The klaxon on the Eagle died away, and he switched on the communicator on his commlock. He blipped Carter, and the Pilot’s miniaturized face appeared on the screen. He still looked puzzled, and rather annoyed.
‘It’s the stabilizers,’ he reported to Koenig. ‘But don’t ask me what’s gone wrong with them. They were the last things I’d expected to develop trouble.’
Koenig spoke reassuringly to him over the commlock. ‘I think this is a put-up job, by someone or something. But we’ll play their game. Try to discover what’s happened while I go into that cave to investigate.’
He left the commlock switched on, to keep himself informed of new developments, and continued on his way. The mouth of the cave loomed up. As a precaution he withdrew his laser gun, then stepped inside.
The air was no cooler inside, as it ought by rights to have been. It only went to confirm his theory that the energy being used by the asteroid to maintain its pleasant environmental effects was the energy which it was somehow stealing from the Moon Base.
He raised the commlock to his mouth. ‘I’m going in,’ he said. ‘I’ll report back every three minutes.’
The dark, pellucid walls were a-glitter with light. Indeed, the entire jewel mass seemed to act as a light transmitter, and he imagined that no part of the asteroid’s interior would be totally dark. His eyes grew used to the dimness and he began to pick his way cautiously along the passage.
The tunnel looked as though it had been artificially hewn from the crystal. Its walls were rough, and its ceiling was of an approximately uniform height throughout its length. It bore steeply downhill and soon the reassuring circle of light at the cave mouth disappeared from view behind him.
The unearthly silence of the crystal world was even more apparent now. The scratching, slithering noise his boots made and his laboured breathing sounded alarmingly loud. Contradicting all the factual evidence they had received from the asteroid, the world seemed to be a dead one.
But then, a barely perceptible, high-pitched noise came on the still air. He paused in his descent. It was an eerie, disconcerting electronic note, like amplifier feedback, that began to grow in intensity. It seemed to ring inside his head, without letting up. Protectively, he put his hands over his ears, but the noise did not abate. Gritting his teeth, he raised his laser. Ahead, the passageway curved sharply, seemingly towards the noise, and he approached the bend with caution.
The noise grew and the crystal walls began to shine brightly. He rounded the bend and found himself before an area filled with a painful, dazzling brightness and the ringing, head-splitting sound. He gasped, pressing himself flat against the wall while he tried to re-orientate his senses. The light seemed to come at him from many different directions. Gradually, his eyesight adjusted, and he discovered that he had entered a large cavern hewn out of the crystal.
The myriad facets of the crystal wall were acting like mirrors, each one reflecting the powerful light source. The cavern was so filled with reflections and counter-reflections, not only of the light, but of everything else too, that it was impossible to say with certainty what its dimensions were. He assumed it to be a part of the asteroid’s workings – the part responsible for draining their power. But there was no sign of machinery or any other kind of technology that he was familiar with. Once more he was faced with the eerie possibility that the asteroid itself was the culprit.
He advanced slowly and found himself confronted with a hundred thousand kaleidoscopic images of himself, a hundred thousand arms holding out a hundred thousand laser guns.
At regular intervals in the walls, larger, roughly rectangular surfaces appeared. They looked like full-length mirrors, ground smooth from the crystal. They blazed resplendently with all the colours of the rainbow, and seemed in some way to be linked with the high-pitched feedback noise. As he approached the first of the mirrors, the noise increased wildly. It cut through his senses like an invisible knife, forcing him to step back away from it. Determinedly, he braced himself against the pain and thrust his arm in front of the mirror. The noise wobbled alarmingly. In the glass he saw his arm reflected back at him. There appeared to be no danger, so he stepped boldly in front of it. As he did so, the noise became a shriek. He was drowned in a barrage of pure sound. It was a living, animal sound, and with sudden panic he felt some vital part of his being being stolen from him. It was too late to move. He was gripped in its power, his eyes hypnotically drawn to the reflection of himself, standing with its hands crammed over its ears, its face contorted in a hideous grimace of agony.
The noise level reached an unbearable pitch during which he felt that every cell in his body had been torn apart, examined, and then joined together again. Slowly at first, the noise subsided, then it dropped quickly away to nothing.
He brought his arms down and stared, ashen faced at himself. The echo of the noise still shrieked inside his head. Deeply perturbed, he looked down at his arms and legs to examine them. They looked and felt real. He looked back at his reflection. He shook his head. Predictably, the reflection shook its head. Apart from his paleness, he seemed to be perfectly normal.
He wasn’t convinced, but he had no alternative other than to resume his survey of the cavern.
Warily, he stepped out of the mirror’s optical field, and moved on.
After he had gone, the mirror surface shimmered, and smiled. Its patient, alien mind heaved a sigh of fulfilment. Deep in its liquid depths, Koenig’s reflection still lay. It had not moved. But now it had become more than a mere reflection. It was a perfectly formed replica of him, complete to the tiniest visual detail.
It had only one imperfection.
Wolfishly, it smiled to itself as it stepped out of the glass and followed in Koenig’s tracks.
The unnerving quietness of the gargantuan jewel returned. The fierce intensity of its light had been reduced, as though its worst power had been wrought. Koenig examined each of the remaining mirrors in turn, but he found nothing that could have accounted for either the light or the noise. Nothing except for the blank, ubiquitous crystal.
His commlock blipped and Carter’s face re-appeared on its screen, reminding him that he should have reported.
‘What’s it like in there, John?’ the Australian asked him.
Koenig looked exasperated. For the moment he was defeated. He spoke into the commlock. ‘You won’t believe it! It’s like a vast hall of mirrors. The composition seems to be some form of dense crystal. It could be the energy source Maya mentioned.’ He hesitated, wondering whether to tell him about the mirror, but he decided that it could wait. Instead, he asked: ‘Have you located the malfunction yet?’
Carter shook his head. ‘Still working on it.’
‘Keep at it. I won’t be long...’
His attention had been drawn to a large piece of the crystal which projected from the wall. It looked easier to break off than some of the other pieces, and he began to bang against it with the palms of his hands.
He did not immediately hear the sound of rapid footsteps approaching behind him. When he did, it was too late. He spun round, and was astounded by the brief glimpse he caught of his assailant.
His mind responded in confusion to the Doppelginger-like image of himself that leapt at him. It bore a mocking, hating expression on its face – like none he had seen on himself before. Semi-paralyzed with fear, he forced himself into action, and brought up his arm holding the laser. Before he could fire it, the terrifying figure knocked it away and reached out for his throat. It grasped him and began throttling him to death.
Koenig’s body went quickly slack in the reflection creature’s hands, but the creature kept squeezing his neck.
The shrill, high-pitched sound returned. The note shrieked madly in warning, and the alien glanced guiltily around itself at the vibrating crystal. Angrily, it let the body drop. As though pacified, the noise died away again.
It seemed to remember its mission now, and composed itself. The cruel smile came back on its fa
ce, and it nodded knowingly, as though at some telepathic reminder that had been communicated to it. Artfully, it reached for the crystal projection that its predecessor had been vainly trying to remove, and with a single, powerful grasping motion, tore it away. It deposited the radiant stone inside a sample bag and clipped it round its waist. Then it picked up Koenig’s communicator and switched on.
Carter’s unsuspecting features returned to the screen. ‘Yes, John?’ he asked.
The alien’s face set in a hard, domineering expression. With scarcely any pretence, it rasped, ‘I have a sample of the crystal. Prepare for take-off immediately.’
Carter sounded incredulous.
‘But I haven’t quite finished adjusting the stabilizers, John,’ he complained.
‘Five minutes...’ the impostor snapped. Abruptly, it clicked off the set. Casting a last, sneering glance at the prone figure of Koenig, it turned and stalked out of the cavern.
CHAPTER TWO
One by one, the Moon Base’s many independent, self-contained and self-supporting Centres were becoming inoperable as electrical circuits automatically cut out in the emergency.
Maya shivered, drawing the thick blanket more tightly around her already well-clothed and coated body.
The Command Centre looked like a refugee camp site, with every Alphan in it similarly clad in the thick blankets that Helena had rationed out to them. However, there was nothing comical in their situation. The temperature was still dropping. The programmed cuts would continue to operate for as long as the power drain continued. They would phase out the least essential facilities and Centres first, forcing the Alphans into ever smaller confinements for accommodation. Eventually, only the Power Room, in the Life Support Centre, would remain. In there lay the Life Support Core, the great energy heart of the Moon Base. Fuelled by the immensely powerful, radioactive element Tiranium, of which supplies were always desperately scarce, the core was already weak. At the present rate of power loss it could not be expected to last more than a few months. Then, when it finally cut out, the Moon would become a dead world again.
Maya stared uncomprehendingly at the mass of figures and lines on the print-out in front of her. Her mind was slowing up under the pressure of the work, and she shook herself.
She spoke to Carter, who was on her console monitor. ‘You must delay lift-off,’ she said, forcing urgency into her voice. ‘I’m getting some really weird readings from your sensors.’
Carter looked strained. ‘John said he wants out of here, now.’
‘A few minutes isn’t going to make any difference...’ she complained.
The screen went haywire. When it cleared, she saw Koenig’s stormy features filling it. He spoke in a cold, careless voice to her. ‘Each minute can make a world of difference.’
She drew back, alarmed. Koenig was usually perfunctory, detached... and everything else a commander needed to be to ensure respect and action from his crew. But now, there was a definite malice, a deliberate indifference in his voice which sent shivers of fear up her spine to add to those produced by the cold.
Koenig’s face cracked stiffly in a smile, as though he realized he had gone too far.
‘Ready...?’ she heard him say to Carter.
Maya decided to ignore Koenig’s new mood. With forced brightness, she said: ‘John... we’re in an increasingly bad way down here. I’ve been picking up some strange readings...’
Koenig cut her off. His voice was now normal. ‘So are we. This whole asteroid is one strange reading.’ His head turned off-screen again toward Carter. ‘Lift-off.’
The monitor went blank.
Maya turned in frustration to Helena, who was standing by her, still watching the dead screen. Her brow was creased as though in shock, and her mouth was hanging open speechlessly.
‘I can’t make anything of these readings,’ Maya said. ‘They’re all incomplete. Why was John in such a hurry?’
Helena composed herself, not wishing to reveal her suddenly complex feelings about John. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘But we’ll know soon, when he gets back.’
Carter walked nervously behind the striding form of his Commander. They turned out of the Eagle Ship Passenger Section into the travel tube that had connected to them after they had docked. The tubes were designed to snake out to any of the numerous berths where the Eagles were housed, giving instant, air-tight connection to the Moon Base.
The impostor fired his commlock at the capsule doors, and they slid silently open. Soon they were speeding smoothly on their way along the tube.
The doors opened automatically, and the alien stepped quickly out. He began walking determinedly towards the Command Centre. When his creator had fashioned him from the molecular structure of Koenig, it had copied the original, almost precisely, and he knew nearly all of the Commander’s most intimate thoughts... including all the top secrets of the Moon Base.
Carter trailed behind him, shivering in the cold, and deeply upset at his Commander’s behaviour. Something terrible had happened down on the asteroid, he was sure. But the Commander wouldn’t talk about it. He wondered, generously, whether John had a perfectly good reason for concealing whatever it was that he had found. No, he decided that nothing could have come between the long years of work and friendship they had experienced together. Not overnight, anyhow.
The figure that looked like Koenig burst into the Command Centre. He waved away personnel who approached him with urgent questions, and sat himself down behind his Command Desk. He nodded convincingly at Maya and Verdeschi, but he missed out Helena. She was approaching him, looking concerned and distraught.
‘Not now, Helena,’ he said to her. The tone of his voice caused her to stop in her tracks. She watched incredulously as he hit one of the buttons on his console and began to address the Moon Base.
‘Attention all Alphans. This is the Commander speaking.’ His voice boomed out into all the empty Centres and corridors where it was now too inhospitable to go, and to all the rooms where the Alphans were packed together, swathed in blankets and drinking cups of tea. He paused to give everyone time to focus his attention. His face was stony and hard, and he did not speak with consideration. ‘I have just returned from an exploratory trip to the asteroid, and I must tell you it poses a serious threat to Alpha. We are presently surrounded by a strong energy screen which, if we do not neutralize it as quickly as possible, will render our instruments totally useless.’
Again he paused, to allow the gravity of his words to sink in. ‘I need not tell you,’ he continued, ‘the consequences of being trapped by this magnetic force. To escape, we will have to create an energy beam. We will then direct that beam at the centre of this asteroid, which is formed from a gigantic crystal. It will reflect our beam back, cutting through the energy screen and breaking its hold on us.
‘Time is our enemy. We have an enormous task facing us. I’m sure I will have the full support and co-operation of every Alphan aboard Moon Base to complete this task – and complete it successfully.’ Again he paused, before issuing his instructions. ‘I want all construction crews to report immediately to Main Technical Section and stand by for further orders to begin exterior work.’
He leant forward and clicked the communication switch off. Momentarily, he sat back, with a feeling of satisfaction flooding through his being. He looked at his immediate personnel in turn, and he knew by the expressions on their faces that his guise had worked. Now they had been given a reason for his flawed behaviour. They looked grimly at him, reflecting the supposed seriousness of the situation he had contrived for them.
The woman called Helena, whom he felt uneasy about, nodded slowly at him.
‘Any questions, anyone?’ he asked.
Helena looked relieved, but she also looked thoughtful. She spoke for everyone. ‘John... about creating this energy beam... that’s going to drain a lot more power from our Life Support System. With present losses, we could be in serious trouble...’
He cut her off,
a little too sharply. ‘We’ll be in far more serious trouble if we don’t!’
‘I haven’t had a chance to complete these sensor print-outs yet,’ Maya began.. ‘They...’
‘Not necessary now,’ the impostor assured her brusquely.
Maya looked bewildered, and slightly rebellious. ‘Then I’d like an opportunity to analyze the sample you took. There may be another way to break through that screen without draining...’
‘I’ve already completed that analysis,’ he replied. He felt impatience rising in him as he realized that his confidence trick was slipping, but forced his unpredictable and unstable feelings down.
‘Without instruments?’ Maya asked suspiciously.
‘I had enough portable equipment with me for a preliminary investigation,’ he lied.
‘But surely...’
‘Any further questions?’ he asked, ignoring her completely. His cold, changed eyes roved round the room.
Maya flared up. Her wild, lynx-like eyes flashed. ‘Your methods, Commander!’ she exclaimed disgustedly. ‘Your data is totally...’
‘I’m sorry,’ he replied with great strain. ‘I haven’t time to argue.’
‘I’m not trying to argue, John – I’m being scientific!’ she tried to reason with him. ‘We’re lacking vital information...’
The Doppelginger turned on her. Latent rage burned inside him. He was unable to tolerate the kind of independent and self-reasoning spirit he was coming across more frequently among this species. He stared coldly at her. There was an iron authority in his eyes. ‘Do you question mine?’ he demanded.
‘I can’t question what I haven’t got!’ Maya retorted, heatedly. ‘As Scientific Officer, I insist...’
‘You are confined to your quarters until further notice!’ he raged. ‘Now go.’
Helena and Verdeschi both stepped forward to protest. Helena reached out to touch him, and he shied back, a feeling of panic gripping him. He still kept his iron expression.
Space 1999 - The Space-Jackers Page 2
