The Day the World Stopped

In the year 2020 A.D., not only the peace, but the continued existence of Earth as a habitable planet lay in the hands of two men: Carl C. Armitage, President of the United States, and Yu Lu-Wai, Chairman of Red China. Neither were fools; both knew that the employment of the dreadful weapons that had been perfected in recent decades would result not in victory, but universal ruin. Yet both were being pushed toward the moment when they would strike - preventive war - which they would persuade themselves would annihilate only the other, before the enemy could strike back. But it was not only the peoples of Earth who trembled under the weight of impending doom. For the Jupiter system was the home of a great race, humanoid in form - enough so that its inhabitants could disguise themselves as Earthmen - and the people of Omegricon had frequently sent intelligence expeditions to Earth, which they called Mugud or the Errant Planet. They knew how close to doom Earth was; and not only did they seek to avert events.