Space 1999 #3 - The Space Guardians (11 page)

Koenig relaxed. ‘Pass the word to the Service technicians. Congratulations on their efficiency. It’s the first time I’ve heard a “no malfunctions” from computer.’

It was unusual. Normally, some tiny system would show a fault, and it was not uncommon for computer to complain about major deficiencies. By the nature of their construction, the Eagles were prone to malfunctions. Light in weight, their two massive engines imposed tremendous strains on the fabric of the ships. Constant servicing reduced the potential hazards, but still bugs showed up.

Koenig felt a glow of pleasure. The venture had begun well.

‘How about predictions on the planet now?’ he asked Kano.

‘It’s refusing to give definite forecasts,’ Kano told him. He looked puzzled. ‘We’re nearer now, and computer’s getting direct information through the Eagle Six Link. It won’t even make a best guess.’

‘See if they’re getting anything with the onboard computer,’ Koenig ordered.

‘Yes, Commander,’ said the technician at the big screen console. ‘Mission Control to Eagle Six. Pilot Barker, report onboard readings to Commander.’

The big screen shivered with spangling sunlight and then Irving’s dark face gazed back at the Main Mission crewmen:

‘It’s looking just great!’ he shouted. ‘Readings—we don’t need them! We have visuals!’

Barker turned from the controls.

‘Commander, we’ve got it made here! I’m going into low orbit for final descent, then we’ll relay direct sightings.’

‘Final descent?’ Koenig echoed. ‘They can’t be near the planet yet!’

‘I heard that, Commander—we made good time, eh?’ called Irving. ‘Eagle Six is one fine ship, you can tell the Service crews from Bud Irving!’

Kano was already checking the ship’s location. Bergman started to say something, but Irving’s loud yell blotted out the words:

‘Take her through
that
!’

‘I see it,’ Barker said, the tension back in his voice. ‘Commander, I see a break in the cloud cover. We’re going through now.’

Koenig heard the cheering from beyond Main Mission Control as the Alphans caught a glimpse of the planet’s surface, a rolling, green and wooded land blurred in mist and rain.

‘Turn that noise down!’ he snapped to the screen technician. ‘David—they can’t be at the planet yet! They’re two hours ahead of schedule according to the computer’s flight-path.’

Kano passed him the read-out which had just emerged from the console in front of him.

‘Computer doesn’t query the flight. According to computer, Eagle Six is dead on schedule.’

‘No Eagle could have gone that fast,’ Carter said. The jubilation was gone from the faces of the men and women in Main Mission, as they realized what Koenig was saying. ‘The Eagle would have blown,’ Carter went on. ‘It just isn’t possible!’

‘Yet computer says—’ began Kano.

‘Computer’s wrong!’ Koenig snapped.

Bergman said slowly:

‘Computers like this one
can’t
be wrong. Unless . . .’

‘Unless they’re fed wrong information!’ Kano cried. I’ll check with calculators!’

It would take hours, Koenig realized.

Nothing could take the place of the fantastic capabilities of the main computer at Moonbase Alpha.

Into the quietness came Irving’s voice, high-pitched but with a lesser volume:

‘Je-
sus
! Do you see that?’

In a bowl of shallow hills was a jumble of ruined buildings. And, rearing from amongst them a great black tower.

‘We have artefacts,’ said Barker. ‘Commander, I see a regular shape, maybe a hundred metres high, apparently artificial. The regular shapes you see around it look as though they might have been buildings. We’re going to hold orbit for a look-see.’

‘This is a weirdie from way back!’ yelled Irving. ‘And are we moving!’

‘Going into descent orbit—’ Barker said.

Koenig acted without consciously making a decision. Instinctively he knew that the venture, which had begun with such apparent success, was doomed. Times were wrong. Speeds. The planet’s surface. Green, and then, clawing at the edges of vision, black ash, broken rock, rolling dust . . .

Wrong!

‘Eagle Six!’ Koenig roared. ‘Abort mission—do not go into descent orbit! This is Koenig—Barker, pull out of descent dive!’

‘John, what’s happening out there?’ called Bergman.

Koenig ignored him.

‘I say again, Barker, abort your mission
—pull out
!’

Bergman caught his arm.

‘It doesn’t look too bad. We’re getting good readings now from computer. See, computer’s come up with a decision. It’s a habitable planet—’

Koenig impatiently shook his arm free.

‘Paul, do we have to hook-up with the Eagle? Are they receiving Main Mission?’

Morrow checked quickly.

‘There’s a clear, direct reciprocal link.’

‘Then why doesn’t Barker answer?’

‘Abort mission, Eagle Six!’ roared Koenig once more.

The screen still showed Irving, but he had turned away. He was staring raptly at the planetary surface as if seeing visions.

‘Look at those readings!’ Koenig said helplessly.

He pointed to the console which monitored the onboard readings from Eagle Six.

Morrow paled.

‘It can’t pull out at that speed!’ Morrow said. ‘Barker, this is Controller Morrow!’ he roared to the unheeding pilots aboard Eagle Six. ‘Your orders are to pull out. Mission aborted—get out of that dive!’

‘They’re in too close, sir!’ yelled a technician. ‘They’re going to smear themselves all over the surface! The G-forces are too much! They’re out of control!’

Kano was wrestling with the calculators, his fingers racing over the manual keyboard at an unbelievable rate.

‘John, there’s a discrepancy—the computer isn’t recording what’s happening down there!’

Koenig sighed. It was the greatest irony of all. The machine which revered perfection was itself malfunctioning.

‘How, John
how
!’ demanded Morrow.

‘G-forces increasing rapidly,’ said the now whitefaced technician. ‘They can’t live through it.’

‘And still computer says everything’s fine down there!’ called Kano, as he tore off a new read-out. ‘There’s a continuing and increasing discrepancy in every reading, John!’

Koenig made one last attempt.

Quietly, he said:

‘If you read this, Eagle Six pilots, pull out now. If you can make it, use emergency capsule ejection. You are in crash-dive configuration. The G-forces are seven above computer’s estimate. Get out!’

Irving turned. He hadn’t lost his impudent grin.

‘Now, Commander, what is all the sweat about? Anyone would think we have trouble. And have we, Ed?’

‘Trouble is one thing we’ve none of,’ said Barker confidently. He turned to smile at the watchers in Main Mission. ‘Little Bud here’s right. Now, we may be flying a little low for comfort, but it’s one great trip.’

‘Barker!’ said Morrow. ‘That can’t be Barker!’

‘Controller, just enjoy the ride with us!’ Irving called. ‘Just imagine it’s free-flight back on Earth!’

‘Be our guests,’ invited Barker. ‘And my diminutive co-pilot has it right again. Why, we’re regularly swanning down to that cool green planet, my fellow Alphans, and soon we’ll bring you a few chunks of it back!’

The long range scanners picked up the Eagle’s flight-track. Curved lines represented the sickeningly fast crash-dive.

‘They’ve gone mad,’ said Kano. ‘Space-happy—abort,’ he muttered. ‘Abort!’ And all of the Main Mission crew joined in the plea to the smiling pilots of Eagle Six.

‘Sailing clear and easy,’ said Barker. ‘Commander, there must be some kind of computer foul-up. We’ve no problems about rapid descent. In fact, I’ve rarely known an easier approach, sir.’

‘I just looked out at a little lake,’ Irving called gleefully. ‘When we get out, I’m throwing this suit away and going for a swim!’

Barker called out, just as eagerly:

‘Commander, did you see the tower? Did you
see
it?’

His voice was full of awe.

‘It’s the ejector now,’ Koenig said, his voice rocksteady. ‘You can just make it.’

‘But the tower—did you see it?’

Koenig humoured him.

‘We missed that, Ed. Now get yourself and Bud Irving
out—fast!’

As he said it, the screen emptied.

A last whooping laugh came from the doomed ship. Hearing it, the watchers grew cold.

‘How does it read?’ Koenig asked Paul Morrow.

‘You don’t need a read-out, Commander,’ said Morrow tightly. ‘I doubt if you could find a piece big enough to hold in two hands. And Barker was good! The best! I just don’t understand it!’

He glared at Kano.

‘It’s the computer! We all saw the orbital velocity and the rate of descent. No ship could stand up to the G-factors the onboard computer sent us. If Irving or Barker hadn’t been ordered to stick to the computer fiight-path, they’d have seen they couldn’t make it. So why did your bloody computer send them to their deaths?’

Kano’s small, muscular body tensed.

‘Paul!’ Koenig rapped out. ‘Save the adrenalin. And you, David, cool it! If there’s a computer fault, it can be located. Nothing’s going to bring the pilots of Eagle Six back now. We just have to be sure nothing like this occurs again. Get to it, David,’ he ordered.

His gaze swept the brightly-lit deck.

‘We’ve lost two good men. I mean to find out why.’

‘How?’ asked Professor Bergman.

‘I want another survey Eagle to go down there.’

‘No!’ Morrow called out. ‘You can’t do it, John!’

Koenig said harshly:

‘I can, and I will! But this time, the pilots use onboard systems only. Computer stays right out of the picture until we find that malfunction.’

Morrow’s big face looked drawn.

‘You have to let me go, John.’

‘No! Send Carter and a good co-pilot.’ Koenig softened his voice. ‘I want you here, Paul, to monitor every stage in the flight. You will arrange a programme of fail-safes so that the pilots can cut out immediately anything goes wrong. And you will have a hook-up with fail-safe systems.’

Morrow’s face was still set in grim lines, but he appreciated the safeguards Koenig had ordered.

‘I’ll do it, Commander,’ he said. ‘And the first sign of trouble, I abort the mission.’

Koenig nodded in dismissal.

‘Now, Victor,’ he said to Bergman, ‘what do you make of the planet?’

Bergman stared at the computer read-outs, with their glowing forecast.

‘You know, it all becomes a little suspect.’

‘That would be my interpretation,’ agreed Koenig. ‘Well?’

‘I’d like to know whose ruins they are. And especially what Barker saw at the tower.’ Bergman crossed to the console at the big screen. ‘Let’s hear the last few seconds of transmission from Eagle Six,’ he ordered.

Koenig heard Barker’s low, insistent tones once more. The sense of loss and waste began to weigh heavily on him.

‘Now,’ said Bergman.

‘Commander, did you see the tower? Did you see it?’
came Barker’s voice.

‘Well?’

‘He knew you’d already seen it.’

Koenig was still thinking of the moment of impact. Eagle Six would be a smoking shower of fragments, the men nothing but ash and dust.

‘John, it’s important,’ insisted Bergman. ‘He knew you’d seen the tower. The way he said it on the re-run just now meant something different.’

‘So?’

‘Barker wanted to see what had happened to the tower!’

Koenig nodded.

‘We’ll find out soon enough. Controller Morrow, have you briefed the pilots?’

‘Ready now, Commander,’ said Morrow.

‘Then get them launched.’

The two pilots showed none of Irving and Barker’s zest for the venture; but there was no reluctance in their faces either. They were professionals, accustomed to facing danger.

‘Good luck,’ Koenig said. ‘And remember, you take no chances.’

‘Yes, sir,’ answered Carter. He paused for a moment. ‘They were friends of mine.’

Koenig thought of the smouldering wreckage they would find. He could think of nothing to say.

Suddenly, the planet seemed much less desirable.

During the hours of the flight, Koenig checked and rechecked all the data so far received about the planet. The computer’s forecasts were now effusively optimistic.

His doubts remained.

While he was examining the relative orbital velocities of the Moon and the mysterious planet, a report came through from Eagle Three.

‘Carter here,’ came the voice. The screen showed both pilots. ‘We’re holding our predicted course, Commander Koenig. Checks with Controller Morrow agree our readings. According to our plot, we’re ready for orbital descent right above the site of the Eagle Six crash.’

‘They’re right down the line,’ put in Morrow.

‘Good work,’ said Koenig. ‘Carter, take the Eagle in.’

‘I can give you visuals now,’ said Kano. ‘We’re using long-range scanners right above the planet.’

‘Do that,’ said Koenig.

He tried not to show the inner tenseness that clawed at him. It was always the same when you had to send someone else out: you endured your fears and distilled them into a corrosive brew. It burned within you, and outwardly you had to maintain the appearance of confidence.

‘Still holding well,’ said Carter.

‘Confirmed,’ agreed Morrow.

His stubby fingers hovered over the console, which was a duplicate of the controls of the survey Eagle. Koenig saw the panic button glowing red. Morrow would abort the mission instantly if danger appeared.

‘Easy,’ he said quietly. ‘They’re not close enough yet.’

They saw the Eagle then, swooping above a belt of high cloud. Outlined against the whiteness, it looked frail. White flame gouted from its engines.

‘Cutting approach speed,’ reported Carter.

‘It looks good,’ Morrow told him. ‘You’re still right on line.’

‘Commander Koenig, I’m relaying direct visuals from the onboard scanners,’ said Carter. ‘You’ll see what we see from here on. Descent path
now
!’

The screen shivered with white light, and then filled with hazy blurs as the scanners tried to penetrate the cloud cover. And then there was no need, for the Eagle dived through and away from the great white banks of vapour and into bright sunlight.