Mystery in Space # 40Mystery in Space # 40

October-November, 1957

Interplanetary Speedway

Writer: Otto Binder

Penciller: Gil Kane

Inker: Bernard Sachs

Synopsis: Space Cabby picks up his cab from his meachanic, who offers to let him not pay for the repairs if he'd just race him and his spacemobile to Pluto. Bret Bruce, the mechanic, shows Space Cabby his new invention, an electronic brain that can automatically pilot a spaceship. The two of them take off, and Bret's electronic pilot plots the course more quickly, manages to weave its way through a meteor swarm that Space Cabby is forced to go around, and detects a mirage that fools Space Cabby and causes him to attempt to go around it. Bret's automatic spacemobile is far ahead of Space Cabby when Space Cabby hears an SOS which he thinks he'll have to stop for, until he realizes that Bret's ship is closer. He imagines being out of a job due to the automatic pilot. However, when he lands on Pluto, Bret's not there. Soon, Space Cabby hears a newscast of a robbery in which the thieves got away in a ship that managed feats that Space Cabby recognized as only being achievable with Bret's automatic ship. He realizes that the SOS must have been Bret's, when space-bandits captured his ship to use it in their robberies. Space Cabby decides that even through the electronic pilot is faster than his cab, he can catch the thieves, trapping them by broadcasting a message that he has the plans for the automatic pilot device. The thieves take the bait, and Space Cabby blinds them with a flare and captures them. Once Space Cabby has handed the bandits over to the police, Bret decides that to avoid problems like that in the future, he'll give exclusive rights to his invention to the Interplanetary Police. Space Cabby is relived that the invention won't be driving space-taxis in the near future...a relief he questions as he sits bored waiting for a fare.


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