Weird Science #13

In "Saving for the Future," Dr. Brewster’s revolutionary serum 129-A offers the ultimate escape—suspended animation for any living being. When Lloyd and his lover use it to skip ahead five centuries, hoping to reunite after a lifetime apart, they awaken to a world transformed. But their long-awaited second chance comes with a complication they never saw coming, threatening everything they thought they’d left behind.

In the year 2963, astronaut Jerome Kraft lands on a distant planet with only four years of supplies and a mission to catalog life forms. As he helps a primitive society with his advanced knowledge, healing the sick and feeding the hungry, the people begin to worship him as a divine savior. When the high priest denounces his origins as heresy and demands he serve only the wealthy, Jerome stands firm in his belief that knowledge should be shared. Centuries later, a new expedition arrives to find a civilization shaped by the legacy of a man who walked among them.

In "Say Your Prayers," two intelligent preying mantises arrive on Earth to study humanity—only to panic upon seeing a photo of pinned mantis specimens in a collector’s display, convinced they’ve found a planet ruled by giant predators. Their mission of observation quickly turns to retreat as they flee back to their home world, convinced Earth is too dangerous to conquer.