Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 48 — page 34: what you’re looking at

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

TABARNI DOCUMENT planets of the Sterile Belt? If my neutraliser works I shall be one of the most im- portant men in the whole system. And I shall then be free to organise the destruc- tion of my father’s works of death.” The Venusian nodded soberly. “ I thought that must have been at the back of your mind. Only by replacing one great Takato by another can the revolution succeed. The greatest killer is a Takato. In the new era in which there will be no more destruction or violence, the greatest heretic must be a Takato. It’s in- evitable.” “That seems to make you sad,” remarked Takato. Tabarni laid his hands on the young Constructor’s shoulders. ‘‘ Forgive me,” he said, and his great rumbling voice seemed to have sunk to little more than a whisper, “forgive an old Venusian. Perhaps I have lived too long, seen too much. Remember only this: time is short, piti- fully, terribly short.” 33 The red haze burned about Takato. All sense of direc- tion, time and existence was lost. Then he felt himself released. He was back in Tabarni’s room and the big Venusian was munching rice paste and_ studying his sketches of the neutraliser. “Mm. Yes, I think you’ve got something here,” he was saying. “It looks as if you might just have time enough to finish it.” TAKATO HAD some_ trouble with an inspector from the Central Council’s Technical Board. The dour Lunic re- fused to believe that the young man’s pilot model justified its estimated expense. Only when Takato mentioned his father’s name did the in- spector promise to put the neutraliser project before the Board. The Board’s decision arrived some days later. Its few clipped phrases were embossed on a record strip which bore the Council’s Top Level seal : comiclooks.cormn