Showing results by author "Murray Leinster" in All Categories

When the United Nation’s attempt to put a peace platform in orbit is sabotaged by the enemy, the United States goes ahead on its own. Almost immediately the enemy starts launching missiles at the platform trying to bring it down. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Joe Kenmore pilots a resupply mission. With missiles flying and rockets in short supply something that can survive the combat environment and haul supplies up to the platform is needed. They need a Space Tug!

Murray Leinster, whose real name was William Fitzgerald Jenkins, was an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history. In The Pirates of Ersatz, he presents a fast-paced, light-hearted adventure story with a touch of Monty Python and much derring-do.

A sci-fi novel by Murray Leinster, published in 1962. An unidentified space ship lands in a Colorado lake. The creatures subsequently begin taking human prisoners with paralyzing laser weapons. A land surveyor and a journalist are the only remaining hope for humankind now, as the army is powerless.

They seeded the new world with everything to get life started. A few thousand years later a lone starship’s engines fail, marooning the crew and passengers. The planet is a nightmare of giant mushroom forests and insects grown to monstrous killer proportions.

The Moklins long to be just like Earthlings. But is imitation the best form of flattery? Based on a story by Murray Leinster, this episode of X Minus One originally aired on June 12, 1956.

X Minus One premiered in April 1955 on NBC and ran until January 1958. Like its predecessor series, Dimension X, X Minus One featured stories by the greatest names in modern science fiction: Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Robert Bloch, and many more.

"Operation: Outer Space" is a science fiction novel by Murray Leinster. It was first published in 1954. The novel introduces the first interstellar flight, financed by making it into a television show! In fact, this very funny work is much more of a biting satire on the world of television, the media and the rich than a regular space opera but with some elements of sci-fi still there of course.

Murray Leinster's science fiction stories typically dealt with themes of frustration with human frailty and its limitations, cynicism vs. idealistic ethics and romance. When a mysterious alien spacecraft lands in a lake in Colorado and the invaders begin using a parylyzing ray that no one can understand or stop, it takes an ingenious man like Lockley to save the girl and solve the mystery of the aliens.

When machines can answer any question, are there some questions that shouldn't be asked? Based on a story by Murray Leinster, this episode of X Minus One originally aired on December 28, 1955.

An earth tremor is noted by all the scientific stations in Antarctica but it is the American crew that comes upon what appears to be a crashed spaceship and four alien children. International tensions mount as word of the alien "invasion" tears across the planet. The children are swiftly hidden at a secret military base where top brass hope to learn their secrets. A public relations attempt to present the "alien monsters" to the world goes very wrong when a gang member steals from one of the children.

This is the story of the Space Platform, the first orbiting space station that will serve as launching pad for man’s journey to other planets and the stars. But sinister forces oppose its launching, and will resort to sabotage and murder to stop it! A classic science fiction tale by master Murray Leinster.

The short story "Doctor" chronicles a fear of a virus that has already decimated one planet and is so deadly that there is no cure for it. Planets that are known to have chlorphage are quarantined from the rest of the galaxy. Unknown to others, a small girl who is infected manages to board an interplanetary ship and the ship's doctor tries to combat the virus.

After their exploration ship is brutally attacked without warning by a previously unknown alien race, Lon and the other members of the Marintha's crew flee—with their new enemy in hot pursuit. The aliens chase the humans, who barely escape using overdrive. And to their surprise and horror, the aliens give chase—which shouldn't be possible in overdrive.

"The Interstellar Medical Service was just about the only remaining galactic organization that every one of the hundreds of inhabited planets respected. So when their service broke down in Star Sector Twelve, it created a very dangerous situation. When Calhoun took his Med ship out of overdrive near that sector's planet Weald, he was vaguely aware of the risks. But the crisis came home to him with a crash the moment he radioed in for landing coordinates.

When the blue plague appeared on the planet of Dara, fear struck nearby worlds. The fear led to a hate that threatened the lives of millions and endangered the galactic peace. But the med service ship Aesculapius 20, with Calhoun and Murgatroyd the Tormal aboard, is on the job and has stumbled into the horrible mess caused by unreasoning hatred, quarantine, mass starvation, and worse. Calhoun must use all his medical knowledge and significant skills even to understand the situation in neglected Sector 12.

This is the hair rising sequel to sci-fi master Murray Leinster's "The Mad Planet". Burl, our hero, still has to contend with the giant bugs and fungus; as well as even greater menaces! "The sky grew gray and then almost white. The overhanging banks of clouds seemed to withdraw a little from the steaming earth. Haze that hung always among the mushroom forests and above the fungus hills grew more tenuous, and the slow and misty rain that dripped the whole night long ceased reluctantly.

Tanks and the future of war is what Murray Leinster speculates about in this story. Written in the 1920's he observed the terrible new inventions that were used in World War I to kill people, armored tanks and poisoned gas and then tells us how war will be fought in the future. In this case the war will occur in 1932 and be between the US and the 'Yellow enemy'. It was published in the very first issue of "Astounding Stories of Super Science", January 1930.

Murray Leinster, whose real name was William Fitzgerald Jenkins, was an award-winning American writer of Science Fiction. Among other things, he is credited with the invention of "parallel universe" stories and in 1956 he won prestigious Hugo Award for Best Novelette. Leinster wrote over 1,500 short stories in his career and two of the best, "First Contact" and "The Aliens", deal with humanities first encounter with an alien race.

With a shriek heard around the world, an alien spacecraft appears out of nowhere and crash lands on Antarctica. Its crew consists of just four apparent teenage humans, possessing technology unheard of on Earth. Is this the beginning of an alien invasion set to conquer Earth, or something else? One scientist and a newspaper reporter must solve the puzzle. Classic tale from sci-fi master Murray Leinster.

"Joe Kenmore heard the airlock close with a sickening wheeze and then a clank. In desperation he turned toward Haney. 'My God, we've been locked out!' Through the transparent domes of their space helmets, Joe could see a look of horror and disbelief pass across Haney's face. But it was true! Joe and his crew were locked out of the Space Platform. Four thousand miles below circled the Earth. Under Joe's feet rested the solid steel hull of his home in outer space. But without tools there was no hope of getting back inside. Joe looked at his oxygen meter. It registered thirty minutes to live."