An Alien Hand is a story set in Mars where Tilloo lives with his parents beneath the surface of the planet under artificial conditions. Tilloo's father went for work every day through a special passage which was forbidden for him, but he was curious to know what was there. Once his father was asleep and Tilloo stole the plastic card that his father used to go to his work place. He walked along the passage and reached a big door. He inserted the card in the slot and reached the surface of the planet. First he looked up as he wanted to see the sun if it was day and stars if it was night. He had hardly walked a few steps when he was detected by the security system and taken to the control room from where he was sent back home. His mother was furious. He asked his father if he could go on the surface of the planet . His father told him how his ancestors used to live on the surface of the planet earlier and sun grew so hot that first birds vanished, then animals and then gradually they had to take refuge underground under artificial condition. They had systems working on the surface that monitored the artificial condition and his father was one of the team members. 

One day in the control room on the surface of the planet, every one was glued to the screen which showed a spacecraft coming towards the planet. They got the news that two space crafts were heading towards the planet and one of them had already surrounded the planet. The President holds a meeting with his group and decide not to interfere with the space craft.They also had the information that there were only machines which had come to take samples to test if there was life on that planet. 

Tilloo goes to his father's office and while everyone watches the movement of the space craft he is attracted by the buttons on the screen and presses the red button which makes the big mechanical hand stop working. It starts working again after the efforts of the planet it was sent from. It digs samples from the surface and ultimately it is declared that there is no life on Mars.