The starship USS Enterprise was whizzing through space on an urgent mission. Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Lieutenant Scott were going to explore a gigantic unidentified planet. They did not know who lived there. But their mission was to find out. The three crewmen hurried into the transporter room and got ready to beam down on the surface of the planet. "Let's stick together, crew," said Captain Kirk. "This giant planet may be dangerous!"

 

No sooner had the crew beamed down than a tremendous giant captured them. They were trapped under three huge glass jars! "Ha-ha-ha-ha," roared the giant in a booming voice. "Now I have three little spacemen to use for my experiments. Maybe I'll turn you into giants -- or feed you to my rats!"

Captain Kirk tried to argue with the giant. "Let us go at once!" he said. "We did not come here to harm you. We came to explore this planet!" The giant could not hear Kirk's voice through the thick glass jar. But Captain Kirk could speak to his men through his communicator. "Listen carefully, crew," said the captain. "Here's what we have to do. Our only hope for escape is to melt these glass jars with our phasers. Then we'll run across the table in different directions. We must get back to the ship on the double. This giant means business!"

 

The crew melted the glass jars with their phasers. Captain Kirk, Spock, and Scotty scattered across the table -- all running in different directions. The giant tried to catch them, but he didn't know which man to grab first. They were too fast for him.

"STOP!" roared the giant. "You're harder to catch than mosquitoes!"

Mr. Spock shouted into his communicator: "Enterprise! Emergency! Beam us back to the ship at once."

 

 

A moment later the crew appeared in the transporter room of the starship.

"That was a close one, Captain," said Scotty. "I don't think I would have liked being fed to a giant rat!"

Captain Kirk told Mr. Spock to put the gigantic planet on the starmap. "And inform Headquarters about the giant, Mr. Spock," said the captain. "They'll take care of him. We don't want any other starships to lose crew members in his laboratory."

Once again, the Enterprise went speeding through space.