Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 72 — page 128: what you’re looking at

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

REPLY DEFERRED small one, but dense, and he could already feel the gravita- tional pull of it. It was im- possible to avoid it, even though he exerted his maxi- mum efiort. But he could make a decent landing. | The descent through the atmosphere was distinctly un- pleasant. His refrigeration equipment was working full blast to keep his skin tem- perature down within safe limits. Worse, the deceleration impulses he had to exert drained away much of the carefully husbanded reserves of energy in his cells. Algo flattened out his almost verti- cal approach path and skimmed low above a wide ocean of a polluted hydrogen- oxygen complex. The liquid was grey and cold, and the surface was undulating in an oily swell. His passage ruffled the surface in a hard line just beneath his mid-section. Observation of this phenome- non absorbed much of his recording and analytical equip- ment, because these were new and not found on the planets he had left. The atmosphere of gas he hurtled through still caused him discomfort. It 127 may have been these factors, coupled with sighting solid land dead ahead at the same moment as his speed dropped below sonic which caused it. Certainly it was unexpected. The next second he was ploughing through the liquid in a smother of spray and steam. The change of environment to Algo simply meant re- adjustment. In less than ten micro-seconds his perceptors had responded and restored equilibrium. He was now travelling fifty feet beneath the surface and losing speed quickly. The resistance of the water very soon absorbed all forward motion and Algo sank gently to the bottom. The ooze squirted up in a cloud as he plumped into it, and for a while cluttered up his observation. It did more— it entirely cut him off from the source of energy upon which he utterly depended. When the mud had settled sufficiently for him to take some bearings, Algo heaved himself wearily off the ocean bed and, travelling slowly, worked his way into the conmiclooolkks.com