Space 1999 #3 - The Space Guardians

by Brian Ball

  ‘But why does it lodge there? Why in Zoref?’

  ‘Who knows? Maybe Zoref was a convenient host or the right kind of catalyst. At any rate, it seems to be dormant now, John. We’ll have a chance of studying—’

  ‘No! I want it rooted out of Zoref’s body! While we’ve got a chance of controlling it, we’ll destroy it—immediately.’

  ‘But John, we can’t do that! Not to an unexplained life-form—’

  ‘Have you forgotten your original advice? You were the one who wanted it blasted, Victor.’

  ‘I was, but then it threatened Alpha, or it seemed to.’ Bergman indicated the slack form. ‘Does that seem to be a threat to Moonbase Alpha?’

  Koenig touched the scar on his forehead. The pain was near again. He refused to acknowledge its nearness:

  ‘Get Kano to set up a computer analysis of possible methods for destruction. I don’t want Zoref harmed, naturally. But I want that thing rooted out!’

  Bergman stared back angrily for a moment. Then:

  ‘Yes, Command—’

  He stopped, aghast. Zoref’s head seemed to glow with an eerie grey-black radiance.

  ‘Guards!’ Morrow was already calling.

  Koenig shouted: ‘Lasers, full power!’ as Zoref’s arms stiffened against the steel bands. He opened his arms, and the bright steel flew back, shattered. He raised his legs, and the steel confining them shivered. At his waist, the powerful bands of metal held for a second or two, then they gave in a ringing spray of razor-edged fragments.

  Zoref stood up and looked at the blue light. He reached a hand to touch it.

  The screen went black.

  ‘Emergency in Medical Centre!’ reported an electronic voice.

  Kano heard. He had a read-out in his hand:

  ‘John, computer wants us to—’

  ‘Not now!’ he snapped. ‘Paul, get a report from the Medical deck!’

  ‘Coming in now, Commander,’ said Morrow tightly.

  ‘Guard Sullivan!’ a hoarse voice called. ‘The man’s gone stark crazy! He’s reaching to the lights and they’re all failing—Now he’s over at the power-controls—he’s hurt, he’s reeling! There’s a sort of smoke-screen around him. I’ll grab him, Controller—’

  ‘Don’t try it!’ roared Koenig. Echoing him, Morrow yelled: ‘Laser, Sullivan—gun him down!’

  There was no answer from the guard.

  Seconds passed. An unimpassioned voice rang hollowly through Main Mission Control.

  ‘Security Guard P. Sullivan. Life-functions now terminated. Detailed report follows—’

  ‘Later!’ called Koenig. ‘Turn the damned thing off!’

  Kano punched commands, and the macabre catalogue of fatal symptoms ceased. It was enough that Sullivan had died. They all knew how they would find him.

  ‘Get down there,’ Koenig said to Bergman. ‘See if there’s any indication of where Zoref’s heading for. I’ll alert Alpha. And take no chances, Victor!’

  Bergman nodded. Koenig wasn’t in the mood for argument, not now. The body-count was up to three.

  ‘Attention all personnel,’ Koenig called. ‘All Moon-base Alpha personnel, this is Commander John Koenig. Now listen!’

  News of Zoref’s sickness had spread throughout the huge complex. The details weren’t known, but the size of the pursuit operation clearly indicated the seriousness of Zoref’s condition. Men and women stopped what they were doing. They listened to their Commander in tense and fearful anticipation.

  ‘Technician Zoref is under medical supervision. He has received a massive overdose of radiation, and he is in a dangerous condition. That danger extends to all Alphans. Technician Zoref is a danger to each and every one of you! He is not, repeat not, to be approached, except by Security sections. Side-arms have been issued and a shoot-to-kill authorization exists in case of attack. Technician Zoref has been responsible for the deaths of three Alphans, so I give you this warning again: keep away from Zoref! If you sight Zoref,’ concluded Koenig, ‘report the news at once! Stay at your posts and report sightings to Main Mission Control!’

  ‘Orders, Commander?’ asked Morrow.

  ‘Make sure your Security details know what to do.’

  Bergman returned.

  ‘Sullivan was frozen to death,’ he said. ‘What now, John?’

  Professor Bergman looked his years. His face was grey.

  ‘You and David Kano keep a check on all power losses. Zoref’s in need of energy. I want all reports channelled through to you. Plot them on a Moonbase map. I want to know where he’s heading for!’

  The first losses were already coming through.

  ‘This is Alpha Section B,’ said a calm voice. ‘We have major losses in all store-rooms. Power loss critical.’

  A technician reported the blacking-out of a main corridor. A scanner reported the failure of a communication network through power-loss.

  Two female orderlies wanted to know why their laundry unit wouldn’t operate, and why they’d been left in the dark.

  Koenig stared at the plot which Bergman and Kano were building up from the information they had received.

  ‘It’s not enough!’ Koenig burst out. ‘The alien was dormant for a while then it adapted to Zoref’s metabolism! We’ve got to stop it growing!’

  ‘Agreed,’ said Bergman, looking up, ‘It can absorb all the power Alpha produces. See. Already Section A is out. Zoref’s moving through B Section and all power-sources fail with his progress.’

  ‘I want him isolated from all energy sources,’ said Koenig. ‘David,’ he said quickly to Kano. ‘How quickly can we shut down all Moonbase power?’

  Kano was startled.

  ‘You mean all Moonbase power?’

  ‘Just that. Cut the alien from power sources and it seems to incapacitate it. I want all power stopped long enough to make the alien vulnerable again.’

  ‘You mean shut down the reactors?’

  ‘No. Just cut the power supply from them.’

  ‘It would take a few seconds, Commander . . .’

  ‘Survival factor?’

  Kano knew his technological resources and their limits. ‘Without power, in twenty minutes the sick in Intensive Care Units will die. In theory, the recycling plants will be beyond repair. At forty, our oxygen starts to run out . . . any more, Commander?’

  Koenig shook his head. The choice was between certain death within forty-five minutes and the danger from Zoref. Deep within him was the conviction that Zoref constituted the more pressing threat.

  ‘Has Zoref been located yet?’

  Paul Morrow looked at the Moonbase map.

  ‘Last traced there,’ he said, pointing to the big quadrant that encompassed Sections D and E.

  Koenig watched Morrow’s hand trail over the chart.

  ‘It’s there!’ he exclaimed, striking his head in anger. ‘Why didn’t we see it? There—the generating area! He knows Number Two Generating Area! That’s his duty station! And once he gets there we can’t stop him from blowing the reactors one by one! He’s got to be slowed down!’

  ‘Well?’ said Kano.

  ‘Cut all power.’

  Eva Zoref had worked it out too.

  She knew her husband’s dedication to his work. Anton would be making for his post. She was too afraid to ask herself why.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Helena Russell implored Koenig to restore power. He refused. A patient died soon afterwards. Koenig heard the news with a stone face as he clambered over trolleys left about for want of power. There was no light at all. It might have been a totally deserted base.

  Koenig shone his powerful torch as he heard a noise ahead.

  Three technicians who had been asleep when Koenig began issuing his emergency orders had tumbled blearily into a corridor to report to their maintenance units when a massive, swollen figure lumbered down Corridor Twenty-five towards them. Zoref. And yet not Zoref.

  There was a great grey-black halation where a head should be. The t
hing walked slowly on heavy metallic beam-like legs. There was nothing to connect it with Technician Zoref but a frenzied pair of eyes.

  Sensibly, the technicians turned and ran.

  Koenig and Bergman appeared as the three men raced past. ‘Wait!’ snapped Koenig, but it took a flying leap by a Security guard to stop the last man. The others scattered.

  ‘What have you seen—Zoref?’

  The man was almost beyond words:

  ‘Zoref?’ he gasped. ‘Was that Zoref—Christ, Commander, it’s monstrous!’

  ‘How was he moving—slow, fast?’

  ‘Slow—it was like a dying animal!’

  ‘Heading where?’

  ‘The generating area—Number Two!’

  Koenig let him go.

  ‘Commander,’ yelled an excited Security man. ‘A woman!’

  She had appeared from a side corridor, running fast. Koenig sprang forward.

  Zoref heard sounds behind him. Ahead was the massive door of the generating area. He limped slowly forward. He placed a limb to the door. It shook free beneath the pressure he exerted. He didn’t know he had smashed it down.

  The scanners were alive. He saw the glow of the core, where sat unlimited heat, ecstatic living energy. He set up a horrible, sobbing noise as Eva Zoref ran through the debris of the door.

  ‘Anton!’ she called, screaming above the noise.

  He turned. The great grey-black mass of his head pivoted. In a tiny and residual part of his psyche he knew her.

  The sounds from the orifice that had been his mouth came to her. Two syllables. ‘Eva.’

  ‘What’s happened?’ she screamed, appalled. ‘Anton? Anton!’

  She had seen the head now, the metallic-coated body, the tree-like limbs gleaming dully in the half-light of fission. And still she went to him.

  Koenig grabbed her as she moved forward.

  ‘Don’t let them kill him!’ she screamed.

  Koenig thrust her towards one of the Security men. He heard the terrible agony of the thing that had been Zoref. It crawled now, closer, closer, to the controls of the nuclear generator, a pitiable thing.

  ‘Get back, Zoref!’ roared Koenig.

  Zoref inched forward, huge and elephantine.

  Koenig raised the hand-gun.

  ‘Don’t fire, John!’ yelled Bergman.

  Koenig ignored him. He took aim.

  ‘You’ll regenerate it!’ Bergman was yelling, in the grip of one of the guards. ‘John!’

  A golden-yellow stream spat from the weapon. It splayed over the dim grey-black blotch. Incredibly, the huge skull turned, so that Zoref stared straight into the jetting beam of power.

  And Zoref opened his mouth.

  ‘John!’ yelled Bergman.

  Koenig understood then. Even as he released his grip on the trigger, he knew that he had been terribly wrong. For the alien that had absorbed Zoref was more powerful now. It had grown. Grotesque energies whirled about the head. The massive body was firmer, the legs stronger.

  Zoref reached a grab-like appendage towards a red-painted lever.

  ‘He’s opening the reactor!’ Bergman shouted. ‘Clear the area—get out, John! There’s nothing we can do now!’

  Koenig heard the roar of the furnace as the dampers shifted in the central core.

  ‘It’s going critical, John,’ Bergman said quietly. ‘We have to evacuate the entire area. With luck, we can isolate the effects.’

  Koenig heard Eva Zoref screaming.

  ‘Out!’ he called to the Security guards. ‘Immediate to Controller Morrow—restore all power from generators One and Three. Emergency screens around Nuclear Generating Area Two. Prepare for nuclear fission!’

  No one needed to be told twice. Bergman, the guards with Eva Zoref firmly in their grip, and the technicians sent down by Kano were all running from the danger area. Lights suddenly sprang out at them. They could move faster.

  The first dull thuds came to them from far down the corridor as the emergency screens thudded into place around Zoref’s generator . . .

  The explosion, when it came, had been controlled.

  The safety devices worked. Number One Generator rumbled dangerously, but the housing held. A foolish young technician forgot to put on his radiation suit and died as a result. But the power levels held, and there was no sign that the alien entity would raid the two remaining generators.

  After three minutes, damage reports tailed off and the Alphans could look at one another with wonder at their survival and curiosity about the alien from the gulf. Most of the Alphans saw it leave.

  One of the satellite scanners picked it up first, and then surface scanners homed in.

  It wasn’t at all remarkable: a grey-black blotch against the sable of the gulf. Not quite the same structure as it had been originally, but recognizable from the first sightings.

  By this time, everyone knew that Zoref and the alien were one.

  ‘We’re going to be all right,’ Bergman said, when the alien was at the limit of the scanners’ range. Its speed was increasing rapidly. ‘I wonder where poor Zoref’s gone?’

  ‘And what he is,’ said Helena Russell.

  ‘If it had got to the other reactors . . .’ Kano shuddered.

  ‘One was enough for it,’ said Koenig. He touched the scar on his head. When he had the time, he would get it removed. ‘The one reactor contained enough energy for its purposes. Wouldn’t you say so, Victor?’

  ‘I don’t know. Maybe Zoref had something to do with it—maybe he had a curious relationship with that one reactor which didn’t extend to the others. I just don’t know. But I do know that we’re seeing something truly remarkable, John. Maybe a cosmic event that will affect us in the future.’

  ‘Like the birth of a star?’ asked Morrow.

  Bergman frowned:

  ‘I wonder. Maybe something like that . . . yes . . .’

  ‘Maybe something more,’ said Koenig quietly. He was thinking of the purple city now, but calmly. And when he remembered the life that could have been his with the gold honey-bronze woman he sighed. But there was no blinding pain. Dreams would have to suffice.

  In the Medical Centre Eva Zoref refused sedation.

  Helena Russell called to see her an hour after the disappearance of the grey-black blotch.

  ‘Everybody tried their best, Eva,’ she said. ‘We just didn’t know how to help. If it’s any consolation to you, Professor Bergman thinks that Anton wasn’t totally absorbed. There’s still something left of him out there.’

  Eva Zoref crossed to the window.

  ‘Out there,’ she said.

  ‘Eva, we’re crossing deep space. There are so many things we can’t understand. We don’t know what this alien force is, nor why it selected Anton, but we’re left, you and I and the rest of the Alphans . . .’

  ‘But not Anton.’

  ‘No,’ said Helena. ‘You have to accept it. And try to help the rest of us accept it. Just as we will try to help you.’

  She left the young woman quietly. Maybe time would help. She hoped so.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The gulf seemed to have swallowed them.

  At first, the Alphans hardly noticed the great darkness into which the Moon was plunging. There was too much to do. Number One Generator had to be rebuilt. Until they could count on its mighty reserves of power, the Alphans knew their lives were threatened.

  Two generators were adequate for the normal Moonbase services, and even then, in an emergency, their output could be lifted. But any one of a dozen malfunctions might put one of the generators off-stream and should that happen when some unknown contingency necessitated a sudden surge of power, there was nothing in reserve.

  They needed Zoref’s generator. And it had to be rebuilt from the smallest retaining bolts to the colossal lead screens.

  Koenig did not harry the Alphans. David Kano had every one of his technicians working double shifts. There were more than enough volunteers to man the service machines ar
ound the clock.

  It took a hundred and six hours, and then the eerie fires glowed sullenly again in the confines of the screens.

  ‘Commander, can you get down here,’ a tired Kano asked during one long watch.

  ‘Gladly,’ said Koenig and meant it.

  There was no ceremony, though every one of the technicians who had worked on the generator was there.

  ‘Your privilege, Commander,’ said David Kano, indicating the switch which would release the flow of power into the great complex of systems.

  ‘What took so long?’ he called. ‘A little job like this—now if it had been something serious . . .’

  The rest of his words were lost in the laughter.

  When they were quiet again Koenig said:

  ‘I never doubted you could do it. Thanks, my thanks to you all.’

  Quietly, the technicians watched him press the switch. They drifted away when the generator began to pump its vital and massive energies into the heart of Moonbase Alpha.

  David Kano stayed. He looked at Koenig closely.

  ‘You’ve had the scar fixed,’ he said.

  Koenig nodded.

  It was time he came to terms with the loss of Vana and the brilliant civilization of the Zennites.

  ‘One generator repaired, one scar healed. It took about the same length of time.’

  Kano’s eyes were half closed.

  ‘Now get some sleep,’ Koenig ordered. ‘You and the rest of the Technical Sections. You deserve it.’

  He remembered something when he was on his way back to Main Mission Control. He stopped off at Medical Centre.

  ‘Well, you’re looking fine!’ called Helena Russell. ‘You know, in a few days the skin-graft will be completely absorbed. Not a sign of rejection.’

  ‘I didn’t come about that. How’s Technician Eva Zoref?’

  Helena crossed to him. ‘How long did it take you to get over what happened on Zenno?’

  Koenig looked into the calm blue eyes. He was surprised to see a strong reaction there. She was seeing him as a man again, not a patient. He was about to tell Helena Russell that his experiences on Zenno were in no way similar to Eva Zoref’s loss of a man who had become possessed by an aberrant creature from the void, but he stopped.