Space 1999 #5 - Lunar Attack (16 page)

‘Look, he’s in good hands. Physically he’s in fine shape. As soon as there’s any news, you’ll be the first to know.’

Her eyes searched his face to see if he was hiding something. Koenig went on, ‘I know it’s no good to say, ‘Don’t worry!’ But try not to. Keep your mind off possibilities.’

‘How can I?’

‘Well, for a start this isn’t the best place Is it?’ He beckoned for a nurse and when she came round the screen he said, ‘Look after Melita. Take her to her quarters.’

Melita resisting said, ‘Commander, I want to stay near him.’

‘I know that. But you know you can’t.’

Reluctantly, Melita allowed herself to be led away by a sympathetic nurse. Koenig took another look at the monitors. There had been a change that made no sense. Helena and Bob Mathias had noticed it and were folding an urgent conference. The screen had filled with what looked like rapidly changing strips of regular, computer print out data.

Puzzled as the next man, Bergman said, ‘Mathematical formulae? How come? That monitor only gives an electronic indication of gross mental activity . . .’

Koenig said, ‘I don’t know the how or why, but it looks like we’re getting Computer overspill, not Kelly’s brain waves.’ He shoved down a stud lor the expert and Kano appeared on the screen.

‘Kano, what’s Computer doing?’

‘I can’t understand it, Commander.’

‘Just tell me.’

‘It’s impossible. I’ve checked everything. But I’d say Computer is transmitting data to Kelly.’

‘Into his brain?’

‘Right. And through him it’s being beamed towards orbital reference 397.’

Koenig looked at Bergman, ‘That’s the point where Kelly was affected and where Eagle One bought it.’ To Kano, he said, ‘Close down transmitters immediately and analyse all the data that’s already gone out.’

‘Check, Commander.’

The screen blanked. Getting it clear in his own head, Koenig said slowly, ‘Whoever was trying to talk to us before Eagle One was crushed is now using Kelly as a link with Alpha Computer. Information is going out through Kelly.’

As if on cue, the pattern on the monitor changed again to the outlandish hieroglyphs that had been seen earlier. Bergman said, ‘It’s trying to communicate again.’

Kano confirmed it, coming up on the screen to say, ‘The process is
reversed,
Commander. Computer is
receiving
data. It’s reaching Computer via Kelly.’

‘All right. Close down receivers. Have computer analyse incoming and outgoing data.’

To Bergman, he said, ‘It’s not communicating with us Victor. It’s chatting up Computer. For what?’

‘Maybe it couldn’t get through to us in any direct way and needed Kelly as an interpreter.’

‘However it’s doing it, Victor, it could be reprograming Computer against our interest.’

Kano’s shut down had affected the patterns. The rapid peaking was back, increased in pace. In spite of anaesthetics Kelly’s face was showing acute pain.

Helena said quietly, ‘Increase anaesthetic. Two points.’

Watching for the patient’s reaction, Mathias turned up a dial. The pain remained. As much to Koenig as to her co-worker, Helena said, ‘It’s still reaching him. Sedation is six points beyond safe limits. There’s a danger he might die from post-operative shock. But we
must
operate.’

She pulled down the surgical laser on its mobile arm and lined up for Kelly’s head.

Mathias said formally for the record, ‘Laser incision programme computed, Doctor.’

Bent over the shielded screen, Helena focused for the cut and a bright light appeared on the skull. Totally concentrated, she did not see his eyes. But Koenig had a grandstand view and the manic glare was disturbing.

Kelly himself took a hand. He was suddenly aware of the surroundings he was in and what the white robed figures were doing. He said distinctly, ‘What’s happening?’ Then as there was no quick answer, he went on ‘My brain . . . you mustn’t touch it. No!’

He jerked forward, shoving the swivel arm of the laser out of his way, knocking Helena back to the bulkhead. Two handed, he went to work, ripping away all the sensor gear that was attached to his shaven head and his body. He shouted, ‘You must not take it away! No!’

Pain needled him and his hands went to cover his face. Mathias, seizing the chance, was in with a hypo gun; but not quite quickly enough. It was whipped out of his hand and he was thrown stumbling back.

Kelly was glaring round the confined space of the intensive care unit like an animal in a trap. A life support panel was still fixed to his chest and he tore it off, hurling it at the observation panel where it crashed through the glass to fall at Koenig’s feet.

Swaying like a drunk, Kelly glared round to get his bearings. Then he was lurching for the hatch with Mathias picking himself up and coming in for another go. Koenig’s shout stopped him. ‘No. Let him go.’

Koenig came through the connecting hatch. ‘Get security with you, Bob. Follow him. Let me know where he goes, but don’t try to restrain him.’

‘Check, Commander.’

Koenig was lifting Helena to her feet, ‘Are you all right.’

‘Not hurt, John . . . just amazed . . . It’s impossible.’

Looking worried, Bergman said, ‘John—we can’t let him go?’

‘Whatever this thing wants, it’s using Kelly. Let him lead us to it.’

There was no doubt about the priority fixed in Kelly’s crazy head. Followed by Mathias and a security detail, he went direct for the Computer Room. Once inside he seemed calmer and strode purposefully to the long spread of panels.

Mathias called on his commlock, ‘Commander, Kelly is inside the Computer Room.’

‘Good. Get Kano along. But don’t go in until I come.’

There was a line up in the corridor to watch Kelly move along the flashing screens, pressing keys, watching print-outs, operating as though he had been trained to it from way back.

Koenig said, ‘I want to try to talk to him, but if he goes violent we’ll have to stun him. Last resort only. What’s he doing, Kano?’

‘I’d say digesting, analysing, reprogramming. But at such a rate . . .’

‘Reprogramming?’

‘I’d say so, Commander. But so fast I can’t get any detail.’

‘We may have to close down Computer.’

‘But . . .’

‘I know we need it to crack the data on the energy field. But who’s getting most out of it—Alpha or the alien intelligence? Warn all sections, we may have to run on essential programme only.’

He flashed his commlock at the hatch and signalled for the security patrol to follow him in. Kelly, totally committed to his intellectual chores, took no notice. Koenig positioned himself where he had to be seen and called, ‘Kelly?’

There was no response.

He shouted, ‘Kelly?’ and moved forward covered by stun guns. ‘Kelly, I want to talk to you.’

There was no flicker. Kelly’s wild staring eyes looked at him briefly, but he could have been a chair.

‘Who are you transmitting to?’

Kelly turned away, more interested in the racing readout screen which was in unreadable spasm. Moving close, Koenig had him by the shoulders and twisted him round.

‘Who is talking to Alpha? Answer me, dammit!’

It provoked one reaction. Kelly flung his tormentor aside and the security men prepared to fire. Koenig yelled, ‘No. Hold, it.’

He was on his feet racing for the end of the line. Using his commlock, he opened a panel. Inside two master levers carried the legends COMPUTER MASTER SWITCH and ESSENTIAL SERVICES ONLY. He heaved down on ESSENTIAL SERVICES.

There was a sudden hush. The massive computer went dead. In front of a blank screen, Kelly rocked unsteadily on his feet, clutching at his head. Then he was charging at Koenig, brushing him aside and grabbing for the control.

Koenig shot once and Kelly stopped. It should have been enough, but he was still on his feet, turning slowly and shambling towards his attacker. Watching his eyes, Koenig said suddenly, ‘Let him pass,’ and the guards stood aside still covering him as Kelly stumbled to the hatch.

Staggering and holding on to the bulkheads, Kelly weaved out into the corridor. Sweating and mumbling, he was only just mobile, but some overriding need was driving him on.

Koenig said, ‘Delayed effect?’

Mathias shook his head, ‘Stun is neuronic concussion. The effect should be immediate.’

‘He’s growing resistant to it.’

Bouncing along the corridor wall, Kelly was almost home. He reached a door, but had no power to trigger the commlock plate. He called ‘Melita . . .’ Then again ‘Melita!’

Melita Janni had been trying to read a book. The thump on her door panel alerted her and she thought she heard her name. When she slid back the hatch Kelly stumbled through, hardly able to keep on his feet. Arm round his shoulders, she got him over to her couch and knelt beside him, ‘My darling! I thought . . .’

‘Melita. Help me . . . my head!’

'What is it? Tell me.’

‘I have to do it. They won’t let me. I
have
to do it. You must make them understand.’

Cradling his head, Mehta stroked his hair. His eyes closed. Suddenly he was deeply unconscious.

Looking up she saw Koenig and Mathias. Her tears ran unchecked, falling on Kelly’s strained and tormented face.

Not for the first time, Koenig recognised that he was in command of a runaway that he could neither steer nor stop. Whether he liked it or not, Moonbase Alpha was being hurled over the starmap into the zone where Eagle One had been reduced to a block. He called a Command Conference and looked round the conference table at his chief executives.

‘Whatever that energy field is, it’s crushed Eagle One. It’s done something we can’t begin to understand to Kelly and through him it’s taken over Computer.’

Bergman gave them a time line, ‘By my calculations, we shall be at the point where Eagle One disappeared in forty-six hours.’

‘So we have to work something out by then.’

Alan Carter, looking at it as a pilot said, ‘We always come back to the old problem of how to drive this Moon the way we want it to go.’

Bergman said, ‘There are two small forces we can exert there. Shockwave and anti-gravity screens.’

‘Not good enough.’ Koenig had already thought of that one and discounted it, ‘Both those aim to alter the gravitational pull of another planet. But this is neither a planet nor a star.’

Confirming, Kano said, ‘From the data we managed to process, Computer has determined the energy field has no mass.’

‘All right,’ Paul Morrow was impatient to get on, ‘That’s accepted. We can’t change course. What follows?’

Koenig brought out his plan and it sounded thin in his own ears, ‘We know it’s organic and intelligent. If we load an Eagle with nuclear charges and get it close to the centre, there’s a chance we could weaken it a little. Maybe enough to reduce the crushing effect as we pass through.’

It appealed to Carter. He could not forgive it for Kelly. ‘I agree with that, Commander. Let’s blast it with everything we’ve got’

There were nods all round. Nobody had a better suggestion. Koenig gave the go ahead, ‘Start work on it, Alan,’ to Helena Russell he went on, ‘Meanwhile, we must try to get something out of Kelly. Bring him round, question him, analyse his brain patterns, any information could give a lead.’

‘He’s on life support gear, John. Getting worse all the time.’

‘Do what you can. He’s the key to this situation, I’m sure of that.’ He turned to his other neighbour, ‘Victor, I want you and Kano to go through the data Computer's received.’

Kano looked startled, ‘That’s over a hundred thousand memory cells, Commander.’

‘It’ll keep your mind off sin.’

Carter drove his section like a tyrant and Koenig found the fire ship waiting on a launch pad, packed to the roof with containers. Last aboard, Carter was checking fuses and setting the red telltale on each crate. As he reached the end of the line, Koenig hauled himself through the hatch.

‘How does it go?’

‘Charges fused, checked, ready to blast off.’

Carter completed the sequence by shoving down a switch on the master control panel. All the telltales began to blink.

Both men climbed through into the command module, Koenig said, ‘So far so good. The best estimate I can get without asking Computer is that on-board systems should be blown at 18-45.’

Carter punched along a row of studs. A red light flashed on and an electronic timer began the countdown. ‘Check, Commander. Destruct mechanism set for 18-45.’

‘By that time she should be locked on target and nothing will be able to divert her.’

‘I feel a lot better now we’ve taken some action.’

Koenig shoved a lever from MANUAL to AUTOMATIC. The Eagle was ready to go.

In the Intensive Care Unit, Kelly’s hold on life was visibly slackening. Monitor readings for heart, lungs and brain were minimal. In the low, blue light, his face was corpse-like.

Helena asked, ‘What did he say to Melita?’

A worried man, Bob Mathias looked up from the monitors, ‘He was struggling to get something clear. There was something he had to do . . . he asked her to make them understand.’

'Them
meaning
us.
And we’re not going to know what he had to do unless he can tell us.’

‘I’m afraid he’s weakening fast.’

‘It’s an orthodox diagnosis now. Decline due to brain damage. Strange, isn’t it, that the decline started as soon as Computer was closed down? That’s what stopped the hyper activity.’

‘You mean he had become dependent on Computer?’

Her eyes told that she was coming round to think it, but she was not anxious to put it in words.

Monitored on the main scanner, Carter’s fire ship was heading away for the thinking force field. He at least was looking pleased about it, ‘Whatever’s out there is due to get one hell of a headache when it squeezes that little bundle!’

Less sure, Koenig looked thoughtful, ‘I don’t like the idea of a pre-emptive strike against an enemy I don’t begin to understand.’

‘They crushed Eagle One, Commander, and I don’t see any reason to doubt that they’ll crush us too, if they can.’

It was true, but it could not dispel Koenig’s doubts. Victor Bergman, hurrying into Main Mission with a sheaf of data, added to his problem, ‘John, this is interesting. Kelly transmitted an astonishing amount of material in the short time he had. I’ve only taken random samples and I could be on the wrong track . . .’