Evil on the Horizon

by SinisterGB

A mysterious craft apears in earth's orbit... mysterious men in black suits apear at the Ghostbuster's HQ... Blasted into orbit against their will, can the Ghostbusters figure out the sinister secrets of the craft named "Event Horizon"?

(This work of fiction was created by Iain Bennett and Rosey Collins)

Winston turned the key in the Ecto-mobile's ignition, the modified engine spluttered into life with a groan, the 1959 Cadillac's sirens flashed on, the familiar wail echoing throughout the fire house. Louis Tully jogged towards the west wall, in his haste, his tax return papers slipped out of his hands. For a moment Louis stopped, franticly trying to decide whether or not he should pick his papers up.

"Louis!" Roared Winston, "Get on with it!"

Louis sighed, he threw down the remaining documents and leaned over to the wall, slamming his hand against the red button that opened the fire-house doors. The un-oiled hinges creaking as they swung open. The Ecto-mobile rapidly drove out of the Ghostbusters HQ.

Inside the Ecto-1, Peter flicked through the pages of the New York Times, he sighed, scratching his head.

"You would have thought that by now the Times would have gotten bored of writing bad press about us..."

Egon pulled his head out of Tobin's Spirit guide, he chuckled quietly to himself before replying to Venkman's statement.

"Venkman, the entire success of the media world is based on the publication of bad press." Explained Egon.

"I really didn't know that Egon, thanks!"

"Don't mention it..."

Peter raised an eyebrow, before returning to the wrinkled sheets of his new paper.

"So where we going Ray?" Muttered Peter.

Ray took a final deep breath of his cigarette and through it out of the open window, the butt rolled across the pavement and stopped in the middle of the road, the end still smoking. Ray turned around in his seat to face Peter.

"The harbour..." Said Ray, his voice fluttering with excitement, his eyes gleaming. "some-one said that they saw a sea monster not far off the shore..."

"Ray, do you remember when we tackled the New Jersey Parallelogram?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Do you remember what I said?"

"Something about Bermuda?"

"No, about our pay..."

"Oh yeah, you asked who would pay us because no body lived there!"

"Exactly! Now, Ray... Who is going to pay us this time?"

"Well..."

"And another thing..." Continued Venkman, "Why aren't the kids handling this, not that I'm not grateful for another chance to wield an un-licensed Nuclear accelerator."

Egon coughed, closing his book and placing it carefully on the floor next to him.

"Because," He said, "They have exams coming up very soon, and they have to revise... Those include exams for my course."

"Now that's what I mean! You need Ghostbusters who can be on call twenty four-seven..."

"I'm sorry Peter, they are the new team now! We are simply the reserves..."

Peter muttered something inaudible under his breath before throwing his paper on the floor and closing his eyes and lying back on his seat.

"Guys!" Exclaimed Winston, "We're here!"

Pete rolled his head, opening his eyes slowly...

"Ach..." He grunted..."

"Ahh come on!" Cried Ray, excitedly! "This'll be fun!"

"You weren't up all night..." Complained Pete.

Peter opened the heavy door and stepped out, the harsh winter air hitting his face sending a chill down his spine. Peter shivered.

"I must be mad..." He muttered, under his breath. Peter shuffled over to the back of the car, his frost covered hands tucked warmly in his pockets. By the time Venkman had managed to get himself round the back, Egon and Winston already had their proton packs on, Ray was just pulling his onto his back.

"Come on..." Chuckled Ray. "Get your pack on..."

"Alright, alright..."

Peter stepped forward, taking his hands out of his pockets ready to receive the pack that Ray held out to him.

He took it in his hands and pulled it on, the strain of the weight enhanced by the chilly conditions. Pete let out a low moan, none of his colleagues seemed to hear.

Peter stepped onto the harbour edge, his browm uniform fluttering in the sharp wind.

"Peter?"

Pete noticed how tranquil the ocean looked...

"Peter?"

In the distance he could see whales...

"PETER!"

Venkman snapped his head round, behind him all three of his team mates stood staring at him, their faces showing concern.

"Are you ok?" Asked Ray, rubbing his hand on the back of his head.

"Yeah... yeah, I'm fine" Chucked Peter, "Just slipped into a day dream there..."

"Ok, well if you're sure..."

"I am, don't worry about me! C'mon, let's go kick some ghostly ass!"

"Right!"

The team walked towards the dock house, an old building, the matt green paint peeling off the wooden walls. Winston stopped outside the rickety door, after a brief pause, he knocked on the rickety door. There was no answer, Peter shivered in the cold air. Winston knocked again, the door flew open, almost pulled off it's hinges.

Winston was greeted with a double barrelled shot gun pointed at his face.

"Jesus, what the hell?" He cried out, stumbling backwards... "What ever you want mate, it's yours, ok?"

"Ahh shut up..." An old man, about sixty was behind the gun, he lowered his rifle, and Winston was able to get a clear picture of his attacker. The old man had a short, untidy beard, he had an air of wisdom about him. "The name's Connery, Robert Connery. And I suppose you're the Ghostbusters right?"

"Yeah, that's us alright!" Said Ray.

"Well, you better come in then..."

Egon stepped forward and placed a hand on Robert's shoulder.

"I'd rather we just have a look at the problem now." Said Egon in all seriousness.

"Yeah, ok... ok..." Follow me...

Robert lead the Ghostbusters over to the docks, they stood over the water... All seemed calm.

"In there..." Said Robert, "That's where we saw it..."

Winston knelt down by the side, he stroked the water with his hand, small bubbles appeared on the surface...

"It looks fine at the moment..."

The small bubbles grew bigger and more appeared...

"What the..."

A large tentacle whipped up from beneath the water and coiled itself around Winston's chest, pulling him under water. Winston screamed....

"Christ!" Roared Robert, stumbling backwards, his face contorted with fear...

"What the hell?" Screamed Ray.

The three remaining Ghostbusters ran to the very edge of the ground, looking into the water... It was as calm as when they first arrived.

"I'm going in!" Roared Peter.

Venkman un clipped his pack, letting it fall to the floor with a thud, he pulled all his equipment off his belt.

"Peter the chances of..." Spluttered Egon

Spengler was cut off in his words as Peter Dived into the water, leaving his colleagues standing in fear.

The ice cold water hit Venkman sharply, it rushed up his nose and into his eyes. For a moment his eye sight failed, he struggled to hold his position in the swirling liquid.

Peter cleared his vision and looked around, he could see nothing in the deep, foreboding water. For a moment it looked as if there was something to Pete's right, he shook his head and looked again... nothing...

Peter swam to the surface, his head breaking through the waters surface sending ripples outwards. Pete took a deep breath.

"Anything?" Shouted a worried Ray from the edge of the dock.

"No..." Replied Peter, before diving back down into the water.

"As if I wasn't cold enough..." Moaned Pete.

The team stepped out of the Ecto-1, Peter and Winston soaking wet, water forming puddles where they walked.

"Why did I have to try and be a hero? Janine!" Peter paused, "Janine?"

There was no answer, from inside Pete's office a shuffling noise could be heard... It sounded like files being sorted, or maybe being looked at...

"Janine is that you?" Cried Ray, beginning to get nervous... "Egon, shouldn't the Extreme team be here?"

Egon's face was dark, he took a deep breath, his fore head wrinkling..."

"Yes..." Answered Egon darkly... "Ready the packs..."

"Why?" Asked Pete, confused.

"Now!" Snapped Egon.

Egon's fore head was laced lightly with sweat, his jaw firm and set, he lead his colleagues into the back area of the firs house... He laid his hand carefully on the cold metal door handle, easing it down. The handle creaked slightly and Egon pushed the door open.

"Who the hell are you?" Roared Egon, filled with anger...

Five men in black suits stood inside the office, rooting through the filing cabinets... They all looked the same, smartly dressed, golden cufflinks on their shirts... One however stood out, he had golden blonde hair and a muscular physique, that of a swimmers...

The blonde man placed the file in his hand back down onto Venkman's desk, he didn't seem apologetic or guilty after breaking into the fire house.

"Good afternoon gentleman..." Said the blonde, "I am Agent R, and you, if I'm not mistaken, are Professor Egon Spengler of Columbia University, with PhDs in Physics and parapsychology, currently working as the chairman of the Extreme Ghostbusters... Age, forty years old and six months, hobbies include spores, moulds and fungus, and generally studying the paranormal..."

"How in God's name did..."

"Did I know that?" Interrupted R, "Professor Spengler, you must realize that we know everything..."

A fury welled up inside Egon, this man had invaded his privacy... Peter, Winston and Ray stood still, unsure of what to do...

"Get out... Now!"

"I have a proposition for you..."

"How dare you..."

"We require your help..."

"Out!"

"Professor Spengler, please consider what you're saying!"

"Where's Janine? And Slimer? And what about Kylie, Garrett, Eduardo and Roland?"

"Professor..."

"Where are they?" Bellowed Egon, his team mates nervous, Egon had entered a furious rage, the four other agents had slipped behind Ray, Winston, Egon and Ray unnoticed...

"Get out! We will NOT help you, leave!"

"Is that your final answer?"

"Yes!"

"Fair enough... I'm sorry it had to come to this..."

Agent R snapped his fingers, the agents behind the Ghostbusters swiftly squeezed the Investigator's shoulders... The Ghostbusters fell to the floor with a thud, they lay unconscious as the agents each carried them to a black armoured van waiting outside...

CHAPTER 2

Egon opened his eyes slowly, the light was intense, hurting his eyes as it streamed in through his semi closed eye lids... He pulled a heavy hand to his face and rubbed at his eyes. His vision became clearer, Egon was in a white room, totally white, with a large rectangular mirror on one side of the wall... Egon stood up, his neck ached and he slowly rubbed at it with his hand... Around him lay Peter, Winston and Ray, all unconscious... Egon stood for a moment, staring into the large mirror... what had happened? In the mirror a forty-year old blond man in a dirty blue flight suit stared back... Egon sighed, looking at his reflection... It took a moment for him to realise what had happened...

"Those men in suits..." He muttered, "What the..."

Egon snapped his head up, they had been abducted by the government!

"Damn it!" He yelled...

He looked around the room, empty besides a door and a mirror, this whole thing reminded him of when he worked in the "private sector" as Pete liked to call it... There was someone behind the mirror watching him...

"Hey! What do you want with us?"

"Egon... Who the hell are you talking to?" Muttered Peter as he pulled himself to his feet.

Peter felt like crap, his neck ached and his nose was like a water fall, he sniffed, wiping his nose with his sleeve. Pete staggered over to stand next to Egon, clutching his neck in his left hand.

"Ach... So what's up?" Asked Peter

"What's up? What's up? We are locked in a government room with people staring at us!"

"What?"

"Yes, they are there right now!"

"You sure?"

"Yes, I used to do it myself!"

"Yeah good point... HEY! HEY! Yeah, I'm talking to you! You disgusting government pigs! I voted for Clinton! Got it? Clinton!"

The silver door to the left of them swung open, and Agent R stepped through, his arms folded and his expression blank...

"Shit..." Muttered Peter...

"Good Morning Professor Spengler, Dr. Venkman... It's good to see you awake."

"What do you want?"

"Calm down, all will be explained once your friends are awake."

"Well we're awake now!" Said Ray pulling himself to his feet, behind him Winston stood up, still groggy... "So spill it!"

"Alright, come with me Gentlemen! All questions will be answered..."

R turned around and walked back out of the door, Egon, Ray, Winston and Peter following. The door led out to a long silver corridor, men in suits walked throughout it creating a sense of fear for the Ghostbusters.

"Where are we Egon?" Asked Ray quietly.

Egon looked around, searching for something to work on...

"I'm not sure, it's a government base, that's for sure, but other than that I have nothing to go on!"

"Yeah..."

Agent R stopped outside of a door, the only thing that made it stand out from the rest was a small sign with the words "Restricted" on it. R put his hand calmly into his pocket, and pulled put a key card, he swiped it through a small box to the right of the door...The door hissed slid open, revealing what looked like a briefing room, inside were a number of computers, a table in the centre, and the Extreme Ghostbusters...

"We're here!" Exclaimed R

Egon stepped inside, he looked around and spotted his team...

"Kids... are you ok?"

Kylie stood up, her long black hair tied back in a ponytail. She smiled at Egon, he was kind of a father figure to her and she looked up to him more than anyone else.

"We're fine Egon, thanks." Said Kylie, smiling kindly, "They didn't hurt us, they just kind of arrested us..."

"What?" Bellowed Egon...

"Yes..." Said R, "That was unfortunate, but we needed your full co- operation..."

"Ok bub..." Cried Peter, "We're here now, start talking!"

Eduardo tapped his fingers on the table impatiently, his other hand twisting his brown goatee.

"Look man, the old dude is right, why are we here!"

"Oy!" Shouted Peter...

Garrett wheeled his way to the front... his face stern, as if saying "I don't want you to feed my any more bull!"

"Look, I'm a lean mean ghost catching machine, I've faced scarier crap than you! I live for danger! So you better tell us the truth!"

Roland stood up...

"I agree!"

"Ok gentlemen!" Said R, "We'll tell you what we need of you... And in case you were wondering, your secretary and accountant have been sent home... they have not been harmed in any way! And that ghost creature is with them..."

"Well that's one thing..." Muttered Egon...

Agent R straightened his tie, his nostrils flaring at the attitude of these... these... people, didn't they realise that they had a highly sensitive situation here? No of course they didn't... He hadn't told them yet... Richard, for that was his real name, smiled slightly... it was ironic really. He was a highly successful agent in the government, he protected the world from things that could possibly hurt them. But he couldn't even tell his wife, how the hell were these naïve Ghostbusters supposed to know what was really going on?

"Please sit down..."

"Alright..." Said Peter, "But I'm only doing it because I want to, not because you said so..."

"Arrogant fool..." thought R...

The eight Ghostbusters gathered around the large oak table, R stepped up to a large computer monitor...

"Right then Gentlemen..."

Kylie coughed loudly...

"Sorry, and lady, have any of you heard of Project Blue Book?"

The Ghostbusters shook their heads, all except Eduardo that is...

"Yeah man, I've heard of it, it's that search for Aliens thing isn't it?"

"Exactly right!"

Kylie turned and looked at Eduardo, her jaw wide open and her eyes wide...

"Hey!" Said Eduardo, "I study..."

"Anyway" Continued R, "This project was never really disbanded, even though that is what we lead the public believe, for many years we have conducted investigations into discovering the life that lies out there... Area 51 for example IS home to alien bodies and UFO wreckage... Now we have failed to make contact with any intelligent life, but we have pursued several crafts. That however, is besides the point, we have recently received the following transmission from a NASA mission..."

Agent R pressed a small red button on the computer panels, and a voice recording turned on...

---"This is Sinclair of Titanic 11, err, Euston, we have a problem... over"

---"Titanic 11, this is Euston, go ahead, over"

---"You're not going to believe this, but err, we have an unidentified craft to starboard..."

---"Hang on...Did you just say Unidentified Craft?"

---"Affirmative"

---"Where the hell did it come from?"

---"We have no idea, it just appeared..."

---"What do you mean appeared?"

---"Exactly what I said, one moment it wasn't there, the next it was!"

---"Well maybe..."

---"Oh my god..."

---"What? What the hell is happening up there?"

---"We just got a good look at it..."

---"Titanic, can you give us a visual?"

---"Certainly! You really have to see this!"

Suddenly the black screen flickered on, and a large craft passed by on it...

---"Oh my God! Titanic... We're pulling you back early... Please prepare for immediate return..."

---"Copy That Euston, Wilco... Out!"

The transmission cut, but the screen still stayed active... On the side of the ship, were the words... Event Horizon...

The Ghostbusters stared at the massive craft, gob smacked...

"Oh my..." Exclaimed Egon, "But that's English..."

"Exactly!" Said R, "That is why we are extremely confused!" Our scans of the surface and structure show no similarities to any thing that we know of, and we have contacted the leaders of every nation in the UN, they know nothing about it!"

"So it's an alien war ship!" Yelled Garrett, "Lemme guess, you want us to go and kick some alien ass!"

"Not quite... We need to discover what this craft is..."

"So send a probe in!" Exclaimed Roland.

"We tried, but as soon as we got it in, we lost transmission... We need to send a manned team up there..."

"And why us?" Asked Ray.

"You have experience with the unknown, you are world experts, what ever is up there, you are most qualified to deal with, and just between you and I, before we lost transmission we saw something..."

"What?"

"Well, it looked like a ghost..."

"Ah"

Winston sneezed violently, he pulled a hanky out of his pocket and wiped his nose.

"So you know how to get in there?" Asked Winston

"Yes, it is quite interesting that you mention that... We have found a dock, it is strange though... It is perfectly formed to fit one of our NASA shuttles..."

"That is strange..." Muttered Peter

"So do you accept our proposal?"

"We need to discuss it I think..." Said Egon.

R brushed a hand through his hair, his temper running high...

"Fine!" He retorted, "I'll give you five minutes..."

And he left the room...

"Ok team, to begin with how did they treat you all?" Asked Egon

"They didn't treat us too badly." Replied Roland.

"Well that's good. So what do we think? Should we go?"

"I vote yes!" Replied Kylie, "I've always wanted to go into space..."

"Yeah me too!" Roared Garrett, "This will be cool! And hey, how hard could it be?"

"Do you all agree?" Asked Egon.

The rest of the Ghostbusters nodded.

Egon's glasses slid down his nose slightly, he pushed them back up annoyed, as he did that Agent R came back in...

"Well gentlemen, have you come to a decision?"

"Yes, we will help you, on our terms though, for a start, we are in charge, not your people, and only we use our equipment, they are too dangerous to allow any one else to use!"

"Fine, you begin your training today!"

"Training?" Asked Eduardo, horrified.

Climbing back into her dull red skirt, Kylie was reminded exactly why she hated doctors, and why she avoided seeing her GP whenever she could.

"Is there any chance you could be pregnant?" Dr. Fox asked blandly. She was a short, stocky woman in her late thirties/early forties. This one, Kylie had noticed, couldn't even look you in the eye when she was talking to you. At the moment she was frowning through purple plastic-rimmed glasses at the clipboard that appeared welded to her hand.

"Um... no," Kylie replied.

"Are you sure?"

Kylie folded her arms defensively across her chest and returned hotly, "Why would I lie about that?"

"I don't know," shrugged Fox. "You seemed to hesitate. I've got some tests if you - "

"I am not pregnant!" Kylie snapped.

"All right," Dr. Fox nodded. "Is your cycle fairly regular?"

"What do you need to know that for?"

"Believe me, Miss Griffin," Fox droned monotonously in a manner that put Egon to shame, "when you're miles outside of the Earth's atmosphere, you'll be glad we did this."

Kylie rolled her eyes. "Fairly," she muttered grudgingly, wondering what humiliations her male companions were being subjected to.

"All right."

Fox approached Kylie, still looking at the notes she had been making, and then suddenly put down her clipboard and grabbed Kylie by the waist.

"You're very light," the doctor observed, digging her thumbs painfully into Kylie's ribs. "Are you eating properly?"

"Probably not by your standards," Kylie shot back defensively. "I eat three square meals most days if that's what you mean, and I have a reasonably balanced diet. I don't have an eating disorder if that's what you're thinking."

"Miss Griffin," Fox frowned, "did I say that?"

"Look," Kylie sighed with exasperation. "Am I healthy enough to go into space or not?"

"Yes." Fox ran her stony eyes over her notes once again. "Yes, you should be all right. I don't think we'll have any problems, besides finding a space suit in your size."

That was the trouble with doctors, of course. To them everyone was either too fat or too thin, the only exceptions being those who corresponded exactly with the ideal height-to-weight ratio. At her height, Kylie knew if she was much heavier she would, to Dr. Fox, be overweight. As she flounced out of the disagreeable woman's office, she breathed out heavily and wished she was two inches taller. Why had Fox had to remind her she was short?

Kylie spotted Dr. Venkman coming out of a room across the corridor, and she smiled a greeting. It was a relief to see one of her own in that place.

"So how'd it go?" asked Peter, with a sniff.

"Well," Kylie began, as they made their way down the corridor. "Madeleine Fox just made the top of my enemy list. She made me take my clothes off, asked me a lot of embarrassing questions and then told me I'm too thin."

"She's a doctor," Peter said with a smile. "That's her job. When they're training they take special classes in embarrassing questions, making people take their clothes off and telling them they're the wrong size. I'm ten- and-a-half pounds overweight," he added, sniffing again. "Frankly I don't see why being told you're too thin should upset you."

"So did he give you the ok?" Kylie asked.

"No."

"What?! Why not?"

"Because I've got a cold," Peter replied mock-dramatically. "No cold germs allowed outside of the Earth's atmosphere. In fact you should probably stay at least five paces away from me, kid. I've already given it to Winston. Or else he gave it to me."

Kylie frowned and said, "Guess he's not coming either, then."

"Yeah." Peter furrowed his brow. "Guess not."

He veered to the right and opened the door to one of three rooms that were not out of bounds to them. Egon was in there, reading a page in a thick volume and looking very intelligent. Garrett was with him, bouncing a basketball against one of the four walls. He still looked pretty pissed off. Kylie and Peter exchanged a look, and then the latter approached the disgruntled young man.

"Good news, junior," Peter smiled brightly. "You're not going to be on your own. I've been excused from the practical lesson with a cold."

"A cold?" Egon looked up anxiously. "Weren't you told not to have any more contact with the rest of us?"

Making his way to the far corner of the room, Peter shrugged and said, "Doc may have said something along those lines."

"Winston's probably staying too," Kylie added, walking towards Garrett and putting a supportive hand on his shoulder. He caught his basketball and held it still, his grip on it noticeably tight.

"Impracticalities," he muttered bitterly. "Being disabled never stopped me doing anything before. Why should I let it start now?"

"Garrett, you really can't go into space," Egon deadpanned from behind his book.

"You can't walk," Peter added helpfully.

"So?" Garrett bristled.

"Look," Peter went on calmly, "they're keeping Winston and me here just for a cold. I think even you'll agree that your handicap is a little more severe than that. You really do have to be in perfect working order before you can go into space."

Garrett conceded with a shrug and then asked, "So what do you guys expect to find on this Event Horizon, then?"

"Well," Egon began, deigning to look up from his book. It seemed to be about astrology: very topical, you understand. "An event horizon is the gravitational border surrounding a black hole."

"So how does that help us?" asked Peter. "This space ship isn't the gravitational... whatever, is it?"

"No," Egon agreed, "it is not. But it was clearly named after this, an astrological term, which suggests that it is of this Earth."

"But we knew that anyway because somebody wrote on it in English," ventured Garrett.

Peter smiled. Garrett's words conjured up images of somebody scrawling "Event Horizon" on the side of the craft in ballpoint pen. Aloud he said, "Come on, Garrett. Haven't you ever seen the first Simpsons Halloween special? Lisa asks the aliens how come they're speaking English; to which they reply – and I quote: 'By an incredible coincidence both our languages are exactly the same'."

"Going back to Garrett's original question," put in the ever-serious Kylie, "what do we expect to find? If the craft is from Earth, why are we being sent up there to investigate paranormal activity?"

"Maybe the crew died," Peter suggested with a shrug. "That would explain these alleged ghosts."

"In which case," Egon put in, "what killed them? And what were they doing up there in an unidentified, uncharted space craft that seems to have been designed to be compatible with NASA equipment?"

"Well we're not going to get anywhere asking the same old questions over and over again."

Everyone jumped, and turned to see Eduardo standing by the door.

"I mean, that's what we're going up there to find out, duh."

"Did you pass your physical?" asked Garrett.

"Just," Eduardo replied. "Apparently I'm too thin."

Kylie nodded her sympathy. "Me too."

"I'm too fat," volunteered Peter. Then with a quirky grin at Egon he asked, "Which are you, Spengs?"

Just then they were joined by Roland and Ray. As they entered the room, the others all looked up expectantly.

"We're both ok," Ray told them at once, "but Winston's in quarantine for a cold."

"Quarantine!" Peter slapped his forehead in mock self-rebuke. "That was the other thing Doc said. Catch ya later, guys," and he brushed past Ray and Roland out of the door.

"So... anyway," ventured Garrett, after a brief silence once Peter had left. "We were just discussing what's expected to be up there."

"Monsters probably," Eduardo muttered. "Aliens that suck out your brains and lay eggs in your kidneys. Maybe I should follow Dr. Venkman and see if I can catch some of that cold."

"Don't be such a coward, Eduardo," scolded Kylie.

"Yeah," Garrett added, "it'll be fine. I know I'm not going, but I'm sure Ray will take care of you for me."

"I can't wait to get started on this thing!" Ray enthused. "There's no way of knowing what we'll find up there! Isn't that exciting?"

Eduardo swallowed audibly, earning him a disapproving glare from Kylie. Eyes like daggers, he thought wryly, with piercing blades and emerald- studded hilts. Worthy of Shakespeare, if he said so himself. Was the middle of space a suitably romantic spot to gush clichés about a young girl's eyes?

The door swung open again. There were none of their own kind left, so it had to be Agent R. The six Ghostbusters all greeted him with watery smiles.

"Two of you in quarantine," R frowned disapprovingly. "I hope none of the rest of you are planning to catch a cold."

"I wouldn't dream of it!" Ray said forcefully. "I can't wait to get out there!"

"We're all perfectly healthy," Roland added matter-of-factly. "Don't worry, we'll all be on that shuttle when it leaves."

"Good," nodded R. "Time to get some sleep now, all of you. Your training continues at O-eight-hundred hours."

R shut the door behind him, and Eduardo groaned. "Not more training," he complained.

"I don't know which it is that's made my neck feel back-to-front," Ray put in. "The training or those hospital beds they make us sleep on. Ok, so it's a top secret mission," he added, "but none of us is going to tell anyone. Can't they let us sleep in our own beds?"

"They're worse than hospital beds," opined Kylie, massaging a cramp in her own neck. "And at least you guys have got each other to keep you company. It gets lonely in there all by myself. I'm used to having a cat sleep with me, of course. I'm sure sleeping here is the reason I've been dreaming about Anakin Skywalker," she added. "Well, that and all this talk of space."

"Which Anakin Skywalker?" asked Garrett, as though it mattered.

"The grown-up one," answered Kylie, "the one from 'Episode Two'." Then she forgot where she was momentarily and added, with a flirtatious smile in Ray's direction, "It was, uh... kind of a grown-up dream if you know what I mean."

"What?!" Eduardo exclaimed. "You mean you've got the hots for Anakin Skywalker?"

"He's ok," Kylie replied with a shrug. "I mean he's not exactly in Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt's league, but there is something about him."

"But... but..." Eduardo stammered. "Why Anakin Skywalker?"

"Oh Eduardo, I don't know," sighed Kylie, making for the door in preparation to follow R's orders of a good night's sleep. "Why Anna Kournikova?"

Three astronauts were assigned to accompany the Ghostbusters into space: Andy Sharp, thirty-three years of age; Christine Landau, aged forty-one; and Geri Maguire, just two weeks away from her twenty-sixth birthday. Kylie was grateful to be travelling with two other women. It made her feel less like the odd one out. She also found that she liked Geri: a busty young blonde with two college degrees and a good sense of humour.

Eduardo found that he liked Geri too, simply because he was to be travelling with the four serious Ghostbusters. Winston, Peter and Garrett, who were the more prone to cracking a smile occasionally, were staying behind. Kylie, Egon, Roland and Ray would undoubtedly, even between the four of them, crack very few jokes. Geri, on the other hand, was likely to provide some light relief.

Andy and Christine were entirely different. Older than Ray by five months, Christine seemed to think she was in charge of the expedition, despite constant reminders from Egon that the Ghostbusters had been awarded that position personally by Agent R. Andy pretty much just sat and did nothing, occasionally pressing the odd button or returning Ray's enthusiastic grins with a watery smile.

The journey through space seemed endless to Eduardo, and inordinately dull. Kylie kept hogging Geri; Christine was best avoided and Egon, Ray and Roland were always to be found in very deep, very boring conversation. Which left Andy. Bored almost to tears, Eduardo soon ventured to speak to the apparent mute.

"So how'd you get into this line of work?" the younger man asked, with a friendly smile. Andy just shrugged and said, "A lot of kids want to be astronauts."

"Oh." Answer? What was it? Eduardo wished there was a director off to the left or somewhere who could tell him his line. "I never did. I didn't really know what I wanted to do as a kid, but I honestly never thought I'd end up in space. Funny, that."

Andy just grunted, and Eduardo didn't try talking to him again. At last, however, they reached the mysterious Event Horizon. Ray, Egon and Roland talked over the radio to Agent R and the absent Ghostbusters, while between them Christine and Geri manoeuvred the shuttle expertly onto the Event Horizon's landing dock.

"We're just landing now," Egon deadpanned.

"Cool," came Garrett's voice from the speaker, heavily distorted by static. "How long before you're on board? I can't wait to hear what you find in there!"

"It would be foolish to go charging straight in," Roland returned, his tone patronising and almost derisive. "Christine's got a little robot she's going to send in first."

"Little robot?" Back on Earth, Peter's lips spread into a smile. "Cute."

"A little robot with a little camera," Ray expanded. "It's going to wander around the ship and take pictures, which will be sent directly back to our computer. That way we'll know if there's anything dangerous on board."

"I hope nothing happens to the little robot," said Peter, with mock concern.

"Yeah, me too," Garrett added, and they exchanged a laugh with Winston. Then the latter stopped laughing and said, "Seriously, you guys, good luck. And keep us posted. It's not a nice feeling knowing we can't just jump into the Ecto-1 if you need us."

"Well we could," Peter pointed out. "Probably wouldn't do much good, though."

"We'll be fine," Ray returned breezily. "We're experienced Ghostbusters. We'll be able to handle anything that space ship throws at us."

"Famous last words," they didn't quite hear Peter mutter, as the quietly spoken words were drowned out by static.

The little robot was called Apollo. Geri had picked the name. She stood watching the computer screen over Egon's shoulder, occasionally tucking a strand of fair hair behind her ear. Now she understood why Princess Leia went around space with that bizarre hairstyle. Geri was slightly disgruntled as the five Ghostbusters had bagged the best seats, but if she strained her neck enough she found that she could see most of the computer screen.

"There's nothing there," Kylie murmured, watching the seemingly endless maze of corridors as Apollo whizzed speedily through them. They had already spent what seemed like hours watching as the robot had made its way happily down a ridiculously long and bare stretch of corridor. "No crew, no nothing."

"A lot of doors, though," observed Ray, and then with a slight smile he added, "Round ones. What do you suppose is behind them?"

"We should just go in," Kylie said authoritatively. "Apollo can't get through those doors, he's absolutely no help at all."

"Maybe we should have given him a little proton gun," Eduardo muttered. He spoke quietly, because he knew his fellow Ghostbusters didn't much appreciate his sense of humour; but Geri heard him and laughed.

Quite suddenly, after fully five minutes of carefree wandering, Apollo came to an abrupt halt. He had reached a dead end. Geri and Eduardo exchanged a smile when the little robot emitted a small "whirr" of annoyance.

"Go on," Roland said irritably, "turn round."

As if one cue, the image on the computer screen spun round as Apollo began to retrace his steps. He took a right turn that he had missed before, but again something obstructed his path. "Whirr," he complained again, and Geri suppressed laughter. She knew perfectly well it was just the sound that Apollo's circuitry made when something forced him to stop moving, but it really did sound like he was actually annoyed.

"What is that?" Roland strained his eyes and leaned in to the computer screen. The image was a mess of random colours that almost looked like an object of some kind, though it was impossible to identify.

"He's damaged his optical lens," Ray muttered, as Apollo backed up and the image of the corridor reappeared blurry.

"Enough of this. Let's just get in there," Kylie said decisively, forcefully ripping a long, thin printout from a little slot on the computer. "Apollo says the atmosphere in there is pretty much exactly the same as it is on Earth. Guess we won't need space suits."

"This thing really is from Earth," observed Geri, "though the technology Apollo managed to find and show us is way beyond anything that's been developed at NASA. Unless there's something they're not telling us," she added.

"Anyone want to chicken out?" Kylie asked, a challenge in her voice, and she looked expectantly at Eduardo.

"Why are you looking at me?" Eduardo returned defensively. "Of course I'm not going to chicken out. What would be the point in coming in the first place if I was going to do that?"

"Ok, so let's go." Kylie marched purposefully towards the airlock.

"You're the boss," Geri said with a smile, following close behind Kylie. "Last one on board the Event Horizon is a rotten egg."

"Right." Once standing on the Event Horizon's landing dock, Egon took charge. "We'll split up. Eduardo, you and I will go with Christine. Kylie and Ray can go with Andy, and Roland will go with Geri."

Eduardo wondered whether Egon was trying to set Geri up with their introverted colleague. Probably not, he reflected. Aloud he asked, "Why are we splitting up?"

"So we can search the place more quickly," Egon replied simply.

"But it could be dangerous," argued Eduardo.

"Apollo didn't show up anything at all, let alone anything dangerous," Roland pointed out.

"He did," insisted Eduardo. "When he damaged his optical lens, that was definitely something. And who knows what's behind those doors?"

"That's what we're here to find out," scorned Kylie, rolling her eyes. "Come on Ray, Andy. Let's get on with this."

Proton gun in hand, she set off determinedly for one of the strangely circular doors. She had expected to find that she must blast a hole in the rounded metal, but it opened for her automatically. Kylie smiled, hoping the rest of the mission would be that easy, and strolled casually through, Andy and Ray following close behind.

Geri wandered up and down every corridor, looking around her each time, conducting a thorough search with her eyes. Roland was flummoxed. Every time he saw one of the odd round doors he made straight for it, but Geri was only interested in the corridors.

"Are you looking for anything in particular?" he asked her at last, a note of irritation in his voice.

"Yes," Geri replied. "Apollo. Aren't you looking for him too?"

"Um... no."

"Oh Roland, have a heart." Geri put her hands on her hips and looked at Roland with a bemused smile. "The little guy's out there somewhere with a damaged optical lens."

"So?" returned Roland. "It's only a robot. I really think we ought to do what we came out here to do."

Geri shook her head despairingly, and then took a right turn. If only there were things in these corridors that she could use as landmarks. They would have shown up on the images from Apollo, and she would be able to spot them and follow them now. But alas, there was nothing. She would just have to keep searching blindly.

Then suddenly she heard a familiar low buzzing sound, and turned another corner to see Apollo hobbling towards her on two bent wheels. "Oh Apollo," she fretted, stooping and holding out her arms to the little garden gnome- sized robot as though it was a child learning to walk. "What have you been up to?"

Geri lifted the robot, and it stopped whirring piteously when she flicked a small switch on its back. She hugged the metallic object to her chest, and turned to see Roland approaching her.

"Whatever Apollo ran into," Geri said solemnly, "I guess it must be back there," and she gestured with her head.

"Better go back there then," Roland returned, equally serious. Taking his proton gun into his hand, he brushed past Geri and led the way down the corridor. Geri turned and followed, still holding Apollo protectively in her arms.

When Roland turned the corner he gasped, but he put his proton gun back into its holder on his pack, which suggested to Geri that what he had found was not dangerous. However it was evidently shocking, and she hung back. Roland just stood and stared. Cautiously Geri asked him, "What is it?"

"It's a body," Roland replied gravely. "It's definitely human. You'd better come and take a look."

Geri pulled a face. "Why?"

"You just need to see it, that's all. After all, this is what we came here to find."

The blonde took a deep breath and then followed her companion around the corner into the adjoining corridor. Roland now stood close to the body of a dark-haired white man who looked to be in his late twenties. Geri flinched when she approached the corpse herself and looked down into its face. It was, she noticed, like the bodies of murder victims one reads about in books. His face was distorted with fear, or pain, or both. His eyes and mouth were open wide, his limbs spread around his torso to look something like a Swastika.

"Oh... yeugh," Geri muttered, turning away. "Tell me again why I needed to see that."

Roland turned as well, looking for somewhere to go next and said, "I guess that's what Apollo bumped into. Funny that it should damage his optical lens."

Roland didn't expect a reply, and he didn't get one. Neither did he expect that, when he turned round, Geri would be gone. But she was. The corridor was gone too, and in its place was a shiny silver wall. Roland immediately put a hand to his proton gun, and turned round again. He found himself trapped in a room with no doors. He frowned, trying not to let himself become scared. He was worried not by the enclosed space, but by the fact that the four walls had suddenly appeared while before he had been standing in a corridor aligned with doors.

He was also worried about Geri. Very worried indeed. Where had she gone? Was she on the other side of the wall behind him? If she hadn't moved from where she had been standing, that was where she ought to be. Roland aimed a short blast of proton fire at that wall, several yards from where he knew Geri had been standing, but nothing happened.

A strong PKE reading stated the obvious: something very strange was going on. Then came an unnerving hissing sound. Again Roland turned, and found himself staring at a small troll-like creature. It was squatting on the floor, grinning at him open-mouthed, saliva dripping from toothless gums. Roland flinched. Whatever it was, this thing was ugly. Roland reached for the trap he had with him and aimed a line of proton fire at the creature. But the ugly little thing dodged quickly out of harm's way and took a most unlikely position squatting on the far corner between wall and ceiling.

Roland fired again. The creature used its powerful legs to launch itself from the wall, this time landing on its assailant's head. The Ghostbuster called out helplessly as the creature used its hairy, clawed hands to wrench his weapon from his grasp. No, Roland thought, as he felt himself forced to the ground. I'm not going to die today... am I?

The creature cackled maniacally before taking Roland's face in its little hands, and then it seemed to move in to kiss him. Roland's fear was forgotten momentarily, replaced by a feeling of sheer bewilderment. When the creature's dry, wrinkled lips met his own, Roland felt a gush of thick, warm liquid flowing into his mouth and down his throat. His shouts of protest were hopelessly muffled, but then even an outright scream would have proven pretty useless in the empty, closed-off room.

Once the creature was satisfied it had done all it wanted, it let out another mad laugh and then darted from view. When Roland sat up, he noticed that a corridor had reappeared just as miraculously as the last one had vanished. This one stretched endlessly before him, no doors on either side. He was free to go wherever he chose.

"Hm," Roland muttered with a shrug, getting gingerly to his feet and taking up his dropped proton pack. Then he took a deep breath, stared straight ahead of him and began his aimless walk down the corridor.

"Well?" Geri demanded, after waiting fully ten seconds for an answer to her question. "Why exactly did you make me look at this?"

She turned around, prepared to confront Roland with her anger and disgust, but found to her dismay that he was no longer with her. The corpse still lay stretched out grotesquely across the corridor, but Roland had vanished. Geri rolled her eyes. He must have wandered off. But why would he do that? Why would he leave her on her own?

Apollo still sat stationary in the crook of her arm. Geri breathed in sharply and counted to ten in an effort to control her anger, and then she looked around. Roland couldn't have gone down the corridor because she would have seen him pass her. Therefore he must either have gone through the door to the left or to the right. There was an unmistakable clue in that the right-hand door was open, a perfectly circular hole in the wall, so Geri braced herself for the worst and ventured through it.

She found herself in a fairly large but empty room. She ventured to its centre and turned a-hundred-and-eighty degrees, her heart jumping in alarm when she encountered a large metal door immediately in front of her face. She turned to her right, and gasped when confronted with a wall not far in front of her. The door that had miraculously appeared was still on her left, and turning right again, she saw another.

Geri didn't dare turn again, but she couldn't resist a sideways glance to the right. Another wall. She closed her eyes, breathed out, opened her eyes and found herself still closed in. She supposed there was nothing for it but to try and open the door in front of her. She looked around for some kind of handle or opening mechanism. Then, her eyes travelling upwards, she saw written above the door in large white letters: "OUTER DOOR."

She turned round and looked down, and was relieved to see before her a small screen that she assumed was activated by touch. She reached out to touch the green icon that said "Open inner door", but sheer horror flooded her when the screen started to flash in huge red letters: "Opening Outer Door".

"No!" Geri screamed, banging frantically on what was labelled the "INNER DOOR". The robot in her arms fell to the ground and shattered as Geri hammered furiously, screaming at the top of her lungs, "Somebody help me! ROLAND!" Her voice was almost drowned out to her own ears with the thunderous sound of fist on metal

Then she froze as she heard the dreadful grating sound of metal on metal. Her heart skipped a beat as she realised at once that the outer door was opening. Her voice caught in her throat. In the moments before it happened, she knew there was no point in screaming. Even if someone had been on the other side of the door, there would not have been nearly enough time for them to save her life.

"Hmm. Fascinating," droned Egon, leaning over a particularly fancy piece of robotic cleaning equipment.

"Oh no," Eduardo muttered. "Not something else that's fascinating."

He was waiting for Egon outside what appeared to be some kind of janitor's closet. He slouched against the wall, arms folded and lips pouted in a childish gesture. Bored already, he looked down at the metallic floor, and then gazed around him at the high walls that curved into a massive ceiling above his head.

It was then that Eduardo heard his name. He turned his head to look down the corridor, and saw a figure he thought looked familiar. He could have sworn it was his father, and he was beckoning to him with a smile on his face. And then the smile faded. A gunshot rang out in Eduardo's ears, and the image sharply and suddenly disappeared.

"But it is fascinating," Egon's voice echoed from inside the cupboard, pulling Eduardo back to reality with a sickening jolt. "This equipment is far beyond anything that has been developed on the Earth we know."

"So what are you saying, this hunk of junk is from the future?" Best not to think about what he had just seen.

"Hardly junk, Eduardo," Egon retaliated, emerging from inside the cupboard and kicking the door shut behind him. "I very much doubt that this craft is from the future, but if it is from Earth, then it's way ahead of its time. There's technology aboard this thing I could only dream of."

Eduardo raised his eyebrows, wondering what Egon could possibly have found in a mere cleaning cupboard that surpassed his own genius. Then he noticed movement, breathed in sharply, and breathed out again when he saw what it was.

"There you are, chica," Eduardo said, using the term to annoy the frumpy Christine as she appeared from behind a corner.

"I thought I told you two to stick together," frowned Egon, looking disapprovingly at Christine over the rims of his glasses.

"What? Oh, just forget about that." Christine dismissed his words with a wave of her hand. "I've found the cockpit!"

"You've done WHAT?" Egon cried excitedly, making a dash down the corridor and almost knocking Christine off her feet as he passed her. As Eduardo followed at a more leisurely pace, he wished he had a camera. Egon getting excited was something that ought to be recorded for posterity.

The cockpit was awash with various bits of very complicated machinery. Egon abandoned his proton pack and became at once like a child in a sweet shop. Eduardo watched him like the bored parent not even tempted. He was admittedly quite interested to hear just how ahead of their time these machines were; but unlike the insatiable Egon, he had no desire to prod childishly at the buttons that glowed the brightest.

"See anything you like?" Christine said to Egon, her tone derisive.

"Christine, this equipment is fascinating," Egon returned, his eyes wide with wonder. "I thought the stuff in that closet was ahead of its time, but this...!"

"I wouldn't touch, Dr. Spengler," the woman scolded, as Egon reached out towards a particularly impressive piece of machinery.

"What is this?" breathed Egon. "It's amazing! I've never seen anything like it before in my - "

He was cut off as a powerful electrical current suddenly escaped from the machine and cannoned into the hand with which he had dared to touch the majestic object. Egon was out before he even had time to yell in surprise. The shock catapulted him right across the room; he hit his head hard on another piece of equipment that clanged loudly on impact, and then fell drooping to the floor.

"Egon!" Eduardo cried out in alarm, falling to his knees and sliding to where Egon lay unconscious, his blond hair standing freakishly on end.

Christine rolled her eyes. "Typical man. I told him not to touch anything."

"Is he dead?" Eduardo panicked.

"I think he's just unconscious." She squatted next to Eduardo and placed a hand in front of Egon's mouth. "He's breathing. That can't be bad. But what the hell are we supposed to do with him now? Do you know what you're meant to do with someone who's had an electric shock of..."

Christine looked at the machine that had shocked Egon.

"...of eighty-five vaults?" she finished.

Eduardo stared wide-eyed at Christine and squeaked in panic, "You mean you don't?"

Christine opened her mouth, but was unable to reply before a small furry creature jumped as if from nowhere onto her head. She screamed, and Eduardo grabbed his proton gun, though he was slightly baffled as to what to do with it when he saw that the creature was squatting over Christine's face. It seemed to kiss her, its stomach retching as it did so, and Eduardo stared at it in sheer puzzlement.

When it was finished, the creature stayed squatting over Christine and leered evilly at Eduardo. The Ghostbuster panicked and tried to make a run for it, but succeeded only in stumbling backwards over the unconscious Egon. The creature's yellow eyes narrowed in anticipation as it leapt onto its next victim.

"Oh sh...!" Eduardo began, but found he was suddenly quite unable to speak. There was a figure leaning over him, but instead of the creature that had leapt on him, he was looking into the bloodshot eyes of his late father.

"Eddie." The man looked dolefully down into Eduardo's eyes, but Eduardo was far too distracted by the gunshot wound in his stomach and the blood pouring from his left temple to be stirred by his father's expression. "Why didn't you come when I called you?"

"Oh man," Eduardo groaned, shutting his eyes and turning his head away as a large drop of blood fell from the apparition's head. He felt the blood splash against his cheek, thick and hot, but ventured to open his eyes when the sensation became suddenly cool and solid.

He was astonished to see that Kylie had taken his father's place. She pulled away from the kiss she had planted where the blood had fallen, and smiled adoringly down at him, her dark green eyes penetrating as ever.

"Kylie!" Eduardo exclaimed. "Where did you come from?"

"That doesn't matter now," Kylie crooned, stroking her long black fingernails through his hair. "Are you happy to see me Eduardo?"

"Oh man." He'd heard that line from her before, and his heart sank. "You're not really you."

"Of course I'm me," Kylie murmured softly, leaning into him and pouting her lips, apparently about to kiss him. "And I'm REEAL-ly happy to see you."

Eduardo couldn't help but give in just for a moment when Kylie's lips met his. However he didn't have time to realise his mistake before he felt thick, hot liquid gushing into his mouth. The creature, in its demon form once again, purged the last of the foul stuff into him before leaping away through the door with a shrill, chilling cackle.

"Oh," Kylie whined, stepping over the corpse of a woman, minus the right arm. "Here's another one."

"What can have killed them?" Ray wondered.

"Whatever it is it's probably going to kill us," Kylie muttered. "Why did we agree to come on this stupid mission? This isn't even anything to do with us."

"It is now," murmured Ray, following where Kylie led him, the silent Andy lagging behind. "And so far all the bodies we've found have at least made our PKE meters blip. This is our business all right."

"Ooh!" Kylie cried out excitedly as she entered a room. "A computer! There's bound to be some information on there somewhere. Dammit, if only we had Roland."

"I'm sure we'll manage," Ray said with a weak smile.

Kylie sat down in front of the blank computer screen. It was like no computer any of them had ever seen before: huge, spanning a whole wall, and surrounded by several unrecognisable slots and switches. Ray watched over Kylie's shoulder as she brought the device to life. It loaded remarkably quickly, and Kylie started trying to get into various files she came across.

"Stupid thing wants passwords," she said crossly. "How the hell are we supposed to know what the password is?"

"Um... I may be able to access something," Andy piped up timidly from his position behind Ray. "Can... can I try?"

With a shrug Kylie vacated the seat and allowed Andy to play with the futuristic keyboard. "Pretty snazzy equipment," she murmured close to Ray's ear, never taking her eyes from Andy's busy fingers. "Wow," she added, "he's fast. Guess he's some kind of closet computer nerd."

"You're right," Ray returned. "About this equipment, I mean. I've never seen anything like it."

"Me neither," replied Kylie. "But then you and I are nothing to do with NASA. They've probably got all sorts of stuff like this that civilians aren't allowed to know about."

"I got something," Andy volunteered, offering the seat back to Kylie. She took it, and began to scroll down the document Andy had opened.

"There's a CD in there," Andy explained, "and I managed to salvage something. I think the file's moving image, but I got it in some kind of script form."

"Ray, it's the ship's log!" Kylie squealed excitedly, scrolling back up and beginning to scan the document from the beginning.

Ray put a hand on the back of the chair and stooped to peer at the computer screen. Kylie was the first to notice the date. She turned her head and frowned at Ray saying, "Ray, this gives the date as 2040. That can't be right."

"Are you sure it's the date? Maybe it's the time or something."

"Look for yourself," Kylie shrugged, slouching back in the chair. "Can you see a printer or something? There's far too much here to get through now. We need to get a copy of it."

Ray looked vaguely around the room. "Is there a print icon?" he asked. "Click on it and we'll see if anything pops out from anywhere."

Kylie obeyed, and seconds later one of the machines in the room started spewing out reams of paper. Ray estimated that about a-hundred sheets had been printed before the process finally stopped. He picked up the lengthy document and looked blankly at it, holding it at arm's length.

"We'd better take a third each," Kylie said, "in case something happens to one of us."

"Something happens to one of us? Like what?" Ray asked with a frown.

"Like whatever happened to all those people whose bodies we found," Kylie shrugged. "Come on, you've both got pockets. Let's get this back to our shuttle so we know it's as safe as it can be."

Kylie hurried Ray as he began to distribute the sheets of paper. She managed to find a place for her third somewhere inside her own clothes, while Andy and Ray folded and stuffed theirs into inside pockets.

"Ok," Kylie nodded approvingly, "let's go. Oh and Andy..."

Andy looked at her expectantly.

"Well done," she smiled. "That was pretty impressive."

Andy continued to walk in silence, and Kylie followed with a shrug of resignation. If he didn't want to talk that was fine by her.

Suddenly her attention was grabbed when she heard her own name. She turned, and saw someone that she almost thought looked like Anakin Skywalker beckoning her down a corridor. Ignore it, she told herself, turning back to face her companions. But to her great surprise and alarm, Andy and Ray had both vanished.

"Oh... sugar," Kylie muttered.

"Kylie!" she heard, and she turned again to the young man beckoning her towards him. She knew that it was a stupid idea to follow him, but what else was she supposed to do? With a frustrated sigh she began to make her way down the corridor, mentally gearing herself up for whatever lay in store for her.

On discovering that Kylie was missing, and failing to make radio contact with her, Andy and Ray had agreed to continue making their way back to the shuttle and get the document they were carrying off their hands. They could look for Kylie later. It occurred to Ray that he had given her the middle part of the document. Vaguely he wondered whether this was the best part to lose, if one had to go missing. The middle of a story, after all, can often be worked out fairly accurately from its beginning and end. But then again, the middle often contained the most crucial information.

"I do wonder what killed those people," Ray muttered, talking to himself as much as he was to Andy. "They looked terrified."

"Whatever it was, let's hope we don't encounter it," Andy returned.

"What about Kylie?" Ray's anxiety instantly doubled. "What if she's come across whatever it is?"

"Well," Andy said uncertainly, "let's just get rid of all this bumf so we can find her, ok?"

They were literally yards from their shuttle when they were accosted by what looked like a small sprite. The thing had horns and a wicked grin. It looked upon the two men with maniacal eyes. And then, after a very brief staring contest, the little creature began to talk to them.

"You'll never get out alive," it taunted. "I can't kill you, but something will. You'll end up just like the others."

Wasting no time, Ray caught the creature in a proton stream and then remembered that his trio's only trap was with the absent Kylie. He cursed under his breath and released the writhing little goblin, or whatever it was, from his proton fire.

Ray and Andy both watched as the creature ran, aflame and screaming, away from the ship's landing dock. Then Ray turned to Andy, putting his hand to his inner pocket, and said evenly, "I think we should get out of here as fast as we can. You take this on board and wait for the rest of us there." He handed Andy his wad of paper. "Everything we can find out is bound to be in this document. I'm going to find Kylie and round up the others, and then we're outta here."

Andy could neither protest nor agree, as Ray was out of sight within seconds.

Kylie followed the mysterious man down a maze of ever narrowing corridors. Then suddenly she stopped and slapped her forehead when she realised that she was carrying a walkie-talkie. She took it into her hand and began to talk.

"Guys, it's me. Can anyone hear me?"

Static. She rolled her eyes and continued to walk. She was now making her way down a seemingly endless corridor. The only way was forwards; apart from back, there was nowhere else to go – and for some reason it didn't seem to occur to her that going back might not be a bad idea. This must be the corridor that Apollo had taken so long to move through. Kylie you idiot, she mentally scolded herself. She was now hopelessly lost.

She soon found herself at a dead end, with literally nothing before her but a long drop. The corridor widened into a large, round floor, but then came to an abrupt halt. There was some kind of large metal sphere apparently floating in midair above the chasm, but Kylie did not really take this in as the Anakin Skywalker look-alike now stood with his back to her, legs astride, right hand placed on his hip with an air of importance. Kylie frowned at the dark blond hair on the back of his head before finally venturing to speak.

"All right, who are you and what the hell is going on around here?"

The man turned, and suddenly transformed to look like Kylie's late Grandma Rose. Kylie gasped and put a hand to her mouth, but the apparition did not stay this way for long. The body began to dissolve into hundreds, possibly thousands of small, writhing maggots.

"Oh no," Kylie mumbled, closing her eyes against what to her was a terrifying spectacle. "It's one of those."

One of those places that has some kind of ability to read one's mind and to confront its occupants with their worst fears, their strongest desires, that kind of thing. Kylie did not consider Anakin Skywalker one of her strongest desires. However the evil presence here had certainly succeeded in grabbing her attention, and was now making sure she was backed towards the large circle's edge by the one thing of which she was very phobic.

"Come on Kylie," she murmured, opening one eye to look at her slimy little assailants as she tried to steady her breathing. "They're only maggots. It's a stupid fear anyway. They're not going to do anything to you."

It took all of her courage to put one foot forward, but when one of the maggots got within six inches of the toe of her shoe, she screamed pathetically and took two steps backwards. It was then that she realised there was no floor behind her, and too many steps back would mean a nasty fall.

"Kylie, you wimp!" she scolded herself. "What's worse? A God-knows-how- many-feet drop or a few stupid little maggots?"

Despite what common sense told her, Kylie chose the drop when the maggots began to move unnaturally quickly towards her. She screamed again, stumbled backwards and, predictably, found herself falling.

"Oh no oh no oh no," Kylie muttered. Her eyes were closed; she did not want to see what lay in store for her below. She swore she could hear what sounded like a ceiling fan magnified at least twenty times. That could not be good, and therefore she felt fairly relieved when she landed on cold, hard metal.

The fans were there, though, situated several feet away on either side of her, and spinning much too quickly for eyes to follow. On further inspection, Kylie now found herself in what appeared to be a large metal tube. By an incredible coincidence she had fallen through one of the relatively small holes in the metal above her. Coincidence unless, of course, someone or something had planned for her to fall just there.

"That's the last time I admit to liking Anakin Skywalker," Kylie muttered grudgingly, getting awkwardly to her feet. This was no easy task, as the metal surface beneath her was shiny and slippery.

This really was a great place for unnerving sounds. Now Kylie thought she heard a gush of water. She stood perfectly still and listened, but the enormous fans at either side of her cylindrical prison were making too much noise for her to be sure... until the sound became closer. There was definitely a huge amount of water flowing somewhere near her. Kylie strained her ears, trying to make out where it was coming from.

"Oh SHIT!" she screamed, when the sound became too close for comfort, and the first few drops of liquid trickled through the holes. The expletive echoed in the tube around her until the ever-increasing sound of the water drowned it out.

The rest of the process was less gradual. Kylie was suddenly hit by a cascade of liquid worthy of Niagara Falls. She wanted to scream, but instinctively left her mouth shut as her entire body was engulfed by the foamy liquid. As the water moved through the tube she was carried helplessly with it. Her arms and legs were flailing, but there was no point in trying to swim against this immensely powerful current, which she knew was taking her rapidly towards the deadly giant fan.

The sound of the fan was getting closer, and Kylie felt sure that she was not going to live for much longer than a few seconds. As the flow of water carried her upwards, she reached out blindly. By extreme fortune her hands found the jagged edge of one of the holes - water holes, it seemed. She brought up her other hand and her feet, holding on for dear life. There was still water pouring down upon her through the hole that had saved her, and it took all of her strength not to get washed down again. But her will to keep on living was too great, and eventually the flow started to die down.

Kylie let out an immense sigh of relief as the torrential flow slowed and gradually died down to a trickle beneath her. She stayed put for a good thirty seconds, waiting for her senses to return and trying to summon back some of the strength that had literally been knocked out of her.

Finally she was able to haul herself out of the enormous pipe via the hole. She squatted on the top of the metal tube and looked around her, absolutely dripping wet. There were several tubes and mechanisms just like the one she had been trapped in. Evidently this was some kind of engine room. She guessed that the ludicrously long corridor running down the middle of the ship with nothing either side of it separated personnel from the engineering works. At least what she had seen so far seemed to indicate as much.

Kylie moved into a sitting position, and slid down the side of the metal tube. It was a long way down, and she landed painfully on her behind. As droplets of water continued to roll down all parts of her body, a puddle rapidly formed around her.

That, she supposed, was most likely some kind of cleaning process. The mechanism must have been automatic, just as the ship must have been on auto- pilot in order to keep on working so well after the demise of the crew.

Once Kylie had regained her composure, she got slowly to her feet and looked around her for a way out. Then she looked up. Above her she could see the surface she had fallen from, but it would be impossible to reach it. There had to be a door or something down where she was, surely. She looked around again, more carefully this time, and finally located a small metal hatch in the far corner of the room.

She made for the hatch and tried both pushing and pulling on the handle, but it didn't give. So Kylie took her proton gun and blasted the door clean away. Then she got to her knees and crawled into the darkness beyond, leaving a trail of water behind her.

It was some kind of tunnel that she had crawled into. She could neither see nor hear anything. Unsurprisingly the air in there was thin, and she hoped that she would be able to get out fairly quickly. Knowing her luck, she reflected bitterly, she would probably reach a dead end and have to turn back. Then again, avoiding that fan had been pretty lucky. She flinched when she thought about what the awful device would have done to her.

At last Kylie found another hatch, this one circular, above her. This time she had simply to turn a wheel to open it. A little old-fashioned for this place, she noticed. With the exception of that hatch, more or less everything she had encountered so far had been mechanical.

A hand locked onto hers and pulled her out into the open. At least the bare ten-square-foot room seemed open after that cramped tunnel.

"Eduardo." Kylie smiled her relief as she looked at the familiar face.

Eduardo's features broke into a coy smile. Despite her ghostbusting attire, Kylie was looking remarkably similar to Elizabeth Bennet of "Pride and Prejudice". Her clothes hung even more tightly to her body than usual, and her black hair was plastered wetly to her cheeks and forehead.

"Thanks for pulling me out of the hole, I guess," Kylie said, "but I really could have used you in that tube."

"Tube?" Eduardo repeated distractedly, looking her up and down.

"I got trapped in a giant tube between two fans and then I was almost killed by some sort of backwash or something," Kylie told him. "Well, I suppose it would have been the fan that killed me but..."

She tailed off and started again: "Eduardo, this place is seriously dangerous. Have you come across anything... unusual?"

Eduardo raised his eyebrows and asked smoothly, "Like what?"

"Well... like anything really. I've seen some very strange things indeed. They were obviously illusions or hallucinations or something, but they seemed so real. I fell into the stupid big tube because I was backed into a corner by a gang of maggots."

"Are you ok?" Eduardo asked, seemingly unconcerned.

"Aside from being a little wet, I'm fine," Kylie shrugged. "What are you doing down here anyway? Where are Egon and Christine?"

"Don't know," Eduardo said dismissively. "Don't care."

Kylie didn't like the way he was looking at her. If Eduardo had stolen the odd lecherous glance at her before, the lust in his eyes now put those to shame. She looked back at him suspiciously and asked with caution, "Are... you ok?"

"Better for seeing you," Eduardo murmured, taking a step towards Kylie.

She was aware that she was rapidly being backed into a corner. "Has something happened?" she asked, eyes darting around in search of an escape route in case he turned nasty. "Eduardo, what's gotten into you?"

Predictably she found herself backed against a wall. He moved uncomfortably close until she could feel his warm breath against her face. It smelt stagnant. He had clearly eaten or drunk something very recently, and now its foul odour clung unpleasantly to his breath. When Kylie screwed up her eyes and turned her face away, she wasn't sure whether she did so because of the smell or because of Eduardo's violation of her personal space.

"Don't close your eyes," Eduardo crooned, taking Kylie's chin in his hand and turning her head roughly back to face him. "Oh Kylie, you're so beautiful. Did I ever tell you that your eyes are like daggers with piercing blades and emerald-studded hilts?"

Ok. It wasn't too difficult to spot what was going on here. Eduardo had gone crazy, or evil, or both. She seemed to remember that when Captain Kirk had turned evil his behaviour towards that stupid blond woman - Janice Rand, was it? - had been very similar to Eduardo's behaviour towards her now. So what, Kylie wondered, was the best course of action? It would be useless to try and fight him. He was far too strong and could easily overpower her. A good idea might be to get him to drop his guard by playing sluttishly along with his game, but she really didn't want to do that.

"Um... no," was Kylie's response to Eduardo's question. "No, you never did."

"Well I'm telling you now. They are."

Kylie felt herself flinch in sheer repulsion as Eduardo ran a gloved finger down her cheek. She suspected that under different circumstances she would not react to his touch like this, but here and now there was clearly something very wrong with him.

"Why don't you want me, Kylie?" Eduardo went on, eyes wide and bottom lip pouted in a perverse and grotesque imitation of childish innocence.

Kylie remembered just in time the advice that her paternal grandmother had given her to deal with just this situation: a good, hard knee-kick where the sun doesn't shine. She tried it, and it worked, the force of the kick increased by the density of her kneepads. Eduardo cried out and doubled up in pain; she was able to dart around him, blast through the nearest door with her proton gun and make a run for it.

Ray had walked the long stretch of the main corridor, and was overcome with relief when he finally managed to get hold of Kylie via his walkie-talkie. "I'm in some kind of cockpit," said her voice through the static. "Where are you?"

"Um..." Ray looked around, and finally located a labelled door. "I'm by a door labelled 'Officers' Quarters'."

"Ok," spat the walkie-talkie, "I know exactly where you are."

"You do?"

"Absolutely. I walked right past there. Now if you go down the corridor with that door on your left, and then you turn left..."

Ray did as instructed, and was pleasantly surprised to see a large arrow labelled with the word "Cockpit".

"...you should be able to follow signs to the cockpit."

"Right. Wow, that was lucky," observed Ray, wondering if there was some kind of catch. "I'll be right with you."

He followed a series of very convenient signs, keeping up a conversation as he went. "Why did you just disappear like that?" he asked.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Kylie's voice crackled. "Just got a bit distracted. By the signs to the cockpit as it goes. How far have you got?"

"I've reached a door labelled 'Cockpit'," Ray replied. "I'm right outside."

"Great. Just keep going and I'll see you in two shakes."

Two shakes. Of a lamb's tail? Ray didn't remember Kylie using that expression before, but then he supposed he didn't know her that well. He kept on walking towards the door labelled "COCKPIT" and put out a hand to open it.

"Whoa!" Kylie appeared as if from nowhere, for some reason wet all over, and grabbed him by the arm. "Ray, are you crazy? What the hell are you doing?"

"How... how did you get there?" stammered the startled Ray.

"I came up some stairs over there," Kylie replied, nodding towards a door labelled "ENGINE ROOM: Proceed with caution". Ray stared at her for a moment, and then looked back at the door he had been about to open. It was now labelled "AIRLOCK".

"How can that be?" Ray squeaked incredulously. "That was the cockpit a minute ago! And... and you were in there!"

"No I wasn't," Kylie said with a frown. "I've been in the engine room. Running away from Eduardo actually."

"What?"

"Guess we'd better tell each other what's been happening." She took Ray by the arm and led him back down the corridor, which no longer bore any signs to the cockpit. "Come on. And we'd better round up the others too."

Roland had found Egon unconscious in the cockpit (which, to clear up any doubt, was the real cockpit). He stood over the professor's still form, leering down at his unnaturally pale complexion and muttering, "You'll be dead soon."

He looked up sharply as Christine entered the room and glared at him confrontationally. He puffed out his chest and said, "You'd better stay where you are, lady."

"I suggest you step away from him," Christine returned coolly, "or I'll be forced to make you."

Each saw the other's eyes literally glowing red. They advanced upon one another until they stood but a few yards apart, ever determined and confrontational. Christine delivered the first punch, and Roland was knocked back slightly.

"You bitch!" he yelled, lunging forward and aiming a punch at Christine's face, which she expertly blocked with her left hand.

It was then that Kylie and Ray appeared in the doorway. They stopped short, stunned by the scene that met their eyes. "Oh no," Kylie groaned. "Don't say they're evil as well."

Ray ducked out of sight just as Roland's and Christine's red eyes fixed on Kylie. He crawled over to the unconscious Egon, and after establishing that he was breathing but had no pulse, wondered if he could revive his old friend without attracting attention.

"Still alive?" crooned Christine, moving slowly towards Kylie. "Dear me, we can't possibly have that."

Kylie risked a sideways glance at Ray. He looked back at her in sheer desperation, but she knew that she couldn't look at him for more than a split second, otherwise Roland and Christine would spot him. So her eyes locked back onto Christine's face. She was closer than Roland was, and seemed marginally the more hostile.

"Guess this ship and its magic tricks just aren't clever enough for me," Kylie returned shakily. She was scared for herself - and for Egon. She knew she had to get these two away from the room so that Ray could bring Egon back to consciousness.

"I know why you want to kill her," Roland said nastily to Christine. "You're jealous because she's young and pretty."

Roland may just have helped Kylie out there; quite unintentionally, of course. She jumped onto the bandwagon straight away with, "That's right. Jealous... Of me. Um... so there."

Christine's eyes narrowed. Kylie felt sure now that wherever she went, Christine would follow. But what about Roland? She had to get his full attention as well.

"Having fun?" she asked him, her voice hopelessly shaken by her frantically beating heart. "Playing with all of these machines, I mean. It must be fascinating for you, seeing what geniuses can achieve. Too bad you could never come up with anything better than that trash compactor of yours."

She was certain that if either of these two caught her, they would kill her. But she knew she was quick, even with her equipment strapped to her upper body, and she might even be able find an ingenious place to hide. She had to lead them away from the room. Too much time had been wasted already, and if she didn't leave Ray to it, Egon would die.

So Kylie backed slowly out of the door, and then turned and ran. She glanced over her shoulder just once to ensure that Christine and Roland were both following. They were following, and they were uncomfortably close, so Kylie fought the dull ache in her legs and increased her pace.

She knew, just knew, that she couldn't go on running for much longer. She had used up a great deal of energy escaping the fate of the fan; then she had run from Eduardo, and now she was running from Christine and Roland. It was crazy really. These were three people she could trust. Ok, so she didn't particularly know Christine, but she had been fairly confident that the woman would never try to kill her.

Kylie hated squealers, but she found herself letting out a surprised squeak as an unknown person grabbed her by the arm. She hoped it was Geri. Or it might be Andy; she had no guarantee that he was on the shuttle as she had assumed.

But there was no such luck. It was Eduardo, and she felt her stomach twist itself into knots as he pushed her forcibly against the nearest wall. It was dark and she couldn't see the room she had been dragged into. She recognised Eduardo thanks to an eerie glow surrounding him.

"There you are, chica," Eduardo crooned, his lips almost upon hers as she spoke. "That was an interesting little game, wasn't it, but I'm afraid it's over now. Oh yes. Now..."

He backed away and kicked a door shut behind him. Kylie was now free to move, but there was nowhere to go.

"Now we play by my rules..."

Ray had succeeded in reviving Egon. It had taken several very scary minutes, in which Ray had become convinced that his friend was lost for good. But eventually his heart started, and the wait for him to regain consciousness was not too long.

"Ray," Egon murmured drowsily as he sat up.

"Egon!" Ray cried out in immense relief. "Don't try to speak! Just lie there until you feel you can move."

"I can move now, Ray," Egon said irritably, fighting off his concerned friend's attempts to push him back down to the floor. "How long have I been out?"

"I don't know."

"What's going on?" Egon demanded. "What are you doing here? Where are Eduardo and Christine? And for that matter, where are Kylie and Andy?"

Ray answered these questions as best he could. Egon was shocked to hear that Roland, Eduardo and Christine were all, for whatever reason, evil; but he was confident that they could all be saved. He was also deeply concerned when he learnt of what Kylie had done the last time Ray had seen her.

"You and I are here," Egon mused, "and Andy's on the shuttle, yes?"

"Unless he's moved," said Ray, "which I doubt."

"Which leaves Geri. Do you know what happened to her?"

Ray did not know what had happened to Geri, now the only member of their group unaccounted for. It was possible that Roland knew what had become of her, but it would have been extremely foolish to seek him out and ask him. On Egon's instruction, Ray tried and failed to make radio contact with the absent young woman.

"We have got to get you back onto the shuttle, to relative safety," Ray said at last, pulling Egon gently to his feet. "And we need to get you a doctor, and we need to get some help out here. God knows what's happened to Kylie, and we've got to do something about the three who have turned evil. Agreed?"

Egon nodded. "Agreed."

Andy was engrossed in the ship's log. It was fascinating, but altogether impossible. Then again, the creature that had taunted him and Ray on the dock had also looked pretty unlikely. But even so, the information in this document...

"You have to get out of here..."

Andy jumped and yelled out in surprise as an eerily distorted voice crackled from the microphone they used to contact HQ.

"Don't be afraid of me," the voice went on monotonously. "I was on the maiden voyage. I... I don't quite understand what happened but - "

"The stuff in this log," Andy interrupted, waving the sheets of paper challengingly at the microphone. "Is it true?"

"Of course it's true."

"This space craft... is from the future?"

"Oh yes."

"Right," Andy scoffed, deriding himself for almost believing it. "You expect me to believe this ship can travel through time?"

"It can," the voice crackled incessantly. "You have to get out of here now, before more of you come to harm. You're only safe in here for a short time. They'll get in here, the... whatever it was that killed me and the rest of the crew. And the creatures..."

"Yeah, I saw one of those," Andy returned dryly. "But look, I can't just pilot this thing back to Earth. There's a whole team of people still out there."

"Two of them are on their way back." The voice was so distorted it didn't sound even close to human. "Wait for them, and then get out of here. One of you is already dead. The others don't stand a chance."

"What? Who?" Andy demanded, alarm evident in his tone. "Who's dead?"

He received no reply. It was at that moment that Ray appeared, followed by a weak looking Egon, whom he bossily helped onto nearest seat. Ray then fairly shoved Andy out of his way as he began prodding at the radio controls.

"What's going on?" Andy asked anxiously. "What happened to him? Are you calling HQ?"

"He got electrocuted," Ray said, sounding hurried and distracted, "and yes, I am calling HQ. We're in some pretty serious you-know-what here."

"Why? Is someone dead?"

"Dead?" Ray stopped what he was doing for a moment to stare Andy in the face. "God I hope not, but Geri's gone AWOL. There's no knowing what's happened to her."

"Don't forget Kylie," Egon put in. "She could be anywhere by now. We just have to pray none of the others caught up with her."

Ray nodded, deaf to Andy's mindless twittering, and worked as fast as he could to establish contact with their Earth-bound allies.

The distress call got through well enough. When Winston, Garrett and Peter went to the control room seeking a progress report on the mission, they found Agent R running frantically around the room trying to organise ten different groups of people. The three Ghostbusters watched as he gave an instruction to some guy in a lab coat, and then bolted speedily across the room to grab hold of a microphone.

"All right, Agent D, are you ready for take-off?"

"Almost," replied a radio speaker, with relative clarity.

"Well hurry up," R barked back. "Let us know as soon as you're ready. Ah good, there you are." He suddenly looked up at the Ghostbusters, and made his way across the room to them.

"What's going on?" demanded Winston, his brusque tone quashed somewhat when the words were followed by a loud, undignified sneeze.

"You're friends are in trouble," R answered at speed. "We're sending out some back-up."

"What kind of trouble?" Garrett wanted to know.

"Your Dr. Stantz said something about demons. Spengler's been injured, and as far as I could make out a couple of them have turned evil. To be honest he wasn't all that clear."

"Well what the hell do you think you're doing sending them back-up without us?" fumed Garrett.

"Right!" Peter supported him. "If they need rescuing - "

"You can't go into space," R argued. "Please just accept what I say. You're wasting valuable time."

"Oh no!" Peter persisted, jabbing a defiant forefinger at R's chest. "When we agreed to do this for you, you promised us that we would be in charge. Not you. Us!"

As Peter spoke he took steps towards the rapidly retreating Agent R, backing him into a corner.

"That's right," Garrett volunteered, now some way across the room from them. "Now you get us suited up and on that space craft! And don't argue, you'll waste valuable time!"

"Agent R," ventured Winston, with commendable placidity. "Obviously we understand why you'd rather we stay here, but these really are exceptional circumstances. If there's problems with demons and people turning evil, it sounds like they're going to need some of our equipment. And since we're the only ones who know how to use it effectively... well, I really don't see how they can be rescued without our help."

"Oh... all right," R conceded, brushing Peter aside and venturing out from his corner. "But if you two come back with some kind of exotic disease, don't blame me. And as for you..." He looked at Garrett and his eyes narrowed. "You'd just better be as capable as you seem to think you are."

Garrett looked about to argue, but Winston didn't give him the chance. "You say Egon's hurt," he said to R. "Do you know exactly what happened?"

"Like I say, the message wasn't that clear. But Stantz says he's fine for now, and we're sending Dr. Fox to take a look at him."

"Ok, good," Winston nodded approvingly. "Now point us in the direction of that shuttle. We've wasted enough time already."

Ray sounded distraught. "We can't get hold of Geri, and God knows what's happened to Kylie by now," he fretted. Peter, Garrett and Winston had by now left the Earth's atmosphere a good way behind, and were talking to Ray over the radio.

"Kylie's a tough kid." Winston tried to sound reassuring. "She can take care of herself."

"Right," Peter agreed, though he secretly doubted that she could fight off three allies-turned-evil by herself. "Don't worry, Ray, she's a twenty- first century girl, and so is Geri."

"Are you ok, Garrett?" Ray asked suddenly. "You've been very quiet."

"What? Oh." Garrett took in a deep breath, and then slowly let it out again. "I'm fine. Really. I've got absolutely no problem being in this nice, big, oxygenated space shuttle."

Dr. Fox was with them, busily reading through some sheets of paper on the clipboard that Peter (seemingly quite accurately) called her "security blanket". When Garrett spoke she looked up sharply and snapped, "You're not claustrophobic, are you?"

"Claustrophobic? Me?" Garrett's laugh caught in his throat, so he turned the undignified squeak that came out into a cough. "Don't be ridiculous."

As we know this was Garrett's first time in space, and although he knew perfectly well that space literally was just space - a vacuum - he honestly hadn't thought that he would have a problem with it. It was just enclosed spaces he didn't like. On those occasions he tried to avoid, when he was in a confined space, he didn't even think about the lack of air. It was the feeling of being closed in that he didn't like; of not being able to move. He could move now, of course, but still he felt pretty trapped. If there was some kind of problem with the space shuttle, there would be nowhere to...

Don't think about it. DO NOT think about it. Jeez Garrett, what are you trying to do to yourself?

"Geri was claustrophobic once upon a time," volunteered Agent D, a pleasant man of thirty-something who insisted on being called Daniel (R could never find out about that). "But she had therapy and got over it cos she wanted to be an astronaut so bad."

"So... anyway," came Ray's voice from the radio, momentarily forgotten. "When I saw Kylie, she said she'd been confronted with illusions, and they almost killed her. That is they led her to near-death. From the sounds of it she's lucky to be alive. It happened to me too. I heard her voice over the radio and it almost lured me into an airlock. That was when the real Kylie showed up."

"How's Spengler?" Fox demanded sharply.

"Oh, he's ok," said Ray. "Couldn't hurt to check him out, though. He took eighty-five vaults, and I don't know how long it was before I got to him."

"So... who's evil?" asked Peter.

"Peter, I already told you," Ray said irritably.

"Well I've forgotten," Peter shrugged. "Tell me again."

Ray sighed. "Roland, Eduardo and Christine are evil and at large. Andy and Egon are here with me. Kylie and Geri are AWOL. Got it?"

Peter nodded. "Got it."

Fox, Daniel (a.k.a. Agent D) and NASA's two astronauts were instructed to stay with Andy and Egon on board the original shuttle while the more able Ghostbusters ventured onto the ship. Daniel had a few things to say about this, reasoning that he wasn't needed on the shuttle, and he should be involved in the rescue operation.

"We can handle it," Winston insisted. "No offence, Daniel, you seem like a nice guy and everything but, well..."

"There is a possibility you might get in the way and make things worse," Peter finished, evidently not as afraid as Winston of hurting the nice man's feelings. He offered an apologetic smile as a consolation prize.

"Right." Fox bustled importantly over to where Egon sat, while Andy excitedly started showing the ship's log to Daniel. "Let's take a look at you, then."

The PKE trails on board the Event Horizon were numerous. Generally the four Ghostbusters - namely Ray, Peter, Winston and Garrett – would choose one at random. However there was some debate about whether to chase the strongest signals, as these were likely to pose the biggest threat; or the weaker ones, as their human friends were unlikely to be giving off very high readings.

"We might as well not bother with these," Garrett said at last, with a tone of frustration, waving his PKE meter in the air for emphasis. "There's clearly weird stuff going on all over the ship, and the people we're looking for are probably dotted around all over the place."

"On a scale of one to ten," Peter ventured, "how bad an idea do you think it is to split up?"

"Ten," Winston said at once.

"I'm not so sure," put in Ray. "I don't think it's more than eight. It might be wise to stick together; however Kylie is likely to be in immediate danger, and we need to find her as quickly as we can. That may mean splitting up. And besides, she disappeared when we were together without Andy or me even noticing at first, which seems to suggest that staying in a group isn't as fool-proof as it may seem."

As if to prove his point, Garrett and Winston had disappeared in the time that Ray had been talking. He and Peter, now alone together, stared blankly at each other.

"Think they're together?" Peter finally asked.

"I hope so for their sakes," Ray answered solemnly. "Come on, we might as well do this thing."

At a reluctant pace, Ray led Peter to where Kylie, Roland and Christine had last been seen: the cockpit. He hoped that their PKE meters might pick up their trail. "Sorry," he said, as they stepped over corpses at various degrees of mutilation. "Guess I should have warned you about all the bodies."

Before they even reached their first destination, Peter was pounced upon by a small troll-like creature. For those of us that have seen it before, it was the demon that attacked Roland, Christine and Eduardo (in that order, as it happens). Ray watched, dumbfounded, as the little critter plastered its lips onto Peter's and then started to retch violently as though being sick.

Soon enough, however, the creature lost interest in Peter and fixed its eyes on Ray. Ray waited for it to frog-leap off Peter's face and then expertly caught it in a proton stream. Seconds later the creature was trapped. For whatever reason Ray had been far more successful than Roland in this task; perhaps the little demon was tired after so much action.

"Peter?" For the second time since boarding the Event Horizon, Ray found himself kneeling at the side of an unconscious friend. "Are... you ok?"

There was a moment of unnerving silence, then Peter's eyes suddenly snapped open and he grinned maniacally up at Ray.

"Nope," Ray muttered, standing and taking a few steps back as Peter jumped nimbly to his feet. "Not ok."

"This was crazy," Peter sneered nastily, "coming out here to save your worthless little life. When I think of all those FBI babes I left back on Earth..."

Fuelled by the knowledge that he just had to win this one, Ray ducked Peter's fist and jumped behind him with an athleticism he thought was long lost to middle age. Peter reacted quickly and turned to face him, but Ray's proton gun was already coming down on his head.

"Sorry Pete," Ray said genuinely, as Peter fell to the ground. "But at least you'll have a nice bump to impress the girls with, huh?"

He was relieved when his walkie-talkie crackled and Winston's voice asked anxiously, "Ray? Garrett? Pete? Can anyone hear me?"

Ray took up his walkie-talkie and said to it, "I hear you, Winston. Where are you?"

"No idea, man."

"Listen," Ray went on, "find Garrett, ok? I'm a little tied up for the moment. The bad news is that Venkman's evil. The good news is I managed to knock him out and I'm about to take him back to the shuttle. Now if you see Roland, Eduardo or Christine, you do the same, ok?"

"Ok," Winston agreed.

"I also trapped the creature responsible," continued Ray. "That means we can take it home, analyse it and work out how to save Pete and co."

"Good work, Ray," Winston said approvingly. "Come and find us once you've got Venkman on the shuttle, ok?"

"Ok," Ray nodded. "Good luck, Winston."

Winston tucked his walkie-talkie back into his belt, and then looked around him. Doors and corridors. No way of knowing where to go next. He tried again to make contact with Garrett, but was answered with severe static. There was, he realised, no reason why Garrett shouldn't be able to talk to him.

Unless he was in some kind of danger. Wasting no time, Winston followed his instincts down the main corridor.

Garrett was slightly flummoxed to find himself alone, but decided not to let it bother him. He would be fine by himself. He had all the equipment he could possibly need, and what he had seen of the Event Horizon so far seemed to be wheelchair accessible. He'd be fine.

He now found himself confronted with an open door. That, he thought, could so easily be a trap. But when he tried to turn his chair, he found that walls obstructed him on either side. Trying to wheel backwards, he found his path was blocked by another solid wall. Garrett gulped. Nothing for it, then, but to go into the nice spacious room beyond the door.

However the room, he soon discovered, was not so spacious. He found himself trapped between two walls and a door, round like the others but notably larger than most. He breathed deeply, trying to stop his heart rate from escalating too far. "Don't panic," he said aloud to himself. "There's plenty of room to turn. Maybe there's another way out of this place after all. Failing that, there's another very nice door right there."

It was then that he noticed the words "OUTER DOOR": words that had spelt doom for the luckless Geri. His eyes widened; his heart literally stopped for a good five seconds. Then he regained some kind of composure, spun his chair a-hundred-and-eighty degrees, only to find himself trapped inside the airlock.

"No!" he screamed, eyes widening in panic, heart hammering against his ribs. "Somebody get me out of here! HELP!"

Inside the airlock a repeat of earlier events was played out. Garrett hammered frantically on the door, screaming his lungs out. He knew, just knew, that it would not be too long before the outer door opened. He was going to die, and in the worst way imaginable to him. Sure enough he caught sight of the small screen as it told him in blood red lettering, "Opening Outer Door".

"Please, God, HELP ME!" he cried out in desperation.

He took in sharply what little breath he had when he heard the metallic sound of a door opening. This was it. He was going to die... But if he did, it would be of shock combined with a powerful sense of relief. It was the inner door that slid open, and beyond it Garrett saw Winston with a hand on the door's control. Winston looked relieved: he had probably taken a blind stab at overriding the mechanism that activated the outer door. What were the chances of him getting it right? Garrett couldn't think about it.

"Garrett, jeez!" Winston exclaimed, when he saw the terror in the young man's wild blue eyes. "Good thing I opened the right door, huh?"

"God, Jesus, God, don't SAY that!" Garrett breathed frantically, propelling himself out of the airlock with phenomenal speed. Bizarrely there was now plenty of space on the other side of the door.

"It's ok, son," Winston said reassuringly, placing supportive hands on Garrett's heaving shoulders. "You're all right. It's over."

Garrett couldn't speak for several minutes. He just clutched the lapels of Winston's jumpsuit with both hands, holding on so tightly that his knuckles turned white. In all those minutes, the terror never left his eyes and his breathing and heart rate didn't slow at all.

"Jesus Christ," Winston muttered, once Garrett finally seemed to be calming down. "You're really shaken up about this."

"We have to get out of here," Garrett said hysterically, not letting go of Winston. "I wanna get off the ship. I wanna go home."

"We can't go home yet," Winston replied calmly. "We have to find the others."

"Others. Right." Garrett closed his eyes and took a deep breath before looking Winston full in the face and saying pleadingly, "Stay with me, Winston. Don't leave me on my own again."

"Garrett, have you gone crazy?"

"No," breathed Garrett, still frantic minutes after the event. "Just traumatised. Don't ever tell anyone this, Winston, but I'm shit scared of confined spaces."

"I guessed," Winston returned, finding that Garrett was finally letting him pull away. "God, that must have been awful for you."

"Geri couldn't have got over claustrophobia," went on Garrett, shaking his head in sheer disbelief. "I don't believe it. It's incurable."

"It is now." Winston ventured to smile at him. "At least for you."

Garrett nodded, took one last deep breath and then said, "I'm ok now. Let's find the others and get out of here, ok?"

"Ok."

Despite allegedly being ok, Garrett's hands were still shaking. In silence Winston took hold of his chair and began to wheel the traumatised youth down the corridor. However Garrett did eventually regain his composure. Once he had done so he took control of his chair and said to Winston, "Look, you can never ever tell anyone about my claustrophobia, ok? I didn't even mean to tell you, but I was hysterical. Just pretend none of that ever happened, ok?"

"Why?" asked Winston. "A common anxiety disorder is nothing to be ashamed of."

"Anxiety disorder," Garrett muttered disdainfully. "It's a sissy thing to be scared of."

"Come on," Winston reassured him, "it's perfectly understandable. Not an irrational fear like some."

"Yeah." Garrett twisted his mouth to one side and said thoughtfully, "I wonder if Kylie's come across any maggots."

Maggots were the one thing Kylie would not have chosen to be trapped in a room with over an evil Eduardo, complete with a fully inflated libido. Lechery, she reflected, was one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and apparently it came with being evil. Or alternatively, Eduardo may feel like that more or less constantly, and the evil inside him only made him act upon it.

But for some reason, he wasn't doing everything he could. He hung back, using sheer mind games rather than his physical presence to make his captive feel trapped in a corner. He had been standing quite still and staring at her for a good thirty minutes now. She felt afraid and, for some reason, naked. She was still damp from her encounter with the engine room, and she was sure that Eduardo was peeling away her clinging clothes layer by layer with those intense brown eyes of his.

"You know," she ventured at last, "this is making me feel very uncomfortable. I'd almost rather you just got it over with."

"Got what over with?" Eduardo murmured sinisterly.

"Well... whatever you're planning to do with me."

"But Kylie," her captor grinned, "I haven't decided what that is yet."

"Then please hurry up. Perhaps you'd like to kiss me?"

"Ah. Music to my ears. Do you know how long I've waited for you to say that?"

"Since the last time I asked you to kiss me?" Kylie said dryly.

"That's right," Eduardo nodded slowly. "You were possessed, weren't you?" He laughed in a typically evil fashion. "Boy did I think my luck was in that night."

"So... do you want to?"

Eduardo shrugged, and then took two strides towards Kylie. Now he stood before her, towering above her, eyes boring into the top of her head. Typical, she thought. Here she was, evidently in danger from Eduardo, who was inexplicably evil all of a sudden, and it was now that she noticed the deep hollow in his neck, at the point where his two collarbones met. She loved that in a man. If only she had noticed that before, she may have been a little bit more prepared to give him a chance. (Shallow, I know, she thought dryly.)

The sexy hollow at the base of his neck now moved rapidly with the deep breaths that signified his anticipation. Kylie screwed up her eyes as Eduardo lifted her chin with a curled forefinger and pressed his lips crushingly to hers. On second thoughts, maybe it would have been better to let him keep looking.

Kylie was pleasantly surprised when the kiss ended with a loud clunk, followed by Eduardo slumping to the floor. She stared wide-eyed at Winston, proton gun raised, bathed in the welcome glow of outside light from the open door. He looked at her and asked uncertainly, "Um... he is evil, right?"

"Oh yes," Kylie nodded, noticing Garrett a short way behind him. The words came out in short gasps, as all of the air had been knocked out of her for at least the third time that day. "He's evil all right."

"You're not, though," Winston added.

"No." Kylie shook her head. "I'm not. Hey, you didn't kill him, did you?"

"Of course I didn't kill him," Winston returned defensively. "As if I'd do a thing like that!"

"Sorry," Kylie smiled apologetically. "And thanks for that. You just saved my honour, you know."

Egon was more than faintly surprised when Ray entered the shuttle dragging Peter's unconscious form. Before anyone had a chance to question him Ray turned to Dr. Fox and asked her, "How's Egon?"

"He'll live," Fox answered bluntly.

"That's good news," smiled Ray.

"Indeed," Egon agreed. Then with a questioning look at Peter's seemingly lifeless face he asked, "What about him?"

"Him? Oh, he's just unconscious. He's also evil. But," Ray held up the trap he had been carrying, "I caught the little critter responsible. If this is what happened to the others, we ought to be able to find out how it was done and cure them all."

"Good work," Egon nodded approvingly, "but where are the others?"

"Egon," said Ray, "can I tell you about it later? I'm supposed to go back and find them now that I've dropped Venkman off with you."

"All right," Egon agreed. "But I think the first thing I want us to do when you get back is go through this ship's log together. It is very, very fascinating."

Working out how to carry Eduardo and his equipment had been something of a jigsaw puzzle. Now as they walked slowly down the main corridor, Winston carried Eduardo's unconscious form on his shoulder in a fireman's lift; Garrett was holding onto Kylie's equipment, while she carried Eduardo's proton pack on her back.

All three reached for their weapons when someone or something rounded the corner at speed. But it was only Ray. They felt relieved as he approached them, still wearing a smile despite everything.

"Kylie, you're all right! Fantastic! And you found Eduardo!" he enthused. "Ooh, you poor thing; you're still all wet. "

"Yeah, you would have thought I'd have dried off by now," returned Kylie. "Hey, wait a minute." She stooped and disentangled something from Garrett's left wheel. "What's this?"

Ray took the small tangle of metal from her, but he didn't have to examine it too closely. Apollo's jagged little wheel hung limply from one of the wires. "It's part of Apollo," he said.

"I thought I ran over something when I was going into the airlock," Garrett volunteered. "Guess that was it."

"You know..." Kylie spoke slowly, as though reluctant to put what she was thinking into words. "I wouldn't put it past Geri to go after Apollo, especially seeing as how he got damaged, even though he was only a robot. You don't suppose... she may have followed him into the airlock?"

"She may have been lured there," Ray went on thoughtfully. "Garrett, you said you went into the airlock. Were you tricked into it?"

"Yes," confirmed Garrett, without hesitation. He thought it was a pretty stupid question actually. Why would he willingly waltz into an airlock?

Ray nodded. "Me too. That is I almost went in. There's no reason to assume the same didn't happen to Geri."

"Something wanted me dead too," added Kylie. "Oh no. Ray, she's dead, I just know it."

"Well... not necessarily," Winston said.

"The only one who could have any idea what happened to her is Roland," Kylie went on. "He may tell us even though he's evil. I suggest we keep looking for him."

They kept on walking. Winston had filled Kylie and Garrett in on what had happened to Peter. Roland and Christine must both be somewhere on the ship still. As for Geri... well, there was no telling what had happened to her, and Roland was their best chance of finding out. Ray suggested that they have another go at his original idea of getting to the control room.

Everyone was pleasantly surprised when they got to the control room without incident, bar one or two strange looking creatures that retreated at the first sight of a proton stream. Winston was the first to walk through the door, and immediately stooped to lean Eduardo against the nearest wall. He was getting pretty heavy.

By an incredible piece of luck Christine was in that very room, ripping multiple coloured wires out from one of the pieces of equipment. She didn't seem to realise she had company. Kylie leaned in close to her companions and murmured quietly, "She's sabotaging the ship. Now we really do need to get out of here as fast as possible. I think two of us should stay and take care of Christine; the other two need to get out there and find Roland."

"Agreed," Winston nodded. "Ray and I will take care of her; you and Garrett go get Roland. Ok?"

"Ok," hissed Garrett. "Now listen, when you've got her and Eddie back to the shuttle, don't bother coming to find us. We'll be there with Roland as soon as we can."

"We'll radio you if we run into trouble," added Kylie.

It was inevitable really that Christine would spot them. When she looked up, the evil within her glowing out through her eyes, Kylie and Garrett made a dash for it while Winston and Ray prepared to add Christine to the ever-growing list of head wounds.

Once again Kylie made her way along the main corridor, at a fairly speedy pace this time, now with Garrett at her side. She was thinking about the strange apparition that had guided her so close to death, and wondering if having a companion made her any less likely to end up in the ship's mechanics.

They had already spotted Roland making his way down the corridor. There was nowhere obvious for him to go once he reached its end, but when Kylie and Garrett got to this point there was no sign of him.

"Whoa!" Garrett exclaimed at the large sphere that seemed to float above the abyss that was the end of the walkway.

"Wow," Kylie reacted. "I saw that the last time I was here, but I didn't really notice it. If... you see what I mean," she added uncertainly. The sentence was a bit of a contradiction, but it was true that she hadn't noticed the giant ball because she had been distracted by Anakin Skywalker, then her Grandma Rose, and then a gang of maggots.

The sphere was not so much a sphere as three rotating studded metal rings, their direction seemingly random. All three turned in every direction; they were clearly a pivotal part of the ship's mechanics.

"Now what do you suppose it's for?" mused Garrett.

Kylie shook her head. "I don't know. But the really pressing question is, what happened to Roland?"

Garrett thought there were a lot of pressing questions about the ship, but this particular one was indisputably paramount. He spotted a small hatch that had already been opened, wheeled over to it and took a PKE reading.

"I think he must have gone in there," Garrett told Kylie. She wandered over to join him and stooped to peer into the hatch.

"Ducts," she observed. "Looks like a real maze. You'll never get your chair in there. I'll have to go alone."

"Ooh, sounds risky," Garrett flinched. "Are you sure you'll be ok?"

"I'll have to be," Kylie said with a shrug, removing Eduardo's proton pack that she still carried. "I should be ok with just a trap. I'll use it if anything nasty shows up, and it should be enough to knock Roland out."

"What if it isn't?"

"I'll radio you for help." Kylie got to her knees and crawled into the narrow passage, her voice echoing out to Garrett, "You'll have to think of something."

Kylie was right: it was a veritable maze of ducts. Strangely they glowed bright green. Looking down she saw her own arms illuminated in the strange colour. The light did nothing to discomfort her in any way, and she was able to crawl onwards with her eyes wide open.

Eventually she spotted Roland, the fingers of his right hand working roughly on a white panel on the wall. "Shoot," Kylie muttered. "Another saboteur." She realised that if this panel was anything to do with the huge spherical mechanism, Roland's sabotage was likely to cause a lot more damage than Christine's was.

Roland spotted her and crawled away. Her hands and knees ached but Kylie increased her pace, rounding the corner after him. She saw some kind of figure, but before she could be sure that it was Roland, the green light started to flicker and fade. She was too distressed now even to swear. She had no kind of light, and no way of seeing what lay ahead of her.

Soon enough, however, the narrow duct glowed green again, and Kylie breathed in sharply when she found herself face-to-face with her Grandma Rose, also on hands and knees. "Ah," the old lady smiled sinisterly. "My child."

"No!" Kylie screwed her eyes tight shut against the apparition. "You're not Grandma Rose! She died!"

"I did," the old lady crooned, her voice becoming hoarse and cracked. "Didn't I...?"

Despite her better judgement, Kylie felt compelled to open her eyes. Before her lay Rose, arms slouched at her sides, a rotting corpse. Her flesh clung to her bones like mould to a loaf of bread; maggots crawled around her putrefying face, slithering out of her twisted mouth and empty eye sockets. The bright glow illuminated the image, highlighting the body and the maggots grotesquely green.

It took a mere moment for Kylie to react. She screamed louder than she would have thought possible, scooting backwards along the duct, propelling herself with her hands to slide on her knees. When she was some distance from the awful spectacle, she turned her whole body round and began to crawl. Once round the corner she put her hand to her mouth and retched, hot tears spilling over the backs of her fingers.

"Oh God," she sobbed, her mind empty, finding no words adequate to express her disgust. "Oh... GOD!"

"Easy, chica."

Kylie looked up in astonishment as Eduardo reached out and took her hand away from her mouth. She swallowed hard, staring into his eyes, trying to suppress the tears.

"It wasn't real," Eduardo said soothingly, gently caressing her hand. "It's just an illusion."

Like you, Kylie thought, although she felt so comforted by his presence that she was almost tempted to hope it was really him. She found herself quite unable to resist as Eduardo pulled her closer, running his free hand over her sweat-soaked black hair. In this very brief moment of tranquillity she couldn't resist reaching out and touching a forefinger to the hollow on his neck. It really showed up well in this green glow, she noticed. Whatever induced these illusions could obviously read her mind very well indeed.

"It's ok," Eduardo whispered, pulling the whole of Kylie's small frame into his arms. She allowed herself to be drawn towards him, but was careful to grab hold of her ghost trap.

"It's ok," Eduardo said again, though this time it was in a low, sinister hiss. Kylie felt his hands just begin to tighten around her neck before she brought the trap crashing onto the back of his head.

She was pleasantly surprised to see Roland slumping to the ground. She hadn't even been sure that hitting an apparition with a blunt metal object would work, so the fact that it turned out to be Roland was an added bonus. However the initial satisfaction soon passed and it occurred to Kylie that she hadn't even thought about how she, a girl of such small build, was going to transport a fairly large man out of a series of narrow ducts.

She tried both pushing and pulling and in the end decided to go for pulling, dragging Roland through the narrow passageways by his ankles whilst crawling backwards on her knees. Not particularly comfortable, nor hugely practical, but frankly the best she could do under the circumstances.

Had Garrett been a lean, able-bodied young woman whose legs were in perfect working order, he still would not have crawled into those ducts, and he didn't much envy Kylie doing it now. He so hoped she was all right, wondering what on Earth (or not) he would do if he received a distress signal from her.

It was then that he noticed the apparent black hole forming within the three rotating circles. He winced, wondering what it could possibly mean. Was something about to happen to the ship or any of the people on it?

At that point Garrett heard Kylie's impossibly long, shrill scream wafting out from the duct, and wondered what the hell he could do to help her. Then he thought he heard movement behind him, and so spun his chair to investigate. He was pleasantly surprised to see that Geri was standing but a few feet away from him, though something in her expressionless smile made him suspicious of her.

He ventured forwards, and still Geri just stood there. Garrett opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly his chair lurched forward, having caught something on the ground. He was flung from the chair, and straight into a hole in the ground, but thankfully was able to grab hold of the edge of the surface above him. Garrett looked down and flinched at the sharp grate beneath him. If he fell onto that, he would be dissected in several places and in both directions.

The chair clattered to the metallic floor and hung precariously over the edge. Garrett knew he mustn't lose it - poor little Kylie couldn't be expected to carry him and Roland back to the NASA space shuttle - so he gave it a hefty shove back onto the relatively solid surface.

Then Garrett turned his attentions to his own rescue. He was able to pull himself up with both arms, and then slither onto the metal surface just in time to see Kylie's backside emerge from the duct. He smiled his relief when she dragged the unconscious Roland out after her.

Kylie was clearly exhausted. She knelt quite still for a moment and then spun round on her bottom just in time to see Garrett climb expertly back into his chair. "What happened?" she asked anxiously.

"Another illusion tried to kill me," Garrett replied casually. "What about you? I heard you screaming your lungs out in there."

"Almost literally," Kylie muttered, clutching a hand to her throat, which she now realised was throbbing painfully. "I just saw the most awful thing anybody could ever show me."

"What was it?"

"Let's just say it involved the two things I hate most in the world," said Kylie as she pulled herself to her feet. Then she noticed the darkness forming around the spherical structure and asked, "What's going on there?"

"I don't know," Garrett answered, "but I get the feeling it's not good. Let's get out of here, shall we?"

"Ok," Kylie nodded. "You take Roland. I just dragged him by the ankles, crawling on my knees, through miles of bright green narrow ducts."

"You have all the fun," grinned Garrett, not expecting to provoke a response from Kylie, which of course he didn't.

"We'll be with you any minute," Kylie's voice crackled from the radio. "We've got Roland, but we think he sabotaged something pretty important. Whatever Christine did, Roland did something ten times worse. There's a big black hole or something forming in the middle of the ship."

"Black hole?" Ray repeated incredulously. "That doesn't sound good."

"We should be with you any second now," Kylie reported.

"Should," muttered Ray, making sure Kylie couldn't hear him. Then he asked her, "How's Roland?"

"Unconscious."

"It was a pretty stupid risk, you know, hitting them on the head," Fox volunteered, from where she was still fussing around Egon. "They could be permanently brain damaged."

Ray ignored her and said to Kylie, "Listen, Andy's been using some of these fancy gadgets to try and locate Geri. There's no sign of her, Kylie. And if you haven't seen her, we can only assume she went into that airlock with Apollo."

The radio crackled as Kylie let out a sigh. "I knew it was too much to hope for," she returned sorrowfully. "It's just not fair. She was so young."

"Yeah." Ray looked down at his feet. "I know. But look, we'd really better get out of here before anything else happens."

He looked at Winston, then at Andy, and then at Egon, who was instructing Daniel and Dr. Fox to make their way back to their own shuttle. Then he looked at Peter, Eduardo and Christine in their constraints, the latter just recovering consciousness. Ray supposed that, under the circumstances, they were lucky to leave with only one fatality.

"We'll be ready to leave as soon as you get here," he told Kylie.

"We'll be as quick as we can," Kylie promised.

Thankfully Kylie and Garrett arrived with Roland without further incident. With Daniel and Dr. Fox on the other shuttle with their two astronauts, it was Andy, Christine and the eight Ghostbusters (good and evil respectively) that took off in the original craft. Roland remained unconscious; but Christine, Peter and Eduardo had all come round. All but Roland watched as the Event Horizon was engulfed by some kind of electricity, before finally disappearing.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Garrett. "She's gone!"

"She's gone all right," agreed Egon, with a sorrowful shake of the head. "And with her the secret of time travel."

Kylie, Garrett, Winston and Ray all turned to him with a look of incredulity, echoing in perfect unison, "Time travel?"

The Ghostbusters had heard on the way home what Egon had surmised from the ship's log, which had become altogether clearer after Kylie had handed over its distinctly damp middle section. Now he told it to Agent R, Ray occasionally nodding and putting in his own little comments. Winston was there too, along with Garrett, smug in the knowledge that he had proved R wrong about his limitations.

"The Event Horizon was indeed from Earth," Egon explained, "but not the Earth you and I know. In fact it was from the future."

"The date of the part of the ship's log Andy managed to access was 2040," Ray added helpfully.

R shook his head. "I don't believe it."

"See for yourself." Egon handed him the document. "Sorry the middle part's a little wet, but we can't seem to dry it out completely. Now you'll see from that document," he went on importantly, "that the ship was originally designed as a means of travelling faster than light. Apparently the designer was, or rather will be, one Dr. Weir. Now the ship didn't quite travel faster than light, but rather had the ability to jump from one point in space to another. But even more astonishingly, it also had the ability to travel through time, which is how it ended up in our time, and presumably why it disappeared like that."

"We think Roland's fiddling around may have triggered something," Ray put in.

"Exactly," said Egon. "You will also see that the ship suffered an accident on her maiden voyage, and seems to have leapt into some kind of Hell dimension."

"Hence the demons," added Ray, "and the turning evil."

"Well," R shrugged, flicking through the document, "I guess I said I was prepared to believe anything you guys came up with. I'd better stand by that, I suppose."

"The log stops there," continued Egon, "because the crew were all killed. Andy tells us that the file consisted of audio-visual material, but what he managed to access was a text version of the recording. That's why all that, uh... unpleasantness is on the end."

R skipped to the end of the document. It did indeed come to its conclusion with phrases such as, "Get away from me!" and, "Oh God no!"

Through all of the talking Winston and Garrett both remained silent, listening intently in the hopes of better understanding the full story the second time around.

"It seems," Egon went on, "that a lot of nasty things came out of Hell with the Event Horizon."

"Including that demon we insisted on analysing before we'd tell you anything," added Ray. "Sorry about that, but it was pretty important."

"Speaking of which," piped up Garrett, "do you think the others are still evil?"

Eduardo, Peter, Roland and Christine had in fact had their stomachs pumped as soon as Egon and Ray had found out all they could about the substance responsible for their transformation. Therefore it had been several hours before R had been allowed to learn what the Ghostbusters had found out.

The creature was still in captivity, and nobody much cared what the FBI did with it. On another day that might have been cause for concern, but now everyone was just grateful to be home.

Kylie wasn't the least bit interested in Christine's progress, but while the other Ghostbusters were with Agent R she had stayed loyally at the bedsides of Peter, Eduardo and Roland as they slept off their stomach pumps.

Eduardo was the first to wake up. He took his time returning to full consciousness, for a good while just lying and looking blankly up at Kylie.

"Hi," she greeted him with a smile. "Are you ok? Not evil anymore?"

Eduardo continued to stare for a moment, secretly wondering whether the Kylie standing over him was indeed Kylie. He immediately dispelled the image of his dead father that crept its way into his mind and stared at the room around him. It seemed to be some kind of hospital ward. Then he remembered the journey back to Earth, and let out a sigh of immense relief.

Finally he sat up and covered his face with his hands. "Oh no," he mumbled. "Kylie. Oh man, this is worse than when I woke up on Boxing Day and remembered coming onto Beth the night before."

"Hey, it's ok, I understand," Kylie assured him. Then she pulled a face as she registered his last comment and asked flatly, "You came onto your own sister-in-law?"

"Mhm," Eduardo confirmed quietly from behind his hands.

"Wow. You must have been pretty wasted. Did Carl find out?"

Eduardo came out from behind his hands but didn't look at her. Turning his head towards where Roland slept next to him he said, "If Carl had found out, I'd be living with Egon or someone."

"I'll bet it was ages before you could look her in the eye."

"Oh yes," Eduardo nodded. "Almost as long as it'll be before I can look you in the eye. I really am sorry about that, Ky."

"It's all right," Kylie assured him. "You were evil. It wasn't your fault. And it's ok," she added, "because I did the same to you when I was evil."

"That's different. You weren't yourself."

"Neither were you."

"I was more myself than you were," Eduardo insisted. "You were possessed. I was just evil."

Kylie reflected back on the Extreme Ghostbusters' first assignment, at which time she had foolishly allowed herself to be possessed by the demon in question and help initiate the near-end of civilisation. She had said some pretty suggestive things to Eduardo: "The first time I saw you in the lecture hall, I felt... an attraction..." "A good looking guy like you was REALLY hard to resist." And of course, "Kiss me, Eduardo. I want you to!" The difference had been, of course, that he had liked it. Trapped with Eduardo in that cramped little room on the Event Horizon, Kylie had actually felt scared of him.

"Look," she said with a sigh, "can we just forget about it? How are you feeling?"

"Oh... fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Glad to be back on Earth."

"Me too," smiled Kylie, noticing that Peter was starting to wake up. "Hey Dr. Venkman," she said brightly. "You back with us?"

"I feel like I got hit by a truck," groaned Peter.

"Baby," Kylie grinned, winking at Eduardo. "Eduardo says he feels fine."

"Well," Peter said defensively, "if I was his age I'd probably feel fine too. It's tough on the old bones, you know, turning evil."

"You had your stomach pumped," Kylie told him.

"I did?" Peter pulled a face. "No wonder I'm hungry."

Roland was also drifting into wakefulness by now, just in time to greet Winston, Ray, Egon and Garrett as they came into the inordinately dull hospital ward. They were met with a warm smile from Kylie, and pained looks that fell just short of welcome from Peter, Eduardo and Roland.

"Hey." Kylie approached Winston and Garrett and put a hand on each of their arms. "Thanks for coming to rescue us, you guys." She turned to Peter. "And you, Dr. Venkman."

"You know Kylie, you can call me Peter," Peter mumbled, clutching his forehead where he felt a dull ache.

"Listen," ventured Roland, "I'm sorry I sabotaged the ship."

With a wan smile Egon responded, "Not as sorry as I am, Roland. But don't feel bad. It wasn't your fault."

"This was a bad idea altogether. You don't miss what you never had," Winston said sagely. "Let's make a pact, ok? None of us will ever go on a crazy mission for the FBI again."

"Agreed," said the other seven Ghostbusters in unison.

Roland and Eduardo couldn't apologise enough for their unscrupulous behaviour whilst evil; Peter was secretly sorry he hadn't been given the opportunity to do more. Mentally he stressed to himself that he was glad not to have hurt anyone, but surely he could have been allowed a maniacal run around the ship before being knocked senseless.

All eight Ghostbusters were grateful to be able to go home. Kylie showered her cat with kisses; Roland took his youngest brothers and sister out for ice-cream; Eduardo made an agreement with Beth to forget the events of last Christmas, and got quite a scolding from his brother for refusing to tell him what he had been doing. Life was back to normal for all of them - although Garrett was marginally happier for the points he had earned on his crusade for the physically challenged; and Kylie stopped thinking about Anakin Skywalker in favour of Eduardo's newly discovered neck-dimple.

As for Egon, he thought he would never get over losing the secret of time travel, until Janine in one of her moments of brilliance pointed out that now he really had something to shoot for. As she went home one day after work, leaving Egon poring over impossible equations and formulae, she muttered despairingly to herself, "What have I started?"

She only hoped Egon didn't drive himself mad trying to invent a time machine.