Make the universe a better place! Join Daily Science Fiction for only $15 / year, or donate any amount.

Enter any portion of the author name or story title:

[ go to advanced search ]

SUBSCRIBE TO DSF

your email will be kept private

Get a copy of Not Just Rockets and Robots: Daily Science Fiction Year One. 260 adventures into new worlds, fantastical and science fictional. Rocket Dragons Ignite: the anthology for year two, is also available!

DSF stories are available in monthly digests for Kindle!

Publish your stories or art on Daily Science Fiction:

Check story status

Everything we've published! Click on a topic to read...

Science Fiction

Fantasy

Hither & Yon

The Future of Future Planning

Dear Jezzy

Tasting Menu

Tales of the Rose Knights

Careers for Magical Creatures

Captain Percina Saunders

Clickbait for Paranormals

Alien Salvage

From Diaspora to New Jupiter

Childhood at Crossroad Station

Cara Watt, P.I.

Maradia's Robot

The League of Magical Felines

Not just rockets & robots...

"Science Fiction" means—to us—everything found in the science fiction section of a bookstore, or at a science fiction convention, or amongst the winners of the Hugo awards given by the World Science Fiction Society. This includes the genres of science fiction (or sci-fi), fantasy, slipstream, alternative history, and even stories with lighter speculative elements. We hope you enjoy the broad range that SF has to offer.

comment on today's story, or read what others say:

Do Not Breathe

by Gunnar De Winter

author bio

Gunnar De Winter is a biologist/philosopher hybrid who explores ideas through fictional fieldwork. He has been known to tweet @evolveon. Story comments: For this tiny tale, I wanted a - very - short scene that could imply a much larger story. And what better tale than treason and mutiny? Basically, this story is a seed for 'what ifs' and 'how comes', and I hope the readers will build their own stories around it. If so, I'd love to hear them.

[close author bio]

Do not breathe.

Nanites kicked into overdrive, trying to undo the damage of vacuum exposure. Being catapulted out of the airlock was a popular sentence for mutiny. No mess.

Do not breathe.

Drey twisted to face the ship that prepared to speed away. His face swelled. His long thin fingers had become thick sausages. There wasn't much time.

Do not breathe.

Oblivion pounded heavily on his thoughts, an impatient guest that demanded access. He took the small grappling hook from his secret vest pocket. He was so excruciatingly slow.

Do not breathe.

Do not miss.

Thwack.

Here I come, Cap.

The End

This story was first published on Thursday, October 3rd, 2019

show author story comments

For this tiny tale, I wanted a--very--short scene that could imply a much larger story. And what better tale than treason and mutiny? Basically, this story is a seed for "what ifs" and "how comes," and I hope the readers will build their own stories around it. If so, I'd love to hear them.

- Gunnar De Winter

[close author story comments]

BECOME A MEMBER!

We hope you're enjoying Do Not Breathe by Gunnar De Winter.

Please support Daily Science Fiction by becoming a member.

Daily Science Fiction does not have a paywall, but we do have expenses—more than 95% of which are direct payments to authors for their stories. With your $15 membership, less than 6 cents per story, we can continue to provide genre fiction every weekday by email and on the website to thousands of readers for many years to come. Tell me more!

Support Daily Science Fiction

RATE THIS STORY

Please click to rate this story from 1 (ho-hum) to 7 (excellent!):

show this story's ratings

Please don't read too much into these ratings. For many reasons, a superior story may not get a superior score.

4.2 Rocket Dragons Average

SHARE THIS STORY

JOIN MAILING LIST

Please join our mailing list and receive free daily sci-fi (your email address will be kept 100% private):

SUBSCRIBE TO DSF