Weird Science #9

When Captain Larkin and the crew of the Venus-2 stumble upon the derelict Venus-1 adrift in space, they find a chilling scene: the entire crew gone, their bodies reduced to bare skeletons, every organic trace stripped away. As they search the wreckage, they uncover a preserved corpse clutching a final, desperate warning—just as the silence of space begins to feel anything but empty.

In "The Martian Monster," a man in a costume pretends to be an alien in the woods to manipulate a young boy into harming his father—driven by greed and a desire to seize the boy’s inheritance. But when the boy actually encounters a real Martian, the line between deception and terror blurs in the dark, untamed woods.

In the wake of Earth’s surrender, a desperate few—among them Keve and Nan—flee aboard a rocket bound for a new world, hoping to rebuild beyond the ruins of war. But their journey to a fresh start quickly unravels into something far darker than they imagined.

In "The Slave of Evil!", a man named Peter awakens on a lab table with no memory, told by two scientists that his name is Peter and that he must carry out a murder. He obeys without question, only to be given a new companion for another assignment—until a strange, bloodless death reveals the truth. When Peter overhears the scientists reveling in their plan to dominate the world, he realizes he’s not human, but a machine, and the moment of understanding ignites a desperate act of defiance.