Astounding Science Fiction (British Edition), August 1944 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

LATENT IMAGE 5 trons as well as it carries alphons, you know.” “Better,” said Hammond. we use for an E-grav?” “First we'll hunt up through the spectrum of the magnetogravitic spectrum. If that doesn’t work, we can add the warp produced by your mech-grav, run from the lifeship’s little alphatron. Right?” “It’s an idea. Seems to me that I’ve heard somewhere that the combined warps of magneto- and mechanogravitic produces some vectors in the electrogravitic spec- trum.” “Mind if I brag?” asked McBride. “That was in a paper I scribbled for the Inter- planetary Gravitic Engineers.’ Purely a matter of making a few dimes, at the time there was nothing practical about it, since “But what do we had E-grav generators before we dis-' covered the mechano- and magnetogravi- tics.” “We?” grinned Hammond. “You were still three generations in the future at the time, grandpa. But it’s worth a try.” “Never thought that my effort was going to be worth a hoot,” smiled John McBride. “Let’s give it a whirl.” “O.K. I'll call the gang.” Steve Hammond stepped to the communicator and spoke. “Jimmy, Pete, Larry! Come a-running and bring your cutting pliers!” From what was obviously three different parts of the ship, three voices answered. Pete arrived first. “Meet John McBride of the Plutonian Lens,” introduced Ham- mond. “This is Pete, whose whole name is Peter Thurman, and who is the guy who knows all about drive equipment.” Pete grinned. “You see us hitting sky at two hundred feet per,” he said, shaking McBride’s hand. Jimmy arrived, with Larry not far behind. “These are James Wilson and Lawrence Timkins, respectively. Jimmy is the alpha- tron expert, and Larry knows all there is to know about electrical circuits and wiring.’ “He’s ribbing me about those relays,” laughed Larry, while Jimmy was saying: ““Y’smell that smell? That was my pride and joy.” “Tell me,” GO?” “Who, Steve? Oh he’s just the bird that wanted the things done that resulted in this mess. He’s primarily responsible.” “Hm-m-m. That puts the fix on the whole thing,” said McBride. “Well, fellow, you’ve asked McBride, “what does he heard about Enid. I’ve got to get home. If we can fake up something so that the Hay- wire Queen will cut loose with a couple of hundred feet per for long enough to get me to Station 1, [Il see that your ruined equip- ment is replaced so that you can make a safe landing. Say! How come you do not carry a spare alphatron?” * “Why doesn’t man come with two hearts?” asked Jimmy. “That’s because they’re usually dependable. No one ever tried to run two brains off of one heart— that’s why one heart stands up pretty well. I can imagine the trouble that would result if two involuntary control centers were running the same heart—it would be some- thing like what happened when the mech- grav made the E-grav cut in—something would blow a fuse.” They laughed, and then Hammond ex- plained about the program. “Right away quick we'll try the mech-grav along with the mag-grav. That sounds like our best bet for something that works. Also breach the lifeship and sabotage the little alphatron for the mech-grav. Might as well have it down here. where it’s needed.” In an aside to McBride, he added: “Is_ this like your place? No fuses, no safety devices, no spare equipment because some screwball is always filching something off of a bit of standard equipment to make an experi- mental set-up?” “Anything but the running and operating gear of the Lens stations,” said McBride, “is subject to change without notice. I’ve even seen a spare mech-grav generator used to counterbalan¢e Jim Lear’s teeter-totter. Jim’s dad is on Station 3 and there isn’t any kid of that size and age on Three. Did a good job, too, since Bob Lear fixed the mech-grav density control with a switch that urged the far end of the plank so that Jim was lifted and dropped at the right speed.” “Sort of expensive counterbalance, wasn’t it?” “I suppose so, but Bob said it was better than having to crank his son up and down by hand. Besides, we have lots of power out at the Lens.” McBride paused. “Say. Do you run the Haywire Queen with this crew? Who’s pilot?” “Hannigan. But he got hurt when the works blew up. He ran us ir all right, though any of us can take a trick at landing. But he’s taking a rest cure to soothe his nerves; they got a scrambling from too much electricity.” “Too bad.” CoOMmicsooks.€c©