Drabble!

[Demolition Squid]

Something I've come across in the Elite: Dangerous community which is pretty fun as a writing exercise is the Drabble. 100 word stories (not including title).

So... here's my first attempt at one. Because Elite: Dangerous has a massive amount of different governments and factional alliances but ... the impact they have on your gameplay is literally just 'they sometimes ban different goods and might have more security'. I thought it might be a fun thing to have a thread for (although... obviously, I don't expect Discordian drabbles to stick to the space theme  )

The Great Bureaucracy

The Demolition Squid had been a great ship, but a lifetime of military service took its toll. Then they'd stripped out as much space as possible for cargo. Now, it was more like an old frying pan. Beaten, blackened and chipped.

The Commander drummed their fingers, waiting for the scans to complete. Today, it was communists. Tomorrow, capitalists. The day after, monarchists. Give humanity infinite space, and they'd divide it up and start bickering about who was best.

But the docking procedure was always the same. The universe was run by traffic wardens.

"No contraband found. Hail Comrade!"

"Hail Comrade."

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Nice! I like it.