Aboriginal Science Fiction, Issues 57–58 — page 31: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

move unnoticed among the natives, but he took a delight in causing them pain and using them for his own ends. We were aware from correspondent TW/1329, Roger Woods, that an aberrant corre- spondent was operating in the sixteenth century. We suspect Taylor killed him.” “He killed a correspondent?” “He reverted to type.” “But ... but —” “We needed to gather evidence against Taylor, Correspondent AL/1556. No charges are held against you, and your report will make most interesting reading.” “But ... if you wanted the report anyway ...” Edward said helplessly. “It is unimportant.” “But am I really a correspondent? Or am I just a machine —” “You are a correspondent who was needed for this one mission. I shall now erase myself, and you will be a free agent again.” The thing was there for a second longer, then was gone, its mission fulfilled. Edward wondered how many other programs he had lodged in the back of his mind. He began to walk back towards Oxford, his mind already busy polishing up his report. Reverted to type? He could not put Taylor out of his mind. Things were whirling about in his mind and falling into place — a whole series of deductions from a small amount of data. Reverted to type. Taylor’s conditioning broke down and he reverted to type. What kind of man had Taylor been in the Home Time? The same as he was here? What would be the punishment for similar activity in the Home Time? A brain wipe? A life sentence? (Several life sentences ... ?) Was this how they got correspondents to vol- unteer? Edward stopped in his tracks at the thought. Were they all like Taylor, given the chance to redeem themselves by going into the past and living several lifetimes over — or not — to make it back home again? What kind of a man had he, Edward Smith, been in the Home Time? Was this why his memo- ry was so fuzzy? He forced these thoughts to the back of his mind. He was a correspondent first and foremost. He knew his duty and it lay with his masters, cen- turies hence. Taylor’s conditioning had taken seven cen- turies to crack, and Edward only had five cen- turies to go until he could transfer back. He could last that long. Surely ... LJ Correspondents issue, we hope to have even more color. some improvements. We hope to keep making improvements to the magazine as we rebuild its circulation. company to run the business side of the magazine — DNA Publications. the Fall 1998 issue. We hope the transition will be seamless. Beginning with the Fall issue, all sub- scription and change of address information will go to DNA, rather than here. operations, so this is the last issue you can send renewals to our postal box. We will continue to pro- duce the editorial material. Magnitude and Dreams of Decadence, and recently took over the business operations of Weird Tales. zines have is getting advertising. It is our belief that having these four publications under one oper- ation will provide strength, enough strength to obtain advertising. Renaissance Foundation, Inc., a not for profit 501 (C) (3) organization, that does not automatically put money in the till to pay writers, artists, print- ers, shippers, and the Postal Service — all of whom must be paid to keep issues coming out on a regu- lar basis. make the subscription and renewal price high enough to pay for all the operations, fewer people subscribe or renew, because they can get publica- tions that have advertising content at a cheaper price. In publications with 20 to 50 percent adver- tising, the ads subsidize the cost of the subscrip- tion. Though I suspect most of our readers don’t want to know all that, any more than they want to know how their sausages or Jell-o are actually made. participating magazines to save money in mailings to gather new subscribers, which will make all of them healthier. Editor’s Notes By Charles C. Ryan [ all has gone according to plan, this issue of Aboriginal should have a glossy cover again ...and some interior color illustrations. Next Yes, we've changed printers again. This time for Toward that end, we are hiring a management DNA will take over business operations with Likewise, DNA will handle all of the renewal DNA has experience publishing Absolute One of the biggest problems small press maga- While Aboriginal is owned by The 2nd Subscriptions alone don’t really do it. If you This joint operation will also allow each of the Wish us well in this venture. ‘eal Aboriginal Science Fiction — Summer 1998 CONMNICLOOOKSLGORN