DEAD MAN’S PLANET

Episode #408 · Written by Russ Winterbotham · Narrated by Scott Miller

A disabled freighter sets down on a drifting asteroid, and what should be a routine repair turns into a discovery no chart ever recorded. In the dim light of Jupiter, cultivated rows stretch across bare rock, buds glow with lethal energy, and a narrow path leads to a human-made airlock buried beneath the sand. Someone has claimed this frozen stone and transformed it into something almost recognizable.

Inside, the spacemen meet Ghor, a solitary figure who insists he was born on this airless world. Around him, alien weeds have been reshaped into roses, trees, bread, and corn that tastes like Earth. The plants regenerate when cut, divide into new individuals, and defend themselves with bursts of organic radioactivity. What looks like ingenuity begins to feel like a siege. As mobile stalks close in and the valley fills with hostile growth, the visitors must decide whether to flee, fight, or trust the strange host whose very existence defies explanation.

“Dead Man’s Planet” builds tension through physical detail—low gravity leaps, crackling pellets that scorch rock, and a valley that seems to move of its own will. The mystery is not simply how life thrives here, but what that life has become. By the time the final revelation arrives, the meaning of heroism on this small world has shifted in a way few stories dare attempt.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Russ Winterbotham was a prolific contributor to American science fiction magazines in the 1940s and 1950s, with stories appearing in Planet Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Startling Stories, and Amazing Stories. His fiction often blended speculative biology with brisk adventure, placing ordinary spacemen in extraordinary environments. Beyond the pulps, Winterbotham wrote for early television, including the pioneering series Captain Video and His Video Rangers, bringing science fiction concepts to one of the medium’s first space heroes. “Dead Man’s Planet” reflects his magazine-era strengths: tight pacing, vivid planetary hazards, and a final turn that forces readers to reconsider what it means to be human.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to Dead Man’s Planet by Russ Winterbotham — a vintage science fiction tale of a hostile asteroid, regenerative plants, and a shocking revelation.

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