Escape Pod

Hard Mother, Spider Mother, Soft Mother

By Hal Y. Zhang

“Did you see the report on the spy from Aberdeen? The game is a-foot.”

I mumbled something like “No, sounds interesting.” All I remember is my usual annoyance at her ability to pronounce hyphens where they don’t belong. We must have been in the living room, her on a rare break from gardening and me trying to divine the future with my seeing stone of a computer. Either I had non-personal coffee in my hand, or my brain decided to add that detail on a later traverse. Why does it only fixate on the useless details—the weird green vase in the corner, the ugly plastic pitcher centerpiece on the table, both overflowing with fresh bleeding roses—that have nothing to do with the plot?

Our next interaction occurred during my viewing of a video reporting the formation of a new island in the Pacific. How uncannily the uncontrollable underwater caustic flow matched my job search situation, I thought idly in the crook of my elbow. Expert in esoteric studies, puzzles, and internal monologues seeking just about any position, really. Inquire within.

“All going as planned,” she mumbled behind me.

Give Me Cornbread or Give Me Death

By N.K. Jemisin

The intel is good. It had better be; three women died to get it to us. I tuck away the binoculars and crawl back from the window long enough to hand-signal my girls. Fire team moves up, drop team on my mark, support to hold position and watch our flank. The enemy might have nothing but mercs for security, but their bullets punch holes same as real soldiers’, and some of ’em are hungry enough to be competent. We’re hungrier, though.

Shauntay’s got the glass cutter ready. I’m carrying the real payload, slung across my torso and back in a big canteen. We should have two or three of these, since redundancy increases our success projections, but I won’t let anyone else take the risk. The other ladies have barrels cracked and ready to drop. The operation should be simple and quick—get in, drop it like it’s hot, get out.

This goes wrong, it’s on me.

It won’t go wrong.

Author : Ian Creasey Narrator : Pippa Alice Stephens Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums “No Strangers Any More” originally appeared in Analog (July/August 2016) No Strangers Any More (Part 2 of 2) by Ian Creasey Royal Roundup — “ROSE’S NEW BOYFRIEND? Just days after the end of her […]

Author : Ian Creasey Narrator : Pippa Alice Stephens Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums “No Strangers Any More” originally appeared in Analog (July/August 2016) No Strangers Any More (Part 1 of 2) by Ian Creasey One of a princess’s many duties is to make polite conversation and avoid […]

Wetting the Bed (Excerpt)

By Heather Shaw

When the floods came, all us kids climbed into bed and pulled the covers up over our heads while our parents rushed about trying to do something to stop it. As the water level rose we could feel the beds lift off the floor, floating through our houses, bumping down our hallways and out our front doors.

We sat up in bed waved to one another as our beds merged onto the canal that now flowed between our houses. We shrieked and giggled as our beds spun and bumped along with the swirling water. Waves lapped at our boxsprings, but our covers were still warm and dry.

Author : Lauren Ring Narrator : Alethea Kontis Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 796: One Hundred Seconds to Midnight is an Escape Pod original. One Hundred Seconds to Midnight By Lauren Ring I wake before the plane lands. It’s static-dark, the kind of hazy late night where the air […]

Tiger Lawyer Gets It Right

By Sarah Gailey

Vladislav Argyle rested his head on the cool titanium surface of the defendant’s table. It dipped a little under the sudden weight of his skull, then hummed as the antigrav lifts adjusted their power to accommodate their new burden.

“Mr. Argyle? Are you alright?” The bandage-swathed tip of Argyle’s client’s primary tentacle crackled near his ear, and he knew that she was touching his temple in a gesture of inquiry. The people of Ursa Vibrania were very skull-oriented in their communications. It was sweet, really, how they wanted to know what was happening inside every other endoskeletal vertebrate creature’s head. How much they wanted to understand.

Argyle clenched his fists in his lap. The Vibranians were so kind, and they had trusted him to help them, and he was failing. As always.

“I’m fine,” he said through his teeth. “Just a little ritual I have after opening statements.”

Author : Premee Mohamed Narrator : Eve Upton Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Adam Pracht Discuss on Forums Escape Pod 794: Episode 4: The Deflection of Probability is an Escape Pod original. Science fiction-style death and peril. Episode 4: The Deflection of Probability By Premee Mohamed The tent billowed in the hot, humid […]

Authors : Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and R. R. Virdi Narrator : Kaushik Narasimhan Host : S.B. Divya Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story was originally published in The Expanding Universe 5: A Science Fiction Exploration Contains some harsh language. A Little Bit of Kali (Part 2 of 2) By Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and […]

Authors : Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and R. R. Virdi Narrator : Kaushik Narasimhan Host : S.B. Divya Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story was originally published in The Expanding Universe 5: A Science Fiction Exploration Contains some harsh language. A Little Bit of Kali (Part 1 of 2) By Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and […]