The ultradrive had just one slight drawback: it set up a shock wave that made suns explode. Which made the problem of getting back home a delicate one indeed...
When you have an engine with no fuel, and fuel without an engine, and a life-and-death deadline to meet, you have a problem indeed. Unless you are a stubborn Dutchman--and Jan Van Artevelde was the stubbornest Dutchman on Venus.
When Myles Cabot, inventor of radio transmission of matter, found himself alone on an unknown continent of the planet Venus, he realized that getting back to his old headquarters and his loved ones presented some impossible problems. He'd have to settle a war between primitive natives and an unholy alliance of monsters, dinosaurs and giant insects. He'd have to build an electronic device from raw rocks and untapped resources. And if he succeeded in all that, he'd still have to find his way home
What is the mystery centered in Jupiter's famous "Red Spot"? Two fighting Earthmen, caught by the "Pipe-men" like their vanished comrades, soon find out.
To upset the stable, mighty stream of time would probably take an enormous concentration of energy. And it's not to be expected that a man would get a second chance at life. But an atomic might accomplish both--