‘Hmmm... for the same reason drilling through the hatch or the hull is out. What about acid?’
‘The most powerful acid we have would take nearly three hours to eat through an Eagle hull.’
Despondently they continued to study the Eagle design, feeling only too certain that it was in vain. Alan knew the inside and outside of the craft as well as he knew the palm of his own hand. There just wasn’t any way to get at Pasc unless they could bluff him into letting them come on board or get him to come out. And how long they had to do either of those depended on how long it was before he took off.
The big screen suddenly flickered to life, showing all of the Eagle’s pilot section interior. Pasc glared just as fiercely as before but there was some relief for them in seeing that Helena was still unharmed.
‘This is Pasc speaking...’ the Archanon announced coldly. ‘I want Etrec in exchange for your Doctor.’
Alan spoke brusquely back to him. ‘Etrec made his choice. He didn’t want to go with you.’
Pasc scowled and raised a menacing fist. ‘I have neither patience nor time! Bring the boy to me or I will kill the woman! It will not take me many minutes to master the control of this vessel. I will give you only until I do... then she dies!’
Before Pasc could break off the communication, Helena leaned forward and began urgently to speak. ‘Tony, get Ben Vincent! Tell him to...’ The screen went dead.
Neither Tony nor Alan could guess what it was that Helena wanted them to ask Dr Vincent. But the brief communication had done one thing: made them more certain than ever that Helena was in mortal peril. Tony clicked a channel through to the Medical Centre.
‘We just had a call from Pasc in the Eagle, Ben. He wants to make a deal... swap Helena for the boy.’
Dr Vincent looked doubtful, his distrust of the offer very obvious.
‘Helena tried to say something,’ Alan added. ‘She wanted us to ask you to do something, but Pasc cut her off. What do you think she wanted?’
Pondering the possibilities, Dr Vincent sucked at his lower lip. ‘I’m not sure. Could’ve been something to do with the virus we think we found that Pasc and the lad are apparently carrying. We’ve been hoping to get blood samples from them to test. Maybe Helena caught on to something from Pasc.’
Tony turned to Alan. ‘Right,’ he said slowly and gravely, ‘it’s up to you. Etrec trusts you. You’ve got to get a blood sample from him and then get him to co-operate in an exchange... and you’ve got to do it fast.’
It was very clear that Alan wasn’t feeling happy about any of it, but he also understood that the first priority was to save Helena’s life. He could recall sometimes when his own life had depended on her help. Indicating he would try his best he turned glumly away.
Etrec was alone in the Recreation Centre and gradually he had been drawn to the end of the room where a small aviary held a pair of plump, white doves. They had cooed to him softly as he watched them through the bars of the cage. All the time he stood there he had felt an oddly growing feeling... like icy cold fingers reaching up over the back of his brain.
When Alan came into the room, he shouted to Etrec’s back, ‘Hey, mate. How’re you doing?’
Taken by surprise, Etrec was suddenly jolted out of a kind of thoughtless daydream. He was confused to see that he had taken one of the doves from the cage and was tightly squeezing it in his hands. Appalled, he let go, and the frightened bird shot up and flew in swift circles around the large room. It finally came to roost on the rail above the cinema screen.
‘They’re not usually let out,’ Alan said easily, ‘but never mind. It’ll fly back home when it’s time to eat.’
Etrec hardly heard the words, so intensely aware was he of a deep, pulsing heat just above his eyes. He kept facing away from Alan, horror struck with the realization of just what was happening to him.
‘Look, Cobber,’ Alan said gently. ‘We’ve got big problems and big decisions. Pasc had told us that he still wants you to go with him and unless...’
‘I don’t want Pasc!’ Etrec cut in sharply. ‘He’s my father... but I don’t want him the way he is.’ He moved further away from Alan to keep his face concealed.
‘Pasc told us he will kill the Doctor unless he gets you back...’
The voice of Etrec became even harsher and trembled with uncommon emotions. ‘He will kill her anyway! He can’t help it, Neither of us can! We have the Archanon killing sickness!’
Very quickly things began to fall into place for Alan. He felt that another few clues might unlock the entire horrible mystery. ‘Etrec,’ he urged, ‘Helena wanted to tell us something. Pasc wouldn’t let her. Dr Vincent thinks she wanted him to get a sample of your blood... that it has something to do with your sickness.’
Next to Etrec was a rack which held various trays of cutlery for personnel to use when they came into the recreation room to eat. In the tray on the end he could see light gleaming off the sharp points and serrated edges of some knives. The deadly efficiency of the steel’s shape and texture tantalized his eye.
‘An Archanon cannot give his blood,’ Etrec’s voice was distant... distracted.
Alan moved closer to him, pleading. ‘Look, I’m no doctor. I don’t even know what they’re talking about... but this could be a good thing. It might save your life... Pasc’s...’
This time Etrec was more adamant. ‘An Archanon cannot give his blood! It is impossible!’
Not understanding what Etrec meant... thinking perhaps there was some religious or racial custom involved, Alan still tried to persuade him. He was stunned when the youth spun around to face him, growling like an animal. In his hand he clutched a knife and on his forehead the flame symbol was growing brighter and brighter.
Alan held his ground and spoke with deliberate quietness. ‘Do you think you can kill me, Cobber?’
Etrec jerked the knife up and held it overhead, the blade trembling with the anticipation of plunging into flesh. In Alan’s calm and steady eyes, Etrec could see a reflection of the light striking off the sharp steel. His arm ached to move... to strike out and spend its energy in swift violence.
The agony of the moment seemed like it would never end, but at last, Etrec could stand the competing pressures of emotion no longer. The deep bond of friendship... the newly bloomed compulsion to inflict death... he screamed and brought the knife savagely down.
Alan was more appalled at what Etrec did than if the lad had actually stabbed him with the knife. Instead the blade flashed straight against the dreaded emblem that burned under Etrec’s skin, ripping into the flesh and bouncing off the bone below it. The startling pain made Etrec drop the knife to the floor but also seemed to clear his thoughts. The psychotic possession fled from his mind in the face of the damage he had just inflicted on himself.
‘You asked for Archanon blood,’ he said softly. ‘It is yours.’ His eyes rolled upwards and he fell limply.
Alan managed to catch him before he hit the floor and supported him against one knee as he whipped out his commlock. He wanted to let Ben know he was bringing Etrec over and that he had plenty of blood to take a sample from. It streamed brightly from the dreadful wound.
In the Command Centre Tony paced nervously. Apart from stationing Security men near the Eagle’s airlocks, there was nothing else he could do. Yasko was working desperately, on his instructions, to try to contact Koenig in Eagle One. He had almost told her to stop trying; the storm was obviously still raging.
‘Sir,’ Yasko said curiously. ‘I’m getting a signal... but...’
‘The Commander?’ Tony blurted, hurrying over.
‘No,’ her eyes widened in surprise. ‘I think it’s alien!’
All eyes looked up to the big screen as the radio signal directed telescopic cameras to search the sector of space where the signal originated. Tony switched on a channel for audio response to the frequency on which the signal came, but before he could speak, a strange voice hummed over the receiver.
‘Mo
on Base Alpha. Moon Base Alpha. Can you hear me?’ The voice was feminine, and compellingly gentle.
‘This is Moon Base Alpha. Who are you?’
Into view on the screen a strange space craft approached. It was streamlined and long with silvery green lights rippling along its curved sides. The image lasted only a moment and was replaced by video transmission of the possessor of the soothing voice. Tony recognized her at once as being an Archanon, but with an expression of friendliness and gentleness that was deeply sincere.
‘Permission to land, Alpha?’ the lady requested.
‘Identify yourself please,’ Tony insisted.
‘I am Maurna,’ the lady said softly. ‘I am from Archanon. We have been receiving Monitor Transmissions that have informed us that two Archanons have been freed from restraint. We are concerned for your safety.’
Tony nodded. There was something so gentle in the voice but compellingly convincing. ‘Right now one of them is holding one of our people hostage.’
‘And the other?’
‘He is with us and seems to be all right, so far. But we must persuade him to join the other... Pasc, aboard one of our space craft; or else the hostage will be killed.’
The look of dismay on the Archanon lady’s face was heartrending to see. It was obvious that the sense of repulsion at even the mention of violence ran very deeply. ‘You must let us deal with Pasc,’ she said emphatically.
Tony knew he had nothing to lose. Alan hadn’t contacted him yet, so it was likely the boy couldn’t be persuaded to go with his father... and time was running out. ‘Permission to land,’ he acknowledged.
It was only seconds after he broke contact with the Archanon ship that Tony’s internal communications signal beeped for his attention. Alan’s face was deeply etched with worry as he appeared on the screen and explained what had happened in the recreation room. Tony told him he would come over to the medical centre right away.
‘One other thing, Tony,’ Alan added before he could sign off. ‘I’ve got that Archanon black box over here with me. I’ve been trying some of the other memory rods. One of them seems to have all the answers.’
‘I’ll be right there.’ Tony switched off and started towards the door. ‘When the Archanons arrive,’ he said to Yasko, ‘have them brought down to the Medical Centre.’
Alan had the little box with its screen all set up when Tony arrived. Tony watched and listened as Alan activated the memory rod with growing astonishment. Then he surprised Alan by telling him that a delegation of Archanons would be there momentarily.
‘We’ve got to let Pasc know... that we know,’ Alan urged.
Tony agreed. ‘But don’t say anything about the Archanon ship yet.’
Alan moved the black box over the medical section’s communications panel and signalled the Eagle that he wanted to speak.
Pasc appeared immediately. ‘So you have come to your senses,’ he said. ‘You have Etrec? Bring him to me and you can have your Doctor back.’
‘One moment, Pasc,’ said Alan. ‘I want you to see something first.’
Alan relayed the Black Box’s memory recording so that it went through to the Eagle at the same time as they watched and listened to it through again. A sad-faced Archanon woman of about Pasc’s age appeared and began to speak.
‘RO two – one one – one. It has happened again... that which we of Archanon dread above all.’ As much as she was trying to make the report clinically official, the emotion was strong in her voice. ‘The terrible scourge we thought we had eradicated from our genes has returned. Pasc has the killing sickness. Lok and Kerak are dead, wantonly destroyed by Pasc in the meaningless violence that this disease engenders in its victims. I, Lyra, have taken command. Pasc has been overpowered. I have ordered the preparation of a Stasis Chamber. We who remain cannot take life, not even in circumstances such as these. Pasc, therefore, will be placed in Stasis, where he will remain until a cure for the killing sickness can be found.’ The voice of Lyra shook with tragedy as she continued, tears welling up in her eyes and trickling unheeded down her cheeks. ‘Since it is known that the killing sickness is passed on in the genes of the male line, I have... I have no alternative but... but to place in Stasis, with Pasc, my... my son, Etrec. I... I pray that one day, he will be able to give me his forgiveness and understanding.’
As the image faded, Pasc came back on the screen, his face a mask of grief and sorrow. ‘So now you know...’ he said. ‘Where is Etrec? Let me see him.’
Alan switched on a video camera so that Pasc could see Etrec lying unconscious on a hospital couch... his face pale and his breath faltering.
‘What have you done to him?’ Pasc shouted.
‘Nothing,’ explained Alan. ‘He gave us his blood.’
‘You took Etrec’s blood?’ Pasc was horrified.
‘He gave it himself, Pasc. He gave it freely. We have tested a specimen and we’ve confirmed the virus can be cured... we can devlop a serum, if...’
Helena abruptly interrupted. ‘What is the matter with Etrec?’
‘Dr Vincent says it’s very unusual... it seems that he is incapable of replacing the blood he has lost.’
‘It is over,’ Pasc said slowly. ‘He is dying. There is nothing left now... nothing left.’
The communication went dead.
Helena nervously watched Pasc as he slumped despondently in the pilot’s seat. The news that Etrec had given his blood seemed to have broken him. She waited to see what he would do next, but he acted like he had forgotten she was there.
Abruptly, without looking at her, he said softly, ‘I have lost Etrec. You may go.’
‘Pasc, listen...’ she touched his arm. ‘Etrec doesn’t have to die. You can give him a blood transfusion.’
‘My blood? With the active virus?’
‘Yes! And that’s exactly why. We’ll prepare a serum from your blood that will cure him at the same time you replace what he has lost. You can save him if you want!’
Pasc stiffened his arm under Helena’s hand. ‘I do not save life. I take it!’
‘No, Pasc. Not your own son’s. You could not do it before. You cannot do it now.’
Pasc shook his head adamantly. ‘No... I must take life! I must.’
Very aware that time was crucial to Etrec’s life, Helena argued even more forcibly... trying to ignore the fact that if she pushed Pasc into a fit of violence there was no longer any reason for him not to kill her. ‘You can have control. If you say you can’t it’s only because you’re afraid. Because you and your people have accepted it all these generations... and whenever one just accepts, Pasc, no matter how advanced a race a people thinks it is, there can be no control. But fight it. you can cure it. Give your blood for the serum and prove you don’t accept the sickness.’
Pasc buried his face in his hands with an agonized cry. ‘It is too late I tell you. He cannot be saved!’
‘Coward!’ yelled Helena.
Pasc knocked her hand away viciously and looked at her with rage in his eyes.
Helena held his stare... her own eyes challenging.
‘All right,’ he said stonily. ‘All right. Let’s go then.’
When the message came through from Yasko that the Archanon ship had landed, Tony was pacing nervously in the hospital’s emergency ward. Etrec and Pasc both lay nearby on treatment couches and Dr Vincent had injected the boy with the last of the serum that he had hastily prepared.
Helena hurried to the boy’s side and took a sample blood smear on a micro-plate. They all gathered around the viewing screen as she put the sample under the micropscope for computer amplified magnification. It was clearly evident that the shape of the virus in the cell nucleus had shrivelled even further and would soon disappear altogether. Dr Vincent nodded his satisfaction.
‘It’s working,’ he confirmed. ‘The virus is being destroyed.’ He looked across at the monitors for Etrec’s other life functions. ‘The boy is picking up. Heart and blood pressure constantly improving.
’
Helena checked the readings herself and then walked over and switched off the transfusion pump. Etrec was doing well, but she was worried about the severity of the effect on Pasc. The reading on his body system was declining unexpectedly.
‘Pasc is getting worse,’ she said to Dr Vincent. ‘Stimulators.’
With a weak smile, Pasc opened his eyes. ‘A waste of time,’ he said quietly. ‘The heart will not pump what is not there.’ His eyes flicked questioningly sideways. ‘How is my son?’
‘The virus is destroyed. He is a true Archanon again... a Peacebringer.’
Pasc smiled for real... the first genuine smile Helena could remember him giving. ‘Good. Good. Lyra will be happy.’
‘Save your strength now,’ Helena told him. ‘In a few days we can increase the potency of the serum and start treating you.’
Pasc closed his eyes again, saying, ‘No, that will not be necessary.’
Etrec was beginning to breathe deeply, still asleep but strengthening all the time. The door slid open and Maurna came in, followed by two Archanon men. She looked at the scene in bewilderment.
Noting the sense of something different in the room, Pasc opened his eyes again. Through a haze he saw Maurna standing over him. ‘Lyra?’ he asked hopefully.
‘No, Pasc,’ she said gently. ‘Lyra is gone these thousand years. I am Maurna... but of Lyra’s line.’
‘Peace to you, Maurna. I give into your care your kinsman, Etrec. Take him with you back to Archanon.’
‘You know I cannot, Pasc. There is still no place on Archanon for the sickness.’
Helena stepped closer and spoke so that Pasc was sure to hear her. ‘Etrec no longer has the sickness. We prepared a serum from the blood of Pasc.’
Maurna looked staggered by the information. The two Archanon men standing behind her heard it also, and whispered anxiously to each other. ‘Given freely?’ asked Maurna.
Pasc said firmly, ‘Yes. Given freely.’
‘I can assure you,’ Helena intervened, ‘the cure is complete.’
Space 1999 - Mind-Breaks of Space Page 9