The Diplomatic War – Super-Short Mega Story

Photo by: Matthew Wright

The Diplomatic War

The blue clouds in the sky flashed orange as another ship blew up. Neil’s hand shook as he brought the beer to his lips. “What was that?” he asked.

Sitting beside him in the other lawn chair, Gordon spoke with aplomb, “Enemy light cruiser, probably.”

Most of the world panicked when word slipped out that the enemy fleet contained 77 warships, and humanity had 4. Neil wanted to panic too, but Gordon was so calm. Gordon should know, Neil reminded himself. Gordon worked on the top-secret program that built the human vessels from captured alien technology. They soon realized the aliens lacked imagination. Humanity learned fast and pushed the technological envelope, hard.

“How do you know it’s an enemy ship?”

“Has to be,” said Gordon tossing another Rainier Beer to Neil. “The aliens use hyper-space technology for travel only. They never imagined using it tactically, or as a weapon.”

“And…”

“The aliens are looking, but they’ll never find our vessels. Our ships aren’t even in normal-space. We’re firing missiles that aren’t explosive. They’re strictly hyper-drive engines.”

“No explosives?”

“Nope. When the missile’s hyper-field opens into normal-space within an enemy vessel, the results are catastrophic.”

The entire sky lit orange as two enemy battlecruisers blew up.

“About 3,000 aliens died just then,” said Gordon.

Neil winced. “Well, why didn’t we just tell them they’ve been outwitted?”

“Don’t be silly,” said Gordon. “That would be crass and undiplomatic!”
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Auther of over 30 books, Matthew Wright is now offering a weekly writing challenge. We’re looking for flash fiction of up to 200 words in length. Join us! Find the original challenge right here: https://mjwrightnz.wordpress.com/2015/06/23/another-super-short-mega-story-writing-challenge-2/