Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 48 — page 68: what you’re looking at

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

He was the only man alive on the ship, but he was not alone—there was his conscience... RECOIL by Harry Warner, Jnr. T was an emergency on Karl Nielson’s first trip through space—and his spaceship was refusing to respond to that emergency. Nielson darted quick, furtive looks around the ship’s single, circular cabin, The ship was intelligent enough to take an iq test. It still failed to recognise this emergency. Nielson heard the swishing behind the walls, like velvet- footed, rapid rats, as the seal- ing units glided tirelessly on their endless rounds between the inner and outer hull, seeking meteor penetrations. Relays purred occasionally, when the gravitational com- plex on this Earth-Mars flight inspired the miserly drive compensators to dole out a 67 scant thimbleful of fuel for course correction. A rainbow array of chemically active substances, sealed in brightly coloured plastics, shifted tints weirdly, causing photocells to send into action hissing and squeaking mechanism that corrected the’air’s purity, the ship’s inner temperature, the humidity, and _ destroyed odours. Another photo glided auto- matically into the receiving trays, as the lens in the outer skin took its latest photograph of the surrounding space. But Nielson’s flickering gaze failed to detect any extraordinary efforts on the part of the ship’s robot forces. He slowed his breathing with a con- scious effort, and told him- comicloooks.com