Alan Carter paced, putting into motion the churning, nervous energy felt by all the Alphans. Paul Morrow could not sit so he stood at his work station with Professor Bergman and Dr. Helena Russell on his flanks. Their eyes—all eyes in Main Mission—focused on the patch of lunar landscape broadcast over the view screen. Across that landscape moved a lunar buggy carrying John Koenig to the outer reaches of the base's perimeter.

Kano swiveled his chair and its attached work station around to face Morrow and the others.

"We will enter the pulsar wind nebula in four minutes."

Paul did not respond with words. His eyes shot to Sandra. She gave the next most important piece of information: "The commander is twenty yards from the tower."

Carter stopped his pacing and took two big steps to Morrow's side, nearly pushing Bergman out of the way.

"That should be me out there—or one of us--not the Commander."

Bergman consoled with his calm, fatherly voice, "Alan…Alan, do you really think John Koenig wouldn't do this himself?"

"I'm just saying—"

Paul shot, "That's of no help. Not now," then, in a softer voice, he asked the Professor a question that had been asked a hundred times in recent weeks: "If he does manage to make repairs and get the shield on line, will he still be protected enough out there, on the surface?"

Bergman shook his head slowly and answered Paul an answer he had also given a hundred times in those same weeks: "I wish I knew. We're dealing with a unique situation. The magnetic fields emanating from the pulsar create a condition similar to a particle accelerator, and Alpha is heading straight through…"

Indeed, the travelling moon drifted without control toward the outer most rim of a magnificent red and blue nebula that filled most of the sky if viewed from the moon base. Within its gaseous colors streaked lights of silver and white like rain fall reaching from the pulsar star at the heart of the beautiful celestial body. It was those streaks which held the Professor's concern.

On the lunar surface, Commander Koenig brought his buggy to a stop a short distance from one of the base's gravity towers. In the years since breaking free of Earth's orbit, those towers had been modified time and time again to server other purposes, none more memorable than when they were used to generate a shield to protect the base against the forces of a black sun. And while Koenig and Bergman had known that that particular shield had been nothing more than a morale booster—a placebo for hope---the idea had sparked a new, more practical use for those towers in this case.

Koenig—wearing a bulky orange space suit—fumbled out of the buggy and approached the dormant tower. He paused for a moment to glace first back at Alpha moon base hundreds of yards behind him, and then past the tower in front of him toward the horizon; a horizon dominated by the colors of the nebula and—of even greater concern—that sheet of raining particles that loomed in the distance like an approaching thunderstorm.

He felt the clock ticking.

Koenig turned his attention to the base of the tall tower where he found and opened a large control box mounted to the structure. In the center of an array of input jacks, wires, switches, and lights he spotted a yellow and black rectangular device that had been scorched black.

He raised his Commlock…

…and his voice played in Main Mission.

"Victor, you were right. It's the power converter. Damned thing overloaded."

Bergman leaned and punched a button on Morrow's console.

"They were never meant to last this long without replacement. My fault, I should have had them all checked when we first made the modifications."

Koenig's voice remained stern but they all heard the joke: "Remind me to yell at you when I get back."

"I look forward to it, John."

"But this is good, is it not?" Sandra asked.

Bergman offered a half-smile and told her, "Let's just say, it could have been worse."

Koenig communicated, "I'll have this unit replaced in two minutes," and returned his Commlock to the white utility belt on his space suit. They watched on the view screen as the commander stepped toward his buggy; a painfully tedious process in the slow-motion of anti-gravity. He retrieved a small kit and returned to the control box at the tower.

Kano informed: "Two minutes."

Sandra complained to herself but loud enough for all to hear: "Of all the vastness of space we have the bad fortune to go through this place. It is nothing but bad luck."

Bergman strolled away from Morrow's console and toward Sandra in a manner akin to a grammar school teacher instructing a student, but in that same fatherly voice.

"Bad luck? Actually Sandra, we are lucky in this case. This nebula stretches a half-dozen light years all the way back to a Pulsar star sitting in its heart. We're lucky that we're only skirting the outer edge instead of going through the middle. As it is, we'll spend seventy-two hours passing through this outer most branch of the nebula, instead of a practical eternity flying through the center. Lucky for us, computer is optimistic about our shield protecting us for that short amount of a time."

Helena whispered aloud, "Luck, I suppose, is a matter of perspective."

Kano took exception to the Professor's words: "Computer is neither optimistic nor pessimistic. Computer calculated a sixty percent chance that the electromagnetic shield will provide protection and that we have the power production capability to maintain that shield for the necessary seventy-two hours."

Carter snickered disdainfully and noted wryly, "Sixty percent chance? That's what passes for optimism around here these days?"

"At least the odds are not stacked against us this time," Sandra managed a meager smile.

Outside, on the surface of the moon at the base of the tower, John Koenig utilized a power screwdriver to remove each of the four retaining screws from the scorched component. His bulky gloves and the small screws made for a frustrating combination and slow work. The tool slipped form his hand and floated to the ground.

Koenig muttered to himself and bent to grab the device. In the process he dared a glance toward the horizon. That sheet of shooting particles had reached the moon. The bombardment traveled across the surface toward him in a glittering curtain.

Koenig worked even faster, removing the last screw and yanking the power converter free; letting it fly off and away while he hurriedly grabbed the replacement part and jammed it into the slot.

"John," Victor's voice came over his communicator. "Kano says the rays will be at your position in less than one minute."

"I can see that, Victor," he muttered but his Commlock remained off so his words were heard only by his own ears inside his lonely space suit. He could spare no time to answer.

Alphan machinists had engineered the replacement part to fit perfectly into the receptacle; perfectly in a universe where the moon had remained in orbit. Not a universe where the moon had been blasted clear and its surface exposed to all manner of cosmic forces ranging from intense gravity to the antibodies of a Space Brain. In that universe the leads and connections inside the box had warped. Not much, but enough. Enough to fight the Commander's efforts.

The sheath of particles raced across the moon's surface; shining down like shimmering lasers to the lifeless rock that surrounded moon base. In moments those rays would reach something not-so-lifeless; Commander John Koenig.

"Come on, damn it. Come on!"

The component did not listen. He could feel the tiny connector tubes inside the housing rejecting the thrusts of the small, sharp leads on the converter box: rejecting by the smallest of margins. Would these tiny millimeters be enough to doom Alpha?

Not on my watch.

Koenig paused even as he felt the shining streaks of heavenly particles cast a silvery glow over his person and the tower. Instead of brute strength, he eased his push and tried to fit the connections in gently. He felt the leads slip into the tubes but still with resistance; as if the insides had corroded over the years.

He glanced to the horizon. Except now that horizon was directly in front of him; bearing down like a glowing tsunami stretching from the surface of the moon to the center of the nebula light years above. The travelling moon was like a stone thrown through a raging waterfall.

One more application of strength. Koenig slammed his palm into the black and yellow converter box and felt it click home in the housing. But at that instant the flood of particles engulfed him. He felt the building blocks of the universe passing through his body.

A scream escaped his lips as an intense pain—like electricity—engulfed him. Yet even in the midst of the storm he thought only of Alpha. He raised his finger and found the activation switch inside the control box. The button fought his push as the convertor had fought, but this time the resistance came not from the machine but from the muscles of the man; the storm of particles sapped his energy and conspired to freeze his flesh. He had so little strength…yet only seconds before the rain of rays crossed the gulf between the outer perimeter and his people.

My people.

His outstretched, gloved finger thrust forward, completing the circuit. A row of green lights inside the control lit instantly. Of more importance, a glowing blew energy field came to life spreading among the towers surrounding the moon base like a dome.

The rain of cosmic rays ceased; blocked by Victor Bergman's genius.

Inside Main Mission the success came not merely from external cameras recording their new blue guardian but from the instruments and computers measuring the environment within and around the base.

"It is on," Sandra spoke the obvious. "The Commander has done it."

Helena kept her eyes focused on the view screen. There she saw John Koenig standing at the base of the tower. Moments before that picture had displayed the image of John Koenig engulfed by the stream of particles. Helena had felt sure that he would die, right there. Of course it would have made no difference because she would have joined him in death mere seconds later if he had not completed the repair.

"Main Mission," she saw Koenig raise and speak through his Commlock. "Wh—what is your…what is…um…what is your status?"

Morrow replied with the switch of a button: "We're here, Commander. Checking on status." He eyed Kano who could not return his stare because he hurriedly worked the inputs at his computer station. A moment later a small slip of paper printed out and Kano ripped it free.

"Computer indicates shield is operational—" Kano said but Bergman stepped to Kano's shoulder and pulled the paper from his hands and finished with a far less detailed reply, "It's working John," and he clenched a fist and shook it enthusiastically as he repeated, "The shield is holding."

"Did you hear that, Commander?"

"Yes, Paul," John's voice answered. "That's good news."

"Paul," Sandra interrupted after receiving a message via her station's intercom. "The nuclear power center is reporting some unusual readings in the reactor. They say it is nothing to worry about at this time."

"Good, yes, good," Bergman said. "We should expect some unusual readings. We are, after all, in the middle of the universe's largest particle accelerator. All around us atoms are crashing together in a stream of violent collisions. Literally tearing at the building blocks of existence. This is fascinating," he turned to the communicator again. "John, we're going to have a lot of data to analyze."

"True, Victor. But I think I've had a close enough look today. I'm on my way back."

Helena asked, "John, how do you feel? You were exposed to the rays for several seconds before the shield switched on. Are you okay?"

He considered for a moment and then answered, "I think so, yes. A little fuzzy-headed. Even under this suit I can feel all the hair on my arms standing straight up."

"Well you get back here, John," Bergman said. "Come straight away. Remember, you have to yell at me."

Koenig chuckled as he said, "Don't worry; I've done enough sight seeing for today."

Out on the surface of the moon, John Koenig jumped into his buggy and worked the steering levers until he had re-orientated the vehicle for the return trip. High over his head buzzed the blue field of the shield and beyond that the silvery bands of cosmic rain that Victor had described as a storm of violent particles smashing and colliding and obliterating each other at the sub-atomic level.

He had been touched by that rain, John pondered as he drove across the rocky landscape. He had felt something during that touch…and still…something…a buzzing inside his head.

"John," Helena's voice came over his Commlock. "Are you okay? You are driving erratically."

Leave it to Helena to nursemaid me, he thought.

John tried to grab his Commlock to offer a witty response but his reach missed. And then he realized…he WAS driving erratically. He had veered from the flat path he had used on the outbound journey and now rolled through an uneven field of rocks.

Before he could correct his course he felt that buzzing intensify.

"John, I can't see you. You've driven away from the monitors. Are you okay?"

Koenig heard her voice and he wanted to answer but a thousand other voices speaking gibberish in his head crowded Helena out.

What is this? What is wrong with me?
His buggy had moved behind a series of large rocks, obstructing the view from Main Mission. No one at Alpha saw the orb of green energy that seeped from John Koenig's body and surrounded him in his space suit.

His hands left the levers and gripped either side of his helmet. The buggy side-swiped a rock. The impact jostled one elbow into a steering stick and the tiny vehicle swerved sharp—too sharp—and tilted on its side. The accident threw Koenig from the vehicle; he landed on the surface of the moon and rolled on his back.

The strange green energy slipped inside his body and Commander John Koenig lay on the surface of the moon, silent and still.

MARTIN LANDAU

BARBARA BAIN

SPACE 1999

THIS EPISODE

A glowing blue shield over Alpha…a rescue team carrying an astronaut on a stretcher on the back of a moon buggy…Koenig running through Alpha in his uniform with Paul, Kano and others in pursuit…an alien with a beard and metal armor standing in the Alpha reactor room…a man in a space suit on the surface of the moon with energy pulsating all around his body…Helena standing on an observation deck of some alien design overlooking a vast space filled with speeding and pulsating lights…a monitor flashing RED ALERT…an Alphan reactor glowing as if about to explode…a man in a blue robe standing on the surface of the moon opposite another man in an Alphan space suit…the moon traveling through a storm of streaming particles in the midst of a red and blue nebula…a man—his face hidden in a shadow inside an Alphan room—reaching forward and an "Ultra Probe" patch is visible on the sleeve of his blue jacket…a monitor on a communications kiosk displaying the text WHERE IS HELENA?...an Eagle crashing and sliding across the surface of the moon.