Author’s note: In preparation for NaNoWriMo 2009, someone put up daily prompts on one of the forums. I did them in the spirit of warm-ups, but some of them turned into stories. Here is one such, from 10/7/2009.

Prompt:  Write a 100 word story in a claustrophobic setting.

Talitha took the coffee cup and set it on the little desk top set into the wall, and then she turned on the computer that occupied half of the desk.  The cabin was small, coffin-narrow, and outside of it was zero gravity and absolute zero cold and no air at all. Outside the cabin was nothing, and inside—well, inside was the well that held the coffee cup, and the lid to keep it from sliding up into the air and making caffeine bubbles, so the morning cup of coffee was more like a baby bottle.  You had to suckle.  And the computer ran off solar power, and she slept, when she did, next to its blue warmth, in the smooth graveside darkness, in the night that her clock made in default of a sun.  And all the while she woke or slept, the great ship was headed out to the uttermost stars.