Astounding Science Fiction (UK Edition) — page 33: what you’re looking at

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

BEAM PIRATE 31 turned off the city hall, and so on: Follow?” “Perfectly, Yes, [ve got a couple of them. But they’re not connected like Walt’s set-up was.” “Well, that three-tube system was built on sheer guesswork some time ago. We can tap in the relay tube and haul out a set of cables that will energize the first relay tube. Hang her on gymbals, and we'll go hunting.” “Shall I have Freddy return?” “Yes. We'll have Walton’s gang build us up about six of these things just as we have here.” “That won't take long,” said Walt. ‘““They’re working on the tuning disks now, and we should have ’em by the time that Freddy gets back here.” “But this wild and. woolly music. It’s alien!” 3 Wes turned from the teletype and dug in the cabinet for the extra relay tube. He up-ended the chassis containing Walt’s set- up, and began to attach leads to the voltage supply, cabling them neatly and in ac- cordance with the restrictions on _ lead- Capacities that some of the anodes needed. “It’s alien,” said Wes in agreement. “I’m going to shut it off now whilst I tinker with the tube.” “Wait a minute,” said Don. “Here comes Jim. Maybe he’d like to hear it.” “Hear what?” asked Jim Baler, entering the door. “We’ve a Sirian Symphony,” explained Don, giving Jim the background all the way up to the present time. Jim listened, and then said: “As an engineer, I’ve never heard any- thing like that in my life before. But, as a student of ancient languages and arts and sciences, I have. That’s Chinese.” “Oh no!” “Oh yes. But definitely.” “Ye gods!” “I agree.” “But how—where—” “And/or when?” Channing sat down hard. He stared at the wall for minutes. “Chinese. Oh, great, slippery, green, howling catfish!”” He picked up the phone and called the decoupler room where the messages were sorted as to destination upon their entry into the Station. “Ben? Look, have we a ship beam on anything of Chinese registry?” Ben said wait a minute while he checked. He returned and said: “Four. The Lady of Cathay, The Mandarin’s -Daughter, The Dragoness, and The Mongol Maid. Why?” ‘Put a ship message on each of ’em, ask- ing whether they have any Chinese music aboard.” “And then what? They can’t answer.” “Make this an experimental request. If any of them are using any recordings of Chinese music, tell them to have their elec- tronics chief replace the phonograph pick- up with a microphone—disturbing abso- lutely nothing—and to reply if we could hear them. Get me?” “Can you? Hear ’em, I mean.” “We hear something, and Jim says it’s Chinese.” “It’s worth a try, then. See you later.” “Will they?” asked Jim, interested in the workings of this idea. “Sure. Ever since we steered the Empress of Kolain out of the grease with the first Station-to-ship beam, all three of the inter- planetary companies have been more than willing to co-operate with any of our re- quests as long as we precede the message with the explanation that it is experimental. They'll do anything we ask ’em to, short of scuttling the ship.” “Nice hookup. Hope it works” “So do I,” said Wes. “This, I mean. I’ve got our directional gadget hooked up.” “Turn it on.” - The wailing of the music came in strong and clear. Wes turned the input tube on its support, and the music passed through a loud peak and died off on the far side to almost zero. Wes adjusted the mobile tube for maximum response and tightened a small set-screw. “It’s a shame we haven’t got a nice set of protractors and gymbals,” said Wes. “I had to tear into the desk iamp to get that flexible pipe.” “Small loss. She’s directional, all right. We'll get the gymbals later. Right now I don’t want this turned off because we may hear something interesting— Whoops, it went off by itself!” “Could we dare to hope?” asked Walt. “Let’s wait. They'll have to hitch the microphone on—” “Give ’em a half hour, at least.” Twenty minutes later, a strange voice came through the speaker. “Dr. Channing, of Venus Equilateral? We have been con- tacted by your organization with respect to the possibility of your being able to hear the intership communicator system. This seems impossible, but we are not ones to question. The faet that you are in posses- oO Ccomiclbooks.c©