Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 51 — page 67: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION calmness that frightened him and made him wonder whether she really cared. It was only now, strapped down and waiting for take-off, that he knew for certain; she had taken the sacrifice without hysterics and that was the measure of her love. He thought of her, where she would be now, in the cathe- dral, praying for his safe deliverance. Geoff Peters felt like talking. ‘That divorce of yours, Larry. What really happened? Did Margaretagree?” ~~ “Yes. We’ll re-marry. I’ve a special licence in my pocket.” Peters whistled softly. “Firing in sixty seconds’”’ said a voice from the radio box. Both men tried to think of nothing, waiting... In sixty seconds time, the first manned spaceship to leave Earth would start on a journey to circle the moon. No landing was intended. A round trip, cameras recording the moon’s surface, then back to Earth. 66 The radio again: “Firing in thirty seconds.” Too late to back out now, Forman thought—and won- dered about the ships which had not come back. True, they hadn’t been manned, Dati iss 3 ‘Firing in twenty seconds.” Anything could have gone wrong on a remote-controlled ship and no one any the wiser. Only there was a rumour that another power had lost a manned ship. Just a rumour ... yet strangely disturbing at this moment. ‘Firing in ten seconds.’ If it hadn’t been for the war scare, this present trip would have been put off, but a moon base was too big a thing to let slip into the hands of a potential enemy. It was known that the other power was going ahead with rocket research ,°.-. 3 “Nine... eight... seven” So Geoff Peters and Larry Forman were going to be the first men to circle the moon, and return. FES 5s i fAVOs.) SOUP ss Go comicloooks.com