Astounding Science Fiction (UK Edition) — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

30 a chair, he flopped into it, breathed asthma- tically. His still popping eyes found Steve Gregory, and he snapped, ‘For Heaven’s sake, man, control those eyebrows of yours!” | Steve pushed one up, pulled one down, opened his mouth and tried to look contrite. The result was imbecilic. Jay Score bent over the skipper, conversed with him in smooth undertones. McNulty nodded tiredly. Jay came erect, addressed us. “All right, men, get back to your stations. The Martians had better don their helmets. We'll install a pom-pom in that lock and have the armed lifeboat crew standing ready. Then we'll open the lock.” That was sensible enough. You could see anyone approaching the ship in broad day- light, but you couldn’t see them once they’d got close up. The side ports didn’t allow a sharp enough angle, besides which anyone standing under the lock would be shielded by the vessel’s bulge. Nobody mentioned it, but the skipper had made an error in hold- ing a revival meeting without keeping watch. Unless the hammers chose to move farther out there was no way of getting a gander at them except by opening. And we weren’t going to cook the dinner and make the beds before seeing what was outside, not after that nasty experience when intelligent ma- chines had started to disassemble the ship around us. Well, the dozy Sug Farn got pushed out of his corner and sent off for his goldfish bowl. We erected the pom-pom, its eighth barrel lined dead center on the closed door of the lock. Something made half a dozen loud clunks on the door as we finished. It sounded to me like a shower of flung stones. Slowly the door spun along its worm and drew aside. A bright shaft of green light poured through, also a dollop of air that made me feel like a healthy hippopotamus. At the same time, Chief Engineer Douglas ‘switched off the artificial gravity and we all dropped to two thirds normal weight. We watched the green illuminated open- ing so intently and anxiously that it was easy to imagine an animated metal coffin sud- denly clambering through, its front lenses staring glassily. But there came no whir of hidden machinery, no menacing elank of metal arms and legs, nothing except the sigh of invigorating wind in the distant trees, the rustle of blown grasses and a queer, far- away throbbing that I couldn’t identify. . So silent was everyone that Jepson’s regular breathing was loud over my ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION shoulder. The pom-pom gunner squatted in his metal seat, his hard eyes focussed along the sights, his finger ready on the trigger, his right and left hand feeders ready with reserve belts. All three were busy with wads of gum. Then I heard a soft pad-pad of feet moving in the grass below the lock. We all knew that McNulty would throw a fit if anyone walked out to the rim. He still nursed memories of the last time somebody did just that and got snatched out, So we stayed put like a gang of dummies, waiting, waiting. Presently, there sounded a queru- lous gabble beneath the opening. A smooth rock the size of a mellon flew through the gap, missed Jepson by a _ few inches, shattered against the back wall. Skipper or no skipper, I got fed up, hefted my needler in my right hand, prowled half- bent along the footwalk cut through the threads of the air-lock opening. I reached the rim which was about nine feet above ground level, shoved out my inquiring face. Molders pressed close behind me. The muffled throbbing was clearer than ever, but _just as elusive. Beneath me stood a band of six beings who were startlingly human in general ap- pearance. Same bodily contours, same limbs and digits, same features. They differed from us mostly in that their skins were coarse and crinkly, a dull, dead green in color, and that they had a pecular organ like the head of a green and fleshy chrysanthemum growing out of their chests. Their eyes were sharp and jet-black, they jerked them about with ‘monkeylike alertness. For all these differences our similarity was so surprising that I stood staring at them while they stood staring back at me. Then one of them shrilled something in the sing- song tones of an agitated Chinese, swung his right arm, did his best to bash out what I use for brains. I ducked, heard the missile swish over my hair. Molders also ducked it, involuntarily pushed against me. The thing crashed somewhere inside the lock, I heard someone spit a lurid oath just as I over balanced and fell out. Clinging grimly to the needle ray, I flopped into soft greenery, rolled like mad and bounced to my feet. At any instant, I expected to see a shower of meteors as I got slugged. But the six weren’t there. They were fifty yards away and moving fast, making for the forest in long, agile leaps that would have shamed a hungry kangaroo. It would have, been easy to have brought Comiclooks.c©