The Merchandise Guide
Annual 1977

"No matter! The outside temperature will not harm you in the short time it will take you to reach your craft!"    "You're coming with us!" Tony Verdeschi panted the words, his breath rasping in the oxygen- starved air. "We're not leaving you behind after what you've done!"    "Merely be concerned with Bokassa," said the beast. "His strength is even more than mine! And if he detects us, his cunning is such that we may none of us be going anywhere - save to our doom!"    But Bokassa was not after them. As far as he was concerned, Tony was dead, his beast had fled, and his captives were still where he had imprisoned them. No - his attention had focused on the new threat from the skies. The Eagle bearing John Koenig and Maya to his domain!    His single eye blazing with fury, he crouched behind the rocks, even as the Eagle landed. He remained perfectly still as the two occupants got out, walked warily across the dirt-strewn ground. And then he struck!    His savage yell brought Koenig and Maya spinning round - but then he was on them! One steel-like hand grabbed Maya and flung her headlong, his other fist sending Koenig sprawling in a headlong tangle! HIs bellows of rage struck fear into them as, the wan light glinting on his massive horns, he lifted his huge feet for the crushing death-blow!    And then it happened! The onrush of the scaly- headed reptilian with the matted body-hair. So far ahead of his gasping companions with their air- hungry lungs. The onset of the beast with nothing but the lust for vengeance in his tortured soul. That, and the feeling of comradeship for these people whose one representative had been the only living being ever to show him compassion . . .    Locked together, beast and master staggered in shuffling deadlock over the rocks. The beast's hands

were locked round Bokassa's throat!    "Come on! We've got to get out of here!" Alan Carter rasped out the words, hauling Koenig and Maya to their feet. "We can't stay! We can't !"    Numbly, they let themselves be shoved towards their Eagle. But Helena was struggling with Tony Verdeschi, their conflict almost mirroring the giant battle between Bokassa and his beast . . .    "Let me go, Helena! Let me go! We've got to bring him along!"    "No, Tony! No! Don't you see? How could he exist with us on Alpha? This is his place - and this is his destiny!"    Desperately, Helena summoned up the last reserves of her waning strength and drove a round- house right fist to the point of Tony's jaw . . . The savage planet was far behind them now. The Moon was almost beyond reach of it. In Main Mission, Commander Koenig sat behind his usual desk, and Maya, Helena and Alan Carter were near him. There was gloomy silence there, and all eyes were on Tony Verdeschi, who was immobile, his hands clasped before him, staring up at the big video screen.    "A beast. And yet a beast with honour. A mind worthy of taking its place alongside any of us." Verdeschi sounded bitter. Then he turned and shrugged. "But I suppose that very mind was the product of Bokassa's own researches . . ."    Koenig stood up and walked across to him, placing his hand on his controller's shoulder. "Exactly, Tony. Do you remember the old story of a Professor Frankenstein, who created a monster that, in the end, destroyed him? It's the same with your beast. And if he won the struggle, perhaps he can use his intelligence, somehow, to make that planet a better place. All we can be sure of is that it wasn't the place for us . . ."

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