Astounding British Edition, Volume 8, No. 11 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

8 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION “He didn’t say, sir,” the other replied. Harris relaxed visibly. “All right,” said Blick, “Let’s get ‘mov- ing!” He walked behind the desk and plum- ped into the colonel’s chair. Hoisting his feet on\the desk he gave his first command. “Take him away!” There was a sudden roar from the far corner of the room. “No you don’t!” shouted Kurt. His battle-axe leaped into his hand as he jumped in front of Colonel Harris, his muscular body taut and his gray eyes flashing defiance. Blick jumped to his feet. “Disarm that man!” he commanded. There was a certain amount of scuffling as the officers .in the front of the group by the door tried to move to the rear and those behind them resolutely defended their more protected positions. Blick’s face grew so purple that he seemed on the verge of apoplexy. “Major Kane,” he demanded, “place that man under restraint!” Kane advanced toward Kurt with a noticeable lack of enthusiasm. Keeping a cautious eye on the glittering axe head, he said in what he obviously hoped to be a placating voice, “Come now, old man. Can’t have this sort of thing, you know.” He stretched out his hand hesitantly toward Kurt. “Why don’t you give me your axe and we'll forget that the incident ever occurred.” Kurt’s axe suddenly leaped toward the major’s head. Kane stood petrified as death whizzed toward him. At the last split second Kurt gave a practiced twist to his wrist and the axe jumped up, cutting the air over the major’s head with a vicious whistle. The top half ef his silver staff plume drifted slowly to the floor. “You want it,” roared Kurt, his axe flicking back and forth like a snake’s ton- gue, “you come get it. That goes for the rest of you, too!” The little knot of officers retreated still farther. Colonel Harris was having the time of his life. “Give it to ’em, son!” he whooped. Blick looked contemptuously at the staff and slowly drew his own axe. Colonel Harris suddenly stopped laughing. “Wait a minute, Blick!” he said. ‘This has gone far enough.” He turned to Kurt. “Give them your axe, son.” Kurt looked at him with an expression of hurt bewilderment in his eyes, hesitated for a moment, and then glumly surrendered _ his weapon to.the relieved major. “Now,” snarled Blick, “take that insolent puppy out and feed him to the lizards!” — Kurt drew himself up in injured dignity. “That is no way to refer to a brother officer,” he said reproachfully. The vein in Blick’s forehead started to pulse again. “Get him out of here before I tear him to shreds!” he hissed through clenched teeth. There was silence for a moment as he fought to regain control of himself. Finally he succeeded. “Lock him up!” he said in an approxima- tion to his normal voice, “Tell the provost sergeant I'll send down the charges as soon as I can think up enough.” Kurt was led resentfully from the room. “The rest of you clear out,” said Blick. “T want to talk with Colonel Harris about the LG.” CHAPTER VI. THERE was a saying in the Protectorate that when the Lord Protector was angry, stars and heads fell. Commander Krogson felt his wobble on his neck. His far-sweeping scouts were sending back nothing but reports of equipment failure, and the sector commander had coldly informed him that morning that his name rested securely at the bottom of the achievement list. It looked as if War Base Three would shortly have a change of command. “Look, Schninkle,” he said desperately, “even if we can’t give them anything, couldn’t we make a promise that would look good enough to take some of the heat off _ us?” Schninkle looked dubious. “Maybe a new five-year plan?” suggested _ Krogson. The little man shook his head. “That’s a subject we'd better avoid entirely,” he said. “They’re still asking nasty questions about what happened to the last one. Mainly on the matter of our transport quota. I took the - liberty of passing the buck on down to ae Logistics. Several of them have been = pe # eh . ... removed as a consequence.” <5 “Serves them right!” snorted Krogson. “They got me into that mess with their ‘if a freighter and a half flies a light year and a half in a month and a half, ten freighters can fiy ten light years in ten months! I knew there was something fishy about it at the time but couldn’t put my finger on it.” “It’s always darkest before the storm,” ; said Schninkle helpfully. 3 . CONNIE DOOK<SACOM