Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 67 — page 109: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION case you will abide by my orders. I fail to see any reason why you should expect, or receive, preferential treat- ment.” He glanced at the rest of us, a stiff ramrod of a man with greying fair hair. “If there are no _ further questions, you may go, gentle- men.” . Outside in the corridor the others walked quickly away. They had little time for Chambers and his whining, and a great respect for the Old Man. ““Why does he hate me so, Sammy ?”’ said Chambers. I put a hand lightly on his arm. ““He doesn’t hate you. He’s just trying to be fair. Whether you like it or not, we're all in the same boat, so it’s no use kicking.” “But I didn’t volunteer for this thing, remember?’ said — Chambers. “I’m not one of you death or glory soldier boys. I tell you I can’t take much more of this.” He had a point there, of course. If his firm had not happened to develop exactly the right sort of nuclear- powered crawler tractor for use at Moon Base he would not have been there at all. As the engineer of the party, I could have handled the thing» easily, but some _ brass-hat back on Earth had decided that it would be a good idea if Chambers, its designer, came along and made sure that it performed correctly. It had been considered un- necessary to put him through the Psyche testing and con- ditioning undergone by the official members of the Base party, as he would be return- ing to Earth within a few months on the first supply ship. The only snag about that arrangement was the fact that the first supply ship did not arrive, or the second... or any of the others. Homesickness is a comic, sentimental term back on Earth. But it ceases to be funny when you’re a quarter of a million miles away, without hope of getting back, except on that ship which never comes. We had been told that a supply ship would arrive at least once every six months. One of our mem- bers was to return with it for leave on each trip. That had been over three years ago. Homesickness had hit all six of us, despite our conditioning and the fact that five of us were volunteers in the first 108 comiclooks.conn