Space 1999 #3 - The Space Guardians Read Online Free Page B

been in suspended animation until their ship was somewhere near the Moon. Long before they reached it, a particle no bigger than a pin-head ruptured their life-support systems.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘They did not regain consciousness.’
    ‘Thank God for that.’
    Koenig thought of the three unknown aliens, gently sliding from life to death without waking. The other thing would have been worse—incarcerated, conscious, behind the black material which was far tougher than glass. Waiting for death. But no, they had gradually become dust as the Moon circled the Earth.
    ‘Forget them!’ Bergman said violently. ‘It’s an opportunity that will never come again, Koenig—I can have this ship operational in hours!’
    Koenig’s head still felt muzzy, his thoughts unclear.
    ‘Operational?’
    ‘Koenig, you’re not thinking, man! It’s our chance! We take the ship! Any three Alphans can be on a course for Earth within the next few hours. I’ve looked at the life-support systems. Whoever the aliens were, they had the same kind of metabolism as ours. They needed more oxygen and a trace of a couple of gases we don’t use, but I can have the tanks converted with no trouble. Look, Koenig, call David Kano and have him bring some equipment. Swear him to secrecy, first. Call him, John!’
    ‘Kano you mean, offer him a place?’
    ‘Yes! You, me, and Kano!’
    Koenig had the sense of wrongness that had troubled him during the short Eagle trip to the crater. Bergman’s excitement, his own inability to reason: there was more. He looked beyond the crater’s rim, thinking of the dust settling on the ancient vessel. Then he saw the purple-tinged star. His head hurt and he looked down.
    ‘Bergman,’ he said, ‘what gives you the right to choose who stays and who goes?’
    ‘Finding the ship! It’s the law of possession, John!’
    ‘So we leave. You, our best brain. David Kano, our top technician. And me.’
    ‘What are we leaving? A barren rock on a flight to nowhere!’
    ‘And what of the others? What about Helena Russell?’
    ‘Then let her come! But get Kano to ensure the life-support systems are checked! And be careful how you make the request, John. If word gets out, we’ll have a full-scale mutiny on our hands. Let’s get this ship away as soon as we can!’
    Koenig closed his eyes. The green fields were very close now. Blue skies, the sound of leaves, the feel of rain on his face. He thought of a girl he had known, pale-skinned, who had swum like a mermaid in a warm Cretan sea one golden summer. He could go back.
    And then he had a distant memory of a walk back to Moonbase Alpha. A walk of a hundred miles. Black rock, dust, jagged horizons. It had taken such a short time. He looked up again, sensing constraint as he did so: he saw the star-system edged in purple.
    ‘That star-system,’ he said to Bergman.
    ‘Which?’
    ‘There.’
    Bergman ignored the question:
    ‘Look, John, if it will satisfy you, I’ll ask the computer to give a reading as to who’s eligible for the third place in the ship. What do you say?’
    Koenig thought it reasonable. But the star-system persisted in drifting before him. Bergman was impatient.
    ‘Call Kano!’ he ordered.
    ‘Leave them behind?’ Koenig said slowly, for the first time fully appreciating what Bergman proposed. ‘Leave them to face that?’
    And he raised his hand to the emptiness beyond the strange star-system.
    ‘Leave them? Yes! And be damned to them! What have they ever done for you? Or for themselves? You’ve had to make every decision for them! Don’t think that they’ll be any safer if you stay, John! The Alphans are finished—save yourself!’
    Koenig looked at his heavy gauntleted fist. Anger flooded through him. Rage shook his tall, muscular frame. Bergman flinched as the mailed fist began to swing towards his visor.
    And Koenig stopped it.
    The blow never fell. Instead, Koenig’s mind blazed with a new fury. And then he lunged free of the Moon’s weak