LAST RESORT

Episode #473 · Written by Stephen Bartholomew · Narrated by Scott Miller

An astronaut alone in deep space discovers a slow, nearly undetectable air leak in his spacecraft. It is not catastrophic, not dramatic, and not fixable. With every calculation exhausted and every standard procedure useless, he is left with nothing but time, dwindling oxygen, and his own thoughts. As the ship drifts onward, memories of Earth, family, and ordinary life sharpen against the cold precision of space.

When mission control offers a classified experimental drug as a last resort, the choice is stark. The drug promises expanded awareness, heightened intelligence, and impossible insight—but it also carries the risk of madness or death. What follows is an intense psychological transformation, as perception explodes and the astronaut experiences reality with total clarity. He becomes aware of every sound, every molecule, and every system within the ship, gaining understanding no machine could replicate.

Yet greater awareness does not guarantee salvation. As the boundaries between mind, body, and environment dissolve, the story confronts a haunting question: what happens when human consciousness exceeds the limits it was designed to bear? The result is a gripping, intimate exploration of survival, imagination, and the unpredictable potential hidden within the human mind.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen Bartholomew was an American science fiction writer associated with the Golden Age of the genre. His stories often combined rigorous scientific speculation with intense psychological realism, focusing on individuals facing impossible choices rather than grand cosmic battles.

Bartholomew’s work reflects a deep interest in human perception, consciousness, and the unintended consequences of technological progress. Though not as widely known today as some of his contemporaries, his fiction remains strikingly modern, probing questions about the mind that continue to resonate in an age of neuroscience and artificial intelligence.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to Last Resort by Stephen Bartholomew, — a vintage science fiction tale of isolation, consciousness, and survival when logic fails in the depths of space.

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