A science fiction classic by British master Philip E. High!Harcourt smiled his professional smile. “Now, you came to me because you felt something was wrong, some probably frightening aberration which we will deal with later. Were you under pressure at the time.”“A policeman is always under pressure.” Nevinson sighed. “Unfortunately this happened three weeks ago while on a holiday in Europe. Before I left everyone told me I should visit the Spatza, you’ve heard of it no dou...

Hudson looked round the command room with its cramped balsa-plast desk, single chair and wall bunk. Command room! His mouth twisted, half with amusement, half contempt. All the years of struggling and devoted service, service which had broken up his home and driven his wife to seek comfort elsewhere. All that until, finally, they had given him a command. A command! Not one of the new powerful cruisers or even a fleet of space tugs but a detector post on Ganymede. A hive-shaped dome on an a...

They captured the human and his puny ship. They had been ordered to interrogate him to find out humanity's strenths, weaknesses, and numbers...because their empire intended to expand into human space. But the human wanted to be captured and interrogated—for compassionate reasons. Human space was infected, he said...and any attempt at conquest was doomed!

Power-Greedy.Men wished to rule the world, but one man stood in their way. Peter Duncan came from the planet Mattrain - but who was he? Was he human? If so, whence came his vastly superior intellect and technical knowledge? These were mysteries the Administration feared - because they could not find the answer to them. Too late they saw danger. For, by then, Peter Duncan had escaped and taken refuge in the Devastated Areas, from which he continued his fight to save the human race f...

In some parts of the world, self-confessed murderer Leonard Graham would have been executed, or even given life imprisonment for his monstrous crime. At his trial, he had confirmed to the court that he'd only met the man he'd shot a few hours before. Prior to that one meeting, he'd never seen him before in his life. The accused had offered no reason for his apparently unprovoked and savage attack, shooting his victim repeatedly at point-blank range. He was sentenced to five years in a psyc...

Aggression is out of date.After one war scare too many the human has suppressed it aggressive instincts by genetic manipulation.Make love, not war.Now mankind is faced with an enemy so superior, so ruthless, that it is fight or be wiped out - and humans can no longer fight; they cannot even order their robots to fight.Violence is decadent.Only a museum exhibit from a thousand years ago - a Royal Navy submarine complete with commander and crew, their ...

Don't think new thoughts, don't improve anything, don't wander over the next hill: these were the commandments for the men and women of the experimental village - one of those careful nurtured settlements established after the collapse of world civilization.The rules were made by the benevolent Masters of the Island - and they had to be obeyed. To disobey was to be destroyed. But Robert Ventnor, villager with a dangerously high quotient of curiosity, was the exception. He fled - an...

If you're a human, the deadliest game.You may consider yourselves experienced hunters. You have hunted on many planets. But here things are different.For there are no mindless monsters or charging carnivores, but a devious, intelligent and dangerous prey.A prey who is out to get you before you get him.Man!

He thought he knew himself, his strength, weaknesses and limitations.A frightening encounter with two muggers, however, changed everything.He had knowledge which he had no conscious memory of learning.He had faculties which he had never known he possessed.He had memories beyond those of normal life. A life in which he had a different name.He could not remember everything but he knew some dreadful alien creatures were hunting him. With his wakening me...

They found the wrong planet...and prepared to fight the wrong enemy!

Waking Nightmare!He awoke, stretched and scratched the top of his head with his right hand. It hurt, must have a pimple there or something. Only a few seconds later his forehead tingled, and he brushed at it with his left hand.It came away smothered in blood.What the hell! Got to get a towel or handkerchief or something. He reached forward with his right hand to throw back the bedclothes and froze.It was not his hand.It was not even human blood....

The conquest of a galaxy is relatively easy providing the aggressor has the necessary technology and, more important, a safe method of overcoming possible opposition without bleeding to death in the process. The Asdrake employed mutated micro-organisms which directly attacked the brain of the planet's intelligent life - they liked this method. They could fight if they had to but were inherently lazy. This method had worked successfully on twenty-two occasions - why should it fail on planet...