Actorbars

GXV3

Spring Writing Challenge

3 days ago

The Curse
_{by Gareth aged 8 and half}

I was born on the International Space Station that orbits earth as part of an experiment, this is the curse I bare, while the people born normally on earth inherited the powers of the mountain, of the grass and of dessert fire my inherited power was zero gravity flight. while this may sound great back on Earth, this was... less than impressive. While other kids ran around breathing fire like dragons.. levitated huge boulders or whipped vines around from thin air... I floated, like a wobbly balloon in the wind. I was a useless blimp that the other kids used to literally push around the class like a game of squash against the walls.

However, as I grew older I realised that my power came in handy for retrieving cats from trees, but I yearned for something more.. One day, a rogue bouncy castle escaped its moorings at the park fair. Children screamed as it bounced towards the motorway. This is when I could be taken seriously, this was my chance to prove my worth, I zipped through the air grabbing tree branches to throttle me forward, grabbed the bouncy castle's ropes, and wrestled it to the ground.....saving the day, or so I thought. Turns out, I dragged the bouncy castle into the middle of the motorway full of commuters and big lorry's.. I couldn't grab onto anything to stop my motion.
It turns out I'm still a waste of space, the curse I cannot shake.

Edited 3 days ago by GXV3

aetios

A Terran Debriefing

May 29 2025

“So, when was the first time you encountered this… temporal anomaly?”
“Oh come now, why would I tell someone like you, some Federation officer that?”
“You thought these anomalies were so worrying that you fled the Terran Empire as a whole, putting your symbiote at risk of death. I'd say that's reason enough.”
“Bold of you to assume I was looking to live. I just wanted to get away, and damn everything else.”
“Bullshit. If that were the case, you would've cut life support in your shuttle, that alone used enough energy to slow your flight down. On some level, you wanted people to know what was happening.”
In the sparsely-decorated cell, the Andorian’s antennae twitched in irritation. “Fine. One question, though. How are we even talking? You and I both know that I died on that shuttle, don't we.”
Outside the cell, the Trill raised an eyebrow, her expression slightly baffled. “Do your Trill not have the zhian’tara ritual?”
“The what ritual?”
“Zhian'tara. It's a ritual of closure where a new host talks with those who carried the symbiote before. I am now the host of that symbiote you once carried. That does answer if you have heard of it, though. Now, what about that temporal anomaly?”

Lieutenant Yanor Blor walked down a hallway in the ISS Enterprise, his pace hurried, his posture crisp and professional as he headed for his duty station.
Approaching the weapons control station where his shift would be, he tapped the controls to open the door, locked as it normally was to keep out unauthorized personnel. As the door hissed open, he walked through.
“Reporting for duty, sir!” As the lieutenant extended his arm straight in front of him in salute, though, it was obvious that something was wrong. Everything seemed to be completely still, the whirring and beeping of his computer banks silent, and his commander silent and completely unreacting to his movements.
Ending the salute, Yanor slowly, carefully walked closer to the constantly angry commander, trying to inspect his face for any sign of what might be going on. Unable to see anything that would serve as a clue in the commander’s unnaturally motionless face, he turned around, facing his console to see if a clue might be gleaned from that.
All of a sudden, pain erupted all over Yanor’s body. “Lieutenant. You forgot to salute me as you entered. You have been through training, you know your duty to show some god damn respect.” As the lieutenant sank to his knees, carefully suppressing any noises he might make, he saw the boots of his commanding officer come into view. For a moment, he stayed in this position, on his knees in front of his commander, before a boot lashed out, knocking him over and out.

For several long moments, there is silence in the brig, neither the Andorian holding Yanor’s mind nor Asli speaking. The latter had already taken to pacing outside of the cell while the story was being told, the sound of her boots on the deck plating all that could be heard. Breaking this silence, she said quietly “You were punished and tortured for something so minor as not saluting in time for your commander’s liking? And given how you described it, that seems routine?”
Yanor chuckled drily, his voice low and resignedly amused as he responded, still sat in his cell. “Well, of course. That’s how you maintain discipline, after all. If you aren’t brutal, you cannot expect to maintain command. And if you cannot maintain command, someone else will kill you and make sure that command is taken. That is simply the way things work.”
The Trill sighed heavily, rubbing her temples in irritation. “It may be the way things work for your Terrans. It is not a universal, or even common way of things. Hierarchy through fear and brutality is not something we will have to face again.”
“Then I hope you’re ready to lose. And to keep losing. Because the Terran brutality, as you call it, is the reason why we have won so often, and it’ll help us keep winning.”
“And yet, one of us is in a cell after dying trying to flee that society, and one of us is not. Like it or not, the brutality hasn’t exactly helped you, has it? That said, it’s all somewhat irrelevant right now. We were talking about these temporal anomalies, and you were about to describe what happened next.”

The next time Yanor Blor noticed time standing still, he was off-duty, eating the standard mid-day ration for a lieutenant. While he was trying to get his meal down as quickly as possible, he noticed with a start that nobody else was moving, once again, all was still and motionless despite the fact that just moments earlier, the mess had been awash with activity. After a few seconds of glancing around, time resumed and everyone returned to the normal motions of military life.
This cycle continued for some time. After the first few anomalies, Yanor took to covertly carrying a small scanner that he could activate the moment time froze, trying to get as much data as possible. One thing that remained consistent, though, was that he was the only person moving and thinking during the freezes, at least so far as he could tell.
Weeks and months went by, and Yanor continued to gather data. While there was no real rhyme or reason to when the anomalies showed up, he could tell that the frequency and length was increasing, both from his carefully kept, even more carefully hidden records, and simply from personal experience. And as the length of the stops increased, so did his confidence and willingness to take risks while time was frozen. He started small, actively using a full-sized tricorder to scan for temporal issues (and also his rivals for promotion, just in case they had some conditions or weaknesses), but eventually came to the level of confidence of walking the halls and engaging in small, quiet sabotage of people who were a threat to him.

“And, is that all, then? You didn’t figure out what caused all this? Why flee if it was all working out so well for you?” The questions came thick and fast from Asli, her tone very noticeably curt and agitated.
“Of course it wasn’t all. What, do you think I’d try and steal a shuttle over things as minor as this? Especially when I can use it to my advantage?“ Yanor stood, gesticulating irritatedly as he spoke. “If you had let me continue, I would’ve told you exactly why I took that flight as soon as I could.”
“And your tangent about how you could sabotage people was relevant, how exactly? You could’ve already explained what was going on if you wanted. But instead, you seem to want to confirm the worst about how the Terrans operate.” Asli stopped in front of the cell, taking several moments to calm down as she spoke.
“It’s context. If I just said I started traversing the ship during the anomalies, you would have asked regardless, wouldn’t you. I figured I’d just get in front of that, make it easier for your debriefing. Now, do you want to hear why I left, or do you want to continue to take my information.”
“Alright. I’m listening. Now, explain.”

The sound of boots on metal deck plating is all that can be heard in the corridor, Lt.Cmdr Yanor once again walking the ship during one of the anomalies. He had gotten yet another promotion, after the chief rival for his new position as head of the weapons control station had mysteriously suffered a sudden illness. Now, though, was time to scope out rivals and know who to eliminate.
Humming to himself lightly, the commander continued walking the halls, trying to decide who his next target, his next victim could be. On the Enterprise, there were always far too many ambitious young officers willing to do whatever it might take to get a promotion, all while trying desperately to stay alive. And any one of them could be a threat to Yanor in their own rights. Or, rather, they could be, if he didn’t remove their threat first.
Going through the list of potential rivals in his head, Yanor made a decision, abruptly turning left at the next junction to walk towards the small research department, passing various motionless officers as he did. Checking his scanner, he made sure the time freeze was still stable as he reached the door to the lab operated by Lt.Jg. Wesley Crusher, hoping to find something useful to gain an advantage over the man, to have leverage.
It took only moments, however, to see that he had made a mistake. As the door hissed open, Yanor could see Crusher turning to face the door, seemingly confused at the movement. Before the Lieutenant could do anything to react, instinct forced Yanor to start running, and run he did, hoping that Crusher didn't get a good view of him. As he ran, the scanner he used as a warning chirped loudly, a sign that time was about to return to normal. It was far before any of his predictions showed that the time freeze ought to end, and it took only a few moments for the reason to become obvious. As his mind raced, his legs aching from exertion, the commander turned down a corridor to reach the shuttles as quickly as possible. Rumors had it that Wesley was ambitious and dangerous, and, in his mind, Yanor firmly decided he didn't want to find out.

“So… Your version of Wesley Crusher has some sort of temporal abilities? That tracks with our own version as well, but if so, it is quite worrying.” Asli sighed heavily, lost in thought about the new revelations.
“Why's that? Do you know what he's like? Or are you just assuming?” the ex-Terran Officer snapped, irritation laced with a noticeable amount of terror and worry as he paced and fidgeted in the cell.
“Quite bluntly, Yanor, if his abilities are the same as our version, then he's a major threat even if he's not as brutal as the average Terran. The powers of a Traveller are not to be underestimated.”
“A Traveller? What exactly is that?”
“Not something for you to know. I do thank you for the information, though. Starfleet will put it to good use, I'm sure. And I'll be sure to, as well.”

nicholasjohn16 liked this

Edited May 29 2025 by aetios

nicholasjohn16

Spring Writing Challenge

May 07 2025

The sun is out and the days are warming up. Spring is here and it's time for Stonewall's 1st #WritingChallenge of 2025! Submit your entry by logging into this site and posting your story in this thread between now and end of day on June 1st, 2025.

Theme Instructions:
This time, we're doing things a little differently. Instead of coming up with your own theme, select one of the writing prompts below and build a story around it. You can use your character from any game you like, any setting you like, or just make it up completely from scratch! Your story can be science fiction, fantasy or any mix in between, just stick to the writing prompts.

To participate in Stonewall's Spring writing challenge, you must post your entry here, in this thread, before day's end on June 1st, 2025. Please title your entry! Your posted entry must comply with these additional rules to be eligible:

Entries must incorporate a prompt somewhere in the story.
Your may use AI to help generate a writing prompt for yourself, BUT your story must be entirely your original work
DO NOT USE ChatGPT or AI to write any or portions of your story for you!
The content of your story must not be edited after the submission deadline of June 1st

Only one entry per community member, please. While we encourage you to include graphics to supplement your story, only the written narrative portion of your entry will be judged. Instructions on how to incorporate graphics in your post can be found by clicking here.

Every writer will receive a deposit of 3 Stonewall Credits into their account, but our favorite contest entries will be recognized on our Facebook, Bluesky and Instagram social media feeds. The prize packs are as follows:

Our favorite story will get:

10 Stonewall Credits, AND, your choice of either:
20 Master Keys in Star Trek Online, OR
$25.00 Redbubble Gift Card to purchase Stonewall Merchandise!

Our second favorite entry will receive:

8 Stonewall Credits, AND your choice of either:
10 Master Keys in Star Trek Online OR
$20.00 Redbubble Gift Card to purchase Stonewall Merchandise!

Our third favorite entry will get:

6 Stonewall Credits!
7 Master Keys in Star Trek Online

*Stonewall credits can be saved and/or redeemed for in-game merchandise through the Stonewall Credits Store.

Good luck to everyone! We can't wait to read your stories!

2 people liked this

Edited May 07 2025 by nicholasjohn16

GXV3

aetios

Neoglyph

Voleron

Gravity

GXV3

GXV3

Tourma

Tourma

DanaDark

Neoglyph

Gladiatorpope

JoystickJoshy

Traull

Gravity

Voleron

Jspectre