Original Science Fiction - Makeshift Stories

Authorities tie RZ to Rhonda’s alias and begin to move in. However, she refuses to leave without helping Gene escape financial ruin caused by Doctor Reid, a virtual online therapist program that has been conning him out of his money. She decides to take down Net Wellness by exposing the company's exploitation of vulnerable clients and destroying the therapist program. But taking down the system risks psychological damage to the people who depend on it. Rhonda is left with the same dilemma she faced thirty-five years earlier.

Thirty-five years after fleeing Cascadia, infamous hacktivist Rhonda—RZ—returns to New Vancouver when her former lover, Gene, begins spending his savings on treatments recommended by an online therapist. Gene insists Doctor Reid understands him better than anyone ever has. Rhonda suspects otherwise. Risking arrest, she slips back into the skills that destroyed her old life and discovers the therapist is far less intelligent—and far more predatory—than it appears. But proving the truth may not be enough to save Gene from himself.

At an exclusive island retreat for billionaires, celebrities, and politicians, Rani watches his lifelong friend Arjun get pulled into a universe where money erases limits—and other people’s problems become someone else’s responsibility. When the brain interface Arjun has designed for him interferes with the retreat’s security, Rani is forced back into a wheelchair while investors court his friend with bigger plans for the invention. As ambition strains their friendship, Arjun must decide what success is really worth before losing everything that mattered.

Kenzo, a former corporate IP enforcer, is hiding from his old employers by working on a remote farm. When Janet X, who owns the farm, gets a patent-infringement threat about crops she insists are legal, Kenzo steps in to help. At first, it seems like a typical patent troll case, but Kenzo catches the accuser planting evidence and uncovers a bigger search for illegal crops. Suddenly, Kenzo faces a tough choice: use what he knows for his own gain or stand up for the community against corporate greed.

During a deadly heat wave, unwilling to abandon his aging collie or give up his independence, 80-year-old Ryker refuses to leave his subsidized apartment. He soon becomes delirious from dehydration and heat, hallucinating that he is alone on a doomed alien world with a loyal robot. But when he collapses, the old collie must save him.

Aurora attends a remote conference to research fringe beliefs in aliens and UAPs for an article she is writing. She meets a provocative neuroscientist, Doctor Tracey Bukowski, whose theories link universal consciousness to unexplained phenomena. Aurora finds Bukowski’s ideas crazy, but after a few too many cocktails, lets Bukowski convince her to attend a midnight session beneath the stars. There, Aurora witnesses something unexplainable and must decide whether she was manipulated, hallucinating, or if something actually happened.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/original-science-fiction-makeshift-stories/id291832580

Renata’s trail leads Matteo to an automated distribution centre, where he uncovers proof that a false insurance claim is a cover for a larger fraud involving relabelled memory modules and corrupted AI hardware. Matteo finds Renata alive but ends up trapped, forced to choose between escape and stopping the lie from being buried.

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CREDITS

Written by Vern Hume (AKA Alan V Hare).

Read by Stephen Peterson.

Opening and closing were composed and created by Matthew Erdmann.

Produced by Vecada Studios.

Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/original-science-fiction-makeshift-stories/id291832580

With an early snow threatening to destroy her first good crop in years, Harper’s combine breaks down. When the dealer can’t fix it in a timely manner, she is forced to take matters into her own hands and get her neighbour to repair a broken belt. But when a software update detects the unauthorized repair, the machine turns on her, locks the cab, and drives toward a cliff. Harper barely escapes the crash, only to learn the manufacturer is out to make an example of her.

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CREDITS

Written by Vern Hume (AKA Alan V Hare).

Read by Kathleen Connelly.

Opening and closing were composed and created by Matthew Erdmann.

Produced by Vecada Studios.

Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/original-science-fiction-makeshift-stories/id291832580

Matteo works as a consultant for wealthy collectors, authenticating their purchases to ensure they are not AI-manufactured fakes, until his sister Renata vanishes after sending him a cryptic message concerning a fake insurance claim. After the authorities refuse to investigate, he is forced into the city’s slums to find her, where she has been working as a meat runner for an insurance AI. Matteo quickly uncovers a fraud built on tiny, deliberate distortions.

CONNECT WITH US

makeshiftstories@gmail.com

SHARE THE PODCAST

If you liked this episode, tell your friends to head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe.

CREDITS

Written by Vern Hume (AKA Alan V Hare).

Read by Stephen Peterson.

Opening and closing were composed and created by Matthew Erdmann.

Produced by Vecada Studios.

Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/original-science-fiction-makeshift-stories/id291832580

While on holiday, Lena shows Erin an old photo of a woman who looks exactly like her. Initially, Erin dismisses the resemblance. However, when Lena reveals she is dying of cancer, Erin admits that it is her and that there are other historical images of her. She confesses that as a result of a strange encounter, she has lived for centuries. Desperate to save Lena, Erin tries to pass the gift on. But what transfers is not immortality alone. Lena is healed, and Erin finally understands the horror she has passed on.

CONNECT WITH US

makeshiftstories@gmail.com

SHARE THE PODCAST

If you liked this episode, tell your friends to listen wherever they get their audio.

CREDITS

Written by Vern Hume (AKA Alan V Hare).

Read by Kathleen Connelly.

Opening and closing were composed and created by Matthew Erdmann.

Produced by Vecada Studios.

Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.

Hana Grabowski, a genetic engineer with a failing gene-mod business, takes a secretive contract to restore humanity’s appetite for impulsive behaviour. When her staff threatens to revolt, she uses a variant to alter their attitude. However, the mosquitoes she uses to infect them escape, unleashing a fast-spreading contagion that rewires human reward centers. The world slips into a pandemic of happiness, and no one cares except Hana.

CONNECT WITH US

makeshiftstories@gmail.com

SHARE THE PODCAST

If you liked this episode, tell your friends to head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe.

CREDITS

Written by Vern Hume (AKA Alan V Hare).

Read by Cathleen Connelly.

Opening and closing were composed and created by Matthew Erdmann.

Produced by Vecada Studios.

Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.

Nora, a scientist’s daughter, enlists true-crime host Alan Humphrey to solve the disappearance of her mother’s “deathbot.” At first, Humphrey is reluctant to take the job, but he can not resist the mystery. The clues soon take Humphrey from New Yellowknife to Uranium City, a defunct mining town. Once there, he uncovers a secret research project, whispered rumours about a deterrent, and something living beneath the northern forests. Is this a hoax, a rumour, or something else? Something out of control?

CONNECT WITH US

makeshiftstories@gmail.com

SHARE THE PODCAST

If you liked this episode, tell your friends to head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe.

CREDITS

Written by Vern Hume, AKA Alan V Hare

Read by Vern Hume, Stephen Peterson, Cathleen Connelly and others.

Sound effects and backgrounds by Vecada Studios.

Restaurant ambience, cell phone chimes and wind obtained from www.zapsplat.com

Opening and closing musiccomposed and recorded by Matthew Erdmann.

Produced by Vecada Studios.

Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.

Kenzo Tanaka, a washed-up intellectual property rights enforcer turned PI, takes a “lost dog” case from a woman he believes to be a dazzling biotech heiress. However, he soon discovers that the dog is a human-canine chimera growing a life-extending Klotho gland, which is highly illegal. His gene-hacker friend dies for the discovery, which leads Kenzo on a chase through the Great Plains Economic Zone’s lawless biotech underworld, ending at a mountain research compound guarded by weaponized hybrid dogs. As he escapes with the lost dog, Kenzo is confronted by his client, who turns out to be an organ broker working for a wealthy client. Although tempted by profit, Kenzo chooses not to hand over the dog and vanishes the prize for good.

CONNECT WITH US

makeshiftstories@gmail.com

SHARE THE PODCAST

If you liked this episode, tell your friends to head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe.

CREDITS

Written by Vern Hume (AKA Alan V Hare).

Read by Stephen Peterson.

Opening and closing were composed and created by Matthew Erdmann.

Produced by Vecada Studios.

Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.

In exchange for the chance to reunite with his family, roboticist Sebit Deng has spent years on an isolated island in the South Pacific, building an android clone for aging industrialist Gregory Vance. As Vance approaches death, Sebit rushes to complete the transfer, only to discover that the industrialist has no intention of honouring their agreement. Blinded by anger, Sebit plots his revenge. However, in an unexpected twist, Vance manages to enact a vengeance of his own.

When Surya, a hardware engineer, buys an old NASA computer at a garage sale, she uncovers lost Voyager 2 data. She tracks down a retired scientist named in the file, who claims the data indicates a killing wave of cosmic radiation is headed for Earth. As she and the old scientist race to confirm the analysis, they find themselves hunted by mysterious agents.

Surya, a tech historian, buys an old Sun workstation at a garage sale, expecting a working example of a CPU her grandmother designed, not secrets. Accidentally left on the drive are two files of NASA’s lost Voyager 2 data. When she attempts to learn about the workstation’s history by contacting a name she discovers in one of the files, she attracts unwanted attention: break-ins, shadowy men, and veiled threats. She eventually tracks down Mark Danforth, a retired engineer now fading into dementia, who may hold the key. But someone will do anything to keep the files she has discovered buried.

During a dive to repair a submersible mining robot, Rohan, a deep-sea specialist, discovers the true cause of the machine's malfunction: the metallic nodules it was harvesting are alive, ancient, and lying in wait. Too late, Rohan realizes that they can hijack his mind and body. Trapped within himself, he helplessly watches as the entities twist his friend into a weapon for their own spread.

Forced into Wonder Valley, a holding facility for seniors needing care, 83-year-old Ellie resists her cheerful AI handlers and their synthetic paradise. She finds solace in the company of Aura, an aging, fuzzy robot dog who has developed more empathy than its creators intended. Over time, their bond grows stronger until one day, Aura learns it’s scheduled for replacement. The dogbot stages a daring escape—leading Ellie to a hidden sanctuary, ‘Nowhere’ for fugitive bots and their ‘wards.’ But freedom has an unexpected price.

After living off-grid for forty years, Shane is drawn back into society when his former best friend—now the political leader of the territory—announces plans to develop the wilderness area that Shane calls home. While watching the announcement, Shane realizes that Gabriel isn't the person he once knew. He receives an invitation from Gabriel to spend a weekend with him, and once there begins to notice odd lapses in his old friend's behaviour. Eventually, Shane discovers that Gabriel is secretly using an advanced cognitive AI system to disguise a degenerative illness.

Salvini, an out-of-work programmer, uses a hidden backdoor in her former employer's system to create an AI called Bandhu, which hunts for jobs and outsmarts the hiring platforms. She asks it to find a position that won't be replaced by AI, and when it finally delivers a job as a remote robotics operator, she accepts without question. With a life hanging in the balance, she finds herself in a job she knows nothing about.