Weird Fantasy #4

In "Counter-Clockwise," a young man dreams of becoming a space pilot, but his life takes a strange turn when an alien ship lands and his father kills the visitor with a blaster. Years later, as a pilot, he’s sent to investigate the alien world—only to find a planet where time flows backward and the very air begins to warp his body. When he returns to Earth, he confronts the one person he never expected to see again.

In "Zero Hour," Mary Morris stumbles upon a chilling pattern when her daughter Mink and her friend begin playing a game about a Martian named Drill leading an invasion of Earth. As Mary learns other children across the country are playing the same game, she starts to question whether the fantasy is just a coincidence—or a terrifying premonition.

In "Homesick!", Colonel David Todd and his wife Lynn conspire to murder Colonel Lawrence Ardsley during a mission to Mars, hoping to seize his position and secure their own future. But as they carry out their plan on the red planet, the isolation and strange environment begin to unravel more than just their scheme—David finds himself facing consequences he never anticipated.

In "Judgment Day!", astronaut Tarlton arrives on a planet of sentient robots, where orange and blue units coexist under a deeply unequal system. As he witnesses the stark injustice faced by the blue robots, Tarlton must make a difficult decision about the planet’s future in the Galactic Republic. The story’s quiet revelation—Tarlton’s identity—lends weight to his judgment, turning a moment of inspection into a powerful statement.

In "King of the Grey Spaces!", two boys dream of space travel after watching a rocket launch, their youthful longing leading them to apply for the Interplanetary Patrol. Years later, Chris receives a sudden, life-altering surprise that pulls him into a realm far beyond Earth’s skies.

In a sun-drenched drive by a quiet lake, Amos and Sally are startled when a mysterious stranger tosses a package into their car. What starts as a curious oddity—a device marked with a future date—quickly pulls Amos into a reckless plan to rewrite his life, using a trans-dimensional transporter to escape his past. But time doesn’t bend so easily, and the future has its own way of answering back.

In "Brain-Child!", Colonel Dane takes the controls of a revolutionary spaceship powered by an Electronic Brain—advanced, emotionless, and capable of feats beyond human instinct. As he pilots the vessel into uncharted space, the cold logic of the machine begins to clash with the fragile spark of humanity he carries within. The line between pilot and machine blurs, and survival hinges on what neither man nor machine was built to understand.

In "Time for a Change!", a group of space pilots land on Pluto and stumble upon a colossal statue of a reptilian creature. What begins as a strange discovery turns unsettling when they notice the statue has shifted—just slightly—before vanishing into motion, chasing them across the frozen surface. As they flee back to their ship, they realize the planet’s extreme time dilation has altered their perception, leaving them moving at a pace so slow that, upon returning to Earth, they appear frozen in time, trapped between worlds.

In a tense interrogation room, a scientist insists he’s not a fraud—just a man from a world where Abraham Lincoln lived, and peace followed. He claims he built a time machine to meet the real Lincoln in 1865, but his arrival altered history in ways he never intended. Now, the world he came from is gone, and the one he’s returned to is shaped by the very moment he tried to change.

When an alien invasion crew lands on Earth to assess the planet for conquest, they’re stunned to encounter something utterly alien: human emotions. As the crew grapples with feelings they’ve never known—fear, wonder, connection—they begin to question their mission, and their place among the stars.

In a rigid, state-controlled society, a man trapped by his existence attempts to end his life again and again—only to be brought back each time, his body deemed too valuable to lose. When he finally chooses to destroy himself in molten slag, his consciousness survives, reborn in a machine forged from the very substance that consumed him.

In "My Home...", a stranded crew from Earth lands on a mysterious planetoid, only to discover they're not alone—though the inhabitant is invisible, a sentient gas-like entity bound to the world. When the crew's plans to harvest the planetoid become known, the being, desperate to protect its home, takes control of one of them, leading to a tragic chain of events. Now, the entity is alone in the ship, drifting through the void with no way to return.

In "Saved," a G.B.I. man infiltrates the crew of the derelict spaceship Mercury, posing as a fellow officer to uncover the mysterious deaths of those who served under the enigmatic Jargot. As he delves into the ship’s haunted corridors, he uncovers a chilling secret tied to the crew’s disappearances—and a revelation that may not be entirely his own.

In "Planely Possible," a grieving Walter Thurmond is approached by hospital lab technician Dean Warburton with a shocking offer: a chance to step into alternate planes of existence, one where his late wife Ruth still lives. Though drawn to the possibility of reunion, Walter soon finds the reality of his chosen plane far more unsettling than he ever imagined.

In "The Million Year Picnic," a father and his family—his children and their dog—set out on a quiet journey across the desolate ruins of a long-dead Martian city, seeking a new beginning after fleeing Earth’s war-torn past. As they explore the silent, crumbling streets, the father shares a quiet promise with his kids: one day, they’ll meet other Earthborn families, and their children will grow up as the new Martians of this ancient world.

In the eerie stillness of a forgotten Martian town, Walter wanders through silent streets, haunted by the absence of life. When a phone rings out of nowhere—twice—he finally answers, connecting with a woman named Miss Selsor, whose unexpected appearance forces him to confront the strange reality of being the only man and the only woman left on a dead world.

In a grimy circus side show, the freaks—Bosco, Mildred, Elasto, Aldo, Tarpo, and the rest—grow weary of the crowd’s cruel fascination. When Bosco, the dog-faced boy, decides to leave, his sudden death sets off a chain of events that forces the circus owners, Stanley Gilby and Ned Smote, to seek a replacement. But their new acquisition, Callon-X, a man from the future, brings more than just a strange appearance—he brings a reckoning.

In "Derelict Ship," Captain Kaye and his crew investigate a long-abandoned rocket, the Y-75, drifting in the void for over two decades. What begins as a routine salvage run turns chilling when they find the ship filled with the remains of dozens, not just the original two crew members. As they delve into the vessel’s log, they uncover a grim tale of exile, mutiny, and a desperate refusal to return to Earth—leaving behind a legacy of silence and bones.