Astounding British Edition, Vol. 9, No. 10 — page 58: what you’re looking at

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

was very small and beautiful, her skin so white it seemed transparent. “I forgot about the gravity,” she whispered. “You mean you actually expected to fly?” He bent to examine the bruise on her forehead. She pulled away, screaming again as he picked her up and carried her to his turbocar. “T’ve a wound kit at the Watch House,” ~ he assured her. “T’ll have that bruise—” “No! Please, leave me here!” She fingered the edge of his car, and glanced up at the overhang of rocks above the road. “But your car’s blue, and— “Obviously.” “.. And this is the right place!” Very slowly she asked, “Is the weather fine?” “For all it matters right now, it might snow before morning.” “Snow before morning! That’s it. Everything’s right, after all.” She held out her hand. “My name is Diane Landers.” | After a moment he gathered that her odd gesture was a form of greeting. He extended his hand, too, since she seemed to expect_it. She grasped his fingers briefly and shook them. “I’m Pete Hallen,” he said. “On Forest Duty in this sector.” “That gave you a convenient excuse, didn’t it?” Her voice was abruptly calm. “You won’t need to take me to the city for nine or ten hours, Mr. Hallen. The transmissions won’t begin until dawn.” He laughed. “Now, that’s right con- siderate of you, Miss Landers, since I have no intention of leaving until my replacement comes. If you don’t mind, answer one question for me: What are you doing here?” Her eyes widened. “Why, I came here to meet you.” “You don’t know me!” “Of course not. Why should I?” It was at that point that he began to wonder if she were sane. He slid behind the whéel and turned the switch; the turbine began to hum quietly. The woman studied the complex controls with a curiously frightened expression. “Your surface-car, Mr. Hallen—what kind of power does it use?” “Tt’s no different from any of the ee Oat ee, ae en SE, nee 3 ‘ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION - others. Regulation steam turbine drive; atom-pile unit, renewable every six months,” “You built it yourself?” “T did a tour in a Fab Plant, if that’s what. you mean.’ “It seems—strange. There was nothing in the prognosis about machines.” “Prognosis?” “But of course the overall picture remains the same.” She settled deep against the cushions, twisting her hands together in her lap. For a long time she studied the pattern of redwoods that lined the road. “It’s not what I expected,” she said at last. “The forest should be tangled with shrubs and dead branches.” “You’re thinking of the. game pre- serves farther up in the Sierras. This is part of the International Tree Plantation.” “Oh.” She seemed puzzled, so he added, by - way of explanation, “You know, the forest land we restored as a conservation measure. Now we're cutting for export and reforesting as we go.’ “It... it’s wrong!” Her quiet whisper was tense with fear. When he tried to talk to her again, she ignored him. She said nothing until the little car ground to a stop before Hallen’s Watch House. She looked up appraisingly at the thick, log walls; what she saw seemed to satisfy her. “Typical primitive,” she decided. “My cabin? Now that is something I built for myself. From start to finish in less than—” She grasped his hand impulsively. “You poor man!” Then, brightening, she added, “But everything’s going to be better shortly. I promise you that.” She walked up the long flight of steps ahead of him, but before she came to the top she fell against the porch railing, gasping for breath. He reached out to catch her. As his arm encircled her waist he felt, instead of the pliant curves of a woman’s body, a band of ridged metal bars concealed beneath her robe. Franti- cally she jerked away from him. “Don’t touch me!” He shrugged noncommittally and went into -the cabin, the autolights blazing up as he passed through the door. Certainly EOmichbooks.co