One day the Earth woke up to an alien ultimatum: donate ten percent of its population to The Fleet in exchange for defense against the interstellar war that was coming, or face annihilation alone.
They had a year to decide.
Twelve months that lasted forever –that lasted a heartbeat– and in the end, they accepted.
On Exodus, ten percent of the population between the ages of five and thirty-five stepped into shipboard stasis, never to return to Earth. Their children and their children’s children would serve The Fleet, dedicated in its mission to protect the galaxy from the war to come.
In exchange the ship left behind all of the accumulated knowledge from the hundreds of civilizations it had already harvested… and the blueprints for ships of their own. One pledged to join the fight with The Fleet, the other to remain in defense of Earth. Those left behind have forty years, four alien advisors, a swarm of nanobots, and the promise of a century of war.
These are their stories.
Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy how’s yer soul?”
But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll.
We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints:
Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;
— from Rudyard Kipling’s Tommy, “Barrack Room Ballads”, 1892.
Note: BaPS is a collection of flash fiction, short stories and drabbles within the same universe.
From Arrival to Exodus (Year 0)
- Aiden : 153 words
A year ago, our future died; the hopes and dreams of youth, withering in the oncoming thunder of a century of war. - Chloe : 283 words
It’s the night before the exodus –two hours, five minutes and counting– and there’s nothing left to do. - Exodus : 231 words
No one had slept. - Jess : 474 words
Ten percent of the population was twenty percent of my friends. - Twin Ponds : 305 words
Twin Ponds was a tiny town, but it had always been tiny; little more than a collection of houses in the midst of unbounded prairie.
Fleet (Pre-War, Years 1-40)
- Karen : 272 words
For the first week they were awake, the ship’s inhabitants simply let them wander.
Earth (Pre-War, Years 1-40)
- The Advisors : 611 words
When the ship left, four Advisers remained behind.
War (Years 41-140)
- Elm Creek : 273 words
There are only two people left in Elm Creek who remember when it was simply The Ship, without qualifiers or descriptions required. - Digging a Grave in the Sky (100 word, poem)
