Thursday, July 2, 2026

"He Raised His Arm and Fired at Me!"

"Spacenet."
By Robert Andrea (pseudonym) (ISFDb HERE).
First appearance: Fantastic Universe, July 1958.
Short short short story (3 pages).
Online at SFFaudio (HERE).

   "I'm just trying to get the facts."

"DUM-DE-DUM-DUM!" Need we say more?

Principal characters:
~ Detective Sergeant Joe Lightyear, Captain Twilight, Fred Yeahyeah, Marzy Canal, Georgie's father, and Georgie.

References:
- "the Bug-Eyed Monster" (HERE; Wikipedia).
- "a well-known program." That would be Dragnet in its first TV incarnation (HERE and HERE; Wikipedia).
- "Dum-de-dum-dum!" (HERE; Wikipedia).
- "the visaphone" (HERE; Wikipedia).
- "on Venus" (HERE and HERE; Wikipedia).
- "landed on Mars" (HERE and HERE; Wikipedia).
- "for Alpha Centauri" (HERE and HERE; Wikipedia).
- "his atomic pistol" (HERE; Wikipedia) and (HERE; Atomic Rockets).

Resources:
- Other stories with the "Robert Andrea" byline that we've come across so far: "Ouija Board" (HERE; story 1) and "Tea Ceremony" (HERE; story 2).
- "Spacenet" seems to resonate with Richard Marsten's "End As a Robot" (HERE).
- Another BEM story is Don White's "Watch the Bug-Eyed Monster" (HERE; story 3).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.
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