Would've loved to do this but I won't be able to get something in by tomorrow D: ((

Maybe next year...

Start writing anyway. We might have to do another deadline extension if more people don't enter. I don't get why this has attracted so much less attention than past short story contests.

[Paixao]

Super late here right now (1am) but I'll do my best to try and get something in by tomorrow, maybe the day after :/

[Forsher]

Start writing anyway. We might have to do another deadline extension if more people don't enter. I don't get why this has attracted so much less attention than past short story contests.

Well, they've never been outrageously popular... and there was some decent posting of interest. Maybe it's because entries are only now coming in so the thread's fallen away a bit. I'd have entered something earlier (like I have in the past) but I just haven't had an idea. The piece below was written in a single sitting like most of the others but is actually the third attempt with the second having been written to a point where I stopped over many sittings.

I seriously contemplated extending this but I just love the last line so much. An extension would have created a greater sense of, well, a story I guess. I call it Very Definitely Evil. That said, I did start extending it so if anyone's interested in where that was going (I was getting a bit too tired and don't like it so much) just ask.

It was a simple matter really. Three people, all relatively average in height transported to a totally different universe in the blink of an eye. The theory was clearly sound and George was reasonably certain that, on return, none of the three had realised that they'd even been anywhere. All George had to do now was work on moving individuals of varying heights, from small to rather taller than tall. It was rapidly becoming apparent that life as a would-be super-villain was more complex than being aware of the enemy. But since George was breaking new ground, that wasn't a problem. As long as people thought the ground unbroken, George was safe as houses. Safer really because houses get hit by earthquakes and other disasters all the time. This was something that George was acutely aware of: he'd caused a few himself.

"How do you know they actually went there?" Sarah Wells, apprentice extraordinaire. Short or tall, depended on the company, but really 1.65 so kind of average and ready to take on the world. Or, at least, those parts that were relevant to Evil Wizarding.

"Mostly because my former apprentice is on location and told me so." The way George said the word former was deliberately menacing.

"Former apprentice?" Sarah gulped, she knew George was evil but she'd always thought that was more a calling than a nature. He soft brown eyes betrayed her inner concerns but George looked the same as ever. This made sense because he was actually trolling.

"Yes, passed with flying colours." The smile was warm, the step was light and the middle-aged man that was George York enjoyed his little fun. It was evil of a kind, the sort people didn't worry about. Well, the planned disappearing of two dozen teenagers was a little more concerning. but George was still a nice person. "He's a journeyman now. Or he would be were we in a more, er, structured profession."

"We should do something about that." The relief was evident in the eyes, but not the softly spoke voice. Sarah had been an apprentice for all of six months and stilll wasn't quite used to George's ways. Luckily, George was too busy thinking like life was just a story written by a player who'd walked across the stage, to worry about things that meant nothing really to pay attention. In short, George's approach to planning serious crimes was rather more fun than it should've been and Sarah still wondered if, perhaps, that was just a show. Naturally, this meant the nefarious mind of George would hint at a much nastier side just to make Sarah sweat for no reason.

"Yes, we should. Which is why, Sarah, you're going to do it. No stupid names like The Guild of Evil Wizards please. Something more, fruity?"

"Ah, a Spongebob fan then, sir?"

"Well spotted. But, seriously, something that gets the job done."

"A Chapter of Evil?"

"I'm sure your internal dialogue made that sound rather clever. But life is more than dialogue. Often description is involved."

"Ironically enough, not when it's a script."

"Ha hah. But not quite true. Be serious."

"George and Son, Relocation Specialists?"

"Sounds good. One problem, I don't have a son."

"Do you want one?"

"You know what Sarah? You're a really stereotypical comically evil apprentice. Yes, abduct away. I suggest an infant born in 1255, raised by you from the late nineties and brought back to the present day aged twenty-three." The plan was complex, but only by hero standards. For a super-villain it was woefully simple. Practically anyone could understand it. Two doctorates required, maximum. A better super-villain would've included a baby swap that could go wrong, an evil dog and made it part of a long-running feud, while making it look like someone else's scheme. George knew he was small time so applied the rule of KISS and didn't worry about it. Besides, it was bound to get more complex without additional input.

"Can we use the clone to do the parenting? I'd rather not waste twenty-three years of my life even with time-travel involved. I like being fifteen." Yeah, that's some more complexity. Three doctorates. Still sup-par but better. And from a fifteen year old? Sarah was going places. Dark places but places nonetheless.

"Okay, fine. Use the clone. Be warned, he still thinks he's my father." It's infallible. The sensibly laid plan that appeals to the mind of a criminal mad man always manages to evolve into something twisted enough that a hero can work their way in and stop things. In this case by cloning the clone. Sadly, the world being what it was, the heroes all thought the problem was big and brotherly, rather than small and wizardly so further complications were avoided.

"Frankly bizarre given that he's your clone."

"I know. It seems to be an inescapable point of being evil. You always turn out to be someone's dad. It's infallible."

"And repetitive."

"Meh."

Truthfully, George wasn't really evil himself. It's just that the way he chose to occupy himself was definitely evil. He did it, more or less, because when he was young the sort of dreams he had and books he read suggested that being transported to another world out of the blue would be fun. This was particularly true when all one's classmates had become part of the scenery and one had to wake them up and find a way to return. Any sane person would have thought, "Well, yes, I'd like to try it for a day but not be stuck like that. Besides, it'd probably turn out that you had all witnessed something years ago and were required to save both worlds because that's what happened in Digimon." But returning to the point, George had dedicated his life to making sure this was a reality for at least someone. If it all worked out, maybe he'd stick them in the dream with the cat. To get there, though, he'd need help.

George found Henry Squires not that long into a new year. He wasn't sure which new year because they're all the same and time travel was involved. Henry Squires wasn't either but that's because it was a new year. Henry had proved himself a most capable and dedicated student. George's work would've been restricted to time travel without the major break throughs that Henry had made. And both would've been stuck without the industrious maths that Sarah brought to the table when it came to return journeys. Who would've thought that basic differentiation was the difference between being stuck in some random pseudo-Narnia, married to a nymph and being able to return to a smartphone-supported hell. Or not hell, it was a matter of perspective. Sarah did, they didn't. But Henry liked his nymph. And she liked her man. Pity he still didn't know her name but they had three kids, so that was something. They, of course, knew little about George's grand plan. Which was one reason why George typically made his calls mostly social. As opposed to when Henry called him.

"Henry! How are the little commissioners?" George and Henry were dedicated Clouseau fans. The name problem had also been resolved by the creation of the affectionate term, 'commissioner". Well, it was mostly affectionate.

"Very well. Turns out that human-nymph hybrids have the uncanny ability to actually be elves." The world that Henry had initially been stuck in was created on standard fantasy lines. They asked for elves and got them. Early on, though, they didn't realise, among other things, that what they thought about what an elf was actually had to be conveyed directly. Their disagreement over the plural of dwarf, for instance, resulted in there being both dwarfs and dwarves. Giants were actually huge, dragons more like lizards and King Arthur not only existed but had even developed a mobile network... naturally called Excalibur. Henry strongly suspected the Lady of the Lake had a lot to do with it but Nimue was absent from the records. All in all, it meant that Henry was basically a Victorian naturalist exploring the unkown and describing it.

"Interesting. How old are they now?" George knew how these things go. Old friends ask each other about their lives and if children are involved, the children's lives. What the friend was doing, in the latter case, was irrelevant.

"Well, the oldest is twenty in human terms but I'm really not sure what that means in terms of elves. She wants the new iPhone though so maybe it means twenty too."

"But, the things don't really work there?" They did, but Excalibur performed better with King Arthur's own Scabbard line. That had a lot to do with the lack of support for Apple products as well as the non-magical battery. Rumour had it that Arthur's major rival Morgana was exploring electrical alternatives for its Armour system. The dwarves had also brought out Anvil, which had, um, adopted much from the dwarf's Gold. Lots of different kinds of phone, but no alternatives to Excalibur. Something of an issue but a Nottingham-based consortium was trying to establish the capital to set up their own network. It wasn't what was expected of a fantasy world but that's why there are test runs.

"Oh, I thought I told you, she moved to real London last year. The other two want to go as well but they're a bit young, I think."

"I assume they look human?"

"Oh, yes. I wouldn't have known they were elves if the local big-wig hadn't turned up and said so at Susan's eighteenth. Not sure what it means, might just be the word for hybrid actually." Henry had a lot of autonomy. Calls from George were few and far between and the last five had all related utterly to the tests on simultaneous multiple-transportations and/or rapid return. Henry still thought an old chum like George should've known more about his kids. After all, Sarah knew he existed for something like six minutes and knew as much. Henry was willing to bet that Rose, Mary and Tom were meaningless names to George as well. That said, he was evil.

"These are your children... I know we're evil but..."

"One must be scientific. Work Henry is not Father Henry and Father Henry isn't Daddy Henry when it comes to it either. Much less formal for one thing. It's the climate. Gorse grows like you wouldn't believe."

"Anyway, I was just checking that everything's worked out properly. No unexpected surprises for the evil masterminds. Everything done a few dozen minutes ago, right?"

"Pretty much. As soon as the relocation is perfected we're good to go. That said, there's a possibility that one of the decimal points was actually dried marmalade so any world saving probably won't stick. "

George smiled, this was exactly as they'd prepared. "Now, about this deal with the Devil you mentioned, has he contacted my lawyer yet?"

[Nazi Flower Power]

Super late here right now (1am) but I'll do my best to try and get something in by tomorrow, maybe the day after :/

Usually, the deadline is US Pacific Time regardless what time zone you live in. So you have two days even if the deadline doesn't get extended.

[Jenrak]

Would you guys like an extension? I'd rather have a good set of submissions with real competition rather than an arbitrary deadline. I'm sure NFP and Valinon would agree.

[Paixao]

Major yes please to an extension! )

[Nazi Flower Power]

I'd be OK with extending the deadline. It's kind of a downer to have only two entries.

[Respubliko de Libereco]

I've been working on an entry, even though short stories aren't really my area of expertise. I'm almost finished, actually, and should be finished before the current deadline (at least in my timezone). I didn't originally intend to announce my interest in advance (since I wasn't certain I was going to be done in time), but I've changed my mind, seeing as you seem to be slightly disturbed by the number of entries so far.

EDIT: It's finished, unless I make any last-minute changes before the deadline.

[The New World Oceania]

I think we should all wait until the last minute just to concern NFP.

[StellarGate]

I'd be OK with extending the deadline. It's kind of a downer to have only two entries.

I felt kinda awkward submitting the first story. Its nice to see at least I have some competition.