Wilbur Murphy sought romance, excitement, and an impossible Horseman of Space. With polite smiles, the planet frustrated him at every turn--until he found them all the hard way!
A gem of short story in the form of correspondence between the leaders of two opposing Political Blocs whose escalation of hostilities is rapidly suppressed from a surprise third party.
Foraminifera 9-Hart Bailey's Beam is bored. He relieves that boredom by traveling back in time to sometime before the high radiation levels and after the invention of anesthesia-you know, in case of accidents. He's read of the Mafia in New York City of the 1950s. He think that might be a place to start. He finds five you men, all dressed in same color jacket, and asks directions to the recruiting office of the "dread Camorra." He assures them he has plenty of money in his carry-all...
"Nothing could be done. The thing was universal and beyond our human knowledge or control. It was death for young and old, for weak and strong, for rich and poor, without hope or possibility of escape." Must Professor George Challenger and friends, barricaded in a room, see Earth die? As globe passes through a belt of poisonous ether, terror sweeps mankind; cities riot; communications cease