Astounding Science Fiction (British Edition), August 1944 — page 64: what you’re looking at

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

62 courts. They touched ground, switched off their flight units, stood gazing slowly about them ; Gaynor muttered, “The beginning? Or— Maybe we were wrong, Wade. Maybe there is no beginning.” “Those towers should tell us,’ Harlan said. ““Let’s have a look inside them, Jon.” They entered an arching doorway, strode into a great foyer. Within this they had their first indication that this part of the city actually was different from the rest. For within the foyer was no dais and force shaft as they had found previously. Instead, a broad stairway led to the floors above. They mounted the stairs. The walls of the first apartment they investigated- were covered with paintings, as everywhere else, but this time the spacious rooms were not empty. They were furnished. Gaynor and Harlan gazed upon softly gleaming objects which very clearly were tables and chairs, deep, luxuricus couches, and cabinets of various sizes and shapes. At first everything seemed strange to them, and as they glanced about, they found themselves comparing the furniture to that which they had seen in homes on Earth. And after a while things no longer seemed strange at all. Gaynor blinked his eyes rapidly several times. He frowned puzzledly. ““Wade—either I’m crazy, or this room has changed.” Harlan was gazing at the wall paintings. His voice came as from far away. “Changed? Why, yes. Things are as they should be—now.” Gaynor gazed at the walls, and then he nodded. “That’s right, Wade. Of course.” ‘Gaynor walked over to a low cabinet. Somewhere before he had seen a cabinet like this one. He felt that he should know its purpose, yet it eluded him. He stared at it musingly. And then he remembered some- thing—his eyes lifted to the paintings on the wall. No. The other wall? Yes. Gaynor looked at the cabinet again—and now a slow murmer of melody arose within the room. Hauntingly familiar, poignantly sweet, yet formless. Gaynor looked at the walls again. The melody shaped itself, grew stronger, and the lilting strains of a space- man’s song flooded richly through the room. I’m blasting the far trails, Following the star trails, Taking the home trails, Back, dear, to you— “The Star Trails Home to You,” Gaynor ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION whispered. Sudden nostalgia washed over him in a wave. Home. The Earth— His eyes lifted to the walls, and he was com- forted. Gaynor looked around for Harlan. He found the other standing before a second cabinet across the room. Gaynor ap- proached him, noting as he did so that Harlan stood strangely rigid and still. In alarm, Gaynor ran the remaining distance. Harlan did not seem to notice. His face was rapt, trancelike. 3 Gaynor grasped Harlan’s arm, shook him. “Wade! Wade—what is it? Snap out Of it? Harlan stirred. Expression came back into his features—his eyes sharped upon Gaynor’s face. “What . . . what— Oh, it’s you, Jon. She . . . she had red hair, and . and her arms were around me, and—” Harlan broke off, flushing. Investigation of the cabinets in the other rooms produced still more interesting re- sults. One had a spigot projecting from its front, with a catchbasin below, much like a drinking fountain. Gaynor looked at the wall paintings, and then he looked at the spigot, and suddenly liquid jetted from it. He tasted it cautiously, nodded approv- ingly, not at all surprised. “Scotch,”’ he said. “Tl have it with soda.” “Hurry up, then,” Harlan prompted im- patiently. There was another cabinet that they found particularly interesting. This one had a foot- square opening in its front, and after Gay- nor and Harlan had gotten their proper in- structions from the paintings, they moved on—each munching at a delicious leg of roast chicken. Not all the cabinets produced things which were edible or audible, but all opened ‘up new vistas of thought and experience. Gaynor and Harlan learned the purpose of each, and already in their minds they were devising new methods of test and applica- tion. The wall paintings were very expres- sive, and they were learning rapidly. That was the beginning— After the cabimetss, which supplied every possible physical or mental want, came the machines. Simple things at first, for Gaynor and Harlan were still in the equivalent of kindergarten. But they were humanoid— and, therefore, inquisitive. The machines were delightful and of absorbing interest. Once their purpose and function became Ccomicbooks CO