Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 47 — page 105: what you’re looking at

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

- AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION He listened, unconsciously straining his eyes across the void. It was strangely moving music, like a saxophone with a lonely voice. The breath hissed through his teeth as she appeared, only yards from the ship. Why couldn’t someone else see her instead of him? But he was glad she had come. The warmth of her presence seemed- to enter the ship and fill him with a strange happiness. She wore a single garment of deep green which clung to the smooth curves of her body, and as the light from the window caught her in its glow a wealth of jet black hair glistened about a pale white face. He gazed hungrily towards her, yearning for something which he knew was insane. As he looked, however, she seemed to come closer, and for the first time he was able to study her face. A moment later he was sorry, for there was pain in that face. Pain and loneliness that seemed to be _ pleading with him. He jerked away from the window as he realised what he 104 was doing. Obviously she could only exist in his mind. Fear washed through him as he thought of the men who had gone mad in space. Some of them had suddenly begun to see things that didn’t exist. Ignoring the window, he returned to his instruments, noting by the chronometer that his relief would shortly be arriving. Resolutely keeping his thoughts away from what he had seen he thought of John Shirlow, his assistant. Good man, John. Couldn’t be more than twenty-five, yet quite able to take over his job. Of course John hadn’t had the experience yet. He wondered if John would end up like him after thirty years in space. No home, no ties with Earth, no one to feel a moment’s sadness after he was gone. Or pensioned off and put in a sanitorium as a mental case. With a curse he slammed the metal desk. Who’s insane? After all, he reasoned, he knew that she didn’t really exist. Turning his mind away from the disturbing thought, he tried to remember what he commiclooolkks.Com