The Merchandise Guide
Annual 1976

Alan's last shot exploded on the alien's attack turret! Now would come the violent destruction of a massive chain-reaction! smashed him sideways into one of the glass cases! It shattered, and Koenig followed up with a massive kick that sent the alien with stunning force into a metal upright connecting floor with ceiling! Then Koenig sprinted sideways, unshipping the laser-pistol he'd concealed in his suit, aiming it at the false back of electronic equipment that he knew to conceal Victor's prison!    THRAMMMM! The perspex and metal shattered as the laser bit home, and now Koenig dashed in to haul up the prone and drugged body of his friend from the couch upon which it was thrown.    "Breathing! Alive! Thank the starts !" His feet clattering on the metal beneath him, Koenig stumbled back to the air-lock, raced into the Eagle and threw Victor down into the co-pilot's seat. Then he retracted the link and shot the Eagle away from the alien vessel at maximum speed, vaguely conscious that beyond, through his sight-screens, he could see the other craft, looming in the background with the thin streak of Alan Carter's combat Eagle dropping swiftly beneath it!    There came a lancing ray of light from the Barrax-Beta giant . . . a destructive ray that tore the other ship asunder from stem to stern, scattering its debris into the space above the moon. But then came the other ray . . . the streak of laser power from Carter's machine that burst the upper works of Danrak's spaceship to fragments! Buffeted by the blast, Koenig put his nose down and raced for Moonbase. Behind him, Alan Carter made a spiral turn and gave the stricken alien another shot that wrecked its out-flung combat turret. Somewhere in there, the enslaved intelligences of Danrak's infamous planet were being destroyed wholesale . . . but for them it was probably a happy release! Even as the two Eagles touched down together and slid below the surface of their pads, the whole of the Barrax-Beta ship shuddered to the chain-reaction of violent explosions and disintegrated into a million pieces. Into a mere drift of space-dust that spread over the umbrella of Alpha's magnetic defences. . . John Koenig and Victor Bergman sat together in the debriefing lounge alongside Launch Pad Six. They were in no hurry to get back to Main Mission. There was too much to be said. Too much to be understood between them. Bergman

"We wouldn't have deserted you, Victor. . ." reached out and clasped his friend by the shoulder. "I knew you wouldn't leave me, John. No matter what the danger to Moonbase. . ."    "We'll drink that that, Victor," smiled the Commander. "It's been a long time since that Frenchman--what was his name? Alexandre Dumas? Well, it's a long time since he wrote in that 'Three Musketeers' epic--'one for all, and all for one'. But the idea persists, even up here on a castaway moon. We need each other. All of us. Just to survive. The moment we stop caring for our colleagues, whether they be close to us or not, we're done for!"    "I'll drink to that!" Professor Bergman raised his glass. . .

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