“HiveArk”

While I am waiting for my editor to get back to me on my novel, I have been writing in these Vocal challenges. Mostly it’s just fun for me to try different things but there is also a $10,000 prize given out for each one, so that doesn’t hurt. I have written several short stories and most recently I wrote a “First Chapter” to a Sci-Fi book.

I’d love it for you read it and let me know what you think because I am considering writing the rest of this book.

The Challenge:

“HiveArk”

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. I, for one, know that not to be true. At least, I know I heard my mother’s. The others say I was just imagining sound to match the horror and fear I saw on her face when it happened. But I swear I heard her, and the echo of the memory still haunts me.

It’s 67:07 and I just woke up in another cold sweat, with the last sound of her voice reverberating in my soul. I shiver and pull my shiny silver blanket to my chin. My bunk on NouveauArk is a standard one-bed dormitory. The same one everyone else has, if they sleep alone. We’re told, even the Captain’s quarters are like this.

The space is limited to ‘sleep need only’ so it is incredibly tight. I may have enough room to extend my arms straight above me, or to sit up and not hit my head. I know from my friend, Cheynillena, that the interior bunks are pitch black at “night”. Due to my condition, I was given a bunk in an exterior facing pod, so when the faux-planet rotates, I catch a glimpse of our suns. The ship’s doctors thought it would make me feel less claustrophobic, but even years later, I still have to have them refill the pill bottle I keep in the wall pouch next to my pillow. I hate it here but I understand - they had to make it this way to evacuate everyone. This room feels more like a coffin than a home, but it is the only place I can call mine, and most days I figure it’s better than living out whatever time was left on our dying planet.

I was nine-years-old when we launched. They sent us up in one of the many Blast-Ships, holding 1,000 Pointiuens each. Now we’ve been here for what could be considered the measure of a decade. Time and days are not the same in space though.

Please read the rest here - the traffic helps -and if you can leave a comment- it would help my chances even more. https://vocal.media/fiction/hive-ark