Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 56 — page 48: what you’re looking at

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

STRANGE SUICIDE - for a purpose. For it was on Phobos, in workshops and machine plants, apparently functioning according to plans laid down by the World State, that the first star ship was being constructed. The State was too busy en- suring the subservience to itself of all in the Solar System to worry about get- ting to the stars, but the League had no such pre- occupations. It knew that the revolution—when it came— might not be a total success; might not be a success at all, in fact. But it wanted to make certain, if failure should result, that some sections of humanity could get away to a fresh start elsewhere. For that reason the star ship was being built. And for that reason... “It’s not me, as a person, that’s important, is it?’ he asked. “It’s my brain you want. My knowledge. You know you’ve got no one else in the League with my know- ledge of space flight effects on the nervous system.” ‘I’m in the same line as you are,” grunted ihe oiher 47 man, his broad shouiders sagging. “But I can’t touch you. No one can, as you just said. And it isn’t just that— you’ve got the sort of inven- tive brain we want. Think of the things you’ve given us— and only one of them had to get into State hands in the end.” It was true. He’d been more than useful to the League. His last invention alone—the Nullifier, as it had been termed—was the best weapon they had against the State in that it protected the man who carried it from the effects of the Detectors. They'd need him on that star ship, right enough. There would be new medical prob- lems to face on a voyage to the stars, and he was the man to face and deal with such problems. He made his deci- - sion. “‘Listen, Beef.” “Well?” “The body Ive got is going to crack up on me inside six months, but it’s not my body the League’s interested in; it’s my mind. Right? Good. Then why not get a-new body for the mind ?”’ comiclooks.corn