Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 48 — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION Tabarni shook his head and flipped the calculator in his hand. “Can you imagine the marshal sending down one ship to bombard a hemi- sphere? No, that’s not the way his mind works. Big decisions, big kills, big havoc —and big mistakes. That’s the Takato technique. No, Luronne, I think we can safely assume that a great many battleships were lost in that attack. I think, Luronne, that the marshal has lost most of his armada.” THE STAFF officers—those that were left—had gathered in Marshal Takato’s control binary. They were all hag- gard. Some were unshaven. One or two looked sullen. The marshal sat, almost in a crouching position, behind the table which was covered with a tousle of charts. The little man seemed to have shrunk further into his uni- form. He was very tired. Marshal Takato, supreme 50 killer of the solar system, looked up. “ There is little need to tell you what you already know,” he said, sur- veying the officers with a sour eye. ‘Our mission to Venus has failed. We have brought death, terror and suffering to part of the planet, but we have lost all our fleet except the supply ships and the-con- trol binaries.” He paused for a moment, as if he felt the need to gather strength before going on. In the control room only the click of the plano-indicator broke the silence. “You know how it has been done, I think. I did not appreciate in time the possi- bilities of the Takato neutral- iser.”” He repeated the phrase “Takato neutraliser’ dryly. But he did not smile, even in irony. ‘‘ My son,” he con- tinued, “is nothing if not in- genious. We have no further business here, Fighters. There is only one place to which a visit is necessary. The Moon.” “Has anyone else anything to say?” asked the little man comicloooks.com