Astounding Science Fiction, February 1952 (British Edition)

About this issue

This British edition of Astounding Science Fiction (Vol. VIII, No. 2, February 1952) features science fiction stories with emphasis on problem-solving expeditions and cosmic threat. The featured novelette "City of the Phoenix" by M.C. Pease concerns a Weapons Search Commission expedition to the planet Torlinda. An initial expedition discovered an ancient, sealed City—a seven-level technology machine built 2500 years prior to contain humanity while a degenerate atomic fire made the planet temporarily uninhabitable. The present mission sends mathematician Ter Ahnkhart and pilot Meik Lanfrot to investigate. The City harbors a weapon of thirteenth-level technology capable of draining power from vessels' drives—similar to Slug invader ships. The Slugs, having invaded from galaxy's edge two centuries prior, now control a third of the Federation; humanity desperately needs this ancient weapon. An inscription warns visitors that the City guards "the spark that is all that remains of Man" and references a mythological Phoenix cycle, suggesting the City itself may be temporary. The incomplete excerpt cuts off mid-dialogue as the pair contemplates paradoxes within the message's implications.