Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 48 — page 59: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION “Hand weapons ready,” ordered Takato. “ Just wait. They'll have to come for us.” Slowly the Fighters came. In ones and twos they flitted from one lump of tangled metal to another. They formed into groups and ‘moved carefully nearer the cupola. They dragged with them one or two of the higher officers who had been injured in the descent. Inside the cupola every nerve was taut. If only the destruction of the armada had been accompanied by some sound ! “Steady,” said Takato. “Don’t worry. Wait for them to act first...” His words were lost in the gong-like reverberation which filled the cupola. Simul- taneously one section of the dome trembled and turned misty. The Fighters had fired their first shot. THE SMALL white disc on the plastilux did not fade, and ~~ r 3 Takato realised what this opalescence meant. The deli- cate plastilux fibres had been permanently strained. Yet they had not given way. The cupola still served as a defen- sive shield. His hopes were confirmed by the fusillade of gas blasts which the Fighters rained upon the structure. Small grey and white patches ap- peared in many parts of the dome. The plastilux even blistered here and there. But the cupola remained intact. The hollow boom and whine of the Fighting attack came as a startling contrast to the silence which had pre- ceded it. But the noise petered out and silence re- turned. Constructors rose from behind pieces of heavy apparatus and surveyed the speckled dome. “What happens now?” Lubkov asked at last. “We sit looking out at them, and they sit looking in at us.” “Give me my breathing globe,” said Takato. He comiclooks.cormn