Astounding British Edition, Vol. 9, No. 10 — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

LADY WITH A PAST * That there were no men on the field was a customary condition, entirely nor- mal. To have found guards protecting the heaps of equipment would have struck Hallen as fantastic. Equally improbable’ was the idea that men might have had to work through the night to have the rocket ready for a morning launching. Machines were the routinists, the labor slaves; not the men who made them. Aunt May led Hallen more than half a mile across the metal surfaced field to a fabrication shop where the autolights glowed dimly behind sheltered windows. Since the lights were on, someone was obviously inside; yet, as they opened the door, they heard no sound. In the entry hall there was a litter of torn, red cardboard on the floor. Aunt May pieced two of the fragments to- gether. She looked up at Hallen, an un- comfortable frown on her face. “Membership cards,” she said. “Some of the Linkists have been here, Pete.” “And they’re gone now?” “Furthermore, they’ve thrown _ their cards away. It’s happened, Pete—the way you thought it might. They’re ashamed of what they’ve done to her, and they’re trying to run away!” - She hurried through the inner door into the shop. Hallen followed. An elderly man lay on the floor beside an overturned lathe. His hand was clenched on a bleed- ing wound in his side, and his lips were working in soundless, helpless torment. “It’s the man from Village Forty-three.” Aunt May bent over him, lifting his head. Hallen found an emergency wound kit, and broke a gelatine capsule in the wound. The old man smiled gratefully. “I couldn’t make it myself,” he whispered. Methodically Hallen worked a syn- thacell strip into the wound as the bleed- ing stopped. “What happened?” he demanded. The old man sat up. The pain drained slowly from his face. “You’re the Forest Service man I shot at, aren’t you?” he - asked. “Sorry; she gave me a thing and told me to use it. I was a fool.” “We all were,” Aunt May put in. She fumbled in the pocket of her cloak and _— took out a red card, tearing it grimly into shreds. “It’s odd,” the old man said. “All the others did exactly that. We enjoyed being Linkists, until we found out we were right.” “Where? s the girl now?” Hallen asked. “Diane Landers? I don’t know. At first she thought we were savages. When I drove her through the city she asked all sorts of questions about it—about us. I couldn’t understand her reactions. She seemed surprised and pleased, and frightened at the same time.” “What happened after you brought her here?” “The sight of the Landing bewildered her.” : “But she accepted it—the idea that — we’re exploring the planets?” “She kept saying repeatedly that she couldn’t go through with it. So much fuss seemed just plain nonsense to me. All I wanted her to do was prove our point for us. We were right, after all; the others have survived! There actually is an existing link with the past. I called the key Linkists as soon as Miss Landers and I reached the shop. But she wouldn’t talk to them about herself. She asked all sorts of questions about the space- port, and the Venusian rocket on the field. And she kept clutching those childish receptors she had brought with her, and telling us what a wonderful world we had made out of the wreckage.” Hallen gnawed thoughtfully on his — | lower lip. “But if she adjusted to the idea that her original premise was wrong—” “Suddenly she began screaming at us; she had a foolish notion she was doing ~ : us harm. We tried to reason with her, but she simply didn’t understand logic in a separate contex from emotion. She wanted to leave. When she threatened us with her gun, there was pandemonium. Everyone began to run away. I tried to calm her down, because I’m more respon- — sible than anyone else for her being here. I made contact with them six months ago, and ‘I arranged for her mission. In the confusion she shot me, but I’m very - sure—”’ aaa yp OI “The Venusian rocket!” Hallen broke Eomichoo cS