Authentic Science Fiction, December 1951 — page 84: what you’re looking at

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

82 THE MOON IS HEAVEN maximum load. Every now and then while you're doing it, you look at Reina. On the way back, still hand in hand with the bags over your shoulders, Reina looks up at the speckled stardust in the sky. She makes you stand still a moment and look too. ‘*'You know,” she says, not caring whether the others hear. ‘‘ With those stars spread out up there, it’s almost as if we are angels and the Moon is heaven.” And as she says it she presses your fingers inside their thick glove, It doesn’t matter about the air-lock, The generator is unimportant. And Schnabel is just a horrible nightmare that doesn’t mean a thing in reality. For yous for a moment at least, the Moon is heaven. And then it’s time to start thinking about the dome and the lack of air inside it. Already the voice of Clavier is coming over the radio, murmuring impatience with you both. You tighten your grip on Reina’s hand and make her run towards the dome. At the tank, you stop and tip the snow from the bags. It melts as soon as it touches the metal, which is kept at just the right temperature by Clavier’s ingenious method of partially shielding the sun’s rays. ‘* Water should be coming through any moment now,”’ you say into the radio. ‘‘ We'll stay out here until we hear from you.”’ d “And while you are waiting, you turn and look at Reina. You stand very close together. As close as the suits permit. Even inside her helmet her hair flames and gleams, You want to run your fingers through it, to feel the texture of it. Then Clavier’s voice jumps you and you spring apart. It seems SO near. ' “© Mike,’? Clavier says. ‘‘ Will you increase the power about two notches?”’ ‘‘ Okay,”’ you reply. “‘ Wait a bit.” By now you know quite a bit about the workings ofthe generator. It’s a fairly simple matter to step, up the power output. comicbooks.com