Space 1999 - Planets of Peril

by Michael Butterworth

  ‘As you were told, the first is not yet reborn,’ the Voice Probe told her emotionlessly.

  ‘You said “reborn” !’ Koenig queried the word.

  He listened intently to the sphere’s reply.

  ‘My Masters enjoy a unique life-cycle,’ it said. ‘They exist for an alloted span and then grow old as you humans do.’

  It began to glow brightly, until it had become the colour of fresh blood.

  ‘But instead of dying they enter a... chrysalis stage to emerge rejuvenated, physically perfect, mentally clean. While they are asleep they are defenceless.’

  Koenig nodded, understanding at last.

  ‘The reason for the explosive forcefield,’ he said.

  ‘Yes. The Computer’s overriding program order is to protect the Masters.’

  ‘And are they all in the chrysalis stage of existence?’ Koenig asked, hopefully.

  ‘There is one. The Guardian keeps watch while the others sleep.’

  The Alphans brightened.

  ‘Take us to him,’ Koenig said.

  Without warning, two jagged bolts of light zig-zagged out at them, knocking the two laser guns from their holsters.

  The guns fell to the floor, blackened and twisted.

  ‘Hey..!’ Carter began.

  But it was no use complaining. The sphere had already left its perch, and was bouncing ahead of them towards a corridor in one of the walls.

  They followed angrily.

  As the sphere reached the tunnel, it stopped bouncing and rolled instead.

  It led the Alphans into a domed cavern, hewn out of the rock. There were more posts here, and the sphere jumped up on to one of them.

  Around the walls of the chamber there were a series of vertical, grotto-like cavities covered with transparent sheets of some kind.

  The pungent odour of chlorine was more prevalent.

  ‘Is the Guardian here?’ Koenig asked, swallowing to get rid of the acrid taste.

  ‘Yes, this is one of the centres of rejuvenation,’ the sphere replied.

  They noticed a translucent, coffin-shaped container about seven feet long.

  It lay in the centre of the chamber, and they moved warily towards it.

  They stared uneasily inside.

  Below the cover was more of the greenish-yellow gas. It surrounded a vaguely human shaped creature that they were only dimly able to see.

  ‘Is this the Guardian?’ Koenig asked.

  ‘Yes. But we are too late. He has entered the chrysalis stage,’ the sphere replied matter of factly.

  Koenig started.

  ‘Can he still hear me?’

  ‘I will translate,’ the Voice Probe replied, almost pompously.

  Koenig did not hesitate. He began to dictate to the sphere in a desperate bid to save Moon Base Alpha.

  ‘I am John Koenig, Commander of Moon Base Alpha... we’re travelling directly towards your planet. Unless you stop the next explosion, our base and everyone in it will be destroyed.’

  The sphere glowed enigmatically.

  Koenig looked at it with an alarmed expression.

  ‘Are you translating?’ he asked it.

  ‘Yes, but the answer is... meaningless...’

  The sphere seemed as though it could have been confused.

  Carter looked at it angrily. He had moved close to the coffin-shaped life-support system, and he banged his hands on its surface.

  ‘Well you tell whoever is in this thing...’

  But he was cut short by a sudden movement in the coffin, and its plinth.

  It began sliding towards one of the rejuvenation grottos in the chamber walls.

  ‘The Guardian must enter the rejuvenation ports. He has become senile,’ the Voice Probe explained.

  But Carter jumped in its path and barred its way.

  ‘No!’ he said firmly.

  The coffin continued sliding towards him.

  ‘Alan...’ Koenig said, doubting the other’s wisdom.

  ‘It’s our last chance to save Alpha!’ Carter cried.

  ‘YOU MUST LEAVE,’ the voice sphere demanded.

  Carter grabbed hold of the front of the container. As he did so a vent opened in the wall, and choking chlorine gas began to pour into the room.

  He began coughing and spluttering, and swung the plinth and coffin round violently so that it struck the wall.

  The casement fractured.

  ‘You have broken the atmosphere in the chrysalis. I must compensate,’ the sphere said impassively.

  More tendrils of the green gas began to spurt into the room.

  Koenig and Maya reeled into the tunnel.

  They looked back and saw Carter still staggering around inside.

  ‘Alan!’ Koenig called out in alarm.

  ‘I must stabilize the atmosphere,’ the sphere voice issued through the vapours.

  Doors began to slide across the tunnel, sealing the chamber off.

  They watched the desperate shape of the pilot lunging forward towards them.

  Koenig thrust his hands between the doors and tried to force them apart.

  But he could not. They came heavily together.

  ‘ALAN!’ Koenig yelled frantically.

  Carter’s dim shape stumbled around for a few seconds, then it collapsed.

  Maya turned towards Koenig with sudden anguish in her eyes.

  ‘Commander, how long can he last in there?’

  But Koenig couldn’t speak.

  He stared, shocked and horrified into the writhing, swirling mass heaving behind the glass.

  A distant memory stirred in Maya’s mind.

  On some star, on some planet..

  When her father Mentor had trained her...

  His power had transported her effortlessly through space, on a difficult test he had devised for her...

  ‘Commander,’ she spoke hastily. ‘There’s an animal on the planet Kreno... It lives in high volcanic areas... in heavy concentrations of sulphur dioxide and chlorine...’

  Koenig turned to her fervently.

  ‘Maya, if you can do that... Hurry, he has less than a minute.’

  Maya closed her eyes, trying to calm her panicking mind and remember the biology of the animal.

  Fat, frog-skinned, quadruped... bull-dog jaws and sharp claws... gleaming, panting belly...

  She concentrated hard. Abruptly the weird creature’s picture flashed into her mind, perfect in every detail.

  She felt her cells dissolving.

  She became a thin, vaporous, transitional non-being... a limbo of nothingness in which she was no-one.

  The free energy flashed and crackled and then new molecules began to be born from it... the molecules of a creature that had already lived and died somewhere on a remote star system many millions of light years distant.

  Its specialist organs existed briefly in the oxygen content of the air, and then began to wretch and palpitate.

  It sagged to the floor, fighting for the life-giving chlorine it so desperately craved to sustain itself.

  Koenig looked down at its dying shape in horror.

  He yelled through the doors at the sphere.

  ‘It needs chlorine. Open the doors. Please... unless you want to kill.’

  There was a pause.

  Then the doors slid open, momentarily. Helped by Koenig, the alien creature lumbered dazedly through.

  The doors shut with a bang.

  The chlorine-breathing creature sucked in lungfuls of the green gas.

  Then it noticed the still shape of Carter on the floor, and Maya’s controlling thoughts drove the animal towards it.

  It pulled at the limp body with its two powerful front paws, and gradually dragged it across the floor.

  When it came to the doors, they opened long enough for Koenig to reach in and lend a helping hand and pull them both clear.

  Then they slammed shut again, leaving a tendril of the insidious vapour in the air.

  The chlorine-breathing creature began to
choke again.

  But it glowed brightly, and converted into a column of light instead.

  The light dimmed and Maya stood in its place, unharmed.

  They both bent down over the unconscious Carter. His features looked as drawn and white as death.

  Laboriously they lifted him to his feet. They each grabbed an arm, and began to stagger back with him towards the Eagle ship.

  Carter’s semi-alive body lay prone in a hospital cot inside the Passenger Section.

  His body was blotched with red and purple suffusions where the chlorine had attacked the skin.

  ‘The burns don’t seem too serious,’ Koenig said gravely, examining him. ‘I’m more concerned about the internal damage.’

  ‘He should be taken back to Alpha immediately,’ Maya said worriedly.

  ‘In less than three hours there’ll be no Alpha to go back to,’ Koenig commented bitterly.

  He thought deeply. His features went dead-pan, and he looked at her with a new, desperate resolve.

  ‘Can you operate the Eagle’s lasers?’

  ‘Alan showed me... yes.’

  ‘I’m going outside. When you see me raise my hand, start blasting.’

  He began climbing into his space suit. Soon he had finished, and he reached for his helmet and clamped it on. He opened the hatches and climbed as hurriedly as he could down the steps.

  The atmosphere was still breathable, but with the plan he had in mind, he didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

  He walked bulkily up to the giant tower that supported the airy, spheroid shape of Voice Probe 748.

  The globe pulsated agitatedly as he advanced.

  ‘I want the next explosion stopped or we start shooting at the rejuvenation chamber,’ Koenig called up to it. ‘When I raise my arm, my colleague has instructions to fire.’

  He held his arm ready, and glanced back to the Eagle ship. The ship’s reptilian, armoured exterior made it look like an ominous, metal lizard of huge proportions, crouched on the ground.

  A metal lizard endowed with weapons of stupendous power — banks of carbon-dioxide laser guns that could eat chunks out of a mountain.

  The sphere seemed to take a long time answering Koenig’s challenge. Koenig felt a thin trickle of sweat run down his face inside his helmet as he waited.

  ‘My logical duty is to stop you,’ the Voice Probe told him finally.

  ‘Forget logic!’ Koenig shouted. ‘Recognize desperation. I’ll do it.’

  Koenig looked back to the Eagle ship again, and slowly began to bring his arm upwards.

  ‘I’m waiting for your answer,’ he said.

  The sphere pulsated furiously. It was confounded. ‘Please be patient,’ it said.

  He brought his arm up further.

  A blinding flash of electricity came from the sphere, and hurled him backwards.

  A million eternities seemed to pass inside Koenig’s head as he struggled to recover from the massive charge. His head swam with pain and confusion.

  Resolutely, he climbed back to his feet and tottered about in front of the sphere.

  He began bringing his arm up again.

  ‘Decide,’ he called weakly to it.

  The sphere did not answer, and he brought his arm up further.

  There was another blinding flash, and he fell to the ground again. This time he did not get up so quickly.

  He managed to raise himself up on his haunches.

  As though in a burning fever, he began raising his arm yet again. He knew though, that he could not take much more punishment.

  ‘Wait!’ a soft, sensuous voice drifted across the air towards him.

  He let his arm drop. Puzzled, he looked around him, but there was no sign of anyone.

  ‘Two of us have been reborn,’ another similar voice came. They sounded like females.

  Koenig rose clumsily to his feet. He turned to the Eagle ship, and brought his arm across his chest in a signal of cancellation. He turned round to face the voice sphere.

  ‘I am sorry it was necessary to do that to you,’ the sphere spoke deeply.

  ‘Where are they?’ was all that Koenig’s numbed mind could think of asking.

  ‘I will lead you,’ the sphere said.

  Koenig whipped out his commlock.

  ‘Hold on, Maya. I’m getting to speak to the Master.’

  ‘Be careful,’ Carter’s voice replied inside his helmet. He listened gratefully to the pilot, realizing with relief that he must have revived himself. Then he began to follow the bouncing sphere.

  The sphere led him to another door — the entrance to another chamber. The door slid open.

  ‘Special atmospheric arrangements have been made. You may take off your helmet,’ the sphere said.

  Koenig did so, thankful to be free of the hot, sweaty air inside.

  He walked into a chamber smaller than any he had seen so far. It contained two of the grotto-like alcoves in the rock face, each covered with the thick, see-through material. One was empty. The other was heavy with chlorine gas.

  He peered through the glass but could see nothing.

  ‘You look well-featured, Commander Koenig,’ the voice he had heard first sounded again.

  ‘The word is handsome,’ corrected the second voice. ‘Ah, yes. Handsome.’

  ‘You know my name?’ Koenig asked in some surprise.

  He tried again to see the beings to which the voices belonged, but could see nothing but the chlorine.

  ‘And the predicament of your base and people,’ the first voice said.

  ‘Your language is a difficult one. It took us nearly an hour to learn it,’ the second said.

  Koenig looked frantically into the green, diffluent soup. ‘You must stop the explosion,’ he said.

  The second voice sounded irritatingly calm.

  ‘There is plenty of time to decide,’ it said.

  ‘First we want to talk,’ the first voice continued. ‘There are several matters of interest to discuss.’

  Koenig felt the gnawing, formless mess of despair and negativity trying to eat its way up inside him, as more precious seconds ticked by and their situation looked more hopeless than it had ever been.

  But weak and battered from his ordeals as he was, he fought down the destructive feelings. He kept mental control.

  ‘There is no equivalent in your language for our names,’ the first voice told him casually. ‘You can call me “A”.’

  ‘And you can call me “B”,’ its mate replied as lightly.

  ‘And so we seek perfection,’ Voice A said. ‘At the end of each cycle, we are reborn.’

  ‘Listen to me,’ Koenig tried to interrupt.

  ‘We emerge fully grown adults, physically perfect...’

  ‘Stop...’ Koenig said firmly and with as much coolness as he could muster. ‘Hundreds of lives are on the line.’

  ‘Ah yes,’ Voice B said. ‘We have a choice to make.’

  ‘There’s no choice,’ Koenig told it. ‘There is only one decision. Make it.’

  The voices thought for a moment.

  ‘On what should we base this choice of ours?’

  Koenig tried desperately to control himself.

  ‘Universal decency,’ he stated, with a certainty that he hoped would rouse them from their apparent complacency towards him.

  Again the voice paused, perhaps to think. Finally, Voice A spoke.

  ‘If I agree to save your base, there will be conditions,’ it said huskily.

  ‘What conditions?’ Koenig frowned in annoyance.

  ‘Does it matter what they are?’

  The green sea behind the glass cleared slightly, and Koenig caught his first glimpse of one of the creatures. If it had been on any other occasion the sight would have taken his breath, away.

  Kneeling on the floor and resting on outstretched arms, was a most beautiful, slender, shapely young woman.

  She was not only beautiful, slender and shapely — she was naked.

  The chlor
ine vapours thickened again, enveloping her lovely form.

  Koenig swallowed hard, wondering how such a divine-looking creature could be possessed of such a seemingly undivine mind.

  ‘I decide in your favour,’ Voice A suddenly said. ‘At least you have my vote.’

  Koenig looked puzzled.

  ‘I don’t understand?’

  ‘A society that seeks perfection must act democratically,’ Voice A told him. ‘Each has equal rights. I have voted “yes”... it is up to B.’

  Another woman, as naked and beautiful as the first appeared at the observation window, then was enveloped again.

  ‘Your decision is clouded by attraction,’ Voice B said to Voice A. It’s tone sounded chastising.

  ‘Attraction!’ Voice A said in surprise.

  ‘For the Commander. It is so obvious and stupid. You want him to stay... to be your... lover.’

  Voice A sounded pleased.

  ‘I may learn to adapt my body to suit his atmosphere. Would that please you, Commander?’

  Koenig felt like exploding.

  ‘Make the decision. The only one you can,’ he ordered them. There was silence for a moment.

  ‘I’m not swayed by emotion,’ Voice B said casually. To Koenig, the content of its voice sounded a death bell somewhere inside him. ‘I vote... no.’

  Horror crept over him but he continued to listen to them, waiting for another chance in this macabre game to present itself. He could not decide whether they were a cruel and sadistic race of people, or whether they were lacking some vital mental function. Perhaps they were simply young, playful women unable to see the danger in their game.

  ‘A tie, a deadlock,’ Voice A declared. ‘We must await a casting vote.’

  ‘Casting vote?’ Koenig reacted sharply.

  ‘The next to be reborn will be the Guardian’s brother.’

  ‘Brother to the one your pilot tried to kill,’ Voice B rejoined ominously, and now Koenig felt sure that there was an element of cruelty in the sport.

  ‘It is very unlikely he will decide in your favour,’ the voice said.

  There were only about twenty minutes left before the detonation.

  Pictures of activity at Command Centre came to his mind. Yasko reading off the count-down. Verdeschi going through emergency procedure, sealing off main outlets and airlocks between sections of the base. All the sections at Moon Base Alpha were designed to be self-sufficient, and to exist independently of each other. Thus, if part of the base was damaged, the rest of it would still be able to function.