A Mastodon writing prompt story. These are science fiction short stories (usually 480 characters or less), based on an image generated by EW Doc Parris using MidJourney.

The stories are originally posted on Mastodon via my personal account.

Originally published June 9, 2023.

I stared at it, unsure what to do next. It looked like it was for transmitting text. But the keys had symbols I didn’t recognize. And it wasn’t clear what it would communicate with.

“Do we know the symbols?”

“No language we know of.”

“What about comms?”

“It radiates faint EM as you type.”

“How old is it? The design looks old, but the parts look new.”

My friend paused. “Near as we can tell, it’s at least 75,000 years old.”

“Dare I ask where we found it?” He shook his head.