Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 51 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

THE ENVIED thing metallic. Like a machine-shop, he thought with a tingle of horror. The beds were not really beds. They were inclined couches, padded with some springy material. There were no sheets and blankets, and no temperature stabilisation plugs. It was an austere room. Warren approached the tilted couch that had ‘been indicated to him. A grey face looked up at him from a grey, shapeless body. He licked his lips, trying not to show the sudden, un- expected revulsion he felt, and said : “ Hello, Judith.” There was a long pause. Then the mouth moved as though still unsure of its own function. “Hello, Warren.” “You recognise me?” he said eagerly. ‘‘ You remem- ber. You haven’t forgotten me—and you’re not going to, are you?” The reply was measured 19 and unemotional. “I have not forgotten you. Not yet.” ‘“‘ And you’re not going to,” he repeated. Superimposed on the stan- dard Grey features he seemed to see, for a fleeting second, the features of Judith, and he was overcome by an appalling sense of loss. It was worse than it had been during his tormented, sleepless night. He felt somehow that he had failed, that he and Judith had never truly lived .. . and now she was gone, and he was talking to a ghost. He tried to pull himself together. There was a job to be done; a campaign to be begun. He said: “How do you feel? What’s it like?” “I cannot tell you. You would not understand.” “Now look,” snapped Warren, “don’t you start that! You don’t want to get into Grey habits right away, do you? Can’t you give me some idea—help me to get some glimmering of what goes on? Remember all the comiclooks.conn