Space 1999 #5 - Lunar Attack Read Online Free
Author: John Rankine
repair the least damaged unit.’
Kano came in again, ‘Most areas lost artificial gravity units. Total write off.’
Technicians were thin on the ground. Helena confirmed it. ‘Most casualties are Techs. They went when the launch pads were hit.’
Koenig was being pushed to a decision and Sandra Benes put in another turn of the screw. ‘That’s not all, Commander. Food production and recycling plants took a beating. Water supply is heavily contaminated.’
‘Repair forecast?’
‘Nine weeks minimum. But then there’ll be at least two months before we can begin cropping.’
Koenig looked at Victor Bergman. There was no need to ask his question. Bergman was ahead of him and had the answer pat.
‘We shall be within range of this planet for only four days. Beyond that the nearest star system is at least too far by six months.’
Every eye was on Koenig. He felt the loneliness of the command slot. But he accepted it, made his voice even and deliberate as though he had a solution and it was just a matter of finalising the detail.
‘Alan. Get an unarmed reconnaissance Eagle winched up to a functioning launch pad.’
Every face looked its question. Answering them all, he looked at Helena Russell.
‘We’re going down to the planet.’
There was a burst of objection all round, but Victor Bergman’s voice seemed to stand out in the hubbub, ‘I tell you, John, I think they’ve been making it clear that we should stay away.’
‘The reason they’ve stopped their attack, Victor, is that they must know they don’t have to bother. Alan may have stopped the supership from handing out the coup de grâce —but Alpha’s dead. We can’t live here and there’s nowhere else to go. Computer’s estimate remains. That planet can support human life. Unless anyone has any better idea, I see only one course open to us. We make for that planet as planned.’
As a practical proposition, it held. He could be right. There was an outside chance. In any event, they would be marching for the edge of the precipice under their own power and not be dragged kicking and screaming to the brink. There was more dignity in it if that mattered—maybe it was all they had.
Within the hour, there was a reconnaissance Eagle on the one undamaged pad and Koenig was in the pilot slot with Helena Russell beside him.
As he lifted the ship in a flurry of moondust and small trash, she asked, ‘Do you think they’ll believe we’re unarmed?’
‘Who knows what they’ll believe?’
He flipped in the direct link with Main Mission and they watched the orderly activity as though they were already ghosts eavesdropping on the living.
The place had been cleaned up and was partly operational. Morrow was doing his best to give them a good reference, ‘. . . the ship now approaching your planet is unarmed. Our Commander, John Koenig, requests permission to meet your leaders and discuss our situation. We ask for your goodwill to be shown to the survivors of this base. This is Moonbase Alpha calling . . . the ship now approaching . . .’
Bergman was at the command desk and Sandra reported, ‘Casualties now running at one two nine.’
He shook his head slowly from side to side and she went on fiercely, ‘Why has all this happened to us, Professor?’
The optimist was in eclipse, he fell back on a grim quote, ‘As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.’
Koenig was also looking for a logical pattern and failing to find it. As the red planet filled his scanner, he said, ‘I can think of no reason why these people, this far out in space, should have developed strike craft so similar to what came out of Earth technology . . .’
‘Perhaps we’ve run into another Earth.’
The Eagle sped on, with the surface coming to meet them as if in a zoom lens.
CHAPTER TWO
John Koenig called Main Mission, ‘No response from the Planet, Paul?’
Morrow, looking anxious, appeared on his screen, ‘Still nothing,
Kano came in again, ‘Most areas lost artificial gravity units. Total write off.’
Technicians were thin on the ground. Helena confirmed it. ‘Most casualties are Techs. They went when the launch pads were hit.’
Koenig was being pushed to a decision and Sandra Benes put in another turn of the screw. ‘That’s not all, Commander. Food production and recycling plants took a beating. Water supply is heavily contaminated.’
‘Repair forecast?’
‘Nine weeks minimum. But then there’ll be at least two months before we can begin cropping.’
Koenig looked at Victor Bergman. There was no need to ask his question. Bergman was ahead of him and had the answer pat.
‘We shall be within range of this planet for only four days. Beyond that the nearest star system is at least too far by six months.’
Every eye was on Koenig. He felt the loneliness of the command slot. But he accepted it, made his voice even and deliberate as though he had a solution and it was just a matter of finalising the detail.
‘Alan. Get an unarmed reconnaissance Eagle winched up to a functioning launch pad.’
Every face looked its question. Answering them all, he looked at Helena Russell.
‘We’re going down to the planet.’
There was a burst of objection all round, but Victor Bergman’s voice seemed to stand out in the hubbub, ‘I tell you, John, I think they’ve been making it clear that we should stay away.’
‘The reason they’ve stopped their attack, Victor, is that they must know they don’t have to bother. Alan may have stopped the supership from handing out the coup de grâce —but Alpha’s dead. We can’t live here and there’s nowhere else to go. Computer’s estimate remains. That planet can support human life. Unless anyone has any better idea, I see only one course open to us. We make for that planet as planned.’
As a practical proposition, it held. He could be right. There was an outside chance. In any event, they would be marching for the edge of the precipice under their own power and not be dragged kicking and screaming to the brink. There was more dignity in it if that mattered—maybe it was all they had.
Within the hour, there was a reconnaissance Eagle on the one undamaged pad and Koenig was in the pilot slot with Helena Russell beside him.
As he lifted the ship in a flurry of moondust and small trash, she asked, ‘Do you think they’ll believe we’re unarmed?’
‘Who knows what they’ll believe?’
He flipped in the direct link with Main Mission and they watched the orderly activity as though they were already ghosts eavesdropping on the living.
The place had been cleaned up and was partly operational. Morrow was doing his best to give them a good reference, ‘. . . the ship now approaching your planet is unarmed. Our Commander, John Koenig, requests permission to meet your leaders and discuss our situation. We ask for your goodwill to be shown to the survivors of this base. This is Moonbase Alpha calling . . . the ship now approaching . . .’
Bergman was at the command desk and Sandra reported, ‘Casualties now running at one two nine.’
He shook his head slowly from side to side and she went on fiercely, ‘Why has all this happened to us, Professor?’
The optimist was in eclipse, he fell back on a grim quote, ‘As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.’
Koenig was also looking for a logical pattern and failing to find it. As the red planet filled his scanner, he said, ‘I can think of no reason why these people, this far out in space, should have developed strike craft so similar to what came out of Earth technology . . .’
‘Perhaps we’ve run into another Earth.’
The Eagle sped on, with the surface coming to meet them as if in a zoom lens.
CHAPTER TWO
John Koenig called Main Mission, ‘No response from the Planet, Paul?’
Morrow, looking anxious, appeared on his screen, ‘Still nothing,
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