On the most important diplomatic mission of the millennium, Captain Sal Nova and her Rangers are attacked by a weapon that shouldn’t exist.
On this page, you’ll find the podcast episode trailer and the full episode.
And of course, a link to the source, the short story.
[Video description: 38 seconds. Scanned watercolor painting. View onto the bridge of a spaceship facing the captain’s chair. The human captain is seated, gripping both armrests, glancing to her right toward a humanoid figure made of flammable light bearing a rifle-like weapon. Counterclockwise from that figure is a crew member who appears to be half-bat and half-human recoiling from a work station partially consumed in the flammable light. A human crew member stands facing and crouched against the far wall. A crew member braced against the far wall and holding a clipboard in one hand. The crew member is a humanoid alien with goggle-like eyes. At another work station is a crew member wearing a domed helmet. The crew member’s head looks like a boar. In the foreground, bottom right a crew member visible from shoulders up with an insectoid head with antennae and faceted, gem-like eyes, glances back at the attacker, mouth open in shock. Watermark of the word “storyfeather” lays over the image. Title card over the image displays “Podcast Episode” and “Genre: Science Fiction” The words fade away, replaced by the story’s title at center. The title fades. Subtitles appear in time with music and narration at the top: “Those among the crew who had time to react braced themselves as the pilot jerked the barely moving ship to an extreme tilt. Alarms began to sound. ‘Reports are coming in, Captain,’ Bristle said, as he strained to hang on to his station. ‘They’re boarding, all over the ship.’ The captain crawled into the chair beside her pilot as two more beams of light appeared on the bridge. These too took the form of bipeds and bore rifles. ‘Into the cloud, Lieutenant!’ the captain ordered. The engines hummed and droned to maximum power, and the ship turned toward the particle cloud.” Text box appears over image displaying the words, “Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Stitcher, and so on. Or listen on my Podcast page at storyfeather.com.” Website URL appears at bottom center throughout and fades as the text box appears.]
Sal Saturn and the Planetary Rangers – Storyfeather
EXCERPT:
In the year 2025, humanity received an answer to one of its most fundamental questions: “Are we alone in the universe?”
Only one thousand standard years later, unnoticeable and unfathomable to the greatly aged cosmos, a galactic alliance was formed, a coalition of inhabited worlds bound together in cooperation, friendship, and mutual progress. The Grand Unified Milky Way. The G.U.M. was protected by the Milky Way Planetary Rangers, whose members hailed from every planet in the alliance, and whose mission was to patrol within and outside the borders of their home, the galaxy the Earth humans charmingly named the Milky Way.
CREDITS
Story: “Sal Saturn and the Planetary Rangers” Copyright © 2017 by Nila L. Patel
Episode Art: “The Argon Weapon” Copyright © 2017 by Sanjay Patel
Narration and Editing: Nila L. Patel
Music:
“Trip-Hop Lounge Abstract Background” by Digital Emotions (Intro/Outro)
Music by TRG Banks
“Through the gravitational field”
“Insideoutworld”
“Interstellar breakfast”
Music by Andrea Baroni (Cyberleaf)*
“Fugue For One Synthetic Heart (no percussion)”
“Ground Control”
“Forest Bathing”
Music by Jonathan Shaw*
“A Dream of First Flight”
Music by Andrew Sitkov (MuzStation Game Music)*
“Last Moments of Peace”
“Prepare for Battle”
*These tracks were part of a music and sound effects bundles I purchased from Humble Bundle and sourced from GameDev Market.
Music by Andrea Baroni, Jonathan Shaw, and Andrew Sitkov is licensed from GameDev Market
Music by TRG Banks is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal License
Sound effects from AudioJungle and GameDevMarket
Find more music by Digital_Emotions at audiojungle.net
Find more music by Andrea Baroni and Andrew Sitkov at gamedevmarket.net
Find more music by Jonathan Shaw at jshaw.co.uk and gamedevmarket.net
Find more music by TRG Banks at freemusicarchive.org and bandcamp.com
Find more stories by Nila at storyfeather.com
JUMP INTO THE PORTAL BELOW TO EXPLORE MORE STORIES
FROM SEASON 4 (AKA YEAR 4)
THIS SEASON’S THEME IS CREATURES
Genre: Science Fiction
Tags: ALIEN, AMBASSADOR, BRISTLE, CAPTAIN, CHIEF ENGINEER, COMMANDER, MILKY WAY, MYRMICA, RODITORE, SAL NOVA
Podcast hosting by Libsyn
For more podcast episodes, visit the Storyfeather Podcast page.