Space 1999 - The Time Fighters

by Michael Butterworth

  ‘We are approaching a rogue asteroid...’ the Computer informed her. A picture of the runaway Moon flashed up on the screen. ‘It is the former Moon from Planet Earth. Its trajectory is random and it is inhabited by some three hundred Earth people...’

  ‘So what?’ she cried. ‘What have you brought me out here for to tell me that?’

  The Computer ignored her, having anticipated an emotional response. ‘Their culture is primitive,’ it continued, ‘being bound by the laws of the ancient continuum. They represent no danger to the mission.’

  Despite herself, Clea was interested. As the Computer had realized, Galactic Histories were her other deep interest in life.

  ‘Course adjustments have been made to avoid collision,’ it continued. ‘Communication complete.’

  ‘Thank you, Computer,’ she said icily. ‘Keep me informed. Please transfer all other information about this species into my personal History file.’

  She had no sooner finished talking than Dorzak possessed her once more. This time she resisted hardly at all. She felt a perverse kind of pleasure fill her. Her loyalty to her Commander and her kind broke down. She felt suddenly resentful of them.

  Jumping to her feet, she ran to a communications panel at the back of the flight deck and recklessly pulled it open. Taking a long metallic pin from her hair, allowing her hair to cascade freely down her shoulders, she drew the pin across the electronics within the box. A blinding flash of fire erupted from it and she slammed shut the panel.

  The high-pitched emergency signal sounded instantly.

  ‘Reporting fault in the long range communicator,’ the Computer announced. ‘The cause has yet...’

  She raced angrily down the steps to the Computer feed-in point and thumped it with her fist to shut off its voice. ‘Quiet!’ she hissed.

  She turned and ran back to the stasis chamber. She bent down over the figure of her beloved, the small, pencil-like instrument and the staser already grasped in her hand.

  ‘Dorzak, my beautiful lover,’ she murmured as she applied the awakening treatment to him. ‘Wake!’

  Dorzak’s body shimmered with the violet light. When the light died away he stirred and opened his eyes. Almost instantly he was on his feet. He was tall and well-built. He looked like a god to her.

  ‘We have arrived in Theselena?’ he asked, and she realized at once that his control over her had been subconscious on his part. His mind had used her while in its dreams.

  ‘How could I ever allow them to submit you to that indignity?’ she asked him, holding him adoringly, murmuring into his ears.

  Hope entered his eyes. ‘But... where are we?’

  ‘Approaching an asteroid. There are three hundred people there, backward but potentially useful.’

  Dorzak smiled knowingly. ‘What... do you have in mind?’ He responded to her advances, gripping her slender shoulders powerfully and gazing deeply, hypnotically into her eyes.

  ‘We could take over the ship,’ she said, ‘and use their base for a return to Norvah.’

  ‘But wouldn’t that spoil your interests in History?’ he asked her, remembering her other passion.

  ‘We needn’t harm them... and I could learn a lot first hand,’ she laughed.

  ‘But what about Sahala. Yesta...?’

  Clea looked coyly at him. ‘I thought you could eliminate them, after the Psychon fashion.’

  Dorzak frowned. ‘Are you... why are you doing this for me?’

  ‘Oh, Dorzak...’ She melted in his arms. She embraced him passionately.

  ‘Clea!’ he cried. ‘Clea! My wonderful Clea! You haven’t changed!’

  The embrace was cruelly interrupted by the blow from a full-powered staser ray which struck Dorzak in the back. He fell to his knees and rolled over, once more imprisoned inside his mind.

  Clea spun round and saw that Yesta had woken and was standing pointing the staser at her. ‘Oh, no!’ she screamed, gazing once more at the frozen body of her would-be lover. Dorzak’s influence had completely washed off her, and her one-time love affair with him was put safely back in her memories where it belonged. She ran to Yesta imploringly. ‘What have I been doing?’

  ‘He is evil, Clea,’ Yesta told her compassionately. She stroked the other woman’s hair soothingly. ‘Evil! Evil!’

  ‘I know, I know...’ Clea sobbed.

  ‘Come.’ Yesta guided Clea back to the living area. When they got there, she gave Clea a drink from the dispenser.

  ‘How did it happen?’ she asked.

  ‘I... I don’t know...’ Clea said, confused.

  ‘Sssh. Drink that, now.’

  From where her head was cradled in Yesta’s arms, Clea could see into the stasis chamber. Framed in the doorway was Dorzak. Her body gave an involuntary shudder as his eyes fixed her back in her trance-state.

  ‘There, there,’ Yesta stroked her hair comfortingly.

  Clea arose suddenly and picked up a heavy sculpture from the table in front of them. Before the horrified Yesta could react, the possessed woman brought it down upon her head.

  Yesta fell to the floor and Clea kept on hitting her long after she was down. As she brought down the last blow, Yesta, who had half-drawn her staser again, with a semi-voluntary action, jerked the gun and fired it, before lapsing into unconsciousness.

  Clea collapsed, hit by the violet ray of stasis.

  ‘When I woke to take over the watch in the normal way,’ Sahala concluded her tale, ‘Yesta had nearly bled to death.’

  Carter looked perplexed. ‘I don’t understand. What happened to Dorzak. and Clea?’

  ‘Dorzak was still in stasis. He had managed to drag his body to the door by telekinesis. Clea was in stasis, so he had no one else he could operate through. He certainly couldn’t have operated through me!

  ‘I released Clea from stasis. She confessed what I have just told you. Then, after seeing what she had done, she could not bear the guilt, poor girl. She threw herself out into Space. That’s when I changed course – to ask for your help.’

  Carter was silent. He was shocked and hurt by her story. He felt more certainly than ever that she was blameless and innocent of any ill-intent towards them. Dorzak was dangerous and had to be treated as such.

  One of the Guards stepped forward. ‘Mr Verdeschi would like you to bring Sahala to him, sir.’

  He jumped. ‘Uh, where is he?’

  ‘At the docking port, waiting to enter the Croton ship.’

  Carter frowned. He didn’t know what was going on.

  ‘Is the Psychon, Maya, with Mr Verdeschi?’ Sahala asked the Guard.

  ‘Yes.’

  She and Carter eyed one another. ‘You see?’ she said, raising her lovely eyebrows. ‘It begins.’

  The large red, bulbous nose of the alien craft hung high above them in the hangar ceiling. It was like the ridiculous nose of Edward Lear’s ‘Dong’, attached improbably as it was to the remainder of the ship’s vast Concorde-style neck and flying-saucer shaped body.

  Helena, Verdeschi, Maya and a Security Guard waited to gain entry into the craft.

  ‘Tony, why do we have to wait for her permission?’ Maya asked, slightly rattled.

  ‘It’s protocol, Maya,’ he said tightly. ‘No matter how we feel, we don’t board a visiting space ship without permission from its Commander.’

  ‘Even if she’s obviously trying to deceive us?’

  Helena spoke up. ‘We don’t want to act hastily.’

  They settled down to wait again. Eventually, Carter, Sahala and their Guard arrived. The two parties met frozenly and stood facing one another.

  Sahala glared defiantly at Verdeschi; with suspicion and distaste at Maya.

  ‘We would like permission to board your ship,’ Verdeschi requested icily.

  Sahala smirked. ‘For what purpose?’

  Maya stepped towards her, her attractive lynx-like looks blazing haughtily. ‘So we can talk to Dorzak.’

  Sahala reacted with alarm. ‘You cannot talk
to him. He’s in stasis!’

  ‘You can bring him out of stasis...’ Helena began accusingly.

  Sahala opened her mouth to argue but Helena cut her off, continuing, ‘...just long enough for us to ask him some questions.’

  ‘You should be anxious to co-operate if you’re telling us the truth,’ Maya fired at her sarcastically.

  Sahala hesitated. Again, her ethereal loveliness made her actions and feelings seem superficial and staged. ‘If I’m lying,’ she pouted challengingly, ‘why is Dorzak a prisoner on my ship?’

  ‘Because Dorzak was in command and you were the one in stasis,’ Maya quickly told her.

  Sahala turned to them all with a scoffing look in her eyes. ‘That’s the Psychon way. Twist - a lie to resemble the truth.’ She heaved a sigh of distress which, excepting Carter, they took for arrogance and sluttishness.

  ‘Quit stalling, Sahala,’ Verdeschi told her. ‘Let us talk to Dorzak and we’ll know the truth soon enough. Just get Dorzak out of stasis.’

  ‘That’s too dangerous!’ she cried.

  Carter was undergoing a fit of exasperation, torn by his loyalties, knowing the truth about Dorzak, but unable to get that fact through to anyone. He was frightened that if Dorzak was awoken they would all be slaves. ‘There’s another witness who can tell us what happened...’ he pointed out to Verdeschi. ‘She’s in the Medical Centre – Yesta. We don’t need to wake Dorzak.’

  ‘She’s still unconscious,’ Helena told him, disliking his way of siding with Sahala.

  ‘It’s safer to wait until she regains consciousness,’ the Croton woman said. ‘Please believe me.’

  ‘We don’t know if she ever will regain consciousness,’ Helena persisted.

  Verdeschi interrupted them again. ‘Sahala – I don’t want to board your ship without permission, but if you don’t give it, I will.’

  Sahala stared wildly at them, her beauty tempestuous. It poured off her, tantalizing them with its rapturous power. For a moment they were spell-bound, sufficiently long for her to use her fatal charms on the Security Guard. She advanced on him and snatched the laser from his holster as he crumpled, mesmerized, to the floor. She spun round again and pointed the gun at them.

  They started towards her, but she quickly knocked the gun off ‘stun’ and on to Verdeschi spread his arms out and halted them.

  ‘Mr Verdeschi! She’s put it on “kill”!’ the other Guard warned.

  ‘And I will,’ Sahala assured them. Her loveliness flashed scintillatingly at them, from her eyes and her hair and her skin. Her jewellery glinted and shone magnificently. ‘You will move away from that entry hatch, Mr Verdeschi.’

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Sudden recognition of where events would lead to if he didn’t act quickly forced Carter to reach forward and disarm the Croton woman. Whether she was right about Dorzak, as he believed, or whether she was wrong, he knew that, despite his love for Sahala, his loyalties ultimately lay with the Alphans. He could not stand by and let her harm them.

  Sahala stared at him with a stricken expression of accusation on her face as he wrested the gun from her. He withered under her gaze, and felt a thousand longings to go to her for forgiveness and allow her to have her sweet way, but he desisted.

  The others crowded round thankfully. The Guard whom she had overcome with her Love power had already revived and took her by the arm.

  ‘Take her back to detention,’ Verdeschi said sternly to him.

  The Guard nodded. Sahala struggled rebelliously in his grasp; she glared at Carter, and was led away.

  ‘Let’s go and see Dorzak,’ Verdeschi continued grimly.

  The Guard pressed a button which activated the entry hatch, and when the doors opened, climbed inside, followed eagerly by Maya and Helena.

  Verdeschi glanced at Carter before stepping inside. ‘Thanks, Alan. You had me worried for a while. I thought she was getting to you.’

  Carter shrugged. ‘She has gotten to me.’ He looked worried as the Italian glanced sharply at him.

  The inside of the ship filled them with awe and they resisted the impulse to examine its smooth walls and simple furniture, its weird boxes and consoles, its humming power sources, its advanced engines and its maze of corridors and rooms.

  ‘Nice place,’ Carter commented, looking around the living area which Sahala had told him about. He saw her light-show equipment and Yesta’s mural. The walls were hung with paintings and the tables and surfaces crammed with sculptures of all kinds.

  ‘Crotons are obviously very cultured people.’ Verdeschi was impressed.

  ‘Just like the lady said,’ Carter told him. He saw three alcoves in the wall marked ‘Yesta’, ‘Clea’ and ‘Sahala’, respectively. He moved towards them, followed by Verdeschi.

  He went inside Sahala’s alcove, then Clea’s, staring in fascination at the luxury beds of contained fluid and heavily decorated fabrics of various kinds. On Clea’s bed they found a tiny golden capsule. It looked more like a technological device than an ornament, and Verdeschi picked it up to examine it.

  ‘Got something?’ Carter asked him.

  ‘An electronic bug?’ the other suggested.

  ‘Could be... unless it’s some kind of charm.’

  Verdeschi pocketed it. ‘Better send it to Technical. Have them check it out.’ He turned to Maya and Helena. They were examining the panel leading to the stasis chamber. Maya tapped it and ran her palms all over it. Eventually, it slid open. They stood back, alarmed by their discovery.

  The two men ran over.

  They saw Dorzak through the orange force-field. He was large, as Sahala had said, and lay sleeping, curled in a foetal position.

  Maya looked on his motionless form, and smiled in joy. The man in front of her was really Dorzak. She shook her head emotionally, almost crying. It had been so long since she had last seen him, and he reminded her of so much that had gone.

  Verdeschi was the first to move towards the supine figure, but Maya held him back. ‘Tony, wait. There’s a force-field between us and Dorzak.’

  She looked around the chamber and spied a multi-faceted control panel set in the wall. She touched one of its facets experimentally. Nothing happened. She touched several of them at once and brought the force-field down.

  ‘Doesn’t look like a menace to me,’ Carter said as they moved further into the chamber. Dorzak seemed to be sleeping peacefully, an expression of supreme contentment on his face.

  ‘He sleeps easy for someone who perverts minds,’ Verdeschi told him with mild sarcasm. He smiled.

  Maya was deeply emotional as she knelt down and stroked Dorzak’s head. ‘He wouldn’t pervert minds. It’s more likely that the Croton people were so impressed by him that they were drawn to him.’

  ‘Possible.’ Verdeschi nodded his head. ‘And his ideas were seen as a threat by the Croton establishment.’

  ‘If the rulers of Croton were oppressing the people, and he opposed them, then they would send him into exile.’

  ‘Then Sahala could be telling the truth about what happened on the ship,’ Carter cut in.

  Maya snorted. ‘A version of the truth... anything to keep us from reviving Dorzak.’

  Helena frowned throughtfully. ‘But if she is telling the whole truth then it would be stupid to revive him.’

  Maya seemed to go almost hysterical. She looked helplessly at Verdeschi for support. But Verdeschi shook his head. ‘I don’t think we can take the chance, Maya.’

  Maya rose to her feet, appealing to them all. ‘I know Dorzak. He’s wonderful... and compassionate.’

  Helena put her arm round her. ‘You knew him on Psychon. You know nothing of him since he left.’

  Maya threw her arm off her. She couldn’t understand this sudden reversal of opinion. She was about to argue further when Helena’s comlock bleeped. Vincent’s voice burst into the room.

  ‘Helena?’

  ‘Yes, Ben,’ Helena replied, looking at his face on the miniature screen.

&n
bsp; ‘We’re ready to operate.’

  ‘I’m on my way.’ She snapped off the communicator.

  Verdeschi tried to reason with Maya. ‘Yesta will solve a lot of problems if we can bring her back to consciousness.’

  ‘I have to go,’ Helena said, and went out.

  Maya turned pleadingly to Verdeschi. She put her arms around him. ‘Tony, I’m not the only Psychon alive. Can’t you see what this means to me? I think I can bring him out of stasis.’

  Carter paced agitatedly around them. ‘Why don’t we wait until we hear Yesta’s story?’

  ‘There’s a force-field to keep him isolated,’ Maya continued. ‘Tony, he’s a Psychon. I thought I was never going to see anyone else of my race again. I have to talk to him.’

  Verdeschi looked disconcerted. ‘If what Sahala said...’

  ‘Even if her accusations are true, he can’t hurt anyone. Not as long as he’s behind this force-field... when we’ve re-activated it,’ she insisted.

  The force-field seemed a good argument to Verdeschi. He had run into many force-fields before now and lived to regret it. They were virtually impenetrable.

  But he still wasn’t sure.

  ‘Go ahead,’ he said finally. ‘See if you can revive him.’

  Overjoyed, she kissed him on the cheek. Carter shook his head at the decision, knowing that they would all be sorry for it.

  An electric blue light shone down starkly over the operating table.

  Beneath it, in its sterile, decontaminating rays, the battered body of the young and incredibly beautiful child lay. Her head was still swathed in bandages and she was deeply unconscious. By her side, adorned in white gown and mask, Helena studied a series of X-ray photographs which had flashed up on an illuminated display panel. She indicated the damaged areas of the girl’s skeleton to Vincent, who was also appropriately clothed.