Authentic Science Fiction, December 1951 — page 68: what you’re looking at

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

66 THE MOON IS HEAVEN’ easy as it sounds, but it’s not too tough. You’re fascinated by the way the metal filings drift down like dust, slowly and straight, with no air currents to waft them back and forth. Once you’ve got a little way down the door and levelled off about ten rivets, Leeson comes along with a little pile- driver and punches the body of them out. Atah has gone inside to do a bit more inspecting, while Clavier keeps a wary eye on the reactor. The whole thing becomes very monotonous. And it goes on for faite a while, After a bit, Leeson and Clavier change places. You wonder if Leeson knows any- thing about reactors. If he does, it looks as though you are the only person on this trip who doesn’t know any science stuff. Guess that’s why you’re the labourer. But you don’t mind, really. It’s almost uncanny how you can do all this grinding, and Clavier keep up a constant crash-crash with the pile-driver, and yet not a sound comes to you. Labouring is much more pleasant in silence, you decide. At length, all the rivets are down and all the bodies punched out. The door is free. You call a warning to Atah over the radio and stand back. The door tumbles forward and slams down onto the rocky edge of the crevice. In fact, it practically falls into the crevice, but Leeson jumps forward and grabs it. On Earth he’d never have made it, but here the door weighs so little that he is easily able to swing it round away from the yawning gap. Atah has been doing things to the inside of the valves. Now he steps out with a grin. ‘‘ Things are going fine,’’ he announces. ‘‘ Just a little more work on those valves and they’ll be functioning as before. Can you straighten out the door?”’ You don’t know. You’ve never done anything like it before. But you nod and say something encouraging. You can’t imagine anyone telling Atah that a thing like straighten- ing out a door couldn’t be done—except perhaps if that any- one was Schnabel. comicbooks.com