THE SLAVE SHIP OF SPACE
by Kirk Hastings
(A sequel to the 1965-68 CBS television series LOST IN SPACE)
From the Journal of John S. Robinson
October 10, 2000
It has now been just about three years since we originally blasted off from Cape Kennedy/Canaveral in October of 1997. It seems like decades. It is hard to believe everything we have been through in the past three years. Sometimes it seems more like a mad, extended dream, instead of objective reality. Yet, despite it all, we are all still alive, and all still together. I suppose that is somewhat of a miracle in itself.
Yet now we must do some serious reevaluating concerning our mission in space. We were originally to colonize a planet in the Alpha Centauri star system, and establish a base there in preparation for future colonists, who would then journey there also, in order to help alleviate the overcrowding on our home planet and help advance science. But ever since we left Earth on October 16, 1997, we have encountered numerous problems and setbacks which have made our original mission all but impossible to achieve. The first setback was the presence on our ship of foreign agent Zachery Smith, whose excess weight threw the Jupiter 2's astrogator off just enough to alter our flight plan. This altered course led us into a massive meteor storm, which threw us further off course and seriously damaged the Jupiter 2. Since then we have basically been wandering in space, unsure of how to get to Alpha Centauri, and also unsure of exactly how to return to Earth. The star charts and maps that we were originally supplied with are now basically worthless, as we have long since lost our original points of reference to base them on.
Twice in the last year we had hope of possibly being able to return to Earth, but both times our hopes ended up being dashed. The first was when we accidentally went back through a time/space warp caused by a malfunction in the Jupiter's drive system, which caused the ship to accelerate to speeds in excess of the speed of light. By chance (or by some still unknown scientific law we haven't discovered yet), we ended up back in Earth's immediate vicinity. But upon landing, we also discovered that we had somehow managed to travel back in time as well, to the year 1947. Fortunately we were able to reverse the process and get back to our own time. But once again we found ourselves essentially lost in space. The next opportunity to return to Earth happened a few months later, when we encountered one of the F-12 fuel barges launched from Earth back in 1996. Unfortunately, of the two astronauts who had been assigned to it, one had previously deserted the station in a life raft (his eventual fate: unknown), and the remaining crewman had become somewhat mentally unbalanced from being left on his own, and had accidentally (or purposefully) destroyed whatever navigation information - along with other hardware and software aboard the barge - we could have used to plot a course back to Earth.
The biggest surprise in our three-year journey has been the unexpected discovery of so many different life forms out in space, many of them very nearly human in appearance and behavior. This we did not expect. Yet who could have predicted ahead of time exactly how creative Providence would have turned out to be in a universe as large as ours? Who knows what life forms we may still discover in our continuing journey?
But, at this point, if it were possible, I would gladly turn the Jupiter 2 around and return to Earth - if we could find our way back there. I had no idea three years ago that this journey in space would prove to be so dangerous, so unpredictable, or so extended. My reservations now have less to do with me, but more with the safety and well-being of my family. If I had known how this mission would turn out, I would never have volunteered for it. But now it is too late. Until we can find a way to return to Earth (and I currently do not even know whether that is possible or not), we must deal with whatever circumstances come our way. And hope for the best.
The intercom in John's stateroom buzzed. He looked up from the fold-out desktop where he had been writing in his journal.
"John, I'm getting some odd readings on the sensors. I think you'd better come up here and take a look at these," came Don West's voice over the intercom.
John reached up and clicked the response button on the intercom. "All right," he replied. "I'll be right up."
He closed his journal and stashed it in the storage bin located just above the fold-out desktop. He folded the desktop into the wall, then exited his stateroom.
He circled around the robot support station, where the Robot was currently berthed, and then gave a wave to his wife Maureen and his daughters Judy and Penny, who were sitting in the galley area. His son Will was also there. John accepted a cup of coffee from Maureen as she gave him a quick overview of the current state of their food supply. Then John climbed up the ladder to the upper deck of the Jupiter 2.
Once there he crossed over to the Navigational Control Console area, where Don was sitting at the flight controls. John took his place in one of the chairs there.
"Okay, what have we got?" John asked, once he was seated. He took a sip from his coffee cup.
"Look at this telemetry and tell me what you make of it," Don said. He handed a printout to John.
John scanned the printout.
"Why, this data indicates an extremely large body located right in our current flight path," John commented. "Looks like a planet that's just a little smaller than Earth would be."
"Right," Don replied. "Except look at these." He handed John another set of printouts.
After scanning these, a puzzled expression crossed John's face.
"This can't be right. This data indicates that the body is not natural in makeup, but made of artificial materials."
"That's what I thought too."
John looked at Don. "But no artificial body could possibly be that large!" he said.
"That's exactly what I would have said."
John looked at the printout again. "How long before we come within visual range of this thing?" he asked.
Don rechecked some figures on the navigation computer.
"At our current speed, I'd say about a hour. Maybe less," he said.
For a moment John said nothing further. He just stared out the main viewport.
"Do you think we should alter our course away from this object, whatever it is?" Don finally asked him.
"I don't know," John replied. "The scientist in me is puzzled by this data. The explorer in me is curious to find out what the solution is. I don't see any harm in our continuing our course until we can at least get a long-range look at this beast. What do you think?"
Don shrugged his shoulders. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to take a look at it - as long as we don't get too close," he said.
"Let me know when the thing comes within visual range," John said as he got up. "I'll be down in the galley."
Don nodded.
"You want any coffee?" John asked.
"That would be great."
"I'll send Judy up with it."
"That would be even better," Don said, smiling.
John smiled knowingly in return, then headed back over to the ladder that led to the lower deck. He climbed down, then went over to the galley area.
"Judy, would you mind taking a cup of coffee up to our caffeine-starved pilot upstairs?" he said with a grin.
"Not at all!" Judy replied. She hurriedly prepared the cup, then trotted over to the elevator that went to the upper deck.
John and Maureen exchanged knowing looks. Penny watched wistfully as Judy disappeared into the upper deck.
"I wish I had a boyfriend," Penny said, half to herself.
Maureen hugged her. "You will, Penny. Someday."
"You mean when we get back to Earth?" Penny asked.
"If we ever do get back," Will mumbled. He was sitting at the galley table, fiddling with some small control unit.
"We'll get back, son," John told him. "Eventually we'll find something recognizable to base a course back to Earth on."
Will looked up. "You really think so, Dad?" he asked.
"Yes, I do," John replied. "The fact that recently we were able to find our way to one of the F-12 fuel barges launched from Earth tells me that we can't be too far off a flight path to Earth."
This reply seemed to satisfy Will, and he went back to fiddling with his control unit.
"Oh, if only we could," Maureen sighed.
"We will, honey," John told her. "Just be patient. We will. Maybe sooner than you think."
Maureen silently marveled at how her husband was always able to see the positive in almost any situation, no matter how dark it might appear on the surface. That was one of the reasons she fell in love with him while they were both attending the California Institute of Technology back in the mid-1970s.
What she would give now to have herself and her family back on solid Earth again, never to venture into outer space again.
John sat down at the galley table across from Will and sipped his coffee. "Where's Dr. Smith?" he queried. "I haven't seen him for some time."
"Oh, he's barricaded himself in his stateroom," Maureen answered.
"Good," John replied. "I hope he stays there. He's out of our hair that way."
"I don't know. Have you noticed how - different - he's been lately?" Maureen said.
"Different?" John asked. "In what way?"
"Well, you remember how humorless and menacing he was after we first discovered him aboard the Jupiter 2?"
John nodded.
"And how, after the first few months in space, he began to act more and more outlandish, and more childish?"
"Yes. We put that down to a form of space sickness, probably brought about by his not being trained as a professional astronaut, and having negative physical and emotional reactions from long-term exposure to the different conditions in space."
"Well, lately he's been acting more and more like he used to when he first came aboard. I think he might finally be adapting physically to being in space, and he's reverting back to his original personality."
"So what if he is?"
"Well, I find him to be a great deal more ominous and frightening than he was when he acted like an overgrown child. He's been much more devious and threatening lately than he was. I find that change to be - disturbing."
A smirk crossed John's face. "Frankly, dear, I hadn't noticed," he said. "But I have been busy lately. However, if it'll make you happy, I'll keep a closer eye on him."
Maureen nodded. "What did Don want?" she asked.
"Oh, he got some strange telemetry a while ago," John told her. "Wanted me to double check it."
"Anything we should know about?"
"Not yet. There's some strange object showing up on our long-range sensors. I told Don to let me know when we come within visual range of it. Once we can see it, we'll determine whether we need to give it a wide berth or not."
Maureen shook her head. "There are so many strange things out here," she said. "The odd and the unusual are so commonplace out here that after a while it's hard to tell what to consider strange and what to consider normal anymore."
John nodded. "I know what you mean."
# # #
On the upper deck, Judy came up beside Don with his cup of coffee.
"Oh, thanks," Don said, as she handed it to him.
"May I sit?" Judy asked, indicating John's control seat.
"Please do," Don replied.
For a minute Judy stared out of the ship's viewport at the stars, while Don adjusted different navigation and sensor controls.
"It's so strange, and yet so beautiful out here," Judy finally commented.
"Yes, it is," Don replied.
Judy looked at Don. "Don, do you think we'll ever really get back to Earth?" she asked.
Don leaned back from his console to look at Judy. "Your father thinks we will," he answered.
"But do you think we will?"
Don looked contemplative. "Truthfully, I don't know," he said. "It's a big universe. Yet we did find that fuel barge a while back. That was a good sign that maybe someday we'll be able to find our way back."
"But what if we don't?"
"Then I guess eventually we'll have to set down somewhere and establish the colony that we were supposed to build in the Alpha Centauri system. After all, we can't just fly around in this spaceship for the rest of our lives. Eventually we're going to run out of fuel, or some vital system in the ship will quit working and we won't be able to fix it, or whatever. This ship wasn't meant to be a permanent home for us."
Judy looked out of the viewport again.
"If that happens, then what will happen to us?" she asked.
"Well, we're equipped to survive for many years on whatever planet we end up settling on. Once we find a suitable place I suppose we could live the rest of our lives there in relative comfort."
"I don't mean that," Judy said. "I mean, what will happen to you and me?"
Don stared at her.
"Well, I don't know exactly," he replied.
"Do you love me?" Judy asked him, point-blank.
Don's eyebrows went up. For a moment he looked like the proverbial deer caught in a car's headlights.
"Well, uh ..." he stammered.
"Well, do you?" Judy asked again, this time a little more impatient.
Don looked at her. After a moment, his expression relaxed a bit.
"Well ... yes," he finally said. "I guess I do. You've pretty much been the only girl for me ever since we first met back at the Space Corps Training Center in Houston."
Judy smiled at this reply. "Would you marry me?" she pressed.
"Sure. Sure I would," Don replied.
"Oh Don!" Judy exclaimed, jumping up from her chair. Don stood up too, and Judy wrapped her arms around him. "I've been waiting so long to hear that from you!"
Don returned her embrace, gently stroking her long blonde hair.
He felt a lot better now that he had finally admitted to Judy - and himself - how he really felt about her.
# # #
Almost exactly an hour later, Don buzzed John on the intercom in the galley. John got up from the galley table and picked up the intercom microphone from where it hung on the wall.
"Yes Don?" he said into it.
"I think our space anomaly is finally coming within visual range."
"I'll be right up."
John finished his coffee, kissed Maureen, and then headed up the ladder to the second deck. When he got there he found Judy standing behind Don, who was still in his pilot's seat. Both of them were staring out the main viewport.
"The instruments indicate it will be showing up any minute now," Don said over his shoulder.
John took his place in the co-pilot's seat. They all continued to stare out of the viewport.
Finally, a small roundish shape began to appear in the center of the viewport. Slowly it got bigger and bigger.
"Wow - will you look at that!" Don exclaimed.
The object quickly become big enough to discern some details about it. It was globe-shaped and huge, just as Don had originally said - large enough to be a small planet. And yet it wasn't. It was definitely made out of some kind of metallic substance. There were numerous projections that sprouted out of the main hull, the most prominent of which were three large, long, tube-like objects that were connected to the main hull along its equator by thin struts. Other projections resembled large radio antennas. On top of the main globe sat a smaller globe with similar projections.
By this time the rest of the Robinsons had come up to the upper deck too, and were standing behind John, Don, and Judy. Even Dr. Smith had left his cabin and come to the upper deck to stare with everyone else at the huge alien object. He had been listening to the Control Room chatter on the intercom in his stateroom.
John lifted the intercom microphone at his station and flipped its "on" switch.
"Robot!" he said into the mike. "Report to the upper deck immediately!"
Down on the Jupiter 2's lower deck, the summons was heard by the ship's Environmental Control Robot. "Affirmative," it answered into the intercom system incorporated into its support station. With an electronic signal it activated the upper section of the station that held it magnetically locked in place, and the section rose up into the ceiling, freeing the robot for ambulatory movement. It rolled forward on its treads and entered the electronic elevator a few yards away.
When the elevator had reached the Jupiter's upper deck the Robot opened its cage door and rolled forward to within a few feet of where John and Don sat. The Robinson family members and Dr. Smith moved aside as it approached.
As the Jupiter 2 came closer to the huge alien object, it began to fill most of the spaceship's viewport. There were various lights across the object's surface. Don suggested that these were probably for navigation purposes. There were no identifying markings on the outer shell of the object, but it was well-worn, suggesting great age.
"Robot," John said. "Evaluation of alien object that we are approaching."
For a moment the Robot's electronic systems whirred and clicked.
"No information available from this distance," the Robot finally replied.
John turned to Don. "Don, what do our ship sensors say? Anything?" he asked.
"Not much," Don replied. "Whatever that hull is made of, it's thick enough to block our sensor equipment. I have no idea what's inside that thing. Or if there is any life aboard."
"I'd sure love to know more about that object," John said. "Do you think I could get close enough to it with the Space Pod in order to get some accurate readings?"
"Possibly."
John got up from his chair. "All right. I think I'll try it. Hold the Jupiter steady out here a fair distance away. I'll zip in close for some short-range readings, and then come right back."
"You sure you want to go out there alone?" Don asked, concern in his voice.
John smiled. "Sure. What could happen?" he said. "You'll be keeping an eye on me every minute, right? And I'll be back before you know it!"
John headed toward the hatch where the Space Pod was berthed. Maureen stopped him midway, a look of unease on her face.
"It'll be all right," John told her, reading her mind. "I'll be back in a few minutes."
He continued on. Once inside the Pod he closed the hatch, adjusted the controls and tested the radio.
"Ready to launch," he said into the Pod's radio microphone.
"Right," Don answered from his station.
The Pod's engines whirred to life. A panel in the underside of the Jupiter 2 silently slid open, and the Pod slowly descended out into free space. Once it was completely clear of the Jupiter it changed its heading from vertical to horizontal, and headed toward the giant alien object.
Don, Dr. Smith and the remaining Robinsons watched intently as the Pod appeared in the Jupiter's main viewport. It rapidly closed on the huge space satellite.
"What a brave man," Dr. Smith said, in his usual oily voice. Will looked at him.
"He'll be fine," Will said.
"I'm sure he will," Smith responded, somehow sounding like he didn't completely mean it.
"Anything yet?" Don said into his radio mike.
"No - nothing," came John's reply. "That hull, whatever it is, seems to be completely impenetrable. I'm going in a little closer."
"Be careful," Don told him.
"Worry wart!" John shot back.
Everyone watched the Pod as it soared gracefully up toward the top of the giant object. When it was directly above the alien satellite it stopped, hovering there for a moment.
Then, strangely, it started to drop straight down toward the alien object.
"John, I wouldn't recommend that move," Don told him. "You're getting too close."
The Pod continued to drop.
"John? What are you doing?" Don shouted. "John!"
There was no reply from John's radio.
"It's going to crash!" Judy screamed.
Indeed, the Pod looked as if it was going to crash right onto the top of the giant object. But suddenly, instead of crashing, it simply disappeared, as if the huge object had somehow swallowed it whole.
"Don, what happened?" Maureen asked frantically.
"I don't know!" Don replied. "Suddenly I'm getting nothing but static from John's radio. And the sensors indicate that the Pod is no longer out there!"
"Then that thing really did swallow Dad somehow!" Will cried.
Judy put both her hands on Don's shoulders. "Oh Don, what can we do?" she gasped.
"We're going after him, that's what we can do!" Don replied without turning. He quickly adjusted the Jupiter's controls to take the ship in toward the giant satellite.
The spaceship approached the huge object, then soared up and over it. But when it was directly above the north pole of the object, its forward thrust suddenly stopped.
"We've come to a dead stop above that thing!" Don announced, his voice agitated. "Some kind of a magnetic tractor beam has grabbed ahold of us, preventing us from making any further headway!"
"Can you engage auxiliary power to give us more thrust?" Maureen suggested.
"No - it's not working!" Don shouted back. "We're still stuck!"
Penny, Will and Dr. Smith immediately positioned themselves around the astrogator in the center of the room, grabbing it for support, in case the ship should suddenly lurch. Because of the speed of events, there was little else they could do.
Only Maureen went in a different direction. She hurried over to a small viewscreen located on the communications control panel on one wall of the Jupiter. She quickly turned the visual scanner on and adjusted its controls.
"Don!" she shouted over her shoulder. "According to the camera eye on the underside of the Jupiter there's a gigantic panel in the top of that thing that is sliding open, and we're being drawn down into the opening!"
Don swiveled his chair around so that he could see the scanner.
"You're right - that ship, or whatever it is, is drawing us inside it!" he shouted.
He turned back and continued to fight with his controls, but he could not do anything. The Jupiter 2 slowly descended into the huge cavity in the top of the alien object.
Don looked up at the viewport. Now there was nothing but darkness outside. The stars had disappeared.
"I think we're in some kind of gigantic airlock now," Don observed.
"According to the Jupiter's lower camera there's another panel now sliding open below us!" Maureen announced.
Suddenly there was an intense brightness coming in through the viewport. Don and the rest were momentarily forced to cover their eyes because of the glare.
Within a few minutes the brightness became less and less, and Don was able to uncover his eyes. The rest of the Jupiter crew followed suit.
"Why, now it looks like blue sky out there!" Maureen declared.
Amazingly, she appeared to be right. There were what even appeared to be wisps of clouds drifting past the Jupiter's viewport, as it continued to descend toward - what?
# # #
Don, the Robinsons and Dr. Smith continued to stare out of the Jupiter's viewport as the ship maintained its steady descent.
"This doesn't make any sense," Don muttered, half to himself. "It doesn't even look as if we're inside a ship anymore. That looks like clear blue sky out there. And there seems to be a sun shining up above us, near where we entered."
Maureen came over to the main navigation flight console and assumed the seat next to Don. She looked at the navigational readout panels in front of her.
"Don, we're getting altitude readings now," Maureen told him. "It says we're now slightly under a mile above some kind of ground surface. Descending rapidly."
"I still can't get the ship's navigational controls to respond," Don replied. "We're still being pulled downward by some kind of irresistible force."
Penny and Will were now behind Maureen, holding onto the back of her seat. Judy stood behind Don, holding tightly to his shoulders. Smith stayed by the astrogator.
"Ground surface coming up," Maureen announced. "1000 feet and closing."
No one moved. A minute later, she added: "500 feet. Landing imminent."
At this point, for safety's sake, Don closed the viewport collision shields.
"Landing struts deployed," he said.
"250 feet to surface," Maureen announced.
Don held on to Judy as the Jupiter suddenly lurched. A loud thump was heard.
"We've landed," Don announced. Everyone remained where they were for a moment, just to make sure that the ship was stable. Then Don got up out of his chair and strode over to the communications control panel. As he stared at the visual scanner Judy, Maureen and Will came up behind him.
"It looks kind of like Earth!" Judy said.
It was true; the scene displayed on the scanner appeared to show that the Jupiter was now sitting in the middle of an open field. There was what appeared to be sparse, bluish-colored grass on the semi-rocky ground. Small, orange-tinted bushes and the occasional strange, bent-looking tree with an odd, purplish foliage were in evidence. In the distance a forest of the purplish trees and a range of low-lying mountains could be seen.
But there was nothing else. No sign of life; no sign of any man-made structures; and, most importantly, no sign of John or the Space Pod.
Don went back over to the main control console and opened the viewport collision shields.
"Don, shouldn't we send the robot outside to see if it's safe for us to go out there?" Will offered. "We need to look for my Dad!"
Don nodded in the affirmative. He gave the robot his instructions, and the mechanical man headed for one of the ship's airlocks that led outside, the one that featured an extendable external ramp for him to use to roll down onto the ground surface outside.
Don and Maureen returned to the main control console, where they waited for the robot's electronically-transmitted data to come in. Within minutes it began to do so.
"Everything appears to be within normal ranges for us," Don reported. "I'll go outside first. If everything appears to be all right after I've looked around a bit, I'll send for you to come out too, Maureen."
Maureen nodded.
"What about me?" Will asked.
"Will - you, Penny, Judy, and Dr. Smith will stay inside the ship for now," Don told him.
"But, Don!" Will began.
Don cut Will off, shaking his head in such a way that Will immediately knew that Don had made up his mind and would not change it. Don walked past Will and headed over to the weapons locker. There he pulled out a laser pistol, holster, and utility belt. He strapped the belt on around his waist and then headed for an airlock hatch that was part of one of the landing struts. He also grabbed a portable radio from the storage bin located at the communications console as he went.
Dr. Smith watched all this from his vantage point near the astrogator. He made no attempt to help or participate in anything that was going on.
Judy came up to Don just before he pushed the button to open the airlock door.
"Don, be careful," she told him. And, in a lower whisper: "I love you."
Don smiled in reply and touched her cheek. Then he pushed the airlock control button and entered the airlock chamber. He pushed the button inside the chamber which caused the inner door to close. He lifted his portable radio up to his mouth.
"Maureen, can you hear me?" came his voice over the ship's intercom.
"Yes, loud and clear," Maureen responded, using the intercom hookup at the main flight control console. "Be careful out there Don," she added. "As soon as you ascertain that it's all right out there, let me know and I'll join you."
Don replied in the affirmative. He opened the outer airlock door, and then cautiously started to climb down the steps of the Jupiter's landing strut.
Maureen waited at the intercom for Don's subsequent report. Judy came over and stood beside her.
Minutes passed. "Don?" Maureen finally said into the microphone. "Don, what's going on out there?"
There was no response.
Judy looked at her mother with a worried expression on her face. Maureen tried again to contact Don. She got nothing but dead air.
"Mom, what's wrong?" Judy asked, apprehension in her voice. "Why won't Don answer?"
"I don't know," Maureen replied, trying her best to sound calm. She checked the circuits on the radio. Everything appeared to be working properly. But there was still nothing from Don.
She changed the radio's frequency and then tried to contact the robot. There was no response from the robot either. She got nothing but dead silence from the radio's speaker.
Judy suddenly turned and headed toward the weapons locker. "I'm going out there!" she said over her shoulder.
Maureen didn't argue with her. She knew something was wrong, and they had to do something about it. She followed Judy to the weapons locker, and they both strapped laser pistols and belts around their waists. When Will tried to do the same, Maureen stopped him.
"Will, I want you to stay here right beside that radio!" she said.
"Aw, Mom!" Will protested.
"No arguing!" Maureen ordered, her voice firm. "Someone has got to stay here in case Don or the robot tries to contact the ship. You're the radio expert, so that means you!"
She looked momentarily at Smith, who was still leaning on the astrogator and seemed to be totally disinterested in what was going on. She felt a surge of anger at him for being so uncaring about the fact that both John and Don had disappeared, but then she let the feeling pass. In a perverse sort of way, by now she had kind of gotten used to Smith's odd behavior. And at the moment she had more important things to worry about than him.
Will reluctantly obeyed his mother and stationed himself by the radio console. After arming themselves, Maureen and Judy also equipped themselves with portable radios. Then they exited the ship through the same airlock that Don had used.
"Mom, can you hear me?" Will said into the radio just as soon as his mother and Judy had disappeared. His voice betrayed his nervousness. Would his mother respond? Or would he lose contact with her too?
Penny came over to stand next to Will.
"Yes, I can hear you fine," Maureen responded.
Both Penny and Will breathed a sigh of relief.
"What's out there?" Will asked.
"Nothing unusual so far," came the response. "Except we don't see Don anywhere. There doesn't seem to be any sign of the robot either."
Though he continued to try to look somewhat disinterested, by now Dr. Smith was listening too.
"That bubble-headed robot is probably wandering around somewhere studying his precious soil and air samples, totally oblivious to everything else," he said, a critical tone in his voice.
Will ignored him.
"Let us know the minute anything happens," Will said into the radio.
"Yes, I will," came the reply.
Maureen and Judy slowly and cautiously moved away from the spaceship, their laser pistols drawn and ready.
"The air's a little thin, but at least it's breathable," Maureen commented.
Judy nodded.
After a minute or two Maureen paused and looked around her, and she noticed that Judy was no longer walking behind her!
Fear gripped her heart. Judy was gone, and Maureen hadn't heard a sound!
"Judy!" she called.
There was no response.
She called again. Still no response.
Suddenly she felt the ground give way beneath her feet. She plummeted downward, darkness enveloping her on all sides.
Before she knew what had happened she found herself landing hard on a solid surface some yards below where she had just been, the wind momentarily knocked out of her.
She sat there for a moment, trying to regain her breath. Then she looked up. All she could see was darkness. Apparently whatever opening she had dropped into had closed up again after she had fallen through it.
"Mom?"
Maureen squinted. Just a few feet away she could barely see Judy sitting on the same hard surface.
"Judy! Are you all right?" she asked.
"Yes, I think so," came the feeble reply.
Maureen slowly got to her feet. She saw Judy get up too. The girl limped over to her.
"Mom, where are we?" Judy asked.
"I don't know," Maureen replied. "It looks like an underground tunnel of some sort."
Maureen realized that she no longer had her laser pistol. She removed a flashlight from her utility belt and used it to look around. The weapons didn't seem to be in the tunnel. Perhaps they had fallen onto the ground above, and were still up there. Maureen bent down and studied the smooth, hard surface they had both fallen onto.
"This is not a natural surface," she observed. "It's too smooth. Some one - or some thing - made this."
"The walls are made of the same hard, smooth stuff," Judy added, touching it with her fingers.
Just then they both heard a sound come from somewhere nearby - a sound like someone's foot scraping on the ground. They both looked toward a nearby bend in the tunnel from where the sound had emanated.
Something was coming toward them. Who - or what - might it be?
Seconds passed. A narrow beam of light appeared from around the bend, and then a hulking shadow came lurking into view.
"Maureen? Judy?" came a familiar voice.
"Don!" Judy exclaimed. She rushed over to the young pilot and embraced him.
"Don! Are you all right?" Maureen asked, coming over to him.
"Yeah, sure," Don replied. "All except for the big bruise on my rear from when I fell down here!"
Maureen smiled at him. "Yes, Judy and I had the same experience!" she told him.
Just then some flashing lights appeared on the walls of the tunnel, and the robot came wheeling around the bend into view.
"Yes, we all made an unintended trip down here!" Don continued, jerking his thumb toward the robot.
"But where is here?" Judy asked.
"I don't know," Don replied. "The robot and I were just starting to explore when I heard both your voices. So we turned around and came back."
"Do you have your laser pistol? We lost ours when we fell into this tunnel."
"No. I lost mine too, when I fell. It's probably still above somewhere."
"We couldn't get you or the robot on the radio after you both disappeared," Maureen said. "We had no idea what had happened to you."
"Yes. Whatever the walls of this tunnel are made of, they seem to block all radio transmissions," Don explained. "Just like the space station's outer hull."
"Do you think this tunnel has something to do with John's disappearance?" Maureen asked.
"I don't know for sure. But I personally would bet that it does. I think if we follow it, the odds are that we will eventually find him."
"Then let's go!" Judy exclaimed.
With that, Don commanded the robot to head back down the tunnel in the direction from which they had just come. They followed him, traveling for some minutes before coming to a fork in the tunnel. Don ordered the robot to proceed into the right-hand opening.
The robot proceeded a foot or so into the opening, and then stopped.
"What is it?" Don asked.
"Danger," was all the robot said. "Recommend we not proceed any further."
Maureen and Judy came up beside the robot, and they all trained their flashlights into the secondary cavern.
Judy gasped. Maureen's face reflected an expression of shock and revulsion.
Their flashlights showed a huge, cavernous room filled with hundreds of large, whitish, oblong objects with what appeared to be smooth outer shells. These objects were about five to six feet long, and about two feet wide. But scattered among the white objects were the strangest creatures the space travelers had ever seen. The best way to describe them was that they appeared to be half-human, half-ant hybrids. They were about the size of a human being, and they had the abdomen and lower body of an ant, supported by four ant-like legs. But the front half of their bodies, featuring two more legs (or perhaps arms?) were held upright, and looked somewhat like the torso of a human. Their heads were oblong, shaped like an ant's - but their repulsive-looking faces somewhat resembled that of a human being. The main difference was that two wicked-looking mandibles stuck out of the sides of their mouths, looking like huge fangs. And they had two segmented antennae protruding from their foreheads. Something about the creatures in the cave and the way they moved seemed to suggest that they were females.
But it was the massive thing in the rear of the cavern that made the space travelers wonder if they had lost their senses and were hallucinating.
Suddenly Judy screamed. Don and Maureen wheeled about.
Hundreds of the ant creatures were now converging on them from both ends of the tunnel. These creatures were a bit larger than the ones in the cave, suggesting that they were probably males.
Before they could do anything to defend themselves, the three space travelers and the robot found themselves completely overwhelmed by the insectoid horde.
# # #
Back in the confines of the Jupiter 2, Penny and Will anxiously waited by the communications panel for something to come in from Don, Judy, their parents, or the robot. It had been some time since Maureen and Judy had left the ship, but there was still no word from any of them. The waiting was beginning to wear on both of them. What if Don, Judy, and their parents never came back? What should they do? Even the robot was gone.
Dr. Smith now sat in Don's pilot seat in front of the main control console, staring out of the viewport. Except for the colors of things, how this place looked like Earth, he thought. He desperately wished that he was back there. After three years lost in space, he was incredibly sick of traveling around the universe in a saucer-shaped tin can, everywhere encountering various dangers, the unknown, and strange misshapen life forms that were totally unlike anything he was used to. When would it all end? Would he ever get back to living a normal life on his own planet? He found himself hugely regretting that he had ever taken the assignment to sabotage this lousy space flight. If he had it to do over again, he told himself, he would gladly accept prison or banishment, rather than end up aimlessly wandering this crazy, insane universe with its outlandish inhabitants.
Before long Penny came over and stood beside where Dr. Smith sat. She didn't look at him or say anything; she just stood there, staring out of the viewport. Subsequently she buried her face in her hands. Her shoulders began to shake, and it appeared as if she was crying.
Sensing her distress, Will came over to her and put his hands on her shoulders.
"It'll be all right, Penny," he said to her in a soothing voice. "They'll be back. We've been through worse than this. It'll be okay. You'll see."
Penny lowered her hands and looked at Will. Tears of fear and despair were running down her cheeks.
"But what if this time they don't?" she sobbed. "What if we never see any of them again? What if we end up stranded here all alone for the rest of our lives?"
Will didn't know how to respond to that. Apparently three years of one disaster after another lurking around every corner had finally taken an emotional toll on his sister. He looked at Dr. Smith, as if asking him for some kind of help.
Smith stared back. He had always kind of liked Penny and her sweet, wide-eyed innocence. But he was not sure what he could do for her. Never being married, he had never had a daughter of his own.
He got up from the pilot seat, contemplating leaving the room so that Penny could be free to express her misery in private. But as he did so Penny suddenly turned and put her arms around him, pressing her cheek tightly against his chest.
"Oh, Dr. Smith, what will we do if they don't come back?" she said to him as she hugged him.
Smith was shell-shocked. Penny, in her desperate emotional state, apparently was reaching out to him for comfort, as he was the only adult now left on the ship.
As Penny continued to quietly sob Smith felt his customary emotional pragmatism giving way to a heartfelt sense of pity and compassion for the poor distraught girl. He slowly brought his arms up and put them around Penny, and he began to gently pat her on her shoulders.
"There, there, young woman," he soothed. "This will never do. Your parents would not want to see you go all to pieces like this. You know they are both very capable, resilient people. So is Major West. That's why they were all chosen for this mission. For that matter, so were you. Your family members all know very well how to take care of themselves, and they are probably doing that very thing right at this very moment. You must not be discouraged."
As he listened to Smith's attempt to encourage Penny, Will found a new sense of admiration welling up in his chest for the doctor. Smith had not exactly been a tower of courage and nobility during the last three years of their voyage. He had also shown very little empathy or consideration for anyone else but himself. But maybe his parents had been right; maybe that behavior had been the result of some kind of mental and emotional dysfunction caused by the Jupiter 2's liftoff, and the subsequent rigors of outer space for which Smith had been totally unprepared. Maybe Smith was now beginning to revert back to his pre-launch self - a self-made man trained as a professional psychologist who had managed to rise to the rank of colonel in the U.S. military, and who must have had some kind of backbone and mental competency in order to be the one chosen by foreign agents for the dangerous, risky assignment of sabotaging the Jupiter 2.
Having gotten much of her emotional distress out of her system, Penny began to once again gain control of herself. Smith gently guided her over to the ship's co-pilot seat, and he sat her down there.
"If it will make you feel better, little one," Smith continued, "I will go outside and see if I can find your parents and the major."
Penny's face brightened. "Oh, would you, Dr. Smith?" she asked him.
Smith nodded in the affirmative, touching Penny under her chin. She smiled as Smith turned and strode over to the weapons locker.
Will came over to Smith's side. "Do you want me to go with you?" Will asked, as Smith took a laser pistol, a laser rifle, a utility belt, a short length of sturdy rope, and three energy grenades out of the locker.
"No, my boy. That will not be necessary," Smith told him. He buckled on the belt and holster for the laser pistol, and slung the strap of the rifle over his shoulder. Then he attached the rope and the grenades to his belt.
"You need to stay here and look after your sister."
Smith headed over to the communications console and retrieved a portable radio, which he also hooked on his belt. Then he headed over to the airlock door that Don, Maureen and Judy had used. Will followed him.
"Dr. Smith, are you sure you want to do this?" Will asked in a low voice, as Smith punched the button to open the airlock door. Will was still having a little trouble believing that Smith was really willing to deliberately put himself in harm's way like this.
Smith once again looked over at Penny, who was smiling at him, but still wiping tears off of her face.
"Yes, my boy, I'm sure," Smith replied. "I'll keep in touch with you by radio. Take care of Penny."
"Sure," Will said. The airlock door closed, and Smith made his way outside the spaceship. Will went over to the communications console and activated the radio panel there.
# # #
Smith moved slowly away from the spaceship. He pulled the portable radio off of his belt and activated it.
"Smith here," he said into the mouthpiece.
"I read you," Will replied.
"I see the boot tracks of your mother, Judy, and Major West moving away from the ship. The ground seems to be made up of mostly loose dirt, with tufts of that strange-looking bluish grass here and there. I see the robot's tracks too. I'm following them now."
Will listened for a further report from Smith. But none came. Suddenly the radio seemed to go completely dead.
"Dr. Smith?" Will said into the radio. There was no response.
He tried again.
Nothing.
# # #
Smith slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position and looked around. He seemed to be in a dark cavern of some kind. He removed the flashlight from his utility belt and clicked it on.
Yes, he was in a tunnel of some kind. But the walls were not rocky and uneven; they were smooth and flat. So was the floor he sat on. It all looked artificial; man-made. He remembered approaching one of the tufts of blue grass back on the surface, and noticing that the ground around those tufts was particularly soft. The next thing he knew, he was plummeting downward.
Now he found himself in this underground passageway. But what was it a passageway to? Was this where the Robinsons, Major West, and the robot had ended up? If so, where were they now?
He got up and brushed himself off, then started moving along the passageway. He hadn't gone very far when he turned a corner in the tunnel ... and suddenly found himself staring at a hideous, misshapen thing that looked like something out of a nightmare: a large creature that was almost as big as he was and resembled a huge ant, with an upper body and head that looked somewhat like that of a human!
Smith drew his laser pistol, which fortunately was still in its holster, and leveled it at the creature. The ant thing, apparently as surprised as Dr. Smith was, did not move. It stared at him.
"Can - can you understand me?" Smith said.
There was no response, other than a slight movement of the creature's two antennae that projected out of its head.
"I am from the planet Earth," Smith continued. "In the Milky Way Galaxy."
The creature's antennae moved again. Apparently that was its only method of communication. When Smith did not respond in kind the creature started to lurch menacingly toward him.
Smith fired his weapon. Since the laser pistol was set for Disintegration, the ant creature made a brief high-pitched screeching sound, and then disappeared in a puff of ash.
Smith stared for a moment at the small heap of powdery residue that was all that was left of the repulsive ant monstrosity. Momentarily he felt the same desire to lose it emotionally that Penny had back in the Jupiter 2. What kind of a universe do we live in that produces disgusting horrors like this? he thought to himself. And why was he out here in deep space constantly coming into contact with such weird things, instead of living a normal life with normal people back on Earth?
But instead of losing it, the more Smith thought about the totally objectionable circumstances he had been unwillingly putting up with for three years now, the angrier he became. Thus he resisted the momentary impulse to turn and run, and instead resolutely moved forward, his weapon at the ready.
All right, he thought to himself. If this screwed-up, outrageous universe is going to keep repeatedly throwing this kind of ridiculous garbage at me, then I'm going to start shooting back at it with everything I've got. I'm through running! And I'm going to find Penny's parents for her!
Smith continued down the tunnel. Around another bend he presently spotted another opening on the right side of the tunnel wall that appeared to be the entrance to another chamber. To his renewed disgust he saw that there were a number of the revolting ant creatures coming in and out of the opening, in two distinct lines. The creatures in the line coming from the far end of the tunnel and heading into the opening were carrying large masses of what appeared to be some kind of purple plant material (perhaps from the trees located above). The ones coming out of the opening did not have them. They moved in and out of the opening in such perfect, uniform precision that Smith got the distinct impression that they were not independently thinking creatures such as himself - they operated totally on instinct, just like the ants of Earth.
Suddenly, Smith was shocked to see a haggard John Robinson come from around the bend in the tunnel, in the line of ants heading into the opening! He also carried some of the purplish plant material.
At sight of Smith's light, John momentarily stopped and stared in astonishment.
"Smith!" John shouted.
The ant creature right behind John immediately prodded him to keep moving. After almost being knocked over, John stumbled forward again.
It was quite obvious that John was a very unwilling slave of the ants. Remembering how aggressive and dangerous the previous ant creature he had encountered had been, Smith fired his laser pistol. He vaporized the ant creatures that were immediately behind John. Then he quickly pulled the laser rifle off of his shoulder and tossed it toward John.
John deftly caught the rifle. He made a quick adjustment to the weapon, and then turned and pointed it toward the tunnel ceiling from where he had just come. There were many more ant creatures carrying the plant material still coming down the passageway toward him.
He fired. Once. Twice. Three times.
Set for Concussive Energy Blast, the rifle blew apart the ceiling and the tunnel fell in on itself, burying the ant creatures that were in the front of the line. John continued to fire until he had blasted away tons of rock and dirt, sealing the tunnel opening completely.
This done John turned back and headed into the opening in the tunnel's wall, changing the setting on his weapon to Disintegration and vaporizing the ants coming out as he went. Smith ran over and followed him, shining his flashlight into the gigantic cavern inside.
What Smith saw in the inner chamber made him once stop and wonder if he was going mad.
The chamber was huge, and filled with hundreds of ant creatures that seemed to be slightly smaller than the ones that carried the plant material in and out of the cave. Everywhere in the cavern were scattered hundreds of large, whitish, oblong objects with smooth outer shells. The smaller ant creatures seemed to be tending them. The larger ant creatures were stretched out in two lines across the cave that were in the process of ferrying the purple plant material back and forth from a huge shadow located at the rear of the chamber. Smith noticed that Maureen, Judy and Don were all in the line headed toward him.
Smith trained his flashlight toward the massive shadow at the back of the cave. The Thing that it revealed made Smith's blood run cold in his veins.
It was another ant creature, but this one was far bigger than any of the others. Smith estimated that it was approximately the size of a three-story house. And though it roughly resembled the other ant creatures, its abdomen was swollen to gigantic proportions in relation to its upper body. And its face was something out of a ghastly, drug-induced nightmare.
John saw the look of disgust and fright on Smith's face. "It's the Queen!" John shouted at him. "If we can destroy her, the rest of the soldiers may be thrown into disarray!"
John started firing his laser rifle at the ants immediately surrounding Maureen, Judy, and Don. One by one the creatures vaporized into dust. Don and the two women, realizing what was happening, broke from their place in the line and began to run toward John and Dr. Smith.
Smith joined in vaporizing ants too, as fast as he could pull the trigger on his pistol. But Judy, in her haste, stumbled and fall just before reaching the cavern opening. Don stopped to help her up, and he was grabbed by a nearby soldier ant. Don struggled with the creature, trying desperately to hold its sharp, deadly mandibles away from his throat. But the creature was incredibly strong. Slowly its mandibles came closer and closer.
Just then Smith vaporized the ant creature into ashes.
"Don! get the robot!" John shouted.
Not far away the robot was standing slumped over near the cavern wall. Don quickly recovered himself and ran over to it. Searching the ground around the mechanical man he located the power pack that the ants had previously removed. He snapped it back into place.
"Robot! Defense Procedure!" Don commanded.
The robot immediately came back to life and extended its arms, and powerful bolts of electricity began to shoot from its claws. Some ants that were nearby halted in their tracks, cowed by the bolts of electrical lightning.
Don quickly moved back over to John, Dr. Smith, and the cavern opening. The robot followed him, firing bolts of electricity as it went.
Smith turned to John. "I have three of these grenades!" he shouted, holding one up. John motioned to Smith to toss him one. Smith obeyed.
"Let's throw them both at the Queen together!" John instructed.
Smith nodded. John handed his laser rifle to Don, who took up vaporizing any stray soldier ants who continued to approach.
"Set them for full power!" John shouted to Smith. "Throw on the count of three! ... One! Two! THREE!"
The two men activated their grenades and tossed them with all their might. The grenades arced through the cavern and hit the side of the gigantic Queen Ant.
There was a colossal explosion that shook the ground under everyone's feet.
Maureen and Judy began to retreat back down the tunnel shaft. John and the robot followed them.
Before joining them, Don paused for just a moment and fired his weapon up at the top of the cavern opening. Smith saw what he was doing and did the same with his pistol. The ceiling over the cave opening exploded and caved in with a roar, sealing the cavern.
Don and Dr. Smith withdrew. Within seconds all the space travelers were running down the tunnel shaft toward the spot where they had first fallen into the underground shaft. The robot rapidly rolled after them on its treads.
"How do we get out?" Maureen questioned when they got there. She looked up. The tunnel's ceiling was about a yard or so above their heads, and there was only a very small opening there, left from when they had fallen through.
In answer Don fired his laser rifle at the tunnel wall. The wall collapsed, forming a pile of debris on the tunnel floor. Don kept firing until there was a sizable opening that angled its way up to the surface.
Maureen and Judy made their way up the dirt ramp. Smith went up next, but not before tying the length of rope he had brought with him around the robot's middle. With Smith pulling on the rope, and Don and John behind the robot pushing him upward, all four were soon out of the tunnel and back up on the ground surface.
"All of you get back to the Jupiter!" John ordered. "The Space Pod isn't far from here. I'll get it and rendezvous with you back outside this space station!"
Maureen and Judy both gave John a quick hug, then headed back to the Jupiter 2 with Don and the robot. Smith started to follow them, but before he did he stopped, took the last energy grenade from his belt, activated it, and chucked it down the hole from which they had all just come. The hole exploded, noisily caving in on itself.
"Take that, you intolerable insectoids!" Smith spat.
When the foursome and the robot got back to the Jupiter Will and Penny were beside themselves with joy to see them all again. After an all-too-brief celebration the robot was taken down to the ship's lower deck and secured into the magnetic lock of its support station. Penny, Will, and Dr. Smith gathered around the Jupiter's astrogator on the upper deck, holding onto it. Maureen and Don took their places in the ship's co-pilot and pilot seats.
Activating the Jupiter's engines, Don lifted the craft up off the satellite's ground surface.
"Don, what about that magnetic tractor beam that pulled us into this space station before?" Maureen asked nervously.
"I'm hoping that tractor beam only works in one direction!" Don quipped back.
The Jupiter 2 rose higher and higher within the confines of the satellite ship. Don closed the viewport collision shields before the Jupiter came near the satellite's artificial sun. Soon after that they approached the satellite ship's upper hull.
"The airlock hatch we came in through is closed!" Maureen announced, looking at the radar telemetry on her control console.
Everyone held their breath as the Jupiter approached the closed hatch. According to the Jupiter's radar, the ship was now only 1000 feet below it. Then 500 feet. Then 250 feet.
Miraculously, as if triggered by hidden sensors, when the Jupiter had come to within a few yards of the hatch it automatically slid open.
"Maureen, remind me to go to chapel this week!" Don joked, wiping the sweat off his forehead.
The Jupiter continued upward through the satellite ship's airlock, exiting the outer airlock hatch (which also opened when they approached it).
The Jupiter was now once again free in open space!
Before long the Space Pod showed up on the Jupiter's scanners, having followed its mother craft up and out of the satellite ship. Within minutes the Pod had once again docked itself safely inside the Jupiter's hull, and John reunited with his overjoyed family.
# # #
After a good night's rest, the Robinson family, Major West, and Dr. Smith all gathered together in the Jupiter's galley for breakfast.
"John, who do you think built that satellite station - and why?" Maureen asked.
"We'll probably never know for sure," John replied. "But my theory is, some advanced civilization somewhere was having difficulty with the ant creatures. Maybe they were multiplying too fast and beginning to overrun their home world. But the advanced civilization didn't want to wipe out the ant species. So they constructed a giant space station and equipped the interior of it with the same kind of environment that the ant creatures were used to, and moved them all there. They even equipped the station with a giant artificial sun inside it. Then they sent the station out into space where they would never be bothered by the ants again. I probably happened to come too close to the station with the Space Pod, and that activated the ship's automatic tractor beam feature, which was really only meant to be a navigational aid for ships that might want to enter the station, for maintenance or other reasons."
"But why did the ants capture you and Mom and Judy and Don, and force you all to work for them?" Penny asked.
"That was probably my fault too," John explained. "When I managed to land the Space Pod and fell into one of their tunnels, they surrounded me, probably thinking I was an invader from another colony. I had to shoot a couple of them. But then they overpowered me by sheer force of numbers and destroyed my laser pistol. When Don, Maureen, and Judy showed up, the ants already knew what to do with them. They don't seem to think independently like we do. I think they operate totally by instinct. Once we were captured the soldier ants conscripted us to work for their Queen - the same thing they would do with any invaders."
"Yes," Don chimed in. "After I fell into their tunnel system they overwhelmed me pretty quickly too. They also managed to pull out the robot's power pack, deactivating him." Don looked at Smith, a strange expression on his face. "If it hadn't been for Smith locating us and re-arming us," he admitted, "none of us would have been able to get out of there."
"Count your blessings, major," Smith replied, a touch of sarcasm in his voice. "I fell into that hellhole by accident, looking for Penny's parents and her sister. You're lucky you just happened to end up being part of the rescue package."
"Don is right," John responded. "If it weren't for Dr. Smith, none of us would be here right now."
John got up from his seat. He walked over to stand beside Dr. Smith. Then he extended his hand to the doctor.
"Thank you, doctor," he said. "Thank you for rescuing my family. And myself. That was a brave thing you did."
An expression of surprise crossed Smith's face. But slowly he brought up his own hand, and the two men shook.
Then Don got up from his seat. He walked over to Smith too, and extended his hand.
"Thanks, doctor," he said.
Even more shocked by this, Smith numbly managed to take Don's hand.
Then Maureen, Judy and Penny got up from their chairs. They all came over to Smith and, each one in turn, hugged him around the neck.
Penny was the last. "Thank you, Dr. Smith!" she told him, heartfelt tears in her eyes.
Will then came over to Dr. Smith and put his arm around the man's shoulders.
"I knew you had it in you!" Will said, smiling. "I knew it all along!"
Smith stood up, looking like he had just been hit by a truck. He tried to say something, but nothing came out. He looked totally confused for a minute - and then he began to retreat toward the ladder that went down to the ship's lower deck, and his stateroom.
"Bah!" was all he was able to get out as he descended the ladder.
After he had disappeared below deck, all the Robinsons and Major West broke out in sustained, amused laughter.
THE END