Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 72 — page 147: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION swung joyously about the antenne, smiling down at them. “Gave me a present, too.” “Oh, God, what do we do?” whispered Schultz dis- tractedly. “What if it goes off or . . .”’ Visualisation choked off the sentence. “Get her off somehow, and quick.’ His voice was strangled. “‘Get round the back and lift her off if she won’t come.” “She may slip.” ““O.K., Chester, you go. Ill stay here.” For fully sixty agonising seconds Sommers stood be- side the terrifying thing, his skin cringing in anticipation of what it might suddenly do. He could hear Schultz calling as he struggled up the soft dune on the other side. Katey turned her head, but made no effort to abandon her perch. When he was on the top she would not be persuaded and Schultz leaned down to take hold of her. At this she let out a scream of protest and wriggled to the other side of the antenne. Sommers stepped forward in case the child ‘146 should slip, and found him- self within two feet of the thing’s side. Its proximity, now that he could see it properly, really frightened him. Somehow, it had been differ- ent inside Schultz’s garage— he had never believed it was real, and certainly not hostile. He boggled at the reality and could not take his eyes off it. It was a dull, mottled grey, shot with a curious unde- finable glint as if some fluid seethed beneath the surface. Then it moved. A rippling motion started at the top and ran downwards. Sommers wildly likened it to a giant caterpillar and stepped back smartly. Before he could turn or do anything, a whoop of delight from Katey made him glance up anxiously. The child, still clinging with one hand to the antenne, had reached down to pick up a shining thing-oozing through the surface of the sphere. She must have fumbled it, for it rolled down the side and fell at Sommers’ feet. For a fraction of a second he knew panic. Then he lifted his head and called up to the child: commiclooks.comn | | | | | ! |