Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 52 — page 79: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION demonstration of their ruler’s omnipotence. The guards cleared away the debris and another pair of combatants appeared. The cycle was repeated again and again, always with the same climax, until, apparently sated with blood, the Khuru gave the signal that the entertainment was at anend. Rodell and Munson walked silently through the grounds of the palace to the house which the ESRA agent occu- pied in his position as a mem- ber of the ruling class. Once inside, Munson turned on the older man, his round face livid. “What sort of a man are you, Rodell? I heard rumours at A.T.C. that after a long time on a backward planet some agents get too used to playing God, but this. . You could have used your knowledge to free Manyh from this sadistic tyranny, but you have only helped to perpetuate it. I may be a kid fresh out of Training College, but I know that to introduce extra- cultural weapons like the Gormesh on a planet like this is directly contrary to the principles of ESRA. I shall . consider it my duty to report the matter to Headquarters.” Rodell leaned nonchalantly against the doorpost, one 78 corner of his thin mouth twisted in a sneer. ““Come off it, laddie. You don’t realise how far away from Earth Manyh is—in time as well as space. I opened up this planet twenty-five years ago with no other assets than my brain and _ that Gormesh. I was pretty young then, about your age and full of ideas about my sacred mission. But ESRA was new in those days and we had to play things off the cuff. “Think about it—what would you have done in my position? Maybe you would have tried to blast your way to the top of Manyhian society and made yourself Khuru. You would be in a position to change things then, but you would be breaking ESRA regulations. Maybe your humble, milk-white soul would have demanded that you discard your weapon. That way you would have been killed—or become one of the working class, which amounts to practically the same thing in effect. That wouldn’t have been so good either, because you would be failing in your mission as an agent. . “I took the only other al- ternative IT could think of at the time. When I was taken comiclbooks.cormn