Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 54 — page 96: what you’re looking at

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

NONENTITY “The hell with it. I can’t give you a lecture. Just remember what I said.” Henley left him then, left him alone with his agony and the invisible burden of his responsibility, swaying and sweating from the pain of his torn tissues and crushed bones. And yet, despite his pain, the man could still think of the one thing which had made his race what it was. He could still think of the next generation. Three days later he was dead, and those remaining faced a new problem. There was no air lock in the lifeshell. The single door opened, if it were possible to open it at all, directly on space, and the refuse ejectors were far too small to permit of the expulsion of anything so large as a body. “You'll have to get rid of him.’’ Lorna made a point of not looking at the silent figure, still sitting on the stool, the legs bound with a torn fragment of uniform. “Jf I have to stay in here with that Pll go crazy!” “Yeah.” Jeff automatically clenched his big hands as if the problem could be solved by physical violence. ““How do we do it, Henley?” *“We can’t.” “You've got to. I can’t 95 stand him sitting there like that! I can’t stand it, I tell you!” “Shut up, Lorna!’’ Henley stared at the big man. “‘She’s right, though. We can’t leave him like that. In a couple of days he’ll start going bad and you know what that'll mean.” He glanced at the others, the woman hunched against the boy, the old man siill whim- pering to himself as he wan- dered in the regions of his mental terror. “As far as I can see it there are only two ways. We can seal him up in one of those big plastic bags in the locker, or we can pass him through the refuse ejec- tors. I suggest that we seal him up. I’ve an idea that is what those bags are for, and if we seal it, it should be air- tight.”’ . “IT don’t like it,” protested the girl. “Even if you seal him up he’ll still be in here. ‘God! You think I want to keep company with a corpse!”’ “What else can we do?” “We could cut him up,” said Jeff, slowly. ‘“The ejectors would take small pieces and we could get rid of him that way.” “You know what would happen then?” Henley stared bleakly at the big man. “His blood would drift in tiny comiclooks.corn