Description

In 1955, Dr. Randolph Warren is on the verge of a breakthrough that could carry humanity beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Inside a university laboratory, a vast aluminum sphere, charged belts, powerful magnets, and a precious vacuum tube—sealed in the emptiness of space—form the heart of his dangerous experiment. Every instrument has been chosen with care, and every volt is measured against the possibility of opening a path to interplanetary travel.

But Warren’s assistant, Tom Blamen, is impatient to see what the machine can do. As the charge climbs toward seventeen million volts, he takes a fateful liberty with the controls, sending a colossal surge through the evacuated tube. The result is more than a spectacular discharge: something unexpected answers from the experiment, leaving Warren frozen in alarm. Combining bold scientific speculation with tense laboratory drama, this classic science-fiction adventure begins with an inventor’s dream—and the terrifying question of what may lie beyond the limits of known space.