Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition — page 115: what you’re looking at

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

MISSION OF GRAVITY The last word was issued in a bark- ing roar that removed much of the interpreter’s indecision. He apparently was not quite sure of the mate’s in- competence ; he continued the doubling movement, re-entered the bay, and swam out to the Bree. If he thought of concealing himself by submerging during the process, he evidently lacked the courage to try it. As he well knew, the methane was only a few inches deep even at the ship’s location, and would hardly protect him from a bolt hurled with force enough to penetrate three inches of wood after a forty-yard trajectory under seven gravities. He did not think of it in those terms, of course, but he knew very well what those projectiles could do. He clambered aboard, shaking with rage and fear. “Do you think this will save you?’ he asked. “You have simply made things worse for yourselves. The gliders will drop in any event if you try to move, whether I am aboard or not.” “You will order them not to.” “They will obey no order I give while I am obviously in your power; you should know that if you have any sort of fighting force.” “I’ve never had much to do with soldiers,” Barlennan replied. He had recovered the initiative, as he usually did once things had started in a defi- nite direction. ‘““However, I'll believe you for the time being. We’ll just have to hold you here until some under- standing is reached concerning this nonsense about our going ashore— unless we can take care of those gliders of yours in the meantime. It’s a pity we didn’t bring some more modern armament into this backward area.” “You can stop that nonsense now,’ returned the captive. “You ne tivities more than the rest of the 113 savages of the south. I'll admit you fooled us for a time, but you betrayed yourself a moment ago.’ “And what did I say that made you think I’d been lying?” “I see no reason to tell you. The fact that you don’t yet know just proves my point. It would have been better for you if you hadn’t fooled us so completely; then we’d have been more careful with secret information, and you wouldn’t have learned enough to make your disposal necessary.” “And if you hadn’t made that last remark, you might have talked us into surrendering,” cut in Dondrag- mer, “though I admit it’s not likely. Captain, I'll bet that what you slipped | up on was what_I’ve been telling you all along. It’s too late to do anything about that now, though. The question is how to get rid of these pesky gliders ; I don’t see any surface craft to worry about, and the folks on shore have only the crossbows from the gliders that were on the ground. I imagine they'll leave things to the aircraft for the time being.”’ He shifted to English. “Do you remember anything we heard from the Flyers that would help us get rid of these pesky ma- chines?’ Barlennan mentioned their probable altitude limitations over open sea, but neither could see how that helped at the moment. “We might use the crossbow on them.” Barlennan made the suggestion in his own language, and Reejaaren sneered openly. Krendoranic, the munitions officer of the Bree, who like the rest of the crew had been listening eagerly, was less contemptuous. “Let’s do that,” he cut in sharply. “There’s been something I’ve wanted to try ever since we were at that river village.” “What?” “I don’t think you’d want me to talk about it with our friend listening. We'll show him instead, if you are Connicloooks com