Astounding British Edition, Volume 8, No. 11 — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

THE SPECTER GENERAL Zs Started toward him menacingly. “One move , and I'll blast the whole fleet into scrap!” They stopped in shocked silence, looking to Commander Krogson for guidance. “Almost on target, sir,” called the tech on the tracking screen. Krogson stalked menacingly toward Kurt. “Get away from those controls!” he snarled. “You aren’t going to blow anything to anything. All that you can do is let off a premature blast. If you are trying to alert your base, it’s no use. We can be on a return sweep before they have time to get ready for us.” ~ Kurt shook his head calmly. “Wouldn’t do you any good,” he said. “Take a look at the gun ports on the other ships. I made a couple of minor changes while I was working on the control bank.” “Quit bluffing,” said Krogson. “I’m not bluffing,” said Kurt quietly. “Take a look. It won’t cost you anything.” “On target!” called the tracking tech. “Order the fleet to circle for another sweep,” snapped Krogson over his shoulder as he stalked toward the forward observa- tion port. There was something in Kurt's tone that had impressed him more than he liked to admit. He squinted out toward the nearest ship. Suddenly his face blanched! “The gun ports! They’re still closed!” Kurt gave a whistle of relief. “I had my fingers crossed,” he said pleasantly. “You didn’t give me enough time with the wiring diagrams for me to be sure that cutting out that circuit would do the trick. Now... guess what the results would be if I should happen to push down on this stud.” -Krogson had a momentary vision of several hundred shells ramming _ their sensitive noses against the thick chrome steel of the closed gun ports. “Don’t bother trying to talk,” said Kurt, noticing the violent contractions of the commander’s Adam’s apple. “You'd better Save your breath for my colonel.” “Who?” demanded Krogson. “My colonel,” repeated Kurt. “We'd better head back and pick him up. Can you make these ships hang in one place or do they have to keep moving fast to stay up?” The commander clamped his jaws to- gether sullenly and said nothing. Kurt made a tentative move toward the firing stud. “Easy!” yelled the gunnery officer in alarm. “That thing has hair-trigger action!” “Well?” said Kurt to Krogson. “We can hover,” grunted the other. “Then take up a position a little to one side of the plateau.” Kurt brushed the sur- face of the firing stud with a casual finger. “If you make me push this, I don’t want a lot of scrap iron falling down on the batta- lion. Somebody might get hurt.” : As the fleet came to rest above the plateau, the call light on the communication panel began to flash again. “Answer it,” ordered Kurt, “but watch what you say.” Krogson walked over and snapped on the screen. “Communications, sir.” “Well?” “It’s that message we called you about earlier. We’ve finally got the decoder work- ing—sort of, that is.” His voice faltered and then stopped. “What does it say?” demanded Krogson impatiently, “We still don’t know,” admitted the tech miserably. “It’s being decoded all right but it’s coming out in a North Vegan dialect that nobody down here can understand. I guess there’s still something wrong with the selector. All that we can figure out is that the message has something to do with General Carr and the Lord Protector,” “Want me to go down and fix it?” inter- rupted Kurt in an innocent voice. Krogson whirled toward him, his ham- like hand clinching and unclinching in impotent rage. “Anything wrong, sir?” asked the techni- cian on the screen. Kurt raised a significant eyebrow to the commander. “Of course not,” growled Krogson. “Go find somebody to translate that message and don’t bother me until it’s done.” A new face appeared on the screen. “Excuse me for interrupting, sir, but White supplies are still available, be sure to purchase FROM UNKNOWN WORLDS for your s-f bookshelves. An anthology of delightful fantasy tales, this is definitely an opportunity not to miss! FULLY ILLUSTRATED BY CARTIER Paper Ed. 2/9 Bound Ed. 6/6 POST FREE i j ATLAS PUBLISHING & DISTRIBUTING CO. LTD. 18 BRIDE LANE, LONDON, E.C.4 COMIC OOOKSHCO)