Translation of chapter three of Clark Carrados Battlefield, translated from Spanish to English by Fred Patten. The full text is omitted for reasons of copyright, but in summary:

Captain Frehan arrives at Dr. Gebikov's, and is confronted by his assistant Irene Maussen. She seems reluctant to introduce him until she learns that he is the captain who found the remains on the asteroid. Doctor Gebikov asks him if he can fly the Doctor's private spaceship to the asteroid. He starts by explaining that Earth is in serious danger of becoming a battlefield in a war between two extraterrestrial species. Suddenly there is a knock at the door by an officer of the Special Police!

A galactic war! How does Gebikov know this -- and what can he do about it? Where do the mysterious Special Police fit in? Chapter 4, next week, may answer these questions, and will doubtlessly ask new ones. Don't miss it!

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In case any of you are still wondering, I am not "Clark Carrados", and this is not fan fiction. Campo de batalla, por Clark Carrados, is a Spanish paperback ( © 1964, Ediciones Toray, Barcelona) that I picked up the last time I was in Tijuana. Believing that all s-f should be made available to all fans, I'm translating it through Apa L for your benefit. (Besides, I need the practice; my Spanish is getting rusty again since I stopped reading Mexican comic books over a year ago.)

The story is "mine" only to the extent that the translation is mine. It's faithful to the original (I hope), but fairly liberal. I work mostly by translating the words into their English counterparts, then making any substitutions that I feel are desirable to say the same thing in a more readable style. I've substituted Americanisms for Spanicisms, for the most part, though I haven't been entirely consistant. For an example, Gebikov's epithet, "By the Devil's tail!", is a pretty literal translation from the Spanish (¡Por el rabo del demonio!), but I've substituted "Hell!" or "Damn!" for ¡Demonios!, which could be translated much more closely as "The Devil!" ("Demons!", to be completely literal). In several cases, the literal translation would be correct, but so stilted in his language that I've just thrown it out and substituted something more idiomatic, to help keep the story flowing along. I'm afraid that it's wooden enough as it is.

The whole novel runs to 14 chapters, so it'll be two months or so before it's completed in Apa L. By then, I should know whether you're sick of cheap Spanish s-f, or whether you want more. There's umpteen dozen of these things around, so, like I said a couple of weeks ago, I can keep this up indefinitely. Or until I get sick of it, at any rate.

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If you aren't interested in Spanish stf, I can always go back to my two other great loves -- king lists and flag laws. It even seems that some of you out there may like this -- my notes on the Assyrian and Babylonian kings drew an encouraging amount of response. For those of you who do like that sort of thing, here's a pretty complete list of the kings of the fascinating Kingdom of Berenicia, which grew to become the Kingdom of Northumbria.

Ida, 547- (Berenicia founded by Saxon pirates)
Theodric, Hussa, etc. (dates uncertain)
Aethelric, -593
Aethelfrith, 593-616 (killed in battle)
Edwin of Deira, 616-632 (killed in battle)
Eanfrith, 632-633 (murdered)
Oswald, 633-641 (killed in battle)
Oswiu, 641-670 (See "The Wheels of If", by L. Sprague deCamp)
Ecgfrith, 670-685 (killed in battle)
Aldfrith, 685-704
Osred, 705-716 (murdered)
?
Ceolwulf, 729-737
Eadberht, 737-758 (abdicated)
Oswulf, 758 (murdered; end of royal Berenician line)
Aethelwald, 759-765 (deposed)
Alhred, 765-774 (deposed)
Aethelred, 774-779 (deposed)
Aelfwald, 779-788 (murdered)
Osred, 788-789 (deposed)
Aethelred, restored 789-796 (murdered)
complete anarchy for awhile
Eardwulf, 797-810? (driven out briefly in 808, but restored by Charlemagne)
Eanred, 810?-829 (swore submission to Egbert of Wessex, 1st King of England)

Dave Fox -- From what I remember of Pal's "When Worlds Collide" (I haven't seen it since I was about 11), it was good enough that it doesn't need a remake. Let the good films alone; there are enough bad ones that should be done over again correctly. Campbell's "Who Goes There?", for one. Of course I suppose I should see "When Worlds Collide" again, with a more mature eye, before I definitely say that it doesn't need any improvement. ## I can vaguely see Tony Curtis as Dave Ransdell, but I think both Karloff and Peck are too old for the roles you suggest.

Dian Pelz -- If you want to turn me in for copyright violation in publishing my translation of this Spanish book, you're going to have to figure out the copyright relationships between the U.S. & Spain first. Is anybody sure what they are? Spain is notorious as the producer of a horde of bogus Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes books, all issued in bland disregard of U.S. and British copyrights and trademarks.

Tom Locke -- Your suggestion of the Ping awards reminds me of all sorts of public & private LASFS awards, such as the Egobuck and the Big Feets Award, that disappeared some time ago. What happened to them?

Bruce Pelz -- I'm one of those who doesn't know what his IQ is; I could never get any of the the testers to tell me. I'll admit that I wasn't particularly insistent, since I don't really care. ## I have Len Bailes' assurance that, as an honorary Jew by marriage, I won't be turned into lampshades. ## I think that fannish place names should be fairly unique & respected, like fanzine titles. There's always the danger of a neo duplicating an old name by accident, but I think they should be differentiated whenever possible. Certainly not two residences in the same area with the same name.

Jean Berman -- When the LASFS met in a private residence before -- Zeke's, the Fan Hillton, Mathom House -- I believe the refreshments were made available by the residents of the house, at a nominal fee. (Said residents also collected rent from the club.) I believe that at other times, the club has had a Refreshment Committee, whose duty it is to make sure that refreshments are ready for after the Meetings. We can look into both of these after the club and the Lab crew move into their new slan shack.

Jim Shapiro -- Your stf quiz is bugging me, because there's a couple of references here that I'm sure I've read, but I can't place them. Your selections are hardly all s-f "classics", though, if you're trying to carry out a parallel with "the great books of world literature". Anyhow, the ones I get are: 2. The Shrinking Man, by Richard Matheson. 4. The Puppet Masters, by Robert A. Heinlein. 5. Sinister Barrier, by Eric Frank Russell. 6. The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester. 7. The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham. 8. The Dreaming Jewels, by Theodore Sturgeon. 9. Immortality, Inc., by Robert Sheckley. 10. Lords of the Psychon, by Daniel F. Galouye. ## Well, that's 80%, anyhow. It could've been worse.

Ken Goldsmith -- We'll add your name to the lists of fans persecuted by Bank of America.