Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 72 — page 134: what you’re looking at

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

REPLY DEFERRED mildly. “Only take a moment to... hell... You see that? It moved.” His wife clutched him con- vulsively. “Sort of slithered. Chester . . . It’s alive. Do something.” Confused and scared, he could think of only one thing. He pressed the horn button. Algo was replete—he had charged his storage cells until they glowed and pulsed com- fortably. Now, fully func- tional, the immediate prob- lems of survival solved, he checked quietly over the de- tailed instructions in his memory banks. Something equivalent to an alarm twit- tered inside him as the self- preservation quotient snapped into a calculation he was solving. The small yellow star was not his target after all—it was the third planet in the system. A rapid analysis of recently recorded data assured him he was already there. His task was now fairly straightforward. The approach of the machine, on its queer round supports, caused Algo a mo- ment’s concern. If this was the principal guardian of the energy, then it might be advisable to disconnect in case of a power surge. He had had all his rectifiers destroyed that way before, trying to even out a fifty million volt shock. He sent an exploratory im- pulse toward the machine, which had now stopped just outside the berth, aiming at the faintly warm metal box in the front. He waited, puzzled at the silence. It seemed to be dead, although there must be some life in it—it had heat. It was the impact of the sound, precise in the nine frequencies, that did it. Algo quivered all over. Not for an unimaginable time had he heard those clear, discreet notes. The whole of his operational control circuits hummed expectantly, setting up an entirely new configura- tion of response. His. per- ceptors snapped from AUTO to COMMAND. Deep within, power surged, sighing a little as equilibrium was established. He was ready. The nine notes chimed out again precise on his fre- 133 comiclooks.corn