Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 52 — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION we have no facilities for imprisonment here, and as we haven’t the men to spare to stand guard, there is only one thing I can do.”’ “You’re not going to shoot him ?”? Mary stepped forward, her face very pale in the light of the naked bulb. “Not that!” “I’m sorry, but you are a witness to his threats. In order to survive at all this settlement must be under a rigid discipline.” “It would be murder,” she said. ““Murder.”’ “No. Legal execution.” ‘But there’s no need for it. You could evict him, divorce him from the colony, set him to manual labour, anything. But not death. Not that.” “I have no choice.” Mapa 27> “Stop begging,’ snapped Gerald. “Can’t you see that he’s relishing it? Let him kill me if he wants to. He’s got a gun and he’s dying to use it, and the more you protest the more damn rightecus and self-justified he feels. In a minute he’ll say that he "doesn’t really want to do it. 50 That he has no choice. That I must be made an example of for the common good. You don’t stand a chance with his type. He goes by the manual and he’s got the entire Service behind him to back him up and accept the responsibility.” He made a spitting noise. “The damn hypocrite!” “There’s a man dead out there, Gerald.” Williams ges- tured towards the heavy, humid night. “He died be- cause there were others just like you. Stupid, cocky fools who thought that they knew best. They wouldn’t obey orders. They wouldn’t accept instructions aimed at their own good. They knew best, and so a man paid for their ignorance with his life. Per- haps your death will serve to shock them into a realisation of just who and what they are. They are soldiers, Gerald, just as you are, just as we all are. Soldiers at war. And, if the enemy we fight is nature comicloooks«com