Mystery in Space # 83
May, 1963
Who Went Where -- and Why?
Writer: Gardner Fox
Penciller: Sid Greene
Inker: Sid Greene
Synopsis: The Star Rovers are sitting in a restaurant in New York City swapping stories when suddenly, they hear a news report that the Star Rovers are approaching New York spaceport. Knowing that the people that are being reported are impostors, they get into their spaceships to head for the spaceport and before they land, they spot the impostors and vow to expose them. They land their spaceships at what they think is New York spaceport, but when they open their doors, Homer, Karel and Rick find themselves on an ice world, a water world and a desert world, respectively. Homer, wondering how he got there and who their imitators are, thinks about his most recent adventure, about how he was hunting for new game on the planet Drahut and came across a computer amonst the ruins of an ancient city. The computer created a duplicate of Homer, which hunted the real Homer, until the real Homer managed to catch him in an animal light-trap. He had tried interrogating the duplicate, but it had faded away. Karel also recalls an adventure she had recently, on the planet Lallikal. She had been hunting polypods, creatures which have rare jewels inside them, but which release paralyzing burrs when threatened. During her hunt, she came across a giant brain, which wanted to absorb her brain into itself, and in order to do so, he had to hold her still. To do this, the brain created a duplicate of her. Karel's gun was only designed to shoot the ploypods, but she measured the wind and shot a polypod in position to hit her duplicate with the paralyzing burrs. However, her duplicate continued to move and advance on her, so she decided to try that tactic again, but this time on the giant brain, which did end up paralyzed, causing her duplicate to disappear. Rick as well thinks of his most recent adventure, which took place on the desert world of Ywal. He was looking for a new and interesting obstacle course, when on that world, he found a long glass tunnel with wires strung through it, which sportsmen wearing jet-packs could race through. He had been about to take it, when suddenly, and energy being named Orgal told him that the tunnel belonged to him and he did not allow it to be taken. Orgal then decided that since Rick was a sportsman, he'd give Rick a sporting chance: if Rick can win a race through the tube, he could have it; otherwise, he can never leave that planet. Rick accepts the challenge, and Orgal creates a duplicate of Rick to race against the real Rick. The duplicate seems to have the upper hand, when suddenly, Rick realizes that he could use his shadow to show him the way to avoid the wires. Armed with this knowledge, Rick beat his duplicate and took the tunnel. Hours later, the three Star Rovers all meet on Drahut, as they realize that of the three, only the computer that encountered Homer had created a solid duplicate...Karel's duplicate was unaffected by the paralysis burrs, and Rick's cast no shadow, so they must have been immaterial...and the Rover impostors left footprints, so must have been solid. The trio goes to the computer, each armed with a weapon that he or she is sure can destroy it. The computer reveals to them that it was created to protect the people of Drahut, but a natural disaster struck and killed them all before it could plan a defense of the planet. The computer then tells them that it created the duplicates in order that they convince people to resettle on its world, and teleported the other Star Rovers far away so that they would not interfere with the duplicates' lies. The Star Rovers use all three of their weapons together to destroy the computer, and they succeed, although the three had each thought that the others' weapon ideas were better than their own, so each one used the weapon suggested by one of the others.
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