Space 1999 - Earthfall by E. C. Tubb

Author:E. C. Tubb [Tubb, E. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 0860079406
Publisher: Futura Publications

C H A P T E R

Fifteen

The thing was a metre long, half as wide and half as high, the body stuffed with batteries and radio-operated remote control apparatus. Wide treads carried it over the Lunar plain and, mounted on a turret, swivelled a single scanning eye.

Morrow thinned his lips as he manipulated it. The treads were a little off balance and tended to slew the thing to one side. It was slow, the scanner badly placed for close-vision, the entire thing underpowered for the job it had to do. But he knew of the limitations and, at least, it served to give him a sight of the enemy.

“Record,” he said as the darting flashes came into view. “Full electronic scan and radio accompaniment.”

Sandra Benes nodded as she adjusted her instruments. It was good to be back at work again, good to have power at her command even if it was only a trickle of the normal flood. It made her feel a little like a stratoplane pilot would have felt when asked to handle an ancient propeller craft—competent but a little inadequate. And the wavering indecision of some of the dials irritated her.

“Sandra?”

“On record, Paul.”

Morrow grunted and moved the slave-controls of the miniature tractor. The robot had been made in the workshops and Roache was proud of it. But Roache didn’t have to steer it; anticipating the terrain, compensating for dips and dunes, matching the bite of the treads and remembering all the time to keep the thing as invisible as possible.

An Eagle would have done a better job. One quick pass over the area and the entire crater would have been photographed and valuated, but Koenig had vetoed the use of an Eagle despite Carter’s insistence. A veto Morrow could appreciate. As yet the aliens knew nothing of their true capacity for destruction and it would be unwise to show their hand.

“Heightened activity in region of crater, Paul,” said Sandra. “Increased magnetic density. Radio-noise rising.”

“Signals?”

For answer she switched on a speaker filling Main Mission with the eerie blips.

“Cut that!” David Kano almost snarled the command. “Are you crazy? The computer has determined the safe level of electronic emission and we are working close to the limit as it is. Use amplifiers and we could go over it.”

“Sorry.” She cut the speakers. “I was forgetting.”

A fault but a human one and he regretted his sharpness. But to apologize would be serving no useful purpose, she had made a mistake and he had told her about it and to try and soothe her ruffled feelings would negate the lesson.

Morrow said, to ease the tension, “I’m approaching the crater’s rim. Any bets as to what we’ll see inside the bowl?”

“A palace,” said Sandra. “One with spires and turrets like the thing you see in children’s story books. A fairy-tale palace with, maybe, a fairy-tale Prince. David?”

“Something from home,” he said, entering into the spirit of the game, pleased to find she wasn’t nursing a grudge. “A kraal or, no, a herd of elephants.

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