Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 52 — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION drinking coffee. I made him swallow it because I was curious to see if my theory was correct. It was. His stomach rejected the caffeine and it made him ill. The as- sumption is, then, we can eat the fruits and nuts without harm, but to continue with our own food is to clash with the ecology.’ He shrugged. “In any case we have no choice. The sooner we all become acclimatized the better.” “I don’t see that. We have plenty of food-and can easily last out ten years on rations. If what you say is true, then that means that if we eat the fruits we won’t be able to revert back to a normal diet. _I don’t feel justified in giving the order which, in effect, would doom all these people to exile.” “Exile?” Hermitage smiled. “Is that what you call it?” He became serious. ““‘We could revert back to our accustomed diet if we had to, but why should we? Contact won’t be made again for ten years, 62 and, when they receive no answer, they will write off Hyperon as a ‘bad’ planet. a “Wait a minute!”’ Williams’ fingers dug into the doctor’s arm with a grip which made the older man wince. ““What do you mean, ‘when they receive no answer?’ Why sheuldn’t they?” “Did we?” Hermitage jerked his arm free and stared at the commander. “‘Do you think that we are going to be different from the first colon- ists? Do you honestly believe that these people are going to be content to wait here for ten years without wanting to eat the native produce? Ten years, Williams. That’s a long time.” “I have planned for it. The tanks, the experiments; we shall have plenty to keep us busy.” “And for what? To grow food we can’t even eat? To build tanks? Hydroponic tanks when the soil is as fertile as we could wish? Is that what you call construc- comiclooks.cormn