Albert dePina 1 hr 4 min read

'We cannot fight, not now,' says the Council Leader; without allotropic metal the fleet is so much papier-mâché, and Venus still holds the secret of Vulcan base as ships keep vanishing.

Albert dePina's 1944 story is a colorful, atmospheric space opera of interplanetary war and lost secrets. Vivid, lush golden-age pulp. Read it for a rich tale of embattled worlds, mysterious disappearances, and the hunt for the key to victory beneath Venus.

In its time

Published in 1944, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

1 hr 4 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Murphy Anderson