The quirky mind of famous SF writer Lester del Ray gives us three wonderful tales ranging from zombies , time travel and eternal life . Listen and enjoy.

The old space freighter Wahoo is all Dr. Pietro can afford for his expedition to the rings of Saturn. Although built for a crew of 6 the good doctor crams 19 people into the Wahoo, and after 5 months they are really getting on each other's nerves. Then someone starts killing people and poisoning the air giving plants in the hydroponics bay. Can our hero Paul Tremaine find the killer before he suffocates? Perhaps you should hold your breath. - Let'em Breathe Space was first published in the July 1953 edition of Space Science Fiction magazine.

Lester del Rey was a Golden Age science fiction author and editor closely connected to John W. Campbell Jr. and Astounding Science Fiction magazine. He also founded Del Rey Books, a popular publishing label he edited with his wife Judy-Lynn. Victory is the story of an undefended Earth in a warring galaxy. It appeared in the August 1955 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.

Eighteen men and two women in the closed world of a space ship for five months can only spell tension and trouble-but in this case, the atmosphere was literally poisoned. Who is trying to kill them and sabotage the mission? And why would they be doing this when they will die too? A deadly mystery unfolds inside the cramped space ship with fear growing daily as their air runs out.

"Wilbur Hawkes wakes with no memory of the last seven months. He knows he's in danger, but he doesn't know why. No sooner does he leave his apartment than it explodes in flames, and, to escape, he must run through New York, not knowing where to run, or who he is running from. With heat rays, disintegrating men, and exploding cats, how can this not involve aliens? What other explanation can there be? - Summary by Dale Grothman"

Set in the early 22nd century: Dr. Daniel Feldman, stripped of rank and status and named pariah for violating Medical Lobby rules, stows away on a spaceship and flees to Mars Colony. There, while essentially practicing medicine without a license, he stumbles upon a plague organism indigenous to Mars, that threatens the whole colony and potentially the human race. Performing research to identify a cure, (also in gross violation of Medical Lobby rules) he must risk his life to buck the entrenched bureaucracy, bent on sweeping the whole matter under the rug in the name of political expediency. - Summary by Thomas Rose

Bruce Gordon looked at his ticket, grimaced at the ONE WAY stamped on it, then tore it into bits and let the pieces scatter over the floor. He counted them as they fell; thirty pieces in all, one for each year of his life. Little ones for the two years he'd wasted as a cop. Shreds for the four years as a kid in the ring before that--he'd never made the top. Bigger bits for two years also wasted in trying his hand at professional gambling; and the six final pieces that spelled his rise from special reporter helping out with a police shake-up coverage, through a regular leg-man turning up rackets, and on up like a meteor until.... He'd made his big scoop, all right. He'd dug up enough about the Mercury scandals to double circulation. And the government had explained what a fool he'd been for printing half of a story that was never supposed to be printed until all could be revealed. They'd given Bruce Gordon his final assignment... (Summary by Christian Alexander and Excerpt of Chapter 1)

After dying in a terrible accident at a building site, Dave Hanson finds himself being brought back to life in a world where magic is real, and where the sky is breaking apart and falling. And he is expected to put it back together again. Will he be able to save this strange world, and his own new life? (Summary by Karen Savage)