Space 1999 - Planets of Peril

by Michael Butterworth

  It showed the surface of Moon Base Alpha, and the captives reacted with a strong pang of anxiety.

  ‘Commander...’ Mentor’s smooth, deep voice boomed at them, ‘observe...’

  Helena grasped Hays’ hand as two storage sheds attached to the Alphan complex pulsed with energy and exploded.

  ‘Alpha will be destroyed piece by piece... and you are the one who caused it,’ Mentor continued. He sounded retributive.

  ‘We’ve got to make a deal with him,’ Fraser said desperately. ‘He’s mad.’

  Koenig stared at the forcefield blocking their exit.

  ‘We can’t stop him now unless we get out of here. We’ve got to break that force field...’

  He stopped speaking abruptly as he noticed Maya walking towards them down the corridor. She looked dazed and unhappy.

  ‘Maya...!’ he exclaimed. ‘You...’

  ‘Commander...’ Mentor’s voice boomed again, and another sharp pang made him turn towards the screen.

  A bolt of energy slashed down across the lunar sky and struck one of the launching pads.

  The Alphans stared in stark horror as they watched it erupt in a blinding white ball of light.

  Koenig turned to Maya.

  ‘Maya... release the forcefield, Maya!’

  She stood irresolutely, in front of him on the far side of the field. Now, Helena and the others had noticed her, and they looked at her with fresh hope in their eyes.

  ‘He’s going to destroy three hundred more people unless we stop him.’

  An agony of indecision tore at her features.

  ‘Promise that Mentor will not be harmed,’ she said finally.

  Koenig looked at her as reassuringly as he could.

  ‘I want to stop him, not harm him,’ he said.

  Maya touched one of the spokes on her pendant in a hurried gesture. Then she turned away and faced the wall.

  The forcefield collapsed, and the Alphans raced forward.

  ‘Mark... get to the Eagle... prepare for lift-off!’ Koenig yelled. ‘Helena, you and Fraser get Torens.’

  Koenig and Hays hurried off towards the Grove, eventually followed by Maya who needed to make sure that her father came to no harm.

  The air was filled with the harsh animal screaming of Psyche.

  Mentor’s large, robed figure stood with his back to them as they entered the Grove. He was facing the monitor screen on his wall, his arms outstretched towards it like a god.

  Three Eagle ships were taking off from their launches, and bolts of energy were raining down on them. One of the bolts struck the lead Eagle and it exploded in a blaze of burning debris.

  As they entered, an Overseer stepped into their path. But before it had a chance to release the deadly, blue radiation from behind its eyes, Maya’s hand flashed to her pendant again, converting it into a lump of smoking, molten rock.

  Mentor noticed the disturbance, and he spun round. He stared at them in surprise.

  ‘Maya...’

  While father and daughter looked at each other in a moment of mortification, Koenig took the chance to do as much damage as he could.

  His eyes scanned the room rapidly. He noticed a large cauldron and sprang towards it. He picked the cauldron up and turned to face the colourful bubbling tubes of the computer.

  He raised the cauldron above his head and flung it forward with all his might.

  There was a moment of snapping glass and spurting liquid, followed by a strange alternation in the pitch of Psyche’s screaming.

  Koenig looked around for other implements.

  Mentor turned in alarm and sprang towards him.

  He and Koenig began wrestling, but they stopped when the computer’s screaming became shrill and hysterical.

  Mentor withdrew from him.

  ‘You’re mad!’ he cried. ‘Release Psyche’s energy and it’ll destroy the planet!’

  Koenig did not listen.

  He withdrew his laser and fired at a cluster of conduits.

  They shattered, and released a billowing sheet of electronic energy into the room.

  The sheet twisted and bucked, shaking and smashing more of the equipment and throwing Alphans and Psychons alike to the floor.

  The screaming from the computer began to die down. It turned into a long, eerie, undulating wail.

  Then a series of strong vibrations shook the Grove and clouds of dust poured down from the ceiling.

  Mentor stared about him, aghast.

  He scrambled to his feet and ran across to Maya. She had risen to her feet and was supporting herself weakly against the observation window.

  ‘We must stop him, Maya...’ He gasped.

  He held her shoulders and tried to shake her. But he was too weak.

  Maya’s face streamed with tears. Her whole body seemed convulsed with her rampant feelings. She shook her head slowly, from side to side, along the glass. She closed her eyes, not daring to look at her father’s anguished face.

  ‘I was in the pits, I saw...’ she began.

  Mentor let her go.

  He ran in a deranged manner around the room trying to save bits of the delicate apparatus that Koenig was smashing.

  A frenzy of destruction had taken over the Commander. He rushed around pushing over more of the conduits. They fell over, causing a chain reaction that spread quickly throughout the room.

  ‘No... no...!’ Mentor shouted.

  He sounded lost and frightened now.

  ‘I only wanted to do good... restore our planet...’

  The rumbling grew louder.

  A jagged crack appeared in the floor, and a tongue of flame leapt out from the volcanic ground below.

  Soon the room was alight and roaring with the flames.

  Choking wreaths of smoke poured into the air.

  Maya was screaming, cut off by the flames and Koenig raced in after her.

  He picked her up and brought her back to the corridor entrance. He stood her on her feet.

  In the Grove, enveloped by the dancing flames and the hail of rocks and dust falling from the roof, Mentor still moved, trying desperately to salvage more of his precious Psyche.

  But now, the computer had died.

  Yet he showed no signs of wanting to escape the destruction.

  It seemed as though man and machine were inextricably bound together, and each had to go down with the other.

  Koenig and Maya looked at him.

  ‘You said he wouldn’t be harmed...’ Maya moaned.

  Koenig nodded grimly.

  He plunged amongst the exploding nutrient banks in an attempt to keep his promise.

  But he was thrown back by the violent eruption of energy.

  ‘Mentor...’ he screamed. ‘Come out.’

  Only the sound of crackling flames and the rumbling of the earth could be heard.

  But eventually they heard Mentor’s reply. His words were broken, and they sounded weak.

  ‘No... my work is gone... my life is done.’

  ‘FATHER!’ Maya screamed in anguish.

  She rushed forward towards the flames, but Koenig held fiercely on to her.

  ‘Take her away, Commander...’ Mentor’s voice sounded again. They caught a glimpse of his fallen figure propped against the dais where the computer had once been housed. Part of the dais was sloping perilously towards the gaping, fiery vent in the floor.

  Maya struggled desperately in Koenig’s grip.

  ‘Father...’ she cried, grief-stricken. ‘Come with us... Psyche made you do evil...’

  ‘No, save Maya, Commander...’ Mentor cried.

  Now, Maya struggled fiercely in Koenig’s arms. She abandoned her self-interest in her desperate love for her father.

  Her body changed abruptly back into the ocelot Koenig had seen earlier.

  It fought and clawed at Koenig with the animal’s full strength and savagery.

  The ocelot screamed piteously, as though calling to Mentor. When it discovered it still could not break free, it ch
anged into an eagle that flapped its huge wings in Koenig’s face, and pecked savagely at him with its beak.

  But Koenig hung grimly to its legs.

  The eagle changed frantically into a deer, which bleated piteously to Mentor, and tried to escape to him on its strong, fleet legs.

  But still she could not go to her father.

  Mentor heard her calls, and with his remaining strength he called out to her.

  ‘Understand, Maya... please, please understand...’

  They were his last words.

  A surge of flame leapt up from the fissure, and consumed the room.

  Koenig shrank away, carrying the deer, and began running along the corridor.

  When they had turned a corner, he put the creature down, and Maya materialized again.

  She sagged against Koenig, sobbing and convulsing in her grief.

  A loud explosion sounded from the direction of the Grove.

  Koenig grabbed her, and began dragging her away.

  Maya became more controlled and they were able to move more quickly along the shaking tunnels.

  In places the walls had caved in, and they had to scramble over falls of rocks, cut and bleeding and choking with the sulphurous smoke.

  They continued to battle through, on what seemed like an endless journey.

  But eventually, a dim circle of light appeared in the blackness ahead of them, and they struggled the last few yards along the tunnel.

  They emerged into the ash-filled crater of the massive volcano.

  Stacked high around them as they ran were the murky hulks and shapes of the alien craft which had been lured there.

  Ahead of them they saw the Eagle Four, and they put on an extra burst of speed to reach it.

  The hatches were open, framing the anxious figure of Helena.

  She waved frantically when she saw them.

  Koenig and Maya staggered through the open hatch, and threw themselves inside.

  Hays, Macinlock and Fraser were at their seats, waiting to take the Eagle up, out of reach of the doomed planet.

  Helena helped them both into their seats, then she rushed to her own seat and strapped herself in.

  The rockets of the powerful ship thundered, and the pilot section shook.

  The crew felt its exhausts biting into the crater floor, forcing them upwards.

  Spumes of ashes and debris fountained into the air round about them.

  As they rose, the volcano floor itself began to erupt.

  Fire and lava rushed up its vent and helped the ship on its way.

  A massive eruption took place.

  The ship rocked and rolled. It began cartwheeling around in the sky.

  Macinlock and Fraser stabbed frantically at switches and buttons.

  Retro-rockets and stabilizers flared into life, and slowly, the Eagle was brought under control, and it began speeding away into the darkness of space.

  CHAPTER SIX

  An uneasy silence fell on the Eagle Ship as it sped away from the disintegrating planet.

  Psychon was a mass of white fingers, like a splodge of paint on the TV monitor. Slowly, the fingers expanded into space as more of the planet erupted. Soon it resembled a massive, burning star.

  ‘Eagle Four from Alpha. Eagle Four from Alpha...’ Sandra Benes’ welcome voice burst over.

  Fraser touched one of the controls on his console.

  ‘Go ahead Alpha.’

  The remains of Psychon dissolved into a picture of Verdeschi’s face. He looked mildly happy.

  ‘Bill... I’ve something to show you.’

  Verdeschi disappeared, and a moment later Annette stood in his place. She was smiling, radiantly happy.

  Fraser and Macinlock exchanged grins.

  Then Fraser climbed out of his seat and faced the screen.

  He stretched up and planted a kiss on the screen where his wife’s lips were. He stepped back and watched the screen grow suddenly dark, as she did the same.

  ‘I’m waiting for you,’ she said, teasingly.

  ‘Me too,’ he said. ‘But until I get back we’ll just have to make do with a screen!’

  She giggled.

  He leant towards the screen again, laughing.

  Koenig stood in the background, watching in amusement. Then he turned and walked into the Passenger Section where Helena and Hays were seeing to Maya.

  They all looked pretty depressed when he walked in, and he wasn’t quite sure who was looking after who.

  He stood behind Helena and put his hand on her shoulder. She responded to the pressure, and rose to her feet. He put his arms around her and drew her to him.

  ‘We’ll be on Alpha soon. In time you’ll forget,’ he said.

  She shivered.

  ‘I was thinking of Torens and Picard.’

  ‘Don’t...’

  They had not been able to get Torens.

  ‘We had to leave them... We had no choice...’ she said.

  ‘I know,’ he said. ‘There was nothing you could have done.’

  She lifted her head from his chest and gazed at him. She looked stricken. Her eyes looked deep and beautiful, and tormented, but they could not cry.

  He pulled her to him. ‘Don’t do it to yourself.’

  They kissed hard.

  After a long while, they drew apart. Whilst loving, their bodies had lost some of their tension. Now they both felt better, Koenig particularly, because he hadn’t even considered himself to be under strain.

  They smiled.

  ‘I promise,’ she said, ‘to try not to.’

  A stifled sobbing sound rose from beside them, and they both looked down.

  ‘Maya...’

  Koenig knelt down beside the bereaved Psychon. She had buried her head in her hands and was weeping into them. Her usually immaculate, auburn hair looked tousled and out of place. Her shoulders shook with pent-up feelings.

  Helena crouched down next to her. Impulsively, she flung her arms around her. She hugged her tightly.

  ‘You poor thing!’ she said to her. ‘Oh, you poor thing! You mustn’t think that you have no-one here who cares about you.’

  They rocked gently backwards and forwards for a few moments.

  Then, tear-stained, Maya looked up at Koenig.

  ‘Commander...’ she began, but she could not finish what she wanted to say.

  ‘Thank you for saving our lives,’ Koenig said to her gently.

  But Maya turned her head and stared impassively away from him.

  ‘And losing mine,’ she said, a trace of coldness in her trembling voice.

  ‘No, no, no!’ Helena told her. She hugged her all the more tightly. ‘You are alive. You have a new life. Maya, we need you...’

  The Psychon still sat like stone.

  Koenig looked at her profile desperately. ‘Your science is so far ahead of ours. There’s a place for you on Alpha,’ he said. ‘Please, Maya...’

  But Maya did not wish to relent.

  ‘Anywhere but on Psychon, I will be an Alien,’ she said in a low, firm voice.

  ‘That will not be true, Maya,’ Koenig said. ‘I promise you... We are all aliens at Alpha. We all have different minds. Some of us have different bodies, different skins. No-one is the same. But we all get on... we need, and help one another, and some of us love one another. Maya, you must believe that...’

  ‘Commander,’ she said pleadingly. ‘Leave me, please. You cannot expect me to forget so easily. Leave me to think.’

  She looked at him again. Her tears had dried up now. But he could see that her grief for her father was far from over. It had become dry and more painful because now she could no longer cry.

  But in the ashes of her old life he also saw the glimmer of a new resolve, too. It was deep, and it would take time to come out.

  He rose to his feet.

  Helena looked up at him, still holding on to her new patient.

  ‘You go,’ she said. ‘Maya and I will be all right.’

  Koenig pursed
his lips and nodded.

  He turned and walked back to the Pilot Section.

  He just missed bumping into Hays, who had left the Passenger Section during the emotional proceedings, and was now returning.

  He looked faintly anxious.

  ‘John,’ he said. ‘Tony wants you.’

  ‘Now what?’ the Commander asked. ‘It’s probably about the damage. You’d think it could wait.’

  He walked with Hays into the Pilot Section.

  ‘Yes Tony?’ he asked the figure of their Security Chief, who was standing by Sandra Benes’ console.

  ‘You’ll be home soon. I didn’t want to bother you,’ Verdeschi said. ‘We’ve been receiving some puzzling shock waves. We thought they were something to do with the explosion at first, but they’re coming from a completely different sector.’

  Koenig looked intently at the screen.

  ‘H-ZR2 QR-3:01,’ Sandra read off the wave source.

  ‘That’s the other side of the lunar sky,’ Koenig said thoughtfully. He shrugged. ‘Whatever it is, we’re probably passing it.’

  ‘That’s the worrying thing, John,’ Verdeschi replied. ‘We’re not. The shock waves seem to be increasing in intensity and... I know this sounds crazy, we seem to be on a slightly veering course towards them.’

  ‘What!’ Koenig looked at him incredulously. ‘It would take an enormous power to move the Moon off her course. It would take a... a gravitational power...!’ His experienced mind moved swiftly into action. ‘Sandra, check the monitoring systems to see if they’re reading accurately. Tony, get an Eagle Survey ship ready. This crate needs overhauling...’

  He turned to face Fraser and Macinlock.

  ‘Full thrust.’

  He looked back at Verdeschi.

  ‘Stand by, we’re coming in... Damn it!’

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The Command Centre was quieter than it had ever been.

  The Big Screen stared blankly at the Alphans from its place above the consoles. It was switched off because there was nothing to see. This time they could only listen... and wait.

  It was an intense, jittery silence.

  Koenig turned from his command chair, about to say something.

  ‘Ten seconds,’ Verdeschi intoned from his console.

  The Commander slumped back again, waiting.

  He stabbed a button, and the Big Screen came on.