Boarding Party by Robert F. Young Episode #171

Robert F. Young | January 15, 2024

Boarding Party by Robert F. Young Episode #171
Robert F. Young

BOARDING PARTY

Episode #171 · Written by Robert F. Young · Narrated by Scott Miller

A greenship on a tight delivery schedule makes a risky descent into a forbidden system. The captain tells himself it is a necessary deviation, a practical decision to save a valuable shipment. He times his approach with care, cloaks his vessel, and lowers a slender lifeline into foreign soil, certain that caution will prevent trouble.

Trouble arrives anyway—and it is small, fast, and fearless. A lone intruder slips aboard, hides in silence, and escapes with company property that was never meant for alien hands. What begins as irritation turns into pursuit, and pursuit turns perilous. Suspended between ship and ground, the captain discovers that superior technology offers no protection against ingenuity and desperation.

Boarding Party unfolds as a formal report that steadily cracks under pressure. Beneath its measured tone lies embarrassment, stubborn pride, and a reluctant respect for the world below. The story balances irony with genuine tension, asking what responsibility looks like when power meets curiosity in the dark.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert F. Young published extensively in Galaxy, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, and Startling Stories during the 1950s and 1960s. He wrote more than one hundred short stories and several novels, but he is most frequently remembered for “The Dandelion Girl,” a time-crossed romance first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Young’s fiction often combines speculative premises with wry humor and emotional nuance. Boarding Party showcases that blend perfectly: a cosmic commerce mission, an officious narrator, and a confrontation that shrinks the distance between worlds to the length of a single climbing tube.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to Boarding Party by Robert F. Young — a vintage science fiction story about a forbidden landing and a daring young intruder who turns a routine mission into disaster.

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The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast is the most listened-to vintage science fiction podcast in the world. Ranked the #1 Science Fiction Podcast in 34 countries and heard in more than 190 countries, the show has surpassed 3.7 million listens.

Each episode features carefully selected stories from the Golden Age of science fiction, professionally narrated. Timeless storytelling the way it was meant to be heard.

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Vintage science fiction. Professionally narrated. Carefully curated.