Astounding British Edition, Volume 8, No. 11 — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

THE SPECTER GENERAL them surging across the scope in the form of sharp-toothed sine waves. There was an odd peak to them, a strength and sharpness that he hadn’t seen before. _ “Doesn’t look familiar,” he muttered to himself, “but I'd better check to make sure.” He punched the comparison button and while the analyzer methodically began to check the incoming trace against the known patterns stored up in its compact little memory bank, he turned back to the vision screen. He switched on high magnification and the system rushed toward him. It ex- panded from a single pin point of light into a distinct planetary system. At its center a giant dying sun expanded on the plate like a malignant red eye. As he watched, the green dot moved appreciably, a thin red line’ stretching out behind it to indicate its course from point of first detec- tion. Ozaki’s fingers moved over the con- trols and a broken line of white light came into being on the screen. With careful ad- justments he moved it up toward the green track left by the crawling red dot. When he had an exact overlay, he carefully moved the line back along the course that the eneftgy emitter had followed prior to detection. Ozaki was tense. It looked as if he might have something. He gave a sudden whoop of excitement as the broken white line inter- sected the orange dot of a planetary mass. A vision of the promised thirty-day leave and six months’ extra pay danced before his eyes as he waited for the pulse analyzer to clear. “Home!” he thought ecstatically. apome and unplugged plumbing!” With a final whir of relays the aoatvae? clucked like a contented chicken and dropped an identity card out of its emission slot, Ozaki grabbed it and scanned it eagerly. At the top was printed in red, “Identity Unknown,” and below in smaller letters, “Suggest check of trace pattern on base analyzer.” He gave a suddén whistle as his eyes caught the energy utilization index. 927! That was fifty points higher than it had any right to be. The best tech in the Protectorate considered himself lucky if he could tune a propulsion unit so that it delivered a thrust of forty-five per cent of rated maximum. Whatever was out there was hot! Too hot for one man to handle alone. With quick decision he punched the transmission key of his space communicator and sent a call winging back to War Base Three. Nat Fleischer’s BOXING & WRESTLING ——B00KS— HOW TO BOX TRAINING FOR BOXERS SCIENTIFIC BLOCKING & HITTING HOW TO REFEREE & JUDGE A FIGHT HOW TO SECOND & MANAGE A FIGHTER MODERN WRESTLING COMMANDO STUFF SCIENTIFIC JIU-JITSU price 8/6 each : ALSO RING RECORD BOOK 1952 — 50/- sent direct, post free Write to-day for complete list of titles available * Direct from the U.S.! AMERICAN MAGAZINES <p Y- POs i— Annual Subscription 27/- 24/6 22/6 49/3 12/6 28/- 31/6 30/6 YOUR PHYSIQUE HEALTH CULTURE STRENGTH & HEALTH DOWNBEAT FLYING MODELS MODEL AIRPLANE NEWS PROFITABLE HOBBIES POPULAR SCIENCE POPULAR MECHANICS 33/9 RADIO ELECTRONICS 32/6 POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY 37/9 THE RING (American Edit.) 25/- Also many other titles on scientific or technical subjects. Send in your enquiries to: ——— ATLAS Publishing & Distributing (Co. Ltd. 18 BRIDE LANE, LONDON, E.C.4 15