Already another recommendation from the Nightlight podcast. I’ve only recently started it and really there hasn’t been a bad episode. Still, this one struck me as particularly excellent.
“The Nasty at Bellua” by Danny Lore is a science-fiction horror story. It follows a team of three exploratory astronauts, who have recently returned to the research space station, the Bellua, from a new planet they’ve been tasked with exploring. At the end of their first week on the ground on Planet G93x, the crew is attacked by a strange, wolfish creature, whose fur is “the blackest of blacks, darker than shadows, with a silver tone that didn’t shimmer in the light but instead seemed to shift along the fur like ink dropped into water.”
Two of the astronauts, Karim and Xavier, are wounded by the creature before they put it down. They all return to the Bellua for examination and rest – and as ordered, they bring the body of the creature with them. But for the two men, their recuperation is marred by strange happenings. The growls of the creature seem to follow them through the station, and everyday sensations take on new and unpleasant sharpness. They were cleared by the medical team, but did the creature carry some kind of unknown infection after all? Or are Karim and Xavier simply losing their minds?
The story, as you can tell from the quote above, is beautifully written, with characters that feel rich and knowable even in the span of a story with a less than forty minute run time. The narration, sound mixing, and effects are excellent as well. Overall, this tale is absolutely worth a listen.
Listen on Spotify or your favorite podcasting platform, or visit their Patreon for more information.
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