Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 50 — page 23: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION “T’m afraid that I cannot wait for your father to re- turn.” He put one foot hard against the door, and it went inwards with a tearing of metal. Inside he found a switch and produced a light which showed him the radio equipment. He grunted and sat in the operator’s seat. Old and antiquated, but it should reach Earth. He switched on and waited whilst the set warmed up. These people must have an atomic converter around, probably sited somewhere beyond the circle of huts out in the desert. Thick cables drooped into the dome’s in- terior, and he had seen other cables trailed loosely around the spaces between domes outside. And yet Foster had been using a camel. Jarril shrugged that off. First things first. Deal with items in the order of their importance. The radio set refused to work. JARRIL methodically checked the circuits with a meter he took from a dusty shelf and - at last found a single valve that had blown. He removed 22 it from its socket and looked around the bare walls for any sign of a_ replacement. Amongst all the bric-a-brac of a radio shack he found a couple of dozen valves and resistors, none of which were of the required type. He went out into the living-room and found the girl calmly eating her break- fast at a. white-polished plastic table. She gestured towards a second cup. “Tea eh “Thank you, miss.” Jarril showed her the valve. ‘‘Where can I find another valve like this?” “Daddy has some in a box over there, under those micro- tapes." When Jarril had pawed through the rubbish he began to feel his irritation gnawing at his overstrained nerves. “I’m afraid that the sort I require isn’t here, miss,” he said. He picked up the cup and drank some tea. “Oh, don’t call me miss all the time. My name’s Claire. I’m sorry about the valve. Won’t the radio work?” Jarril didn’t answer. In- stead he drank some more comiclooks.conn