The Sky Trap

On the stratoship Perseus, hard-bitten First Officer Dave Lawton prides himself on discipline, boxing, and the "safety valves" that keep human nature in check. But when the ship suddenly lurches and then hangs motionless twenty thousand feet above the Atlantic, his confidence turns to alarm. With Captain Forrester and the baffled pilots unable to explain the impossible, Lawton begins a methodical investigation that leads to a terrifying discovery: the vessel is trapped inside a vast invisible sphere, like the inside of a giant soap bubble, sealed by a strange rubbery shell. The crisis deepens when engine trouble poisons the air and the crew is forced to breathe a thin, dangerous mixture outside the ship. Then the bubble's interior erupts into grotesque alien plant life, growing with impossible speed and filling the sky with foul, choking menace. As panic spreads, Lawton fights to hold the crew together with chemicals, force, and sheer will, even as he suspects evolution itself has been accelerated into nightmare. In the end, only grim courage, luck, and the Perseus's return to normal radio contact save them—though not before they glimpse the monstrous life beneath them and the story's final hint that another scientific experiment is about to go wrong. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.