The Missing Disclaimer

                            By Sam Sackett

               Holderness' editorial error cost him his
            job--but it also created a serious problem for
            K-17. As an invader had he walked into a trap?

           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
              Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy
                             November 1954
         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]


Mr. Young came bounding into the office of _Atomic Science Stories_,
waving a copy of the first issue in his hand. He stopped at the desk of
the editor, Art Holderness.

"Holderness," he roared, his chins quivering, "you're fired!"

Holderness looked up in surprise. "Why?" he asked.

"Look at this contents page!"

Holderness looked at it. "What's the matter with it?"

"Don't you see anything wrong?"

"No. What shouldn't be there?"

"There isn't anything shouldn't be there, you idiot. There's something
missing!"

"What?"

"Our announcement that the characters and situations in these stories
bear no resemblance to actual persons living or dead."

"Oh."

"Is that all you have to say? Think of the libel suits! We'll be
ruined. I don't know why I let myself be talked into adding a science
fiction book anyway. Holderness, you're fired."

"But Mr. Young--"

"You have no idea the trouble we can get into leaving that announcement
off. Get out of this office!"

       *       *       *       *       *

K-17 removed a copy of _Atomic Science Stories_ from the newsstand and
went up to his hotel room. He sat down to read it.

He had been attracted by the picture of the space ship on the cover,
because it reminded him very much of the one in which he had come
to Earth from Rigel IV. And then, when he looked closer at it, he
discovered that the four-tentacled purple creatures in the ship looked
not a little like his fellow Rigelians.

This made him homesick, and so, in direct defiance of the orders he had
received from his superiors, he pulled down the shades and turned off
the gadget that set up the hypnotic field around him. Once more he was
four-tentacled and purple, instead of two-armed and pink, and it felt
good.

He began to read through the stories. The first of them concerned an
invader from another planet who was on Earth disguised as a man.

Good Vog! K-17 thought to himself. They're on to us.

He looked over the story again. They had some of the details wrong,
of course, such as saying that the Rigelians--whom they called the
Capellans, for some strange reason--had mouths like octopi, whereas
actually they had no mouths at all. But on the whole it was a
circumstantial and convincing account of the capture of a Rigelian spy.

The story had taken place in Philadelphia. That meant they had M-22.
This was serious. He picked up his magneto-oscillophone and called the
home base on the other side of the moon.

"This is K-17," he reported. "I have just read in a Terran publication
details of the capture of M-22."

"Impossible!" the voice snorted in his auditory nerve. "We have been
receiving regular reports from M-22."

"They must have replaced him with a human spy," K-17 mused.

"Good Vog! Do you really think so?"

"It's the only explanation."

"Good work, K-17. We'll be on our guard."

K-17 hung up and sat down again to read further. The next story dealt
with an Earth landing on Mars.

But Earthmen _hadn't_ landed on Mars.

Or had they?

       *       *       *       *       *

This situation was becoming complicated. K-17 thought over all the
possibilities. Was it possible that this magazine contained only
Fiction? The title of the thing was _Atomic Science Stories_. He
remembered that he had read a similar magazine called _Impossible
Science Fiction_. Was the distinction between "stories" and "fiction"
significant? A fiction was obviously false; but a story could be any
narrative, true or not. Did this mean--? Good Vog, he wished he knew
more about Earth culture. But that was what he was here to find out.
They knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about Earth people. And they
didn't want to try to kill the inhabitants and take over the planet
without knowing more about them.

He looked closely at the title page of _Atomic Science Stories_. He
recalled that _Impossible Science Fiction_, which he had, of course,
read every word of, carried an announcement that all the stories were
fiction. He did not see any such announcement on the title page of
_Atomic_. Doubt was wavering into certainty in his mind.

He telephoned the offices of the Young Publishing Co., which published
the magazine. The secretary informed him that the editor, Mr.
Holderness, had been discharged that very morning.

Discharged, K-17 meditated. Why discharged? Well, he told himself, if
Earth had space travel and was keeping it a secret, and if a magazine
violated its security precautions and published a story about it, of
course they'd discharge the editor. If it was a fiction magazine, that
would be different. But a magazine that printed _stories_--some of them
true, like the one about the capture of M-22....

He called headquarters again, on his magneto-oscillophone. "Earth has
space travel!" he announced breathlessly.

"What? Don't be silly." The voice in his auditory nerve was irritated.

"A magazine published an account of it, and the editor was discharged
this morning for security reasons."

"What? Are you sure?"

"I just telephoned the office of the magazine and verified everything."

"Report to the saucer station immediately. You're coming back to
headquarters. We'll get out the word to all our other operatives."

"Except M-22."

"Yes, of course. We'll have to leave him behind. It's really too bad.
The planet offered such nice possibilities."

They hung up.

       *       *       *       *       *

"No, Holderness," Mr. Fribble said, "our magazine can't use you either.
We can't have an editor who's careless enough to leave off the standard
disclaimer. Why, there's no end of trouble we'd get into without that
little announcement."