On the night of the lunar eclipse, Paul Hagbolt, a publicist with Project Moon, was on his way to the Project's Vandenberg Two base when he was persuaded to take a detour. His companion had seen a sign that read, "This Way to the Flying Saucer Symposium," and couldn't resist checking it out. So Paul found himselfon a beach, surrounded by a diverse group of sky watchers, when the Wanderer first appeared in the heavens. Four times the diameter of the moon, streaming with its own eerily bloody and golden light, it seemed at first to be an atomic fireball - or the biggest flying saucer even the most ardent buff ever expected to see. The sheer impossibility of its existence, however, was belied by the ensuing massive earthquakes, and the havoc caused by immense tidal surges around the world as the mysterious body systematically disintegrated and digested the moon! How could so vast a planet suddenly appear out of the void? Who or what controlled such awesome power? What possible defense could the people of Earth have against it? To his astonishment, Paul Hagbolt would be among the first humans to learn the incredible truth.
 
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