Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 53 — page 57: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION “Get him to talk to you about his other country. Don’t try to be subtle. Ask him out- right. It’s natural that you should want to know.” She said, doubtfully: “Pll “You'll find it won’t be hard.” “The great metal gates,” John said, “. . . stretching high up, and the perimeter wall running away in the curve that holds a whole city in a vice—seeing that fall away behind me was some- thing that just didn’t seem real. I had been out of the city once before, under the usual armed guard, But this time I was on my own, in one of the small armoured cars. I couldn’t properly believe it. You know, I was even tempted to run the car back towards the city, to make sure [d really got away from it. I didn’t, of course. For ten years I had been concentrating on making no single suspicious move, and I wasn’t going to fail at the last.” 56 “But where?’’ She couldn’t keep the doubt out of her voice. “What country?” “T told you you’d find it hard. No different country— a different world.” ‘““Mars?” she inquired, sceptically. “Not Mars.” He smiled. “I know that much. But I don’t know much more. In my world the rulers aren’t inter- ested in that kind of know- ledge—they only want power, and the means to power. The stars are different there. Or are they? I only saw the stars once—the time I told you about, the first time I was out- side the city. The second time, when I escaped, it was day- time. And you see no stars in the city. But I think they were different.” She said: “I don’t under- stand that—about the stars.” “Never mind. It’s a long way away. Or perhaps, in another sense, just round the corner—even side by side. The vibrator makes it an easy crossing, anyway. Some- how you don’t even notice the comicloooks.con