Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 48 — page 56: what you’re looking at

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

TABARN! DOCUMENT power source failed and it went limp. The marshal pushed its floating body out of the way and, with the colonel’s help, managed to reach the motor controls. The heat generated by the tortured metal and the fumes which drifted along the corridor from the Minus spheroid made his task diffi- cult. He almost fainted before he managed to jerk down the master lever. The binary bounced once again, hard. Then the last three units of the motor shot away from the ship, each trailing a bright blue plume of light. “The neutralisers got us a little too soon,” panted the marshal as he clutched at a bulkhead. Through the astro- dome he saw the squadron of supply ships and _ binaries. They bobbed lke a ragged line of corks as their blazing neutralised power units floated upwards from them. One mother ship swung away in a maddened parabola, belching golden fire. Then it erupted. The others in the 55 neighbourhood spun, then steadied themselves and began to accelerate towards the Moon. “THE NEUTRALISERS Were re- leased a little too late,” said Lubkov, stepping back from the strato-scanner. “A few seconds sooner and we should have set the whole fleet on fire.” The Director shook his head. “ That wasn’t my idea. Just as long as their motors are out of action they can’t do much harm. Now they’ll be drawn in by our gravity “. . . And crash and kill all their crews,’ added Lubkov. ‘‘Why make it a slow death? Why not finish them out there and have done with it?” Takato shrugged. “ If they stay in their ships and get killed in the crash, that will be their own fault. There is a way in which they can save themselves, and if I know the marshal he won’t neglect it. comicloooks.conrn