Space 1999 - Planets of Peril

by Michael Butterworth

  ‘You do like it?’ he asked.

  But Koenig interrupted, a cautionary note still in his voice. ‘The planet seems to be compatible,’ he remarked. ‘What about wild life?’

  Moses looked briefly evasive, but he sounded convincing when he replied.

  ‘There are some wild cattle and boar and horses — enough to start breeding from.’

  ‘Water?’ Koenig asked.

  ‘You saw the stream! Water is pure and plentiful. Fruit grows wild all over the planet. It’s the Garden of Eden Mark II. You will be very happy here.’

  ‘Could be,’ Koenig mulled. He was still suspicious of the man’s flashy mannerisms. They seemed too showy. ‘I want a task force down here first.’

  The Creator was on his guard once again.

  ‘What for?’ he asked.

  ‘I’m going to make a feasibility study of this whole planet before I make any decision about new Gardens of Eden.’

  ‘Nobody else will be coming down,’ Moses told him sharply.

  ‘What?’ Koenig asked him aggressively.

  ‘The decision has already been made. You are my new Adams, my new Eves.’

  Koenig stared at him as though he were staring at a madman, which was what he suspected him of being. Clever, but mad. Like Mentor. Like all the others it seemed to be their ill-fortune to meet on their unwilling travels around the Universe. And this time he felt doubly frustrated because he seemed to be fighting the battle largely on his own.

  Angrily he flicked the switch on his commlock again. ‘Koenig to Alpha, Koenig to Alpha,’ he spoke forcefully. ‘Come in.’

  There was still no reply.

  ‘There’s really no point, you know,’ Moses told him benevolently.

  ‘We’re great triers, we primitives,’ Koenig replied scathingly. ‘Koenig to Alpha.’

  Their new captor shook his head sadly. He pointed his robed arm at the sky.

  ‘Up there is your past.’ He lowered his arm. ‘Down here is your future.’

  ‘We choose our own future,’ Koenig snapped, though now he realized he must be sounding desperate. Angry as much with himself as Moses he turned back to his commlock.

  ‘I am your Lord and Creator,’ the robed figure said reassuringly. ‘You must put your trust in me.’

  The other Alphans had stopped immersing themselves in their surroundings, and now seemed to be coming round from the spell that had been cast on them.

  ‘There are people up there who need us!’ Helena told him in a shocked voice.

  But their Lord and Creator was undeterred.

  ‘I will provide for them. They shall not want,’ he assured her with great sincerity and depth.

  ‘And the Moon... what about that?’ Verdeschi asked, alarmed.

  ‘The Moon will continue to orbit around New Earth, for a time, anyway. Then I shall send it on its way.’

  ‘But its our home!’ Maya exclaimed, horrified.

  ‘This is your home now,’ their Creator replied insistently. ‘You will live and love here and from you will spring the new human species — humanity’s second chance!’

  He sounded misguided, another raving idealist or perfectionist, Koenig thought grimly. The Universe was full of them.

  ‘Koenig to Alpha. Come in.’

  But only the forlorn crackling of space dust and static sounded over the commlock’s jammed wavelength.

  His face tightened grimly as he realized what he would have to try to do. He withdrew his laser.

  ‘Now look — whoever or whatever you are...’ he said, pointing the gun at their captor, though as he pointed it he knew that he would never get to fire it.

  Moses acted quickly, and without effort.

  ‘You know who I am... and please don’t diminish my respect for you,’ he said authoritatively.

  Koenig’s jaw tightened with suppressed rage as the laser disappeared from his hand and reappeared in their opponent’s hand several yards away.

  He watched helplessly as their so-called Creator turned the laser barrel against himself... once more to demonstrate his super powers. To demonstrate that he was indeed God.

  His form radiated with a brilliant white power, blinding them with its intensity.

  Then he turned it off; and the radiance slowly subsided.

  He returned the laser courteously to Koenig by the same method of transportation that he had used when he had acquired it.

  ‘You are blessed amongst men,’ he said as they looked at one another with fear and amazement in their eyes. ‘For you this is the first Day of Creation.’

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  They had moved to a small idyllic clearing in the midst of the sapling trees, on the lush banks of the splashing stream they had seen from Command Centre.

  Outcrops of rock and dense bushes sheltered them from the breeze.

  The grass was profusely dotted with clumps of bright-yellow hawkbits and creamy-white yarrows, and they had an irresistible urge to lie down in it and face the warm, beating sun and the pale blue sky.

  It was like a late summer’s day tucked away in some hilly English location.

  ‘I’ve got the whole thing planned carefully,’ Moses continued, fully aware of the emotional blackmail he was subjecting them to. ‘I’ve been monitoring you for quite a time.’

  ‘I trust we proved interesting subjects,’ Koenig remarked acidly.

  ‘Yes, you did! I’ve worked out the pair-bonding in great detail.’

  Verdeschi threw a quick, ironic glance around him.

  ‘Pair-bonding?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes, it’s very important to establish the right mix of genes,’ Moses informed them.

  ‘You plan a little genetic engineering,’ Helena grated rather than asked.

  Moses’ old but ageless face beamed at her.

  ‘Precisely! And to that end I’ve decided that you, Helena, shall be Tony’s mate and you, Maya, shall be the Commander’s.’

  The Alphans exchanged silent glances. The arrangement was almost comic, had it not been for the gravity of the situation.

  There was a long pause.

  ‘You’ve decided?’ Helena asked. There was a humouring tone in her voice, concealing her indignation.

  ‘I have,’ he informed her.

  ‘I would have thought it quite important to have consulted us first,’ she told him pointedly. ‘It’s not only bad manners, it’s bad psychology.’

  ‘It is also bad biology!’ Maya retorted. ‘We may not even be compatible.’

  ‘I’ve been into it all very carefully,’ their captor repeated himself blithely. ‘You are all compatible.’

  He turned to Maya.

  ‘You and the Commander will be a fascinating interplanetary mix — Psychon and Earth! Your iron intellect, my dear — typical of your species — interbred with the Commander’s iron will, so typical of his.’

  Koenig did not think so. He and Maya looked at one another incredulously, and he wondered how the alien was going to bring it off.

  ‘It’s those very qualities which may get in your way,’ Maya told their Creator.

  ‘Your monitoring isn’t as good as you think, either,’ Koenig said. ‘Maya is very beautiful, but...’

  ‘But left to yourself, you would choose Helena. I’m well aware of that, but it’s not the mixture I want. I’m afraid I can’t sanction it.’

  ‘I wasn’t asking your blessing,’ Koenig remarked sardonically. He felt as though he were in an absurd surreal situation, but like a dream he was unable to do anything about it. ‘We make our own choices,’ he added.

  ‘Much less often than you think,’ Moses replied deftly. He turned to Helena. ‘As for you, my dear, your natural aristocracy allied to Mr Verdeschi here — a man rooted in the earth and the rocks...’ He paused and turned to face them all. ‘...your offspring will be remarkable.’

  Helena shook her head, mouth open to speak, but she could not.

  ‘There’s just one little thing you’ve overlooked,’ Koenig spoke f
or her.

  The rudiments of a frown crossed their Creator’s sun-beaten features.

  ‘What have I overlooked?’ he said.

  ‘We’re not rabbits. There’s something called love,’ Helena protested.

  ‘You don’t need to explain love to me,’ he laughed patronizingly. ‘I invented it! You’ll see.’ His tone became business-like. ‘Now then, there is only one rule. You are on no account whatsoever to leave this glade for a moment.’

  ‘What?’ Koenig started angrily. ‘Why’s that?’

  ‘Because I say so,’ Moses replied imperiously.

  He pointed to a line of white rocks that had been placed in a semi-circle around the glade, meeting with the river. ‘The boundary is easily defined.’

  He shrugged expansively.

  ‘Besides, there will be no necessity — you have everything you need to sustain you here.’

  A large whicker hamper appeared magically in front of them, filled with food and drink.

  Through the anger Koenig once again observed the brashness of their supposed creator. A hamper. The New Eden was unlike the genuine article in so many ways. It seemed artificial, plastic... as did the whole of this man’s suspect style. Yet he still could not fault his very real powers.

  ‘I demand you restore our communications with Alpha!’ he stormed.

  ‘I do not wish it,’ Moses stated flatly.

  ‘But we do wish it!’ Koenig shouted.

  ‘My regrets,’ the other said. ‘And now... I must go. It is getting dark and you must get your sleep.’ He chuckled mysteriously.

  They had argued most of the afternoon.

  Now the glade was dim, and its colours were fading, although the air still felt pure and bracing.

  The sky was still perfectly clear, and stars were beginning to appear, just like they had on Earth.

  The sun had sunk below the horizon and a slight chill had formed in the air, just like it would have done in the English location that the glade was comparable with.

  Moses stood thoughtfully before them a moment longer.

  ‘It’ll be nice to have a moon,’ he said reflectively, almost to himself. ‘We haven’t had one before. You’ll feel quite at home.’

  His form vanished, but then it reappeared again in another part of the glade. Once more he appeared inwardly amused by something.

  ‘Oh, by the way, you’ll find that the Moon’s light has all the magical romantic properties associated with it on old Earth.’

  He vanished again. This time they were left on their own, and they looked around them nervously.

  By the fading light of dusk they could still make out the solid, reassuring shape of the Eagle Ship through the trees, its white top tipped with the red of the fallen sun.

  Koenig gestured to them and they began walking diffidently towards it.

  But they had not taken more than a few paces when they saw that it too was gradually fading out of existence.

  Koenig stared bitterly through the gloom at the spot where the Eagle had stood.

  ‘We couldn’t really expect him to miss that trick,’ he said. Maya looked thoughtful.

  ‘Atomic dispersal — very interesting,’ she mused.

  ‘I’m glad you think so,’ Verdeschi said to her absently. He was more concerned about their loss than how it had been accomplished.

  ‘The ship’s still there,’ Maya explained. ‘But some power he’s exerting is keeping its particles dispersed — like a powder dissolved in a liquid.’

  Verdeschi looked impressed. He frowned. ’You don’t think he could really be what he says he is...? I mean... God?’

  Maya laughed.

  ‘They are simply names your species has given to an all-powerful being they believe exists, but whom they can’t understand.’

  ‘So he could be God?’ Verdeschi asked.

  ‘If he’d come down to Earth a few years back a lot of people would have said so,’ Koenig commented. He looked more thoughtful, but he was still basically unimpressed.

  Their eyes strayed to the hamper of food half-buried in grass at the edge of the dark clearing. It was another sign of permanence in the new world they had been brought to, and they moved towards it.

  ‘It’s not poisonous,’ Maya informed them, scanning it with an instrument from her pack.

  She undid the straps and opened the creaking lid.

  It was packed to the brim with provisions — packets of food, fruit, plates, bottles and glasses. A mouth-watering sight.

  Verdeschi bent down and poured drinks for himself and Maya.

  He offered her one, and with mock courtesy she reached out her hand to accept it.

  Their hands missed one another.

  Puzzled, they tried again — he to hand her the glass, she to accept it.

  Their hands made the appropriate motions, but once again they were deflected.

  Like two magnetic poles of identical charge, they slipped aside, unable to touch.

  ‘Do that again,’ Verdeschi said to her, disbelievingly. They did it again, with the same results.

  ‘What the...’ he began.

  He threw down his glass and reached out his arms towards Maya. He tried to grab her, but before he could make contact with her, she was pushed away by the force of his forward motion.

  Alarmed, Koenig reached out for Helena, but he too seemed unable to touch her — or she him.

  He reached out and touched Verdeschi. There was no problem. He touched Maya. No problem there, either. Verdeschi touched Helena.

  No problem.

  The words Moses had spoken to them before he had departed, returned. They hadn’t really taken them too seriously. Now they held a new and sinister ring, and they looked at one another, angry and astounded.

  ‘Very ingenious,’ Maya was the first to speak. ‘Magnetic field cocoons, positive and negative.’

  ‘He’s paired us off...’ Koenig spluttered.

  Enraged he threw back his head and yelled at the sky. ‘It won’t work! Do you hear me?’

  His voice echoed through the night.

  It was a lonely, desperate little voice.

  It sounded like the voice of a primitive man standing at his cave entrance in the primeval landscapes of Earth at the dawn of time.

  The night had grown chill, and abruptly they felt the weakness and vulnerability of their kind faced with such odds.

  ‘We’d better get a fire going,’ Verdeschi said.

  They began gathering fuel from the edges of the glade where the trees had dropped their twigs and branches. The white marker stones marked off a small section of the woodland in their boundary, and Koenig and Verdeschi dragged out some large logs.

  Soon they had a roaring fire crackling and blazing in front of them, and they huddled round it for warmth. Helena and Koenig sat together, as did Verdeschi and Maya.

  They got more food out of the hamper and ate their supper, whilst they discussed their position.

  But is they talked, the bright white orb of the Moon appeared on the horizon behind the trees, filling the glade with its cold, silvery rays.

  As Moses had said, it was indeed to be a romantic occasion, for no sooner had it risen than a soft, paradisical string orchestra began to play somewhere in the night.

  They peered round them through the darkness in amazement, but they could see nothing.

  The music seemed to have no corporate source. It emanated from the air, washing over the senses, lulling them into a kind of pleasant stupor.

  ‘Here we go. The Love Beam again,’ Verdeschi commented ironically. ‘It’s that little old matchmaker in the sky.’

  ‘He’s been seeing too many old holograms,’ Koenig remarked.

  ‘Yes...’ Maya agreed, her voice scarcely audible.

  Koenig looked at her strangely.

  She was gazing straight at him through the flames, her eyes following his every movement, her senses agreeing with everything he said.

  Her fine Psychon features looked softer, more
radiant, more beautiful than he had ever noticed them to be in the past.

  Her eyes were deep, and appealing, and held a thousand wondrous secrets.

  Koenig stared rapturously at her, as though in a trance. ‘What?’ he asked dreamily.

  ‘I said “yes”...’ Maya intoned faintly again in her soft, purring voice.

  Koenig shook himself out of the trance.

  ‘We’d better get this fire stoked,’ he said abruptly. He rose to find more wood. Maya followed him.

  Verdeschi and Helena stayed behind, caught in the same rapture. Helena looked starry-eyed, but Verdeschi tried hard to remain detached.

  ‘I wonder who does his arrangements?’ he joked.

  ‘Yes, I wonder...’ Helena repeated softly, her eyes adoring him. She looked infinitely desirable, and Verdeschi felt himself responding in no uncertain way.

  He moved round the fire towards her and... hesitantly drew her towards him.

  Their faces hung apart vibrantly so that each could appreciate the other to the full. Their eyes roved wondrously over every crease, every pore, every hair follicle.

  Then their lips crushed madly together, and they clasped one another tightly. They fell back on the grass in a desperate abandonment of their inhibitions.

  Oblivious of their love-making, Maya and Koenig tramped about amongst the thin trunks of the silver birches looking for wood.

  They were both acutely conscious of one another’s bodies, and ached for contact. But Koenig talked instead, hoping that this would act-as a damper to the aphrodisiacal effects of the music.

  ‘That was very interesting... your theory that God is just a name we give to to... er... to God.’

  ‘Comparative Universal Theology you Earthlings used to call it,’ Maya replied in a voice soft with a thousand invitations and suggestions.

  Koenig sweated.

  ‘The interesting thing is that we could finally find out God,’ Maya continued rapturously. ‘The creator of the Universe. And we found that he had a God, who created a bigger one.’

  He couldn’t tell whether she was joking or not.

  In the dark, their hands reached out for the same piece of wood — and touched.

  Hungry for contact with one another, the hands clasped together.

  Koenig breathed in sharply.

  ‘I don’t give a damn about Comparative Universal Theology actually,’ he admitted to her, hotly.