Writer: Gardner Fox

Penciller: Sid Greene

Inker: Sid Greene

Synopsis: In space near Earth, the three Star Rovers communicate with each other from within their spaceships. Rick Purvis tells them that he's forced to leave Earth forever, as it will be fatal for him to ever set foot there again. Karel Sorensen and Homer Glint act surprised and say that the same is true of them. Rick suggests that they share their stories, as there might be a clue to how their conditions can be cured that they had each missed. Rick goes first, and tells of how he was on the planet Altara riding a surfboard that was pulled by a sea-serpent called a gorthon. Rick tells them that he knew the gorthon lived in a poisonous sea, but figured he'd have time to let go before the creature reached its home. Suddenly, the gorthon's natural enemy, a bird called a rhynthsor, attacked, and Rick tried to drive it away. While doing this, Rick got tangled up in his rope and was unable to free himself before the gorthon reached the poisonous sea. Rick tells the others that he managed to make his way to some glowing stones which saved his life, but that doctors told him that if he ever returned to Earth's heavier gravity, the poisons would be re-activated and he's die. Karel and Homer both say they can't find anything in the story to disprove the fact that Rick can't return to Earth. Homer then tells Karel to tell her story, mentioning that he had heard about it on the news. She tells them that she had been invited to the planet Xar to judge a beauty contest. Shortly before the contest, one of the contestants, Azalla, was missing, and Karel went to find her. She found Azalla in a cave hiding from a deadly mobile tree. Karel shot at the tree to no effect, and the tree pursued Karel until she stepped on a red rock. Karel, realizing that the tree did not like the rock, started blasting chips off the rock at an angle which sent those chips at the tree. Karel managed to seriously weaken the tree, and the tree blasted Karel with blue bubbles in its dying throes, which, as Azalla tried to warn her, but too late, turned her face blue. Azalla led Karel to glowing radioactive stones which could cure the blue illness if she stepped on them and bathed in their rays, although looking at the stones would blind her. She made her way from stone to stone by shooting downward and hearing the bullet ricochet off the next rock, but was told that if she returned to an Earth-gravity world, the blue death would return and kill her. Homer comments that he can't find any flaw in her story either and then proceeds to tell his own. Homer was on the planet Zorn, trying to retrieve a gen with healing properties called a kleep. The kleep was guarded by a shape-changing, man-killingbeast called a xlaloc, which Homer hoped to avoid by using an invention that would reveal the Xlaloc by turning it yellow when his light-beam touched it. Homer shone his light beam on some rocks and they turned yellow, but after he shot the rock, the xlaloc revealed itself to Homer and told Homer that the rock Homer had shot was an ordinary rock that turns yellow when exposed to green light, such as that in Homer's beam. The xlaloc then shot Homer with a shrinking ray. Homer threw his gun at the xlaloc and shot the surprised creature from a distance using a remote-control device he secretly owned. By killing the xlaloc, Homer regained his normal size, but was told he could not return to Earth's gravity, least he shrink again. Karel then tells the boys they'd been lying, as she sees that the gravity gauges in their spaceships are set to Earth's gravity, unlike her own, which is set to half that, which would kill them if their stories are true. They admit to having made up their stories in order for the three of them to stay together in exile from Earth without making her feel that she's responsible for it. Rick then realizes that although Karel's skin turned blue, her hair didn't, and he suggests that maybe something can be extracted from her hair to make an antidote to the blue death. They land on the moon, and several days later, after scientists there have found the substance that made her hair immune and made a cure out of it, the three Star Rovers return to Earth, happy that they can stay together on their home planet.

All characters and images are copyright DC Comics.

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