Astounding Science Fiction, February 1952 (British Edition)

This British edition of Astounding Science Fiction (Vol. VIII, No. 2, February 1952) features science fiction stories with emphasis on problem-solving expeditions and cosmic threat.

The featured novelette "City of the Phoenix" by M.C. Pease concerns a Weapons Search Commission expedition to the planet Torlinda. An initial expedition discovered an ancient, sealed City—a seven-level technology machine built 2500 years prior to contain humanity while a degenerate atomic fire made the planet temporarily uninhabitable. The present mission sends mathematician Ter Ahnkhart and pilot Meik Lanfrot to investigate. The City harbors a weapon of thirteenth-level technology capable of draining power from vessels' drives—similar to Slug invader ships. The Slugs, having invaded from galaxy's edge two centuries prior, now control a third of the Federation; humanity desperately needs this ancient weapon. An inscription warns visitors that the City guards "the spark that is all that remains of Man" and references a mythological Phoenix cycle, suggesting the City itself may be temporary. The incomplete excerpt cuts off mid-dialogue as the pair contemplates paradoxes within the message's implications.