Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 53 — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

A PRESENT FROM MARS OFF! Luna first, for the refuel, and then . . . glory. San Fran- cisco. I shall be passionate, and afterwards sentimental. Mars is junk. We've ridden the planet all round its orbit, and what have we got? A few terrestrial-type minerals. One or two bits of conifere. A spec- box of bugs you could catch inside your front door if you lived east of Asia Minor. Last night I was bitten by a bug or something. Right here in the ship. Looked in the spec- box, but the captives were all present. THE MARTIANS? We half expected bug-eyed monsters. All we got were bugs. Five minutes later it was over. An etiolated larva lay and trembled; then, over- whelmed by reaction, fell into a stupor as deep as the dark- ness of the egg. Dusk crept in. The bloated female looked at her offspring without curi- osity. A whisper as of dry leaves disturbed the sparse molecular population of: the air—the long night was com- ing. | Later the larva felt force—a namelessly desirable force— informing every joint. The feeling grew. It was not ‘so much a compulsion pushing from the past as an instinct 85 pulling from the future. Like a marionette it went on immature legs to the opening of the cleft, groped over the gulf and began a slow descent of the timber.. Excitement ruled it. The molecules of air seemed to breathe and speak as it grew aware of imponderable stretches of blackness, packed ' tight with danger and desire. It suddenly knew its fellows. Now a disc-like nymph would pass, bearing high a flat ab- domen, or a gorged adult, looming and vanishing on ponderous legs; and now a -group of other larve could be seen, clinging to the wood with their sharp feet, them- selves a prey to the insistence of a nameless want. The larva paused. Its feet tore at something soft. At once its purpose narrowed; a pattern of reflexes was re- vealed to it in rhythms crowd- ing from the future. It reached a region of warmth and pulsa- tion, felt a familiarity in somethingneverexperienced... At the summit of human flesh it unsheathed the probo- scis and struck and sucked. Hot blood cataracted into the belly with a sensation in- tolerably sweet; the stomach walls stretched elastically. Re- connicloooks.con