Science Fiction

A 34-post collection

Challenge #03118-H209: A Mirror Crack'd

A human has an archive of old horror science fiction movies from Earth spanning the 1990's to the first twenty years of the 2000's. Among these are movies like Alien, Predator, Europa, and so forth. Many of the movies portrayed aliens as monsters and horrifically powerful predators hunting humans as prey. But there was a reason for this. They also had movies like Close Encounter of the Third Kind, E.T. and more benevolent movies as well. They wished to teach a class on the fears humans had of one day meeting aliens, and the hope they had for the future. -- Anon Guest

"Science Fiction is, and always has been, a mirror. Mary Shelly held a mirror up to the blooming modern era and said, Mankind should be careful with what it's making. H. G. Wells not only saw a potential for exploration, but also warned of the hazards. War of the Worlds is the seminal invasion fear. Other beings will come and bring devastation to everything we know... but it was also a mirror to the devastation that white colonialism was visiting on everyone else." Human Ritt apparently came up for air. Ze grinned nervously. "Sorry, I've been rehearsing this Ed Talk so long I just launch into it. You may have asked the wrong question."

"I did say 'why the movies'," said Gorx. He turned to another display poster. Three-legged machines were vaporising human figures with death rays. "This is for educational purposes?"

"Oh yes. Fears of Them coming to do what we've already done to Others, that one. The Invasion Narrative is almost too on the nose. They come, they take over, they appear benevolent or they just don't care, they start wrecking everything, including important cultural artifacts..." this display poster had a giant flying saucer immolating the White House. "To the fictional aliens, I guess this was Manifest Destiny."

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Challenge #02478-F288: Hope in the Dark Times

A distant planet has caught ancient radio signals from earth. They are visual images and audio of the chronicles of a exploratory ship and it's crew.

Over 200 years before humans figured out long-term space travel...

Everyone is confused. -- AmberFox

Filtering things out of the Hydrogen Line is an interesting task. Though it is a band relatively free of interference, there is still signal fade as it disperses through deeper space. Those listening for the echoes of the big bang regularly

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Challenge #02411-F221: Take the Baby Steps

(after an AI with a soft spot for humans somehow terraformed Five Minutes In The Future's Pluto into a 1G habitable world, while keeping it the same size and distance from Sol)

At this point she may as well just terraform the rest of the system. Maybe Luna first. Then Venus. Like a trail of breadcrumbs.

"Come on humans! You know you want to~" -- RecklessPrudence

[AN: Happening in a close neighbour to my Amalgam Universe]

Well. Would you look at that?

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Challenge #02375-F185: Call it a Win

"I'm sorry HOW was this created?"

"Ok, two parts antimatter, three parts tachyon particles. Toss near the edge of the event horizon of a black hole, while slowly adding the core of a model 57 chronos warp drive engine."

"Uh-huh"

Look into the perfectly stable portal. -- Anon Guest

"Wait. No. The physics is impossible. Antimatter and tachyons react explosively when in close proximity..."

"Not if you use a sufficiently advanced magnetic bottle containment system," said the Human smugly.

"There aren't any,

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Challenge #02372-F182: The Marvellous Six

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Q3i5w6-Ug

(Also, Why isn't this a legit anime!!!!) -- Anon Guest

[AN: Well, I made it 181 days without using anyone else's IP. Can't get any money from the anthology of this year now. Sigh. Oh well. Totes worth it for this one]

Reach for the stars, Yukanna... Their power is our power. If you can feel them... you will never fail. Grandfather had said that, when he had taken Yukanna to see the ribbon lights

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Challenge #01863-E039: Reformation Process

Meanwhile, at a Top Secret Government Organization…

Agent: “…and that, fortunately, was the moment the device overloaded and self-destructed. Division 6’s damage-control team was able to convince the public it was just a ignited leak from a gas line triggered by a malfunctioning industrial diesel generator.”

Chief: “Excellent; the last thing we could’ve been able to handle was that chemical getting to the water supply. Ah, our refreshments are ready. Thank you, Lav’der.”

Agent: “Hmph. I’ll pass. God

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Challenge #01862-E038: Trust Yourself

She left a message for her younger self to read. -- SongSpired

Time travel was a bitch. Sorting out the mistakes of life retroactively was never a fun thing. Making sure she would pay attention to her own warnings to herself had been the work of several journeys. And multiple encounters. She could not talk to herself. Both brains shut down for that sort of thing. Leaving notes, however, was perfect.

Her teenaged self was asleep in bed. Sleeping the sleep of

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Challenge #01866-E042: A Long Cold Trail

It has been 1.5 million years since humanity, for some reason, left the planet earth. The domesticated animals they left behind, namely cats and dogs ... maybe various birds too, have evolved into species with intelligence on par with humanity. The specie or species discuss among each their cultural memory of humans, and otherwise try to gain a broader image of what these mythical beings were and what role they played in their evolution. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Life Without People says

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Challenge #01320-C225: The Catalogue of Bad Ideas

The invasion was so simple. We sent our soldiers to their children, and they played with them as if they were toys.

When the time came, the attack began, and soon the world was ours.

https://wilwheaton.tumblr.com/post/148216965069/ - quoting Wil Wheaton -- Anon Guest

They were everywhere. Insanely popular. Every child just had to have one. They were obnoxious, of course. Designed by some insane and scheming mind to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

And they were

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Challenge #01105-C008: Smart Way to Die

"Never teleport your brain out of your own skull without a backup plan. No good will ever come of it." -- Anon Guest

The last thing he smelled was ozone. Then there was an alarming darkness. There was no pain, any more. The eyes came online, first, showing him a fine view of his own dead body. Right now, the skull cavity would be filling up with blood as his heart went through its last, spasmodic beats. And as his blood pressure

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Challenge #00997-B266: Time to Clean the Tank

http://primarybufferpanel.tumblr.com/post/130327638454/alien-invasion

Thought you might like this one. Don't think it would fit in Amalgam-verse, though. -- RecklessPrudence

[AN: Yeah nah, it wouldn't.]

They called it the Green War. The collective nations of the Earth were fighting over, and in, the world's last forest. So of course, frequent use of napalm was de rigueur.

Elsewhere, pro-lifers were bombing fertility clinics in the mistaken belief that they also performed abortions. There were also roaming gangs of pro-lifers who

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Challenge #00991-B260: What is 'Painting'?

More about humans and their ridiculous "sight" -- Anon Guest

[AN: For those too busy to go look it up, the original instalment is here]

The pirates the crew had just soundly trounced had a treasure of art works in their lair. Including a baffling array of rectangular, flat objects. Lieutenant-Commander Jain, however, almost had a conniption.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Careful with those. They're paintings. Care-ful. That's art." Ze almost snatched a rectangle from Ensign Ch'koff's hands. "We have to put these

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Challenge #00986-B255: What is 'Light'?

http://chaoswolf1982.tumblr.com/post/129369751472/roachpatrol-gutterowl-roachpatrol

The continuing adventures of a human with a bunch of mole/bat people. As seen by the mole/bat people.

[NB - notify ChaosWolf1982 and ManyBlinkingLights]

[AN: I prompted myself because this was too good to pass up.]

Captain's Log, Galactic Standard Calendar 58430.03.2.05...[1]

In the spirit of further understanding between species, we are welcoming aboard a new crewmember. One of the Deathworlder species called 'humans'...

The airlock hissed. Captain K'rik

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The Martian: One Sci-Fi Nut's Review

Okay, before we begin, I will stick to only referencing the stuff seen in the trailer, which is pretty spoiler-iffic anyway.

There's one little thing that annoys me about this movie, but it's a spoiler. So I have to keep it to myself until such time as loads of people have seen it. UGH.

I'm already bursting at the seams with it, darnit.

You know what? If you want spoilers, go to rot13.com and decrypt this:

Ur pbhyq unir fgnegrq uvf

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Challenge #00928-B197: To See What is There

In a typical moment of human curiosity, when a rip in the fabric of space and time appeared in the lab, they did not explore it with all possible instruments, test dummies, cameras or animals. Instead, after poking it with a broom, and ensuring a potplant didn’t combust when put in for a minute, they stuck their heads in to see what was on the other side.

It was shaped roughly like a kumquat. If that kumquat was about five feet

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