Donald A. Wollheim

“ At one end of the warp, they and their planet suddenly appear in what the instruments show to be empty space; at the other end, we appear out of nowhere, a strange ship headed for their planet. And, it must have seemed to them, that we went right through their planet, too. That planet of theirs, by the way, must be a tremendous one. Many times the mass and density of Jupiter. It's probably what causes the space-warp."
"What!" exclaimed Kendall. "You mean that thing's a permanent institution in space?" ”

“ It's either land or crash."
"We'll never be able to pass the planet. It's either land or crash."
"Then we crash," came the response.
"Man the guns!" yelled Broster. "Let's see how many we can take with us before we go."
The three others swung in the various weapons and trained them on the surrounding ships. Explosion-torpedo cannon, twin-rays for electric jolting comprised the types of offensive guns. They were getting very close to the planet, now. And it seemed as if the red ships were expecting the Astralite to slow down, for their beams shot occasionally in front of the earth-ship. ”

“ Yet space about them was empty!
"Look out!" called Seaward from the forward scope. "Here's more of them."
Coming around the planet from behind, spreading out along the side as if to form a welcoming arch were more of the weird ships.
"That ties it," exclaimed Broster. "We'll never be able to pass the planet. ”

“ A great flat plain of ruddy rock, a dread expanse of barren granite. This in the veriest fragment of a second, then—
A momentary shock, as if each man had received an electrical jolt; a sudden flash of intolerable red. Darkness. ”

“ In the air of another universe."
"It was all an illusion," explained Seaward. "The ships, the planet, everything. That is why none of these things registered on the space chart; there were no gravity waves emanating from them because they were not there."
Broster leaned back in his chair. "We've all known that there are many universes beside ours, separated from us by the fourth-dimensional space-time sheet. That was demonstrated by Marilus centuries ago. Laboratory experiments have produced images of other planets. ”