Astounding Science Fiction (British Edition) — page 38: what you’re looking at

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

36 It came on without slackening its speed, the dark eyes thoughtful and the steel hands reaching out toward him—hands that had the strength to tear his head from his body. ** Stop cs The steel hands swooped toward his throat and he leaped to one side. It spun with him, as quick as he for all its ponderous bulk, and then it sprang like a great cat. There was no time to wonder why the robot wanted to kill him, no time to dodge. The rifle was still leveled before him and he pressed the trigger. The great mass of the robot lurched and shuddered as twenty bullets, each with a muzzle energy of three thou- sand foot pounds, tore through its body within a space of two seconds. It reeled and crashed to the floor, to lay inert, while the dark eyes stared up at him with their same expression of thoughtful, patient waiting. But it was dead. Its brain was a riddled wreckage and it was as dead as ever a robot could be. He ran to the control board and slapped the switch that would re-erect the walls and roof of Lab 4, wondering why the robot had tried to kill him. A machine had no volition, yet it had walked toward him with the deliberate intent to kill him, heedless of his command for it to stop. It might as well have been deaf— Of course! It had been deaf! It had been sent recently from Lab 4 with orders to lower Lab 4 into the ground and to kill anyone who entered the ground-control station. Then, after the orders were given, the microphones that were its ears had been discon- nected and it had gone on its mission, stone-deaf and unable to hear any orders that would countermand the ones given it. He hurried back to the door, slip- ping a fresh clip of cartridges into the rifle as he went. He opened it a quick, ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION cautious ten inches and saw that the paratroopers were taking up positions in a wide circle around the ship. Two of them saw the partial opening of the door and he had time only for one quick glance before their bullets pounded against it as he slammed it shut. He had had time to see the ship, standing bright and naked in the first rays of the sun. The walls that had enclosed it had disappeared. The air lock of the ship had been open and a man had been standing there, the rising sun red on his face—Vickson. He had been looking toward the land- ing strip and a car racing toward the ship—a car whose dust trail led back to the light bomber. He locked the door to prevent anyone entering the station, while the bullets hammering methodically against the outside of it informed him that they were seeing to it that no one left it. He went back to the control board and looked at the switch that he had closed before going to the door; the switch that should have re-erected Lab 4 around the ship. It had not, and he saw the reason why; George had ripped out the wires behind the panel that led to the switch. They were lying tangled on the floor behind the panel and he could never, in the short time he had, reconnect them. He seated himself in the chair be- fore the control board and turned on the observer’s viewscreen. His own viewscreen came to life, showing the interior of the ship’s control room. It was still empty. He closed the switch that would give his own commands precedence over any given inside the ship and said: “Ship’s drive control—disregard all orders given you by anyone in the ship’s control room. Disregard all impulses from the pilot’s control panel.” Only silence answered him and he EComichookssco im