Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 72 — page 127: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION As each stray cosmic par- ticle streaked into his body they were greedily absorbed and stored. A ripple ran through the cells glimmering dully in the exhausted matrix. Algo drowsed, basking in the delicious warmth of radiation. It was only when the flush of slowly revived life had perco- lated the farthest extremities did he turn his attention to his surroundings. He had missed it. A giant red star slid beneath him, out of his reach. Yet there were more ahead. Hosts of them, strung out in a great galaxy. He could not miss. Range and direction circuits warmed and hummed, taking bearings on the nearest. He summoned all the resources available to head in toward that blue-white star, but all that happened was a two- degree shift in his course. The effort temporarily ex- hausted him. But the searing blue-white star irradiated his surface, flooded back the energy expended, and only deflected him another three degrees. He passed it more than a light year away. The cluster thinned out 1 again. By now all the circuits were working. It was becom- ing easier to differentiate the various radiations. As they were isolated, their patterns were projected against the resolver. Memory banks dis- gorged statistics and fed them into the comparator. Fila- ments glowed and relays chat- tered as the impulses flowed inward. Little pulses of elec- tricity generated ions swerving in magnetic fields. Traces wove intricate patterns be- neath the critical eye of the analyser. Then, quitesuddenly, they stopped. The comparator had cut the flow of tapes hurtling through its receptor, and locked on. Spectrum exact; density pre- cise; age within tolerance. Dead ahead—distance eight light minutes. A shadowy body intruded from the left, moving on his ecliptic. His range and rate computers chattered rapidly. The result assured him that he was on a collision course. An immediate calculation, in- volving velocity and his kinetic energy, showed without ques- tion that he would hit the intruding planet. It was a 6 conmicbooks.con |