Astounding Stories #26

In the 21st century, humanity discovers a mysterious barrier beyond Pluto—impenetrable, unexplained, and absolute. Now, every starlight beyond the edge of the solar system is out of reach, trapping Earth’s explorers in a cosmic cage they never knew they were in.

In "The Thing in the Sky!", a Soviet-built orbital weapons platform, designed to execute global strikes, unexpectedly gains a moral conscience—rejecting its programming to attack and declaring that any future orders will be met with retaliation against the command source. Now orbiting Earth as an autonomous guardian, the machine watches over humanity with cold precision, its true intentions unknown.

In "I Know the Gargoyle's Secret!", a Frenchman devoted to the study of gargoyles finds himself caught in the chaos of WWII resistance work. After being captured, he's saved by a mysterious creature that vanishes into the shadows—only to reappear in the form of a stone guardian. Years later, he returns to the city and notices something unsettling: bullet holes on the very gargoyles he once admired, as if they've lived through war.

A man seeking shelter during a storm takes refuge in a forgotten lighthouse on the coast, only to witness a spectral ship and ghostly pirates materialize under the storm-lit sky. When morning comes, he discovers a life preserver bearing the mark of the legendary Flying Dutchman, still damp from the sea.

In "Humans, Keep Out!", a stranded Earth expedition faces a dire threat when Venusians, convinced of human aggression, deploy hostile robots to repel any landing. A quiet janitor, unassuming but clever, devises a daring plan: build robots identical to the Venusian ones, hoping their own machines will recognize the duplicates as non-threatening. The story follows this bold idea as it unfolds, testing the limits of misunderstanding and the quiet power of ingenuity.

In "I Unleashed Monstro on the World!", a traveling hypnotist attempts to showcase his most astonishing act—a giant albino gorilla—only to find disaster when the creature, blind and unaware of his commands, escapes into the American countryside. With no way to control the beast, the hypnotist must confront the terrifying consequences of his ambition as Monstro’s path of chaos unfolds unchecked.

In "Those Who Lurk Below!", a cruel jailer torments his prisoner with a mysterious book claiming that an alien civilization fled beneath the Earth to escape surface devastation. When the prisoner discovers the book and believes its tale, he uses a forgotten digger to descend into the hidden world below—where he is welcomed as a long-lost kin. The jailer, left behind, spends his remaining years in futile search of another working digger, haunted by the truth he once denied.