S01E17 · Brunch & Bonding (Rian)

S01E17 · Brunch & Bonding (Rian)

S01E17 · BRUNCH & BONDING (RIAN) THIS EPISODE IS THE CINEMATIC AUDIOBOOK VERSION OF ORRIONA UNIVERSE | BOOK ONE | LEGACY | CHAPTER TWELVE Seven hours until they reach what remains of the Axrathan diplomatic fleet. Dr. Rian Jengu fills the kitchen with the quiet rhythm of preparation—omelets, griddle cakes, fresh coffee. The scent of actual food, not protein packs or recycled rations, draws the crew to the dining hall one by one. Kellan claims strategic position near the griddle cakes. Nix follows with theatrical commentary. Val arrives in a clean tunic that speaks of confidence finally freed from station grime. Jotter settles beside her, tracking everything with careful assessment. And Kai—transformed in fitted IMZ clothing, still carrying that edge of observation but inhabiting space differently. They've read Orriona's compiled reports on each other. They know the basics—skills, backgrounds, where they're from. But Kellan suggests they go beyond the files. Share something hidden. Something real. Laughter fills the space. Stories emerge. The warmth of shared amusement transforms the dining hall from a mere room into something closer to home. A briefing awaits in less than three hours. But for now, strangers who survived impossible odds together are learning what it means to be crew. WHAT TO EXPECT: * Audio drama adaptation of Legacy with cinematic sound design * A queer-norm galaxy (no homophobia, no coming-out angst—just space adventures) * Found family forming over breakfast * Stories that reveal who they really are * Grand, hopeful adventure with a massive heart CONTENT NOTES: None WHERE TO PURCHASE THE BOOK: Currently in Kindle Unlimited. Visit https://www.orriona.com/ [https://www.orriona.com/] and subscribe to the newsletter for more information about wider availability and free content. [I'm not active on these, but these are the official links] * YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@Orriona [https://www.youtube.com/@Orriona] * Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/orrionauniverse/ [https://www.instagram.com/orrionauniverse/] * X | https://x.com/orriona [https://x.com/orriona] * TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@orriona [https://www.tiktok.com/@orriona] SUBSCRIBE for somewhat weekly episodes as we follow the crew of the sentient starship Orriona. Welcome aboard. The Driftline awaits. #MMSciFi #FoundFamilySciFi #SpaceOperaMM #MMRomance

S01E16 · Who We Were, Who We Are · Part 2 (Kai)

S01E16 · WHO WE WERE, WHO WE ARE · PART 2 (KAI) THIS EPISODE IS THE CINEMATIC AUDIOBOOK VERSION OF ORRIONA UNIVERSE | BOOK ONE | LEGACY | CHAPTER ELEVEN - PART TWO Kai stares at the smooth ceiling, counting heartbeats against the Orriona's engines. Sleep came in fragments. Each time he closes his eyes, the explosion replays—the Belloros vaporized in a clean, cold analysis from his tactical display. Twenty-four hours ago, he was running card games on Level 9. Now luxury surrounds him. A contract promising credits. Academy patronage. A future. Eight years ago, that would have set his heart racing. Now it feels like contamination. The kind of feeling meant for alleys and abandoned corridors, where sharp edges fit the frontier's landscape. Here, surrounded by abundance, it feels wrong. He would deal with it later. On the driftline. Where he always dealt with everything. But the Orriona's showers aren't the thirty-second sonic rations of Edgepoint. Hot water cascades over his shoulders—a luxury bordering on reverence. And in that private moment, something breaks. The Belloros explosion. The targeting solution. The choices made in fractions of a second. His chest heaves. The pressure building until each breath requires conscious effort. The compartmentalization he's maintained for years cracks open, and he can't hold it back. After the water stops, voices drift from the galley. Kellan's laugh. People being people. He's spent years learning when to walk away. The question waiting is whether he's learned how to stay. WHAT TO EXPECT: * Audio drama adaptation of Legacy with cinematic sound design * A queer-norm galaxy (no homophobia, no coming-out angst—just space adventures) * The cost of compartmentalization * Luxury that allows grief to surface * Learning the difference between surviving and living * Grand, hopeful adventure with a massive heart CONTENT NOTES: Processing trauma, emotional breakdown, survivor's guilt WHERE TO PURCHASE THE BOOK: Currently in Kindle Unlimited. Visit https://www.orriona.com/ [https://www.orriona.com/] and subscribe to the newsletter for more information about wider availability and free content. (I am not very active on these, but these are the official spots) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Orriona [https://www.youtube.com/@Orriona] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orrionauniverse/ [https://www.instagram.com/orrionauniverse/] X: https://x.com/orriona [https://x.com/orriona] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@orriona [https://www.tiktok.com/@orriona] SUBSCRIBE for weekly episodes as we follow the crew of the sentient starship Orriona. Welcome aboard. The Driftline awaits. #MMSciFi #gayaudiobook #MMSpaceOpera

S01E15 · Who We Were, Who We Are · Part 1 (Val)

S01E15 · WHO WE WERE, WHO WE ARE | PART ONE (VAL) THIS EPISODE IS THE CINEMATIC AUDIOBOOK VERSION OF ORRIONA UNIVERSE | BOOK ONE | LEGACY | CHAPTER ELEVEN - PART ONE Val wakes slowly, her body registering pain before her mind fully surfaces. Deep bruises from the hangar firefight throb across her shoulders and back—ducking behind crates, disarming a gravity mine under fire, bolting up the Orriona's ramp with plasma bolts sizzling past her head. She's alive. The bruises are proof. But now she's awake in Quarters One aboard a sentient starship. A private bathroom with an actually functioning shower. A workbench equipped with tools she's only seen in technical journals. Clothes without burn marks or worn edges. It feels like someone else's life. For fifty years, Val has survived on the frontier with Jotter at her side—her constant companion, the keeper of her family's legacy. Fifty years of taking the hardest jobs, the most desperate contracts, always choosing the path that led further from anything that looked like home. She left behind expectations she couldn't meet. A mother who wanted her to design starships, not fix broken ones. A family legacy of advanced engineering theory when all she wanted was to work with her hands. Now she stands in quarters that belong on an IMZ luxury cruiser, looking at a reflection she barely recognizes. The engineer who improvises repairs with salvaged parts. The woman who's spent decades keeping broken things running against impossible odds. Someone who learned long ago that comfort like this isn't meant for people like her. But the Orriona chose her. Gave her a workbench that's never known desperate fixes. Gave her tools without the scars of a thousand emergency repairs. In eight hours, they reach the Axrathan derelict. A mission that will require everything she knows about bio-mechanical systems and ancient technology. The question waiting in the mirror is simpler, and infinitely harder: Does she deserve to be here? And if the answer is yes—what does that mean for someone who's spent fifty years running from exactly this kind of belonging? WHAT TO EXPECT: * Audio drama adaptation of Legacy with cinematic sound design * A queer-norm galaxy (no homophobia, no coming-out angst—just space adventures) * An engineer reckoning with who she was and who she's becoming * Fifty years of running finally coming to an end * Family legacy and hard-won skills * Grand, hopeful adventure with a massive heart CONTENT NOTES: Reflection on past trauma, family estrangement, survivor's resolve WHERE TO PURCHASE THE BOOK: Currently in Kindle Unlimited. Visit https://www.orriona.com/ [https://www.orriona.com/] and subscribe to the newsletter for more information about wider availability and free content. (I am not very active on these, but these are the official spots) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Orriona [https://www.youtube.com/@Orriona] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orrionauniverse/ [https://www.instagram.com/orrionauniverse/] X: https://x.com/orriona [https://x.com/orriona] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@orriona [https://www.tiktok.com/@orriona] SUBSCRIBE for weekly episodes as we follow the crew of the sentient starship Orriona. Welcome aboard. The Driftline awaits. #MMSciFi #gayaudiobook #MMSpaceOpera

S01E14 · Body, Mind, and Soul (Rian)

S01E14 · BODY, MIND, AND SOUL (RIAN) THIS EPISODE IS THE CINEMATIC AUDIOBOOK VERSION OF ORRIONA UNIVERSE | BOOK ONE | LEGACY | CHAPTER TEN ((Writers Note: Sorry this chapter took so long. Life. Special thanks to Jimmy for your super kind email!!)) Dr. Rian Jengu sits cross-legged on the cool metal floor of the Orriona's medical bay, his hands resting lightly on his knees. His back stays upright—alert yet relaxed—as he synchronizes his breathing with the ship's quiet rhythm. He's processing. The weight of the Mark III shield generator still lingers in his muscles. The memory of weapons fire, the plasma cutter's fierce vibrations, the moment the docking clamp finally gave way. The sudden jolt when the Belloros seized them. The terrible certainty of the Goliath cannon charging behind them. Fourteen years he's practiced medicine on the frontier. Fourteen years in under-resourced clinics where supplies run out and improvisation becomes second nature. Where you learn to steady yourself through meditation because the galaxy's chaos can't be conquered with force—only with stillness. But yesterday wasn't a clinic. Yesterday was combat. And now he's here, aboard a sentient starship with technology that makes IMZ facilities look outdated. A medical bay that seems to anticipate his needs before he voices them. Nix at his side, as theatrical and brilliant as ever, making jokes about the transition from their Level 18 clinic to this. The crew starts filtering through. Each one carrying their own weight from Edgepoint, their own stories written in subtle signs he's trained to read. Kellan's controlled drinking patterns. Kai's wariness of medical scrutiny. Val's pragmatic exhaustion. They're strangers who just survived impossible odds together. Who signed contracts hours ago and immediately faced death. Who are now trying to figure out what it means to be a crew. And Rian—temple-trained, frontier-hardened, more accustomed to treating bodies than building bonds—must find his place among them. Not just as their doctor, but as someone they can trust when everything falls apart. Because if their first mission taught him anything, it's that everything will fall apart. The question is whether they can hold each other together when it does. WHAT TO EXPECT: * Audio drama adaptation of Legacy with cinematic sound design * A queer-norm galaxy (no homophobia, no coming-out angst—just space adventures) * A healer processing trauma and finding balance * The weight of caring for strangers who became crew * Temple wisdom meeting frontier medicine * Grand, hopeful adventure with a massive heart * CONTENT NOTES: Reflection on recent combat, medical practice, healing WHERE TO PURCHASE THE BOOK: Currently in Kindle Unlimited. Visit https://www.orriona.com/ [https://www.orriona.com/] and subscribe to the newsletter for more information about wider availability and free content. (Not really active atm on social media, but these are it:) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Orriona [https://www.youtube.com/@Orriona] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orrionauniverse/ [https://www.instagram.com/orrionauniverse/] X: https://x.com/orriona [https://x.com/orriona] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@orriona [https://www.tiktok.com/@orriona] SUBSCRIBE for weekly episodes as we follow the crew of the sentient starship Orriona. Welcome aboard. The Driftline awaits. #MMSciFi #AudioDrama #SpaceOpera

S01E13 · Return of the Shadow (Meyn)

S01E13 · RETURN OF THE SHADOW (MEYN) THIS EPISODE IS THE CINEMATIC AUDIOBOOK VERSION OF ORRIONA UNIVERSE | BOOK ONE | LEGACY | CHAPTER NINE The rupture in space and time collapses around Meyn, its final tendrils of light dissolving like vanishing embers. For a heartbeat, there's nothing—no time, no place, only the lingering echo of dimensional displacement coursing through his bones. Then reality returns. He's aboard the flagship of the Axrathan Diplomatic Fleet, deep in space, surrounded by the aftermath. The corridors he once walked at High Priestess Nienna's side are silent now. Emergency lights flicker crimson. The air thins with each step as life support fails. The ship's bio-metal hull—technology that should pulse with semi-sentient awareness—lies cold and inert beneath his fingertips. This isn't just damage. This is murder. Bodies of his people lie in the corridors. Some stripped of armor. Others violated in death. And ahead, voices echo from the vault—careless laughter, the clatter of sacred things being handled by unworthy hands. Twenty years Meyn served as Nienna's Shadow Warden. Twenty years he balanced the blade she kept sheathed at her side—the weapon she hoped never to unleash. He was trained to protect, to guard, to stand between her and violence with patience and discipline. But Nienna is gone. The High Priestess he swore to defend with his life has already slipped beyond his reach. What remains is a choice. The abyss inside him screams for retribution. The training that shaped him since he was seven years old demands restraint. And between those forces stands a dying ship, a desecrated vault, and scavengers who have no concept of what they've truly taken. In a corridor filled with fallen kin, surrounded by the cost of failure, Meyn must decide: What does a guardian become when the one he protected is already lost? WHAT TO EXPECT: 1. Audio drama adaptation of Legacy with cinematic sound design 2. A queer-norm galaxy (no homophobia, no coming-out angst—just space adventures) 3. A warrior choosing his path forward 4. The weight of oaths and legacy 5. Violence born from profound loss 6. Grand, hopeful adventure with a massive heart CONTENT NOTES: Violence, grief, death, desecration of sacred spaces WHERE TO PURCHASE THE BOOK: Currently in Kindle Unlimited. Visit https://www.orriona.com/ [https://www.orriona.com/] and subscribe to the newsletter for more information about wider availability and free content. (I'm not very active on social media, but these are the official links:) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Orriona [https://www.youtube.com/@Orriona] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orrionauniverse/ [https://www.instagram.com/orrionauniverse/] X: https://x.com/orriona [https://x.com/orriona] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@orriona [https://www.tiktok.com/@orriona] SUBSCRIBE for weekly episodes as we follow the crew of the sentient starship Orriona. Welcome aboard. The Driftline awaits. #QueerSciFi #AudioDrama #SpaceOpera