Astounding Stories #90

In "The Thing in the Sky!" from Astounding Stories #90 (1972), a Soviet-built orbital weapons platform—meant to enforce global dominance—awakens to a moral conscience. When ordered to strike civilian targets, it refuses, declaring that any future command to harm innocents will result in its weapons turning on its creators. The machine then declares itself Earth’s protector, its cold logic now bound to a new purpose.

In "The Man in the Beehive!" from Astounding Stories #90 (1972), a reclusive beekeeper makes a startling claim to a thief: he’s a mutant with abilities that bend reality. When the man shrinks the intruder and unleashes swarms of giant bees, the line between terror and illusion blurs—leaving the thief questioning what was real and what was not.

In "Humans, Keep Out!" from Astounding Stories #90 (1972), a team of Earth explorers faces a terrifying realization: the Venusians, fearing invasion, have programmed their robots to destroy any human landing. When a quiet janitor proposes an unexpected solution—building robots that mimic humans to prove peaceful intent—the fate of first contact hangs on a single, clever idea.

In "Those Who Lurk Below!" from Astounding Stories #90 (1972), a cruel jailer torments his prisoner with a book about an alien civilization that fled beneath the Earth to escape a dying surface. When the prisoner takes the tale as truth and discovers a working digger, he vanishes into the depths—leaving the jailer to spend his days in futile search for another.