TO OUTER SPACE

First Published on 12th September 1957 - 184 pages

 

After being again collected from Glensalich Castle by Vargo, Borron and their crew, the Professor, Tiger, Toby and Rex return to space after a three month gap. Vargo tells them all about the planet Ando whilst they travel to Mars and Rex sees another spaceship which appears to be technologically superior to their spacecraft, the Tavona. Landing on Mars, our heroes are amazed at the progress of the work of reconstruction of the planet. Rex meets Rolto, who warns that he believes the mysterious ships that are being seen, spell danger. Flying on to first Mino and then the planet Marlok, a stone age planet, they find it to be under observation from one of the unknown spaceships. The unknown ship lands and is attacked by the inhabitants of Marlok. It tries to take off, but crashes into the forest. The Tavona flies on the Ando. Here, the peace loving and unarmed Andoans are startled to learn that the planet Lornica in the Andoan system has been attacked by the mysterious unknown spaceships. Rex is teaching the local boys football, when three unknown spaceships arrive on Ando. These ships land and kill some harmless Andoans. Tiger gets his rifle and shoots three of the invaders dead and this prompts the ships to leave. One of the ships later crashes probably bought down by Tiger's rifle. Borron takes Toby back to Earth in the Tavona to get more rifles. Tiger, Rex and Vargo go on another spaceship on a recognisance flight to Lornica, where survivors of the attack on the planet are found hiding out in caves. Here a spaceship attacks them with some sort of heat ray weapon. Tiger is convinced that only one ship has this weapon and resolves to attack it on the ground. Tiger leads the raid and manages to sabotage the spaceship. More fighting takes place and eventually the Tavona returns. Suddenly and bizarrely, the hostile spaceships leave, only to be pursued by a fleet of twenty small, black, cigar-shaped objects, spacecraft of a type as yet unseen. This new fleet destroys the hostile ships. The new spacecraft then start to drop white bombs, which seem to spread a deadly gas that spreads like water. Our heroes leave Lornica in the spacecraft they came in. Landing on a planet of flowers, a crewmember is badly poisoned by their stings. Moving on to a planet of insects, our heroes see an Andoan ship crash and rescue some survivors. When the insects of the planet start to make their presence felt, the spacecraft our heroes are in is captured by a flight of the hostile black spaceships and dragged by some form of tractor beam. They are released when the black ships encounter a fleet of the original unknown spaceships and a battle commences between the two fleets. However, they now find themselves lost in space! Rex sees a bright fog covered planet and realises it is Lornica - now covered by the lethal gas that was released there. Returning to Ando, everyone is surprised to see one of the original mysterious spaceships there. It is one that Tiger has attempted to sabotage. Two of the crew have been wounded and Toby tends to them. Cordial relations are then established between the different beings and it is hoped that there is no more need for hostilities. The Tavona then takes everybody back to Mino and then onto Mars, before returning them to the Professor's home in Scotland.

 

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To Outer Space

Subtitle - The fourth space voyage of Rex Clinton as one of Professor Brane's companions in exploration. Not only does the party find strange new worlds in Outer Space, but they also run into interplanetary war - in which "Tiger" Clinton's RAF experience is very useful.

Publication Details - published by Hodder and Stoughton

 

 

First Edition

 

Frontispiece

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Original first edition boards

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