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Overhead in Starfleet

Description

We often talk about how many hundreds or thousands of people live on a starship or a starbase, busying themselves with their duties, going to-and-fro from one deck to another. There is so much hustle and bustle and with that activity must come countless conversations: some meaningful, some trivial, small talk, confusions, delights, jokes and accusations.

The competition is to write a short story about a few of the incomplete snapshots of conversations overhead during a single duty shift. What do the crew talk about while going about their business or during their leisure time? Is there some drama in one of their lives? Are some people playing a game? Are others regaling their friends with a story of their previous postings?

The trick is to leave every conversation incomplete. These are other people’s conversations, not your own, overhead as you go about your business. They may be funny, they make not make any sense outside of the wider context, or they may be the awkward small talk of your lower decks trying to impress a senior officer.

Criteria

  • Stories must be submitted through the BFMS and your entry should link to that story. Stories should be between 1,000 and 2,500 words.
  • Stories will be graded using the Bravo Fleet Fiction Rubric, which marks on the following criteria: Language, Style, & Mechanics; Adherence to Canon; Perspective; Characterization; Originality; Use of the Prompt.
  • Stories must be written during the competition period and should not be a reuse of an existing story. Stories written before or after the competition begins will be disqualified. The BFMS publication date will be used.
  • The story must be a single author post in BFMS and not a joint post with another author.

Winners

Submissions

User Submission Date Post
Michael Angelus (#3090) 2025-07-10 22:28:31
Elevated Eavesdropping
Starbase Bravo
Ludvig Traven (#3114) 2025-07-09 21:40:34
Echoes in the Bulkheads
Starbase Bravo
Traan (#3099) 2025-07-07 05:18:05
Do they have water coolers in the 25th century
USS Blythe
Dante (#3066) 2025-06-28 14:33:26
Overheard in Starfleet (Competition) – Fly on the wall
USS Sherman Oaks
Rynar Jast (#2796) 2025-06-27 16:09:49
Overheard in Starfleet (Competition)
USS Thunderchild

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