Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 47 — page 107: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION was shaking his arm and calling his name. Coming wide awake, he glanced at his watch and saw that he had been asleep for three hours. ‘What is it?” he asked, impatiently, giving the crew- man a hard glare. **Mr. Shirlow would like to see you immediately, sir.” _ In a moment he was out of bed and pulling on his clothes. This was the first time John had ever called for him and that meant an emergency. And an emergency meant... He thrust the thought away and hurried from his room. John met him at the door, and it was obvious from his expression that something was wrong. Without wasting words he led Bill to the instrument panel and pointed to the dials. “The pile isn’t functioning correctly, sir.” ~“Tsn’t functioning cor- rectly!”’ Bill shouted. “The damn thing is twelve degrees above safety. How the devil did this happen? Another couple of degrees and we’ll go off like a nova.” “7 .,.I’m to blame, sir,” John said, unsteadily. “Obviously!” “T was talking to Sheila when [I should watching the instruments.” “Sheila Stewart? In here?” ““Yes, sir.’”* “You realise the conse- quences of this?” “Yes, sir.” “Tl attend to this matter later. Right now we’ve got to stop the radiation from in- creasing. Already there must be enough excess in the fission chamber to produce a near critical state in the pile.” For a moment he studied the instruments carefully. Even as he watched, the gauge showing the amount of radia- tion in the chamber crept another degree higher in the red margin. With a decisive movement he pushed all the switches over to the “off” sign. “But, sir...” “Shut up,” he snapped, feeling a deep sense of failure as the scream of the engines’ gradually descended the scale until silence hung uncom- fortably over the room. Operating the visa-screen, ' he waited impatiently for the © 106 commiclooolks.com have been ; “ *”