I Can't Possibly Be Wrong All the Time

It’s the first of October 2023, so I went through my social media feeds and grabbed all of the MicroStories I’d tweeted during the month of September.

As a reminder, these represent story-essences composed using no more than 269 characters (so I could tweet them with the hashtag #MicroStory.)

Usually, I only tweet Science Fiction and Fantasy #MicroStories. September was no exception. I guess?

For really great #MicroStory action, please follow @MicroSFF, the Twitter account that inspired me to participate in this minimalist writing exercise. That feed puts out great science fiction and fantasy MicroStories all the time.

(I want to make it clear that @MicroSFF is *not* a Twitter account of mine. Their flash-fiction tweets are excellent. Mine are okay.)

---

The alien ambassador shrugged.
“We believe that the galaxy is teeming with star-faring races, but for their own reasons, they maintain a nearly undetectable profile.”
“Why is that?” we asked.
“We’re embarrassed not to know. Maybe it’s us. Maybe it’s you.”
#MicroStory

Too many alien races had as a viable reproduction strategy the simple act of luring human trillionaires to their beautiful-seeming honeypot planets.
#MicroStory

“If they can do this to me, they can do this to you!!!”
We were more focused on interrupting his stardrive than jamming his unhinged hypercast.
It’s true Fleet was out of jurisdiction in deep space, but he had a starship and his yelling head was no longer human.
#MicroStory

The physical and psych exams were complete.
“As far as we can tell, he’s not a shapeshifting alien nor body-snatched.”
“He just naturally has this firm belief that Earth would be better off if aliens invaded?”
“To be fair, we didn’t ask about this on his NASA exams.”
#MicroStory

It took disciplined troopers to deal with the usual alien menaces – the Ticks, Flattops and Megalgae.
We didn’t deal with those.
The galaxy had even weirder situations and for whatever reason, the more oddball the solder, the more likely they’d survive.
That was us.
#MicroStory

“Any civilization advanced enough to build and launch a generation ship into space, simply would not. It’s too wasteful.”
“We’re on a generation ship.”
“That’s what they want you to believe.”
“But you’re the captain.”
“That’s what they want you – and me – to believe.”
#MicroStory

“We maintain that there are no benevolent nor rational reasons for any advanced civilization to build ships for traveling across space to another star. So either the reasons for this fleet are malevolent or wildly alien.”
“There’s no difference,” said the President.
#MicroStory

The vermiform found a weak spot in my environmental skirmish suit, right behind my right knee. It breached the suit, and burrowed in.
And that’s when we learned that urine is deadly to these things.
#MicroStory

“Don’t be so squeamish, it’s only blood. You’re full of that stuff. Mostly.”
#MicroStory

---

Thank you to everyone who reads and enjoys my small stories. I tweet flash-fiction at irregular (VERY IRREGULAR) intervals on my Twitter account, @patman23. At more regular intervals on Twitter, I’ll be talking about my weekend or television (one time it was mostly about Game of Thrones), or complaining about raking leaves off of my lawn. I say that, as if Twitter hasn’t become a dumpster fire of late. If you don’t want to go to Twitter or X, you can follow me on Mastodon or BlueSky. I need to look up the addresses.

Header image is a picture I took during a recent walk around the man-made lake in Black Hills recreational park in Maryland. That image belongs to me.

Want to read my earlier MicroStory collections? I have my first three years’ worth of stories HERE and the second three years’ worth of stories HERE – I might need to put together another 3 year’s worth of microstories soon.

In general, I’m fine with anyone using the text of my MicroStories for non-commercial use. (Look how cute I am, thinking someone wants to make a t-shirt from one of my flash fiction bits. I say cute, but you can substitute in some other, more appropriate, adjective. I’m not the boss of you.)

© Patrick Sponaugle 2023 Some Rights Reserved