Astounding Science Fiction (British Edition) — page 101: what you’re looking at

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

THE SCAVENGERS limbs respectively. To do a good job you'll have to get both.”’ He paused for breath as the weapons arrived via robot from the armory, then he went on. “These three spots are their only vital ones. They are nearly all muscle, and you can make them look like sieves without slowing them down ~ very much. Gas is best, anyway. “Now git, and keep your suit radios on all the time. I’ll be listening and I want to know everything as it happens.” Harrison and Bennett ducked out of the control room and made their way through massed piles of ma- chinery to the tiny personnel lock in the great ship’s outer skin. Two knights in shining plastic armor, thought Spence bitterly. He wondered if he wouid ever see them again. It was times like this that made him have doubts about the Force, and the Force’s purpose, and whether it was all worth it. The commissioning plaque on the © wall said that it was. The clock beside it said it was twenty-five minutes before blast-off time, which was more important at the moment. The captain took the servomech officer’s seat. One of the plates showed a tiny picture of the two men sprinting for the mine opening. The sound of their breaths, amplified, came through the speaker. They paused on the brim for a moment without speaking, then dropped from sight. Suddenly the commander’s voice burst in on the silence. He sounded harassed, strained. “Hello Fifty-Three. What pro- gress?”’ The captain jerked nervously. Then began to give his chief an account of the present state of affairs on the planet. The commander interrupted 99 only once to ask incredulously, “The men are off the ship?” Then he let him finish. Spence waited for the other’s reac- tion. He supposed judgment would be deferred until the successful com- pletion of the operation. But if it wasn’t successful—He mustn’t even think of that. “You have exceeded your author- ity, captain. You had no _ business risking the ship like this, especially with fifty Crawlers aboard,” began the commander harshly. But before he could get warmed up Spence interrupted him with a level-voiced, ““My orders were not to leave a live Crawler on the planet.” “I know that, captain. But let’s not be greedy.” Craig’s tone was quiet, almost conversational, but Spence wasn’t fooled a bit. The com- mander was about ready to blow up as he continued, “I’ve been looking at your record. It’s a very good one. Somehow you’ve always managed to bring home the bacon, if you’ll excuse the expression. This time it’s dif- ferent. Don’t get overzealous, cap- tain, that’s bad. I am leaving shortly. You have another nineteen minutes. This had better work out, captain. Off.” Spence sat up at the mention of the time left to him. The rest of it he could worry about later, if there was a later. Nineteen minutes! What was the matter with Bennett and Harri- son, struck dumb or something? Had the aliens sprung a trap, maybe? He was about to call them-when Harri- son’s voice issued angrily from the speaker. “Stay farther behind, Bennett. You're stabbing me with your suit . antenna.”’ Subdued bumping and _ scraping noises came from the speaker, and EComichbookssco mM