‘Who are you?’ Koenig asked.
‘I am Zamara... of the Planet Vega.’ She looked around the quizzical faces with a kind of arrogance. ‘Your small world has entered our sphere of influence. You are...?’
‘Commander John Koenig. We are in your... “sphere of influence” by accident, and with no hostile intent.’
Zamara nodded imperiously. ‘I accept your explanation.’
‘However,’ Koenig said in a harsher voice, feeling resentful of the visitors’ attitude, ‘if you don’t unlock our systems immediately I will be forced to...’
The stranger whirled around with a flashing stare. ‘Your systems are being held in an electro force field. It can also be used, as you have experienced, to affect your individual nerve centres.’
‘That can be dangerous,’ Helena warned. ‘Our nervous systems are delicately balanced.’
Zamara dismissed the concern. ‘There will be no lasting effects, I assure you. And for the present I will allow your habitat minimum life support power.’ She looked back at Koenig. ‘I will adjust the control so that you can survive for forty-eight hours.’
Koenig leaned forward menacingly, anger reddening his face. ‘That seems like a very dangerous game to play. What exactly is the purpose of it?’
The smile on Zamara’s face was very diplomatic, but coldly artificial. ‘We mean you no harm... we only want to assure your co-operation. It will be necessary for two of you to return with me to Vega. During the period of their visit we do not want any interference with our plans.’
‘The best way to assure our co-operation is to give us back the control of our systems and to explain fully what you want.’
Tactfully avoiding the Commander’s hard stare, Zamara shook her head. ‘This is the only way to guarantee your help. But don’t worry, whoever comes with me will be returned after they have assisted us. I give you the assurance of the people of Vega... and besides... you have no choice.’
Thinking quickly, Koenig came to the conclusion that, like it or not, they were momentarily at the mercy of this strange woman. Without knowing what kind of help they were expected to provide, co-operation would be the expedient course to take. If there was only forty-eight hours of life left for Alpha, it would be best to get started immediately. His mind made up, he stepped towards Zamara.
‘All right,’ he said. ‘Let’s go.’
Zamara shook her head. ‘I do not think you are suitable.’ She looked slowly around the rest of the personnel and pointed at Helena and then at Verdeschi. ‘I choose you... and you.’
‘Now just a minute!’ Koenig stormed, ‘I am not letting...’ He stopped in mid-sentence, a finger of emphasis half-raised. Zamara had immobilized him again.
Turning back to Tony and Helena, Zamara snapped her fingers to get their concerned attention off the statue-like Koenig. ‘We will travel by positronic transfer,’ she announced. ‘Just relax and let your mind go blank. You’ll be there before you know it.’
Tony shrugged and closed his eyes, working to clear his thoughts. Helena felt unsure, dreading leaving Alpha behind for the unknown. Besides, even though she had seen the materialization of Zamara, she felt terribly foolish standing in the middle of the Command Centre waiting to disappear in a puff of smoke.
‘If you value the lives of your friends,’ Zamara said to her harshly, bringing the problem down to grim reality, ‘you will do it.’
Helena accordingly closed her eyes, joining Tony in the attempt to empty her head of thoughts. It didn’t feel like she was succeeding and she knew, with exasperation, that she would be not a little embarrassed when she opened her eyes and asked why it wasn’t working.
Koenig, meanwhile, was feeling dreadful. There he was, uselessly rigid, and in front of his very eyes, Tony and Helena had just vanished from sight. Zamara waited till they were gone and then nodded to release him again.
‘I want a channel of communcation opened,’ he snapped, ‘so that we can stay in contact.’
Zamara considered the request for a moment, and then broke into her humourless smile. Walking over to the Command control board she nodded and the transmitter light flicked on.
‘Your radio is now functioning,’ she announced and then evaporated without a sound.
The first thing Helena became aware of was the sound of a flock of cooing doves. Next came the scent of flowers... an exotic abundance of them. She opened her eyes in disbelief and beheld a lush and sylvan garden. All around her bloomed beautifully colourful plants and trees bowed down under a plentiful crop of strange fruits. Standing just next to her and equally confused was Tony.
Gradually they recovered from their wonder and began to move around the garden. High above them there was a ceiling so it appeared they were in a controlled environment. Tony spotted an oval window and walked across to see what the outside conditions were like, but the glass seemed caked in frost on the exterior and he couldn’t make out any details.
Helena strolled near the edge of the clearing and looked back into the shrubbery to see if there was a path leading through it. She reached her hand out and pushed aside a large flat leaf... and cried out in fear.
Staring out at her was a face. It was stark white, the eyes nothing more than dark round holes and the skin unlined and thick... like the bloated flesh of a drowned man. A rough grey garment covered the rest of the body with the numeral 8 inscribed on it in red.
A strong and very cultivated voice spoke from just behind her. ‘Did it startle you?’
Spinning round Helena saw a tall and handsome man leaning against the trunk of a nearby tree. Like Zamara, his dress was brief and semi-transparent... scarcely hiding his lithe and well-proportioned physique. Without taking his eyes off Helena, he spoke to the thing behind the shrubbery.
‘Bring food for our guests.’ He smiled and walked closer. ‘I am Zarl. I hope your stay on Vega is very... pleasurable.’
Tony was just about to step away from the window and join them when a haze of light appeared in front of him. In a moment it had materialized into Zamara. With the ease of someone very used to such a dramatic form of travelling, she spoke to him as if she had been there all the time.
‘Outside the temperature is always sub-zero and the atmosphere too thin for human comfort. I am sure you will find all you desire inside our enclosed city.’
It completely surprised Tony that her ambiguous words of welcome should be delivered with such an openly suggestive look. He expected to encounter unusual social codes on an alien planet, but he distrusted the calculated temptation that the pretty girl was exuding. In spite of his caution, however, his Latin blood was feeling just the least bit tempted.
At the edge of the clearing three of the odd humanoids with white faces appeared carrying trays of food and drink. Each of them had a different number printed in red on his grey uniform. Close behind them came several other Vegans... each of them as attractive and pleasingly shaped as Zarl and Zamara.
Tony and Helena took the seats indicated at either side of a long low table. The Vegans joined them, settling gracefully on plump, delicately brocaded cushions.
‘Refresh yourselves,’ invited Zarl.
The gruesomely ugly things moved around the table and began to serve food. As one bent down uncomfortably close to Helena she heard an anxious whisper in her ear.
‘Whatever happens, do not react as they expect.’
Helena kept her face impassive and said, ‘Thank you,’ as if for the service.
‘There is no need to thank a number,’ explained Zarl.
‘Are they robots or something?’ asked Tony.
‘Hmm, not really. Automatons is more precise.’
The same one, the thing with the number eight on its chest, returned to Helena’s side and poured a sparkling red wine into her goblet. This time it whispered, ‘If you show aggression, they will kill you.’
It moved quickly away and Helena hid her surprise by lifting a delicious looking red vegetable to her mouth. She bit into
the soft skin and was astonished to discover that it had a flavour like old window putty.
‘Is the food to your liking?’ asked Zarl.
Helena made herself nod. ‘Yes, it’s very unusual.’
‘You are a liar!’ Zamara hissed at her. ‘It sticks in your throat you decrepit hag.’
Tony was stunned by the outburst, and even more surprised that Helena seemed totally unaffected by it. Zarl pushed one of the dishes towards him and he decided the best way to smooth over the moment was to try something himself. As he raised the morsel up to his tongue, Helena spoke to him anxiously.
‘The food is absolutely delicious, Tony.’
He detected an element of caution in her voice. It became clearer as he chewed the food and found out it had a flavour like unwashed socks. He smiled with great effort.
‘Delicious.’
This time it was Zarl who reacted. ‘You foul-mouthed, lying cretin!’
Tony felt the hackles on his neck rise and an irrepressible surge of anger.
‘You are our guest,’ Zarl continued, his tone provocatively changing from the friendly to the insulting, ‘so feel free to do as you like. Eat the food! Throw it in my face! Whatever you want.’ Zarl leaned forward with a sneer. ‘But at least try to act like a man... not a cringing, spineless...’
Without even thinking about it, Tony had closed his fingers to lift it up, ready to smash it into Zarl’s leering face.
Quickly Helena leaned over the table and took the plate from Tony’s hand. ‘We are not used to such hot food,’ she said charmingly to the Vegans, and then meaningfully to Tony, ‘Cool it!’
He settled back down, getting the message, but wondering what was going on.
Koenig waited impatiently as Yasko tried to raise an answer from Vega on the radio. The only response was a depressing silence.
‘They lied to us,’ he said to Maya, ‘They’re not letting us communicate.’
Maya sighed, frowning with worry about Tony and Helena. ‘If they lied to us about that, then they lied about...’
The Commander’s thoughts were there ahead of her. ‘We’ve got to get down to Vega!’
Koenig thought to himself that it was all very well to make strong statements, but just how he’d back that one up, he wasn’t sure. They weren’t likely to go anywhere without power. He had ordered a thorough search of the Moon Base just on the chance that some simple device had been planted which was actually neutralizing all the electronics. So far there had been nothing discovered except that conditions were getting worse.
‘What’s the life support situation?’ he asked Maya nervously.
‘Critical losses of heat and oxygen. I would say we now have forty-two hours left... maximum.’
Koenig thumped the desk in frustration. Perhaps it now all depended on Alan Carter and the men he took with him to try to reach the Eagles. If they could bring back one of the power packs... the base might still have a chance. Of course it was possible that the Eagles had been ‘fixed’ as well. In that case they were totally at the mercy of the Vegan’s promises... promises that were proving very unreliable so far.
Helena and Tony stood reflectively inside their guest room in the Vegan city. They had been escorted there by Zarl and told to make themselves comfortable. Tony had been increasingly mystified as Helena said how pleasant and comfortable the accommodation looked and Zarl had simply looked frustrated.
After the door had slid shut behind them, the lock clicking loudly, Tony blew out a breath of exasperation. The room was hardly larger than a closet and had solid walls of cold, grey stone. The only opening was the sealed door and the only furniture a flat, hard slab.
Helena took her commlock in her hand and tried to call the Moon Base. ‘Doctor Russell calling Alpha... come in Alpha.’
‘Forget it, Helena,’ Tony said and took out his stun gun which he thought was more likely to help them solve the situation.
‘No, Tony,’ Helena warned him. ‘That’s what they want. One of the Numbers warned me.’
‘If we start believing robots...’
‘I believe this one,’ she said firmly. ‘It said if we show aggression, they will kill us. You have to admit they seem to be setting out to provoke us as much as possible.’
‘But why?’
‘There’s one way to get some answers.’ She nodded at the door. ‘We’ve got to find that Number.’
Tony considered and agreed that it seemed the best course available to them. He clicked his gun on to the laser beam and aimed at the bolts on the inside of the cell door that marked the location of the lock. Two good blasts of the beam and the door swung easily open.
The corridors of the Vegan city were scantily occupied so that Helena and Tony had little difficulty moving along them unobserved. The population of the planet seemed very low, but since they were confined to the limits of the cave-hewn city, Helena reckoned that they must have carefully controlled the population growth.
After dodging out of sight when several Vegans had passed by, they finally saw a Number walking along on its own. Carefully they followed it and before long saw it push open a door and go through. They paused, then followed, finding themselves in a much less improved cave area on a downward leading slope.
They shuffled down the sandy incline, trying to avoid the cold water dripping from stalactites overhead. The Number walked slowly ahead of them, easy to keep up with and not aware that they were behind it.
In a few minutes they had dropped down about a hundred feet further below the level of the city. The air was cold, moist and uncomfortable and the light a weak yellow gloom. They stepped around one more corner in the cave tunnel and saw before them a large, open cavern.
Looking up at them with their frighteningly blank white faces was a group of a dozen numbers. They were sitting with weary postures on low rocks that bordered a bubbling pool of a natural hot spring.
Helena stepped bravely forward, Tony right beside her with his gun ready for trouble.
‘We come as friends,’ said Helena.
The Numbers stared silently.
‘I want to speak to the one which warned me,’ Helena tried again. ‘We need your help... maybe we can help each other.’
The Numbers still did not speak or move. Almost a minute passed of tense expectation and then one of them stood up slowly. He raised a hand to his face and pinched the skin hard between his fingers. With a sucking sound and a snap he pulled the white covering away and revealed a perfectly ordinary, if very sad, middle-aged man’s face.
‘You’re... you’re not androids?’ asked Tony.
‘No,’ the man answered, ‘they’re the androids. We’re the humans.’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Sitting near the steaming pool, Helena could understand why the Numbers... the people, chose to gather in this cavern. The heat of the spring water provided at least a little comfort.
The Number who had revealed his face, the one with the red eight on his chest, explained fully the situation on Vega. Tony and Helena both listened raptly to his troubled tale.
‘... so you see, it was many years ago that we built the first androids, linking them to an extremely advanced and powerful computer. We thought to free ourselves completely from the drudgery of routine labour so that our civilization could advance in the fields of art and culture. We were prevented from doing so throughout our history by struggling to survive on the planet’s surface.’ The man shook his balding head. ‘But the computer was smarter than we expected. It programmed the androids with more complex ideas than we intended and used them to build improvements on itself so that it came to control all of our city.’
‘A self-generating system?’ asked Tony.
‘Yes. The cycle continued until the crude robots we started with became the perfect humanoid form you see today. They are all psychicly linked to the master computer and to each other; separate parts of one great mind... but a diabolical one.’
‘But they express emotions... as indivi
duals?’ Helena asked, recalling the look of interest Zarl had given her when she first arrived.
‘They imitate the attitude without knowing the feeling. The only emotions they cannot portray are love and hate. Those they have not yet learned.’
Helena thought for a moment, remembering again the look on Zarl’s face. There had been something more to it than just a portrayal, but what? And how?
‘Why do you cover your faces?’ asked Tony, looking around at the other unpleasant masks.
‘So that if we are caught off-guard we will not reveal strong emotions.’
Feeling increasingly confused, Helena said, ‘But if they want to see you, surely all they have to do is rip the masks off your faces?’
‘No, they cannot now employ violence or force. We have never displayed it in their presence so they have no experience by which to create an imitation.’
Eight’s eyes took on a fatalistic sorrow. ‘They would like very much to kill us, but they can’t. They don’t possess the emotional pattern of anger or aggression. That is what they want to learn from you... how to kill.’
Helena shook her head. ‘But why do they want to kill you? What is the point?’
‘As long as we live, we are a threat to them. They know and fear human ingenuity. While we live there is a chance we might find some way of reaching the master computer and putting an end to them.’
‘Where is this...’ Tony leaned forward anxiously, sensing an opportunity, ‘... this master computer? Is it well guarded?’
Number Eight pointed across the cave, to the opposite end from where they had entered. ‘There is a tunnel back there that goes straight up to it. But there is no point. It’s protected by an impenetrable force screen. So they have no need for guards.’
Tony got to his feet and helped Helena. ‘Thanks,’ he said, ‘I think we’ll go and have a crack at it. Sounds like our only hope at the moment.’
‘Remember,’ Number Eight shouted after them. ‘Do not show them violence, whatever they do. Otherwise they will kill us all!’
The Master Computer of Vega pulsed and bubbled inside its glistening array of bending, looping tubes. Like a giant altar to self-important intellect it sat in the middle of an expansive domed room... a large space of polished tiles on every side. Helena and Tony looked up at it with a mixture of scientific appreciation and human fear as they approached. A computer based on liquid chemical circuitry was obviously a staggering accomplishment.
Space 1999 - Mind-Breaks of Space Page 14