Astounding British Edition, Vol. 9, No. 10 — page 56: what you’re looking at

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

“All right, Potter. ” Taj pointed his sidearm at the Earthman. “Relax, Taj. You want it? Take it. In fact, we'll provide you with specifica-. tions, and you can manufacture your own. Say the word, and we'll broadcast them right to your home world.” Taj’s gun wavered. “Why? What’s in it for you?” “See what I mean? No comprehension of a non-competitive attitude. Simple. You want to take over our planet. You couldn’t do it, but that’s beside the point. What isn’t, though, is the fact that your culture is butting its head against a stone wall. It’s painful to watch, so we’re going to show you how to get around the wall.” “That’s twice you’ve said ‘we.’ Mean- ing all Earthmen, I presume. Where do you get the right to speak for them?” “Helmets are wonderful things, like I said. I’ve been in communication with our Population Vote center for the last two hours. A majority of Earthmen have already voted to give you the specifica- tions.” “T don’t believe you.” “Put the helmet on. Listen in.” Potter tossed the helmet into the chair. “Go ahead. You can do it with one hand while you keep your gun on me.” Gingerly, Taj put the helmet on. He listened to the dry running count of the votes for a moment, then took the helmet off again. “Two billion—!” he said in an awed voice. Potter nodded. “And mighty few s st.”” “T don’t believe you.” “You said that before. You’re right, though. I might be lying, and the count . could be fudged. I’m not, and it isn’t— lying’s a competitive trait, but you’d have to break down all your conditioning be- fore you could convince yourself of that.” At this moment, Taj finally got it. The gun steadied in his hand. “J just put two and two together. Item: Your solution of the transportation problem. Item: Your reference to ‘broad- casting’ the helmet specifications to my . 54 ASTOUNDING SCIEN CE FICTION home world. Add to that the manner in which you pulled your lunch out of your hat.” He cursed. “You’ve got matter transmitters!” “Right. Potter grinned. “Surprise, sur- prise. I let you figure that one out for yourself. Now do you realize we’re mak- ing an honest offer?” “I do not.” His finger took up the tension on the stud. “Man, I could have killed you in a particularly revolting manner, just a minute ago. If I were trying anything, I would have.” “That’s a lie. You’re weaponless.” “You were wearing my helmet,” Pot- ter said quietly. “What about it?” ie ae ate lunch out of it, right?” 66 re) o? “There’s a definite cycle built into the operation of eating, isn’t there? Parti- cularly when you have containers to dis- pose of? The helmet’s built to take care of it automatically. Some of the controls are manual. This one happens to be on voice.” “Which means?” Potter picked up the wrappings from his lunch and tossed them into the hel- met. “Garbage disposal,” he said in a monotone. Taj stared. The wrappings fell through ‘the bottom of the helmet and disappeared. “That could have been my head!” “Exactly. Now do you trust us?” “I don’t know. I—How do I know you didn’t let me live so you could find out where my home world is? Sure,” he said desperately, “that’s the answer!” “Don’t be stupid. It’s marked in red in your celestial globe.” “J... I still don’t know whether or not to believe you,” Taj said, his mind, laboring on a completely unaccustomed track, wavering. Potter stepped forward and took the gun out of his hand. “I don’t expect you to. But your kids will,” he said. “Come on—let’s get out of this swamp. There’s a car coming to pick us up.” He smiled again. “You can wear my helmet, if you like.” EComichooksnco