EscapeBOD, Episode 1,030, The Smell of the Planet I Was Born On, by Rodrigo Kulagovsky. Welcome to EscapePod. I'm Merlaffordy, your host and co-editor. Today's story is The Smell of the Planet I Was Born on by Rodrigo Kulogovsky.

Rodrigo is a Chilean architect, designer, and web developer. He has published in

Flash Fiction Online, Nature, Lovar Burton reads, and Future Science Fiction Digest, among others. He misses

his Commodore 64. It's narrated for us by Julia Rios. Julia, they them, is a queer Latinx writer, editor, podcaster, and narrator,

whose fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in Latin America literature today,

Lightspeed, and Goblin Fruit, among other places. Their editing work has won multiple awards,

including the Hugo Award and the Shirley Jackson Award.

Julia is a co-host of This is Why We're Like This, a podcast about the movies we watch in childhood that shape our lives, for better or for worse.

They've narrated stories for EscapePod, Podcastle, pseudopod, and Cast of Wonders.

This is an EscapePod original.

With the coffee on the warmer, we're going to need another second cup. It's story time. The smell of the planet I was born on by Rodrigo Kulagovsky, narrated by Julia Rios.

There are two moons visible, a large one right above us, and another smaller one, about 15 degrees below it in the star-studded night sky, above the almost empty, rocky, lifeless surface of the planet.

The horizon slowly takes on the slightly blue stain that comes right after the sunset.

Still takes your breath away, doesn't it?

I turn to look up. L'. Leandro is standing behind me on the

slight rise I chose to sit and enjoy the view. Yeah, it really does. It's nothing like Earth,

but it's also the same, you know? He doesn't say anything, just nods and sits down next to me.

Since the air is less dense than it was on Earth, the sky is darker. You can see stars most of the

time, except when the terraforming engineers experiment with cloud formation, or make the volcanoes release clouds

of particles. When the night is clear like tonight, you can also see the rings starting to come

together, unfinished circles glittering in space. That's where the Homo sapiens flying here right now

from Earth on cold ships will live, love, and enjoy their lives as they look out over the surface of the planet that will provide food, materials, and open space for whatever they decide to do with it.

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