Unusual Tales #48

When alien invaders from the water-world Hydratri crash-land in Earth's oceans, Colonel E.L. Conger's defense forces assume the worst—but the extraterrestrials' true mission isn't conquest. After four centuries without water, these beings are simply seeking a new home, and they've discovered something unexpected: a fellow ocean-dweller in Conger himself. What unfolds is a tense first contact that challenges everything both sides thought they knew about invasion and survival.

A down-on-his-luck drifter named Elmer Turnby receives an empty bottle from a stranger, only to discover it contains a genie offering the classic deal: three wishes. As Elmer begins to test the genie's power—wasting his first wish on new shoes, then demanding a million dollars for his second—he finds himself facing a problem he never anticipated. With one wish remaining, Elmer must reckon with the consequences of getting exactly what he thought he wanted.

A five-year-old boy named Tommy wakes from a vivid nightmare about his father's office engulfed in flames, and his mother's call to confirm it was just a dream takes an unsettling turn. "The Sixth Sense" explores the mysterious boundary between coincidence and extrasensory perception through a child's inexplicable vision that may have saved lives.

Bruce Foley, the speedway's reigning champion, faces a string of mysterious accidents that his fellow racers blame on the vengeful spirit of Marc Rienzo, a legendary driver who died on the track years before. When Foley encounters the ghost car itself one fateful night, he's challenged to a race that will determine whether the haunted track can ever be safe again. His courage and skill behind the wheel become the only chance to put Rienzo's restless spirit to rest.

When a steering-jet malfunction forces Astrogator Horace Weel into a desperate spacewalk, a sudden galactic storm cuts him loose—stranded in the void with only his wits, belt jets, and ration pills to survive. Back on Venus, Leader Kennon spins a lie about Weel's desertion to hide a darker truth, while the tech-specialist who loves Horace begins to suspect the commander's real motive. Weel's only chance lies in an incredible gamble: riding a meteor shower and using his last reserves of power to chart a collision course with salvation.