Astounding British Edition, Vol. 9, No. 7 — page 55: what you’re looking at

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

0 FO Oe I! ge ee, et ee STS. (8 | ee ee” oe ” ~~. a i ~" te Se Ne! Pd 7 _—- = —_ — a >. - - —_ a « sy ge —~ a ets en ee Tete, pS ES : > * x “ay coc ~ ~ a ee ~ ~~ s- like shore line, his muscles frozen, great veins standing out in his neck. It’s not true, his mind screamed to him, you can wake yourself up, they won’t help you, but you can do it yourself, you can make it all go away, you yourself can control this mind of yours— And then, like the mists of a dream, the world began fading away around him, twisting like wraiths in the thin, pungent air, changing, turning, changing again, as the last of his strength crept out of his beaten body, and his mind sank with the swirling world into a haze of unconscious- ness. And the last thing he saw before blackout was a girl’s sweet face, tearful and loving, hovering close to his, calling his name— He was awake quite suddenly. Slowly, he stared around the bright cheerful hos- pital room. His bed was by a window, and he looked out at the cool morning sun beaming down on the busy city below. Far below he could see the spreading buildings and grounds of the Hoffman Medical Center, like a green oasis in the teeming city. And far in the-distance he saw the gleaming silver needlepoints of: the starships that he knew were waiting for him. | He turned his face toward the tall, gaunt man in white by his bedside. “Paul,” he said softly, “I came through.” “You came through.” The doctor smiled pappuy. and sat down on the edge of the “But I had to terminate the test all by myself. You couldn’t have stopped it for me.” Schiml nodded gravely. “That was the last step you had to take, the really critical step of the whole test. I couldn’t have told the others about it, of course. They’d never have let me start the test if they had known. Connover wouldn’t even stick with the part that he’d agreed upon. But without that last step, the test would have been worthless. Can you see that?” Cox nodded slowly. “I had to rise above the physical reaction level, somehow, I had to force myself—” “There’s no way for us to know what you'll find out there, when you go.” Schiml said slowly. “All we knew was what the others found, and what it did to NIGHTMARE BROTHER them. They couldn’t survive what they found. But we knew that training in re- active, fight-or-flight level of response to danger wouldn’t be good enough, either. You would have to have razor-sharp reactions plus full rational powers, even at the very end of your physical rope. We had to know that you had that—” He reached over to inspect Cox’s bandaged head for a moment, his fingers infinitely gentle. “If the horrors you faced had been fakes, to be turned off when the going got tough, you wouldn’t have been driven to that last ebb of resourcefulness that will save you—when you go to the stars. That was the final jump, the one the © others didn’t realize—that you had to discover, finally: That we weren’t going to help you; that if you were to be saved, ultimately, it had to depend on you and you alone. You see, when you go where the other starmen went, no one will be with you to help. Itll be you and you alone. But whatever alien worlds you find, you'll have a strange sort of guardian angel to help you.” “The training—” “That’s right. Training on an uncon- scious level, of course, but there in your mind nevertheless, a sharpening of your senses, Of your analytical powers—an overwhelmingly acute fight-or-flight sense to protect you, no matter what nightmares you run into.” Cox nodded. “I know. Like you called it, at the beginning of training—a sort of a brother, hidden, but always there. And this testing was the final step, to see if ‘I could survive such nightmares.” [Continued on page 64 THE BRITISH INTERPLANETARY SOCIETY 12 Bessborough Gardens, London, $.W.1 Membership is open to all interested in rocket engineering and space-fiight. Full particulars, together with a free copy of the Society’s journal and Programme of lectures, film shows, etc., will be sent on request. £1 11 6 11 0 010 6 Annual Subscription . » (under 21) Entrance Fee. . . ElOOOKS =) = (E©@) (E()