
Exile
Published in 1988 by Superior Software Ltd. 
Designed and produced by The Ellis Ives Sprowell Partnership, Wakefield, West 
Yorkshire, England. 
Text copyright (c) Mark Cullen, P.J.M.Irvin & J.C.Smith, 1988 
Design and artwork copyright (c) Superior Software Ltd, 1988. 
All rights reserved. 
No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without the prior consent of 
the copyright holders. The only exceptions are as provided for by the Copyright 
(Photocopying) Act or for the purpose of review. 
Superior Software Ltd., Regent House, Skinner Lane, Leeds LS7 1AX, England. 
Telephone (0xxx) 4xxxxx. 

by Mark Cullen
assisted by
P.J.M. Irvin & J.C. Smith


     Beneath lies great danger for friend and for stranger,
     Invisible death stalks the gloom, The curse that afflicts
     here our sons and our daughters Has forced us to seal
     them in this ghastly tomb 

     The evil so savage, dug from deepest of passage, It has
     twisted the minds and the limbs Of our children so little,
     and babies so brittle, Punished are we all for our sins. 

     Of this warning take heed, lest the evil be freed, Or take
     up your weapons and prepare for a fight, Emerge will
     vile demons, to slaughter the humans Who released
     them with rocks which gave out glowing light.


Prologue

There are some individuals whose actions mark them as unfit to live within a 
civilised society. Your crimes have been of a horrifyingly barbaric nature and 
throughout this trial you have failed to exhibit even the slightest vestige of 
remorse. Although it gives me no pleasure to pass such a sentence, we must act 
to protect the Innocent We decree that your presence within this society can no 
longer be tolerated.' 
(Extract from Trial ZZ5732Beta, taken from justice Directorate tapes). 
As the 'Pericles' moved into orbit around the alien planet, Commander David 
Sprake stood at his viewing screen, lost in thought. He knew that his career in 
the Force, and his prospects for promotion, depended on this mission. This was 
the one that mattered, the one that everybody hack home would analyse in detail. 
For this was the Columbus Force's five hundredth mission. 
Sprake's mind ran over the history of the Force. In the twenty first century, 
the population explosion drove humanity out into the galaxy in a desperate 
search for planets to colonise. A powerful group of influential people 
collaborated to form a military organisation which could explore uncharted space 
with maximum efficiency. This organisation was the Columbus Force, and its 
backers - an uneasy alliance of the wealthy and the intellectual - pooled their 
resources in the search for habitable worlds. They found no planets similar to 
the Earth. The vast majority could never be suitable for humankind, while those 
that were could sustain only an uncomfortable existence in drab, hermetically 
sealed environments. 
The search, however continued. Once a planet was located, an initial unmanned 
probe (known colloquially as a dwarfie) would establish whether there was any 
possibility of it supporting human life. If this proved favourable, a manned 
probe would follow to explore the new discovery in more detail. These were the 
Columbus Probes. 
One such follow-up craft was the 'Pericles'. When a dwarfie returned favourable 
data from a large planet, the 'Pericles' was launched on the long journey to the 
new world, named Phoebus. Its mission: to investigate and to report. 
Sprake was snapped out of his reverie by a call from Spiegel demanding that he 
check the armoury before they landed to make sure all weapons were in working 
order 'Ever the optimist, aren't you, Spiegel?' Sprake replied. 'I'll be right 
down'. 
Sprake was the highest ranking Columbus Force officer on board. A tall, silver 
haired man in his late thirties, he had attained the rank of Commander 
unexpectedly after many years of undistinguished service as a second-in command 
on other ships. While serving as Deputy Commander on a mission to investigate an 
unknown planet, Sprake was forced to assume command when his superior officer 
was poisoned by an alien gas. Sprake's remarkable courage and valour in sealing 
infected corridors and saving the rest of the crew led to his immediate 
promotion. 
Chief Scientist on the 'Pericles' was Professor Hans Spiegel, an abrasive, 
middle-aged man of German extraction whose arrogance made him the least popular 
crew member.  His scientific brilliance was renowned but Sprake had never 
trusted him and did not relish the prospect of having to rely on him in a 
crisis. This mission had been very much a project of Spiegel's, and he was the 
crew member most eager to reach the planet. 
Ship's doctor was Lieutenant Christine Pieters, an attractive blonde woman in 
her late twenties, who was also an expert on hydroponics. With her she had 
brought a pet, which she discovered on another planet. This was a small, 
affectionate creature known as a furling. A ball of lavender hair, its tiny face 
rarely visible, the animal purred and seemed to be a distant cousin of the Earth 
cat. She had named it Fluffy. 
Ship's psychologist was Captain Sun Pahn, a temperamental Chinese who would be 
called upon to build up good relations, if possible, with any alien life forms 
that might be encountered on the planet. During the 'Pericles' lengthy journey, 
Pahn had succeeded in establishing a good relationship with Christine Pieters, 
and there had been some talk of marriage. 
Ship's geologist: Captain Colin Lowry, a quiet, elderly scientist whose role 
would be the testing of samples from the planet's surface. 
Deputy Commander was Lieutenant Anthony Nash, a tall, calm officer with a 
military background and a record of impeccable service. He had helped to draw up 
the most recent edition of the Columbus Force Directives Manual. 
Also on board were Miss Tessara Swift, a cheerful, pushy young journalist 
assigned to the mission in accordance with the Columbus Force's standing 
agreement with the Information Directorate, and Acting Lieutenant Zinc Baker, a 
hot-headed whizzkid fresh from college and in training for eventual command. 
This was the full human complement of the crew. In addition there were ten 
robots, five of them of the Velcro design, that is with the facility for speech 
and a degree of intelligence. On landing, the robots would undertake all tasks 
involving manual labour. 
As the 'Pericles' prepared to attempt a descent, Commander Sprake found himself 
at the viewing screen, gazing at the deep red surface of another planet hanging 
like a hungry spider in the endless, engulfing night of Space. After two decades 
in the Force he still felt a sense of wonder at sights no human had previously 
witnessed, and experienced a thrill of discovery when exploring a new planet. 
Sprake was not driven by a philanthropic desire to find a place his fellow 
humans could call home, but by the ceaseless quest for the novel and exciting. 
He looked up at the mysterious mass looming large on the screen and felt his 
heart begin to beat harder as a robot began the countdown to planetfall.... 
 

Day One - Planetfall 
(Computer Note - Editorial: Commander Sprake's reports begin here). 
"Planet: Code H247A79. Name: Phoebus. Mission: to make an intensive study of 
planet to determine its suitability as a colony. Reporting Officer: Commander 
David Sprake. Reporting frequency: Daily. 
"We have landed, but it was not easy. The planet seems to be rather more hostile 
than the unmanned probe suggested. As we descended the ship was battered by 
extremely fierce winds which for some reason had not been detected by the 
dwarfie..." 
The winds were so powerful that at one point they threatened to blow the ship 
out of control. Sprake, sitting in his command chair, felt the ship lurch and 
shouted at Lowry for an explanation. 
Lowry spoke without lifting his head from his console. 'We're being blown off 
trajectory, Commander'. 
'Well -' Sprake cut short his reply as an enormous lurch threw him out of his 
seat. People fell to the floor and warning klaxons sounded. 
'Spiralling out of control', reported the computer in an infuriatingly calm 
tone. 'Stabilizing Servos malfunctioning.' 
Sprake dragged himself up and wedged himself into a gap in the control panel. 
The ship was heading towards the planet's surface at a wild rate - if he didn't 
act they would all be dead in seconds. For a brief, terrifying moment Sprake's 
mind went blank. He stared at the rows of lights and switches, his head flooded 
with panic and his training lost in a mental whirlpool of frenzied confusion. As 
the powerful ship plummeted towards the planet's surface, Sprake held himself 
upright, his hands tightly gripping the sides of the console, his knuckles 
white. 
For a few seconds the console in front of him made no sense. Sprake forced 
himself to concentrate, tried to turn his mind to the flight principles that had 
been drilled into him... Spiegel's voice hollering 'Do something! You're going 
to kill us all!' roused him and he grabbed the seldom-used Manual Stabilizer. 
'Give me manual control!' he barked. 
'We're not going to make it!' shouted Pahn. 
'Computer! Manual control!' bellowed Sprake above the din of the winds buffeting 
furiously against the ship. 

'Manual control,' confirmed the computer. 
'Right.' Gritting his teeth, Sprake peered at the small screen on the console 
which showed the ship's position. There she was, and there was the wind; the 
savage, relentless wind that swept the planet's surface. Their only hope was to 
stop the descent and try to push through the wind looking for a clearing, if 
there were any. 
Sprake grasped the Stabilizer and, summoning all his strength, pushed it to its 
highest level. The ship's engines screamed their strained complaint, but slowly, 
interminably, the 'Pericles' came to a halt. 
Sprake instantly moved his hands to the direction levers and sent the ship on a 
horizontal course at maximum thrust. The crew members who had managed to remain 
standing during the descent were knocked to the floor by the sudden shift. Only 
Sprake, wedged into the console, stayed on his feet. The squeal of the engines 
as he pushed them to maximum capacity accompanied the raging winds in a 
nightmarish cacophony. Suddenly they were out. The winds had stopped, the ship 
was safe. Sprake immediately cut the acceleration and pressed the Descent 
Stabilizer. The ship lost height and, with one final shudder, came to a halt on 
the ground. 
People pulled themselves up and gave vent to a communal sigh of relief. Acting 
Lieutenant Baker, his relief spilling into laughter, said, 'Are we dead? I never 
thought Heaven would look like this. I imagined there'd be a few more beautiful 
women around'. 
'If we're dead, Baker', said Sun Pahn, 'we must have gone to Hell. Because he's 
with us.' He gestured at Spiegel, who was brushing himself down. Baker laughed, 
while Spiegel greeted the jibe with a baleful glare. 
Sprake asked Lieutenant Nash where they were. Nash reported that they had 
entered the only area within reach of his scanners where strong winds were not 
howling across the planet's surface. This was a strangely calm gap approximately 
half a kilometre wide. 'Great flying, Commander,' he added, grinning. 
Thanks. Let's have a look at this place. After that descent I'll be extremely 
happy to get my feet on solid ground.' 
Following the noisy descent the quiet peace after they landed seemed almost 
eerie. Touchdown was completed successfully although the landing gear sank very 
deep into the surface gravel. Sprake led a party out to begin their preliminary 
exploration. Professor Spiegel refused to come. He had taken an irrational 
dislike to the planet, based on the fact that the dwarfie hadn't registered the 
winds and what he called 'intuition... a feeling that we will have trouble 
here'. 
 
'You wanted to come to this planet, Spiegel,' Sprake observed. 'The background 
reports I read stated that you were very keen to join this mission.' 
'I was keen to join any mission,' replied the professor 'The funding of my 
various projects has been temporarily suspended while the Force investigates 
some ludicrous allegations of misconduct, so I have nothing else to do at the 
moment. The allegations are, of course, quite without foundation.' 
'Of course.' 
Spiegel spent the rest of the day in the ship's lab continuing his experiments 
on service robots. This was a pet project of his although he refused to tell 
anybody exactly what he was doing. 
Sprake gazed at the landscape before him. A barren desert, a lifeless empty 
nothing. The ground was uninviting, treacherous soft mud, black as a magpie's 
wing, dotted with gravel. It stretched out before them, an infertile void, 
broken only by the occasional rocky knoll jutting up from the harsh surface like 
a broken tooth out of a dead man's gum. The only plants to be seen were a few 
small, pale green bushes and clumps of moss, pitifully weak apologies for 
foliage, growing in the shadow of the rocks. 
The air was clammy, somehow unpleasant, calm yet stagnant. And cold. Very cold. 
Sprake pulled his suit tight around him and shivered. Sun Pahn spoke first. 
'Well, here it is, people. The garden of Eden.' 
Sprake looked up at the sky. It was a savage dark blue roof over a grisly world. 
Black clouds swept through a brutal, tempestuous sky. In the distance on all 
sides they could hear the winds. Winds of hate. Winds that battered the rest of 
the planet, that beat unremittingly across its scarred surface in a ceaseless 
turmoil. The 'Pericles' may have landed in a clearing, but there was little 
there to cheer its crew. 
They stood in silence, a small lonely group, shivering and huddling 
instinctively together as they surveyed their new home. A vacant, bleak 
landscape, that somehow exuded an almost physical misery. 
Sprake gulped. Was this blackness, this cold, cheerless, dead planet, to be the 
new Earth for their people? 
Only Captain Lowry found the environment interesting. He spent the morning 
collecting soil and rock samples, then swiftly arranged his drilling apparatus 
near the ship and began the process of boring into the ground. 'He's been boring 
for years', remarked Spiegel. The nonvocal robots were digging out rocks, under 
the supervision of Robot Stuvo, who was as usual berating them for their 
supposed indolence. Also involved was the robot they named Chatter. This robot 
had been designed as a vocal, but last minute difficulties with its design 
prevented the Vocprog from being input correctly. Sleek and compact, it carried 
out its tasks with supreme efficiency, but its inability to speak clearly meant 
that its comments often emerged as a garbled babble. It won everyone's affection 
on the first day of the mission when, after everyone had endured Robot Stuvo's 
complaints for hours, it responded with the uncharacteristically audible 'Shall 
I eliminate source of unessential noise?' 
Lunch took place, as usual, in the ship's small refectory area. Sprake had hoped 
to organise a meal outside, but the planet surface was so uninvitingly arid that 
nobody wanted to eat there. The crew sat around the table, eating in silence for 
some minutes. The initial relief that had swept through them when they landed in 
one piece had been dissipated by the disappointment of the planet's surface, and 
the atmosphere was gloomy. 
'Cheer up,' Sprake exhorted. 'You can't judge a book by its cover.
'You can't judge a Commander by his clich;s,' murmured Spiegel. 
'We've only seen a small section of this planet. There's much more of it, you 
know. Other parts may be completely different.' 
'The Commander's right,' said Baker through a mouthful of hydroponic lettuce. 
'Think how the geography of the Earth varies between continents. There might be 
a paradise here somewhere.' 
'You can't judge a book by its sycophantic reviews.' 
'What are you on about, Spiegel?' Baker snapped angrily. 'Why are you always so 
sour and pessimistic? You criticise everybody, you hate everything, you never 
offer valid suggestions of your own.
'Pessimism is realism, boy,' snarled the German. 'If you live long enough, 
you'll soon lose that ridiculous naive optimism of yours. 
'You do seem to be something of a fatalist,' observed Sun Pahn. 
Spiegel chuckled humourlessly. 'Well, well. Even the Chinaman stops stuffing his 
face long enough to join in the character assassination.' 
Sprake buried his head and concentrated on his meal as the argument raged on. 
His attempt to raise spirits had engendered yet another bitter row. He had hoped 
the bickering would stop once they landed. He caught Tessara Swift's eye. She 
was watching proceedings carefully. Sprake wondered what her bulletins home 
sounded like. As far as crew relations were concerned, they were hardly likely 
to paint a cheerful picture. 
 
By evening they had found little of interest so spirits were flagging, until 
Captain Sun Pahn and Lieutenant Christine Pieters announced their intention to 
marry. This cheered them all up. 
Sprake arranged for the robots to spend the night (which lasted six hours) 
digging deep into the ground to check for water or useful minerals- as yet there 
was no significant evidence of either being present. 
"The terrain is bleak... the windy environment has limited the surface 
vegetation to tough grass and small bushes. The ground is dark gravelly mud. The 
air is breathable but weak, for strenuous activity space suits providing oxygen 
enhancement are necessary. Crew members, particularly Acting Lieutenant Baker, 
enjoyed themselves by flying about using the jetpacks, relieved to have some 
freedom after so long cooped up on the ship. The scanners tell us that the 
gravitational acceleration at planet surface is 7.8 metres per second per 
second. 
"Overall It doesn't look promising... perhaps we are wasting our time here..." 


Day Two 
"Today we made our first discovery. I was on the ship when I heard cries of 
excitement from outside..." 
Captain Lowry had been taking bore samples when the ground gave way to reveal a 
deep pit below the surface. One of the robots fell in but fortunately Lowry was 
safely away from the hole at the time. Hearing the excitement outside, Sprake 
rushed out from the ship to find Spiegel and Baker engaged in a heated argument. 
There had been tension between them ever since they met. Spiegel's abrasive 
arrogance and Baker's endless youthful enthusiasm had clashed, causing countless 
rows. 
Now they were bellowing at each other about the pit, violently disagreeing on 
the best way to investigate it. Sprake hollered at them to shut up and Spiegel 
gave him a look you could slice bread with. Sprake pushed past them and jetted 
down into the dark hole himself. Tessara Swift was already there, having jetted 
to a ledge near the bottom, taking photographs for the Information Directorate. 
Sprake landed next to her and looked around. They were in a steep-sided pit some 
four metres in depth. The ledge protruded from the wall of the pit, and, Sprake 
realised as his eyes became accustomed to the gloom, it led to an opening in the 
wall through which he could see what appeared to be a cave. 'Come and have a 
look at this!' he shouted to the others, who followed him down as he walked 
along the ledge... 

The cave was lit by a curious luminous green moss clinging to the walls. The 
ground was littered with rocks and small bushes. At the rear of the cave was the 
entrance to a tunnel which was just large enough for a man to pass through by 
bending his back. Baker volunteered to go into the tunnel alone, but Sprake 
would hear none of it. Spiegel called Baker an 'ambitious military careerist' 
which provoked another argument; it was hardly a fair remark - Spiegel might be 
a prize-winning biologist (his work on the marine life of Armatax 17 had made 
him famous) but Baker was no mere soldier, as his research on cryogenics 
testified. 
Eventually Lieutenant Nash had to step in as the row seemed liable to spill over 
into violence. Sprake assembled a party to explore the tunnel, comprising 
himself, Spiegel, Christine Pieters, the Robot Stuvo and a nonvocal defensive 
robot. Nash was left in charge. 
Baker complained bitterly about being left out. Although he didn't deserve the 
barrage of abuse Spiegel fired at him, Sprake mused, Baker could be very 
immature, with an undisciplined eagerness that could well lead him unprepared 
into danger. Until Baker learnt to rein in that enthusiasm, Sprake doubted that 
he would be suitable for command. 
They called this first discovery Banquo Cave. They discovered that it led down 
into a network of caves and tunnels below the planet's surface. (There was no 
Columbus Force policy on the naming of locations found on alien planets - this 
was left up to the Commander. Sprake, a Shakespeare buff, liked to name such 
locations after characters from the Bard's plays.) 
They moved cautiously down a rocky slope into the first long, dark tunnel ahead 
of them. The moss provided lighting. Silence surrounded them like a glove. 
'It's good to get away from those winds,' Christine Pieters smiled. 
'Quiet!' barked Spiegel angrily. 'We shouldn't chatter like schoolgirls. 
Anything could be up ahead of us and any conversation could let it know of our 
presence. Voices can be heard for hundreds of metres in a cave system like 
this.' 
'I was only making an observation,' Christine retorted, her eyes flashing. 
Some dust, dislodged by the activity, fell from the cave ceiling onto Spiegel. 
As he brushed them off his suit he looked up at Christine, a scowl colouring his 
thin, malevolent face. 'Somehow, I think I can survive without your inane 
observations.' 
'See here, Spiegel - '
Sprake stepped forward. 'That's enough, children. Professor Spiegel may have the 
courtesy and tact of a drug-crazed bull, but on this occasion he's right. Let's 
keep conversation to a minimum.' 
 
They moved onward into the caves to continue their investigation. They were 
below ground for the rest of the morning. 
The jetpacks enabled them to fly around the tunnels and caverns. Here and there 
they found constructed walls sealing off caves. It seemed as though the planet 
had been the base of a mining community, however there was no sign of any 
resource that might have been mined, although they did trace water - there were 
occasional pools located in the darker recesses. Most of the caves were dimly 
lit by the luminescent moss. Due to the weakness of the air they needed their 
suits and backpacks. 
I am fascinated by this veritable warren of a cave system and wonder what has 
become of its inhabitants. Certainly there must, at one time, have been 
habitation by an intelligent civilisation. Where are they now? Why is there no 
sign of them on the surface or in the caves we have explored? Have they simply 
moved further down into the heart of this mysterious planet?" 


Day Three 
"We have decided to set up our base in the cave system. There is evidence that 
the ground can support food crops - Lieutenant Pieters has managed to grow some 
plants from the ship in the caves here. 
"Spiegel is conducting experiments on the air to see if it could be altered. As 
he never ceases to boast he was once part of the legendary team that devised the 
Enegel Atmosphere Purifier which has enabled us to make the air breathable on 
numerous planets. 
"He also worked on the Sunbather[Computer note - Editorial: 
'Sunbather, slang term for the process patented by Prof. E. Lomas, Cambridge 
Univ., 2173, which can change atmospheric conditions and weather on many 
planets. So he thinks that given time he might be able to enrich the air with 
more oxygen and remove those winds from the surface. 
So the planet looks good for colonising, initially underground habitation is 
advised though. Much of today was spent moving equipment down to the larger 
caves near the surface, I always find removing the non-essential superstructure 
of the ship a tedious chore so I kept out of the way. 
"Tess Swift came to me to report that her jetpack had failed. Like the rest of 
our jetpacks, it Is of the new Gothard design which has not previously been used 
on a Force mission. We tried changing the Power Pack, but that didn't work. This 
is worrying. I hope there isn't some design fault that will affect the others. 

Miss Swift seems to be a typical journalist, pushing past everybody else eagerly 
whenever anything new is discovered. I wish the Columbus Force could negotiate 
more restrictions on the freedom of the press."
As he left his cabin after speaking to Tessara Swift, Sprake heard Robot Stuvo 
shouting at Nonvocal 4, an unfortunate robot which had been malfunctioning since 
they left. Nonvocal 4 had developed a fault in its manoeuvre program and 
frequently bumped into people and furniture. If he'd had a robotics expert on 
board Sprake would have had it repaired, if only to stop Robot Stuvo complaining 
about it. The pair of them were busy removing some of Christine Pieters' medical 
cabinets to take down to the caves. 
Christine was in the ship's Sick Bay, feeding Fluffy with some sweets. The 
creature purred contentedly. Suddenly its manner changed to one of anger, and it 
began to squeal. Christine looked up to see that Spiegel had entered the room. 
'Have you got anything for this cut?' he asked. 'I had a slight argument with a 
door' 
'Oh dear,' said Christine. 'You really shouldn't argue with your intellectual 
superiors, Spiegel.' She reached for a dressing and handed it to the professor 
As Spiegel moved to the table to apply the plaster, the furling bit his hand. 
Spiegel recoiled and rubbed the injury, looking with hatred at the bundle of fur 
'Can't you control that confounded little rat?' he demanded. 
'Sorry, Spiegel. He's never done that before.' 
'It had better not do it again,' threatened the German as he stormed out. 
The day was not without further arguments. Spiegel dominated proceedings, 
managing to have his computers and workbenches moved first, although by midday 
Sprake persuaded him to lend his personal robots to assemble teleport termini in 
some caves. These would be necessary for the nonvocal robots, which were not 
equipped with jetpacks, and would also save the crew from clambering up and 
down. 
Spiegel had assembled all his equipment in a large cave which he seemed already 
to consider his private laboratory; when Captain Pahn tried to install a scanner 
in it Spiegel shouted abuse at him. 'Keep out of here, you slant-eyed imbecile!' 
roared Spiegel. 'If you interfere with any of my experiments I'll make you wish 
you never set foot on this stinking planet.' 
The other crew members noticed how immaculate and expensive Spiegel's equipment 
was; even his two personal robots were ultra-modern Remrobs with the sleek 
design associated with top casing designer Terence Prince. 
'They must have cost a fortune', thought Sprake. Rumour had it that Spiegel was 
working in his spare time for Proton Chemicals, who were highly generous to 
their trusted employees. The stories said they were involved in illegal corpse 
revival techniques but Spiegel wasn't likely to have any qualms about that. 
'He's got about as many principles as a fish has got feet', Sprake commented to 
Lowry. 
'Yes', replied Lowry thoughtfully, 'Professor Spiegel isn't particularly 
concerned about using his scientific skill to benefit humankind.' 
The installation of rooms within the caves continued. Christine Pieters 
supervised Stuvo, who was making alterations to the cave she had decided she 
wanted to occupy. The first task was to put in a door. For this a hollow was dug 
into the wall. The door would be activated by touching a panel, causing it to 
slide open into the slot. The rock formation forced Christine Pieters to install 
a horizontally sliding door 
After this Stuvo was instructed to build a wall to support a section of the cave 
roof which Christine thought looked unstable. 'Get a move on, Stuvo,' she 
admonished the robot gently, as it wedged the last few bricks in place. 
'I'm going as fast as I am programmed to, madam. It's not easy, you know,' 
grumbled Stuvo. 
'Just hurry up, I've got some cabinets I want you to put in next.' 
'Do this, do that. Don't you ever get tired of ordering me around?' 
Christine laughed, looking up from the microscope she was fixing to a workbench. 
'You really are the most insubordinate robot I've ever met, Stuvo. Who 
programmed you?' 
Stuvo turned from the wall and began to clear away his tools. 'A Professor 
Stevens at the Oregon Institute of Leisure Robotics. Perhaps you've heard of 
him?' 
'The Professor Stevens? The Nobel Prize-winner of 2248?' asked Christine with 
interest. 'He made you?' 
'Oh yes,' said Stuvo, warming to his theme and with, Christine thought, a note 
of pride in his voice. 'I was one of his personal robots. Accompanied him all 
over the Earth. He exhibited me at the Paris Leisure Robots Collection. He never 
asked me to build walls.' 
'Well, times change, Stuvo,' said Christine, zipping up her space suit and 
pulling on her helmet. 'In robot terms you're now almost obsolete. Never mind - 
I still like you.'
'Thank you, madam.' 

'Now clear up that mess,' Christine said, pointing at the various tools Stuvo 
had left on the cave floor, 'I want this place spotless by the time I get back.' 
'Harrummph!' replied the robot. 'Yet more orders.' 
Christine smiled as she walked to the door 'That one isn't an order, Stuvo. 
That's a request. So can you do it. Please?' 
'As you put it that way, certainly, madam. I must say it makes a refreshing 
change to meet a human with some manners.'
Later in the afternoon Sprake came across two robots arguing. Robot Stuvo and 
the robot they nicknamed Toff were loudly disagreeing about the most expedient 
way to unpack some boxes. Toff had been programmed with the personality of an 
English aristocrat of the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. 'Egad, sir', it 
was saying, 'would you have me remove the highest box first? You're a disgrace, 
sir, a disgrace to your school and your regiment!' 
'I do not comprehend', said Stuvo flatly. 
'Gad, sir, would you have me challenge you to a duel?' 
Sprake separated the pair before they attacked each other. Robots like Toff, 
given colourful programs, were briefly entertaining but could become tiresome. 
He preferred straightforward non vocals. They were much less trouble. 
A few minutes later Nash reported that two of the nonvocal robots had vanished. 
A brief search of the 'Pericles' and its surrounding area failed to produce 
them. An 
exasperated Sprake, collapsing into a chair on the command deck, pulled off his 
helmet and ran a hand through his greying ham 
'This is ludicrous, Tony. How can we lose two robots?' 
Nash, equally baffled, shook his head. 'I don't know, Commander' 'There must be 
some explanation for it.' 
'The last time anyone remembers seeing them they were digging near the entrance 
to the cave system. All I can think of is that they've malfunctioned and 
wandered 
off across the surface or down through the caves.' 
'Well, it's not important, but it is a nuisance. Let's hope it doesn't happen to 
any of the others.' 
Sprake arranged for the customary defensive safeguards to be installed. At 
strategic points around the perimeter of the base he placed Gun Turrets. These 
weapons, nicknamed Burgers, were heavy cylindrical devices which responded to 
the approach of any unidentified life form by firing a stun bulletin their 
direction. 
The crew discovered the presence of radiation in the caves. Their Geiger 
counters had begun to register it as soon as they moved out of Banquo Cave, but 
at that level it was extremely low. The deeper they explored below the surface, 
however, the greater the incidence of radiation, although it was still low 
enough to be safe. Sprake instructed Lowry to inform him immediately if anyone 
encountered a dangerously contaminated area. Also in some caves they found 
glowing rocks composed largely of coronium which, Spiegel observed, could be 
converted into nuclear fuel without much difficulty. 
Over dinner Captain Sun Pahn regaled them all with tales of his Chinese heritage 
and the many illustrious names in his family's history. This led to everyone 
talking about their families, apart from the naturally shy Lowry, who excused 
himself, and the perpetually antisocial Spiegel, who left after the first 
course, calling the meal 'inedible garbage.' 


Day Four 
'Tremendous excitement today. There is life here in the form of small humanoids. 
Christine Pieters called in with a garbled message from the deepest cave we have 
so far explored, saying she'd been attacked by some creatures but had held them 
at bay..." 
When Sprake and the others got down there they found a group of ten ape-like 
creatures. Each was about one metre in height, covered in thick yellow hair, and 
wore a fibrous light blue tunic. The head had a large skull with a domed 
forehead and a bulbous, boneless nose. They looked to be physically weaker than 
an adult human. As the crew members arrived, they herded together at the cave 
mouth, emitting a series of high-pitched squeaks. 
They gave the impression of being decidedly unfriendly but, thought Sprake, were 
hardly likely to endanger the mission. 
'They rushed at me', Christine informed the others, 'so I had to kill one with 
my icer'. This had caused the aliens to stop instantly and transform into the 
scowling mass they saw before them, huddled together in the mouth of the cave. 
When Robot Stuvo followed the others into the cave, the creatures squealed with 
fear and something close to recognition. 'It's almost as if they have 
encountered robots before', murmured Spiegel. 

So ended the morning's excitement. Spiegel dragged away the body of the dead 
alien for analysis, while Sprake discussed with Sun Pahn the possibility of 
winning their friendship. 'There's little chance of that', said Pahn, 'they're 
savages, incorrigibly hostile'. Sprake wasn't so sure. He felt Pahn was probably 
biased - his first wife had been torn limb from limb by an ape-like being on 
Beta Stroten. A passing Professor Spiegel opined that these entities were 
'brainless monkeys' who should be 'systematically wiped out'. 
They named the cave where the encounter had occurred Polonius Cave. 
Lieutenant Nash and Stuvo spent the day exploring the caves to the west, but 
found nothing exceptional to report. However Nash's jetpack inexplicably stopped 
working and he had to take Robot Stuvo's. Stuvo made his disapproval known in no 
uncertain manner. When they returned to Banquo Cave, Sprake called out to Nash. 
'Have those nonvocals turned up yet?' 
'No, Commander. Can't find them anywhere,' answered the Lieutenant, adding 'Pity 
it wasn't a vocal that went missing,' with an irritable glance at Stuvo, who was 
still complaining about being deprived of his jetpack. 
The others continued to dismantle the ship and install equipment in the caves, 
also 
Captain Lowry busied himself putting in some airlocks there to seal off various 
caves so that masks would not be needed in them. Sprake offered to assist him 
but 
Lowry declined, as always preferring to work alone. 
Spiegel instructed his robots to remove a section of the ship's engine and 
install it in the cave he had commandeered as his laboratory. This section had 
been damaged by the battering they suffered from the winds, so Spiegel decided 
to effect the necessary repairs. He had not seen fit to request Sprake's 
permission to do this, but Sprake chose not to argue the point. There had been 
enough ill feeling already on the mission, without exacerbating the situation by 
debating a minor breach of protocol. 
During the afternoon Spiegel returned to the ship's Sick Bay to change the 
dressing on his hand. He found it empty apart from Fluffy who lay on the table. 
The animal quivered as Spiegel approached. 'Well my pretty, all alone are you?' 
Spiegel murmured, gazing contemptuously at the cowering furling. 'I think it's 
time I taught you a lesson, don't you?' 
He noticed a hammer that lay on a nearby table. Smiling broadly, Spiegel's hand 
closed on the weapon and raised it above his head. 'Bite me, would you, you 
vicious little beast?' 
 
The animal squealed in terror, but at that moment the door opened and Christine 
entered. 'Spiegel! Put that down!' she shouted. 
Reluctantly Spiegel lowered the weapon. 'What do you think you're doing?' said 
Christine, scooping the terrified pet into her arms. 'Get out of here, you 
sadistic bully!' 
Spiegel headed for the door 'That animal should be destroyed,' he said as he 
left, 'it could carry diseases. 
Later that day Nash informed Sprake that he had seen some birds in Polonius 
Cave, small white creatures with long wings that flew away at speed when they 
saw him. He reported them to be very similar to some species of bird found on 
Earth. 
The contrast between metal and stone in the caves made them aesthetically 
attractive. Some of the crew planned to start sleeping there once Lowry 
installed the airlocks, as they found the space preferable to the cramped 
conditions of the ship. 


Day Five 
"Today robot Toff and I joined Nash and Pahn in their exploration of the tunnels 
and caves to the west. We came upon a particularly long passage ending in some 
caverns, where we discovered a strange rune-engraved slab on the ground. It is 
made of some metal alloy unfamiliar to us and it could be a portal leading down 
somewhere, since we can find no other exit from the cavern it is in. Above the 
cavern was a hole in the roof through which we could see the savage winds 
blasting across the angry star-scattered sky. 
There were symbols carved on the slab, they had no conception of the meaning. 
Captain Pahn who majored in Cryptology resolved to try and unravel the mystery. 
Robot Toff, asked if any such code was registered in its memory bank, replied, 
'Fraid not, old kipper. Doesn't mean a bally thing to me. Bit of a puzzler, 
what?' 
No amount of force could move the slab, they even tried plasma guns to no avail, 
these failed to even scratch the surface. Not a mark was made. The ground around 
it was nearly as hard. If it was a portal, whoever closed it clearly wanted the 
entrance to stay sealed. As the caverns had ended with no apparent way to 
continue any further to the west, the slab was their only hope for progress in 
that direction. 
Sprake observed that it might be worthwhile dismantling the 'Pericles' Molecular 
Transducer and reassembling it down there. 'If that doesn't blow the damn portal 
open then I'm a Dutchman', he added. 

At this point Sprake's communicator crackled and he heard the voice of Acting 
Lieutenant Baker 'Commander there are some more of those imp creatures back 
here, but they aren't causing us any problems'. Sprake hurried to the nearest 
transporter booth and teleported back to find another group of the aliens in a 
large cave they had called Nimoy's Cave. This collection had green hair and red 
tunics and carried no weapons. Indeed they seemed to be terrified of the crew, 
whimpering and squealing with fear. When Tessara Swift took a photo of them they 
leapt in terror. 
'Put that camera away!' ordered Sprake but she ignored him. Christine Pieters 
offered the strangers some fruit, they snatched it and gobbled it down. 
'Commander,' said Sun Pahn, 'this tribe are of the same species as the ones we 
encountered yesterday, but are obviously less hostile. I wonder if the two 
tribes get on with each other?' 
They spent the rest of the day making friends with the creatures, who were very 
curious about their new acquaintances. 
"The imps, as we have taken to calling them, can be endearing but they do have a 
habit of stealing things! I lost some Power Packs and later found that an imp 
had concealed them, together with various other items it had purloined, in a 
hole. The green imps have become friendly toward us, and have taken a particular 
shine to Christine Pieters, perhaps because she made the first gesture of 
friendship. 
Most of the crew were smilingly pleasant to their new friends in return, 
excepting Sun Pahn who recalled his wife's fate and Professor Spiegel who was as 
aggressive as ever.


Day Six 
"Woke up to find a green imp in my bedroom rifling through my cabinet! When I 
shouted he fled like a frightened gazelle but with one of my best shirts in his 
hand. Later I saw him dancing about in the shirt to the obvious amusement of his 
cronies". 
Christine Pieters discovered that a gold locket, in which she kept a prized 
photograph of her parents, had disappeared from her cabinet. Guessing that the 
culprit was an imp, she searched their hiding places. She found an imp clutching 
the locket. As she approached it leapt into its nest where it lay cowering. 
Christine had, however, come prepared. She held out a handful of sweets and 
indicated that her price was the locket. The imp happily threw it over and 
greedily snatched the sweets. Christine smiled as she watched the creature 
chewing. The imps loved to eat and offering food was a sure way of persuading 
them to do something.
Later that morning, the crew discovered to the east an enormous shaft with a 
powerful wind surging up it. The shaft was pitch dark and, they estimated, at 
least two hundred metres deep. If you leapt into the shaft, the strength of the 
wind kept you floating suspended in mid-air. As they were unable to drop 
anything into the abyss, Lowry provided a method for estimating the depth. He 
exploded a small grenade at the top of the shaft. This sent sound waves down to 
the bottom which were reflected back, and, having timed the echo and measured 
the speed of the air-flow at the top, he went to the nearest cave and determined 
the speed of sound in the stationary air there. By comparing the two he was able 
to estimate the depth of the shaft. 
Acting Lieutenant Baker had tremendous fun in the shaft, floating for nearly an 
hour at one point. when he tired of this he asked Sprake if he could explore 
beyond the deepest caves they had discovered. Everyone said he was too naive and 
inexperienced to lead any expedition himself, but his enthusiasm won Sprake 
over. Sprake dispatched Vocal Robot 2 to accompany him on a trip into the 
intertwining caves and tunnels below them, while the rest of the crew would 
explore to the east. 
Out to the east they found the yellow imps dwelling, a spartan collection of 
rocks and plants interspersed with tables and chairs which they presumed had 
belonged to the mining community. 
Watching the imps sitting in a circle around a table to eat their meal of plants 
and grubs, in the shadow-filled half-light, Sprake felt an exhilarating 
fascination creep over him. The imps, their small faces glinting in the 
luminescent glow emanating from the moss, forced the food into their mouths and, 
when the meal was finished, each licked its partners paws clean. 
'This is why I'm here,' Sprake said quietly to no-one in particular 'What's 
that, Commander?' asked Sun Pahn, who was standing next to him. 'Fascinating, 
isn't it Pahn?' 
Pahn smiled to himself. He was used to seeing only the world-weary, cynical 
veteran side of the Commander's character It was good to know even a Force 
Commander could be thrilled by the wonders they were witnessing. 
They were snapped out of their reverie by Sprake's communicator which brought 
the voice of Lieutenant Nash, asking them to return immediately, his voice being 
almost drowned out by the sound of Baker singing loudly and discordantly at the 
top of his voice. 
There was no transporter nearby so Sprake asked Lowry to install one. 'Can you 
rig up a pass control round it so that the imps don't stumble in and start 
teleporting all over the damn planet?' 
 
'I'll do my best', replied Lowry, pleased to have a challenge to undertake. 
Arriving back at base they found Baker, clearly in some sort of stupor, slumped 
on the ground mumbling to himself. Nash reported that Baker had returned in this 
condition from his exploratory mission, his pockets crammed with an odd 
mushroom-like plant. 
Ship's doctor Christine Pieters examined Baker and analysed the plant. Her 
report: that Baker was suffering from a drug-induced trance, and the plant 
possessed qualities similar to those found in Earth hallucinogens. Simply, Baker 
was stoned. As the evening wore on he recovered sufficiently to reveal that he 
had seen the plants and felt compelled to inspect one because of their 
similarity to Earth mushrooms. As he did so he trod on the edge of the plant, at 
which point it exploded, showering him in fragments. 
The result was a hallucinatory stupor, in the course of which he imagined Vocal 
3 to be a bear attacking him and fired his icer at it (this damaged the robot 
beyond repair). 
Sprake noticed Spiegel carrying some laser cutters into a teleport booth. The 
Commander smiled as he watched Spiegel disappear, presumably returning to his 
laboratory. If only he would disappear for good, Sprake mused. 
He walked into Polonius Cave, where Lowry was huddled over a bench studying some 
geological charts. As they began to discuss them, an ear-splitting scream rent 
the air. Grabbing their icers they ran into the adjoining cave where they found 
Christine Pieters and two long, slimy maggot creatures. Christine had screamed 
when she saw the maggots crawling into the cave but had quickly recovered her 
composure and was covering them with an icer 
The maggots were not an attractive sight. Each was one third of a metre in 
length, with yellow, slimy skins. They had no eyes but each possessed a large 
mouth, opened to reveal a set of very sharp white teeth. 
'Ugh,' said Christine. 'Charming little creatures, aren't they?' 
The maggots were on the ground near the mouth of the cave. A richly noxious 
aroma emanated from them which made Sprake feel nauseous. Suddenly one of the 
maggots began to move speedily across the ground. 
'Commander?' Christine asked, watching the creature's approach with a mixture of 
revulsion and fear.
'Kill it,' instructed Sprake. Christine fired her icer at the maggot, which 
immediately halted, the only indication that it was dead. Its compatriot crawled 
out of the cave, making a squelching sound as it moved. 
 
'Right, someone take that away for dissection,' Sprake ordered, turning gladly 
away from the corpse. Lowry left to fetch a robot. 
Some hours later Sprake stopped off to see how the dissection of the maggot was 
going. Sun Pahn had divided the creature's body into sections, and as Sprake 
approached he was absorbedly studying a sliver of its innards with a powerful 
microscope. 
Sprake's face tautened involuntarily as he looked down at the remains of the 
slimy, repellent maggot. 'Well, Captain?' he asked, instinctively looking up 
from the repugnant corpse. 'Anything to report?' 
'This is very intriguing,' said Pahn, his head still bowed over the microscope. 
'What is?' 
'Look, Commander' Pahn stood up and gestured to the stool. Sprake sat, while 
Pahn removed the slide and inserted one he had been examining earlier Sprake 
bent his head, closed one eye and peered down through the glass. His throat 
tightened as a section of the maggot's pink internal organs leapt into focus. 
'Not a pretty sight, Pahn. But what is it?' 
Pahn perched himself on an adjoining stool and folded his arms. 'You see that 
tiny black dot in the centre?' 
'Yes.' Sprake squinted at the dot. 
'Look.' Pahn leant forward and adjusted the magnification. The dot was revealed 
as a perfectly spherical shape, deep shiny blue in colour almost metallic in 
hue. 
'What is it?' 
Pahn poured himself a glass of water and took a sip from it. 'I've no idea. I've 
never seen anything like it inside a maggot before. Or any other organic life 
form, for that matter I don't think it's natural.' 
Sprake scratched his head as he left the lab. The planet was turning out to be 
packed with incident and mystery. It was a relief that evening, when the crew 
gathered and, for a time, forgot about the strange new world around them. 
Sun Pahn and Christine were clearly very much in love, and were discussing a 
possible honeymoon on Disney planet. The evening was spent with the married and 
divorced members of the party (Nash and Lowry) discussing their honeymoons 
around the blazing log fire (a portable authentic twentieth century model) that 
had been installed in the base. 
"I have been notified that supplies are on their way. My orders are to continue 
exploration" 


Day Seven 
"Today we were attacked by another party of imps, in a cave out to the east 
which we have named Kennedy's cave. (I have decided to let my subordinates name 
caves, as they complained about my Shakespeare obsession.)" 
This group were all slightly taller than the other imps the crew had encountered 
and were blue in colour. There were more of them too, about sixteen in total. 
They went for Baker, who sighted them first, but he jetted away. The crew 
decided to go after them. They advanced quietly along a tunnel, where they could 
hear the imps jabbering. The crew members concealed themselves behind a clump of 
bushes from which vantage point they could see into a huge cave which was 
evidently this tribe's dwelling. The imps were dancing around a roaring fire in 
what seemed to be a ritual of some kind. One was pounding rocks to create a 
basic musical rhythm. The fire caused flickering shadows to dance across the 
cave walls. It was a remarkable sight. 
Suddenly a frenzied jabbering broke out behind the concealed crew, and they 
turned to find several other blue imps approaching. The noise interrupted the 
ritual, causing the main group to seize stones and spears and head towards them. 
For a few seconds the Columbus Force crew hoped that the two groups were 
attacking each other, but this rapidly proved an overly hopeful assessment. 
'Fire at will!' shouted Sprake. Despite his party's superior weapons they were 
outnumbered and in peril. 
Spiegel's icer blasted a shot into one imp's head, and its comrades all froze to 
stare as it fell in agony to the ground clutching its crushed skull which the 
icer's beam had smashed a hole through. For a second it looked as if the battle 
had ended there, but the imps quickly recovered their nerve and charged from 
both sides. The icers blasted death but the imps hurled rocks as they fell. One 
caught Captain Lowry a harsh blow on the temple, and he staggered, dropping his 
icer. 
 
'Move!' Sprake hollered, grabbing Lowry and pulling him along. The others 
followed, jetting off down the tunnel, leaving several imps dead and the rest 
howling with fury. 
When the crew regrouped at the base, everyone was chattering with excitement. 
They looked warily at the handful of green imps around, but these seemed as 
amiable as ever Christine Pieters examined Lowry's head and reported that the 
injury was not serious. 
Sprake and Baker turned off their jetpacks to conserve fuel but found when they 
tried to restart them that they weren't working. 
"Could it be some effect of the atmosphere? We have no idea. It means that most 
of us are now obliged to travel everywhere on foot, which will limit our further 
exploration. Please send extra jetpacks as soon as possible." 


Day Eight 
What the hell, thought Baker The rest of the crew had him written off as an 
idiot anyway, so he might as well do what he wanted. And what he wanted to do 
was explore. Besides, if he did find something, his name would go down in the 
Commander's report. Mentioned in dispatches and all that. Very useful for the 
career of an ambitious officer. 
Baker edged his way along a narrow tunnel at the end of Lear Cave and out into a 
cave at the end. 
It was sizeable with several openings leading elsewhere. The walls were cracked, 
grey beneath the moss, and water dripped from the roof into pools in the dark 
corners. Baker walked through the cave with caution. He thought of his Force 
briefing on Solitary Exploration, and how his instructors had emphasised the 
need for vigilance and concentration at all times - What was that? 
Baker whirled around. He had heard an unfamiliar noise, a sort of buzzing, 
emanating from one of the cave exits. Hadn't he? He stood absolutely still, his 
body quivering with tension. Now he could hear nothing. Had it been his 
imagination? He could have sworn... 
Then it emerged. Baker leapt back in horror and nearly dropped his icer. Even 
when he had been drugged the previous day he hadn't imagined anything as 
horrifying as this. And this was real. A giant wasp the size of a large rock 
hovered above him. Its head was round, black, shiny, the size of a football. Its 
body was divided into two parts, a short stubby torso and a long tail with a 
yellow ring. Its huge wings were long, thin and powerful. It had four yellow and 
black ringed legs that moved endlessly, helping it to balance in the air The 
beating of the wings produced a buzzing sound whenever it moved, a sound that, 
echoing off the cave walls, resembled the loudest of drills. 
Baker had never been fond of Earth wasps. But this monster was infinitely worse. 
Its sting might prove fatal. Baker stared into the creature's oblique eyes, 
hoping that this version of the insect might possess more intelligence than its 
Earth cousin. He entertained the notion that the thing might speak. 'A talking 
wasp? Pull yourself together,' he muttered. The only way it would express its 
intentions would be by actions. 
Baker did not have long to wait. After hovering for a few seconds, looking down 
quizzically, the wasp launched into a downward dive towards him. The buzzing was 
deafening. Baker aimed his icer at its head, fired, and then turned and ran for 
his life. He heard the buzzing stop, but he did not return to see whether he had 
killed the creature. He ran at full speed through the caves, swearing loudly to 
himself. 
As he ran into Banquo Cave everyone turned to look. 'Have you been near those 
plants again?' said Sprake angrily. 
Baker fell gasping onto a rock, breathing fitfully through his straining lungs. 
'Not quite, Commander,' he wheezed between gulps of air 
"Baker set off to explore, alone and without permission, and as a result was 
nearly killed by a giant wasp. It is only his latest irresponsible action. Since 
this mission began I have noticed a tendency in Baker to drink overmuch and to 
gamble. While we were still at home he organised a drunken poker game with two 
security guards, and knocked one out in the resultant brawl.... after today's 
behaviour no-one respects him. I recommend that his Acting Lieutenant status be 
suspended after this mission. 
"We have found that we can bargain with the green imps. Curiously they are 
partial to sweets, If given a chocolate they will leave your belongings alone. 
They are mischievous, they love to 'borrow' items and hide them elsewhere. One 
of Tessara Swift's skirts turned up in Captain Lowry's cabinet, this provoked 
some good-natured jibing from the other crew members. We believe the more 
hostile imps to have come up from deep underground since Lieutenant Nash reports 
seeing a blue imp crawling up the windy shaft." 
Sprake omitted to mention in his report that he was worried by the content of 
Tessara Swift's news bulletins which she transmitted daily. She refused to let 
any of the crew hear these but Spiegel told Sprake that he was passing her cabin 
(she still slept on the ship, unlike most of them) while she was recording and 
heard her refer to him as "an indecisive, uncertain commander."
Spiegel could, of course, be lying, mused Sprake. His hatred of journalists was 
renowned and he and Miss Swift had had several blazing arguments, with Spiegel 
making it perfectly clear that he considered her a kind of spy and, to quote one 
of his more colourful phrases, 'a prying little worm who should crawl under a 
stone and die'. 
Sprake raised the matter with Miss Swift. 'I trust that you are aware of the 
Columbus Force view on mission news reports?' 
'That the reports should not contain any of the journalist's personal opinions? 
Yes, I'm aware of that, Commander', she answered, smiling. 'Don't worry - I'm 
not including any'. 
Looking into her attractive brown eyes, Sprake had no idea whether she was 
telling him the truth. He knew that this mission would be under the microscope 
back home and any unfavourable news could damage his career badly. If any such 
subjective opinions were appearing in her reports, on returning he would have to 
stress that they were her views only, not necessarily shared by anybody else 
there... 
Down in Kennedy Cave, Baker came upon a squirming mass of maggots which moved 
rapidly towards him. He killed one and the others crawled out of the cave. Pahn 
dissected the corpse and reported that, once more, the maggot possessed a 
mysterious blue sphere. 
They continued to explore, mainly in the tunnels off Lear Cave, finding them 
empty apart from abandoned mining machinery. They found more coronium rocks. 
"Clever old Spiegel has modified robot Chatter's reactor to convert small lumps 
of coronium into pure energy. On command he can be made to release fully charged 
power pods which we can use to power all our equipment. Judging by robot 
Chatter's chirping he is rather happy about this arrangement. I suppose he 
enjoys the extra attention and the feeling of being useful - a basic need of all 
robots." 


Day Nine 
The charts spread out over the desk might as well have been in Serbo-Croat 
rhyming slang for all the sense they made to Sprake. A collection of tiny grey 
dots, their peaks and troughs forming patterns, they spoke volumes to a 
geologist about the make-up of the planet's rock strata but meant nothing to the 
Commander. Sprake scratched his head and turned to the older man. 'Alright 
Colin, I'm baffled. What do they mean?' 
Lowry leant forward eagerly. 'From these seismological readings we can tell that 
this planet has been in existence for eons. Look at this.' He pointed to a 
jagged line along the bottom of the page. 'Something hard hit this place then, 
about ten thousand years ago. Probably a meteor storm.' 
Sprake's communicator crackled and brought the voice of a breathless Lieutenant 
Nash. 'Commander, we've hit trouble.' 
'Go ahead, Tony.' 
'We're in Pascal's Cave. We came upon a group of blue imps eating a dead green 
imp.' 
'Charming. What happened?' 
'They attacked us. We killed one or two and the others fled. I thought I saw 
something in the distance...' 
'What?' 
'I'm not sure... it might have been an imp. But it was green, bright green. And 
it looked tall. Two metres maybe. It fled with the others.' 
'Interesting. Can you install a transporter down there?' 
'Will do.' 
Later that day Christine Pieters' jetpack became the latest to fall victim to 
the strange phenomenon afflicting them - leaving the crew with only two working 
units. 


Day Ten 
"The green imps' stealing and general mischievousness is beginning to annoy some 
people. There have also been some accidents. One of them stole a grenade today 
and blew itself up... made a hell of a mess..." 


Day Eleven
"A quiet day during which tests continued..." 
Colin Lowry and Spiegel were locked away in their respective laboratories, 
conducting experiments. Pahn and Christine Pieters reorganised their cave living 
quarters. Nash ran a routine check on all the robots, including Robot Stuvo who 
complained bitterly about the indignity of being lined up with 'all those 
tinplated dustbins'. Baker was 'interviewed' by Tessara Swift, this consisting 
of Baker boasting about his supposed military achievements for two hours before 
trying unsuccessfully to persuade her to join him for dinner in his quarters. 
Sprake discovered a huge nest hanging from the roof of Pascal's Cave. It hadn't 
been there before. Presumably it was a giant wasp's nest, constructed with 
incredible speed. Staring up at the massive collection of twigs and leaves, 
Sprake decided to leave, as its occupant could return at any moment. 
He went down to Nimoy's Cave where Nash was installing a transporter Clambering 
awkwardly over some jagged rocks, Sprake cursed the malfunctioning jetpack that 
had caused him to travel everywhere on foot. 
'What about the jetpacks?' he asked Nash. 'Any theories?' 
'You should get more exercise, Commander,' Nash said dryly, as Sprake puffed 
from the exertion of the difficult journey. 
'That's not a theory, that's a statement of the painfully obvious.' 
'It's true all the same.' 
'They told me you were a health freak. If we had reliable jetpacks I wouldn't 
need to climb around like a mountain goat.' 
'Well, they are a new type. It's probably a design fault. Gothard's don't have 
any of the top designers anymore, they can't afford the big salaries. They're 
cheap - that's why the Force use them.' 
'Right. Let's see the transporter then. That had better work.' 
The transporter Nash had installed in a corner of the cave had a programmable 
destination. The commander tested it empirically by programming a return to 
Banquo Cave. He shivered as the molecules of his body separated. It was not an 
experience the Commander relished. Within seconds his molecules reassembled in 
Banquo Cave, to the amazement of a imp standing nearby. Sprake stepped out of 
the transporter and flipped open his communicator 'It's okay, Tony, you've still 
got a job. The device works.' 
'Damn. I was hoping your molecules would be stuck in a wall somewhere and I'd 
have to take over as Commander.' 
'That's not funny, Tony. My sense of humour must have got stuck in a wall 
somewhere. See you later.'


Day Twelve 
"The living quarters in our base below the surface are becoming familiar, almost 
cosy, to us now. Everyone is in good spirits, feeling that the mission is a 
success, and this evening we held a party to celebrate." 
Music for the party was provided by Tessara Swift, who played the electrolute, 
and Colin Lowry, who brought his synthesizer from the 'Pericles.' Everyone 
enjoyed themselves apart from Spiegel, who made a brief appearance to complain 
about the noise before retiring to his laboratory. 
Several of the green imps watched the party, gazing in awe at the raucous 
revelry of the crew. Sprake discussed the imps with Sun Pahn who said that he 
was now able to distinguish between them from their voices - the grunts and 
squeaks varied in tonal modulation - but not from their bodies, as they seemed 
to be physically homogeneous. He also believed them to possess empathic 
qualities. He had noticed that sometimes an imp would adopt the mood of a human 
near to it. 
After a few hours all serious discussion was abandoned and Nash organised a 
game, the object of which was to find the most ludicrous name possible for the 
planet. 
The party went on late into the night.... 


Day Thirteen 
"Exploration continues on the lower levels. Colin Lowry told me today that he is 
writing a book about his years in the Force. He hopes to make enough money from 
it to retire and pursue his own geological interests. He says this mission will 
provide an excellent final chapter for the book." 

 
Day Fourteen 
The sound of the transporter caused a wasp, hovering over the water, to fly away 
through the fountains. The newcomer stepped from the transporter feeling 
refreshed and rejuvenated by the experience of matter transference. He glanced 
down briefly, as if checking that his molecules had reassembled themselves 
satisfactorily, before striding over to inspect the waterfall. 
He looked up, up, to the peak, some six metres above his head. The magnificent 
cascade of water poured furiously into the black, bottomless pool in front of 
him. The jets streamed down with pitiless, relentless force, an unceasing liquid 
inferno. He stood at the very precipice of the ledge, so that the splashing 
water could pummel his face and soak his suit. It felt cool, superbly 
refreshing, and for a few brief moments he felt almost a part of it, almost an 
extension of the terrifying underground waterfall, at one with the primeval 
forces of Nature itself... 
He tore himself away from the torrent, and jetted up through the caves until the 
roar of the water could only dimly be heard. As he reached his destination a 
booming voice greeted him. 
'Ah, my friend. You appear to be dripping wet. You have been examining the 
waterfall?' 
'I have.' 
'You must alter the destination of your transporter. It would be much more 
useful, and safer for you, if you could come directly here to my humble abode.' 
His friend nodded. 'I will make the adjustment. That waterfall is spectacular 
I've never seen anything like it below ground.' 
'Magnificent, is it not? Beautiful, yet terrifying. Beauty can so often be 
terrifying.' 
'And terror, beautiful?' 
'Quite so.' The man in the green space suit sniggered as he pulled up a small 
cage, which he quickly opened. A maggot crawled out onto the stone floor of the 
cave. 
His associate flinched. 'That is horrible.' 
'A little creation of mine.'
'You made the maggots?' 
'Yes. There were a few natural ones here when I arrived, but they were 
grotesquely boring. I have improved them. I have built a machine that 
manufactures them. Watch this. Kill!' 
At the command the creature moved swiftly forward, its teeth glinting savagely 
in the shadowy gloom. Its creator laughed as his visitor cowered away shouting 
'Get that away from me!' 
'Stop!' barked the man in the emerald green suit, and the maggot came to a halt. 
In the dank shadows at the rear of the cave, a small imp crouched, eating a 
handful of leaves. The maggot's creator raised an imperious arm and pointed. 
'Kill!' he repeated, a look of malicious glee on his brutal face. 
The maggot writhed across the ground, its mouth opened to reveal a set of razor 
sharp white teeth. The imp stumbled to its feet, squeaking with terror as it 
realised what was happening. It tried to evade the advancing monstrosity but the 
maggot suddenly leapt across the cave and buried its teeth into the imp's 
stomach. The imp howled in agony as its bowels were ripped open and the maggot 
pushed it to the ground. The watching men stared in awed fascination as the 
salivating beast consumed its prey. Within seconds the maggot had stripped the 
imp of its skin and had progressed to the skeleton. 
Tiring of the display, the maggot's creator proceeded to weightier matters. 'How 
are our friends from the Force?' 
'Hopelessly innocent, and paralysed by their bloated self-satisfaction. They 
suspect nothing.' 
'Excellent.' We shall continue as planned until we are in absolute control.' 
The man looked affectionately over at the creature he had created, which was 
still gnawing at the imp's body, chewing the bloodied bones with a mindless, 
brutal intensity. 
Some hours later, Sprake sat in his cabin on the 'Pericles', sending a message 
back to his superiors. 
"Baker has gone missing. He had a furious row with Spiegel down in a low-level 
cave, apparently on the subject of Twentieth Century politics - Spiegel's hobby 
is history and he has a particular interest in that catastrophic period. Baker 
stormed off. As yet he has not returned and does not respond to his 
communicator." 
Baker's disappearance left Sprake with a difficult dilemma. Was it some 
typically adolescent outburst of Baker's? Was he just brooding in a distant 
cave? Or had something terrible happened? Should he organise a search party? 
Sprake resolved to wait until the following day to see whether the errant young 
officer returned. Spiegel, predictably, was quite unconcerned. 'We're better off 
without him,' he commented. 'The youth was a total incompetent.' 
Sprake noticed the use of the past tense. 'What do you mean, was?' 
Spiegel's lips curled into a cold, humourless smile. 'Wishful thinking. I expect 
he's been killed by someone or something down there.' 
'You don't have an ounce of compassion in your body, do you Spiegel?' the 
Commander retorted angrily. 'One of our party may be dead and all you can do is 
laugh. You're the most callous man I've ever had the misfortune to meet.' 
Sprake was shocked by the intensity of Spiegel's reply. Drawing himself up to 
his full towering height the professor, quivering with fury, pushed his thin, 
cruel face into Sprake's. His slate grey eyes burned with a searing hatred as he 
spat his words out between gritted teeth. 'Am I, Sprake? Offended your precious 
moral sense, have I? You soldiers and your moronic morality. You'll wipe out a 
planet if your superior orders it, but you profess an endless compassion for 
your fellow man. You sicken me. 
'I've watched you on this little joy ride, Sprake. Do you want to know what I 
think of you? I think you're an obsequious Columbus Force toad, a worthless, 
snivelling whiner obsessed with his own career. A wet, whimpering lackey who 
isn't fit to command a dog. Of course you're no scientist. You don't have the 
brains to understand it and you sneer at those who do. I'm glad that kid's gone, 
but I'd much rather it had been you.' 
Spiegel ended his tirade by lifting a drinking glass from a table and heaving it 
against a wall, where it shattered into a hundred fragments. Sprake had to step 
back to avoid a flying shard. 
After Spiegel left, Sprake got Robot Chatter to clear up the mess. Sprake 
sighed. To see ourselves as others see us. Perhaps there was some truth in 
Spiegel's outburst. His career was important to him, there was no doubting that. 
But surely that didn't make him an obsequious toad and, what was it, a 
whimpering lackey.... he was thinking too much and his head hurt. He needed some 
sleep. 
As Sprake was about to turn in for the night Lieutenant Nash called to say that 
the teleport in Polonius Cave had been found smashed to pieces. 


Day Fifteen 
A space ship without a Destinator is not a space ship at all. Without that vital 
component the craft cannot take off. Deprived of its Destinator, the craft is no 
longer mobile. It is stuck. Trapped. 
Its occupants are marooned. 
Sprake could hardly believe what he was hearing as Nash provided him with a 
garbled version of the facts. The Destinator was gone. Someone or something must 
have boarded the ship during the night and taken it. The forcefield had somehow 
been deactivated and the console housing it broken into without the alarm being 
triggered. 
Sprake left his room at a run, heading for the hastily convened crew meeting on 
the ship's command deck. Everyone was present, and the mood was verging on 
panic. 'Any sign of Zinc?' he asked Nash. 
'No. Nothing.' 
'This is your fault, Sprake,' sneered Spiegel. 'With only a skeleton crew on the 
ship, anyone could get aboard!' 
'You were the person most keen to leave the ship and set up base underground, 
Spiegel. How could we man the ship when most people wanted to live in the 
caves?' 
'You should have refused to let them move. I need to be down there. This pair of 
nurses don't.' He waved a hand dismissively at Christine Pieters and Sun Pahn. 
'We've got as much right to be down there as you,' said Christine sharply. 
'Who could have taken the Destinator?' asked Sun Pahn. 'We're trapped here now. 
There was a tremor in his voice, and his hands were shaking. 
'A blue imp?' suggested Tessara Swift. 
'No,' Sprake decided. 'Removing the Destinator without activating the alarm 
requires a high level of skill with electronics. The imps couldn't be 
responsible.' 
'Never mind who did it!' shouted Sun Pahn, his body shaking with emotion. 'The 
point is we're trapped on this horrible planet!' 

Everyone began to talk at once. The problem with small groups like this, thought 
Sprake, was that one person's panic could spread like wildfire to the others. 
The volatile Sun Pahn was shouting and screaming about their predicament, and 
his mood was contagiously spreading. 
Sprake shouted to make himself heard above the din. 'Listen to me! I said 
listen!' The noise abated slightly. 'Right, so we've lost the Destinator, a key 
part of the guidance system. But there's no point in standing here shouting at 
each other I'll send an urgent message to the Force requesting that a 
replacement be dispatched immediately. I suggest, rather than sit twiddling our 
thumbs waiting for it to arrive, we set out to look for the one that's been 
stolen. And for Baker' 
There was a rumble of assent. Sprake organised a search party and they 
teleported down to Banquo Cave to begin the search. 
After a few hours fruitlessly combing the caves they had previously explored, 
they reached the rune-embossed portal out to the west which they had been unable 
to move. To their surprise they discovered that it had been mysteriously opened, 
revealing a steep slope disappearing down into cloying pitch darkness. 
Lowry stepped into the opening and held out his Geiger counter, which produced a 
rapid clicking sound. 'The radiation level down there is dangerously high,' he 
remarked. 
'We should return to the ship,' offered Spiegel. 'Seal ourselves in and request 
assistance from the Force. We have no idea what we're dealing with.' 
'I don't know...' said Sprake hesitantly. 
'That would be contrary to the Force Directives Manual,' Nash observed. 'Under 
Sub-Section 42B it is our duty to search for any missing crew member.' 
'Pahh. The soldier boy speaks,' scoffed Spiegel. 'Always go by the book, however 
stupid it may be.' 
Nash let the insult go. He volunteered to enter the dank chasm that had opened 
up before them. 
'Dashed good show, old bean,' said Robot Toff. 'I'd go m'self if it weren't for 
this gammy leg. You're a gentleman, sir.' 
'Alright Tony,' said Sprake. 'But put Toff into defensive mode and take him with 
you. Be careful.' 

'Yes. I'd be devastated if anything happened to you,' said Spiegel, his voice 
dripping with sarcasm. 
Arming himself with a heavy duty, combat situation icer, Nash stepped forward 
into the tunnel, accompanied by the robot. He disappeared into the pitch 
blackness before them and for a few seconds they heard his footsteps echoing on 
the hard rock floor. 
When he later went through the sequence of events in his mind, Sprake wasn't 
sure what happened first. But the brief gurgle of excruciating pain from the 
tunnel was followed instantly by the appearance of the most terrifying creatures 
Sprake had ever seen. 
Two of them were imps. But imps unlike the ones the crew had encountered before. 
Their arms had been torn off and replaced by elaborate metal projections which 
served as weapons... in their claw-like hands they carried blasters of 
unfamiliar design... their hair was yellow like other imps, but they were 
considerably larger... there were ghastly, ragged scars on their heads 
surrounded by clotted blood... 
But it was their faces that were most hideous. They were bursting with explosive 
hate, their features contorted into frenzies of uncontrollable rage... 
They were the faces of the damned. 
But even more nightmarish was the creature hovering in the air above them. A 
robot taller than any man, its silver body dovetailed into a long metal spike 
that was either a balancing device or a weapon. Its torso was a battered, 
bloodstained collection of rusting sheets of metal. A barrel-like projection 
extended from its chest. Its head was triangular with a twisted gargoyle-like 
face and black eye slits. 
The crew froze as the terrible trinity emerged from the tunnel. The robot spoke 
in a harsh, grating voice. 
'We meet at last. Face to face, as it were. I am your nemesis. I demand 
vengeance!' 
'Who... are you?' 
'I am the Grim Reaper, my friend. I am Napoleon, I am Hitler, I am Ghengis Khan, 
I am God. For many long years I have waited. Now I will have my revenge. At 
last... at last!' The voice narrowed into a hiss, then turned into a manic 
insane cackle. 
 
Sprake turned to the others. There was sheer naked terror in their eyes. 'Run!' 
he screamed. 
No-one needed to be told twice. Those that retained jetpacks jetted away, the 
others ran. The imps went for them. Lowry turned to aim his icer. The beams had 
no effect. He stumbled and one of the imps seized him, then began to tear at his 
throat with its metal hands... the others knew there was nothing they could do 
for him. His screams echoed around the cave walls like the wailings of a 
condemned soul. 
They ran towards their base at a furious pace. The caves rang with the sound of 
screams and the murderous roaring of the imps. Sprake felt his heart pounding, a 
stitch developing in his ribs but he pushed himself on... the imps were giving 
chase. The crew knew there was no time to operate the transporters so they raced 
past them. 
Robot Toff pounded past Sprake. It possessed, as did all its class of automaton, 
the ability to run faster than any man. Toff must have eluded the killers, 
thought Sprake. If only Nash had escaped and the robot been destroyed. 
An imp caught Christine Pieters and her screams made Sprake's blood run cold. He 
arrived at the base with the others hard on his heels. Tessara Swift, who had 
remained in the base, stood taking photos of the deranged imps. 
The survivors rushed in. 'Seal the airlocks!' someone shouted. Sprake leapt for 
the console and hit the switch. The doors slid shut. 
They stood wheezing with the effort, gulping air into their lungs, trying to 
understand the events that had engulfed them. The sound of the imps had died 
away now, leaving the silence they were used to outside the base. But now the 
silence was different. Now it was doomladen, forbidding, terrifying. The 
enormity of what had happened had yet to sink in. In a matter of minutes their 
friends, Nash, Lowry, Christine Pieters, had been lost. Why, Sprake's mind 
screamed. Who was killing them and why? 
Sun Pahn was weeping. He had collapsed into a chair with his head buried in his 
hands, and was sobbing uncontrollably. He looked at up at Sprake, his eyes 
brimming with tears. 'Where's Christine? Christine!' 
Sprake laid a comforting hand on his shoulder, then moved away. There would be 
time for grief later Right now Christine was lying in a bloody mess on a cave 
floor, ripped apart by an animal, and if they didn't keep their heads they would 
meet the same fate. 
The Commander approached Spiegel, who was slumped across a computer keyboard. 
'Are all airlocks sealed, Spiegel?' 

The Professor ignored the question. 'You're an imbecile, Sprake,' he sneered, 
his thin, bearded face twisted with fury. 'A careerist yes-man. Unimaginative, 
cowardly, weak. You're so concerned with your stinking career and what your 
superiors might say that you've endangered our lives. You should have 
slaughtered every imp we saw 
'That's contrary to Directives,' said Sprake quietly. 
'So what?!' Spiegel roared, his fists clenched and his face taut. 'The imps are 
against us. They're trying to kill us!' 
'The normal imps were no problem. The ones we've just encountered are 
different... mutated by the radioactivity perhaps... and you saw those scars on 
their heads...' 
'We should have exterminated all of them! You're a nobody, Sprake, a worthless 
cretin posing as a commander. You can no longer rely on my support on this so-
called mission. You've blundered terribly. If I had my way we'd put you up 
against the nearest wall and gun you down. Then we'd search out every last imp 
and slaughter them until these caves ran with their blood!' 
'You listen to me, Spiegel 
'Quiet, both of you!' Tessara Swift shouted suddenly. 'Look at the computer!' 
The two men broke off their argument and turned to the computer next to them. On 
the screen letters were slowly appearing. 'what the...' murmured Sprake. They 
all gathered around, even Sun Pahn, to watch in amazement as words began to 
form.... 
After a minute, the words ended. The message that had unfolded before them read: 
'Greetings, my friends. Did you think you could escape me by retreating to your 
base? You cannot. There is no sanctuary, my friends. I will have my revenge. 
Revenge is a noble emotion. Triax will not be denied. I repeat - there is no 
sanctuary.' 
'This must be from that robot thing that spoke to us at the Rune Cavern,' said 
Sun Pahn. 
'That was only a robot, operated by its programmer,' said Sprake thoughtfully. 
'I think the programmer is the mind behind all this. What's that name - Triax. 
Does it mean anything to anybody?' 
The others shook their heads. 'Right. Sun, can you run it through the other 
computer's memory bank to see if we've got any trace?' 
 
Tearing his mind away from his dead fianc;e, Pahn moved to the other machine 
and rapidly input his password. 
For a few seconds his hands ran over the console with the familiar practised 
ease of a master pianist at his keyboard, then he turned eagerly to the others. 
'Commander, there's a record here.' 
They gathered around the computer to read the screen. 'Triax: name adopted by 
criminal of late twenty first century. True name unknown. Responsible for 
barbaric genetic experiments. Imprisoned victims in order to tamper with their 
brains and bodies in an attempt to create a race of ruthless killers. Trials 
recorded on Justice Directorate tapes ZZ5732. His sentence was exile into Space, 
alone in a Prisoner class vessel with pre-set coordinates.' 
'Now we know who we're dealing with,' said Sprake. 
Exile into Space was never a common sentence for criminals. The everyday 
lawbreakers - robbers, thieves, smugglers, killers - were imprisoned in huge 
establishments on specially-constructed islands in the middle of oceans. For the 
most heinous and barbaric, however, this was not considered punishment enough. 
As a series of debates had failed to win the restoration of the death penalty, 
the other option, for many years, had been exile. 
Criminals of this type were sent into the dark night of Space in small, 
primitive capsules, with pre-set coordinates, powered by booster rockets. The 
course would be straight ahead, aimed at a distant galaxy, with no possibility 
of turning back. They would be provided with food and power to last them one 
year, but it was estimated that no criminal would live that long. The finite 
electricity supply would be the first thing to go, leaving the occupant in 
constant darkness. Top criminal psychologists advised that this sensory 
deprivation would drive the prisoner insane, and that most would subsequently 
take their own lives. It was the widely-held belief that this was an inhuman 
punishment which had eventually caused the exile system to be abandoned. 
Death had not come to the man who called himself Triax. Somehow he had managed 
to land on the planet, where it seemed that he had established a base, developed 
robots and experimented on the imps. The deranged imps who attacked the crew, 
with their terrible scarred heads, had to be the product of Triax's bizarre 
experiments. Clearly, he was not a man to be trifled with. 
And now he had set his sights on the crew. 
'He must have stolen our Destinator,' said Tessara Swift. 'Yes. I wonder why...' 
Sprake pondered. 'To trap us here, perhaps...' 
'Initially. Then when he's slaughtered us he'll use our ship to return to Earth, 
said Spiegel. 
'How do you know that?' 
'It seems probable,' replied Spiegel with a leer. 
Sprake wondered briefly what the cryptic rejoinder meant, but dismissed it as 
irrelevant. He had never understood Spiegel, why should he start now? 
'What are we going to do, Commander?' asked Sun Pahn, his voice trembling. He 
was a broken man. 
'We'll try and contact this lunatic,' said Sprake forcefully, settling himself 
at a computer keyboard. 'I'd like to meet him face to face.' 
The others formed a group around him as he input a message. 'Hello Triax. 
Commander David Sprake of the Columbus Force ship 'Pericles' here. How about a 
meeting to discuss things? That's if you dare to show your face. So far we've 
only encountered the creatures you employ to do your dirty work for you. 
Sprake entered the message and sat back awaiting the reply. Within seconds words 
began to appear on the screen. 'Greetings, Commander Sprake. Of course I know 
who you and your friends are, I have been monitoring you ever since your arrival 
on this charming planet of mine. Very entertaining it has been, as well. I have 
no objection to meeting you. On the contrary, I will find it positively 
stimulating. I receive so few visitors. Any social call is welcome, however 
brief. And believe me, Commander. Yours will be brief. But Triax is generous. 
You can name the time and the place.' 
Sprake's hands moved speedily across the keyboard, fashioning his reply. 'If you 
know so much about us you'll know which cave we call Lear Cave. I'll see you 
there in six hours. Don't be late.' 
The communication ended, Sprake told his colleagues that he and Sun Pahn would 
go to meet the madman. The object would be to try some psychology on him, 
attempt to get him talking about his childhood and what caused him to grow into 
the maniac that he had become. If they could take him prisoner, they would bring 
him back. If not they would try to kill him. 
They had six hours to wait. The other crew members, exhausted from the day's 
events, attempted to sleep. Sprake and Pahn, standing guard, discussed in detail 
what they would say to Triax if they were given the opportunity to speak. The 
plan agreed upon, they stood in brooding silence. Sprake felt his eyelids, heavy 
with exhaustion, begin to close.... 


Day Sixteen 
"Stupidly I fell asleep... I feel better for the rest though. Pahn and I are 
about to leave the base for our meeting with the mad criminal Triax. If we fail 
in our mission we will be killed and this will be my last ever report..." 
Sprake turned to face the others. Sun Pahn was armed with grenades and several 
icers. Spiegel looked drawn and haggard, but still as hostile as even Tessara 
Swift looked terrified. Her hair was bedraggled and her eyes were rimmed with 
tears. The robots, however, were the same as ever. 'Dashed good luck, old boy,' 
said Toff. 'The feller's a blackguard. He deserves a dam' good thrashing.' 
'Right. Open the airlocks, Spiegel.' 
'Good luck,' whispered Tessara Swift, forcing a smile. 
'We'll need it. Ready, Sun?' 
The Chinaman nodded grimly. The airlocks slid open and they made their way 
cautiously into the tunnel beyond. The airlocks slid shut. Holding their icers 
in front of them, they proceeded slowly. All was quiet. There was no sound and 
no sign of life, not even of normal imps. Their footsteps echoed loudly. The 
crew no longer had any operable jetpacks so they had to travel on foot all the 
way. 
Arriving at Lear Cave, they found it empty. 'Come on out, Triax!' shouted Sun 
Pahn. We're waiting for you! There's no need to be shy, you gutless murderer!' 
'Shut up,' said Sprake tersely. He looked at his companion. He had to bring Pahn 
because he was a psychologist and might be able to win over the criminal's 
unbalanced mind. But it was clear that Pahn was himself a long way from calm 
balance. Always temperamental, Christine's death had driven him to the very 
brink of hysteria. 
Suddenly a panel in the cave wall pulled back and the hideous robot they had 
seen before emerged. It hovered above them, its narrow eye slits terrifyingly 
blank and the sheer metal spike it possessed hanging perilously close to their 
heads. 
The two men took an involuntary step back. Sprake could feel his heart beating 
fit to burst. He hollered at the robot. 'I thought we were going to meet you, 
Triax, not this heap of scrapyard metal! We don't want to talk to your lackeys!' 
'Are you frightened to show yourself, Triax?' shouted Sun Pahn. 
The robot spoke with the same soft, faintly sinister, English voice as before. 
'How loudly you shout in a feeble attempt to conceal your fear.' 

'You're the one who's frightened, Triax!' screamed Sun Pahn, his furious, raging 
voice echoing round the cave. 'You're a gutless woman killer. You're scum, 
you're filth, come out here and I'll tear your kidneys out and nail them to the 
wall!' 
Sprake rolled his eyes upward. 'Great psychology, Pahn.' 
An imp emerged from the panel. It was short and squat with strong, muscular 
arms. One hand had been replaced by a long steel knife. On its head it bore the 
scars that marked it as a victim of Triax's appalling experiments and its mouth 
slavered with globules of saliva pouring down its body. Its dark eyes seethed 
with a monstrous rage. 
The robot spoke. The voice was now angry. 'Do you dare to bandy words with me?' 
Suddenly the robot attacked Sun Pahn and the imp came for Sprake. It grabbed the 
Commander round the neck and they fell to the ground, grappling. Sprake 
struggled to free his arm so that he could fire his icer, but their bodies were 
pressed together, and all he could see was the imp's twisted, snarling face. It 
was trying to bite him. Sprake pulled his head back, trying to keep out of the 
creature's reach, but the imp was stronger than him. Its cavernous mouth opened 
and its sharp, pointed teeth closed in on Sprake's throat.... 
'Leave him alone.' The voice provoked an immediate reaction in the imp. It 
pulled back, climbed off Sprake and stood up. 'Go back,' ordered the voice. The 
imp walked away. 
Sprake staggered to his feet and looked at the tall man who had appeared before 
him. He wore an emerald green space suit, which had a visor over its face, so 
that its occupant could not be seen. The voice was the same as the robot's, so 
Sprake took this to be Triax, the madman trying to kill them all. He was holding 
an icer. 
Sprake glanced over at Pahn. He was dead. His eyes stared lifelessly and there 
was a trickle of blood dripping from his mouth. The robot hovered above the 
bloodied corpse. 
Sprake looked at Triax with hatred. 'You animal,' he said savagely. 
Triax laughed chillingly. 'I consider that a compliment, Commander. Now I think 
it's time you paid a visit to my home.' He gestured with his icer to the panel 
in the cave wall. 
Sprake moved forward into the recess. Triax followed him. A primitive 
transporter stood in the shadows and the two men stepped into it. Triax hit a 
switch and their molecules began to separate... 
 
Within seconds they had reached their destination, appearing in a transporter 
located in a dank cavern. The light was so bad that Sprake had to concentrate to 
see clearly. He surmised that they were now much deeper into the cave system. 
Triax gestured with his icer. 
Sprake stepped into the hidden cave. It was certainly impressive. Much larger 
than any the crew had seen on the planet, its walls were lined with wooden 
tables on which were stacked innumerable items of scientific equipment - 
microscopes, petri dishes, test tubes and bottles containing liquids of all 
colours. The cave walls and the tables were stained with liquids including, 
Sprake noticed with a shiver, blood. 
The cave floor was littered with all manner of furniture. As well as tables and 
chairs there were knives, crudely manufactured guns, icers, plates and towering 
consoles of bloodstained machinery the purpose of which Sprake could only guess 
at. The dominant decoration, however, was a collection of mounted imp heads 
which adorned the walls. These were horrific enough to cause the Commander to 
take a sharp intake of breath. 
'Welcome to the court of King Triax,' said his captor. Sprake turned to see the 
killer removing his spacesuit helmet. Triax was revealed as a man perhaps two 
metres in height. His face was fat with a thick black beard. His dark curly hair 
was uncombed. A deep brown scar disfigured one cheek. His unblinking bloodshot 
eyes had the crazed stare of the fanatic. 
'I've tried to make it cosy,' he said, glancing around the cave. 'It's rather 
nice, don't you think? Now then, would you care for coffee? Or something 
stronger? By the way, I'll have your icer.' 
Sprake reluctantly handed his weapon over. Unknown to Triax, however, he had a 
small icer concealed in his waistband. If Sprake could get him talking maybe he 
could find a moment to pull it out and fire... 
'I don't want any of your drinks, Triax, or whatever your name is. I just want 
to know why. Why have you killed my crew members?' 
Triax's moment of affability vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. 'Revenge, 
Commander. That's why, if you must have an explanation. Revenge is my lust, my 
need, my food and drink. For fifty years I have waited here, preparing for this 
moment, and now I WILL EXACT MY REVENGE!' 
'But why us? What have we done to you?' 
'Your race condemned me to an existence in Space, trapped in a Prisoner class 
Vessel. That was a transgression, and you will all pay the price for your 
error!' 
'But you were a criminal...' 

'A criminal?!' Triax roared. 'I am a scientist! My experiments are a way 
forward, they show that we can beat Nature, that we need not be satisfied with 
the bodies that we have been given, we can adjust them, improve them!' 
'But the people you captured and tortured...' 
'You cannot make an omelette without breaking legs, Commander.' Triax cackled at 
his sick joke. 'I needed raw material for my experiments. They would not come 
willingly, so I had to take them by force. It is unimportant, they were of no 
consequence. I cannot let a few whimpering people stand blocking the march of 
science. No-one stops Triax!' 
'How did you get down to this planet?' Sprake asked, genuinely fascinated by the 
maniac's story. 
'Ah, a stroke of luck. My ship, my prison, collided with a small meteor and was 
knocked off course. It crash-landed on this planet, the winds preventing it from 
burning up as it descended. Summoning all my strength, I crawled from the 
wreckage into the caves. Oh, the pain of it haunts me still. I rescued what 
equipment I could from the crippled ship and set up my base down here. It was 
not long before I was using my expertise to build robots and to conduct 
experiments on the inhabitants, the imps and wasps and birds.' 
'Why?' 
'My work is my life! As long as I live it lives. I soon found that I was able to 
make changes in the character of these creatures by adjusting their brains.' 
'What about the mining civilisation? Was that still here when you arrived?' 
'No. You must have noticed the high level of radiation in the lower caves. I 
think that must have wiped them out. If they weren't capable of space flight 
they couldn't leave, and there was some sort of nuclear explosion the immediate 
radiation level would have killed them all.' 
'Did you say you've been here fifty years? That's not possible. You only look 
about forty, maybe forty five years old.' 
Triax smiled narrowly, revealing a set of brown and yellow decaying teeth. 'I am 
eighty seven. It's a fortunate side effect of the type of radiation here. A 
small amount permeating through the skin over a long period of time drastically 
reduces the ageing process.' His voice took on a harsh, bitter tone. 'Yes, for 
fifty years I have been trapped here, Commander Sprake. Fifty years lurking in 
these caves, brooding on my wrongs. Fifty years to plan my terrible revenge. And 
believe me, Commander, it will be terrible. I am returning to the Earth. When I 
arrive they will learn to whimper with fear when they hear the name Triax. I 
will be their king, their emperor, their God!' 
'And you intend to use our ship?' 
'Very perceptive, Commander. I do indeed. But first I must rid myself of 
yourself, and your remaining crew members.' 
'You're going to kill the rest of us? And we were getting on so well.' 
'Triax ignored the sarcasm. 'Not all of you, Commander. You can join us now!' A 
door slid open and Spiegel walked into the lab. 
Sprake was aghast. 'Spiegel... what the -' 
Much to Sprake's amazement, Spiegel was smiling broadly. 'Hallo, Lord Triax.' 
'Hallo, my friend.' 
'Commander, meet my collaborator.' 
'Your collaborator?' 
'Yes. Tell him, my friend.' 
The German took a step forward, a smile of pure malice on his face. 'It is 
true,' he said. 
'Spiegel! What... have you been helping this lunatic?' 
'I have indeed.' 
Sprake leapt at the professor and clasped his hands around his throat. Spiegel 
fell to his knees, choking as he tried to tear Sprake's hands away before they 
squeezed the life out of him. 'You filth!' Sprake shouted. 'You've helped to 
kill my crew!' 
'That's quite enough, Commander.' Triax dragged Sprake back, allowing Spiegel to 
stand up, spluttering and rubbing his bruised neck. 
'But why, Spiegel? Why are you in league with him?' 
'Simple,' answered Spiegel, quickly recovering his composure. 'Genetic 
engineering is an interest of mine. I started off tampering with animal 
foetuses... gradually I became more and more fascinated by the work, and came to 
realise that what I really wanted to do was experiment on human beings.' 

Spiegel pulled up a chair and slumped into it, rubbing his weary eyes. 'Ah, it 
is a relief to stop performing.' 
'You could have been an actor on the stage, Spiegel!' remarked Triax with a 
throaty chuckle. 
'But why are you working with him?' demanded Sprake. 
'Let's call it instinct, Sprake. An instinct that told me we would make a 
formidable team.' 
'We great scientists have such instincts,' boomed Triax from a stool which he 
had settled onto. 'They set us apart from ordinary mortals, the faceless mass of 
human mediocrity. We are separated by our genius!' 
'Quite right, Triax,' agreed Spiegel. Sprake noted an undertone in Spiegel's 
voice. these two had joined forces but their relationship did not seem a 
particularly easy one. While Spiegel was amoral, brutal, Triax was terrifyingly 
insane. It seemed to Sprake that Spiegel was repressing his own egotistical 
nature when in Triax's company, allowing the exile to be, or seem to be, in 
charge. 
'Our plan,' Spiegel elaborated, 'was to eliminate the 'Pericles' crew. That has 
now almost been achieved. Next we will return to Earth where we will build an 
army of warriors-' 
'And I shall be their Emperor!' said Triax exultantly. 
'Indeed you will,' said Spiegel. Sprake thought that Spiegel intended there to 
be a different outcome. Probably he would kill Triax and become leader himself. 
For the time being he was humouring Triax's monstrous conceits. 'And I will be 
your deputy.' 
'No.' 
For a second there was silence. Spiegel, looking unsure of himself for the first 
time, turned to look at Triax. 'No, Lord Triax?' 
'No,' confirmed Triax, moving his icer to a point directly in front of his 
collaborator 'I don't trust you. You will turn against me. You must die.' 
'Die? Me?' Sprake had never seen Spiegel look frightened before. But now he was 
terrified, a pitiful spectacle as he fell to his knees, pleading for mercy. 'But 
we are a team... we work together... please Triax... not me...' 
There was only contempt in Triax's eyes as he stared down at the man cowering  
before him. 
'You are of no value,' intoned Triax, his deep grey eyes glistening with 
fanaticism and the scar on his cheek a vivid, glowing red. 'Did you think Triax 
would adhere to a bargain made with a worm like you? Adios, my friend.' The icer 
hung over Spiegel's twisted face... 
At that moment Sprake, who had been working his hands around slowly to the back 
of his waist, pulled his icer and fired. The shot caught Triax in the arm and he 
roared with pain. 'Spiegel! Run!' Sprake shouted. As Triax staggered back, 
holding his wounded arm, Spiegel rose from the ground, and the pair of them 
fled. 
Sprake had no idea what to do when he reached the base. Could they keep Triax 
and his creatures out? That would be their only hope. There was no chance of 
locating Triax in the caves. He had been there half a century and knew them like 
the back of his hand. He probably had other secret panels and concealed rooms 
all over the place. 
As Sprake ran puffing into the tunnel leading up to the airlocks, he flipped out 
his 
communicator. His stomach had a stitch and his legs were wracked with pain but 
he forced his body on, as he could hear the grunts of the imps and the exhorting 
commands of Triax as his pursuers thundered through the cave behind him. 'It's 
me! For God's sake open the airlocks! But be ready to close them as soon as we 
re 
in!' 
As they approached Sprake saw the airlocks begin to rise and the comforting 
light from the base flooding out. If he could just keep going for a few more 
seconds... 
They raced into the enveloping yellow light of the base and came to a halt. 
Tessara was the only human left there. She and the robots were huddled in a 
corner. Tessara looked at Sprake, terror in her eyes. From the open airlock 
Sprake heard 'Triax bellow 'In there! Quickly, you morons!' 
Sprake, barely able to speak because his lungs were in such pain, gasped, 
'Spiegel, don't just stand there, man! Close the doors!' 
Spiegel's hand hit the console and the airlocks slid shut, with the thumping 
footsteps of their pursuers mere yards away. 
Sprake sank into a chair. What now? 
'Pahn?' Tessara asked. Sprake shook his head. 
Pulling out his icer, Sprake pointed it towards Spiegel, who had fallen into a 
chair. The traitor had recovered his icy composure and his face wore its 
customary sneer 
'Put up the defences, Spiegel. Then you've got some explaining to do.' 
'Yes sir,' leered Spiegel, moving to the central console.  
'Activate the turrets, put them into Kill mode.' 
Spiegel's fingers punched the appropriate keys. 'Right. I've got the burgers 
frying.' 
'Hilarious,' returned Sprake. 'That should keep Triax and his cronies out for 
the time being.' 
Oddly, the clamour outside had died away. No sound could be heard. Removing his 
helmet, taking care to keep his icer trained on Spiegel, the Commander rubbed 
his weary eyes. 'What's he up to now?' he pondered aloud. 
'I should think he's returned to his lab to tend to his wound,' answered 
Spiegel. 'Whatever he says about the ageing process slowing down here, Triax 
doesn't have much energy. Our little adventure will have exhausted him. I 
imagine he'll rest for a time, planning his strategy for overpowering us. After 
all, we're not going anywhere.' 
'Never mind that. I want to hear your explanation, you stinking traitor. What's 
your excuse for joining that maniac and helping to kill our people?' 
Spiegel shrugged. 'I have no excuse, Commander. I am, as you know, a scientist. 
I am totally dedicated to the advance of science. I don't subscribe to the same 
morality as other men. An arbitrary system of moral values is not a necessary 
part of the scientist's equipment. 
'However I did make a mistake in siding with Triax, I accept that. I now realise 
that he is a mass murderer whose activities can only damage the development of 
science.' 
'You've changed your tune. If he hadn't turned on you you'd still be behind him 
all the way.' 
'No. I knew that he had to be stopped, and that my arrangement with him had to 
be terminated. I planned to turn him over to the authorities at the earliest 
opportunity.' 
Sprake eyed his adversary suspiciously. Could he believe him? 'How did you find 
out about Triax anyway?' 
Spiegel leaned back in his chair and yawned. 
'Genetic engineering is a fascination of mine. On Earth I studied it and worked 
on it obsessively. In the course of my research I studied the careers of all 
previous experimentalists in the field. Triax was by far the most fascinating. I 
read of his exile and one day, for no particular reason, I decided to calculate 
the course his capsule would have taken. While doing so I noticed that the 
capsule would have been on a collision course with a meteor. The two must have 
collided and the capsule would have been deflected from its original trajectory. 
'There were a number of planets in the vicinity of the incident, this one being 
the 
nearest. As I sat in my laboratory, poring over the charts, a bizarre notion 
entered 
my head. Suppose Triax's craft had crashed onto a planet. He might have 
survived, 
and might have been able to continue his experiments with whatever life forms 
were on the planet.' 
'Not very likely,' interjected Sprake, his voice laced with contempt. 
'Perhaps not. After all, even if this had occurred, I thought Triax would 
probably have died long ago - I knew nothing of the radiation here. This was the 
largest planet in the quadrant,' continued Spiegel, 'So I thought it a strong 
possibility that the capsule crashed here. As luck would have it, I heard that 
the Columbus Force was planning an expedition to the very same planet. I made 
immediate plans to join the crew. 
Back on Earth I have some very powerful computers, Commander. More powerful than 
any legally owned by private individuals. Using these I was able to intercept 
the messages from the dwarfie that came here, before they got back to the 
Columbus Force. The dwarfie had registered a large amount of electrical activity 
on the planet. When I saw that I was enthralled. It might mean that Triax was 
alive. 
I felt I had to go there to see for myself. The chance to work with the 
estimable Triax - the most intelligent scientist in my chosen field - was an 
opportunity I was unable to resist. Besides, with that investigation into my 
work, my experiments at home had been stopped and I had plenty of free time. I 
had nothing to lose.' 
'Go on.' 
'I didn't want anyone else reaching my conclusions about Triax's presence on the 
planet, so I tampered with the messages coming back from the dwarfie, removing 
all mention of electrical activity before the messages were heard by Force 
officials. 
'When, as you know, I managed to persuade the Force bureaucrats that I was the 
ideal Chief Scientist for the mission. I secured my berth on the 'Pericles' and 
bided my time. 
'When we arrived, I was almost as ignorant of the situation here as yourself. At 
first, seeing the horrible wasteland of the surface, I was greatly disappointed. 
What could there be of interest to me on such a planet? 

'But then we discovered the cave system. After a few days I began to venture off 
alone, down into the caves. Imagine my delight when I met...' 
'Lord Triax.' 
'As he usually calls himself Yes. He raised his weapon to kill me, but then I 
said 'Are you Triax?' and we began to talk. He has an enormous ego, which was 
boosted by my talk of studying his work. 'All true scientists know of me!' he 
said. The man is consumed by egotism, awash with self-love. 
'I was overjoyed to find him alive, of course,' added Spiegel. 'We adjourned to 
his base and became engrossed in discussion, exchanging our stories. We 
discovered a mutual love of genetic experiment. He had worked on the creatures 
here and had even managed to make one or two robots, but he could progress no 
further. Until we arrived. 
'I began to help him. I stole some robots-' 
'So that's where they went.' 
'to assist. I took him tools and equipment. But, all the same, I didn't trust 
him. I suspected that, if we did get back to Earth, he would resent having to 
share his glory with anyone. He might well turn on me. As a precaution I removed 
one of the ship's engines and took it to my lab.' 
'The one damaged in the landing?' 
'That's what I told you. It wasn't actually damaged. I removed it in case Triax 
turned against me. He lacks the knowledge to replace it, and, without it, the 
ship can't leave. He would need me to refit it. Or so I thought. But he's gone 
over the edge. He doesn't seem to care anymore. 
'How did you get down to his lab without the rest of us noticing?' queried 
Sprake. 
'I installed a transporter in my lab, behind a locked panel. Nobody knew it was 
there. It took me down to Triax's lab, and one of those rather primitive 
transporters Triax has managed to lash up there brought me back.' 
'God, what a mess,' said Sprake, exasperated. 'So you and Triax, the dynamic 
duo, intended to return to Earth where he would reap revenge for his supposed 
ill treatment and you would help with his genetic engineering experiments.' 
'That's right. And anyone who objected to Triax becoming ruler of the planet 
would be thrown to the maggots. Triax is responsible for them as well. He has a 
machine that manufactures them.' 
There was no time for any more conversation. The madman was back. The door began 
to give way under a furious battering from the imps. Triax's enraged voice could 
be heard exhorting them to push harder 'Well, it looks as if rest time is over' 
said Sprake. 'I don't trust you, Spiegel, but we're going to have to work 
together to beat him. Is that transporter in your lab still usable?' 
'Yes.' 
'Then go through the rear door, run to your transporter and teleport down to 
Triax's lab. Do as much damage as you can down there. Kill as many imps and 
maggots as possible. Try and destroy the maggot machine. I'll try and keep him 
busy up here.' 
Spiegel moved from his seat, pulled on his helmet and left the cave by the 
manual rear door. 
'What do you want me to do, Commander?' asked Tessara. 
Sprake attempted a comforting smile. 'Just try and stay alive.' 
Spiegel moved quickly through the caves to his lab. He inserted the key in the 
lock, and a panel slid back to reveal the concealed transporter Spiegel stepped 
inside. As an afterthought he closed the panel, locked it with the key then 
pushed the key into a pocket of his spacesuit. 
Seconds later he appeared in a cave many kilometres further below the planet's 
surface, and moved forward carefully. This was Triax's domain and you never knew 
what danger might lurk around every corner.
Spiegel moved through Triax's lab without encountering any assailant - the imps 
and robots were all with their beloved leader. Racing through the rooms, he 
hurriedly cannibalised an icer so that it would explode, thus destroying much of 
Triax's equipment. The eerie sight of severed imp heads mounted along the walls 
made even Spiegel's skin crawl with revulsion. Of the stolen Destinator, without 
which the 'Pericles' could not leave the planet, Spiegel could find no trace. 
Triax must have hidden it elsewhere - if they survived, they could search for it 
later. 
In a room near the waterfall, an elaborate machine had been developed by Triax 
for the purpose of manufacturing maggots. Even as Spiegel desperately pushed 
against the unyielding stone door, the process was continuing. Powered by a 
generator, the machine produced maggots which were carried through a plastic 
tube into the transporter which carried them west to the Maggot Cave. Spiegel 
had found the door locked and was unable to force his way in. He realised that 
his only 
hope was to destroy this appalling device with the grenade. 
Spiegel hurled the bomb at the door and threw himself to the ground as the 
shuddering explosion rocked the caves... 
At the same moment, Sprake was realising that the doors of the base would not 
withstand the battering it was taking for much longer. The imps, pushed on by 
Triax, who could be heard screaming at them hysterically, had dented the door 
and it was only a matter of time before they broke in. 
'Do we stand and fight?' demanded Tessara Swift. 
'Why not, m'dear,' said Robot Toff. 'Queensbury Rules, of course. No gouging or 
poking, after all we are gentlemen.'
'No,' said Sprake decisively. 'We run. Pick up your icer and follow me.'
Sprake rose and opened the manual door on the other side of the cave. It 
revealed the biggest imp they had yet seen, a huge brown monster standing some 
three metres in height, which filled the doorway with its terrifying bulk. 
'Triax has realised there's a back door to this place,' muttered Sprake. 
Tessara screamed. Sprake fired his icer, time and time again, but it had no 
effect. The creature advanced into the room. At that moment the airlock gave 
away and two other imps pushed their way in, followed by Triax. 'Now my 
friends,' said Triax between deep gulps of air, his voice triumphant, cruel, 
brutally malevolent. 'I will not be cheated of my revenge. I WILL NOT!' 
Down in the caves, the smoke cleared to reveal the door standing intact. Spiegel 
cursed and realised that the only action he could take now was to wipe out the 
worms located in the Maggot Cave to the West. He began to make his way to it. 
Eventually Spiegel got there without incident. A huge cavern, its floor a deep 
lake, a featureless expanse of water broken only by a jutting rock forming a 
small island. It was filled with maggots which swam in the lake or piled up on 
top of each other on the rock in a fetid heap of vile disgust. Some attempted to 
climb out to attack Spiegel, straining their putrid bodies and grimacing with 
their ravenous teeth. 
Spiegel had brought a flame throwing device from the lab. He lifted it and fired 
it into the mass of bodies. 'Take this, my beauties,' he shouted as the flames 
caught them and turned the maggots instantaneously into a terrifying inferno of 
fire. As their bodies were engulfed the creatures squealed with agony, feeling 
their skins burn and shrivel as the roaring yellow flames caught them. But even 
as some maggots died in the blazing conflagration, others were teleported in. 
 
Leaving the maggots ablaze, Spiegel ran from the room towards the transporter 
that would take him back to the safety of his laboratory. He stumbled over a 
rock and fell to the ground. After a few seconds, shaking his groggy head, 
Spiegel prepared to climb to his feet. 
As his eyes rose from the ground, he saw two large, brown, hairy feet in his 
path. Spiegel looked up to find an angry imp looming over him. 'Get away from 
me, you hairy oaf!' he shouted. 'I am Professor Spiegel, Lord Triax's friend!' 
But Triax had clearly informed his henchmen of the changed relationship. The imp 
made for Spiegel with a murderous look in its eyes, and Spiegel turned on his 
heel and ran for his life. He thundered through the caverns with the imp in 
close pursuit. they raced through a cave full of sleeping birds, who flapped 
their wings with fright and excitement as the noise woke them. Approaching 
Triax's transporter Spiegel reached for his key, but it wasn't there - he must 
have dropped it! 
His only terrified hope was to outrun the creature. The distance between them 
was increasing; Spiegel could hear the imp grunting with the effort of running 
at full speed. He began to slow down. 
Suddenly he found himself spinning through the air He had tripped over a stray 
vine. He tumbled to the ground with a painful thud. Desperately he tried to get 
to his feet but his right leg was twisted and be couldn't stand on it. Spiegel 
hobbled agonisingly across the cave, but as he did so the imp pounded in after 
him. It bore down on him, raising an icer. 
The blast caught Spiegel in the head. He screamed his last protest, a look of 
excruciating pain on his face, as his burning eyes turned to jelly. 
Up in the base, Sprake had activated the microphone in his belt to send his 
final, desperate message to his superiors. 'Help us, for God's sake, help us!' 
'I will not be cheated of my revenge!' Triax was bellowing. 'I will have my 
revenge!' 
He raised an icer and fired at Tessara Swift, who was thrown by the force of the 
blast across a table. Then, slowly, he brought the icer around to face Sprake. 
They were both out of breath. Triax's brow was beaded with sweat. His eyes had 
taken on a blank glazed look that was scarcely human. For a few seconds neither 
man spoke. Toff and the other robots had herded themselves into a corner The 
deranged imps were standing awaiting their leader's command. 
'Go ahead, Triax,' spat Sprake. 'Fire.' 

Triax's mood had swung, yet again. Now he seemed calm and serene, and he chose 
his words slowly and thoughtfully. 
'No, I do not intend to kill you, Commander I want to involve you in my 
experiments. You will be my raw materials. And the next recipient lucky enough 
to participate in Triax's journey to knowledge is to be you, Commander Sprake. 
I've got a special one lined up for you. How would you like your brain put 
inside an imp's head?' 
'What?!' 
Triax's eyes were aglow with the bright enthusiasm of the fanatical. 'Yes! The 
first joining of a human with an imp, of the intelligent with the savage!' 
Sprake stared incredulously at his enemy. 'You're mad, Triax. Completely 
insane.' 
Triax threw back his head and laughed. 'Mad, am I? No, I think not, Commander, I 
occupy the grey area between madness and sanity. And it is there that most 
geniuses are to be found. Now then. Over to the table, Commander. Prepare to say 
goodbye to your body!' 
Sprake had often thought about death. Cold, unrelenting death. How would it 
feel? Slowly, interminably, the icer swung to face him. 'Now, Commander,' said 
Triax. 'We must return to the experiment I was about to begin before I was so 
rudely interrupted.' 
Sprake knew he had a choice. He could go along as Triax's prisoner, and have his 
brain installed in an imp's head in a gruesome experiment by this crazed madman. 
Or rather than suffer that awful fate, he could raise his icer to his head and 
take his own life. 
It did not take Sprake long to make the decision. 


Epilogue
Why me, Finn asked himself. Why is it always me? 
He knew, of course. One reason only. He was the best. 
The Columbus Force had a crack squad of highly trained individuals who were 
called upon whenever a particularly critical problem had to be resolved. They 
had each spent ten years receiving a thorough training in as many skills as the 
Force could drive into them. 
Mike Finn was the best the squad had to offer. When Commander Sprake's 
terrifying reports were broadcast, Finn was returning from a mission in the same 
star quadrant as Phoebus. He was immediately ordered to change course. A senior 
Force admiral gave him an intensive briefing over the Spacelink. Finn informed 
his superior officer that, in the course of his recent mission, he had lost most 
of his weapons. The admiral insisted that he undertake the task nevertheless; 
back-up could follow from Earth. His mission: to travel to Phoebus, to rescue 
any Force survivors, and to overpower Triax... 
Now Finn was in his compact ship, insulated by a forcefield that prevented 
detection, on a top speed course for Phoebus. He looked out at the universe. 
Somewhere out there was his home, the majestic globe of Earth. It was just 
another planet, Finn thought. How small. How insignificant. To think down there 
we get worked up over things that you realise, when you get up here, just mean 
nothing... his mind turned to his latest mission. Save our people, kill the 
aggressors, oh and while you're at it find out the meaning of life, Mike old 
man... 
Finn turned his thoughts away from the Earth and looked through his front screen 
at the panoramic immensity of space, a black sea as beautiful as life and as 
silent as death. Somewhere up ahead was the planet Phoebus. Finn gritted his 
teeth. He had a job to do. 
END
