Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 50 — page 53: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION “What about Garfon and I?” Jarril said dully. “Your ship? We knew you were in distress—Foss went out to help you. The illusion of desert can be held for as long as we wish—the illusion of anything at all is possible to the commind.” “So that was what—I see.” Jarril couldn’t feel any emo- tion now. “You allowed me to think I was taking you back to Earth aboard the rocket. It was all an illusion. Why?” “We tested you, as well as letting you see the power of the commind. You did not burn the people who ran out from the settlement. What- ever you may have thought your reasons were, the fact is you didn’t burn them. There still lies something that can be salved in that mind of yours. Deep, though. Very deep, under the meretricious philosophy instilled into you at your Space Academy.” Jarril’s mind was fogged, like the coiling vapours that ooze upwards from dank heathlands, and he had a feel- ing of emptiness, of sickness in the stomach, at the con- 52 ception that the Academy could be wrong. Surely— surely, he struggled for belief, surely the discipline and tradition of centuries was not founded on a quicksand of lies and half-truths? “It would seem that—that there is a basis of truth in your claims,” Jarril said. He knew how inadequate that was, but he still had a struggle to say that, even. More, just now, was beyond him. Foster moved forward, with Jikko at his side, and old Ben nodded his head, sending the smoke from his pipe writhing in blue streamers like temple incense. “T know,” he said, “we still have the problem that the commind is not functioning fully as an integrated unit owing to the presence of Jar- ril. We were able to master the illusion that Jarril had taken command of the situa- tion and marched us out of here, even that he had fired the rocket. That was rela- tively simple, taking into con- sideration the nearness of the individual, the fact that there was only one, and the abnor- comiclooks.comnn