The Merchandise Guide
Annual 1977

"Hallam and Whitney reporting, Commander! We're entering Area Three now!" The two space-suited men from Alpha's technological section eased their moon buggy to a halt, and began to take preliminary readings from the instrumnets they carried.    "Radiation level sixty above normal. Surface tremors show slight increase to point zero zero five above nil stability."    In Main Mission, Commander John Koenig sat at his desk and kept contact on an audio monitor. He glanced across at David Kano. "Got those figures?" Kano gave the thumbs-up, and Koenig sad: "Okay, we copy. Go forward to the dump. But take it easy!"    Sandra Benes sat facing him, slowly running her fingers through her short, black hair. She looked worried. "What d'you think's causing it, Com- mander?"    Koenig shrugged. "Maybe Hallam and Whitney will tell us. Perhaps it was the narrow miss that meteorite gave us. Could have exerted some kind of magnetic pull on the covers of the nuclear waste chutes."    "That shouldn't give us too much trouble," said Tony Verdeschi. "But if they are adrift, we'd best get them secured again - real fast!" Like everyone else on Alpha, he remembered the terrifying eruption of similar chutes - deep pits of radioactive waste - that had originally caused the Moon's blast-out from Earth's orbit!"    Now Kano was speaking. "That meteorite, sir. When it passed us, it failed to register again on the scanners. It might have hit us . . ."

"On the blind side where the chutes are? Maybe. Maybe that's the problem." Koenig drummed his fingers restlessly. "I suppose I should have sent up a survey Eagle at the time, just to check." He grinned lamely. "It didn't seem important somehow!"    There was another crackle from his audio monitor, and he had to switch up the volume. Radioactivity was obviously interfering with the signals from Hallam and Whitney.    "Commander! I don't know what to make of it . . . but I think I can see something moving down there in the disposal area!"    "Moving?" Koenig was on his feet now. "Hallam - what the blazes do you mean, moving?"    "My stars! I can't believe it! I . . ." The gritty transmission came to an abrupt end - but not before everyone in Main Mission had heard the first split second of a desperate, panic-stricken scream! "Eagle Three to launch station! Fully armed!" Koenig was already half way to the exit as he barked the order into his comlock. "Alan! WIth me!"    Together, the Commander and Alan Carter, his number one pilot, raced to the travel tube. Seconds later they were suiting up at the entry port of launch pad three, and seconds after that, their Eagle was air- borne, turning its beak to the horizon, beyond which lay . . . what"    At such low level, and with radiation rife, they could maintain no visual contact with Main Mission once they were on the 'blind' side of the Moon. But the audio channels were locked open, so that Verdes-

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