Lacerant Plainer's Blog

The Circle - Flash Fiction
The first night on Certys was something Kelso was not looking forward to. He was already sick of this planet, and he had barely been here for 20 hours. The long day made it seem even longer as he fiddled with his backpack, it was time to set up camp at last.


The trip from the Hygens system had taken longer than expected. Running into a ship which was clearly alien in construction had been unexpected and caused him quite a headache. Besides a busted fuel line, his ship had careened off while moving at FTL. The results were dramatic. The ship unpeeled like a ripe fruit.


Certys was a haven on the way back home. He had expected better facilities. But he had got none. People seemed completely uninterested. Then there was the Circle - the alien ship which had attacked him without warning. It was composed almost entirely of gravity waves - exotic stuff which he could only have detected on the sensors. The alien ship was responsible for all the damage to the fuel line and the compounding effect due to travelling at FTL.


He would have been dead if not for his high density carbon body. It needed no suit or repair or comfort. He giggled inanely as he thought of the advertisement "Resistant to death and destruction". It had been a close call.


But the scenery in Certys could have been better!