Ad Astral Science Fiction Podcast · DJ Burnham

Ad Astral Episode 9: The Shard of Ghazbrid

·35 min·2 clips

John Smith opens an aluminium case containing a revolving white sphere made of millions of particles.

1. Ad Astral Science Fiction Podcast presents D.J. Burnham's audio drama "The Shard of Gazbrid," about microscopic aliens reaching Earth through a crystal-covered planetary fragment. 2. D.J. Burnham writes and narrates the story, while Carol Rogers voices Linda Piper and Chris Edwards voices John Smith. 3. The episode asks whether an alien organism normally treated as an invasive threat could instead repair bodies and improve human life. 4. In 2015-way, 1880, England, Linda Piper finds John Smith's chocolate-shaped business card among bills and junk mail. 5. John Smith repairs Linda's failed breadmaker for ten euros and asks to work alone in the kitchen. 6. The breadmaker produces a perfect loaf, and Smith consumes peanut butter plus four cups of tea containing five teaspoons of sugar each. 7. Three weeks later, Linda's household has made herb bread, sun-dried tomato bread, apple and walnut cake, hot-crossed buns, bagels, and pizzas. 8. Linda regains energy and eyesight, while Derek's back pain stops and Paul goes weeks without an asthma attack. 9. At Mrs Tresgrave's home, her cat Marmaduke watches Smith inhale a sphere of particles and release smoke rings into household appliances. 10. The story moves to 13 million BC on Gazbrid, where Pulilates escape a buried carcass before a 160-kilometre asteroid destroys the planet. 11. The surviving Pulilates travel 2.2 megalight years inside a rock fragment later called the Shard of Gazbrid. 12. Near Chelmsford in 2011, two Pulilates enter John Smith while he harvests vegetables at his allotment. 13. The Pulilates reproduce inside Smith and stop mutated proto-oncogenes along with the ageing processes threatening their host. 14. Smith's terminal cancer enters remission, his grey hair regains its brown colour, and his skin becomes visibly healthier. 15. The organisms first influence Smith as impulses and whispers before teaching him to communicate through thought. 16. Smith's body supplies sugar and protein, while the Pulilates provide cancer control, heightened senses, and renewed physical vitality. 17. The episode reverses the usual hostile-alien premise by describing the Pulilates as guardian angels and future micro-fairies. 18. Burnham combines domestic comedy, evolutionary science-fiction narration, sound effects, and music from Big Ear Signal's album Termites of 1938. 19. Fans of benevolent-alien stories and body-focused science fiction. 20. Listeners seeking realistic science or a non-narrative interview.

As heard by us

A household repair call opens into particle clouds, smoke rings, and prehistoric trouble on GASBRID.

A repair visit veers into the uncanny when John Smith opens an aluminium flight case, inhales a revolving white sphere of particles, and starts sending miniature smoke rings into Mrs Tresgrave's food processor, refrigerator, oven, microwave, and food cupboards.

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Why you'd press play

You want a repair call to open into an aluminium flight case full of whirling particles, then out to 13 million BC on planet GASBRID.

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