Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition — page 59: what you’re looking at

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

POTENTIAL By ROBERT SHECKLEY He was horribly confused, escap- ing from a_ destroyed planet, carrying some sort of message which he couldn’t recall. But he had tremendous potential one man, for achievement! Ustrated by A, Sussman HE returned to consciousness slowly, aware of aches and bruises, and an agonizing knot in his stomach. Experimentally, he stretched his legs. They didn’t touch anything, and he realized that his body was unsup- ported. He was dead, he thought. Floating free in space— Floating? He opened his eyes. Yes, he was floating. Above him was a ceil- ing—or was it a floor? He resisted a strong urge to scream ; blinked, and his surroundings swam into focus. He realized that he was in a space- ship. The cabin was a shambles. Boxes and equipment drifted around him, evidently ripped loose from their moorings by some sudden strain. Burnt-out wires ran across the floor. A row of lockers along one wall had been fused into slag. 37 He stared, but no recognition came As far as he knew, he was seeing this for the first time. He raised a hand and pushed against the ceiling, drifted down, pushed again, and managed to grasp a wall rail. Holding this tightly, he tried to think. “There is a logical explanation for all this,” he said aloud, just to hear his own voice. “All I have to do is remember.”” Remember— What was his name? He didn’t know. “Hello!” he shouted. ‘Is there any- one here?’ His words echoed between the ship’s narrow walls. There was no answer. He propelled himself across the cabin, ducking to miss the floating boxes. In half an hour he knew he was the only person aboard the ship. He pushed himself back to the front of the ship. There was a padded chair there, with a long panel in front of it. He strapped himself into the chair and studied the panel. It consisted of two blank screens, one much larger than the other. Under the large screen were two buttons, marked vision-front, and vision-back. A dial beneath the buttons was cali- brated for focus. The small screen was unmarked. Not finding any other controls, he pushed the vision-front button. The screen cleared, showing black space with the brilliant points of the stars « before him. He stared at it for a long time, open-mouthed, then turned away. The first thing to do, he told him- self, was to assemble all the knowledge EComichbooksico im