Authentic Science Fiction, December 1951 — page 38: what you’re looking at

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

36 THE MOON IS HEAVEN The tilt angle changes, there come one or two thuds and then silence and: stillness. The first Earthmen have landed on the Moon! After a short pause, Atah says: ‘‘Everybody all right?’’ Everybody says they’are. Reina is off her mattress and standing impatiently by the door. ‘““ Come on!’’ she cries. ‘‘ Let’s go out and see the Moon!”’ ‘* Hold it, Reina,’’ Atah calls. ‘‘ One or two things to be done first. You’ll be out there quite a while soon.” Atah goes over to a large cabinet and swings back the doors. Inside is a rack of spacesuits. Atah takes one and goes across to the other side ‘of the room. ““ Dress up now, chaps. And test properly. You only make one mistake with these things—and we all have to pay for it. Don’t take chances!’’ Schnabel spits out some coarse gutturals. You can see the tumble has upset him a bit, a blow to his dignity. ‘Vy do we not put on the suit in zee air-lock? Vy dress up here?”’ Atah is already nearly inside his. ‘‘ Because the air-lock may be damaged; the outer door, that is. And if so, and we opened the inner one—well, you know what would happen.’’ ““ Very wise,’’ says Clavier. Reina, much mollified, pulls on her own suit. ~ You get into your suit and flex your legs and arms. It’s not too bad. The woven plastic covering gives you a fair amount of freedom and the helmet could be worse. Although you can’t move your head up and down, you can at least twist it sideways. The training you’ve had in the use of the thing comes back to you. You flick over the radio switch and listen. There’s a bit of. static but through it you can hear Atah Kark quite clearly. You glance around and see that everyone is now suited. ‘“Right,”’ says Atah. “‘ Let’s go.’’ He opens the control room door and passes through. You all follow him. Down the ladder, past the empty. fuel tank comicbooks.com