The Merchandise Guide
Annual 1975

qualified survey technicians aboard, had been sent to make landfall and report. It had been smooth. Almost too smooth. Koenig remembered the calm, confident words of the survey team immediately after their Eagle had landed on the planet. The excitement in the voice of the leader, Dumaine. "Buildings, Commander! Ruins, sure enough--but clear buildings!" And then the discovery of crumbled, humanoid skeletons--some of almost pygmy size, others of immense stature. Skeletons that a portable carbon- dater had placed at over ten thousand years old! "It's a dead planet, sir," the report had come. "It looks as though something happened to the inhabitants. Wiped them out wholesale We're going to move further in amongst the buildings. I can see some of them still relatively undamaged . . ." As it had come in, the information had all been fed to David Kano's computer. Minute details-- air-carried radiation count--detectable micro radio activity--light-waves and bacteriological saturation. The flat voice of the computer had been reassuring. "All conditions are perfect in the light of known conditions." And then it had happened! Over the radio link, Technician Dumaine's voice suddenly rose from an even, level tone to a cry that was almost one of pain! "The light! The green light ! That was all. Then silence--silence that lasted a full minute before it was replaced by an animal growling. A growling that struck chill into the hearts of the listeners on Moonbase! For the growling clearly came from the

throats of Dumaine and his men! It had been impossible to get any further sense from the men on the strange planet. Koenig had had to come to a snap decision. "Something's affected them down there. I'm going in myself!" Helena Russell had insisted on accompanying him. She'd pointed out that he was no doctor. And that, whatever had happened to Dumaine and his crew, it could be a medical problem. And so the two of them, armed and ready for anything, had set out in the Command Eagle to make contact. It hadn't taken them long to find the technicians. They were there--among the ruins of the old, long- abandoned city. And they were fighting amongst themselves. Fighting as if to the death! "Stun-guns, Helena!" Koenig had gritted out the words as their Eagle touched down. "We'll have to knock them out for immediate examination." No sooner had they come out in the open than the technicians had separated from their own struggles. And instantly, the fire of stun-guns had been turned on Koenig and Helena! So swift and unexpected had been the attack that they were taken completely by surprise! With shots--shots aimed to kill-- splattering the rubble around them, they had fallen back, and all at once, a blast from Dumaine's own gun had blown apart a section of masonry at their What unknown danger lay on the mysterious planet? What was it that made technicians from Moonbase Alpha inexplicable attack each other with ferocious violence . . .?