The Merchandise GuideAnnual 1975
The Merchandise Guide
| Carter's Eagle was disappearing with it! "Gone! They've gone !" Victor Bergman mouthed the words in scarcely more than a whisper. "Kano." Koenig turned abruptly to the Moon- base computer chief. "Everything that happened has been fed into your box of tricks. Get a read-out." Now the Commander switched to Sandra Benes. "Open communications channels, all wavelengths! Wherever Alan is, I want to hear from him!" The silence in Main Mission--so brittle that it could almost be felt, broke abruptly as the voice of the computer made its chilling comment. "Insuffi- cient data! Insufficient data!" Then Sandra turnedm ashed-faced, to confront Koenig. "Nothing, sir. Just--nothing! Alan's gone. As though he'd never existed! "We should never have let him go," Professor Bergman restlessly paced the floor of the Moonbase hospital unit and ran a hand through his grey, thinning hair. "You did this, John. You. I had Carter in here for experimental observation, and you had to pull him out for duty! Why, man--I'd got him under drugs! His reactions couldn't have been expected to be fast enough in an emergency!" John Koenig slammed his closed fists down on a diagnosis table. "Talk sense, Victor! It had to be Alan! Who else is equipped to man an investigation Eagle?" "You are," said Bergman, soberly. Koenig bit his lip. "But it looked almost routine! An apparently dead ship. Alright, so it wasn't, but it looked it! And anyway, you had no right to subject |
Alan to those tests without my authority!" "You'd stifle my initiative?" Bergman snorted angrily. "Look, John--I was conducting experi- ments in E.S.P. Extra Sensory Perception. I believe that people on Carter's level can communicate by thought waves. Proof of that will be invaluable. In the event of normal transmission breakdown--and remember, anything can happen in the unknown of space--a mind-link between him and us would be of the utmost value." "Anything can happen," snapped Koenig. "And it has! All right, Victor--normal communication has broken down. So why isn't Alan sending us his thought-waves? Eh? Answer me that!" Now Helena Russell, her voice cracking in high- pitched fury, stepped between the two men. "Stop it! Stop it, both of you! Of what possible use is this crazy argument when we ought to be doing something about poor Alan?" Koenig and Bergman turned away from each other. "You're right, Helena," said Koenig. "But only half right. You tell me--what can we do?" The Moonbase doctor opened her mouth as if to reply. But there was nothing to say. Whatever had happened to their astronaut, there was nothing, absolutely nothing they could do. Not without the information that they just didn't have! Alan Carter blinked his eyes. He remembered the blinding flash of his exploding control panel. He remembered, vaguely, falling to the deck. Cautiously, he lay still and examined his sensa- tions. Around him there was perfect silence. A sense |
