Sci-Fi – Page 6 – The Drabblecast

Drabblecast 304 – Hero, The Movie pt. 2

On November 23, 2013

Rick takes the money the Mayor of Corkscrew has wired him and flies to Florida, feeling his oats, full of hope. He’s met at the airport by one of Mayor Delameter’s staff and driven to his hotel, the old but clean and dry Swamp Hotel in downtown Corkscrew. The next morning he’s out at the edge of town where Main Street runs along the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and he’s surveying the marching battalions of Gecarcoidea natalis—little, red, forest-dwelling crabs about the size of your palm that are migrating, as they do each year—though not usually in such numbers—through the town, back to the swamp to breed . . . and taking their sweet time doing it. .

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Drabblecast 303 – Hero, The Movie pt. 1

By Drabblecast

On November 18, 2013

In Action, Drabblecast, Sci-Fi

This romantic comedy begins where all low-budget ’50s creature-features ended: The mutant insects born of atom-bomb radiation (or invaders from space, or monsters from the sea, or fifty-foot women) have at last been defeated and our small-town hero, with girlfriend Janie or June or Betty at his side, must now face the rest of his life. Didn’t we wonder what his life would be like after the final credits rolled? After you save the world, what’s left? You can marry the Professor’s daughter, sure. You can sell the rights to your story. Be on national talk shows. Hold onto fame a little longer. But then what?

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Drabblecast 300 – Bloodchild

By Drabblecast

On October 31, 2013

In Drabblecast, Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi

My last night of childhood began with a visit home. T’Gatoi’s sister had given us two sterile eggs. T’Gatoi gave one to my mother, brother, and sisters. She insisted that I eat the other one alone. It didn’t matter. There was still enough to leave everyone feeling good. Almost everyone. My mother wouldn’t take any. She sat, watching everyone drifting and dreaming without her. Most of the time she watched me.

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Drabblecast B-Sides 31 – The Black and White Animals Trilogy

By Drabblecast

On October 23, 2013

In Comedy, Drabblecast B-Sides, Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi

The complete Black and White Animals Trilogy, uncut. Written by Kendall Marchman, Luke Coddington and Norm Sherman, produced by Norm Sherman. Originally appeared as episodes 11, 22, and 24… Part 1: Secret Weapons, Part 2: Vengeful Hearts and Part 3: Chromatic Conclusions.

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Drabblecast 298 – Flying On My Hatred of My Neighbor’s Dog

By Drabblecast

On October 3, 2013

In Comedy, Drabblecast, Sci-Fi

The week we present to you Flying On My Hatred of My Neighbor’s Dog by Shaenon Garrity.

Have you ever been so exasperated that you could feel the energy rippling off of you? Just how far could the power of that hate carry you? Could it fuel your car? How about a rocket ship?

I know my neighbor’s dog as a bark: a deep, dark, venomous yawp that begins and ends on a snarl. It’s loud, louder than it should be. Earplugs do nothing. It penetrates. Once it starts, it continues, relentlessly, for a period ranging from one to four hours. It can start at any time, day or night, dropping from the veils of morning to where the cricket sings.

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Drabblecast episode 296, Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain, by Caroline Parkinson

Drabblecast 296 – Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain

By Drabblecast

On September 16, 2013

In Drabblecast, Romance, Sci-Fi

Over the years, Tikka’s job as a Minor Propagandist for the planet Porcelain’s Bureau of Tourism had shaped her way of thinking. She dealt primarily in quintets of attractions, lists of five distributed by the Bureau: Five Major China Factories Where the Population of Porcelain Can Be Seen Being Created; Five Views of Porcelain’s Clay Fields; Five Restaurants Serving Native Cuisine at Its Most Natural.

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Drabblecast B-Sides 27 – I Don’t Know Timmy, Being God is a Big Responsibility

By Drabblecast

On September 10, 2013

In Drabblecast B-Sides, Sci-Fi

Tim already had his bag and overcoat on and his keys in his hand and was about to leave when Diane stopped him at the door.
“I just got this thing working. You have to come and see it.”
“I have a bus to catch.”
“You can get the next one.”
“They’re every half an hour,” he objected. “This had better be good…”

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Drabblecast 292 – Hollow as the World

By Drabblecast

On August 14, 2013

In Drabblecast, Horror, Sci-Fi

One of the reasons Joshua loved Lydia as much as he did was all the secret rituals they’d devised. Their shared jokes were treasured secrets, never to be shared with the other kids at high school; some days, the way Lydia could send Joshua into high titters with a raise of her pierced eyebrow was the only thing that kept Joshua from slitting his wrists…

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Drabblecast B-Sides 24 – Answer

By Drabblecast

On July 20, 2013

In Drabblecast B-Sides, Sci-Fi

He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe–ninety-six billion planets–into the supercircuit that would connect them all into the one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies…

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 289, The Cold Equations, by Rodolfo Arredondo

Drabblecast 289 – The Cold Equations

By Drabblecast

On July 15, 2013

In Drabblecast, Drama, Sci-Fi

He was not alone.

There was nothing to indicate the fact but the white hand of the tiny gauge on the board before him. The control room was empty but for himself; there was no sound other than the murmur of the drives — but the white hand had moved. It had been on zero when the little ship was launched from the Stardust; now, an hour later, it had crept up. There was something in the supply closet across the room, it was saying, some kind of a body that radiated heat…

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Drabblecast B-Sides 22 – The Eyes Have It

By Drabblecast

On June 1, 2013

In Comedy, Drabblecast B-Sides, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

It was quite by accident I discovered this incredible invasion of Earth by lifeforms from another planet. As yet, I haven’t done anything about it; I can’t think of anything to do. I wrote to the Government, and they sent back a pamphlet on the repair and maintenance of frame houses. Anyhow, the whole thing is known; I’m not the first to discover it. Maybe it’s even under control…

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 284, Turning Point, by Neil Googe

Drabblecast 284 – Turning Point

By Drabblecast

On June 1, 2013

In Drabblecast, Sci-Fi

Please, mister, could I have a cracker for my oontatherium?”

Not exactly the words you would expect at an instant when history changes course and the universe can never again be what it was. The die is cast; In this sign conquer; It is not fit that you should sit here any longer; We hold these truths to be self-evident; The Italian navigator has landed in the New World; Dear God, the thing works!–no man with any imagination can recall those, or others like them, and not have a coldness run along his spine. But as for what little Mierna first said to us, on that island half a thousand light-years from home . . .

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 277, Things, by Liz Pennies

Drabblecast 277 – The Universe of Things

By Drabblecast

On March 28, 2013

In Drabblecast, Sci-Fi

The alien parked its car across the street from the shop and came and sat down in the waiting room. The mechanic must have seen this happen, peripherally. But he was busy settling the bill with a smartly dressed middle-aged woman, to whom he’d taken an irrational dislike. Those who deal with Joe Punter, day in and day out, especially Joe car-owning Punter, are prone to such allergies. He saw her start of concealed surprise, looked up, and there was the alien.

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 276, Hullabaloo, by Kelly MacAvaney

Drabblecast 276 – Hullabaloo

By Drabblecast

On March 19, 2013

In Drabblecast, Sci-Fi

The Town Council meeting was split down the middle — Hullabaloo colonists on the one side and Fenella Elane Tyne on the other. Jerram stood in the back and admired the way Fenella strove to convince the tired farmers. Pacing around the podium, she brought to bear the power of unmatched intelligence, impeccable honesty, and polished verbal skills. In the discordant discussion that followed, Jerram studied her serious face. She was magnificent, but hopelessness coursed through him. She didn’t have a chance of winning anyone over to her side. And he did not have a chance of winning her.

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 275, A Riddle in Nine Syllables, by Jan Dennison

Drabblecast 275 – A Riddle in Nine Syllables

By Drabblecast

On March 13, 2013

In Drabblecast, Sci-Fi

After the attack, my team brought me straight to the med lab at base camp. They must have commed ahead, because as soon as the stretcher went through the door seals, Dr. Traynor was yelling orders…

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 274, Amid the Words of War, by Alyssa Suzumura

Drabblecast 274 – Amid the Words of War

By Drabblecast

On March 8, 2013

In Drabblecast, Drama, Sci-Fi

Every few day-cycles, it receives hate-scented lace in anonymous packages. It opens the bland plastic envelope to pull one out, holding the delicate fragment between two forelimbs. Contemplating it before folding it again to put away in a drawer. Four drawers filled so far; the fifth is halfway there.

“Traitor,” say some of the smells, rotting fruit and acid. “Betrayer. Turncoat. One who eats their own young.” Others are simply soaked in emotion: hate and anger, and underneath the odor of fear. It lets the thoughts, the smells, the tastes fill it, set its own thoughts in motion. Then it goes downstairs and sits with the other whores, who make room uneasily for it.

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Drabblecast 273 – The Electric Ant

By Drabblecast

On February 19, 2013

In Drabblecast, Sci-Fi

This episode of the Drabblecast brings you a very special presentation of “The Electric Ant” by the one and only Philip K. Dick!

Garson Poole wakes up after a flying-car-crash to find that he is missing a hand. He then finds out that he is an ‘electric ant’ – an “organic” robot. He further finds out that what he believes is his subjective reality is being fed to him from a micro-punched tape in his chest cavity.

Yeah, it gets weird in perfect Philip K. Dickian fashion!

Story Excerpt:

At four-fifteen in the afternoon, T.S.T., Garson Poole woke up in his hospital bed, knew that he lay in a hospital bed in a three-bed ward and realized in addition two things: that he no longer had a right hand and that he felt no pain.

They had given me a strong analgesic, he said to himself as he stared at the far wall with its window showing downtown New York. Webs in which vehicles and peds darted and wheeled glimmered in the late afternoon sun, and the brilliance of the aging light pleased him. It’s not yet out, he thought. And neither am I…

Without further ado, please enjoy:

Drabblecast # 273 – The Electric Ant

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Drabblecast episode 272, Power Armor: A Love Story, by Mike Dominic

Drabblecast 272 – Power Armor: A Love Story

By Drabblecast

On February 14, 2013

In Drabblecast, Romance, Sci-Fi

It was quite a party. The women wore gowns. The men wore tuxedos. Anthony Blair wore power armor.

Armor that was sleek and black and polished, and made not a whisper as Blair paced the lawn behind his mansion, passing a word here or there with one of his guests. In those days the most advanced exoskeletons were crude affairs, and Blair’s armor seemed decades, if not centuries, ahead of its time…

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 270, The First Conquest of Earth, by Richard K. Green

Drabblecast 270 – The First Conquest of Earth

By Drabblecast

On January 23, 2013

In Comedy, Drabblecast, Sci-Fi

When the alien fleet was first sighted just beyond the asteroid belt, end-of-the-world riots broke out in cities around the globe. But when astronomers calculated that the huge, silent ships would take nearly three weeks to reach Earth, all but the most committed rioters felt their enthusiasm wilt. By the end of the day they’d all dropped their bricks or bats and slunk home, plundered consumer electronics in hand, muttering about the aliens’ apparent lack of urgency...

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 269, Bright Lights, by Bo Kaier

Drabblecast 269 – Bright Lights

By Drabblecast

On January 17, 2013

In Drabblecast, Horror, Sci-Fi

The water fountains are low. The lockers are empty. The summer air is warm but there are people in the classrooms. People are talking, are moving. A female emerges from the nearest classroom. She is fully grown. She has dyed hair and competing odors and all of her teeth. Showing her teeth, she asks, “Are you the teacher?”

“YES. YES, I AM.”

She wants to believe those words. What she sees isn’t what she expects, but this woman believes in authority. She wants to get along with others. Showing her teeth, she says, “My son is thrilled to get into your class. He loves the outdoors and doing outdoor things . . . fishing and all that. . . .”

“GOOD.”

“You’ll do the field trip Thursday, right? To the woods?” She waits a moment and then says, “I can take some of the kids, if you need an extra car.”

“I DON’T NEED A CAR.”

“But I’d like to come along. I mean, I’ve heard such good things about you. My friend Rita . . .” She stops talking, trying to find a reason for her nervousness.

“I MUST GO AND TEACH YOUR SON.”

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Category: Sci-Fi Page 6 of 12

Story Excerpt:

Drabblecast # 273 – The Electric Ant