Outer Space #23

A weary millionaire escapes to his own orbital satellite to spend his final years in solitude, but when alien invaders from Pluto threaten Earth, Munson discovers that his contempt for humanity masks a deeper love for his world. His quick thinking and sacrifice lead to an unexpected salvation—both for the planet and for himself.

When the tyrannical Henro tightens his grip on the underground world of Wensla, a resistance movement led by Thorpan plots to strike back—with Brezlo, a technician trusted within Henro's own palace, positioned to sabotage the dictator's atomic reactors. As the uprising erupts and Henro attempts to crush the rebellion with a final, devastating button press, the fate of an entire enslaved population hangs in the balance. "Uprising on Wensla" delivers a tense tale of resistance against oppression, complete with a startling real-world twist.

Hugh Tenant, a hard-driving businessman, is plagued by the same nightmare three nights running—a plane crash with him aboard—just as he prepares for the most crucial deal of his career in Chicago. Despite his rational mind dismissing the dream as mere anxiety, the vision grows so vivid and insistent that it forces him to confront an impossible choice at the airport gate. What unfolds is a tense exploration of instinct versus ambition, where one man's decision to trust an inexplicable premonition carries consequences neither he nor anyone else could have foreseen.

An agricultural student named Gusty Larson spots what he's convinced is a flying saucer near Smedley College, but his skeptical friends dismiss his claim as typical exaggeration—until he decides to wait alone for it to return. When the craft does reappear and whisks him aboard, the alien researchers aboard subject him to examination before erasing his memory and returning him to Earth, leaving only a puzzling detail his friends can't ignore. This 1959 tale from *Outer Space* #23 explores the gap between what we witness and what others will believe, with a twist that suggests the truth might be stranger than any tall tale.

The routine patrols of the U.N. Space Patrol take an unexpected turn when Patrol Ship 83, under Captain Barker, finds itself mysteriously trapped by what appears to be a giant hand—only to discover the crew is caught inside a massive coat pocket belonging to colossal beings. As rescue ships converge and the truth about these incredible giants unfolds, the patrol must decide whether to blast their way free or pursue the mysterious pod-like objects that seem to be escaping into the depths of space.