Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition — page 61: what you’re looking at

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

POTENTIAL a rush? Why had they placed him in it—alone—and sent him out? And this all-important mission—if it was so vital, why hadn’t they safeguarded it better? The note raised more questions than it answered. Frowning, Ran pushed himself back to the panel. He looked out the screen again, at the spectacle of the stars, trying to reason it out. Perhaps there was a disease. He was the only person not infected. They had built the ship and shot him out to space. The mission? To contact another planet, find an antidote, and bring it back— Ridiculous. He looked over the panel again, and pushed the button for vision-rear. And almost fainted. A glaring, blinding light filled the entire screen, scorching his eyes. Hastily he cut down the field of focus, until he was able to make out what it was. A nova. And the letter had men- tioned the flash moment. Ran knew that Sol was the nova. And that Earth was consumed. There was no clock on the ship, so Dr. Ran had no idea how long he had been traveling. For a long time he just drifted around dazed, coming back to the screen constantly. The nova dwindled as the ship speeded on.’ Ran ate and slept. He wandered around the ship, examining, search- ing. The floating boxes were in the way, so he started to pull them down and secure them. Days might have passed, or weeks. After a while, Ran started to put the facts he knew into a coherent structure. There were gaps and ques- tions in it, probably untruths as well, but it was a beginning. He had been chosen to go in the 59 spaceship. Not as a pilot, since the ship was automatic, but for some other reason. The letter had called him “doc’’. It might have something to do with his being a doctor. Doctor of what? He didn’t know. The makers of the ship had known Sol was going nova. They couldn’t, evidently, rescue any sizeable portion of Earth’s population. Instead, they had sacrificed themselves and every- one else to make sure of rescuing him. Why him? He was expected to do a job of the greatest importance. So important that everyone had been subordinated to it. So important that the destrucs tion of Earth itself seemed secondary, as long as the mission was accom- plished. What could that mission be? Dr. Ran couldn’t conceive of any- thing so important. But he had no other theory that came even close to fitting the facts as he knew them. He tried to attack the problem from another viewpoint. What would he do, he asked himself, if he knew that Sol was going nova in a short time, and he could rescue only a limited number of people with a certainty of success? He would have sent out couples, at least one couple, in an attempt to perpetuate human stock. But evidently the leaders of Earth hadn’t seen it that way. After a time, the small screen flashed into life. It read: Planet. Con- tact 100 hours. He sat in front of the panel and watched. After a long time the digits changed. Contact 99 hours. He had plenty of time. He ate, and went back to work getting the ship into what order he could. While he was storing boxes in the remaining lockers, he found a carefully packaged and fastened machine. He EComichooksico im