‘As we thought,’ Maya observed, dispassionate again now that Verdeschi, the single, principal arouser of her emotions was on his feet again. ‘Only Magus’s power was holding New Earth together against the pull of our Moon.’
Koenig did not listen to her.
‘Koenig to Alpha. Come in,’ he shouted, a note of desperation creeping into his voice.
‘Give me light or we’ll all die!’ Magus wailed from below.
At last, the miniature screen on Koenig’s commlock lit up.
‘Come in, Alpha,’ he said with relief.
‘John!’ Yasko’s strained voice sounded. ‘Where have you been?’
‘On the planet,’ Koenig replied. ‘And it’s cracking up! Co-, ordinates 473/790 by their sun. Get an Eagle down here, will you?’
‘Alan is nearby,’ Yasko called reassuringly. ‘We’ve been waiting to contact you but we were prevented from doing so.’
The planet began to vibrate alarmingly.
Gaping cracks began to appear in the ground.
Trees in the woodland shook violently, their leaves falling prematurely to earth. Some of them began uprooting, and the Alphans heard them crashing to the ground.
Magus’s voice had become like thunder again, rising above the din round about as he mustered his remaining scraps of his energy.
‘The end of all things!’ his fearful voice predicted, echoing round the sky. ‘Eternal night!’
‘150,000 miles away!’ Koenig yelled out. ‘They’re going to be too late!’
‘John! Look!’ Helena grabbed his arm and pointed through the trees towards where Eagle Four had stood.
The atomic dispersal process which had rendered it invisible was now reversing, as Magus’s power waned, and the familiar outlines of their craft was shimmering back into existence.
Overjoyed, they began running through the trees towards it, as though in a dream.
But they had got half-way to it when Koenig abruptly stopped.
‘The hybrids! We can’t leave them to die!’ he cried.
He turned in the direction of the cave mouth which did not lie far away.
‘John!’ Verdeschi cried out. ‘The ship! Get to the ship!’ He pointed wildly to the Eagle.
A fissure had opened in the ground beneath her, and one of her legs had sunk into it.
But Koenig did not listen. He ran to the cave mouth and Verdeschi ran after him. The mad errand of mercy was watched by the two horrified women.
Great rocks rumbled and tumbled down the mountainside above the cave, piling up at its mouth, sealing it off.
The semi-humanoid that had grappled with Koenig stood at its entrance, unafraid.
‘Quickly!’ Koenig yelled at it. ‘We’ll take as many of you as we can!’
But the scaly hybrid shook his head.
It drew itself up to its full height and with hard-found dignity it answered them.
‘Thank you,’ it said to them in its strange grunting, now sad voice. ‘It is better for us so.’
A fall of rock landed between them and the creature, and Koenig and Verdeschi turned and began running once again towards the ship.
‘Please! Take me with you!’ Magus boomed at them as they fled. Now he sounded plaintive. ‘I can show you wonders!’
They caught up with Maya and Helena who had fallen behind, waiting tensely for them.
Then, together, they climbed up the landing ramp and into the Eagle’s Pilot Section.
‘Primitive, wilful clowns!’ Magus roared at them again, reverting to his threats and insults. ‘Destroyers!’
But it was the last thing they heard him say.
Helena closed the doors. Maya fled into the Passenger Section and began operating the computers. Koenig and Verdeschi flung themselves into their seats and activated the flight controls.
Slowly, thunderously, rivalling any sound that Magus could make, even had he wanted to, the impregnable engines of the great ship exploded into life and she began rising sedately and proudly away from the disrupted and collapsing surface of the planet of New Earth.
As they sped out into space towards their own lifeless, but hospitable world, they watched the globe that the disillusioned and fanatical creator had made, erupting into a boiling mass of smoke and rocks that would orbit space forever.
THE END
Space 1999 - Planets of Peril Page 18
