Henry Kuttner's "The Eyes Of Thar" (short story, first contact, free): A meeting of two universes

Among the less interesting stories of Kuttner. And there is a distinct feel of early C L Moore here.

Story is set on Mars. Title refers to two moons of Mars - the twin "Eyes of Thar", according to a local legend.

Story summary.

Samuel Dantan, a human, long hunting the "men" of Martian "Redhelm Tribe" as price of his revenge for killing of his (Martian?) girlfriend long back in a raid by Redhelms, is finally cornered - alone, unarmed, pursued by a group of Redhelms.

This is the situation in which he discovers the ancient buried lab of a Martian scientist named Sanfel, now dead for centuries. Lab has a device that opens a portal into a world called "Zha" in another universe - a universe with different laws of Physics, where even time behaves very differently.

Sanfel built this gateway to help Quiana, a "woman" there cornered by an "Enemy". Since Sanfel is long dead, Dantan will end up helping Quiana, & will in turn get help ridding of his own Redhelms pursuers.

See also.

1. C L Moore's "The Bright Illusion": Aliens who're unsafe to look at for humans because of the light patterns they make. A man must be especially armored to look at them.
   Aliens in this story are similarly unsafe to look at unarmored.

Fact sheet.

First published: Planet Stories, Fall 1944.
Download full text from Internet Archive or from this unnamed site.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner.