A research spaceship from Earth lands on Saybrook's Planet to investigate a report by an earlier colony ship. The colony ship's captain, Saybrook, had reported that the planet's abundant plant and animal life was all part of a single organism with a unified consciousness. That organism was able to induce pregnancy in all the colony ship's female animals, and all the offspring born had green patches of fur instead of eyes, a sign that they were part of the planetary organism. When Saybrook had the women in his crew examined and confirmed that they were all pregnant, he sent a sub-ether report back to Earth and then destroyed his ship. The crew of the research ship confirms Saybrook's report, while carefully preventing any life from the planet from coming on board, then returns to Earth to recommend that Saybrook's Planet be quarantined. Unknown to the research ship's crew, they carry a stowaway — a part of the planet's fauna specially bred to resemble a length of wiring. If the stowaway manages to reach Earth, it will eventually convert all life there into a single organism with a unified consciousness — and green patches of fur instead of eyes.
The invasion is thwarted when the stowaway is accidentally killed after the research ship lands on Earth; the wiring it was impersonating controlled the ship's airlock doors, and it was incinerated when they were activated.
tomorrow, the Stars is an anthology of speculative fiction short stories, presented as edited by Robert A. Heinlein and published in 1952.
Heinlein wrote a six-page introduction in which he discussed the nature of science fiction, speculative fiction, escapist stories, and literature. None of the stories had previously been anthologized. According to science-fiction historian Bud Webster, however, Heinlein's introduction and name on the book were his sole contributions; the actual selection of the stories, and the work involved in arranging for their publication, was done by Frederik Pohl and Judith Merril. This is confirmed by Virginia Heinlein in Grumbles from the Grave (without mentioning Pohl or Merril) and by Pohl in chapter 6 of his autobiography, The Way the Future Was (Del Rey 1978). However, the correspondence between Heinlein and Merril, now housed in Library and Archives Canada, shows that while Heinlein claimed to be uninvolved in the editing, he certainly had some input into the structure and contents of the book:
I am the lowest form of literary prostitute, swindling the public into thinking that I have done a piece of editing which I aint done and aint going to do ... On the issue of whether or not the volume should have a theme: I don’t give a hoot about a theme; I’d like to see stories picked for highest possible entertainment value. I can’t think of any other real excuse for putting out another S-F anthology ... I'll be of more help, I hope, a month from now when I can get at my files of magazines and books. (Heinlein to Merril and Pohl, 26 June 1951)
The Stories[edit]
"I'm Scared" by Jack Finney, 1951
"The Silly Season" by Cyril M. Kornbluth, 1950
"The Report on the Barnhouse Effect" by Kurt Vonnegut, 1950
"The Tourist Trade" by Bob Tucker, 1950
"The Rainmaker" by John Reese, 1949
"Absalom" by Henry Kuttner, 1946
"The Monster" by Lester del Rey, 1951
"Jay Score" by Eric Frank Russell, 1941
"Betelgeuse Bridge" by William Tenn, 1950
"Survival Ship" by Judith Merril, 1950
"Keyhole" by Murray Leinster, 1951
"Misbegotten Missionary" by Isaac Asimov, 1950
"The Sack" by William Morrison, 1950
"Poor Superman" by Fritz Leiber, 1951
