Astounding Science Fiction (UK Edition) — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

Ww ‘the government. They seem resigned. But — THE STORM bridge with a wry smile as the young woman seated herself before the astroplate. The very imposing glitter of the instru- ment board that occupied one entire wall was ironical now. All the machines it had controlled were far away in space. Once it had dominated the entire Lesser Magellanic Cloud; now his own hand gun was a more potent instrument. He grew aware that Lady Laurr was look- ing up at him. : “I don’t understand it,” she said. “They don’t answer.” “Perhaps’—Maltby could not keep the faint sardonicism out of his tone—“perhaps they may really have had a good reason for wanting you to call at 010 hours.” The woman made .a faint exasperated movement with her facial muscles but she did not answer. Maltby went on coolly: ' “After all, it doesn’t matter. They’re only going through routine motions, the idea being to leave no loophole for rescue un- looked through. I can’t even imagine the kind of miracle it would take for anybody to find us.” . The woman seemed not to have heard. She said, frowning: ““How is it that we’ve never heard a single Fifty Suns broadcast? I intended to ask about that before. Not once during our ten years in the Lesser Cloud did we catch so much as a whisper of radio energy.” Maltby shrugged. “All radios operate on an extremely complicated variable wave length—changes every twentieth of a second. Your instruments would register a tick once in every ten minutes, and— He was cut off by a voice from the astro- plate. A man’s face was. there—Acting Grand Captain Rutgers. “Oh, there you are, captain,” the woman said. “What kept you?” ““We’re in the process of landing our forces on Cassidor VII,” was the reply. “As you know, regulations require that the grand captain—” “Oh, yes. Are you free now?” “No. I’ve taken a moment to see that everything is right with you, and then [ll switch you over to Captain Planston.” “How is the landing proceeding?” “Perfectly. We have made contact with now I must leave. Goodby, my lady.” His face flickered and was gone: The plate went blank. It was about as curt a greeting as anybody had ever received. But Maltby, sunk in his own gloom, scarcely noticed. 13 So it was all over. The desperate schensing of the Fifty Suns leaders, his own attempt to destroy the great battleship, proved futile against an invincible foe. : For a moment he felt very close to the defeat, with all its implications. Conscious- ness came finally that the fight no longer mattered in his life. But the knowledge failed to shake his dark mood. He saw that the Right Honorable Gloria Cecily had an expression of mixed elation and annoyance on her fine, strong face; and there was no doubt that she didn’t feel—dis- connected—from the mighty events out there in space. Nor had she missed the implica- tions of the abruptness of the interview. The astroplate grew bright and a face ap- peared on it—one-that Maltby hadn’t seen before. It was of a heavy-jowled, oldish man with a ponderous voice that said: “Privilege your ladyship—hope we can find something that will enable us to make a rescue. Never give up hope, I say, until the last nail’s driven in your coffin.” He chuckled; and the woman said: “Cap- tain Maltby will give you all the information he has, then no doubt you can give him some advice, Captain Planston. Neither he nor I, unfortunately, are astrophysicists.” “Can't be experts on every subject,” Cap- tain Planston puffed. “Er, Captain Maltby, what do you know?” Maltby gave his information briefly, then waited while the other gave instructions. There wasn’t much: “Find out length of seasons. Interested in that yellow effect of the sunlight and the deep brown. Take the following photo- graphs, using ortho-sensitive film—use three dyes, a red sensitive, a blue and a yellow. Take a spectrum reading—what I want to check on is that maybe you’ve got a strong blue sun there, with the ultraviolet barred by a heavy atmosphere, and all the heat and light coming in on the yellow band. “I’m not offering much hope, mind you— the Lesser Cloud is packed with blue suns —five hundred thousand of them brighter than Sirius. “Finally, get that season information from the natives. Make a point of it. Good-by!” The native was wary. He persisted in re- treating elusively into the jungle; and his four legs gave him a speed advantage of which he seemed to be aware. For he kept coming back, tantalizingly. © MICLOO© <SHIGO)