An excellent A. E. van Vogt Novella

Once they had been normal men. But when the aliens took possession of their bodies, they became immortal, able to read minds; predict and change the future; possessors of weapons more powerful than Earth had ever known. Then their invading masters, with infinite care, made their immortal puppets hate ordinary men. But because they still looked and acted like everyone else, there was no way to tell who they were - until they attacked!

Synopsis: Four astronauts set off for the Centauri system in a slower than light craft, utilizing their new discovery of suspended animation. The next great stride—to the distant stars, five centuries through space across the span of light years.This was the Great Adventure—across the span of light-years of space to Centaurus, across the span of five centuries the trip would take —to be first of men to reach another star!

There was menace in M 33—menace that saturated the whole galaxy.Yet it wasn’t an alien, intelligent and belligerent race. No planet inthe galaxy bore a dangerous life-form. But the destroyer was there—

From the closed-circuit TV screen, Lilgin’s face looked out at Higenroth. The Dictator smiled cynically.‘Professor, it has been proved that men talk under pressure. Your wife, now... she’s very attractive. Not too long ago, Professor, a man wouldn’t tell us his secrets. We had his wife torn to pieces before his eyes. He talked. We think that you will talk as it starts to happen to a wife who is expecting your child.’Higenroth held his breath. How would this creature react, he wondered, when he discovered what pressure he was already under? Any moment now...As if the expectation were a signal, there was a muffled cry from somewhere behind Higenroth. One of the Dictator’s aides was sitting up; he wore earphones.The man screeched, ‘Your excellency, this scene - what you’re doing and saying here - is being broadcast everywhere!’

A recruiting station; a storefront in the heart of a big-city downtown. Young men can volunteer to join the armies of a beleaguered new democracy overseas.But the recruitment is a scam. Each volunteer goes, not to the Calonian army, but through a pulsing machine which moves them hundreds of centuries up the time line, to become cannon fodder in a war which is shaking the universe.Two present-day humans are taking on this mammoth military machine. Their chances are miniscule. Their only hope is to save a few lives before giving up their own. But playing tricks with Time can lead to unexpected results.* Original title, in magazine serial, was "Recruiting Station."* Also published by Ace Books as "Earth's Last Fortress."

A collection of short stories by A. E. van Vogt(1939) Black Destroyer(1940) The Gryb (1940) Vault of the Beast (1941) Not the First (1942) Co-Operate - Or else! (1942) Rebirth: Earth (1942) Secret Unattainable (1942) The Second Solution (1943) The Great Engine (1943) The Invisibility Gambit aka Abdication (1944) The Harmonizer (1945) Heir Unapparent (1945) The Mixed Men (1946) Film Library (1947) The Barbarian (1947) The Cataaaa (1948) Ship of Darkness (1948) The Great Judge (1948) The Rull (1949) Final Command (1949) The Problem Professor (1950) The Process (1951) Fulfillment (1951) The First Martian (1963) Itself! (1965) The Replicators (1966) The Ultra Man (1971) The Rat and the Snake (1972) Ersatz Eternal (1979) Enchanted Village

They were strange people, those inhabitants of Earth 12,000 years after the Galactic War. They possessed the power of the atom, they had real space-ships, but they did not understand how they worked and they did not know the elementary principles of science. But the strangest among them was the young man, Clane, mutant son of the ruling family.Clane should have been destroyed—for that was the rule for such freaks. But when he miraculously survived, it was to be the start of a chain reaction of super-scientific miracles that would either remold the solar system on a higher scale or reduce it once again to utter barbarism.A. E. van Vogt has produced a thrilling novel of the far future, geared to marvels and keyed to high adventure.