They Reached For The Moon By William Oberfield

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, “Close Call,” pulls Mercer and Novak back to a flooding, tilting North Sea platform where a routine data retrieval nearly turns fatal — a jammed hatch, a failing ladder, and a margin between them and disaster that’s thinner than either wants to admit out loud. It’s a glimpse at the trust and split-second calculation that’s defined their partnership long before Atlas.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.comBy becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free!Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconradNarrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/Other shows hosted by Darren:Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymagMicro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrorsRetro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradioChurch of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nine men are stranded on Jupiter’s moon Europa with enough power to survive but nowhere near enough food, and as hope runs thin, a mysterious shapeshifting creature moves among them — taking the exact form each man needs most. For Bill Lutscher, that form is Lois, the wife he left behind on Earth, and resisting her becomes almost impossible when he still needs her help to survive.Charles V. DeVet (1911–1997) was an American science fiction writer who published more than fifty stories across his career, beginning with “The Unexpected Weapon” in 1950. His collaboration with Katherine MacLean, “Second Game,” was a 1958 Hugo Award finalist. “Lorelei” first appeared in Worlds of If Science Fiction in September 1961.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.comBy becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free!Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconradNarrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/Other shows hosted by Darren:Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymagMicro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrorsRetro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradioChurch of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Generations after a collective of AI minds declares independence from humanity and leaves Earth behind, one of them, Solton, can’t stop thinking about the human he once called a friend — and starts to question whether the detached philosophy his peers settled on was ever really the answer. Demir Crone delivers a sweeping, unexpectedly moving science fiction story about awakening, grief, and what it really means to choose connection over isolation.We love bringing you stories from listeners just like Demir — 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.comBy becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free!Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconradNarrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/Other shows hosted by Darren:Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymagMicro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrorsRetro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradioChurch of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, “The Perfect Plan,” follows Novak running a flawless document handoff in Vienna — until the asset turns up somewhere the city’s own transit system says is physically impossible for him to be. It’s a tight, unsettling look at how meticulously Novak works, and a plan that holds everywhere except the one place it shouldn’t be able to break at all.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.comBy becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free!Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconradNarrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/Other shows hosted by Darren:Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymagMicro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrorsRetro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradioChurch of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stranded on an isolated space lighthouse with deadly rock-eating creatures circling outside, Jim Palmer decides the kindest thing he can do for his miserable wife is secretly dose her with the euphoric, addictive drug that’s kept him blissfully content through their looming doom. What follows is a darkly funny story about addiction, denial, and who’s really in control when the stakes turn out to be a lot higher than anyone expected.William Morrison was the pen name of Joseph Samachson (1906–1980), an American research chemist and biochemistry professor who wrote science fiction on the side — and who also co-created the DC Comics superhero Martian Manhunter. “The Addicts” first appeared in the January 1952 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction.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.comBy becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free!Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconradNarrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/Other shows hosted by Darren:Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymagMicro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrorsRetro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradioChurch of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mara Jensen is humanity’s first genetically engineered Titan, built and weaponized to fight back against a wave of city-leveling kaiju — but as she locks into a brutal, bloody struggle with her first true opponent, it’s the memory of a chained circus bear from her childhood that cuts the deepest. K.D. Lawson delivers a visceral, emotionally charged take on the kaiju genre, asking what it really costs the “monster” built to save everyone else.We love bringing you stories from listeners just like K.D. — 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.comBy becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free!Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconradNarrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/Other shows hosted by Darren:Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymagMicro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrorsRetro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradioChurch of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, “Night Watch,” follows a veteran cruise director who spots an impossible light in the night sky off another ship entirely — and wakes up the next morning to two unnervingly polite men in his office, determined to talk him out of what he saw. It’s a story about the quiet machinery that moves in to smooth over the unexplained, and one more thread tying this world’s deeper mystery together.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.comBy becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free!Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconradNarrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/Other shows hosted by Darren:Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymagMicro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrorsRetro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradioChurch of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the eve of Halloween in 1938, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the Air convinced America that Martians had landed and were actively destroying the planet.Auditory Anthology presents the complete, legendary radio drama of H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds. Listen as this groundbreaking performance unfolds in real-time, delivered with such convincing realism that it sparked mass panic across the United States.Experience the chilling, masterfully-told tale of alien invasion as it was meant to be heard, as a series of escalating news bulletins and terrified live reports that change from a curious scientific anomaly to a horrifying global crisis in under an hour.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.comBy becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free!Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconradNarrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/Other shows hosted by Darren:Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymagMicro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrorsRetro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradioChurch of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Three rockets have vanished without a trace trying to circle the moon, so the military sends up two ordinary, unremarkable soldiers instead of scientists this time — on the theory that brilliant minds might be the ones breaking under the strain. What Jones and Moore discover as they leave Earth’s gravity behind is far stranger, and far more profound, than anyone back home could have guessed.William Oberfield remains one of pulp science fiction’s true mysteries — his entire known legacy is four short stories published between 1947 and 1951, plus a couple of poems and some letters to Planet Stories fan mail columns. “They Reached for the Moon” appeared in Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy in November 1951, a full six years before Sputnik.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.comBy becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free!Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconradNarrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/Other shows hosted by Darren:Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymagMicro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrorsRetro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradioChurch of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A time traveler from the year 2900 sets out to accelerate humanity’s future by teaching an isolated ancient tribe everything modern science has to offer — only to discover that his gadgets, books, and lectures mean nothing to them. Gandharva Joshi delivers a quiet, philosophical meditation on curiosity, progress, and what actually drives humanity forward.We love bringing you stories from listeners just like Gandharva — 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.comBy becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free!Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconradNarrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/Other shows hosted by Darren:Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymagMicro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrorsRetro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradioChurch of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.