Astounding Stories #11

Joe Hilyer, a submarine hero haunted by an impossible choice during a warship attack, sits catatonic in a naval hospital—unable to speak or respond after three years of psychological paralysis. Dr. Howard, a newly arrived neurologist, must uncover what happened aboard the Marlin and find a way to reach a man trapped between survival and guilt. Medical science has failed, but one dangerous experimental treatment might offer Joe a slim chance at awakening.

Archaeologist Frank Marcuse, frustrated with a routine assignment excavating the ruins of Pompeii, discovers an ancient flask among the rubble and drinks from it—only to find himself transported back to the thriving city moments before Vesuvius erupts. Desperate to escape the volcano and the soldiers who suspect him of sorcery, Marcuse struggles through the chaos surrounding him, all while grappling with a question that defies reason.

Bob Morrison possesses an uncanny ability to glimpse the future—a gift that manifests in strange visions, forgotten dreams, and an eerie familiarity with events yet to unfold. From predicting World War II's scope as a high schooler to accurately sensing the date of D-Day in wartime England, his psychic foreknowledge draws the attention of military brass and transforms his life in ways he can barely understand. When he meets Alice, an army nurse who feels inexplicably familiar despite their first meeting, Bob begins to wonder if his visions extend to matters of the heart as well as history.

When a comet threatens to destroy the planet Extron, its reluctant King Jansen leads his people in a desperate escape across space, eventually crash-landing in Earth's Mojave Desert and casting off his crown to start anew as an ordinary man. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a girl named Alice has clawed her way from poverty to become a Hollywood movie star, driven by childhood dreams of meeting a real prince and becoming a queen. As Jansen hitchhikes toward Los Angeles seeking a fresh life, neither knows that fate is about to bring two worlds—and two destinies—crashing together.

In the remote Indian province of Endophore, Edward V. Ennis of the Institute for Psychic Research recounts a centuries-old tale: how a medium named Lasmani, persecuted by the thin Maharajah for his size, discovered he possessed the power to control inanimate objects through sheer force of will. When the Maharajah's cruelty reaches its peak, Lasmani's extraordinary abilities force a reckoning that transforms the kingdom forever. Today, Endophore's reverence for larger citizens stands as mysterious proof of the strange psychic power behind what locals call "Fat Man's Magic."

Adam Jones works as a field representative for the Institute for Psychic Research, investigating reports of supernatural phenomena in homes across the country—a job he calls "spook detective" work. Through a series of cases, he uncovers the mundane truth behind seemingly haunted houses: mysterious lights turn out to be abandoned fireplace colorants, phantom window-tappings are rigged with string, and eerie voices come from hidden record players planted by vengeful relatives. What appears supernatural is almost always the work of pranksters, natural sounds, or human scheming—and Adam's real job is separating genuine mystery from elaborate deception.

Flight Officer Donald Matthews' damaged plane forces him down in occupied France in 1940, and while evading Nazi patrols, he stumbles upon a secret conference between Rudolf Hess and Josef Stalin—a discovery that could reshape the war itself. Desperate to reach his superiors with this intelligence, Matthews finds himself in the vicinity of Beaugard, where local legend speaks of ghostly pilots from the Lafayette Escadrille still flying their old routes from decades past. As the stakes mount and pursuit closes in, Matthews must decide whether to trust in the impossible to get his vital information home.

A desperate nuclear physicist from the plague-ravaged planet Thorion makes an impossible choice: steal a rocket ship and launch into the unknown with his wife Lusi and child, gambling that life—and refuge—might exist somewhere in the vast universe. As sickness strikes the fleeing family during their perilous journey through the stars, Hannel must confront whether his bold escape was salvation or folly.

In 1873, the steamboat Mississippi Queen embarks on what should be a routine voyage from Memphis to New Orleans with passenger Golden Whitney aboard, but the vessel simply vanishes without a trace during its journey. Despite extensive searches of the river and investigations that drag on for a month, neither the grand steamboat nor any of its passengers are ever found, leaving one of history's most baffling disappearances unsolved.