‘... as cannibals and murderers deserve to be punished.’
Wild-looking clouds raced up from beyond the horizon.
They boiled and seethed above them, and a wind began to blow, howling and lashing the vegetation around them in its frenzy.
Jagged lightning burst from the clouds and forked down towards them.
They clung together, soaked to the skin in a warm, heavy rain, trembling beneath the stupendous claps of thunder which seemed to rock the very planet.
They separated from their embrace and caught hands. They began running aimlessly through the foliage, seeking shelter.
They pushed and trampled their way blindly through the wet, slapping plants, stumbling and staggering until they reached a small cliff face rising out of the sombre vegetation.
Verdeschi noticed the dark opening of a cave, and they ran desperately towards it.
They flung themselves inside.
After they had rested briefly in each others arms, Verdeschi brought out his commlock and spoke urgently into it.
‘Moon Base Alpha from Verdeschi...’
Great jagged sparks forked down out of the sky, illuminating the cave walls with a cold, stroboscopic flickering.
The set seemed dead.
‘Moon Base Alpha from Verdeschi... COME IN!’ Verdeschi shouted urgently above the roar of the thunder.
‘IT’S NO USE MAYA — IT’S BROKEN.’
He was about to hurl his commlock to the floor, when its screen lit up and he brought it back to his face.
He stared at it intently.
A cold clammy chill of horror crept into him as he saw three very distinctive, alien tree-like creatures appear on it.
The thunderous voice sounded again, and one of the trees moved, as though it was the speaker.
‘Murderer... you have had your last communication with Alpha,’ it roared.
Maya looked aghast with a mixture of horror and indignation.
‘Who are you?’ she cried.
‘We are the Judges of Luton,’ the voice boomed.
She looked confused.
‘I don’t understand. What is our crime?’
‘You destroyed life-forms of this planet...’
‘We picked some berries!’ Verdeschi shouted back hotly.
‘That is your crime... you killed members of our society.’
Verdeschi and Maya looked appalled — partly at their predicament, partly at the suffering it seemed they had unwittingly inflicted.
‘We didn’t realize...’ Verdeschi began, but the talking tree cut him off.
‘But we are merciful...’ it boomed, more warmly. ‘Even to criminals of such magnitude...’
Maya sounded humble.
‘Please believe us... if we committed a crime it was through ignorance...’
‘Ah... you will be given a chance to prove your innocent intent...’
Verdeschi looked slightly grateful in the darkness.
‘Thank you,’ he said, though he wasn’t certain yet what he had to be thankful for.
An extra loud clap of thunder sounded outside, and a brilliant ball of lightning began falling out of the sky.
It hung above the cave entrance like a cold sun, vividly illuminating the interior of their shelter.
They whirled round, as though attracted by a telepathic signal. Three weird and ghastly monsters stood in the flickering shadows.
They were of gargantuan proportions and shape. One looked as though it were made of stone. It looked vaguely human, but its muscles were grossly exaggerated, causing its body to bulge hideously out of shape. It had a single, round eye set in a squashed and broken face. Its mutated form was adorned with a fine, silver, skin-tight membrane of some kind.
Another was tall and skeletal, match-stick shaped. Its thin, bulging eyes blazed down from its skull-like face with a fierce intensity. Its greyish skin, pulled tautly round the bones, was afflicted with a mass of warts and scaly lumps.
The third was short and squat. Its skin bristled with sharp, needle-like hairs, and its over-sized head stared doll-like at them, casting a cold hating gaze over them. Its shovel-like hands jerked menacingly from its sides, as Verdeschi and Maya stepped back in abject terror.
They retreated frozenly out of the cave mouth and into the sheeting rain.
‘These are your adversaries,’ the thunder voice told them with a judge’s finality. ‘Alien Strong, Alien Invisible and Alien Transport. They too are criminals from Space who have violated our laws...
‘They too claim innocence due to ignorance. Your innocence will be tested in the crucible of combat... The survivors will be given their freedom!’
A roar, a moan and a shriek came from the cave — and the three desperate contestants jerked, limped and rolled from the mouth, forcing Maya and Verdeschi into the centre of the clearing.
The first alien — Alien Strong — wreaked his enormous strength on the cliff face, tearing off huge rocks and dashing them to the ground.
After he had displayed his mindless ability, he tore more rocks off and handed them to his two gruesome colleagues.
Roaring and shrieking, the aliens held their crude weapons aloft and faced Verdeschi and Maya. Led by Alien Strong they began to bear down on them.
The horrified Alphans raised their laser guns and fired. Thin lances of light struck the advancing monsters squarely on their hides, but had no effect.
‘Run!’ Verdeschi shouted.
He and Maya ran, more fleetly than their adversaries, into the undergrowth.
The aliens came, lumbering and crashing after, but soon lost them.
‘We need weapons,’ Verdeschi said, looking around the debris-strewn floor of the bushes they had concealed themselves inside.
He picked up a hefty-looking club of wood. It felt paper-light, and he knew that it was rotten. It broke in two when he threw it to the ground.
‘If we break off a branch... injure a tree, they will condemn us without any chance,’ Maya commented bitterly.
Verdeschi nodded grimly.
‘If we get hungry there’s nothing to eat.’
The howls and roars of the aliens drew closer, forcing them to move on.
‘Eagle One... you are cleared for touchdown,’ Yasko called into her intercommunication microphone.
Koenig’s face appeared on the Big Screen.
‘Thank you, Alpha,’ he said. ‘Do you have the other Eagle I ordered?’
‘It’s ready for lift-off, John,’ Helena called. She had appeared behind Yasko and stood smiling demurely at him. ‘The moment you clear the launch pad.’
Helena checked her watch and turned to Yasko.
‘How about checking out Tony and Maya?’ she asked the operator.
Yasko nodded, and cut Koenig off.
She pressed more buttons with her bronzed, slender fingers. Her skin pigmentation would have faded long ago had it not been for the Moon Base solarium.
‘Moon Base Alpha to Tony Verdeschi,’ she called in her singsong voice.
She waited expectantly.
‘Moon Base Alpha to Tony Verdeschi...’ she repeated.
Still there was no reply.
The two women exchanged troubled glances.
‘Get that planet on the screen,’ Helena told her.
Yasko pressed more buttons.
‘Moon Base Alpha to Tony Verdeschi... come in, Tony.’
A picture of a galaxy came on the screen.
Helena shook her head and pulled a face.
Yasko cleared the screen and pressed the same buttons again. Still no planet.
‘It should be there...’ Yasko said, frowning,
‘It’s got to be!’ Helena shouted in alarm. ‘Check your scanner!’
The Oriental girl checked, but to no avail.
‘The sensors give no reading,’ she informed Helena. She thought, John! He’s lifting off!
She recalled John to the screen. He had now swopped ships and was about to take off.
‘Eag
le Four ready for lift-off,’ Koenig reported.
‘Abort mission, Eagle Four, abort,’ Yasko ordered firmly. There was a slight pause, then an exclamation.
‘What!’
‘Abort,’ Yasko repeated.
‘But I’ve got to get Tony off that planet...’ Koenig sounded stunned.
Helena leaned forward, an alarmed look on her face.
‘John, we know that. But we don’t knew where the planet is!’
Cool, clear water foamed and bubbled around them, Apart from the foam, the river was clear and blue, sliding powerfully over a mossy, rocky bed. The storm had passed, the immediate wrath of the Judges over. The foliage was steaming beneath the sun, and clear blue skies had returned again.
They reached the far bank and climbed out, dripping and exhausted.
They moved, sodden, towards some bushes and looked back at the river.
The three aliens burst in pursuit out of the foliage lining the opposite bank, and looked around them threateningly. They had replaced the rocks they had carried with lethal, greyish, lance-like crystals several feet in length.
The water flowed swiftly at their feet, tossing spray into the air.
But instead of wading in, they stopped abruptly at its edge. Incredibly, they seemed nervous.
Verdeschi grasped the opportunity he had been waiting for. He nudged Maya and motioned her to stay where she was. Then he broke through the foliage, and boldly exposed himself.
‘Listen to me,’ he called out to the aliens above the sound of the river. ‘We have no reason to fight...’
He paused, wondering if they had heard, and if they had heard, whether they had bothered to take in what he was trying to say.
The monstrous creatures did not look as if they had listened... nor as if they intended to.
They loped and stumbled back and forth along the edge of the river, frantically trying to seek a route across.
Verdeschi tried again.
‘Don’t let the Judges make us kill each other... Listen to me!’
‘Maybe they can’t understand our language,’ Maya commented from the bush. ‘But they must realize we want to talk. Why won’t they talk?’
‘Maybe it’s their nature not to,’ Verdeschi muttered grimly to himself as he stared at the scene. The aliens had given up trying to cross, and moved back into the vegetation. They seemed to have thought up a new plan of attack.
He turned and faced Maya, who had emerged from her hiding place.
‘That river gives us a little breathing space,’ he said. ‘They’re trying to figure a way to cross. We’ve got some time before they catch up with us, so we’d better find a way of defending ourselves.’ They turned and moved back into the bushes.
The low-lying vegetation began to break up as they journeyed deeper, and was soon replaced with a kind of primitive, gymnosperm forest. The fern-like trees towered above them, their long fronds trailing down and almost touching their heads.
Vines and creepers twisted up the scaly barks, parasitically feeding off the gymnosperms in order that they themselves might reach the roof-top canopies, and obtain the light and nourishment they needed.
They came across the skeleton of a large, dinosaur-like animal, moss-covered and pinned to one of the fat trunks by the vines.
Verdeschi stared at it, unnerved.
‘What’s the matter?’ Maya asked him questioningly.
He frowned.
‘There’s no other signs of animal life here... Those vines look like the reason why.’
‘The plants deliberately killed the animal?’ Maya asked astonished.
‘Let’s say they eliminated a natural enemy,’ Verdeschi said sardonically.
His commlock beeped, and he took it out of its holder. The three judges appeared on the screen again.
They looked agitated, waving their branches.
‘Verdeschi... you waste valuable time,’ one of the trees accused. ‘Devote yourself to saving your lives.’
‘Why do we have to kill to save our lives?’ Maya complained. ‘That is no longer considered honourable...’
‘Because those are the rules of our planet... The Rules of Luton.’
Verdeschi’s temper began to rise.
‘We won’t submit to those rules... They’re vicious and cruel.’
‘Cruel? Vicious?’ Several voices reverberated at once. They sounded surprised and angry at the same time. ‘We pride ourselves on our justice, on our fairness...’
‘As proof of our fairness,’ said a third judge, ‘we have given your adversaries abilities to match yours. Otherwise the contest would be too one-sided.’
‘We won’t fight,’ Verdeschi said emphatically. ‘We won’t submit to...’
But the first judge interrupted him.
‘Kill or die!’ it rumbled coldly with an overtone of sadism.
The screen went dead.
‘I thought they were against killing?’ Maya asked Verdeschi with sarcasm.
‘Animals are the lower form of life on this planet,’ he replied. ‘No doubt if we kill each other, it’s acceptable.’
‘I wonder what abilities were given to our adversaries?’ she mused. ‘Three against two aren’t heavy enough odds, I suppose...’ She looked thoughtful. ‘I suppose a lion or a tiger could even the odds...’
Verdeschi shook his head.
‘Alien Strong would tear you apart if you got near him, Maya... in any form. But that gives me an idea. We could use your “abilities” to give us an edge.’
She smiled understandingly.
Her being melted, and dissolved away again into nothingness.
The molecules that had once composed her, were held from dispersing completely by the mental force exerted by her still-operable mind.
Gradually she felt herself returning from out of the randomness.
She perched arrogantly on Verdeschi’s outstretched arm, and beat her pure white wings.
Verdeschi’s giant face smiled at her.
‘Off you go,’ he said, and raised his arm. ‘Don’t stay in any place too long.’
She took off and climbed powerfully against the air-streams, feeling their exhilarating fingers rushing and pushing around her body.
Soon, the two sides of the river bank lay far below her.
It seemed that she had climbed away from all her problems, and for a moment she allowed herself to soar and glide on the tongues of air.
Then she veered sharply away in the direction taken by the aliens, easily finding the route of broken, crushed vegetation that they had made.
It seemed paradoxical to her that the life-forms that existed on Luton should denounce her and Tony for picking a few berries — and yet stand by unconcerned whilst the aliens crushed and maimed large numbers of their species. It reinforced her opinion that the Judges were punishing them on a pretext, for what in reality was a sick-minded and sadistic thirst for the infliction of suffering on others.
Two of the aliens came into view below, and she plummeted down towards them.
They were standing at the foot of a giant variety of coniferous tree, staring up at its branches. It was the tallest tree in the vicinity, far outreaching its neighbours.
She flew closer and landed quietly on one of its branches, noticing that the squat, repulsive-looking Alien Transport rested in a nearby fork.
He was gazing out over the river, trying, she guessed, to see where she and Tony had got to.
The bristly, squat creature seemed to have seen what it wanted to. It made a crude gesture to its two companions below, and began to descend with a frightening agility and speed down the tree, swinging from branch to branch, and dropping solidly at their feet.
They conferred, and Maya flew lower to get a closer look.
She was in time to see Alien Strong retrieve Alien Transport’s crystal lance from the carpet of pine needles. His thick, deformed arm punched at the air in the direction of the river.
Alien Transport took the proffered lance, nodding a
s he listened to the other’s grunts. Then, abruptly, his squat form shimmered and faded out of existence.
Maya realized with horror that the alien possessed the power of teletransportation — a feat of psi-transport not unknown to her though unfortunately not possessed by her — and she hurriedly took off, praying that she would be in time to assist Verdeschi.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
With unpractised shots, the Security Chief began throwing stones against the fat trunk of the gymnosperms.
At his feet lay a small pile of rocks and stones that he gathered, most of them dug out of the earth with a sharp stick.
He had searched in the jungle-like surrounding for some time since Maya had left, applying his shrewd and observant mind to the quest for weaponry. The dead vines that covered the trees in abundance had proved too brittle to use as slings. Most of the sticks he found, except for one, had rotted away. Although he did not believe now that uprooting the living flora would prove as serious a blow to the inhabitants of Luton as he had been led to believe, he deliberately went out of his way not to damage any of it.
The sound of a crackling branch behind him made him turn. A vague, fuzzy shape had appeared amongst the vegetation. As he watched, it gradually materialized into the grizzly features of Alien Transport.
Verdeschi gasped, caught off his guard.
He glanced wildly around him, looking for the other two assailants, but they did not appear to be nearby.
Impulsively, he turned, and he flung the stones he had collected at the ugly creature that faced him.
Only one of the stones found its target, and the alien rubbed its skin where the missile had struck. Then, with a ferocious look on its face, it raised its deadly-looking lance and moved swiftly towards its prey.
Vedeschi staggered backwards to avoid the death blow, but he tripped over the trunk of a decaying tree and fell helplessly to the ground.
The sharp, rough point of the lance was brought over his chest, poised to kill, and he waited to die.
As the murderous point, grasped in the huge hands of the alien, descended, an intense screeching noise came from overhead.
A white falcon appeared, and dive-bombed Alien Transport’s face, raking the pulpy flesh with its claws.
The alien bellowed out with rage and pain, and the lance’s trajectory was deflected. It buried itself into the trunk, inches away from Verdeschi’s body.
Space 1999 - Planets of Peril Page 11