Sci-Fi Space Ships and Nothing But Sci-Fi Space Ships 2 - Fifteen Lost Sci-Fi Short Stories from the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s
- The Planet Of Illusion by Robert Silverberg
- The Flight Of The Eagle by Alfred Coppel
- Madmen of Mars by Erik Fennel
- Jonah of the Jove-Run by Ray Bradbury
- Space-Lane of No-Return by George Whittington
- Invader From Infinity by George Whittington
- Rocket Summer by Ray Bradbury
- Rabbits Have Long Ears by Lawrence F. Willard
- Glow Worm by Harlan Ellison
- The Misplaced Battleship by Harry Harrison
- Distress Signal by Ross Rocklynne
- The Star Mouse by Fredric Brown
- Survey Team by Philip K. Dick
- Home is the Spaceman by George O. Smith
- The Creatures That Time Forgot by Ray Bradbury
Home is the Spaceman by George O. Smith - Enright was coming home, which should have been good, since he was the first Earthman ever to go faster than light. But when he'd been gone eighteen months in a ship that was supplied for only ten days, the authorities were just a trifle curious....
Test Pilot Billy Enright looked down at the Earth so far below and decided that home had never looked so good to any man. He and his experimental spacecraft had exceeded the speed of light, he had crossed the monstrous gulf between stars, and for eighteen months Billy Enright had walked upon the earth-like planet of another star. He had driven faster, gone farther, and stayed away longer than any other human, and now he was happy to be arrowing down towards Mother Earth and home.
Mingled excitement and joy tickled his stomach. There would be one royal explosion when he called in for landing instructions; he was going to create as much fuss as Tom Sawyer had caused a couple of hundred years ago when he and his boys turned up at their own funeral services. For Billy Enright had been overdue for eighteen months on a flight-plan calling for a twelve-hour program. He had probably been listed as 'Missing' for more than sixteen of the eighteen months.
It would be more dramatic if he just barrelled down unannounced and walked in to the commandant's office with an air of unconcern. But on the other hand, the story he had to tell about his flight and the explanation of his overdue return wanted a large audience whose minds had already recovered from the first shock. So instead of letting shock pile upon shock, Billy Enright flipped the radio on and called:
'Interstellar Spacecraft One calling Mojave Base, I.S.-1 calling Mojave. Test Pilot Enright requesting landing instructions. I.S.-1 over.'
The Incredible Invasion by George O. Smith - It's very difficult to find a good, sound. legal way of stopping an aggressor—when the victims always anxiously invite him to come in and take over!
Jim Franklen paused a moment before he opened the door of the office. He stopped to read the black lettering with a surface of pride—he was a part of it.
The sign read:
UNITED NATIONS
WEAPON SECURITY
COUNCIL
Thomas Winter, President
Then Franklen opened the door and went in, confidently. He greeted the man behind the desk, who looked up worriedly from a maze of paper work and bade Franklen to sit down.
Winter said: 'Trouble, Franklen. Bad trouble.'
Franklen nodded. 'I know,' he said. 'I've been following it. I gather that the fools are getting worse?'
Winter agreed with a slight nod of the head and replied: 'I can't imagine what they're up to. Yet they continue to rattle the saber and make demands. The Central Power is not ignorant of the ramifications of their acts. Not after we've made point-blank statements. But they continue to get rougher and bolder, just as though they had the world in the palm of their hands.'
'They know that they can't win, don't they?' asked Franklen.
'They should—they've been told, and they have been shown exactly what will happen, how, and why. The proof is irrevocable, undeniable. Still they continue.'
'I understand we've been watching them closely.'
Vintage Sci-Fi 4 - 21 Science Fiction Classics from Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert Silverberg, Harlan Ellison and more
- Jonah of the Jove-Run by Ray Bradbury
- Rescue Mission by Robert Silverberg
- Rat Race by George O. Smith
- Space-Lane of No-Return by George Whittington
- And The Gods Laughed by Fredric Brown
- The Skull by Philip K. Dick
- Alien Equivalent by Richard R. Smith
- Prison of a Billion Years by C. H. Thames
- Day of Wrath by Bjarne Kirchhoff
- The Golden Man by Philip K. Dick
- The Inquisitor by Robert Silverberg
- Invader From Infinity by George Whittington
- Glow Worm by Harlan Ellison
- Rocket Summer by Ray Bradbury
- Human Is by Philip K. Dick
- Dust Unto Dust by Lyman D. Hinckley
- Meddler by Philip K. Dick
- The Luckiest Man Alive! by William Morrison
- $1,000 a Plate by Jack McKenty
- Asteroid of the Damned by Frederik Pohl
- Willie's Planet by Mike Ellis
Rat Race by George O. Smith - The idea was to build an electronic gadget; that it turned out to be a rat trap was purely accidental. And that it turned out to have the highly undesirable effects it had...
'You're nuts,' came the reply, but the voice on the telephone was jovially reproving rather than sarcastic. 'I can't do anything about this order.'
Peter Manton blinked. 'But it has a Four-A-One priority.'
Brannon nodded—invisibly, of course—and said, 'Sure you have a top priority. Anything your lab wants has top. But darn it, Peter, the best priority in the world isn't going to buy you a dozen mousetraps that are nonexistent.'
'But—'
'Besides which, that building you're in is about as rat-proof as a sealed gasoline can. There isn't an item of comestible in the place.'
'I know that. And the mice can go hungry for all I care. But the mice don't seem to understand that bringing food into the place is not only forbidden by law but dangerous.'
'But there ain't a mousetrap in the country. Ding bust it, Peter, mousetraps take spring wire, and labor. The people who used to make mousetraps are now making bombsights and tanks. Besides, Peter, over at that laboratory of yours there should be enough brains and gear to really build the Better Mousetrap. If you can spot a plane at fifty miles, split atoms, and fire radio equipment out of a cannon, you ought to be able to dispose of a mouse or two.'
Peter grinned. 'You mean spot 'em with radar, and then shoot 'em down in flames with proximity fuses loaded with plutonium war heads? That might be a little strenuous, don't you think? Like cutting the throat to stop the spread of impetigo.'
