Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 50 — page 44: what you’re looking at

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

IT TAKES TWO freed from these impediments he would become a whole man and free from the war- cornplex.” “That sounds like a lot of idealistic moonshine to me.” Jarril felt prisoned in the soft bed, so unlike the rigid bunks in cadet barracks. He stirred restlessly and then sat up, throwing back the bedclothes and pulling his wrinkled coveralls down with a deliber- ately precise movement. needed to think things out. And whilst this oldster was yapping away about a bunch of misfits who’d run out on civilisation and refused to shoulder their due obligations in the war, he found it im- possible to concentrate. The enormity of that percolated his senses gradually. He, who had been trained to think quickly and efficiently, to evaluate any given situation even during the turmoil of spatial battle—upset and off- balance by the prattle of some feeble-minded old crank. Apparently these people had been here for some time —at least four generations, to judge by Ben’s_ remarks. 43 He They'd left civilisation behind them. What was it Ben had said: “The ulcer culture?” A nice phrase—but mean- ingless to a space guardsman. Outside, he could see an edge of the red packed sand serving as a path. A little wind was throwing up whiffs of dust, and he thought he could almost see the shadows moving. Time was running out. ‘Two days, they’d told him. Two Terran days and the Navy would be here. Jarril looked across at Ben and Claire sitting silently watching him. “What happens now?” he asked, a rougher edge to his voice than he’d expected. “Does nothing of what daddy has told you mean anything to you?” Claire asked. Jarril found a deeper sense of embarrassment in the intensity of her tone. “Should it?” “You asked us why the Sokkaths hadn’t molested us,” Ben cut in, with the echo of a sigh. “Don’t you tie that up with what I’ve told you? That they couldn’t track us by using our brain waves, as the waves we emit just don’t comiclooks.cormn