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Auditory Anthology
On the Edge of Air by Ciro Capao
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When a bomb tears through the Adjuster’s headquarters, security officer Jonathan is thrown into a chase that leads him to the ravaged, weather-controlled outskirts of a domed city — and a suspect willing to risk everything to stop the world from being “adjusted.” Ciro Capao delivers a tense sci-fi thriller about climate control, class divides, and how far someone will go when they’ve got nothing left to lose.
We love bringing you stories from listeners just like Ciro — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told (sci-fi, horror, supernatural, or anything in between), we’d love to hear it.
If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/
You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com
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Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad
Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/
Other shows hosted by Darren:
Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/
Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag
Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors
Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio
Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead
More episodes
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Breaker’s Yard & Maiden Voyage - Chapter Seven: The Team
15:13|On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters — one wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.Our companion short story, “Breaker’s Yard,” follows Marcus Webb — soon to join Mercer’s team — during a routine compliance job aboard a decommissioned Navy ship being torn apart for scrap. What he encounters alone in her stripped, powerless corridors is impossible to explain, and impossible to shake. It’s another quiet thread of the unexplained, and our first real look at the man who’s about to become part of something much bigger.
Membership Drive by Murray F. Yaco
23:29|An alien named Keeter makes an unplanned emergency landing near the Jefferson Memorial and treats the entire assembled US government with breezy, condescending indifference — right up until he needs a favor. What follows is a wry first-contact comedy where Earth’s eager officials keep giving away more than they realize, chasing the promise of a “test” for interstellar federation membership that may not be quite what it seems.Murray F. Yaco was born in Queens, New York in 1927, served in the Army in Japan during World War II, and later worked as a war correspondent in Vietnam and Kuwait. He wrote only a handful of science fiction stories in the mid-20th century, with “Membership Drive” appearing in Amazing Stories in July 1960.
The Unobserved Observer by F. Davies-Mouncher
09:46|Late for school and dreading the stares of her classmates, Olivia gets an anxiety she never asked for when she suddenly realizes no one around her can see or hear her at all. What starts as a terrifying morning quickly turns into something else entirely, as Olivia begins to understand exactly what she can get away with when nobody’s watching. F. Davies-Mouncher delivers a sharp coming-of-age story about visibility, power, and the temptation of getting away with it.We love bringing you stories from listeners just like F. Davies-Mouncher — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told (sci-fi, horror, supernatural, or anything in between), we’d love to hear it.
They Can’t Stop All of Us & Maiden Voyage - Chapter Six: The Ask
15:38|On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters — one wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.Our companion short story, “They Can’t Stop All of Us,” follows Bennett before all of this began — covering the infamous “Storm Area 51” gathering as a journalist, and catching something in the Nevada night sky that her camera can barely explain, let alone she can. It’s a quiet, personal glimpse at the woman who’s about to become central to Mercer’s plan, and one more thread in this world’s stranger undercurrent.
Glow Worm by Harlan Ellison
26:16|After a nuclear war wipes out all life on Earth, Seligman — an experimental soldier engineered to survive the unsurvivable — finds himself the planet’s sole occupant, marked forever by a strange green glow that clings to his skin. Alone and searching for any remaining trace of humanity among the stars, he begins to realize that what was done to his body may have cost him something far more permanent than he first understood.Harlan Ellison (1934–2018) was one of the most prolific and celebrated writers in science fiction, winning eight Hugo Awards, four Nebula Awards, and five Bram Stoker Awards over a career that spanned television, film, and prose. “Glow Worm” was first published in the February 1956 issue of Infinity Science Fiction, early in a career that would go on to include work on The Outer Limits, Star Trek, and the acclaimed anthology series Dangerous Visions.
Gravit by K.C. Ozden
09:42|Ash has spent three days convincing a skeptical partner to search a stretch of empty ocean for a shipwreck he swears is carrying something impossible: cars made of a rare element the world thinks was mined to extinction decades ago. When their meter finally comes alive, it turns out Ash’s “story” might be worth more than either of them imagined. K.C. Ozden delivers a tight, tension-filled treasure hunt with a sharp sci-fi twist.We love bringing you stories from listeners just like K.C. — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told (sci-fi, horror, supernatural, or anything in between), we’d love to hear it.
North Sea Retrieval & Maiden Voyage - Chapter Five: The Pitch
17:14|On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters — one wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.Our companion short story, “North Sea Retrieval,” pulls Mercer, Novak, and a salvage specialist onto a listing, half-sunken supply ship to recover a mysterious sealed case — and into a locked compartment that shouldn’t be making any sound at all. It’s another quiet thread of the unexplained running underneath this world, tangled up with a job that’s already dangerous enough on its own.
Home Is The Spaceman by George O. Smith
22:59|After becoming the first human to travel faster than light and vanishing for eighteen months on what was supposed to be a twelve-hour mission, test pilot Billy Enright finally returns to Earth — only to find himself hauled before a Board of Inquiry demanding to know exactly what took him so long. His explanation is one of the great punchlines in classic pulp sci-fi, and it turns a “missing persons” story into something far funnier and stranger.
Pulling the Plug by Tony Tidwell
08:28|When aliens who secretly engineered human evolution announce they’re shutting the whole experiment down, world leaders and scientists gather at the UN with nothing left to offer but excuses. Tony Tidwell delivers a sharp, darkly funny fable about squandered potential — and what happens when the universe finally decides humanity has run out of chances.