Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 46 — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION than speaking to his wife. ““The logical result of circumstances, perhaps, but pretty terrible all the same.” He stopped pacing and held up his hand, tapping his fingers to enumerate his points as he continued. ““We come down here to continue the war and what happens? We have to adjust to a differ- ent way of life. Martial Law, state of crisis and so on. Right. We adjust. We alter the whole system of our society in order to make it fit into our changed conditions. We built electro- nic question and answer machines and fed them chock- a-block full of data regarding us, the war, the caverns, the enemy, the geological state of the surrounding rocks, everything. Then when we want an answer to a problem we put it to these Analysers— since their electronic brains have been stuffed full of all possible forms of man’s know- ledge and, therefore, their answers should be logically as perfect as anyone could wish— and we get our answers.” She didn’t interrupt, merely listened. “Very well,” the General went on. “The mutant problem crops up and we give the Analysers data on that— everything we’ve learned so far. And because the Ana- 16 lysers have been constructed as machines to work during a time of total war, when self-preservation is the only thing, really, to be considered, they have been given data applicable to those conditions, and to no others. So when questions about mutations and so, on are put to the Analysers their answers come. out in relation to the safe- keeping of the Western Federa- tion Deep Cities. Naturally they told us to destroy the mutants. In a Utopian society a mutant would probably be given a chance to grow up, develop its powers, and then prove whether it was friend or foe by its actions. But ina state of total war, like this, risks can’t betaken.” He took a deep breath. ‘‘And that happened years and years ago,” he went on, more softly. **And ever since then the idea of destroying any sign of deviation from the normal has grown and grown, through the years. Once you had to be born with three arms, or some such thing, before they’d kill you. Nowadays they search your past, if they get the chance, to see whether you had mild hallucinations after drinking too much, or if you thought of flying in the air when you were six years old. comiclbooks.corn