Astounding Science Fiction (UK Edition) — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

14 The woman watched with amusement, then exasperation. “Perhaps,” she suggested, “if we separ- ated, and I drove him toward you?” She saw the frown on the man’s face as Maltby nodded reluctantly. His voice was strong, tense. “He’s leading us into an ambush. Turn on the sensitives in your helmet and carry your gun. Don’t be too hasty about firing, but don’t hesitate in a crisis. A spear can make an ugly wound; and we haven't got the best facilities for handling anything like that. His orders brought a momentary irrita- tion. He seemed not to be aware that she was as conscious as he of the requirements of the situation. The Right Honorable Gloria sighed. If they had to stay on this planet there would. have to be some major psychological adjust- ments, and not—she thought grimly—only by herself. “Now!” said Maltby beside her, swiftly. “Notice the way the ravine splits in two. I came this far yesterday and they join about two hundred yards farther on. He’s gone up the left fork. I'll take the right. You stop here, let him come back to see what’s hap- pened, then drive him on.” He was gone, like a shadow, along a dark path that wound under thick foliage. Silence settled. She waited. After a minute she felt her- self alone in a yellow and black world that had been lifeless since time began. She thought: This was what Maltby had meant yesterday when he had said she wouldn’t dare shoot him—and remain alone. It hadn’t penetrated then. It did now. Alone, on a nameless planet of a mediocre sun, one woman waking up every morning on a moldering ship that rested its unliving metal shape on a dark, muggy, yellow marsh land. She stood somber. There was no doubt that the problem of robot and human being would have to be solved here as well as out there. | A sound pulled her out of her gloom. As she watched, abruptly more alert, a catlike head peered cautiously from a line of bushes a hundred yards away across the clearing. It was an interesting head; its ferocity not the least of its fascinating qualities. The yellowish body was invisible now in the underbrush, but she had caught enough glimpses of it earlier to recognize that it was the CC type, of the almost universal Centaur ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION family. Its body -was evenly balanced be- tween its hind and forelegs. It watched her, and its great glistening black eyes were round with puzzlement. Its head twisted from side to side, obviously searching for Maltby. She waved her gun and walked forward. Instantly the creature disappeared. She could hear it with her sensitives, running into distance. Abruptly, it slowed; then there was no sound at all. ““He’s got it,” she thought. - She felt impressed. These two-brained Mixed Men, she thought, were bold and capable. It would really be too bad if anti- robot prejudice prevented them from being absorbed into the galactic civilization of Imperial Earth. She watched him a few minutes later, using the block system of communication with the creature. Maltby looked up, saw her. He shook his head as if puzzled. “He says its always been warm like this, and that he’s been alive for thirteen hundred moons. And that a moon is forty suns— forty days. He wants us to come up a little farther along this valley, but that’s too transparent for comfort. Our move is to make a cautious, friendly gesture, and—’’ He stopped short. Before she could even realize anything was wrong, her mind was caught, her muscles galvanized. She was thrown sideways and downward so fast that the blow of striking the ground was pure agony. She lay there stunned, and out of the corner of her eye she saw the spear plunge through the air where she had been. She twisted, rolled over—her own free will now—and jerked her gun in the direc- tion from which the spear had come. There was a second centaur there, racing away along a bare slope. Her finger pressed on the control; and then— “Don’t!” It. was Maltby, his voice low. “It was a scout the others sent ahead to see what was happening. He’s done his work. It’s all over.” She lowered her gun and saw with annoy- ance that her hand was shaking, her whole body trembling. She parted her lips to say: “Thanks for saving my life!” Then she closed them again. Because the words would have quavered. And because— Saved her life! Her mind poised on the edge of blankness with the shock of the thought. Incredibly—she had never before been in personal danger from an individual creature. comiclooks C©