SPACE:1999 Disclaimer:
I do not own Space:1999 or any of it's characters, they are the property of Gerry Anderson.
GOOD VERSUS EVIL - part 12
Commander Koenig came and stood behind Helena out side the traveltube.
"Where is the individualist"
"In the travel tube...his mind is NOT part of the collective...he must be found"
Koenig shook his head, his stance very serious, " Oh yes...he MUST be found...the collectives mind must he made whole...and our final freedom is depending on it..."
XXX
Paul Morrow sat in the travel tube, something was wrong here. It didn't feel right.
There was a cold darkness in their eyes. It was them. It was them playing yet more tricks on him. He stopped the travel tube at a random stop and ran up corridor 28 towards the maintenance section. He needed some time to think. Some time to fully understand what was going on.
Maintenance technician Andrew Ray looked up and watched Paul hare up the corridor...his mind opened to the others...
XXx
John Koenig strode into Main Mission and went up to the big screen. He smiled at the sight at the stars.
To be free of the darkness...the whispers...the cold...to see again...to hear again...to be able to walk again...
Sandra Benes sat at her station still staring at the controls around her, as if it was the first time. Professor Bergman came to stand at Koenig's side.
"It's all a pretty basic setup...the technology here is infantile...but it will vehicle us nicely for the time being"
Koenig smiled at him, "Yes...but we are STILL not complete...if this is to work...if we are to be fully able to escape our fate, we can only do that as one mind...one entity"
All of them suddenly looked up, and stared off into the same direction. As if they were of one unit.
Luke turned from his position, "The collective vision...we have been notified...the individualist is found commander...we have tracked him to a store room, corridor 28"
Koenig strode over and leaned over next to him, "Get security down there...make sure the individualist is cornered in that room..."
XXX
Paul Morrow made sure that the door was locked. He looked around the storeroom and went over to the cabinet to pull out a drawer.
He was not falling for this. Did they not know that he wasn't stupid? It was them...them in the darkness...those things have taken over everybody on Alpha. Well, they weren't going to be taking him.
He turned to see the door chime.
He swallowed.
XXX
Outside in the corridor, Commander Koenig came up to the door and put his hand to it, "I feel the cancer inside...it is in there..."
One of the security officers turned to him, "He has locked the door...I cannot override the lock"
Commander Koenig was wracking his mind. This apparatus was simple...child's play, just like the Professor had said.
Bergman was on hand, now.
His voice was inside his head, like they all were.
"John...use YOUR commlock...your command commlock will be able to override the control", he told him.
John pulled his commlock from his belt and aimed it to the door. The security officer already raising their weapons.
Paul stood there in the middle of the store. He stared back at them as they entered. Koenig stretched out his arm, "Paul...come with us...you HAVE to come with us...you are behaving irrationally and Dr Russell is waiting for you in the medical unit"
Paul shook his head, "Don't you think I don't know what is going on? You are not who you are...you are NOT John Koenig...they have taken you over...like they have with everybody else on Alpha"
John glanced at the others and chuckled, "He really is irrational..."
"You NEED me, don't you...you are not complete with out me"
Koenig glanced at the others again, then faced Paul again, the pretend smile faded, "It seems you are too intelligent to deceive...but that is of no consequence...we WILL include you"
Paul shook his head and backed away, "Where are they? What have you done with the others?"
Commander Koenig smiled again, "We have left them in the place that we have escaped from...a simple swap...our collective mind for a few irrelavant individuals from a back water planet...it was meant to be"
Paul laughed, and looked around him, John mimicked him as he did it, "and this is what you have got in exchange...not some high powered space vehicle that can convey you to any place you want to go...you've landed yourself a merandering chunk of Moon going nowhere..."
"The vehicle of conveyance is of no consequence...we are free, and that is all that matters"
Paul was becoming angry, "But you have left them all! All in the darkness"
Koenig tilted his head, considering it, "Better their many simple minds than of one single superior one, don't you think?"
Paul was looking towards the door. Koenig was getting restless now, "now, enough of this prattle...you WILL come with us"
He turned to the security officers and pointed at him. The two men grabbed Paul, and dragged him out into the corridor. Koenig smiled and followed them out. At last the collective will be complete...one mind...one existance.
In the corridor, Paul could feel the tight grip on his arms. A tight cold grip that wasn't human, despite what they looked like.
They needed him. And they were desperate. It was important that this alien mind be whole...well, what happens if he wasn't around...
He swallowed.
What if he wasn't around to take over...consume, whatever.
What if he didn't exist? Their mind would never be complete...
He jerked forward and then, mustering up all his strength, he shoved the security officer on his right into the wall, the other one let go by reaction...Paul took prime advantage and ran forward, he tripped and fell, but picked himself up again as one of them tried to stun him.
Koenig pointed, "Capture him...we are running out of time...if the collective remains uncomplete, then it will degenerate...time is of the essence..."
Paul hared around the corner into corridor 26. He could hear the footsteps after him. He turned to see Sandra. She was standing in the corridor.
"Paul...you MUST come with us...please, Paul..."
Paul wanted to go and touch her...he was drawn to her...but he forced himself back and bypassed her to the airlock of the Maintenance section. He lept over a moon buggie and crouched down behind it.
He saw them come to the airlock. They couldn't see him. He wasn't apart of their collective mind, so they couldn't use their second sight either.
He turned to see the lobby of airlock 12. He swallowed. Beads of sweat trickled down his browe.
Koenig turned to Dr Russell who had just showed up, with Dr Mathias is tow, "the individualist is here...it is trapped"
Helena shook her head, "good...we are running out of time...if the missing link to the mind doesn't transverse soon...", she trailed off quivering. Eyes searching around her.
Paul could hear every word. He stood up and all eyes were pinned on him.
"Come with us...", soothed Helena, extending out her hand, "...I promise you...you will not feel a thing at the transference"
Paul paused at the lobby and chuckled, "No...I don't expect I will, will I?"
And his hand slapped bang down onto the 'open airlock' bottom on the wall next to him.
The door slide aside and the vaccuum was sucked inside in nanosecond. It screeched around him with a din that could burst the eardrums.
Paul closed his eyes and was swept out.
He could see them...they all seemed to be able to hold stand against the suction. But that didn't matter, because they didn't have him, and would NEVER include him into the collective.
He closed his eyes.
And he was unaware, that he knew nothing more...
XXX