The Merchandise Guide
Annual 1977

peace of mind that he couldn't have actually seen beneath the surface of that planet . . . to the dismal, phosphorescent cavern where Alan Carter and Helena Russell, divested of their space-suits, hung like criminals endungeoned by some ancient king, their wrists above them, shackled to iron ring-bolts in the rock wall! Tony Verdeschi was far from being as dead as Bokassa had imagined. He'd slowly come back to consciousness, to find himself alone. And groggily, he'd neglected to return to the Eagle and inform Moonbase of the situation. It was perhaps a foolish oversight, but a man in a dazed condition, faced with the disappearance of his friends, does not always act rationally.    He cast about him, looking for tracks on the gritty ground . . . but there were none. The very nature of the terrain refused to show much in the way of marks.    Dizzily, he wandered towards the rocky wall beyond him, with its cave-mouth openings. "Surely - surely they wouldn't just have left me . . ?"    Then he heard it. A distant scrabbling sound,m from somewhere deep within one of the shafts. Gingerly, he lowered himself inside, and found his boots met a gentle slope. Around him, the rocks glowed with

their own phosphorescenct, lighting his way. Auto- matically, he checked his wrist counter for radiation. There was none. He went deeper, dropping, he esti- mated, some two feet with every ten he traversed. It was steep. And it was becoming unbearably sticky in his suit. The external temperature must be rising.    Again, he checked, and on impulse, shed the restricting clothing, piling it in a heap against the tunnel wall. The air was breathable, though he had to take great gulps of it to power his flagging muscles. Prudently, he kept his stun-gun ready in his right fist . . .    Abruptly, as he negotiated the twists and turns of the tunnel, Tony came to the door. It was of sheer sheet metal, and it barred his way. He could still hear the scrabbling . . .but it came from beyond the barrier.    "Dare nothing - win nothing!" The strange quota- tive thought flashed through his mind as he pointed his gun and fired. and the metal buckled and ripped under the power of the laser blast!    He was ready for immediate action, but the smooth emptiness of the cylindrical metal passageway yawned derisively back at him.    And then, from a corner, it appeared! The beast! The very beast he'd shot in the moment of arrival on the planet!

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