Escape Pod

Author : Marika Bailey Narrator : Eden Royce Host : S.B. Divya Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums “Seed Vault” was originally published in Strange Horizons (Nov 2019) Seed Vault (Part 2) By Marika Bailey The desert rain has lulled me and I sleep all the way through the daylight hours. It is […] Source

Author : Marika Bailey Narrator : Eden Royce Host : S.B. Divya Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums “Seed Vault” was originally published in Strange Horizons (Nov 2019) Seed Vault (Part 1) By Marika Bailey 1. FIRE I should tell you about the gods, yes? Good setting for it. Here in the desert, […] Source

The Call of the Sky By Cliff Winnig The army hospital’s underground floors reminded me of Pluto Base, a place I’d never actually been. I’d never even been off-world, but I remembered those claustrophobic beige corridors. Two years before, I’d synced with a bunch of my alts home on leave after basic training. Today for the first time I’d be meeting one who’d seen combat. More than that, one who’d b...

Author : Merc Fenn Wolfmoor Narrator : Justin C. Key Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums Escape Pod 778: The Machine is Experiencing Uncertainty is an Escape Pod original. The Machine is Experiencing Uncertainty by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor Caliban cycles the captain out the airlock again. The man pounds […] Source

Author : Sarah Gailey Narrator : Trendane Sparks Host : Laura Pearlman Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums “Bargain” first appeared in Mothership Zeta (Dec 2015) Bargain by Sarah Gailey Malachai loved his work. He loved wandering among the trappings of enormous wealth and influence, seeing the baubles that humans excreted to […] Source

The Dame With the Earth at Her Back By Sarah Pauling That’s the trouble with Teegarden’s northern latitudes: the sun never sets in summer. The red glow assaults Maryellen’s stage long after midnight, pushing in through the picture window alongside the nightclub floor. She’s asked Bruce if she could close the curtains sometime, since she gets tired of squinting out into her audience. He said it’d b...

Tloque Nahuaque By Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas, translated by Silvia Moreno-Garcia If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. —Carl Sagan I—The Particle Accelerator They built an underground temple. A well of Babel sinking into the gloomy ground at 175 metres of depth. They wanted, like the Biblical architects, to know the unknowable, to discover the origin...

Spaceship October By Greg van Eekhout When you live on a spaceship, you learn to make your own fun. Exploring the tunnels is some of the very best fun the October’s got. After school hour, me and Droller go scuttling through the darkest conduits you ever will find. The starboard Hab gets minimal heat, so our breath clouds in the light of our head torches as we crawl on our hands and knees. “You he...

Author : Gwynne Garfinkle Narrator : Alethea Kontis Host : S.B. Divya Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story first appeared in GigaNotoSaurus (March 2020) Contains cursing and discussions of sex. A Wild Patience (Part 3 of 3) by Gwynne Garfinkle When Jessica got home that night, she and I talked for […] Source

Author : Gwynne Garfinkle Narrator : Alethea Kontis Host : S.B. Divya Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story first appeared in GigaNotoSaurus (March 2020) A Wild Patience (Part 2 of 3) by Gwynne Garfinkle The next day, school was in an uproar. The other mothers had talked to their kids too. […] Source

Author : Gwynne Garfinkle Narrator : Alethea Kontis Host : S.B. Divya Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story first appeared in GigaNotoSaurus (March 2020) Contains cursing and discussions of sex. A Wild Patience (Part 1 of 3) by Gwynne Garfinkle We first noticed something was off one April afternoon when Jessica […] Source

The Mercy of Theseus By Rachael K. Jones Greta and Jamal have three arms, two legs, and one working kidney between the two of them. The kidney belongs to Greta. Its twin went to her little sister three years back, and now she has a laparoscopic keyhole scar over her belly button to remember it by. She can feel it pull tight when she rolls her creeper beneath the chassis of the next project in the...

Author : Marie Vibbert Narrator : M. Darusha Wehm Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story first appeared in Analog (August 2017) The First Trebuchet on Mars by Marie Vibbert If you come to Mars you need to know that in the twelfth century a French engineer named […] Source

Deal By Eris Young Beulah wonders what it would be like to touch the Visitor. Oil-slick iridescent, it is tennis ball-sized and scaled with an animated crystalline skin—or shell—or carapace. It floats, stationary, a foot above the rug in the corner of the living room. Its surface changes by the second, rippling back and forth as if stroked by an invisible hand. If she were to run her fingers—gentl...

Balancing the Equation by Justin C. Key June 18, 2031 Lauren led her two-year-old son, Sean, slowly to their car while carrying three full bags of groceries. "Up," Sean said, showing her his palms. "Up, Mama, up!" "Ask one more time and you're getting a time out when we get home." She should have used a cart to carry the groceries. She should have walked with Sean on the inside. She should have ig...

Shadowboxer (Excerpt) By Paul Di Filippo Generally speaking, I need only three minutes of concentrated attention to kill someone by staring at them. If I’m feeling under the weather, or my mind is preoccupied with other matters–you know how your mind can obsess about trivial things sometimes–it might take five minutes for my power to have its effect. On the other hand, if I focus intensely on my v...

Author : Derrick Boden Narrator : Ibba Armancas Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums Escape Pod 766: The Unrepentant is an Escape Pod original. This story has content notifications for language and violence. The Unrepentant by Derrick Boden First time I saw her, she was bleeding from her left […] Source

Tru Luv By Sarah Pinsker The first three Tru fanatics were already waiting outside Meetspace when Molly arrived to open the bar. They were easy to recognize, pushing up their winter coats' sleeves and glancing at the insides of their wrists every two seconds instead of their phones, each hoping for their algorithm-matched Prince or Princess or Princex to cross into range and light up their implant...

Author : Frank Wu Narrator : Roderick Aust Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story originally appeared in Analog Magazine in November 2016. It won the AnLab Award for short story. In the Absence of Instructions to the Contrary By Frank Wu Karl 3478 sprawled on the beach, […] Source

No Spaceship Go By Annie Bellet The boys lay on their backs side by side staring up through the open roof of the abandoned building. Dylan clutched Meek's hand in anticipation as the ground shook and a roar filled the air. Tiny pebbles danced up from the ground around them and dust ran like water off the crumbling walls. "Ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five," Dylan whispered, "four… three… two… one...

Give the Family My Love by A. T. Greenblatt I’m beginning to regret my life choices, Saul. Also, hello from the edge of the galaxy. Also, surprise! I know this isn’t what you had in mind when you said “Keep in touch, Hazel” but this planet doesn’t exactly invoke the muse of letter writing. The muse of extremely long voice messages however... So. Want to know what’s this world’s like? Rocky, empty,...

Jolene by Fiona Moore “I’ve got a case for you,” said Detective Inspector Wilhemine FitzJames. “It’s a country singer whose wife, dog and truck have all left him.” “Seriously,” she said, after my unprintable reply. “The dog died and there’s nothing much you can do about the wife, but I thought you might be able to help with the truck.” I leaned back in my reasonably-priced office chair so I could...

Deepster Punks by Maria Haskins Surface The animated tattoos on Jacob's skin glimmer in the dark water, words and images swarming over his skin, bright and luminous, before they fade away again. "Don't you dare die on me." I'm holding his head above the waves, but his naked body is cold and slick and heavy in my grip. By now, I should be able to see the lights of the ocean platform, but there's no...

The Sun From Both Sides (Part 3 of 3) By R.S.A. Garcia (Continued from Part 2 - Escape Pod episode 758) "Grandmaster Lucochin." He started awake, his hand tightening on something. Someone. The Knight hung motionless over him. He had it by the throat, his fingers digging into the soft flesh beneath the golden full mask and its red speaker. A gold mask. A Knight of the Royal Sept Valencia. He releas...

The Sun From Both Sides (Part 2 of 3) By R.S.A. Garcia (Continued from Part 1 - Escape Pod episode 757) Once, a man left his home to find his home. It was not an easy journey, but going home never is. He gave up all that he was, and all he knew, to experience a great many things. Genuine smiles and thoughtless malice. Shared purpose and individual failure. And one bright day, in the middle of a ri...