Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 53 — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION down.’ He went to his work bench. Max got up and came over to where Menilissa and I were sitting. He put his hand on her shoulder. “‘Are you willing ?”’ She smiled up at him and patted his hand. “Biologically speaking it is the right time.” Menilissa. Each of us loved her and she had given herself — to each of us. Why not? Polyandry and matriarchy had been the custom in the Mediterranean basin long be- fore the Aryans thought of leaving their native steppes in Central Asia. They used to say that cold iron banishes evil spirits; what they meant was that the Triple Goddess lost her supremacy when iron swords invaded her lands, which was at the beginning of written history. Yet even after that woman remained the power behind the throne. Even so it was now. Menilissa, having all our love, had also all our respect. 16 Had it not been for her years we would have had her as our commander instead of Max. As it was, the four of us revolved around her like planets around a gentle sun. We had been so_ closely integrated since early youth and the balance was so deli- cate that incursion of affection from outside the team would have upset it. Menilissa had enough love for us all. She was the mother of the Team. And she was with child by one of us. We had tried to find out who the father might be, but that seemed as yet impossible. Fermin had taken psychometric tests of the em- bryo and announced that it showed an inclination for intuition in the field of per- sonality projection—actor, statesman, general—a quality none of us possessed. This was not surprising, since in- tuitional traits are generally recessive, but it handicapped us in the discovery of the father, for none of us knew our parents well enough, having been separated from conmicloooks.conn