Astounding Science Fiction (British Edition) — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

20 the period of learning amounts to almost two thousand hours.” “Remarkably fast learning, I would say,” the general commented. “Once you produce enough of such mechani- cal brains, the human brain will be- come almost a superfluous and un- necessary organ so far as being needed to contribute to our new technical type of culture is concerned.” ‘Have you forgotten the hypo- thetical mouse trap, general?” Knight asked. 4 “No, but the brains lack only self- volition,” the general replied with crisp decision. “Once you create that in them, they will be our mental equals—if not superiors.” “Yes, once we do that,’ Clarke agreed dryly. The guards at the entrance in- spected their identification, then passed them on. Knight opened the door and they stepped into Lab 4. Fhe ship stood in the center of the room, dominating everything else. It was forty feet from the floor to the end of its blunt, round nose and the four tail fins it rested on had. a radius of fifteen feet. It did not have the slender, cigarlike form that artists had anticipated spaceships would have; there would be no air in space to hinder its progress and it would need no streamlining. It was shaped more like a great, round-nosed bullet, forty feet in length and twenty feet in diameter. Its outer skin was a hard, bright chromium alioy, and it reflected the walls of the room in insane dis- tortions as they walked toward it. The ship’s entrance was near the | bottom and Miles was waiting for them by its ramp; a rangy, homely man who usually had a smile for everyone but who now wore a harried expression. Vickson appeared from around the ship; a slightly stooped ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION man with mild blue eyes behind his rimless spectacles. Clarke again made introductions. *“General Gordon, Mr. Miles and Mr. Vickson. They’ll be the pilot and observer.” The general acknowledged the in- troduction and asked: “How about the others? I understand the ship will take a full crew on its first flight.” “Once it’s made a successful test flight—which Miles and Vickson will make with it—it will have a full crew for interplanetary explorations,” Clarke said. “We’re selecting and training the other members of the crew now.”’ The general took a backward step and ran his eye up the length of the hull. “Progress seems to have ex- ceeded the estimates you made a year ago. How about the drive—is it installed yet?” “It would have been if George hadn’t taken things too literally again,” Miles spoke up. “George?” The general raised his eyebrows inquiringly and Clarke spoke to June. ““The general has never seen George. Go get him, will you?” June walked across the room to the door marked: ASSEMBLY 1, and Clarke said to Miles, ‘“‘Go ahead, Tim —tell General Gordon what hap- pened.” “It wasn’t Vickson’s fault,’? Mules began. ““A man gets so accustomed to George being so intelligent and capable that he sometimes forgets and isn’t specific enough—or in this case, Vickson was foo specific. A human would have known what he wanted, but George—”’ The door of ASSEMBLY 1 opened and Miles stopped talking as the general stared at the robot that was approaching them. It was a manlike monster of steel, seven feet tall and walking as silently as a cat on its rubber-soled feet. June walked beside EComichookssco im