Astounding Science Fiction, June 1944 (British Edition)

Astounding Science-Fiction, June 1944

This issue presents five science fiction stories. "Off the Beam" by George O. Smith concerns the spaceship Solar Queen traveling from Mars to Terra. Communications engineer Don Channing boards the vessel, which employs a one-way beam relay system from Venus Equilateral—ships cannot transmit back. During routine cathode replacement, a catastrophic coincidence occurs: a meteor impacts the ship at precisely the moment a relay fails, disabling the autopilot. The meteor damages the pilot room and drive controls, sending the Solar Queen accelerating uncontrollably at 10-G for ten hours, adding thousands of miles per second to its velocity. The ship overshoots Earth and careens into space toward Mars's orbit. Channing, alone conscious due to his protective gravanol treatment, must find a way to signal for rescue. The issue also includes "The Anarch" by Malcolm Jameson and shorter fiction by Lester del Rey, Fritz Leiber Jr., and Isaac Asimov.