Original Science Fiction - Makeshift Stories

Virtue Deprecated

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.

The Tenacity Hack

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.

Good Bot

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.

There Are No Aliens

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.

The Meatspace Hire (Part 2)

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. 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.