Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 47 — page 58: what you’re looking at

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

THE MUTILANTS physically unchanged. If any- thing, man deteriorated. Phy- sically he is inferior to his Neolithic forefathers. From the morphological viewpoint, the squat ape is infinitely better equipped to fly an aircraft than any man alive. The comparison shows man most unfavourably, I assure you, and tests have proved that the common housefly is capable of withstanding double the centrifugal stresses fatal to man. Man’s circula- tion is poor, the distance between heart and brain being too great. The respiratory system .. .”’ He snapped his fingers before my eyes, but I was too weakened by nausea and apathy even to blink. **, . - « quite hopeless.’ He continued: “Totally ineffi- cient. And still machines ad- vance. Human flight limita- tions, having at last been recognised asa major problem, are given precedence over all else in high military circles, and for that reason this research centre exists.’ Kersch stared at me, eyes alight with crazy enthusiasm. ““The Muti- lants you have just seen are merely the initial diffident step 57 towards total conquest of space; the crude result of our earliest, blind gropings—but the experiment was a success. We have progressed far, my friend, since their metamor- phoses.”’ Looking with fear at his burning eyes, I recognised stark insanity. Get out of here, I told myself. Humour him, do whatever he asks, but get out of this slaughterhouse. Trying to sound unintelli- gently interested, I asked: “But how does it help to have cripples’ yo. 25 “Cripples!’’ Kersch looked at me with an expression of scorn and impatience. “In terms of scientific usefulness, those Mutilants are infinitely superior to you or me. They are the simple result of a few surgical operations. Removed limbs improve circulation, and the weight reduction enables designers to reduce the lift area of an aircraft by several square feet. Limbs, you know, are quite heavy. Also the neck was broken and the head lowered until on a relatively mutual plane with the ‘heart and lungs. This enabled the blood to feed both brain and 4 ee comiclhooks. conn