Alone above a barren patch of the Pacific, with help still days away, the eighteen men and two women of the Peregrine were surprised to find themselves face-to-face with a squadron of flying saucers whose destructive power was beyond any weapon known to man short of atomic fury, typed the reporter as he finally began to settle into his story, courtesy of Remington and George Dickel. Armed with not much more than their wits and an ample supply of good old-fashioned American know-how, the intrepid crew would now have to improvise a defense for the entire planet Earth.

Little could the invaders know that, in this stubby airship, they were about to meet their unlikely match.

* * *

In a smooth, practiced motion — his eyes never leaving the three saucers dangling several thousand feet ahead of them — Captain Rick Darrow slid into his pilot’s chair and slipped his headset over his ears. “I have the ship,” he said to his copilot, Lieutenant Don Stewart, who nodded in acknowledgement. Darrow pulled back on the throttles to slow his blimp, and turned the wheel a few degrees to the right to face the saucers directly.

Standing behind Darrow’s seat, Professor Abbott gasped, her hand involuntarily reaching for Darrow’s shoulder “You’re not turning toward them, surely!”

“Face-on makes us a smaller target,” he said, reaching for the microphone on his left-hand windowsill. “General quarters, general quarters,” he called into it. “All hands to your action stations.” Returning the microphone to its holder, he shouted back to the radar compartment. “Tell me what you see, Sparks.”

“Radar is still crazy, sir, but I’m definitely picking up the three saucers dead ahead. Range one seven three zero and closing fast.”

“Give me the count,” Darrow called, as everyone watched the saucers zooming closer.

“Aye, sir. One six five zero. One five zero zero. Boy, they sure are fast!”

“Fifteen hundred feet,” muttered Stewart. “That doesn’t give us any room to maneuver.” Blimps were notoriously slow to turn, slower to climb, and almost impossible to dive.

“In about ten seconds, that will be a purely academic matter,” Darrow said.

“One three five zero sir! They’re accelerating!” No one in the control cabin, however, needed to be told that; the saucers were already beginning to blur as they steadily filled the panoramic windows. As the saucers approached, their throbbing whistle filled the control car, drowning out Sparks’ countdown.

“Nine zero zero!”

Professor Abbott shouted something to her daughter, standing behind Stewart.

“What?” Darrow yelled.

“I said, they should have fired by now!”

“Four five zero feet and accelerating!”

“Sound collision!” Stewart hit the alarm, but the jangling bell was lost in the overpowering noise generated by the saucers. It looked like the middle saucer would slam right through the control car.

“One hundred . . .”

And suddenly, the saucers were gone — two sweeping by on either side, and the middle one rocketing past just below the gondola. The sound faded just as quickly, leaving a cockpit full of stunned people.

After clearing his throat, Darrow called back, “Sparks! Where are they?”

“Two thousand yards astern already and opening up fast. Course two-six-five. They just ignored us like we weren’t even here,” he added, voicing the thought in everyone’s mind at that moment.

“Why didn’t they shoot us down?” Darrow asked no one in particular.

“Perhaps they were able to detect that we aren’t a threat,” ventured Professor Abbott.

“I’m not sure whether to be relieved or insulted,” Darrow said. “We’ll never be able to catch them.”

“For the moment, Captain, I think it would be more important to find out where they came from, rather than where they’re going.”

Darrow and Stewart turned to look at her in disbelief, then looked at each other in resignation. Dr. Abbott was right — unfortunately.

* * *

Sparks and Miss Abbott, the professor’s daughter, worked as a team to recalibrate the Peregrine’s sensitive radar gear. Darrow and the Professor stood behind them silently as they worked. Finally Sparks looked up at his commanding officer.

“I think I have it now, Skipper.”

“The location where the saucers first appeared?”

“Aye. It’s about four nautical miles due west of our current position.”

Darrow patted O’Casey on the shoulder. “Well done, Sparks. Keep your eyes open for any more surprises.” He began to walk balk to the blimp’s cockpit when Professor Abbott touched his elbow.

“Hold it, Captain. What are you expecting to find there?”

“I don’t know, Doctor Abbott. Presumably we’ll find out when we get there. But as you said, they apparently don’t consider this ship a threat, so I think it’s at least safe enough to take a look.”

“Shouldn’t we wait until the rest of the fleet arrives?”

“By then, it could be gone.”

“It, Captain? What exactly is it?”

Darrow took off his ball cap to scratch his scalp. “I don’t know, Doc. You’re the scientist, you tell me. Aren’t you curious?”

“The part of me that’s a professor of atomic physics is absolutely dying to go. The part of me that’s a mother to a daughter on board an airship that was just menaced by a trio of flying saucers is dead-set against it.”

“Mother!” protested Miss Abbott. “I’m an adult. You could have told me to stay at home if you were worried about me.”

Professor Abbott chuckled, stroking her daughter’s hair. “You’re absolutely right, Claudine. And you wouldn’t have stayed even if I had told you to.”

“You’ve got that right, Professor,” Miss Abbott said with a perky salute.

“Now that that’s settled,” Darrow said, pointing to the front of the ship, “mind if I go back to flying my blimp now?”

Professor Abbott threw a smart salute of her own. “Just tell us what you want us to do, Captain.”

“Miss Abbott, keep on helping Sparks here with the radar. Doc, do you think your gravitational whatever detector could be of any use in this situation?”

Professor Abbott nodded. “It can’t hurt, that’s for sure.” She turned and started climbing the ladder back up to the wardroom. “Just don’t go flying us into some parallel dimension without coming to get me first,” she called down behind her. “I wouldn’t want to miss that.”

* * *

“We should be nearing the spot any minute now,” said Darrow as he looked at his instrument panel. “Bring us around a few points to port.”

“Aye aye, Skipper.” Lieutenant Stewart turned the wheel gently to the left. “Do you know where we’re going yet?”

Darrow’s silence made Stewart turn his head to look. “Skip?”

Darrow pointed straight ahead. “There.”

Stewart turned back to follow Darrow’s finger. In the distance, he could see a dark circular smudge, like a photo-negative of the moon, hovering at roughly their altitude.

Before either of them could say anything, Miss Abbott ran into the cockpit.

“Sparks told me to tell you we’ve just started picking up . . . ” she saw the object through the front windows ” . . . that.”

“You’d better get your mother,” Darrow said with forced calmness. “She said that she didn’t want to miss any dimensional portals.”

Miss Abbott swallowed nervously and glanced at the mysterious orb one more time before hurrying out of the cockpit.

“Dimensional portal?” Stewart asked, incredulously.

Darrow shrugged. “That’s what the Doc said she didn’t want to miss. So I guess that’s what they look like.”

“Sounds good to me. They didn’t cover those in flight school.”

“I don’t think they cover them in anyone’s flight school. On this planet, at least.”

The two Abbotts arrived in the cockpit a few moments later. One look at the mysterious dark sphere, and the professor’s face beamed — for just a moment.

“Perhaps we study it from a distance for the moment, Captain,” she said.

“Yeah,” Darrow said. “I think you’re right. Stewie, idle us here, please.”

“Aye aye, sir.” Stewart slowly pulled back on the throttle levers. The descending pitch of the engines’ vibration was the only sound in the cockpit as the four of them stared at the large, dark object.

“Captain!” Sparks called from the radar cabin.

“I’ll go see,” said Miss Abbott, turning back through the cockpit door. A few moments later, she returned.

“The radar is picking up a flight of six saucers coming in behind us, heading right towards the dark spot.”

“Is it just me, or is it getting larger?” said Stewart.

“It’s not just you. Are we moving?”

Stewart looked at his controls. “No, Skip, we’re holding station.”

Professor Abbott could not keep the awe from her voice. “It expands and contracts to allow ships to pass through it. Probably by some sort of radio command.”

Darrow’s concern grew along with the size of the object, which had nearly filled the front windows, making it appear as if they were about to enter a long tunnel. “Well, I’d feel a lot safer if we were examining this interesting phenomenon from a nice, safe distance.”

“Agreed, Captain,” said Professor Darrow.

Darrow rammed the throttles to full speed. “Stew, bring us one hundred eighty degrees about.”

“Aye.” Stewart turned the wheel to the stops. But it seemed that the ship was now completely surrounded by the darkness. “Umm, Skipper . . . ”

* * *

Has the crew of the Peregrine indeed fallen into a tunnel that leads to another dimension? If so, what awaits them on the other end? Be sure not to miss the next exciting, thrilling, terrifying installment of . . . The Terror from the Other Dimension!

Categorised as: The Terror from the Other Dimension!

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