Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 50 — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

IT TAKES TWO “Sit down, Jarril, and take your time,’ old Ben said quietly. Jarril obeyed. The latex- rubber bed felt good. He put his hand down and pushed, then laid the gun down care- fully beside him. The mon- strous thought occurred to him that the weapon was of no further use. He was inside the dome, back in the settlement. But a second—an age—before, he had been guiding a rocket up and out into space to take the secrets of the commind back to Earth. He shook his head. Just for the moment it was all beyond his power to analyse. “Listen to me, son,” old Ben went on, speaking in that sympathetic drawl that trig- gered some response from Jarril’s obscure past before he was at Academy. “You’ve just been through an experi- ence that might have turned a weaker mind than yours. I was telling you about the commind and then you had the idea that you could treat it as a physical object and decipher it and put it into use with your Space Navy.” OL Foster chuckled dryly and Jikko’s forceful snort of deri- sion passed almost unnoticed by Jarril. He was trying to find the inner strength to look at Claire. He had failed. It was quite simple. He had no further right to the title of Lieuter- ant Guardsman. “The commind,” old Ben was saying, waving his pipe abstractedly whilst his keen eyes searched farril’s face with the desire, Jarril felt sud- denly sure, that he wanted the younger man to under- stand something with more than just his intellect. “The commind is a product of the particular circumstances which were set up here by us. It is impossible for any dupli- cate to exit where there is the slightest vestige of the ulcer- culture. Can’t you see, son,” he said vehemently, “the commind can control illusion. I told you we could blanket out our thoughts so the Sok- kaths would not track us. We can also create the illusion of open desert here should any ship we do not wish to contact search us out.” comicloooks.conm