Astounding Stories #74

Tom Robbins, a brilliant scientist, crosses paths with his old rival Henry Varga—a ruthless tycoon who made good on his youthful boast to become the biggest thing in the world. When Robbins discovers a revolutionary energy source derived from captured sunlight, a desperate Varga finances his rocket project, determined to be the first human to reach the stars, and forces Robbins aboard to ensure his glory. Now, hurtling toward the distant reaches of space with the woman they both care for caught in the middle, Robbins must navigate ambition, jealousy, and the unknown perils of the cosmos itself.

When Dag Mithok, a world citizen from the year 4675, embarks on a routine time-travel vacation to ancient New York, he becomes accidentally stranded in the 20th century when his invisible cloak fails and the time ship departs without him. Rescued from suspicion by June Taylor, a quick-thinking newspaper reporter who passes him off as a promotional stunt performer, Dag finds himself drawn into a world far warmer and more human than his own mechanized future. As his week-long stay unfolds, Dag begins to question which world truly offers him what he's been missing—but time, as always, waits for no one.

When John Delson's quiet Nevada retirement is shattered by impossible events—a mountain that moves overnight, a jungle that materializes out of nowhere—he comes face-to-face with Dr. Ikobewati, an eccentric inventor from another dimension whose experimental Scrambler device is badly misfiring. As the doctor's malfunctioning invention continues to scramble reality around them, John and his wife find themselves caught between worlds with no guarantee they'll ever return home.

A seaside holiday takes a strange turn when a young man discovers something impossible hidden inside a seashell—but before he can examine his find, a mysterious wave sweeps it away, leaving him to wonder if what he glimpsed was real or merely a trick of the sea.

In "Fog and Fantasy!", a doctor named Joe Cardwell is summoned by boat captain George Bethel on a fog-choked night, only to find himself performing emergency surgery on the very man who brought him to shore. As the storm rages and the island fades into mist, the line between healer and patient blurs in a moment of sudden, eerie reversal.

Three young engineers on a uranium-hunting vacation discover an unusual variety of mushrooms, and when Joe samples them, he's struck by vivid, prophetic hallucinations—first of an oasis, then of hidden gold buried beneath the desert. When the oasis and treasure materialize exactly as he envisioned, the trio's fortune seems made, but Joe's mushroom-induced visions reveal a darker truth about his companions' intentions. As the group prepares to head home with their newfound wealth, Joe must grapple with whether his final, explosive dream was merely imagination or a genuine warning of danger ahead.

Mr. Hobbs has spent years entertaining his office colleagues with tall tales of dangerous vacations—bear hunts, treasure expeditions—that never actually happened, until a mysterious invisible spacecraft strikes his car on the road to his farm getaway. Whisked away to the distant planet Xerces, Hobbs finds himself at the center of an intergalactic incident, facing judgment from an alien council while an unexpected ally argues for his life. Now he must navigate his way back to Earth and decide what story—if any—he can tell about the adventure that actually happened.

Professor Harvey Shane's duck-hunting weekend takes an extraordinary turn when his dog retrieves not a duck, but a carrier pigeon bearing an ancient Greek message signed by a historical general—and carbon dating proves the parchment is over 2,300 years old. As the Professor refuses to dismiss the mystery, a heated debate erupts over whether this is an elaborate hoax or evidence of something far stranger. A clever puzzle that invites you to puzzle out the impossible alongside the Professor.