Astounding Science Fiction (British Edition) — page 96: what you’re looking at

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

94 “Sorry,” Bennett muttered ab- stractedly, “I was in a hurry.”” Which was a pretty good excuse, all things considered. The captain kept quiet. A tricky piece of work had come up and he didn’t want to distract the other. It was one of the Crawler gunners. It had been manning the gun when the projector had caught it, and it was practically tied to its post. The Crawler method of operating their machinery was either to wrap them- selves around it or to insinuate them- selves right into it, or preferably both, so as to use to the best advantage the five pairs of hands and feet which made them so closely resemble the centipede. This one was so mixed up with the gun that Bennett had brought up another grab to help untangle it. But it wasn’t until an- other specialized servo arrived from the ship and partially dismantled the gun that they were able to draw the alien free. While it was being carted back to the ship the two grabs wheeled about and went hunting again. But game was becoming scarce. On a large screen in front of the servomech officer a dim gray picture of the mining settlement as seen from the air appeared. Here and there on the picture a hot orange spark burned. Each spark showed the posi- tion of one of the Crawlers. It didn’t matter if they were out in the open or coiled in some dark corner of their low, dome-shaped shelters. They weren't quite dead, so their brain- waves were detectable and their posi- tions showed plain. It was another one of the ad- vantages of using the projector—one was able to find the victims without any trouble. When the ship had landed, more than fifty glowing sparks had dotted the screen. Now there were fourteen. Bennett brought thirty ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION of the robots back to the ship, where they automatically sorted and stored themselves away. The job was almost finished and they were only cluttering up the place, Less than an hour of his estimated two had passed, Spence thought, We’ve made good time. We should do it comfortably. He began to relax. Suddenly the wall speaker burst into life again. The harsh voice of the fleet commander pervaded the room. “Flagship to Scavenger Five-Three. How is it going, captain? Report, please.” Spence took a deep breath, then recited briskly, “Everything going according to plan, sir. We found a sort of mining settlement—the first I’ve seen here that hadn’t a city built over it—with between fifty and sixty Crawler survivors. They had a gun of sorts rigged up but didn’t get a chance to use it. We’re loading in the last few stiffs now.” He stopped. Bennett was waving at him urgently, trying to attract his attention. Harrison, white-faced, was bending over the other’s shoulder and staring at the servo panel as if he didn’t believe it. Spence nodded curtly and said into the mike, “Excuse me, sir. Something has come up.” He turned impatiently to the others. “Well?” Bennett didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. His finger indicated five lights burning on the screen before him. A graduated dial showed the depth of the objects which caused the lights to be two hundred feet. Another gave the information that the objects were in fairly rapid mo- tion. He let his hands fall to his lap and looked gloomy. There were five aliens on the loose. This was too much to take. Of all the blind, senseless, bad luck. EComichooksnco im