Nelson and Ramos sped on toward Mars in their tiny plastic-bubble spacecraft. They were on the alert it didn't pay to take anything for granted in the Big Vacuum The way between the worlds was mostly empty space except for the outlaws of the void who drifted, patiently and vengefully waiting for a victim, then struck! Nelsen and Ramos tensed blips on the radar screen! Maybe meteors.
There are lots of things that are considered perfectly acceptable. provided they don't work. And of course everyone knows they really don't, which is why they're acceptable....
It's seldom that the fate of a shipful of men literally hangs by a thread--but it's also seldom that a device, every part of which has been thoroughly tested, won't work....
Child, it was, of the now ancient H-bomb. New. Untested. Would its terrible power sweep the stark Saturnian moon of Titan from space. or miraculously create a flourishing paradise-colony?
A story in the Damsels In Distress Universe
A new Hero is recruited to work on Chaos, and is taken as a Hero Companion on an orientation visit. Al, being the person he is, can't help but look to change how things are done, and change them for the better. Plenty of action, and no sex. The first of many stories about this Hero.
On the day that the theft of the solar system's light begins, Burl Denning is with an archaeological expedition in the Andes. Within hours the U.S. Air Force has ordered the expedition to investigate the strange phenomenon that is causing a dimness and a drop in temperature throughout the world. This is the start of a fantastic adventure that takes Burl on the first circumnavigation of the solar system on the Magellan. Each planet-fall brings unexpected hazards, as the ship draws closer.
A The Catalyst Story Alex has a mission to find as many new followers as he can in the limited time he has left as he comes to grip with the knowledge his abilities will likely kill him. Before that happens, he hits the road with his sister and Gail. Along the way, they learn much more about him, his followers and about leading a mission when one doesn't know the way. He needs enough followers to build a new branch on the evolutionary tree, but has a limited time and needs to stay below the radar as he does it.
Alan Green was not exactly a hero. In fact he liked peace just as well as the next man. Not that he was really afraid of that crazy, hot-blooded hound-dog Alzo, or even of the hound's gorgeous owner, the Duchess Zuni--who was also hot-blooded (to say nothing of the Duke). After all, these things were understood on this backward, violent planet, and a man could manage, provided he was alert twenty-four hours a day.
Not long after the colonists landed on the uninhabited planet, every human-made artifact -- ship, communicators, tools -- disappeared! Even their clothes!