The Path Not Taken

Many starship captains have likely dedicated their life to reaching the captain’s chair. It’s not something one typically stumbles into. As viewers, we’ve gotten the occasional glimpse into the regrets and alternate pathways that some of our favorite captains have, or might have had.

For this writing prompt, write a story about one of your captains. The story should take the form of reminiscing, or a dream sequence, or something along those lines; it should allow your captain to either explore another path they might have taken, or discuss a regret they may have about an opportunity they passed up.

 

Details:

• The story should explore something your officer has not done; vice something from their past. It can reference a past decision, but should describe the path not taken.
• It doesn’t need to involve Starfleet at all, but should provide a stark contrast to their current life and/or career.
• Please explore the emotions of the character when describing how this alternate reality would make them feel, and/or how they feel about not taking that route.

Criteria

• Stories should be submitted directly to the BFMS, and your entry should be a link to the published story. Stories should be at least 1,000 words and no more than 2,500 words.
• Stories will be graded in accordance with the Bravo Fleet Fiction Rubric, which marks on the following criteria: Language, Style, & Mechanics; Adherence to Canon; Perspective; Characterization; Originality; Use of the Prompt.
• This story must be created after this competition opens and before it closes, so as not to reuse any existing stories. This will be judged based on the publication date of the story within the BFMS.
• Your story must be a single-author post, not a joint post.
• Using generative AI for this competition is forbidden.