EP Flash Fiction Contest Winner: Mission to Dover
by Gideon Fostick.
Read by Lyle Merithew.
Escape Pod sends its congratulations to Gideon Fostick for winning first place in the Escape Pod flash fiction contest for stories under 300 words.
Professor Seiferd materialized in full command of his faculties. He oriented immediately on the white cliffs of Dover, towering over the English Channel. He felt the weight of his mission: he must answer the question that was vital to the Fatherland.
Rated G. Contains Nazis.
LOL That was fantastic!
I spent far more time thinking about and savoring the story than I did listening to it.
why was he elated at the end? I’d think he would be horrified
Perfect! A short short should deliver the punch with one word. And you can see the old gentlemen suddenly stiffen up to military poise. That and maybe some of the “stuffy” attitudes of the aged still have a purpose in today’s world.
Loved it, certainly deserved to win.
what was the word said by the british?
Dave: Ok, so my wife is right, I have selective memory. Or shall we say, I slightly time shifted that last word. The last word I remembered was “Calais”.
Or maybe in my head, I would have left off the last little bit about him being whisked back. Calais should have been the last word and that’s what I remembered; it was the hook word, the aha word, the brain-blast word that’s the real kicker from short-shorts stories. Ok, I’ll breath now. I love good flash fiction, its sci-fi crack.
I still cant figer out what was the last word Professor Seiferd heard before the time shift
professor seiferd ask about the invasion, did he mean D-day. he traved 50 years and arrived in June 5 1994, so he came form 1944 a day before the D-day which stared on June 6, 1944 at 6:30 am. is what the veteran said a landing code word?
I’m glad to see that the author wrote “faculties”. Too bad the reader pronounced it “facilities”, which makes no sense.
He says Calais, a costal French city. From the d-day wiki page: “Local German naval forces were small but could be reinforced from the Baltic. Their efforts, however, were concentrated on protecting the Pas de Calais against expected landings there, and no attempt was made to force the blockade.” Thanks, random English guy from 1994, you saved us all!
The Calais “invasion” point was a total fake out done by the British and Americans. Patton was used as with a fake army around him and blow up tanks; even a dead officer was washed ashore with fake plans showing that Calais was to be the invasion point. Hitler and Rommel (who was in charge of the Atlantic defense) bought it; Hitler from an historical point of view, Rommel because of Patton.
This was fantastic; next time perhaps we should start with the “honorable mentions” first and end with the winner?
Wow! I’m away for a fortnight then boom!
I think it deserved its place at the top; at least I know now why Podcastle has been coming out late recently.
This was a lousy story. I’m sorry to be insulting, but it was just dumb. Completely cliched, ahistorical and actually insulting in a way to the Allied men and women who did the hard work of deceiving the Germans about the invasion of France in WWII. Seiferd is not belivable – he thinks like a cartoon Nazi, not a real German. And of course in reality from the German point of view D-Day was a side show, the Eastern Front was what decided the war. If the Germans had found a way to time travel they would have used it against the Russians so the whole premise is just ridiculous. This is the kind of story I expect from a 15 year old.
Great story, Vanya I think you’re being a little harsh to say this is insulting, after all there were literally hundreds of deception ploys used to cover the invasion from double agaents sending false reports the morning of the actual landings to completely fictitious armies with all the radio traffic simulating an attack further north, to the famous man washed ashore in Neutral spain with the phoney plans. In a way you could just add this story to the many others rather than saying it tries to replace them. I mean, lets face it, some of the REAL events in WW2 were stranger than any fiction you could hope to invent…Flying saucers built in the Skoda Factories? the Occult rituals and Hitlers desire to obtain the spear of destiny to name a few.
Hey and theres always the secrets we still havent been told! who knows maybe the Germans were working on time machines, they were crazy enough to try, and if theres anything I have learned about Germany and WW2 its that they delved into every area of science like madmen and were more often than not, first to achieve spectacular gains making them the true mad scientists of our era.
I personally liked this short story (and I can forgive the emphasis on DDay rather than the Russian front which was the much greater threat..vanya the story would struggle for the same effect if put into the Russian context. Germany knew they werent about to stop the Russians but they still held out hope they could stop the Allies from successfully invading, so it sort of makes sense to use this in the story)
[...] Pod has pushed out several episodes of flash fiction from its Flash Fiction Contest (the winner: “Mission to Dover,” by Gideon Fostick). Each of these podcasts is available through the link to the podcaster’s site and [...]
[...] a hiatus of long stories during November, and instead we have a flurry of flash fiction. “Mission to Dover” by Gideon Fostick is a short speculation on time travel during World War II. Though the [...]
I liked it. Brilliant even. That fact that the man said Calais can be interpreted in several ways. Did the man catch on (as unlikely as it is) to the questioner’s motive in some abstract way? Did the man remember incorrectly? Was the man being a smart-ass? Lovely.
I loved it too.
Perhaps there was a little sarcasm in his answer, but I interpret the man’s response thus: he was in the war; that breeds a deep suspicion of the enemy even well after it has ended. Perhaps it was his duty during the war to help deceive the Germans. He pauses, maybe he was going to give the correct answer, but he is conditioned, he can’t help but respond in the way he would have during the war if pressed. He says Calais
If you know someone who was in WWII, as I did, the man’s answer rings true.
It didn’t come off as sarcasm to me.