Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 47 — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

Se, cet tn ee te ih AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION peated to infinity. And our Machines are constructed to manceuvre in three dimen- sions of space and two of time. You may think of time, the time we move through, as an area, if you like. That is why I repeat, you must not try to get back to your own time in one of our machines without one of our race to guide you. To us the loss of a machine would not be of much consequence; to you, it might mean getting lost in some crazy time sequence beyond your imagination to ‘Vvisualise—or ours.”’ He stood up. “If we can, at any future time, return you to your own place and time, be sure we shall do so. We are not inhuman, whether by your standards or any other. But it is not at the moment possible. The enemy has bands scat- tered through both time and space, and we shall be hard put _ to it for the next few of your weeks to avoid capture or death.” The smile was back on his face. “Our last camp was merely a temporary one; we had to leave it in a hurry, to avoid discovery. This one is a rT, ae permanent encampment, pro- tected by a warped force-field which renders everything within it invisible to any searching beam they may turn on the planet. Only a chance landing directly within the boundary of the screen could reveal us to them. We are, of course, using only sparsely populated and de- serted planets for our hide- outs.”” He paused for a mo- ment, his eyes on their faces. “You will be treated with consideration, so long as you do not attempt to do anything we may construe as being against our interests. Mean- while, this hut is yours. And a further word of warning: when you come to explore this camp, do not attempt to force your way through the force-field, or you will find it a painful business; in fact, if you try hard enough, you may kill yourselves. I suggest that you try to get some sleep now; you probably need it.’ He turned and left the room, leaving them sitting in a stunned silence. Susan was the first to break it. “I think he’s honest,”’ she said, doubtfully. connicloooks.cohn)