The Frank Darcy Award: P-Con VI winner.

 Will you be the winner of the P-Con 7 Frank Darcy Award?

 "I have a 'Darcy' dawling!  The first eva!"   Well done Jennifer!     Photograph courtesy of Irish Kate.

Jennifer Delaney, the first every winner of The Frank Darcy Award, shows off her Phoenix to the adoring masses!

The winning and commended stories are available to read below. 

Each story is copyright of the author.  The stories are presented here thanks to the kind permission of the authors.

Winner of the First Ever Frank Darcy Award:

 Jennifer Delaney

The fields were black and grey with ash and the dull red of smouldering fires.  Thog the mighty thewed, son of Bod, surveyed the devastation astride his prancing warhorse.

“I will save you from this accursed dragon!” he declaimed to the downtrodden villagers.

A wise, greyhaired man pushed forward.

“You will need this,” said the wizard, producing a phial of clear liquid.

The hero curled his lip in scorn.  “Thog the mighty thewed, son of Bod, needs no potion to slay a dragon!”

“No, you pillock!  Tell her to drink it and never to go flying after she’s had a curry!”

Second place: James Shields

No one knows where the Ugokins came from, or what triggered the war.  Some suggested it was inevitable – they were just too different for us to get along.

For me, it didn’t really matter.  Survical was all that mattered.  Dodging the Ugokin death squads mattered.  A thousand light years from the closest human civilisation, we fought for every scrap of digestible material.

Every time we gathered our numbers were fewer.

One night, the skies were alight with fire as a thousand great starships marched across the heavens.  In the morning the Ugokins were gone, and we were alone.

Third place: GROLF

What a peculiar dream! Things, let alone people, don’t disappear like that.

When Jim woke up, he had no recollection of how and why he ended up in this unknown place.  He got up and walked to the only door in the room.

He opened it.

On the other side was a man, peacefully sleeping in his bed.

He decided to wake him up and find out what the story was.  He gently pushed the man.

The man grunted slightly and opened his eyes.

But Jim never knew…  Suddenly everything vanished.  And so did Jim!

Commendation: Matt Mitchell

Slegor clutched the underside of his brand new bridge and shivered in reptile glee.  The rumble of crossers from above drowned out the lapping of the river from which he had emerged, filling ears the size of dinner plates with a cacophony of wondrous noise.

“Thousands of goats”, he thought, and gleefully stretched his arm around to pluck one of the unsuspecting goat canisters from the causeway.  He tore the lid off and peeked inside.  “Oh!” he thought, “Not goats”.

He chewed meditatively on one of the garish, shrieking creatures and shrugged like a mountain.

“When life gives you lemons…”

Commendation: Stefano

AlienAtion

“Victory!”, a bold looking Hitler shouted through the blood washed streets of New York as the Nazi army chased the last band of opposition that fled desperately.

Meanwhile, hiding on a nearby rooftop were two small green aliens, helping themselves to a bowl of chips and laughing heartily.

“Best purchase ever!” said one.  “This time machine is much better than “Second Life”.  At least some interactive live media!  And we can just reset it if we get bored.”

“Absolutely!” agreed the other, half chewing a handful of chips.

“Next stop, ‘World War Three!’  Let us save the Apes’ planet together!”

Commendation: Jack Mitchell

Being dead had its advantages: you didn’t have to queue for lunch for a start.

Albert, the office zombie, was working through his break as usual.  He paused midway through a spreadsheet and glanced at the strip light above his cubicle that had begun to flicker distractingly, accompanied by a repetitive buzzing.

“It’s laughing at me”, Albert muttered grimly, fixing it with a cold stare, which comes quite naturally to the deceased.

“Working through lunch again?” a passing colleague remarked with a supercilious smirk.  “You can rest when you’re dead, I s’pose.”

Albert turned milky eyes toward him.

“You think?”