‘It’s drawing in energy. Like a seed absorbs water!’ Maya exclaimed with a mixture of dismay and wonder. ‘Tony! We’ve got to do something!’
They looked at one another aghast. Considerations of respect and rank now flew out of their heads, and they ran from the room.
They ran swiftly down the empty corridor intersection that connected them with the Launch Area. Ahead, they heard noises and pressed themselves into an alcove. Two armed and watchful guards appeared and passed by without spotting them. They ran on again and headed for the travel tube.
They fired their commlocks at the tube doors and they slid apart. With relief, they ran inside. The doors closed behind them and they whisked off towards the Eagle One Launch Pad. But as the doors opened at the other end, they were confronted by another armed guard.
This one noticed them, and at first he was respectful, but suspicious too when he saw their flushed faces. ‘Mr Verdeschi, you shouldn’t be in this section. Orders are to let no-one enter Eagles without a signed pass from the Commander. I know you’re our Chief,’ he said a trifle guiltily to the Italian, ‘but the Commander’s orders overrule everything.’
Verdeschi’s hand moved involuntarily towards his laser. The guard stiffened and moved forward, pointing his own laser at him. ‘And I have orders to disarm all personnel,’ he added hastily.
Verdeschi shrugged, feigning nonchalance. He handed over his laser. The guard turned to Maya, but she held out empty hands. ‘I have no weapon,’ she told him.
The guard nodded. He took his commlock from his belt. ‘Sorry, but I’ve orders to inform the Commander of any unauthorized personnel in this section.’
His finger began to switch on the instrument, but he was not quick enough for Maya. In a faster time than usual, she had converted herself into a snarling, barking alsatian dog.
The man jumped, and shrank back in horror. He raised his gun but he never got to pull the trigger. The snarling animal sprang and he went down under it. Verdeschi stepped forward and expertly knocked the man out. The guard lay still and the dog now bounded towards Verdeschi, but it was wagging its tail. Verdeschi grinned briefly. ‘Uh – uh not now... You can lick me later sweetheart,’ he said.
There was no room for humour, and no time for Maya to convert back into her normal form. Dog and Security Chief bounded and ran towards the opening doors of the Eagle.
The power beams intensified. The station grew colder and more lightless as section after section switched itself off. Soon, the computers were fluctuating so wildly that they couldn’t control the programmed shut-down. Sections and appliances began dangerously shutting out and switching on at random. All the while, the overpowering feelings of fulfilment, happiness and peace washed over the Replica. The cold, unstoppable energy at his heart moved in complete symmetry and grace.
Smugly, the Replica examined the rows of dials and controls on the complex equipment banks in the Life Support Centre. The needles in the meters swung madly, more in than out of the red danger areas. The signs of the Moon Base running out of power filled him with pleasure.
As he watched, debating whether to accelerate the process still further by turning some of the controls to maximum, Helena entered behind him. She was angry and out of breath. The repellant aura she cast over him caused the unpleasant, irritating feeling to rise inside him once more. He turned.
‘There you are...’ she said. She came further into the room, a look of grim confrontation now on her face. ‘You said nothing about coming here...’
The anxiety that she caused inside the Replica was not so acute now that the energy transfer was under way, and he was able to act with her much more convincingly. He looked upset, and waved an arm at the controls. ‘I wanted to see for myself what terrible things I’m causing to happen. I’m sorry. I’ve been too harsh.’
Confusion appeared in Helena again. Try as she might, she could not fight down her loyalty and love. Meeting him like this, in his present state, aroused in her the same conviction she had felt earlier, and the scientific case she and Maya had built against him crumbled away. ‘John, you’ve no need to...’
‘I wish you could understand,’ he said, to his confusion as he realized that the double meaning behind his words had been intentional. To his horror and loathing he found that the object of his greatest distaste was actually becoming attractive to him. For a moment, he had sincerely wanted her to understand – to understand the feelings of his Creator, and the race of the Creator’s people who were waiting to be reborn.
Helena was touched by his stumbling attempt at apology. She thought now, that she could persuade him to stop his act of folly. ‘I’ve been trying to understand. Believe me, we all have. We all really want to help. I was hoping when I saw you here, you’d come for that medical check-up. John... there’s an important question I must ask you. It’s absolutely vital you give me an honest answer.’
She moved to him, an imploring yet tender look of concern on her face. Involuntarily, his features went taut again and he backed away from her. He realized now that her treachery could still stop him from carrying out his task and once again he found that he secretly wanted to kill her.
An alarm sounded and he wheeled round to face the monitor. He punched a button and Yasko’s round grave face appeared on it. Behind her, Carter was standing, wearing a look of acute agony.
‘What is it?’ the Replica asked coldly.
‘Eagle One is space borne, John,’ she reported.
The Replica’s face contorted, and rage, ever near the surface, flared once more inside him. Helena shivered with fear. ‘Where is it heading?’ he demanded.
Yasko and Carter exchanged sinking looks. They felt consumed with guilt, but for differing reasons. They still could not bring themselves to desert the monstrous being whom they erroneously considered to be their Commander.
‘Eagle One is heading for the asteroid,’ Yasko reported mechanically.
Helena’s fear turned to terror, for she instinctively knew what the Replica would do. She launched herself at his back as he commanded them to shoot the Eagle Ship down.
‘John!’ she screamed out, but he threw her effortlessly off his back with some of the latent violence that now teetered on the brink of uncontrolability.
‘Sir!’ Carter’s voice gasped, forgetful of the bond of a friendship that bound him to the creature. He was responding now only to his conditioned training.
‘Activate the laser gun!’ the Replica screamed hoarsely. ‘That’s an order!’
His face beaded with sweat and lined with the severe conflicting tensions that battled inside him, Carter turned to his console and hit a button.
‘Weapons’ Section,’ a toneless, well-conditioned voice told him.
Zombie-like, Carter spoke his instruction, even though he knew that Maya and Verdeschi might be in the ship he was about to destroy. ‘Activate laser gun...’
Invisibly, silently, the massive laser assembly on the lunar surface above their head swung into action. The deadly, indifferent carbon dioxide light cannon inside it poised in readiness.
‘Laser gun on target,’ Carter informed the Replica, shaking uncontrollably.
‘Then shoot it down!’ the alien voice yelled. The Replica felt a renewed flush of well-being rise inside and he sneered in satisfaction.
CHAPTER FOUR
The blunt, unseeing barrel of the giant laser swept slowly across the starry lunar sky as it tracked its target. But it did not fire.
Yasko read her controls, observing that the Eagle had successfully gone into orbit around the asteroid. She sighed thankfully to herself as she realized that Carter had at last given in to his human conscience and was overriding the military circuitry that had been implanted inside him.
The Command Centre doors burst open and the figure of their Commander stormed angrily inside. He looked at the Big Screen, now showing a shot of the Eagle orbiting the mini-planet. The jewel had swollen grossly, and it was a rich, sickly verdigris.
‘Carter! I gave orders to shoot that craft down!’ The Replica glared at the Pilot, incensed with rage and seeping violence. ‘What sort of insubordination is this?’
Carter looked stricken with an apoplexy. At any moment it seemed he would go completely to pieces, but he clung grimly to his composure. ‘Commander... I can’t... I think it may be... I think I know who’s inside the...’
‘Maya and Tony are inside it,’ Helena stated. She had followed the Replica.
‘I ORDERED YOU TO FIRE!’ the impostor yelled, striding toward Carter. Instead of cracking altogether, Carter seemed suddenly to find his mental bearings again, and he flared up.
‘I WON’T DO IT!’ he yelled back. ‘I CAN’T!’
The Replica appeared on the brink of total madness. His veins stood out perilously on his forehead and his eyes burned with a fierce wrath. Tiny, white flecks of foam appeared at the corners of his mouth and his nostils flared madly. He heaved Carter out of the way and began to operate the laser controls himself.
Helena thought wildly. ‘Commander!’ she spoke loudly and forcibly. She didn’t know what to say, knowing only that she had to say something to delay his actions. ‘Those lasers will divert power from your energy beams...’ The words came spontaneously to her, and they worked.
The Replica’s hand was poised over the Fire Button, her carefully loaded words cutting into his fevered brain. He hesitated, and his eyes narrowed.
Helena continued. ‘And that will upset your time-table, Commander... throw everything behind schedule.’ She paused, watching his reaction grow. ‘You said – time keeps running away from you, didn’t you?’
His hand moved away from the button and fell by his side. For a long moment he stood perfectly motionless, still with his back to them.
Yasko and Carter exchanged looks, an almost unthinkable doubt beginning to dawn on them.
Cutting into all their minds came a high-pitched feed-back sound. It stabbed through the open doors from the corridor and sliced through their thought processes.
On the Big Screen, the Eagle was landing on the asteroid.
The Replica turned, surprising them once again. The tiny flecks of foam still hung at the corners of his mouth and his eyes looked glazed with contained energy, but he was smiling. The smile grew and became the real, warm smile of the real Koenig, and the anger in the eyes dimmed away.
‘I owe you all an apology,’ he said in a gentle, conciliatory way. ‘I have been witholding information from you. I see now it was a mistake. That asteroid is not only draining our power, but...’
Helena winced at his words, unable to tolerate his trickery any more. ‘Don’t listen to him!’ she cried out passionately. ‘This is not John Koenig!’
A double contortion occurred inside the Replica. Only at the expense of rupturing internal organs did he maintain his calm. ‘Helena,’ he spoke to her gently, ‘if I am not John Koenig, who am I?’
‘Touch him, one of you, touch him!’ she cried out. ‘He’s like ice!’
The Replica looked at the others and smiled at them. ‘Helena is right. I am like ice,’ he said. ‘I must confess that something affected me on that asteroid... I don’t know what, but I do know the only way all of us can be free is to break loose from its hold on Alpha – on me.’ He turned to the Big Screen, conscious now that he had succeeded in attracting some sympathy. ‘It’s why I gave strict orders that no-one leave Moonbase. I would rather have shot them down than to have anyone go there... to some danger even greater than mine, perhaps. I hope it won’t be too late to save them.’
But Helena was still not swayed. She cast her eyes around the Command Centre at the personnel who were coming round once again to believe the alien’s trick. ‘You must believe me!’ she declared intently. ‘It isn’t the way he says!’
Carter looked away from her gaze. He clearly believed now that he had been mistaken, and he looked embarrassed and upset.
‘Helena, please take hold of yourself,’ the Replica told her softly. There was more than a smile of peace on his face now. There was a smirk of triumph. ‘Don’t force me to use my authority as Commander. It would pain me to have to confine you to your quarters... or order you to Medical Centre for observation.’
Her first reaction was to continue to fight him, but now she held back, and played his game. She realized that she was in danger of losing the sympathy and credibility of those around her... the ones who mattered most. ‘Perhaps,’ she said, with equal smugness to him, ‘I have been overly upset. We’ve all been under a strain.’
His smile twisted slightly, and faded. She turned and walked towards her console, conscious of the gaze of the stricken Carter, who was now looking visibly disturbed again.
The Replica’s jaws tightened, and he turned to Yasko. ‘Increase the energy flow to the beam. We must break free,’ he commanded crisply.
The temperature dropped again. The lights flashed out. The dim yellow of the emergency lighting flickered on. From somewhere in the Moon Base came the sound of a klaxon intermingling with the continuous high-pitched shriek of the Heart of Kalthon.
Long, dark shadows rippled off the brilliant green mass of expanding crystal. The surface blazed like a dazzling underwater sea of light and dark.
‘The whole surface is transforming,’ Maya said in awe as she and Verdeschi watched the scene on the Pilot Section screen. In the background the three pillars of greenish-yellow energy that were feeding the coalescing mass thickened. More of the Moon Base’s vital resources were being quickly used up by the insidious power leech.
‘You can say that again,’ Verdeschi commented grimly from his controls. ‘It’s going to be one hell of a landing. Hold on.’
The ship’s main propulsion rockets thundered smoothly into action. They fired just long enough to break the Eagle’s orbit, then, as the downward fall began, her mighty descent rockets exploded. Slowly, she sank towards the disrupted surface, into the sudden influence of violent magnetic fields which tore at her hull and tossed her about like paper. Verdeschi compensated with powerful boosters that stabilized the descent, and at last she settled down on her four giant suspension pads.
The engines died away and the two ‘mutineers’ began to unstrap themselves. They ran into the Passenger Section and, after checking the atmospheric composition outside, activated the ship’s hatchway.
They were met by a landscape of fierce change. The green rays were now intense, blinding. The biological crystal surfaces of the rocks and mountains were visibly breaking up and swelling, like the unstable surface of some enormous, glistening, worm-infested cheese. An acrid smoke hung in the air – the waste product of the obscene conversion that was taking place before them.
‘Ugh!’ Maya shivered.
Verdeschi was slightly less sickened. ‘Those energy reflectors are beginning to cook this place...’
Against their deepest instincts they forced themselves into motion down the descent steps and on to the squirming, spongy surface.
They had landed on the co-ordinates set by Koenig and Carter during their last flight. To their left they saw what must be the cave entrance that they had seen on the Command Centre screen. It looked black and sticky now, and the flexible mass of converting matter it was surrounded by seemed about to bury it forever. They stumbled towards it, gasping for breath.
It was warm and humid inside. The air smelled putrid and threatened to overcome them, but they pushed on into the green, shadowy gloom.
At length they came to the hall of mirrors, still brightly lit and confusing in its duplicity. They looked around them, shielding their eyes from the intensity of green light.
‘Tony!’ Maya gasped as she spotted the reflection of their Commander, frozen immobile in the glass of one of the mirrors. Verdeschi stared incredulously at the image. They had not known what they would find and he had been prepared for anything, but the implications of...
‘That Koenig on Alpha is John’s image!’ Maya exclaimed, astounded.
‘Soon have him out now,’ Verdeschi grunted. He pulled out his laser and turned it to low power. He fired at the glass and it shattered and slid in a sparkling heap to the ground. The frozen figure behind came abruptly to life, and Koenig stepped out.
‘Tony... Maya...’ he threw out his arms in a warm greeting and they embraced briefly.
‘We’re for real, John,’ Verdeschi grinned.
‘But the other you on Alpha, isn’t,’ Maya said.
‘I know. I saw him... you don’t have to explain about the situation on Alpha,’ Koenig told them. ‘I had a dialogue with some kind of disembodied voice – Kalthon. There’s a whole new civilization about to explode to life here any time now.’
Verdeschi turned to Maya. ‘You were right...’
‘How is the alien draining off our power?’ Koenig asked.
‘Reflectors... beaming all our energy...’ Maya began, deeply relieved to see and hear the reassuring Koenig taking over command again.
‘... to the seed – the Heart of Kalthon,’ Koenig finished for her. ‘I saw it. It’s like an embryo and it’s in here somehere.’ He searched vainly around him with his eyes.
‘If we can find it, we can destroy it, John...’ Maya said.
Verdeschi snapped his fingers. ‘Sound! High frequency sound. Maya split open a sample of the crystal with sonar.’
‘I programmed my commlock to the exact pitch,’ Maya informed them, ‘when there was nothing else to do in my quarters.’ She smiled, and held up her communicator.
Koenig’s face lightened and he made a rapid decision. ‘Then I’m taking your Eagle to Alpha,’ he told them. ‘I’ll get another one down to you. Find the Heart of Kalthon and blast it out of existence!’
Uncertainly, they nodded. Verdeschi smiled wrily. Neither of them expected that they would have to stay behind, but they knew there was no option.
‘Good luck,’ Koenig told them, then turned and ran off down the hall towards the cave entrance.
They watched him disappear.
‘Well, that’s justice for you...’ Verdeschi began. But Maya nudged him. She held up her commlock and smiled.
Space 1999 - The Space-Jackers Page 5
