Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 48 — page 33: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION years, roughly two hundred Terrestrial years. That sur- prises you? I don’t wonder. Perhaps you didn’t think that people live to such ages. They don’t, of course, if they allow themselves to be destroyed. But Venusians naturally live to great ages. I was four absolute years old when I disappeared the first time. Since then I have cheated the system time and time again. Oh, it’s a nerve-jangling pro- cess, this continual disappear- ance and re-appearance under a different name, and with a different occupation. You learn much about solar beings, of their strengths and weaknesses. You watch them as they are tricked, terrorised and finally destroyed. And you do nothing, nothing to save them, because you must save yourself. Takato, I have waited for the greater part of three absolute decades to meet a man such as you. And now that I have found you, we can plot this revolution together. But I warn you, time is short. Time is pitifully short.” 32 Takato had lost his be- wilderment. His eyes had taken on a calculating expres- sion. : “Agreed, Cha,” he said, “but surely this is a poor way of plotting. Why, anyone might overhear our conver- sation.” Tabarni smiled. “ Impos- sible. At this moment we do not actually exist. You and I are in a trance which I in- duced. For us time has stood still. No matter how much we talk nor how far we travel, we will find, when I release us both, that no time has passed and we have not moved a millimetre.” “ Ingenious, Cha. Now [ll tell you what I have been hoping to do. In the first place, I must help to fulfil the first part of that pro- phecy. I must become power- ful—like my father. Only by becoming powerful can I put myself in a position to chal- lenge and overthrow the system. Now what could make me more powerful than to bring life to the barren comiclooks.corn