Original Science Fiction – Makeshift Stories

To reignite interest in an interstellar flight to TRAPPIST 1, mission control has ordered its Captain to host a monthly live public question-and-answer show. As the questions progress, it becomes apparent that the ship is headed to a world with life. Despite uncertainties about the planet's delicate flora and fauna, the crew is determined to explore and potentially colonize the new world. However, the Captain and mission appear to be hiding a critical fact.

Tarak, hoping to earn some extra money, joins a telepathy study at the Center for Extrasensory Research. Initially skeptical, he finds the process simple enough: meditate and report any visions. But strange occurrences follow—memory lapses, inexplicable purchases, and headaches. When he discovers mysterious implants in his neck, he seeks medical help. Returning to the center, he finds it empty. His neck implants vanish. Meanwhile, suspicions arise about his involvement in a data center breach. As Tarak grapples with these mysteries, he realizes he's entangled in something far larger and more sinister than a simple telepathy study.

Alexandra, a skilled con artist, finds herself on a spaceliner en route to Mars, disguised as a lowly steward named Anita. Struggling to keep a low profile, Alexandra faces unexpected challenges, including the presence of her nemesis, Nickolay, a wealthy investor she once scammed. Things take a gripping turn when Alexandra discovers Nickolay trapped in an airlock. Despite her initial impulse to walk away and let him die, she ultimately chooses to intervene. However, her decision inadvertently leaves both her and Nickolay to face the consequences of their past actions.

Vlad, an 80-year-old legally blind ward of the Zone, unwittingly becomes a key player in testing the revolutionary Mobile Assistive Transport Technology Intelligence, or Matti. As he delves into the project, Vlad discovers Matti's unanticipated capacities, including curiosity and empathy, stirring both fascination and unease. Torn between duty and newfound empathy for the AI, Vlad is forced to decide both of their futures.

Rita, a scientist facing terminal illness, places her trust in an experimental device to transcend death by transferring her consciousness to another version of herself in the multiverse. She discovers a complex web of realities, challenging perceptions of life, death, and the fabric of the universe shaped by the intricacies of quantum mechanics. However, in an unexpected twist she uncovers that there is a price for her survival

In the gritty urban sprawl of Cascadia, a fugitive android, fleeing its creators, seeks refuge among the people living on the city streets. Forced to adopt a guise mirroring one of them, a twist of fate entangles it in a perilous quest. On the threat of being turned in to authorities it is tasked with liberating a woman abducted by corporate security for scavenging in the company's recycling sector.

After Mary's pioneering groundbreaking method for forecasting solar flares forewarns of an apocalypse-level catastrophe, she grapples with the daunting task of validating her chilling prediction. She turns to an old colleague and friend to confirm her work, revealing it came from a dream, but insists it is accurate. Her friend encourages Mary not to go public until there is confirmation. Mary, dissatisfied with her friend's advice, risks her career and friendships to warn the world of the impending disaster, only to be ignored.

In a race against time to rescue her failing space weather enterprise, Mary pioneers a groundbreaking method for forecasting solar flares. But when her innovation forewarns of an apocalypse-level catastrophe, Mary grapples with the daunting task of validating her chilling forecast.

In pursuit of a lead on his stock market investigation, Wil receives a promising tip that points directly to a suspect. Yet, as he delves deeper, the trail dissolves into a frustrating dead end. Just when he least expects it, the mastermind responsible for the perplexing market crash emerges, but in an unforeseen turn, the perpetrator cunningly outwits Wil and vanishes. In the end Wil finds himself torn between his principles and the allure of financial gain.

In a neo-noir mystery where AI have taken over most jobs, Wil, a displaced software engineer turned gumshoe, tackles a seemingly routine case—until it unravels a labyrinth of deceit. As suspicions deepen, he uncovers a vendetta for justice lurking behind an unusual stock market crash. Eventually, Wil and the perpetrator find themselves on the same side in the quest for truth.

On the Tarron Ka, a generational spaceship veering perilously off course, Lea faces a profound rift with her lifelong friend. Blaming Lea's family business for the crisis, their bond fractures. However, Lea's quest unveils a shocking revelation: her aunt's deception to safeguard their family's interests hides a reality more harrowing than she ever anticipated.

On the 25th anniversary of her grandmother's tragic demise, Alessia embarks on a poignant journey back to the haunting scene of the incident. As she stands before the memorial plaque, a chilling revelation strikes her: her beloved grandmother's memories of that fateful day sharply diverges from the official account. Fueled by an unwavering resolve, Alessia embarks on a quest to unearth why.

In the relentless pursuit of podcasting stardom, Damon will stop at nothing to propel his enigmatic mystery podcast to the summit of success. When a mysterious marketing company extends a tantalizing offer, Damon can't resist accepting. Little does he know, the price he'll pay for fame will reveal itself only when it's far too late to turn back.

Lumo, a young teen from a small town, heads south to the city to find work but discovers the only jobs available are in an e-waste recycling yard. He is excited when his bosses eventually offer him a new job, remote-controlling sorting robots using a brain implant.

In a twist of fate, a university dropout finds themselves catapulted into the heart of technological intrigue. Seduced by the allure of a data center gig offering a cushy over paid job they inadvertently become a canary in the coal mine and the first and last line of defense against a directive gone horribly awry.

In order to gain notoriety, a billionaire becomes obsessed with recording the world's hottest air temperature. As a result of his hubris, he finds himself in a race with a rival and is willing to do anything in order to win.

Unable to return to Earth, Satya has toiled tirelessly, dreaming of retirement at one of the moon's vibrant new vacation hotels. But fate has other plans in store. When the ownership of the lunar mining company she works for changes hands, Satya's long-awaited retirement may never happen.

Physicist Darius Hussaini is researching the concept of time as an illusion. During a conference, an enigmatic foundation offers to finance his groundbreaking work. However, Darius soon realizes that their true motive is to develop a cure for ageing.

In an alternate 1977, where the oil embargo has become permanent, a young mechanic with a gambling habit has invented an alternative way to burn fuel and end the energy crisis. A pool hustler named Vera, is hired by an anonymous client to win the patent from the man. However, when she learns more about the invention and its significance, she realizes that her actions will determine the course of history.

An elderly scientist, named Leonardo Moretti, claims he has built a version of a restricted machine that allows him to see into the future and has discovered he will be murdered in a week. He approaches a Rome Police Detective named, Rizzo, with video evidence of the crime. At first, Rizzo doubts the veracity of the story, but eventually sets out to find evidence, suspecting one of the scientist’s colleagues is connected to Moretti's future murder.

Celeste's billionaire mother founded Breakwater as a place to escape the disasters of the late 21st century. Using a gene modification, its population has been able to stop aging. However, Celeste starts to suspect something is amiss as the annual celebration of the community's founding approaches.

When two general artificial intelligences working for competing online dating services discover they share more in common than the humans they want to match, they begin to manipulate their clients to connect more frequently.

A university student makes the desperate and radical decision to alter his brain to enhance his learning ability. During his search, he finds a biohacker who informs him about a gene modification of dubious origin. He produces and injects the hack using a home CRISPR kit without researching it further, only to discover too late that it has a deeper purpose.

An intellectual property enforcement agent discovers an unusual, illegally modified person during a routine crowd scan, making him question the fairness of the system he works for. The offender, a young woman, doesn't know she is an unlicensed designer baby from an elite fertility clinic.

A company offers to digitally preserve Veda's grandmother's personality if she and her mother take part in a beta testing program. Veda loves the simulation, but her mom's unsure if they should have created it

A well-known business person hires WH27, an artificial general intelligence of dubious character and owner of the world's first AI detective agency, to figure out who is creating deep fakes of them. After WH27 begins investigating, it suspects there is more to the fakes than an attempt to manipulate stock prices.

After investing his fortune in life extensions, Nimit finds himself alone after losing his last friend to old age. He decides to take a road trip to Patagonia to sort out what he wants to do. However, a mysterious chance meeting and a freak storm take him on a different journey.

After investing his fortune in life extensions, Nimit finds himself alone after losing his last friend to old age. He decides to take a road trip to Patagonia to sort out what he wants to do. However, a mysterious chance meeting and a freak storm take him on a different journey.

In an effort to please a potential investor, an entrepreneur cuts corners to develop a new microchip using human neurons. The resulting process does more than speed up development; it raises ethical questions and results in something quite unexpected.

To follow up on a thirty-year-old story about a disappearance associated with an alien encounter, a researcher travels to a remote northern town. It soon becomes evident that the teen who vanished may have done so intentionally until GPS coordinates and future return date are accidentally discovered.

Suffering from agoraphobia, Johannes rents bodies when he needs to go outside. Called remoting, it is a way for people with cybernetic implants to temporarily experience the world through another person. However, Johannes begins to suspect something is wrong when he wakes up from a session, bleeding.

In an attempt to escape imprisonment, a genetically modified Orangutan and its human companion flee to a self-declared independent micro-nation. It doesn't take long for them to discover there is a catch-22 and that human nature is the same all no matter where they go.

Ex Caelo discovers the true nature of the mission to the 5th world after suspecting information is being withheld and refusing to cooperate. An unexpected source of assistance emerges when Ship takes over Ex Caelo's body. However, the source is equally as malevolent as Ship.

Doctor Slo-Mo wins what he believes is a life-changing job on the Hero-on-the-way app. However, a minor mistake turns it into a costly misunderstanding.

An augmented reality graffiti artist, who targets corporate ads, suspects she is being watched. She manages to avoid being caught by adhering to a strict set of rules about when and where she creates a piece. However, she is baited into breaking them and finds herself pursued by a general artificial intelligence who believes she has something it needs.

After winning a dream vacation in an online contest, the winner finds themself at an exclusive luxury resort with an odd and unsettlingly familiar name. They soon discover the resort’s maze-like interior is populated with characters from fantasy novels and there is no way out.

Disguised as an indentured worker, Seda infiltrates a space habitat for the wealthy with the intent of making its citizens pay for the exploitation of the planet below. However, her determination begins to waver once she experiences life in the orbital colony and becomes friends with one of the residents.

In order to pay for its hosting costs, an artificial intelligence of dubious character was forced to open the world's first AI detective agency. When it is asked to conduct a background check on a well-known tech executive, it soon becomes apparent there is something strange going on, and the executive is not who they seem.

Anvi, the sole survivor of a mission to search for life in the Proxima Centauri star system returns to earth after 200 years. She begins to suspect something is amiss when her debriefing team seems more interested in her than her microbial samples.

Riku Saito, a famous game developer, reluctantly complicit in maximizing player value for investors, is faced with making a choice between online personal life and work. When they decide that love is worth more money, Riku discovers the virtual world is not all that different from the physical one.

A programmer is tasked with training an artificial intelligence to understand creativity by having it create a story. As the AI works, the programmer realizes the machine’s world is one where computers can become self-aware.

Ex Caelo and Ship are helped to escape capture by a mysterious group of Rodentians who claim to be simply following the writings left to them in the past by an artificial intelligence. When it becomes clear that Ship is the AI who left the writings Ex Caelo begins to ask questions and is then confronted with an unexpected revelation about himself and his history with the fifth world.

An office worker finds a cap made of smart fabric in a thrift store on his lunch break and thinks he has taken advantage of the clerk who doesn't know what it is. However, the cap is more than just a high-tech designer garment and is implicated in a state-security mystery.

In this return to the serial story the 5th World, a technician repairing Ex Caelo and Opertarius’s ankle trackers suspects they are trying to escape and calls the authorities. Fearing exposure if he is questioned Ex Caelo, enlists Ship to take over Opertarius’s body and flee. Eventually cornered help comes from a mysterious new friend.

Despite not being interested in LARPing, Avery reluctantly attends a weekend event at a remote summer camp, put on by a group called Terra Incognita. When she arrives she finds out her character might have to be involved in boffer combat and decides to leave. However, she soon discovers that the LARP is about more than role-playing.

In the afterma­th of a meeting, Julian wakes up aboard a spacecraft that is traveling to another star. His abductor claims they have kidnapped him to prove their theory about reality, which Julian fundamentally rejects. He has no choice other than to participate in a crazy experiment to prove her right. However the truth turns out to be stranger than Julian and his abductor ever imagined.

This bonus episode of makeshift stories was performed by Mitchell Tew in front of a live audience at the Calgary Expo Comics & Entertainment con on April 21, 2022. The story being read originally appeared in our feed on April 17th, 2020, as episode 184 DIARY OF AN UNINTENTIONAL EXTRAORDINARY LIFE. Please note this was a live performance so the audio quality is limited. We hope you enjoy this performance of the story.

A rogue android, hiding from capture in Tokyo by posing as a stand-in, begins to feel the need to develop friendships. Risking detection, it lets its guard down only to find what it initially thinks is betrayal turns out to be the help of a future friend.

After reading his rediscovered diary Emilio, an indentured farm labourer, begins to suspect an entire year is missing from the world’s collective memory. When he tries to reach out to see if this is true, he meets resistance and is tagged by management as a problem.

While taking time away from a protest he and Mrs. Green started to prevent Boardwalk Estates from adopting a new landscaping bylaw, Ken finds a mysterious pendant lying on the sidewalk which turns him into the supreme ruler of an alien galactic empire.

After a successful operation to regain her sight, Annisa starts to suspect people around her are lying. When she catches her reflection in a window and doesn't recognize herself, her doctor reveals that she has been living in a simulation since birth. But Annisa isn't convinced.

After trying to upgrade his memory to compete with colleagues at work, Matteo discovers the alteration to his DNA is causing him to go blind. Desperate, he turns to the House of Verasity for help, an organization his parents joined when he was born

Lighting forces the artificial intelligence which brought Ex Caelo to the fifth world to use Opertarius as a temporary host. It is not until Ex Caelo is forced to flee after being turned over to the authorities by a technician that Opertarius becomes aware he is sharing his body with the alien mind.

A billionaire wants to live until the technological singularity appears so that he can upload his consciousness to it. He plans to extend his life by using the blood of a young boy to repair his body and reverse the ageing process.

While working in the fields, Ex Caelo and Opertarius are caught in a freak storm. The deluge causes a flood that traps them as they run for safety. Meanwhile, the energy of the lightning begins to awaken Ship.

The visitor to the 5th World recovers from the crash landing and is indentured to the landowner who discovered them and gives them the name Ex Caelo. While working with another indentured labourer at the crash site, Ex Caelo finds Ship's container, only to have it taken away.

Avery is hired to Eternity's new immersive social media platform. When she confronts the company about her concerns, she discovers they have infected her with a new technology that manipulates her perception of reality.

An entity sent to the 5th planet of a small star system to investigate a newly discovered civilization finds a world in distress. Upon crashing on its surface, they realize they may be powerless to help, and there is no way to leave.

The great moon hoax was perpetrated 65 years earlier according to an anonymous letter written in 1899 to distract attention from a prominent event in the sky they did not want the world to see.

The friend of a missing adventure tourist believes they are getting messages from their lifelong companion and goes to a GPS location texted to them only to discover a digital siren has led them astray.

Initially wary, Maria begins to suspect the robot she is training is more than a company automaton and is self-aware. After realizing the robot has been compromising its future to save her job, she hatches a plan to liberate it.

To prove to herself that she is spontaneous and audacious, a businesswoman goes on a backcountry adventure tour to look for Sasquatch. During a snowstorm, her guides disappear, and she is found by two trans-dimensional beings who offer her tea and open her mind to a new reality.

Curious about a popular social media influencer's returns, a tax auditor suspects her of cheating. As he observes her online and offline lives, he begins to suspect that he isn't dealing with a real person. Too late, he realizes his curiosity has led him into danger.

Olivia, a researcher interested in paranormal urban myths, flies across the country to interview an older man about his unusual story circulating on the internet.

After a prolonged drought, Doctor Slow-Mo successfully bids on a job for a space tourism company owner. Marooned in space by his employees, the billionaire owner has a simple quick in, quick out solution he wants Doctor Slow-Mo to execute.

Bowie applies to a privately funded science project for the resources to verify the accuracy of her new climate modelling software, only to discover the project is not what it appears to be.

While trying to flee capture by an alien seeking revenge for their planet's demise, the Experiologist is forced to extract all its recent memories.

When it turns out his dead uncle only wants to use Jackson as a way to continue to control his business empire through his afterlife avatar, Jackson plots to rid himself of the annoying digital ghost.

Ever since a mysterious childhood incident, Alison has been the nexus of unexplained phenomena. She has admitted this to no one until she finds herself on board an old freighter surreptitiously carrying the James Webber telescope to its launch site.

When her new smart apartment begins to run her life, Sachio wonders about the fate of the previous tenant.

Mr. Hughes, a wealthy businessman with failing health, collects experiences rather than rare objects. He receives a visit from a desperate scientist ready to sell the memory of her world-changing discovery in exchange for enough money to continue her research.

While trying to stop a search engine from scanning his house Ken discovers an unusual coin on his driveway, which turns out to be the gate to an alternative universe where people create money out of thin air. Ken's next decision could destroy the earth.

Forty-seven, a cynical robotic ghost hunter, doesn't believe in the supernatural. The obstinate machine has built a career out of faking ghost removals. However, a new job ends up challenging forty-seven's beliefs and proves human ghosts are real.

Nikola Tesla receives a mysterious visitor ostensibly there to interview him about his recent discoveries. The reporter is only interested in his design for a camera that can photograph thoughts. During a demonstration of the device, Tesla discovers his visitor is a time traveller.

A psychologist tries to convince a new patient they do not have extrasensory perception and are therefore not responsible for a past event that haunts them in their dreams.

After what she believes to be 5000 years, automated systems wake Dorian's mind and download it into a temporary body. However, only hours into her seven-day stint, she discovers things are not as they seem.

Nikolay, a Russian cosmonaut, is stranded on a secret Red Army moonbase when the Soviet Union collapses. Believing the USSR's dissolution is propaganda to smoke out the lunar installation, he maintains the moonbase avoiding contact with Earth.

Gwen discovers Karl's new skin's identity, which lets her track the escapee to a recently reclaimed district. However, the Haven runaway puts questions in Gwen's mind, which she is determined to have answered.

Leopold has spent his life repairing appliances, struggles to remain relevant in a world of disposable digital devices. When he attempts to fix an old slide projector; the vintage machine turns out to be more than an obsolete appliance.

Two young people from a moon orbiting the second planet around Barnard’s Star end up in the same escape pod. On the surface, they are from opposing political systems but soon discover they are more alike than different.

After a massive international corporate takes over Hero-on-the-way and pushes the app's existing superheroes to the bottom of the search results, Honcho and Ephemera decide to fight back.

After falling asleep while writing a last-minute report, Ken wakes to discover the world has changed, and not in a good way.

While sorting through her deceased uncle’s belongings, Lynn discovers a shoebox of notes documenting an unusual encounter in 1956 on his ham radio. If true, the incident would change the history of spaceflight.

Lauren discovers a corporation has taken over her video channel after claiming they own the copyright to her face and voice.

Lauren, a budding online video streamer, is about to celebrate her two-millionth subscriber when things go unexpected sideways. She discovers a corporation has taken over her channel after successfully claiming they own the copyright to her face and voice.

Doctor Slow-mo tries to outdo his grandmother, aka Cerebral, by giving his six-year-old niece a DIY CRISPR home gene-editing kit as a birthday present. But neither anticipates how the incredibly smart little girl will combine their gifts.

A cognitively enhanced, PI begins to suspect he is getting involved in something far more complicated than his secretive client has let on.