Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 67 — page 81: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION end of it, but I don’t suppose that I'll live that long. We'll have to be leaving soon, anyway.” “Leaving?” Hemridge sounded shocked. “‘We can’t leave.” “We have to leave some time,’ reminded Stanley. ““We just can’t immolate an ex- ploratory vessel here indefinitely. The quicker we get back and report this discovery the sooner a pro- perly equipped expedition can come out to investigate. After all, this isn’t our job. We just aren’t geared to handle it.” He grinned at_ their expressions. “Sorry and all that, but it can’t be helped. You’ve got five more days, so tidy up and make the most of it.” He nodded to Leman. **‘Now, how about those real curves ?”’ He grinned again as the viewer flashed the tape on the screen. Nothing like a touch of home to remind them of what they were missing—and to make them eager to get back to it. Blast off was on schedule. « Ten diameters from the planet 80 Stanley yielded control to Hemridge who, as the rocket drive vibrated into silence, busied himself with his in- struments as he sighted on the target stars which would guide them to Sol. Finally, after careful alignment, he made the thumbs-up gesture and Stanley hit the field- switch. A moment of strain, a subtle twisting, then the shrilling sub-sonics and the swirling rainbow pattern on the screens told of their entry into hyper-space. They were on their way home. Once on course, there was nothing to do but sit and talk and while away the time. Naturally, the talk was all of the Great Discovery, and the air of the rec-room hummed with conversation. “We need ten years, a complete excavation set-up, and plenty of labour,” said Klien. “I’m going to request a transfer to the project as soon as we get back home. You joining me, Leman?” “Sure. I’d like to find out just what happened to them.” *“War, perhaps ?”? Hemridge spoke without any real inter- comicloolks.com