Astounding British Edition, Vol. 6, No. 8 — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

a hE S, t en ee. Fanny ~ a » ee A — tog - —o Se ef ate eS ener - = — i i Oe a ‘. es ~<—— : a = == 99 their girders with the atomic units. The alien saw these and went over to inspect them, and Barden let him go. What possibly could have been familiar they did not know. The chances of an alien gasoline engine being instantly recognizable as such by a Terran is problematical. A simple electric motor might be—especially if connected to a storage battery, or even by @ wire cable to a wall outlet, Doubtless, the electron tube would be recognized by a spider-man from the other end of the galaxy, for the handling of electrons must be similar no matter where they are used. There will be cathodes and grids and anodes and con- necting prongs, wires, or terminals. _ The unprotected superdrive motor was not incased. It had been a job intended for test- stand operation and, refore, it could be inspected fairly well. Something about it was familiar, and one spot of familiarity was sufficient for the alien to reconstruct the rest. He nearly exploded with frantic gestures. He ran to Barden—his run was a swift waddle due to the wide leg-base—and clutched Tom’s arm. He pointed to the cut- apart spaceship and indicated that he wanted to go up into that pile to find something. Barden shrugged and nodded, and then fol- lowed the alien. : It was difficult for Barden, for the alien was sure-footed in his climb up the jagged edges to one section near the middle of the pile. He disappeared inside and found a piece of equipment, which he brought out. He set this upon the floor and returned with other equipment which he added to the original piece. Then taking the whole bunch in his arms, he led them up to the operations room. Here he put it on a table. Then he opened the main pre and drew out a two-pronged plug which he waved in Barden’s face, made plugging gestures into the blank wall, and then made searching motions. Barden pointed to the nearest convenience outlet, and the creature waddled to it with the rest of his equipment. He probed into the openings with test- leads and read the results on meters of his own. He showed Barden exactly what the meters should read. Barden nodded and they set to work matching their line-current to the alien’s specifications. It turned out to. be one hun- red ninety-three volts at seventy cycles. Meanwhile, one of Barden’s men replaced the alien’s plug with a Terran-type and they inserted it gingerly. The alien put a temple- set over his head and handed one to Barden. “This,” came the thought, “is an instru- _Ment used to extract information from enemies. It will serve as a means of com- munication.” “Why did you fire on us?” thought Barden. — = . - < lle a on _ - —~ S tl ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION a “You are alien. We are at war; in fact have been at war with the devils from that star—” and here came a mixed-impression of a distorted constellation that was not familiar to Barden, who was not too familiar with astronomy anyway, and so he passed it over. He stopped the alien momentarily, to send one of the men to tell Jerry Brandt to return to within a light-year or so of Procyon. “But,” continued the alien, “you are not using—that?”’ “Not exactly,” said Barden. “No, for that means death.” “We were going to try it out,” was Barden’s calm thought. “On— NO!” came the terrified reply. “Well,” returned Barden, “we're never pleased with red-hots who shoot at us!” “But an entire system?” came the pleading exclamation. “Filled with people of the same ilk,” returned Barden, unimpressed. “But even warfare must not be annihila- tion,” objected:the alien. “For of what value is a dead enemy?” “They are no longer any bother,” Barden grunted. “We dislike being bothered, and our will happens to be that we want to go wher- ever we choose at any time we please. A favorable attitude upon the part of any other culture is one that permits us our will. A dead culture will never obstruct us, for one thing. It will never revert to its original attitude of belligerency, for the second thing. And for the third thing, alien, with the inter- stellar drive we have, we can find those cul- tures in the galaxy which see exactly as we do, therefore it is to our advantage to elimin- ate any malcontefits right now.” “But what do you intend to do?” demanded the creature. “My system has been the tool of some other a The purpose is not clear, though the outcome might have been quite disastrous. I intend to find both that culture and their reasons and extract full payment!”’ “But how—?” . Barden smiled in a hard manner. “I intend to plant one of these unprotected space motors on one of your planets,” he said. “That is for my own protection. Then we'll “€ollect one of the enemy, and do likewise with his system. Then you and he will have your little talk—and you'll first call off this war or you'll both be enjoying novas in your own backyards. It’s about time that people learned how to get along with one another!” “But I have little authority.” “I have,” smiled Barden in a completely self-satisfied manner. “I have all the authority necessary to demand that your superiors and your scientists meet their con- temporaries of your enemy—and peace- “What are you going to do with me?” Comichbooksxeo