Authentic Science Fiction, December 1951 — page 39: what you’re looking at

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

THE MOON IS HEAVEN 37 to the air-lock. Atah waits until you are all around, then he turns the valves on the inner door. It swings open. Straightaway you can see how wise Atah was. Through the open inner door there is a vision of incredible lights and darks—where it should all be dark. ‘‘ Looks as though we’ve had it,’’ Atah’s voice comes over the radio. ‘‘ That outer door has taken a pretty stiff knock. Can you put it right, Schnabel?”’ The technologist pushes forward importantly and steps into the air-lock. He goes over to the damaged outer door and tuns his gloves over it. He takes his time, while everyone stands impatiently waiting to get out and see the Moon. “ Yes,’’ he says at last. ‘‘ Yes, I can do it. It vill take a time, of course. Several weeks—and a lot of help. But I can do it.”’ Several weeks. That means Schnabel has got himself a nice soft job straight away. The air-lock is urgent. You can’t leave until it’s done. So, while all the rest are putting up the dome and making the hydrogen, Schnabel will be tinkering with the door. “All right,’’ says Atah. ‘‘ Make it your first priority. Now let’s get out of here!” ~ : You all crowd round the outer door and fiddle with the valves. They are useless for their original purpose, but they still have to be undone before the door will swing open. At length, after a bit of swearing, you get the door open. As it swings back, you remember that Reina’s radio was probably on, too, and she must have heard. Well, she wanted to come. ; And then you don’t think about Reina any more. The landscape in front of you calls for every tiny morsel of your attention. The rocket appears to be lodged in a crevice about fifty feet above a wide plain that’s brilliantly white. Across it, several miles away, there is another range of mountains, tall and jagged with great black chasms dotted about. ; ‘ ; And the sky! There were no windows on the rocket and comicbooks.com