Astounding British Edition, Volume 8, No. 11 — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

BLOOD BANK By WALTER M. MILLER, JR. A “feral” animal is one which has been domesticated, and has then returned to the wild. They're more dangerous than a mere wild beast; they know and hate men. But a feral civilization... HE colonel’s secretary heard clomping footsteps in the corridor and looked up from her typing. The footsteps stopped in the doorway. A pair of jet-black eyes bored through her once, then looked away. A tall, thin joker in a space commander’s uni- form stalked into the reception room, sat in the corner, and folded his hands stiffly in his lap. The secretary arched her plucked brows. It had been six months since a visitor had done that—walked in without saying boo to the girl behind the rail. “You have an appointment, sir?” she asked with a professional smile. The man nodded curtly but said nothing. His eyes flickered toward her briefly, then returned to the wall. She tried to decide whether he was angry or in pain. The black eyes burned with cold fire. She checked the list of appointments. Her smile disappeared, to be replaced by a tight-lipped expression © of scorn. “You’re Space Commander Eli Roki?” she asked in an icy tone. Again the curt nod. She gazed at him steadily for several seconds, “Colonel Beth will see you in a few minutes.” Then her typewriter began clattering with sharp sounds of hate. The man sat quietly, motionlessly. The colonel passed through the reception room once and gave him a brief nod: Two majors came in from the corridor and entered the colonel’s office without looking at him. A few moments later, the intercom crackled, “Send Roki in, Dela. Bring your pad and come with him.” The girl looked at Roki, but he was already on his feet, striding toward the door. Evidently he came from an unchival- rous planet; he opened the door without looking at her and let her catch it when it started to slam. Chubby, elderly Colonel Beth sat waiting behind his desk, flanked by the pair of majors. Roki’s bearing as he approached and saluted was that of the professional soldier, trained from birth for the military. “Sit down, Roki.” 30 The tall space commander sat at attention and waited, his face expressionless, his eyes coolly upon the colonel’s forehead. Beth shuffled some papers on his desk, then spoke slowly. “Before we begin, I want you to Rader _ Stand something, commander.” “Yes, sir.” “You are not béing tried, This is not a court-martial. There are no charges against you. Is that clear?” “Yes, sir.” The colonel’s pale eyes managed to look ~at Roki’s face without showing any con- tempt. “This investigation is for the record, and for the public. The incident has already been investigated, as you know. But the people are aroused, and we have to make a show of some kind.” “T understand, sir.” “Then let’s begin. Dela, take notes, please.” The colonel glanced at the papers before him. “Space Commander Roki, will vou please tell us in your own words what happened during patrol flight Sixty-one on fourday sixmonth, year eighty-seven?” There was a brief silence. The girl was staring at the back of Roki’s neck as if she longed to attack it with a hatchet. Roki’s thin face was a waxen mask as he framed his words. His voice came calm as a bell and clear. “The flight was a random patrol. We blasted off Jod VII at thirteen hours, Uni- versal Patrol Time, switched on the high-C drive, and penetrated to the ten-thousandth level of the C’th component, We re-entered the continuum on the outer patrol radius at thirty-six degrees theta and two-hundred degrees psi. My navigator threw the dice to select a random course. We were to pro- ceed to a point on the same co-ordinate shell at thirty theta and one-fifty psi. We began—” The colonel interrupted. “Were you aware at the time that your course would intersect that of the mercy ship?” The girl looked up again. Roki failed to 5} GoOmMmichooksnco