Astounding British Edition, Vol. 9, No. 10 — page 64: what you’re looking at

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

ee he Awe tas ho _ = oe , sy " “a fats aide fast eS fe re PP PCy of ade te Keen aes r y.°s © “sale b Ni AP rn . 7 a? “y a 7 Fz A ae vs Ry aed iP ee, f Ly J8 ne Cah Pag PYAR CR ye es "thy at Ap < Why t + Se’ Se a ene es a ee SL. i oe Pe ae mS ae eee Sy - =e Se 9 eas pete a : é = - * S ‘ Z Sc a ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION © in. “Her thinking is logical; it always was. She's simply the go-between. She has no idea what her receptors will do, and she doesn’t want to harm us!” He ran out of the shop and stood, for a moment, looking out over the space- field. The sky was brighter, streaked with glowing orange. Dawn was her deadline, and she was still driven blindly by her own frame of reference. Hallen saw her, lurching half-crouched toward the open port of the rocket. He caught up with her quickly. She was still fighting her inability to move easily in Earth’s field of gravity. It had taken her more than an hour to negotiate the half mile across the field from the shop to the rocket. When she turned to face Hallen at the foot of the rocket _Yamp, she was gasping hysterically for breath and her face was drawn with exhaustion. “No, Pete!” she cried hoarsely. “Let me go!” As she fumbled for her gun, his arms encircled her, pinning her hands to her sides. She struggled weakly. “Pete, I have to get away before the transmission begins!” He reached beneath her robe and jerked away the band of metal cylinders. “These things are harmless, Diane.” “No, they’re not, Pete! They were built to destroy you!” “How?” “The Director told me to put them at different places in your city and—” “But there are millions of villages like ours. How could you destroy them all with a handful of gadgets?” “We didn’t know that, Pete; the only _ city we could observe was this one.” She glanced up at the brightening sky. “But it doesn’t matter how they work, Pete. For centuries we’ve waited for a chance to come back and rule Earth.” “Why so long?” “It took all our manpower at first to build Magordo and keep it functioning; generations spent just keeping alive. It wasn’t until twenty years ago that we were organized cnough to begin experi- menting with space flight again.” “Just what do you think these receptors will do?” “Oh, I don’t know, Pete! We’re wast- ing time! Let me—” “What happens if you leave one cylinder behind?” She glanced down at the receptors scattered at her feet. “One would do as much damage as— But one is missing, Pete!” “You left it on the road in the new forest. You can’t get that back, so there’s no point in running away with the rest, is there?” Slowly she slid down out of his arms, falling against the railing of the ramp. He sat beside her, holding her trembling hands in his. “I examined that receptor, Diane. It’s nothing. It could have been dangerous, I suppose, to your conception of our society; but not to ours.” Quietly she began to cry. “I’m like a virus, Pete. They sent me to smash up your world; and now I’m helpless to pre- vent it. Of course that’s why the Director ordered me to destroy my ship as soon as I landed—so I couldn’t get away. We always thought that Magordo alone had preserved the culture of man. The others who survived the Suicide War were no- thing but savages. We could return and wipe you out or enslave you with no more compunction than we feel toward our own Expendables.” “Expendables?” “Our labor bands; the feeble-minded, the morons, the criminals. They take the place of machines on Magordo.” “What’s a criminal?” “A lawbreaker.” “But who could break a law? It’s an independent statement of fact which is always true. If you could break it, you would have a new truth; the law would never have been valid. Why should you punish a man for—” “You're talking about scientific law, “Ts there any other?” “I meant disobedience. If one of us doesn’t obey an order from the Director, if we're undisciplined— “Another man literally tells you what to do? Then how can any of you develop integrated personalities as individuals?” She pulled her hand away and stood COPMICLOOKS5€O) im