Jeff's Podcast {Voices in the Story light}

What Waits Below: A Story of Space Horror and Survival

• jeff Cooke • Season 1 • Episode 5

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Something ancient waits in the darkness between stars. When the cargo ship Osiris Dawn responds to a distress beacon, Captain Lena Marek and her crew find themselves facing a nightmare beyond comprehension. Their hasty escape from an unnamed planet's surface should mark their salvation – but the silence aboard their vessel carries a weight that suggests otherwise.

The horror unfolds gradually as we learn that authorities already knew about the trap. A scientific quarantine surrounds a planet where self-aware bio-architecture has claimed countless explorers before them. Despite Voss's desperate pleas to "glass the planet," bureaucracy values potential knowledge over human lives. But the most terrifying revelation comes from Kyle, barely conscious in the medbay: "They were once like us – explorers, scientists, survivors. The cave kept them, changed them...and now they want more."

The true nature of cosmic horror reveals itself when the crew discovers they haven't escaped at all. Something has boarded their ship – a presence that manifests through mysterious tappings in the hull and signals that loop Captain Marek's own voice through their communication systems. As the survivors drift through space, each carrying their own psychological scars, they become unwitting participants in perpetuating the cycle. The Osiris Dawn itself becomes a new beacon, calling to other ships with Lena's warnings that go unheeded, ensuring that hunger which echoes through the void will never go unsatisfied.

Join us for this chilling tale of space exploration, ancient cosmic entities, and the terrifying possibility that some discoveries are better left unmade. What waits in the darkness isn't just watching – it's learning and adapting. And it's spreading. Subscribe now and explore the boundaries where science fiction meets horror, where humanity's reach exceeds its grasp, and where the void between stars isn't as empty as we'd like to believe.

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Chapter 5, the Escape. The Osiris dawn lifted from the surface of the unnamed planet with a shuddering roar, its engines protesting the quick departure. Inside, silence reigned. No one spoke as the ship broke the atmosphere and entered orbit. Kyle lay unconscious in the medbay, hooked to stabilizers. Vos was silent, seated near the viewport, staring into space, as though still seeing the creatures in his mind. Captain Lena Marek stood alone at the helm, her knuckles white against the controls. She didn't know if they'd truly escaped. She only knew they'd survived for now.

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As the planet shrank behind them, a voice crackled through the comm system Distorted, weak, unregistered vessel. You are in restricted territory. Identify yourselves. Lena keyed in the response. This is Captain Lena Marek of the cargo ship Osiris Dawn. We responded to a distress beacon, found a trap. There was static, then silence. Then Copy that Osiris Dawn. We've logged similar incidents in that sector. You weren't the first.

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Lena frowned, you knew. Not enough to stop. It came the reply. Whatever's down there, whatever built those caves, it's older than we can classify Some kind of bio-architecture, self-aware, possibly parasitic. No team has made it back with full intel. Voss turned slowly, his voice hoarse. Then burn it. Glass the planet, do it now.

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The line stayed quiet for a long time. Then the voice returned Negative. That system is under scientific quarantine. We can't afford to lose what it might teach us. Lena laughed bitterly. You won't learn anything. Only thing down there is death.

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Later, lena sat by Kyle's bedside. The young technician stirred her lips parting. Her voice was barely audible. They're still dreaming, lena. Lena leaned closer who? Kyle's eyes fluttered open, glassy, the ones in the walls. They were once like us Explorers. They were once like us explorers, scientists, survivors. The cave it kept them changed them, and now her voice trailed off. They want more. In the command deck.

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Hallux, the ship's AI, spoke for the first time since the planet fall. Captain. Incoming transmission From who? Hallux paused no source, no signal header. It's on a loop Playing In your voice. Lena stared at the console. A playback began. Her own voice crackled through the speakers. This is Captain Lena Marek of the Osiris Dawn.

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We responded to a distress beacon. We found a trap. Then it looped and looped and looped. Lena stepped back. Pulse quickening. Kill it, she ordered. I'm trying. Hallux responded, but the signal is inside us. The lights dimmed slightly, the engines groaned. Voss looked up from his seat we didn't leave it behind and then, from somewhere deep in the hull, below decks, came a single sound Tap, tap, tap. Not mechanical, not random. A message, a rhythm, the same one the cave had pulsed with. The cave was still inside Epilogue, the whisper that remains In deep space. Time drifts like dust.

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The Osiris dawn continued on its route, damaged but functional. Its passengers, broken but breathing. No one spoke of what had happened, no one dared. Kyle recovered slowly, but something within her gaze had changed. She flinched at shadows. She murmured in sleep fragments of alien speech no translator could decode.

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Voss filed no reports. He slept with a light on one hand, always on his weapon. He said nothing even as he began tearing out sections of the med bay wall, claiming he heard it. Behind there, lena submitted a falsified log. Engine failure, planet fall, hazardous terrain, hostile wildlife. One crew member lost. Mission terminated return to station. It was easier that way, because the truth wouldn't be believed. The truth was the beacon had stopped transmitting, but another had started. Months later, aboard a scout ship entering the same system, a junior technician tuned into a strange pattern, a repeating signal, strong Intentional. A female voice, worn with static, echoed through the chamber. This is Captain Lena Marek of the Osiris Dawn. Do not respond. I repeat do not respond. The crew looked to their commander. What should we do? The commander hesitated, then made the same choice. Lena once had Lock in the coordinates. We're going in Somewhere, in a place deeper than time and darker than silence. The caves listened and beneath their surface, they smiled, because hunger always echoes.