June and the crew of the Tori had assembled in the meeting room for their daily update.
"Good news and bad news." Bjorn pushed the latest cargo manifest onto the screen. "Good news: We're nearly ready to go. She's filled to the brim with food and fuel." He gently patted the table, then smirked at Rip. "We've also stocked up on mining equipment."
"Mining?" June looked puzzled.
"Yeah, Tori can't have weapons, but she is a registered mining rig." Rip pushed spec sheets onto the screen. "So we have a bunch of asteroid breakers."
June skimmed the sheets. "Those are missiles."
"They usually don't hit as hard." Rip shrugged, then grinned. "Unless you're going after sturdy stuff." They pushed a gold rimmed certificate onto the screen and beamed. "And we have PERMITS!"
June chuckled and turned towards Bjorn. "So then what's the bad news?"
"It's your contract. They won't let us buy you out, and we can't raise the offer anymore without drawing suspicion." A bunch of pictures popped up on the screen. "Those were the contacts. Know any of 'em?"
"Well fuck." June grimaced and highlighted a sleek looking man. "Let me introduce to you all: Alain, my supervisor and a professional nosy bastard. I suspected that he suspected that I was up to something." She looked at Marga. "We spent the last few days throwing smokescreens on the feeds, apparently it wasn't enough." Then panic flooded her face. "If I go back now, they will make me talk."
Captain Konrad was chewing his lower lip and sat in silence for a while. "I'll get us auth for an incursion."
"Incursion?" June looked around the table with a confused face.
Marga sat in her chair with a slight smile on her lips. "I'm going to burn you out of their system."
12/X
The strongest knights went first. Large hands on the hilt, feet firmly planted on the stone, muscles bulging... The sword would not budge.
One by one they failed, knights and nobles.
They laughed when a maid walked up and patted the stone fondly.
"Sweetie, can you please let go for me?"
It did.
He proposed germ theory two centuries before Pasteur, built one of Europe's first public museums, and enjoyed the patronage of four popes. He was also wrong about nearly everything — including the hieroglyphics he had chiseled, in stone, into a fountain that still stands in Piazza Navona. Meet Athanasius Kircher: the most confident man in seventeenth-century Europe.
The #MastoPrompt for Monday 30 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
The #MastoPrompt for Sunday 29 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
He lost his right hand to a cannonball and had a blacksmith build him an iron replacement — spring-loaded fingers, ratcheting knuckles, two of them total. One for war. One for Sundays. When ordered to surrender, Götz von Berlichingen told the bishop's men to lick his arse, liked the line enough to publish it, and set off a chain of events that ended with Mozart setting it for six voices.
The #MastoPrompt for Saturday 28 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
He stashed a mother scorpion and her babies in a matchbox on the mantelpiece. His brother reached for a cigarette and found the family. A species of kestrel was down to four birds in the wild when Gerald Durrell decided to care about it. There are now around a thousand. The champion of small uglies.
The #MastoPrompt for Friday 27 March 2026 is:
The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.
@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.
If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.
#Writing #SmallPoems #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories
"Help me," the duke said. "My physicians can't say what ails me, but I've lost all pleasure in what I used to enjoy."
The witch examined him, and paused over his hand.
"Nice ring. It is new?"
"A recent gift from the king. Why? Is it cursed?"
It was made to dampen cruelty.
"No," said the witch.
asmw
Micro SF/F by O. Westin
Oddlet - Lovable Weirdos
Steven Cudahy