by Brian Ball
‘The Guardian has arranged co-ordinates, Commander,’ the thin electronic voice assured him.
Koenig smiled grimly.
‘I expected no less.’
He settled to watch the planet take shape before him once more.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The strange spell was lifted. When Koenig stepped from the Eagle, it was on to a dead world. For as far as he could see, there were only grey-black hills and drifting sands. It was a landscape to send a chill through the soul.
‘Now you can become one with your comrades, John,’ said the blank-eyed girl. She pointed to the tower. ‘You must accept willingly the dominion of the Guardian, as your comrades have done.’
Koenig let the space-armour slide to the grey sand. He retained the small pack and the stun-gun. The girl didn’t seem to notice. Her strange eyes were fixed on the enigmatic tower that dominated the low blackened hills. Coarse gritsand crunched under Koenig’s boots.
‘I’m ready,’ he said. There was only the shadow of a plan. He strode beside the girl with fear beginning to gnaw at his mind.
Only when Koenig was near the tower was the insidious radiation from the Pirian’s machines strong enough to overcome his Zennite powers. One moment the tower was grim and black, a great tombstone to the memory of the Pirians, and then it became, a radiant white beacon, an invitation to a new life.
Koenig guarded his eyes from the glare. He looked down and saw a small valley between gently-sloping hills. Trees and flowers and tiny streams made a hauntingly beautiful scene. Fruit hung heavy on bushes and trees; it was no wonder that the Alphans had been dazed by their good fortune. Piri idealized their deepest longings.
‘See!’ the girl announced
All the Alphans were there, bronzed and fit. All attired in the robes of the Pirians. All with the blankeyed stare and inane grin Koenig loathed. Helena Russell ran to him, her long blonde hair streaming in the wind.
‘John, you finally made it!’
The other Alphans ostentatiously turned away, glad for him, and willing to allow him some privacy now that he too shared their wonderful secret. Koenig held the slender body in his arms. He looked over Helena’s head as she moulded herself, against him. Bergman’s pale face was almost rubicund. Morrow held a bunch of grapes high and pressed them in his big hands. The purple juice ran on to his big nose, and trickled into his mouth. He laughed at the pleasure of it.
Koenig smiled his greetings to them. They waved and returned to the dalliance of Piri, their faces bewildered by happiness. Koenig stroked the fine blonde hair:
‘Helena, come with me,’ he said.
The deceiving words were difficult to say. Dr Helena Russell was a colleague, a friend, and a loved one. He was about to betray her. But the words had to be said. He had to convince at least one of the Alphans that the lotus fruits were deadly.
‘Come with you, John? What else? You only had to crook your finger,’ she murmured. Her robe was open to the waist. She smiled as he looked down at her well-shaped breasts. ‘I’ve waited so long for this, John!’ she sighed. She held him possessively.
‘This way, Helena.’
They walked away, arms around one another to the shade of a fruit-heavy tree. Koenig looked back. The Alphans were out of sight.
‘I have a surprise for you, Helena.’
‘John!’ she said, delighted.
‘Close your eyes.’
Trusting and child-like, she obeyed. It was a game. Life was constant pleasure. John had learned what Piri meant.
‘It’s a pendant,’ said Koenig.
He took the string of wiring and the bright, flat electrodes from the pack. The apparatus wasn’t unlike a piece of jewellery. It glittered in the sunlight, reflecting shards of light on the rich, dark leaves above. He arranged the discs over her heart.
‘Can I open my eyes, John?’
‘Not yet.’
He set up the power unit.
‘Now?’
‘In a moment.’
He pressed a switch. Helena shrieked. Her eyes opened, wide and blue and alive with shock and fear.
‘John!’
Koenig could not look at her. He stepped up the charge. Her arms came up to tear the electrodes away as intelligence came to her. Her eyes glared hate when he looked at her again. Through the pain and shock she knew that she had been robbed of something infinitely precious. Recognition and understanding quickly followed.
‘Take it steadily,’ Koenig warned. ‘Helena, do you know where you are?’
The furious denunciations died on her lips as she looked about her. Fresh shock appeared in her face. Koenig reached out a hand and took her bare shoulder. She looked down and saw that her robe was open, and a very human emotion chased across her face. She covered her breasts. Her face was crimson. Memories were returning fast.
‘The planet—we call it Piri.’
‘They called it Piri.’
Helena got to her feet and looked down at the electrodes. ‘You used this on me? The electrodes—they were to stimulate my heart?’
‘To shock you out of whatever hypno-jag you were on.’
‘The Pirians! The Guardian—is that it?’
‘It was some form of mass hypnosis. You and the rest of the Alphans.’
‘They invited us to share their planet,’ she said, and again knew her loss. She looked about her. ‘It was so beautiful. But there’s only black rocks and gritsand—John, what happened to it all?’
‘The planet is dead, except for machines.’
‘But they were so kind, so real!’
‘Shadows. Projections maybe of long-dead Pirians by the machine that calls itself the Guardian.’
‘So it’s over?’ she said.
‘Dr Russell, you were chasing a dream,’ Koenig said. He watched the softness disappear from her eyes. In seconds, she had become professional again. She took the necklace of electrodes from her neck. ‘You resisted the Guardian, John. How?’
‘I’m not sure, but I suspect it’s something to do with what happened when I was with the Zennites.’ He felt a pang of regret. ‘I may have absorbed some of their mind-control techniques.’
‘And so the Pirian machines couldn’t influence you.’ She frowned. ‘But all of us—even Professor Bergman—were completely deluded.’
‘And I had to shake the influence of the Guardian. I remembered the old-fashioned shock-treatment you used to bring me back. Now I want to get Bergman and Morrow out of their hypnosis, then we can get to work on the rest—’
Helena Russell interrupted him:
‘There isn’t time!’ she cried. ‘We were waiting for you.’ She pointed to the tower. ‘The Pirians promised that we should be made perfect when you came, John.’
‘Perfect!’ Koenig growled. ‘There’s only one kind of perfection on Piri—euthanasia!’
Even now, the evil glamour of the Guardian’s promises still affected Helena Russell. ‘We were to become immortal,’ she said longingly. ‘Soon.’
Koenig thought fast. ‘There were no Pirians. Except for the girl with the empty eyes. What is to happen? Did the Pirians explain?’
‘There is to be a ceremony, where we dedicate ourselves to the Guardian’s care. We bathe in the light from the great Tower of Piri. That is the prime directive.’
And there it was again, the odd phrase prime directive. It seemed to have a deep meaning for the entranced Alphans.
‘When is the ceremony to take place?’ Koenig snapped.
‘Immediately! As soon as you joined us. The Guardian wished the peace of Piri to extend to all the Alphans at the same moment.’
Koenig looked towards the strange tower. It began to glow with the ghostly, glittering radiance he had seen before. He knew in that moment that it was the last thing the ancient Pirians had seen. If he didn’t act at once, the grim infection would overcome him too. He checked the load of the stun-gun.
‘Then let’s not keep the Guardian waiting!’
The lig
ht from the tower was so intense that Koenig and Helena Russell had to shield their eyes. They stumbled forward and heard a chorus of delighted greeting. In the shattering glare, the Alphans stood entranced.
‘We have found paradise!’ Morrow yelled, and his huge face was transfigured. Koenig heard the words and had trouble associating them with the hard-headed Controller he knew. ‘Lead us into the care of the Guardian, John!’
Bergman too had a maniacal exultance. ‘The Guardian brings gifts, John! Peace and delight forever!’
‘Commander, there will be no more pain!’ called a slim girl, and Koenig recognized Eva Zoref. He glared around the yelling, awed, ecstatic throng and saw that the Guardian had improved on its projections. The Alphans stood in a garden that was breathtakingly beautiful. It was the human race’s ideal of the hereafter: fountains sparkling in the eerie light, graceful statuary, brilliant flowers, fruits glistening with dew, animals and birds adding their call and colour and movement to the scene.
‘See, John, it’s all yours!’ called the Pirian girl. ‘The Peace of Piri!’
Momentarily, Koenig had trouble in locating the source of the voice. He sheltered his eyes once more and picked her out, high above him on a dais in the centre of the paradisical garden. His reaction was instant. Loathing forced a roar of protest from him:
‘No! No! Alphans, she brings only death!’
He pushed through the crowd. They seemed to be deaf. Koenig grabbed Morrow by the arm. ‘There are no Pirians—the Guardian made sure they had no more will to live!’
‘Peace!’ Morrow beamed back at him.
‘Rest!’ Bergman shrilled.
Koenig pushed through to the dais and bellowed:
‘You can’t condemn them like this! They’re not sheep, to die for the Guardian!’
The girl turned those strange, emotionless eyes on him. Koenig felt the radiation from the tower increase. Needles of fear and horror slipped through his mind. The Guardian’s terrible forces were at work.
‘To me, Alphans!’ Koenig bellowed. ‘See, Helena Russell was hypnotized, but she got free of the Guardian!’
Helena pushed through to his side. Her lips were moving, but Koenig could not hear what she was trying to say.
He heard the Pirian girl, though:
‘The Guardian gives you the Peace of Piri!’
Every one of the entranced Alphans stopped to listen. Breath held back, lest a syllable should be lost, they were as still as the dead.
‘Peace,’ they sighed at last.
Koenig shivered with dread. He too could glimpse the peace the Guardian offered. And Helena Russell had the look of a drowning woman.
‘The Guardian has taken pain from your lives!’ called the girl, and Koenig found himself unable to speak.
‘We are grateful to the Guardian!’ sighed the Alphans.
‘The Guardian will give you perfection!’
‘We shall be perfect!’ came the chanted answer.
‘No,’ whispered Koenig, fighting to control his speech faculties once more. ‘No, Bergman—don’t you see—’
Again the clear, bell-like voice called out in a cry that was an incantation:
‘Would you have your peace disturbed?’
‘No!’ the answer came, much more strongly.
‘Would you have your perfection flawed?’
There was genuine fear in the answer:
‘No!’
‘Would you have the Peace of Piri destroyed?’
Anger made the response a frightening thing:
‘No!’
‘Should two of the Alphans try to break the Peace of Piri, what must be done with them?’
Koenig felt afraid. Not for his own physical safety, though that was present too; he feared that the Alphans were truly lost, for they were men and women full of a rage that was inhuman. They had been programmed to rage as if they were extensions of the evil machines of Piri.
‘Don’t listen!’ he yelled.
‘What must be done with them?’ shrilled the girl.
‘Destroy them!’ bawled Paul Morrow, and his heavy shoulders heaved with fury.
‘Cast them out!’ someone roared in Koenig’s face. The man bent to pick up a stone.
‘They are here, in your midst!’
‘Where?’ screamed the demented Alphans. ‘Tell us who they are!’
The glaring light confused the Alphans. When they tried to identify the intruders, they were half-blinded.
‘That woman!’ shrieked the stony-eyed girl from the dais. And she pointed to Helena Russell. ‘That man!’ Her accusing finger singled out Koenig.
Someone caught Helena Russell by the hair and bent her backwards. A woman clutched at Helena’s face with taloned fingers. Koenig stepped forward and hit swiftly, twice. Man and woman slumped, their nerve-centres paralysed.
‘Destroy them!’ the girl shrieked. ‘The Guardian commands it!’
The Alphans bayed for blood. They clutched at one another, struggling furiously to inflict harm. But their blows were uncoordinated, and their minds dazed by their conflicting emotions. Clumsily, they sought Koenig and Helena Russell in the ghostly-lit paradise of Piri.
‘John!’ called Helena behind him. She had fallen, and two men were trying to kick her in the stomach. Koenig yanked out the stun-gun and pole-axed both of them. The nearest men and women sighted him, though, and suddenly there was purpose in their actions.
This way!’ roared Koenig, yanking Helena to her feet.
‘Destroy Commander Koenig—kill!’ the girl screamed. She did not see Koenig and Helena Russell as they bounded up the dais ahead of the roaring pack. ‘Long live the Peace of Piri!’ she screamed.
‘Keep out of the way!’ Koenig shouted to Helena. ‘Stop!’ he roared to the advancing men and women.
‘Destroy Koenig!’ the girl screamed, and still she had not turned in his direction. Behind her, the great white Tower of Piri became a glowing, incandescent rock, terrible in its majesty. The Alphans reeled from its renewed radiance.
Koenig knew his life-span could be measured in seconds. He ignored the anguish of his broken ribs and grabbed the shrieking Pirian girl.
‘See what passes for life on Piri!’ he roared, and he took the light figure in his hands. Bodily he raised her high above his head. His rib-cage creaked, and the half-healed bones snapped. Sweat streamed from his face. ‘See!’ he roared, and with the last of his strength he hurled the screaming girl at the incandescent Tower of Piri.
A huge sighing expostulation came from the crazed Alphans. The body arced out and down, and then it seemed to dive straight through the fabric of the mysterious tower. Immediately, a sharp violent detonation crashed around the bowl of hills. The glaring whiteness gave way to furious flashes of broken light. The ground shook, and the great Tower of Piri trembled.
The Alphans clung to one another for support. Koenig caught sight of Bergman’s face: there was fear there, but intelligence too. Then shock-waves tumbled him to the ground. Koenig swayed.
‘Eagle Six—look!’ Helena Russell yelled.
Koenig looked and saw the Eagle complete its interrupted crash-dive. Time had begun again. The tower’s light blazed and then faded. Koenig saw, incredulously, that the Guardian’s hold was gone.
‘Run!’ yelled Koenig. ‘Run—it’s breaking up!’
The stronger spirits heard and acted. Koenig pushed and kicked the unwilling. Helena Russell helped, and then Bergman joined in. Deeply shocked though he was, he made the effort of will to adjust to the new situation.
‘John, I tried to kill you!’ someone was yelling.
Koenig saw David Kano at his elbow.
‘Get the Alphans moving—it’s over!’ he roared.
Kano’s dazed expression vanished. ‘Yes, Commander!’
The tower began to break up as the last Alphan was bullied into movement. Great blocks of metals showered the dais. Fragments of intricate machines rained down on the gritsand and smashed against the rocks of long-dead
Piri.
The Alphans stared at one another with curiosity and wonder, as if seeing one another for the first time. Eventually, they turned to Koenig for instructions.
When the ground was still and the tower a total ruin, Koenig indicated that the quiet and awed Alphans should follow him. He led them to the body of the girl he had thrown into the white light. The face was in shreds. Part of one leg had been torn loose. Beneath the skin-like covering, they saw a complex of circuitry.
‘That was the last Pirian,’ said Koenig quietly. ‘The Pirians faded away because they made their wills over to the machines. The last and greatest of the machines remembered what the Pirians had looked like and created this robot to beguile us.’
‘So it’s finished for us?’ Morrow said. ‘See—the Moon’s held in orbit!’
The Alphans looked up at the glittering Moon. Suddenly, it seemed precious.
‘So we’re trapped,’ sighed Bergman.
‘Not while we have Moonbase Alpha! Come on! Koenig said. ‘Let’s go home. Now that the machines of the Pirians are wrecked, there’s nothing to hold the Moon in orbit around Piri. Let’s move!’ he called.
The Alphans moved purposefully towards the waiting Eagles.
