Farewell Message by David Mason Episode #240
David Mason | July 15, 2024-
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Farewell Message by David Mason Episode #240
David Mason
FAREWELL MESSAGE
Episode #240 · Written by David Mason · Narrated by Scott Miller
An alien visitor named V’gu has spent years studying Earth. His ship sits squarely on an airport runway while he gathers observations about Terran customs, social behavior, and marriage traditions. Governments tolerate the inconvenience and his faintly superior attitude, hoping that courtesy will keep relations with the powerful visitor peaceful.
When his research is complete, V’gu prepares to leave. Cameras gather as he stands on the gangplank and delivers a farewell message to humanity. He praises Earth’s beauty but warns that its people remain trapped in endless conflict. To him, the pattern is obvious, and history across the galaxy suggests only one likely outcome.
Then something unexpected appears in the night sky. A brilliant new star interrupts the speech and quietly shifts the meaning of everything the alien has just declared about humanity, war, and the fate of civilizations.
“Farewell Message” is a compact science fiction classic built around a single devastating realization. David Mason uses the outsider’s perspective to expose how easily certainty collapses when new evidence appears, and the final exchange lands with the quiet precision that made short magazine stories of the era so memorable.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Mason published science fiction during the 1950s and early 1960s in major genre magazines including Galaxy Science Fiction and If: Worlds of Science Fiction. His stories typically focused on a single speculative idea delivered with sharp timing and a strong closing reversal. “Farewell Message,” which appeared in If, reflects that approach perfectly, building toward a moment that reframes the alien visitor’s confident judgment of humanity.
LISTEN TO THE STORY
Listen to Farewell Message by David Mason — a classic science fiction story where an alien’s confident judgment of Earth collapses during one unforgettable farewell speech.
RELATED STORIES - FIRST CONTACT & ENCOUNTERS
The first meeting is never simple.
Distance makes it easy to imagine contact as a handshake between worlds. Up close, it becomes something else entirely. Communication breaks down. Assumptions collapse. What looks like curiosity from one side can feel like threat from the other.
These stories explore that fragile edge where two species try to understand each other—and often fail. Sometimes the danger comes from misunderstanding. Sometimes from knowing exactly what the other side intends.
Pick a story and step into the moment where everything changes.
- The One Who Waits by Ray Bradbury
- Asleep in Armageddon by Ray Bradbury
- The World That Couldn't Be by Clifford D. Simak
- Message from Mars by Clifford D. Simak
- No Morning After by Arthur C. Clarke
- The Sky Was Full of Ships by Theodore Sturgeon
- Arena by Fredric Brown
- The Call from Beyond by Clifford D. Simak
- Earthmen Bearing Gifts by Fredric Brown
- Welcome, Martians by Evan Hunter
- Farewell Message by David Mason
- The Alien Dies at Dawn by Robert Silverberg
ABOUT THE LOST SCI-FI PODCAST
The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast is the most listened-to vintage science fiction podcast in the world. Ranked the #1 Science Fiction Podcast in 35 countries and heard in more than 190 countries, the show has surpassed 3.9 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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