The Merchandise Guide
Annual 1977

your father," snarled Koenig, "you'll forgive me for not believ- ing you!"    Maya look distressed. For a moment, she glanced nervously at Mentor, but he smiled reassur- ingly.    "Please, Koenig," he said, "you misjudge us. Look." He struck a switch on a nearby panel, and a glass wall behind him became transparent. Beyond it, Koenig saw Helena and Alan, in chairs, with one of the strange, helmeted guards behind them. They looked anxious, but unharmed.    "They cannot see us," explained Mentor. "And the others are in a similar chamber." He turned off the switch.    "What about Torens?" said Koenig. "I saw him down there with those others. Those aliens you've enslaved!"    Maya frowned. "What's he talking about, father?"    Mentor mad a throwaway gesture. "He's suffered some kind of delusion, my dear. Pay no atten- tion. In fact, perhaps you'd leave us now. The Commander and I have much to discuss."    When the girl had gone, Mentor turned to the mass of bubbling pipes he'd called Psyche, his bio- logical computer. His voice took on the intense, quavering note of the true fanatic.    "See, Koenig! All this - created from the minds and bodies of those of our people who survived the disaster which overwhelmed us! They live on, just waiting for the time when I can re-create them in bodily form!"    Koenig felt numb. "Those zom- bies in your mines. You've taken their minds. Their intelligence. To feed into this - this thing! In an attempt to revive your own race!"    "Exactly, Commander! Psyche feeds on intelligence. " He paused. "And that is why I need the minds of your Alphans. All of them! With such a supply of intellect, my dream can come true!"    "You - you must be crazy!" John Koenig could only gape at the man. "You think I'll agree to your monstrous suggestion?"    "You'll have no choice. You see, your refusal will mean that I shall totally destroy your Moon. And believe me - I have the power to do it!"

Koenig sagged. He knew now that Helena and the others were far from safe. That they were due, all of them, to have their minds sucked dry. To be fed into Psyche. That they'd end up like human robots, to dig out the metal needed for the biological com- puter's physical structure. And yet there was one shred of hope in the Commander's mind. The realisation that Mentor's daughter Maya didn't know. Didn't realise exactly what her father was up to. Otherwise, why should she have been uncertain? Why had she been banished while Mentor told Koenig the ghastly truth. . ?    "If we're going to escape from here," thought Koenig, "it's got to be with Maya'a aid!"    The chance came sooner than Koenig expected. To gain Mentor's confidence, he had pre- tended to agree to the man's de- mands. In return for the guarantee of his own life. Helena and the others, who indeed knew the fate that awaited them, could hardly believe it as they heard Koenig get into direct touch with Moonbase Alpha and give con- troller Tony Verdeschi the order to evacuate all personnel down to Psychon.    "It's safe, and we have per- mission to colonise, Tony," he'd said. "Instigate Operation Exodus immediately. Directive Four."    On Alpha, Tony and the others made no plans to quit the Moon. For Tony knew that Directive Four was a code signal. A signal that meant 'destroy source of origin'. Heavy hearted, he made ready the robot Eagle that would send a chain-reaction bomb down to Psychon. To destroy it utterly. Along with his Commander. Along with Helena and the rest. There could be no questioning that directive. Koenig himself had given it, knowing that there was no other way to avert the danger that threatened Moonbase and its personnel.    And Koenig's chance? He knew well that Mentor would spot the

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