Astounding British Edition, Vol. 9, No. 7 — page 50: what you’re looking at

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

He simply waited. Because with the test all over, they would surely bring him back to reality. Like an icy microtome blade, some- thing slashed at his brain, swiftly, without warning. He screamed out, and his mind jerked and writhed in agony at the savage blow. He tried to sit upright, and found his muscles numb, paralyzed. Again the blow came, sharper, more in focus, strik- ing with a horrid power that almost split his brain. He screamed again, closing his eyes tight, writhing on the floor. He tensed, steeling himself for another blow, and when it came his whole body jerked as he felt his own mental strength trying to rally like a protective barrier. _ Frantically, he twisted and wriggled the - upper part of his body, desperately and unthinkingly trying to stand and run, and toppled over onto his face in the rubble. Again. the blow came, grating and scream- ing into his mind with an unrelenting savagery that baffled and appalled him. Twisting along the floor, he gained the door, peered sickly out into the blackness. He could barely make out the gray shape of one of the steel monoliths he had seen rumbling down the road a little before. It was resting on the rocky, frozen tundra of the field, standing motionless, the glow of power surrounding it like a ghostly aurora. He knew that the attack came from there, frightening, paralyzing bolts that shook him and sent his mind reeling helplessly, an attack of undreamed- of ferocity. He struggled, trying to erect some sort of mental patchwork against the onslaught. He had been wrong, he (your newsagent), or or ATLAS Publishing & Distributing Co. Ltd. 18 BRIDE LANE, LONDON, E.C.4. Enclosed is remittance for 10/6. Kindl arrange Bes one year’s supply (12 issues) of =f | | SCIENCE FICTION ) | | | | | | | | , to be sent to the following address: xs CSOe OTS FONG OF He CREE ESTO SES CPPS FESO SPSS FESS OSS HOSTED (Name) ecoere eene _ ESTA IE aera SS eoeerecnocoes: y eaeereoe Ste ee 0 WN aa ai cacinancei Issue. { BLOOK CAPITALS PLEASE _| : ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION and higher in his body. He didn’t move. could be harmed, the test wasn’t over— but why this horrible, jolting torture? Again and again the jolts came, until he screamed, and writhed, and waited in agonized anticipation of the next, and the ~ next. Then suddenly he felt his mind sucked down into a pool of velvet-soft warmth, of gentle sweetness, a welter of delightful tenderness. His mind wavered in sweet relief, relaxed to the throbbing, peaceful music that whirled through his mind, sink- ing easily into the trap—and then, abruptly, another savage blow, out of nowhere, threw him into a curled, agonized heap on the floor. No, no, no, his mind screamed, don’t give up, fight it, and he fought to reinforce a barrier of protection, tried feebly to strike back at the hideous, searing blows. This isn’t real, he thought to himself, this isn’t really happening, this is a ridiculous, impossible nightmare, and it couldn’t possibly hurt him—but it was hurting him, terribly, until he couldn’t stand it, he couldn’t— Another blow came, more caustic, digging sharp, taloned fingers into his brain, wrenching and twisting it beyond endurance. He was going to die! He knew it, in a horrible flash of realization. Whatever was out there in the field was going to kill him, going to wrench him into a blubbering mass of quivering protoplasm _ without mind, without life—like the men who had come back on the starship. _ He took a gasping breath. Miraculously, he felt another link in the chain fall into place. The starship—he had seen it, some- time so long ago. Somewhere back in a remote corner of his mind he could re- member the starship which had returned, after so many years, to its home on Earth, a gaunt, beaten hulk of a ship, with the lifeless, trampled men who had started it on its voyage. Men who were alive, but barely alive, men with records of un- imaginable horror on their instruments, and nothing but babbling drivel coming from their lips. Men who had gone to the stars, and met alien savagery with which they could not cope; men who had been jolted from their lethargy into naked, screaming madness at the thought of ever, ever going back— Was this why he was being tested? GOMmiuG OO) CSE) im