The Merchandise Guide
Annual 1977

. . . this time with the facial image of a proud, intelligent, bearded face upon it. There was absolute silence in Main Mission as the full, humorous lips opened to speak.    "Commander Koenig!"    Koenig sat down heavily. "You - you know who I am . . .?"    Back on balance now, the Moonbase Commander kept his voice level.    "Why did you attack our ship? It was merely a survey vessel, looking for minerals. We thought your world was uninhabited."    Mentor sighed. "A familiar statement, Commander. One which has caused the death of millions of our people. Other out- siders have used the same pretext to attack us in the past."    "What happened to my people?" ground out Koenig.    "Your pilots are safe. But their Eagle is beyond repair."    "Return my men, Mentor. And we will go in peace. That's what you want, obviously. You have my solemn pledge that no hostile action will be taken."    Mentor nodded slowly. "I ac- cept your pledge. Send another Eagle, and I shall instruct it where to land."    Koenig glanced about him. The eyes of his colleagues - Sandra Benes - Tony Verdeschi - David Kano - all of them said a silent 'no.'    "It seems you trust us as little as we trust you, Commander," smiled Mentor. "We shall meet in space."    Transmission closed down, and Koenig gave orders for Eagle Four to be fitted with additional booster units and placed on its pad. He chose Helena Russell, Alan Carter and Lew Picard to accompany him, and hoped fervently that he wasn't con- demning them to death. For all he knew, this Mentor was capable of treachery!    And on the planet Psychon, the bearded man, still smiling thinly to himself, turned from his video- transmitter and spoke softly to the sleek, feline shape of a lion that curled on a divan.    "Well, Maya. What do you think of these Alphans . . .?"    A glow came to the animal's	eye. Reflected in the pupils for an instant was the languid figure of a beautiful girl. And then, abruptly, the lion vanished, and the girl her- self uncoiled from the divan! For this - Mentor's daughter - had the power to assume any shape at will. She was - the Metamorph! Rocks on the alien planet had begun to glow with green light. In the flicker of an eye, a huge spaceship materialised at the centre of the radiation, and now the vessel began its climb through the Psychonian atmosphere.    In Eagle Four, Koenig and his colleagues were waiting. Ner- vously they watched its approach.    "Mentor!" Koenig spoke rapidly into the transceiver. "Signal when you're ready to dock!"    But there was no reply, and the Commander felt the hairs on his neck rise as the urgent face of his Moonbase Controller flashed up on the monitor.	"John! There are no life-forms on that ship! Fraser - Torens - they're not aboard! The thing's completely empty!"    It was too late for Koenig to take evasive action. Some kind of magnetic force radiated from the alien craft. It drew the Eagle in- exorably towards it. Held it fast like a giant magnet. And then began to drop back towards Psychon, the four Alphans help- less prisoners!    Koenig, Helena, Alan and Lew sat rigid in total silence as they were lowered to the planet's surface. In through the jagged circle of a crater, perhaps of a long-extinct volcano. Then, below them, through swirling mists, they saw them - the rusting shapes of a hundred spaceships. A bewildering variety of craft lying in twisted desolation!    "A graveyard! A cemetery of the spaceways," breathed Alan Carter. "And we're being dumped right in the middle of it!"

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