Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition — page 45: what you’re looking at

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

ILL WIND 66 . Two. . .,one ptde The boosters fired, and he felt the ship break ground. It started to lift like a ponderous silver whale. At once it started to topple west, trying to weathercock like an arrow. The gyros sensed it, and the motor swung fuil against its stops on the gimbals. Manually, he cut in the ven- tral steering jet. It recovered slowly and started to fall the other way as the force of the wind dropped mo- mentarily. He corrected his over- controlling by firing the dorsal pitch jet. It swung again. He thought it was weathercocking; he could see the cabin tilt and feel a rolling motion. But the gyros said no. Forget your instincts ! he screamed at himself. Instincts were no good here. He had to rely on his instruments. He had no direct contact with the outside world and no other frame of reference to go by. Gusts buffeted the Ares as it rose, and Dan fought to override the auto- pilot and compensate for the time-lag in its system. Battling the high-g, he found himself possessed of strength he never knew he had. The ship was drifting downwind now, and picking up velocity and altitude with every second. Another gust tried to weathercock it. As Dan fought, it started to roll. The Ares was trying to get aloft— trying hard; but it was going up like a fish swimming cross-current in a swift stream. “Boosters away!” Bill sang out. Dan had wondered when they were going to separate; it had seemed like hours since lift, and he knew now it had been less than thirty seconds. He felt a heavy concussion, and the ship went crazy. The dials on the gyro servos spun. He didn’t have time to think; he reacted in old, established, unconscious patterns — patterns in- 43 grained in him through test piloting. Had he been in a test ship, he would have ditched it immediately. Now he stuck to his guns, knowing he had to, knowing what would happen if he didn’t. He was only vaguely aware of Jake’s voice rattling his headphones, ‘Booster Three fouled on separation! Hung up and carried away part of Fin Two! Got leaks back here!”’ But the jetman’s cut-off light did not wink. If Jake were really in bad trouble, Dan knew the jetman would not hesitate to cut-off to save an explosion or fire. “Stay with it!” he snapped. “I’m getting her back under control!” The Ares had more stability now. Somehow, he fought it back to the point where he could let the autopilot begin programming it. He didn’t know how he did it, and could not have THE BRITISH INTERPLANETARY SOCIETY 12 BESSBOROUGH GARDENS, LONDON, S.W.1 On Membership is open to all inter- ested in Rocket engineering and space-flight. Fuli particulars of the Society to- gether with a programme of lectures. film shows, etc., in London, Man- chester, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield and Bristol, will be sent on request. Annual Subscription. £1 11 6 » (under 21) Entrance Fee EComichooksjco