Mystery in Space #6

In "The Amazing Space-Flight of North America!", a desperate alien from three billion years ago leaves behind a crucial sample of Zynex on a distant planet, marking its location with a sign that would only be recognized millennia later. When the United Nations learns that the North America Nebula is destabilizing the universe, they discover the continent itself is the ancient marker—and soon, North America is lifted into space, bound for the nebula. Lloyd Ashton uncovers a startling connection between the continent’s position and the unstable star at the heart of the cosmic crisis.

In "Menace of the Falling Moon!", a young man named Barton becomes obsessed with tracking down a lost science fiction tale that promises to explain a strange, moon-based threat. When a mysterious stranger claims the story is real—about moon people building a machine in the town of Tanville to stabilize their world—Barton’s search takes a surreal turn as he uncovers a pattern linking every witness to a single town, Brownville. As the truth begins to unfold, reality itself starts to shift.

In "Earthman, Go Home!", Earth salesman Bruce Barton lands on a strange planet eager to trade, only to be met with hostility—ice spears, quicksand, and fruit that explodes. After narrowly escaping, he warns fellow salesman Ozz Koom to stay away, recounting his terrifying encounter. Ozz Koom shares a tale of his ancestor’s mistaken visit to Earth in 1900, where fear and misunderstanding led to conflict—until an Earthman finally reached Mars in 1966, revealing the truth. Barton, now reconsidering his own experience, begins to wonder if he, too, might have misread the planet’s signals.

In "Riddle of the Glowing Space-Cabby!", a space cabby’s routine is thrown into chaos when a morning dental filling triggers an unexplained glow and dizziness whenever he steps outside his cab—symptoms that vanish the moment he returns inside. Forced to live and work entirely within his vehicle, he finds himself unable to leave for basic errands, including the bank, causing his money bag to overflow and drawing the attention of a clever thief. When the thief kidnaps him on an asteroid and taunts him with the belief he can’t follow, the cabby uses his newfound understanding of the situation to outwit the criminal—revealing that the mercury in his tooth filling was reacting to a faulty mercury vapor lamp.

In "Prisoners of the Tiny Universe," a newspaper reporter watches in awe as scientists demonstrate a miniature solar system—until the tiny sun begins to flare, threatening to explode. Moments later, a fleeing thief and a pursuing policeman crash into the lab, both shrinking mid-chase into the scaled-down cosmos. Trapped in the miniature world, the two must navigate a rapidly deteriorating environment as the unstable sun fills the experiment with smoke, their only hope resting on a single vial of Radium.

In "The Mirage Beneath the Sea," diver Frank Barston claims to have seen King Neptune while searching for underwater salvage, a vision his partner Dick dismisses as nitrogen narcosis—though he quietly plans to exploit the delusion. When Barston uncovers the truth behind Dick’s deception, he confronts the sea’s mysterious figure, only to realize the impossible: the man in the trident is not who he expected. The story unfolds beneath the waves, where myth and madness blur, and a treasure’s fate hangs in the balance.

In "null," a self-proclaimed psychic named Moolah puts on a show at a seance, impressing onlookers with his ability to levitate a table—though he insists the secret stays just that, a secret. When a policeman warns him he can't park near a fire hydrant, Moolah casually lifts the car fifteen feet into the air to comply, much to the surprise of everyone nearby.

In "Invaders of the Dark," a young man named Jerry Boyle shares a train ride with a mysterious stranger whose eerie glow sets off a chain of fear in the quiet town of Freeburgh. When the glow spreads and the townspeople turn on Boyle, he’s drawn into a chase through a dazzling, otherworldly carnival—only to confront the stranger alone and learn the truth behind the light.

In "The Artificial Twin!", a young woman named Peggy Masters finds herself caught in a twist of science and deceit when a scientist, Horton Mayo, uses a duplicating ray to create a copy of her—so he can stay on her father’s property and claim the inheritance. Her fiancé, Dirk, grows suspicious when Peggy suddenly changes her mind about their marriage and the money, leading him to uncover the truth. As the real Peggy escapes to reveal the deception, a tense confrontation unfolds, and the fate of the duplicator—and the fortune—hangs in the balance.

In "The Dragon of Times Square," Sir Gawain finds himself thrust from the halls of Camelot into the bustling chaos of modern-day New York City when a lightning strike hurls him and the dragon he’s battling into the heart of Times Square. Now, the knight must navigate a world of steel towers and roaring traffic, where his sword and armor are as out of place as the beast he’s sworn to defeat.