The wire services soon picked up the story of the missing men, and it made the inside pages of several big metropolitan dailies, the reporter typed on his battered Remington. But since the event appeared to be an isolated incident, after two days the people quickly lost interest and returned to their box scores and scandals and small-town gossip.

Perhaps those responsible for the mysterious atomic ray felt they were being slighted by the slack press coverage. We’ll never know for sure, but three days later the mystery beam returned — and those responsible for it made sure that, this time, everyone paid attention.

* * *

The wail of the air-raid siren shattered the early-morning calm at Barker Air Force Base. “Scramble! Scramble!” the base loudspeakers blared. “Radar reports large unidentified aircraft inbound at two-three-seven degrees, altitude fifty-two thousand!”

The air base’s ready alert pilots dashed out of their Quonset hut to the adjacent taxiway, where five sleek, silver F-86 Sabre fighter jets stood revving their engines. The ground crews helped the pilots clamber up their ladders and don their oxygen masks, then hopped down as the pilots slid their canopies shut. When the ground crews pulled the chocks from under his wheels, the lead pilot made a circling motion with his right hand and released the brakes. The other planes surged down the taxiway behind him. Then they turned and rocketed into the air in a tight V formation, leaving trails of black smoke behind them.

“Blue Dog Leader to tower,” the lead pilot called as he lowered his shaded visor. “Climbing to intercept.” The planes pitched steeply upwards as they turned on course.

“Roger, Blue Dog Leader,” responded the controller as he stood behind the radar operator in the control tower. “Object is maintaining course and speed. Altitude still five-two-thousand.”

“Blue Dog Leader to tower, I have a visual,” the pilot called again after a few tense seconds. “Object is above and ahead. Appears to be a silver saucer-shaped vehicle. Continuing to climb.”

“Roger,” the tower operator responded, looking nervously at the general and other senior officers who had gathered around the radar scope. Together they watched in silence as the five tightly-grouped dots moved closer to the single large dot near the edge of the screen. With every sweep of the radar line around the scope, the blips drew nearer.

“Blue Dog Flight, this is Blue Dog Leader. Arm your weapons and stand by.”

The silver saucer ahead of them loomed ever larger as the jets streaked higher in pursuit. The object appeared to have a dome on top and three identical domes on the bottom, all emitting a pulsating white glow in unison, along with a whistling sound that rose and fell with the light pulses. As the object crossed the sky, it wobbled slightly but held its course.

“Tower, this is Blue Dog Leader. Object is above our maximum ceiling. Attempting to climb higher.”

“Roger, Blue Dog Leader. You are authorized to exceed maximum ceiling if possible.”

“We’re getting closer,” the pilot said. “Object is of tremendous size. It’s faster than we are. I think … wait a minute … what’s that?”

Without warning, a buzzing cone of light emerged from one of the domes on the underside of the saucer, in the direction of the silver jets.

As the beam of light reached and enveloped the flight leader’s airplane, his scream was obliterated by the plane’s explosion and complete disintegration. The other four aircraft banked away, two to the right and two to the left. But it was to no avail; the three bottom domes emitted more buzzing cones of light, each one capturing and exploding another plane.

The sole surviving aircraft dove straight down in a desperate effort to escape. But instead of shooting another cone of atomic radiation at the fleeing fighter plane, the saucer shot upward and disappeared out of sight.

“Blue Dog Three to tower,” the surviving pilot called breathlessly. “The saucer destroyed the rest of the flight! It fired some sort of light ray and the planes just blew up!”

The general in command of Barker Air Force Base grabbed the microphone from the tower operator. “Blue Dog Three, this is General Scott. Are you all right?”

“Yes sir, I am. But we didn’t stand a chance, sir.”

“Understood, Blue Dog Three,” said General Scott, his normally gruff voice hoarse with strain. “Return to base immediately.” He handed the microphone back to the tower operator, then turned to an officer behind him. “Put the base on alert. Inform Strategic Air Command right away.”

The officer saluted and ran out the door. General Scott turned back to the radar. “Where is the object now?”

“It’s gone, sir,” the tower operator replied as he leaned closer to the radar scope, trying to discern a signal from the mysterious — and now hostile — saucer. But each sweep of the radar returned only the single F-86 fighter as it returned to land. “It’s … it’s just vanished, sir.”

“Impossible, son,” General Scott said, leaning in for a look himself. “Nothing can fly that fast.”

“Nothing that we know of, sir,” the tower operator said. The two men looked at each other nervously, then back to the radar screen, their nervous faces bathed in the green glow of the scope.

* * *

Who is flying the mysterious giant saucer? What hideous plans do they have for mankind? Don’t miss the next exciting chapter of The Terror from the Other Dimension!

Categorised as: The Terror from the Other Dimension!

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