Strangers to Straba by Carl Jacobi

Strangers to Straba by Carl Jacobi

From The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast - Vintage Sci-Fi Short Stories by Scott Miller

May 24, 2026 · 28 min · Episode 558

About this episode

The episode explores the story of a drifting relic from interstellar travel that crashes on a lonely world, revealing echoes of a doomed voyage.

A drifting relic from the earliest days of interstellar travel crashes onto a lonely world, carrying the echo of a doomed voyage nobody fully understands. When a second ghost ship appears above Straba, one greedy visitor pushes too far into something that may still remember the people it lost. Strangers to Straba by Carl Jacobi. That’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast. Carl Jacobi has been on the podcast twice. The Street That Wasn’t There, a story he cowrote with Clifford D. Simak and a personal favorite of mine The Last Drive.  In today’s tale we travel to the lonely frontier world of Straba, where an old recluse and an ambitious young surveyor uncover one of the greatest lost legends of early space travel. Turn to page 90 in the October 1954 issue of Fantastic Universe, Strangers to Straba by Carl Jacobi… Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, The patrolmen on Titan expected another brutal week guarding the chroidex mines, but a sudden disaster leaves them trapped outside their own fortress with a thousand enemies behind its walls. As ammunition runs low and escape disappears, Captain Staley gambles everything on a plan so bizarre his own men think he has finally cracked under…

People in this episode

Host: Scott Miller

Topics covered

  • interstellar travel
  • ghost ships
  • space exploration
  • science fiction
  • lost legends

Keywords

  • Strangers to Straba
  • Carl Jacobi
  • interstellar travel
  • ghost ship
  • space exploration

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Strangers to Straba, The Street That Wasn’t There, The Last Drive, Crisis on Titan, Fantastic Universe

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