I don't own Space 1999.

Merry Christmas.

The Drift.

"God, there are millions of ships here," Alan commented to Professor Bergman, who was sitting in the co-pilot seat. "We'll never study all of them."

"It doesn't matter," Victor shook his head although the sound of his voice made Alan turn his head towards Victor, slightly.

The professor's voice was casual, although Alan knew the older man well enough to know just saying those words in that manner was hurting the scientist since these ships offered a huge boon to Alpha's survival.

"We've been here for over three weeks," Victor went on, "mapping out the size of the flotsam and which ships are close enough for us to get in and study."

"Yeah, I know," Alan turned his head back in time to avoid the hull of another ship. "How long do you think we'll stay?"

"I don't know. I'm not in a hurry, though," Victor turned a mischievous schoolboy smile to Alan.

It was so infectious Alan was reminded of one of the many reasons he liked Victor so much. Victor wasn't one of those conventional, stuffy scientists he had come across during his long years as a pilot.

Moonbase Alpha had been one of the most important scientific installations humanity had ever created. Scientists of virtually every conceivable field had flocked to the base to study space, and while some of them had been nice enough in Alan's mind, some of them had been too rigid in their thinking and their training.

Victor Bergman was not one of them. He didn't see anything as trivial or irrelevant; he wanted to try everything out, and it gave him a sense of lateral thinking which had been of huge benefit to not just the Alphans, but his discoveries had answered and solved many of the riddles in space.

"How is it going with the Gateway technology?" Alan asked.

Victor's expression became more solemn. "It's going slowly, Alan. The good news is the Cartha ship computer is user-friendly, so our understanding of the technology is coming along in leaps and bounds, although we're still a long way from figuring out how some of it works."

"User-friendly? Those must have been different times for the Cartha," Alan commented.

"Yes," Victor agreed while he tried hard not to think of the recent mess where he had dealt with a Cartha who had murdered his own crew. "I think it was meant to be an interactive guide for Cartha who didn't understand anything of the principles of their own drive, so if something happened and there was a sole survivor, they would just need to ask the computer a few questions, and they could get home. The engineering and scientific staffs are currently studying every square inch of the drive, learning about the principles from the computer of the Cartha ship; yes, I know it will take time, but we'll get there in the end."

"What about all the ships here?"

"Well, don't forget, with these ships here, we can simply board a few, find some new technologies and see if any of them will help us in the long-term," Victor said.

Alan nodded. "Victor, this Gateway technology," he began, "I hear Commissioner Simmons is telling everyone we're going to get back to Earth. I know, hell we all know the general consensus is it's impossible, but what do you think?"

Victor sighed and rubbed his face, shaking his head irritably. "Yes, I've heard the same thing. The man is a fool."

"Hey, you won't get any arguments out of me for that," Alan chuckled but his expression sobered up. "But do you think it will happen eventually?"

Truthfully Alan doubted very much they would ever again see the Earth again.

Alpha's course through space was random enough as it was, but even if they could pass through the Gateway, they would have had no idea where they were going. It was a million - a trillion - to zero chance their initial activation of the drive would send them home.

"How long is a length of string, Alan?" Victor's expression was bleak. "Alan, Simmons doesn't want to realise this, but we truly don't have any idea where we are in the universe. The Gateway drive might allow us to travel faster than the speed of light, but it won't help our current generation find our way back to Earth."

The silence in the Eagle cockpit became tense but when Victor spoke again it was as if nothing had happened.

"Alan, before we left Earth we had only a few charts of the galaxies beyond the Milky Way, but not enough to provide us with an accurate enough map for Computer to use to get a fix, a point of reference."

Alan nodded. "I know that," he replied. "But do you think eventually when we've got a better idea of where we're going, we'll be able to send ships back to the old neighbourhood?"

"I see no reason why not. Too bad it won't be now. Anyway, how seriously are people taking Simmons, do you know?"

XXX

"Wow, look at that," Koenig gasped as he spotted a really large space ship which put him in mind of an enormous shoe combined with an iron. Indeed it had the wide, flat shape where a humans' foot would be, followed by a large, long, cylindrical handle-like protrusion from the top which ran the rest of the way towards the back of the hull. But what really dominated the view was an enormous 'bump' which was the closest description Koenig could come up with at the moment.

The bump was covered with circular vents surrounding a massive vent, but Koenig could see, suspended by vertical and horizontal supports and with a large locking bolt, were the blades of a huge prop which wouldn't have looked out of place on a ship, propelling it through the water.

Koenig studied the ship curiously, wondering why the designers and the builders of the ship would include a feature which was worthless for interstellar travel but he directed the Eagle's scanners to run a check on the hull. The Eagle computers had been 20/60 when it came to their scans of the ships in this place, much like they had been with the spacecraft of numerous other species they'd encountered since the mess which blasted them away from Sol and from Earth.

One of the biggest problems faced by Alpha and the Eagles was Earths' knowledge of what lay beyond the solar system was rather limited. The only ways of getting out into interstellar space with either with ships powered by chemical engines, or with the risky Queller drive, but beyond a few expeditions which didn't really last long, very little knowledge of what existed outside the solar system existed despite all the work done by Alpha.

Simmons himself represented a group of people more concerned with the cost than with truly pushing the boundaries of space exploration and developing the technology needed to get ships into orbit, or further, without relying on chemical engines.

Alpha hadn't been prepared for breakaway anymore than they were prepared to deal with the aliens out there, nor were they equipped to truly study any of the technologies they encountered, but since meeting their first aliens, Alpha didn't really have the facilities needed to study and understand how alien technology worked.

Koenig was therefore surprised when the scan came back, and he read the results.

From the look of it, the ship ahead was slightly more advanced than the Eagles themselves, perhaps a century or so ahead in development he estimated based on the findings he was reading right at that moment, although they might have been a little bit further ahead in terms of technological advancement.

But the materials of the hull, for instance, were closer to what the Eagles themselves were constructed from, only with a few more advanced variables. The kicker was the engine system.

The very first thing the Eagle picked up was the energy output of the ship. It was so high. It was virtually off the scale even if the ship itself wasn't moving at the moment.

But that wasn't all; the Eagle had detected what appeared to be an engine system that was advanced, but while there were some elements which the Eagle computer couldn't recognise - Koenig didn't even muster the effort to be annoyed since he had seen it before, many times in the past - but he did recognise something…

"Those holes in that section of the ship with the large bump," he began hesitantly, wishing he could come up with a better term to describe the protrusion from the hull's curve.

Phillips, his co-pilot glanced at him. "What about them?"

"The Eagle has detected hydrogen particles flowing into them. And the computer has also picked up a very powerful energy reading from that ship," Koenig looked in wonderment at the ship.

"What does it mean, sir?" Phillips asked.

An idea was nagging at the back of Koenig's mind.

"Commander?"

"Have you ever heard of…of a Bussard ramjet?" Koenig asked; he knew he was jumping the gun here, but he couldn't imagine what else this could be, nor could he work out why there was an enormous quantity of hydrogen particles around the vents, nor could he explain what else the huge energy reading was.

Yeah, it could have been one of the other energy sources they'd encountered a few times, but Koenig found it hard to believe.

"A Bussard ramjet? I thought that was a theory."

"A fusion rocket which captures hydrogen atoms from the surrounding interstellar space, using magnetic fields to trap them and induce fusion before forcing them out as rocket exhaust," Koenig shook his head as he recounted what he knew personally of the concept, although he knew it was an abbreviated version at any rate. "On paper it makes sense. And besides, we know fusion exists because of what goes on in a sun. Okay, so the technology might not have been on the practical drawing boards while the moon was in Earth's orbit," he said it carefully since many of the base personnel were still touchy about being reminded of the horrible memory of that fateful day; Lord knew Simmons enjoyed stoking the fires, although what he hoped to achieve in the long run was beyond Koenig's comprehension. "But the point is, the theory was always sound, but we lacked the technology to get it right."

Koenig directed his gaze towards the ship. One by one questions began swarming around in his head, questions he had asked himself over and over again as more and more Eagles were sent out to explore the flotsam floating around this solar system while the Moon was trapped here.

Who created this ship? Were they explorers who were only just making their way out into the great void away from the security of their sun and world? Were they peaceful, and just want to explore with a curiosity about the very universe they lived in? Had they faced the same hurdles humanity itself had faced when humans had first sent up their first space capsules or had they had it all worked out for them because they used a totally different method of getting ships into orbit, allowing them to conquer the problems with early spaceflight?

Since this ship was probably closer to the technology the humans on Moonbase Alpha were used to, John guessed the reason why he seemed more fixated on this particular ship was mostly that this ship was likely to be a more advanced version of the spacecraft John and the rest of the Alpha personnel were used to.

But the optimistic questions he had concerning the people who had worked on building this ship and crewing it - while many of the vessels they'd encountered so far and gotten into were nothing more than really large probes (that made sense; with the vast interstellar distances between stars, it would have been risky for many alien's who were highly intelligent to go out into the void of deep space on their own, relying on life-support technologies to keep them safe, hoping nothing could go wrong when there were so many things that could go wrong) - he was going to go with the hunch this ship had once had a crew - faded when he thought of how every since ship and colony vessel and probe found itself here.

Had they died in agony? Were they tortured?

Koenig disliked thinking about what fate had befallen virtually everyone here, but he couldn't help himself.

"Commander, we've still got a long way to go. Do you want me to attach a beacon to the ship, let the engineering details board it later?" Phillips, good, reliable Phillips, who must have noticed him staring at the bulk of the ship longer than he should have done, and asked the question to get through to him.

Koenig hoped it didn't happen too often, but ever since he had found himself here, he had been seeing firsthand, up close and personal, he had been admiring the different ships; there were so many of them, and it brought back the visions Tony Cellini had had about the ships he'd seen during the Ultra expedition, but there were so many here and although there was a lot of scepticism about what Tony had encountered, Koenig remained one of those people, one of those few, who believed the man since Tony had never seemed the type to lie, and even if he was desperate he had never once changed the story.

Never.

Why did he believe it? Because humanity had barely explored beyond the solar system. Who knew what existed?

In any case, while the story of a monster which drained the life force of its victims, as Tony's story claimed, was horrifying these ships were different since they were empty. They also contained wonders.

"Yeah," he said at last.

Phillips had just finished attaching the beacon for other teams to come across later when the Eagle received a call.

"Go ahead," Koenig said.

"Commander, how close are you?" Pilot Craig Torres asked over the communication frequency.

Koenig glanced at Phillips, just as a screen flared to life. "We can be where you are in ten minutes. Why?"

"We've just found a ship with what looks like robots floating around it, Commander. I am keeping a distance from it, just to be on the safe side, but from what I can tell the robots are just occupied with working on the hull of the ship."

Koenig glanced at Phillips before he nodded. "Show us," he ordered. "Are you also speaking to Professor Bergman?"

"Yes, sir."

"I am, John. I'm heading for Torres' Eagle now."

Koenig nodded, pleased Victor was involved before the screen changed as Torres' Eagle transmitted the view directly to Koenig and Bergmans' Eagles. The screen showed a typical image of this part of space; spaceships of various shapes and sizes, drifting in the gravitational orbit of various bodies although the ships were caught above the gravitational fields of planets, moons, and gas giants.

"My God," Koenig whispered in awe.

Robots on Earth were fairly basic in design and construction. Building and programming them was a very easy thing, and there were laboratories on Alpha dedicated to the research and the development of robots and other forms of similar technology. But the problem was robotics was a relatively new science on Earth by the time Alpha had left orbit, and the labs had more or less been abandoned since there were fewer resources for the scientists and engineers to work with as everything else went into ensuring the survival of the community.

What Koenig could see right now would be a dream come true for those same brains.

The alien ships' hull was cylindrical. There was a massive sphere attached to the back of the ship by scaffolding and thick looking bars. There were no windows, no evident sources of propulsion or weapons systems.

The robots themselves came in different shapes and sizes - one robot looked like a spider with thick legs. Another robot looked like a sphere with an elongated top, like a pear. Another looked like a space-going octopus with eight arms. But whatever they resembled, they all looked like they were working on repairing the ship's hull.

"We're heading for the ship now, Torres," Koenig said over the com-lock system. "Victor, how long until you get there?"

"Only about fifteen minutes, John. We will get there before you, but I think we'll take our Eagle around the ship and see if we can determine more about what the robots are doing. At the same time, we might get a chance to learn more about the ship."

"Alright, Victor. Stay in touch. Come on, Phillips," Koenig took the controls and directed the Eagle towards the robot ship.

XXX

As they headed for the robot ship, Koenig was jolted in his seat when the communication system chirped. "Main Mission to Commander Koenig."

Koenig answered immediately. "Paul, is everything okay?"

"Commander - Commissioner Simmons wishes to speak with you," Paul's displeasure could be heard over the channel, and Koenig sighed with annoyance himself.

"Did he say what he wants?" Koenig didn't have any qualms about speaking of the Commissioner in such a manner when the man himself was right there. After the trouble the man had caused recently, Koenig was in no mood to be polite.

"He's gotten wind of the robot ship, sir. He says we need to take possession of it-," there was a sound from the other end, like someone wrestling for something.

"Paul?" Koenig asked.

"It's Simmons," the man himself said, speaking as if he were God himself and the screen showed the Commissioner's face blown up as Simmons leaned in close in an unnecessary attempt to show his power off. "Koenig, you must bring that ship back to Alpha."

Koenig rolled his eyes. "Simmons, we're going to investigate the robot ship. If we can bring back any robotic technology, then we can."

"That's not good enough, Commander!" Simmons quickly tried hard to regain control of his annoyance and spoke again in a calmer manner. "Koenig, this ship has many technologies we can use-."

Koenig didn't even try to hide his incredulity. "Simmons, this whole solar system is full of spacecraft that we could spend the rest of our lives studying, and they all contain technologies which can help us in many ways. Just one ship could accelerate our development thirty times over. We shall see what we can do."

He shut off the communication line and he leaned back in his seat, hoping Simmons didn't try to contact him again. He wasn't in the mood for the politician nowadays, and since Simmons had been telling everyone gullible enough to listen they would soon get home as if they didn't have any navigational fix. Everyone with a brain in their heads would say it would be virtually impossible since they had no idea where in the cosmos the moon was.

And yet Commissioner Simmons was so desperate to return home, he was blinded by the reality.

"What is that guy's problem?" Koenig turned to Phillips.

"Simmons refuses to face reality. He doesn't like listening to the facts, and he won't accept the fact it might be impossible for the time being to return to Earth," Koenig replied, hoping Phillips was not one of those people hoping they would go home. "He also makes stupid decisions which cause more harm than he realises."

The communications line chirped five minutes later as they were getting closer and Victor's grave expression appeared on the screen. "Victor, what's wrong?"

"John, did you tell Simmons he could use his authority in any way?"

Koenig sat up straight. "No, what's happening?"

"John, we were going close to the ship, but as soon as the robots detected us they began opening fire. They are firing beams of nuclear energy, and they've seriously damaged several of the Eagles although they haven't been destroyed. But every time we retaliate, the beam weapons increase in power."

"But how? How did this happen?"

"Simmons, for reasons not even approaching comprehension, told everyone out here - all Eagles - to come to the ship and to take it back to Alpha. But as soon as we went close - half a mile - they took notice of us, and they began firing on us."

Koenig made a mental note to punch Simmons for this. "Victor, we're almost there," he said, relieved although he wasn't in any way happy about inheriting another major mess created by Simmons' lack of common sense.

When he took a look at the scene, he knew this was not going to be good.

The robot's ship had opened its gunport's - the ship's weapons were concealed underneath heavy plates, making Koenig believe the designers had locked them away simply because it wasn't logical for the weapons to be exposed - and was firing beams of red energy that seared through space. Koenig checked the energy levels of the beams, and he saw one beam had three times the energy level of a nuclear reactors' power output for five years.

The Eagles were firing back in their attempt to get to the robot ship. Koenig growled under his breath, furious Simmons had gone over his head and done this.

"Koenig to all Eagles," Koenig opened the channel to the other Eagles. "Withdraw. We're going to need a different plan on how we're going to do this."

Koenig was relieved when he saw the other Eagles stand down - he was uncertain if the commanders of those Eagles were just thankful they were getting their orders from him, and not some donkey of a politician, but he definitely had it in his head to find out.

"John, you've done the right thing," Victor said over the communication channel.