Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 65 — page 45: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION by the bombs. The transter lurched, sickening!y. “Too near!’’ shouted Vielra, realising his mistake. “Up, up!”? But they had been hit, and dropped like a puppet with cut strings, into the fused mess they had made of the gun. Mailston was ill in his mind. He had followed the quick steps of the Third Councillor through the desert, dragging through the dust without a word. Twilight had come, a stealthy ghost, and he had worried, ridicu- lously, because he had been unable to locate the sun. The sky had darkened with soul- less uniformity, into grey, and then blackness. He had been disturbed by the absence of stars and moon, and the only light had been from the faint phosphorescence of the ground. But he had panicked at dawn, when no sun ap- peared. When he‘thought about it, he couldn’t remember having seen a sun the day before, either. Light there was, very hot and bright. But where it 44 came from he was unable to ascertain. His frantic ques- tions to Jal elicited nothing but sneerings and a threat that he really would be for it at Centre Valley if he didn’t stop behaving like a deranged heretic. And now here he was at the oasis, where everyone loved his fellow men, and was in- stilled with a righteous hatred against the Mhalro, and, since he had been found copying their diabolical ways, against Mailston, too. ‘““Mhalro!”? he exclaimed when he heard the name. ““But that’s why we had to leave the cities !”’ “Precisely,” affirmed Jal contemptuously. ““The coming of the Mhalro showed us the © wickedness of our ways. We left the cities because we could not follow the enemy in such things.”’ ‘““No,”’ said Mailston. ““Be- cause they had a superior technology. We had to find other ways—and, anyway...” His eyes narrowed in slow thought. ““You say you don’t know anything of space and stars and things. You say the comiclooks.cormn