Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 67 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

THE MAN IN BETWEEN I hoped to keep operating, I had to find some pay-rock, and fast. I'd spectoed a couple of boulders and was swinging the thermite gun around to a third when Harry joined me from the other half of the living quarters. He watched as I shot a thermite charge to the rock, read the spectrographic pattern revealed by the vapourising of a fragment of the surface, then looked into my face to see the result. “Any good?” ““No.”’ I gestured towards the spectro screen. “Read it for yourself. Nothing but rock, a little iron, a trace of copper and other stuff.” “T’ll take your word for it.” He didn’t look at the screen. “Thought about what I was telling you?”’ ““Maybe.” I swung the gun towards a promising looking mass, then relaxed as the radio emitted a droning pulse pat- tern. “Too late. Someone has set up their marker.” I glowered at it as we swept past. ““That’s Consolidated’s 15 pattern. They own every damn rock in the vicinity.” ““Why not?’ Harry handed me a coffee bulb and sucked at the nipple of his own. ““‘Who else would buy them? You can’t blame them for laying in a stock of raw material.” I sucked at the coffee and didn’t answer. Outside, dim against the stars, the jumble of asteroids which constituted the Belt moved with silent dignity as they had done for countless years. On the control panel the radar blipped as it registered the rocks and little green flecks crawled over its screen. “It gets you, doesn’t it?” Harry stood beside me. “*There’s adventure out there, and excitement, and the means to build a thriving com- munity out here in the Belt. Fuse the debris after ex- tracting the minerals, set up a few domes, pulverise the rock to make soil and, in a few years, we could have our own. settlements in the Belt. That’s Consolidated’s long- term policy.” comiclbooks.corn