Rated R. Contains profanity, robotic sexual content, and offensive weather.
“Innovate, Max. Burrow your way out. I don’t care.”
“A tunnel of snow would be unsafe for you to travel through, as it could collapse at any time.”
“Max–”
“Would you like to have sex?”
Damn him. He vibrates.
This piece marks the debut of Escape Pod’s flash fiction — very short stories that will be released between our weekly issues on an irregular basis. We chose “Oasis” as our first because, well, it’s about an escape pod. One can even imagine our logo image as the illustration for this story.
You turn a lever that pops open the cover of the control pad. There’s a big red button labeled OPEN AIRLOCK. You jab it. Then you jab the CONFIRM button. Then you push the handle thing, and it’s all over.
As we just mentioned in this week’s podcast, Escape Pod is launching a new voicemail number for call-in book reviews. If you’d like to be heard on our show, please call:
206-666-EPOD (3763)
and leave a one-minute review of any book. You can rave, you can rant, you can say whatever you want. You don’t have to leave your own name if you don’t want to, but of please do give the title and author of the book.
Each week we’ll pick a review and play it in the closing segment of the Escape Pod podcast. As for the rest… Depending on how many we get, we’ll surely do something with them. We’re eco-friendly here, we try to find a use for everything.
Rated PG. Contains sexual innuendo and lighthearted heresy.
The dinner was not what you could call an unqualified success. The best that could be said for it was that we survived. And Uncle Dennis couldn’t even say that much.
That was my fault, too, I guess. I pissed God off, and all of your major religions will tell you that that’s something you want to try and avoid. But I still think of Him as ‘Dad,” and when was the last time you just meekly did what your father told you to do? Okay, sure, your father isn’t God, but mine wasn’t always God, either.