SPACE:1999 Disclaimer:

I do not own Space:1999 or any of it's characters, they are the property of Gerry Anderson.

THE CELESTIAL ANGELS -PART FIVE

Eagle Two-Ten cruises along the tunnel. Koenig and Morrow set their gazes out ahead concentrating hard to negotiate the Eagle around some narrow turns. The commander suddenly points, "There...look"

Morrow looks up and could also see that the cave is fading away and up ahead of them was a narrow strip of land. And on this land was the decaying remains of a once and former city.

Koenig tries to take everything in as they pilot the Eagle up above the crumbing transmission spires and great chunks of therma tanks that looked like it was once a store of some powerful energy supply.

More jargon scrolls the small screen. Nothing making sense. Well not to Koenig. As part of the once collective, Morrow knows exactly what it meant...but he is going to wait...he is going to set this to his own advantage.

IF THERE WAS EVER A CHANCE TO ESCAPE THE PRISON THAT WAS A MOONBASE FULL OF PRIMITIVE MINDS...THEN THIS WAS IT...he smiles, but his train of thought is interrupted..

Koenig points, "Over there...seems like somekind of plaza, lets set this thing down and take a look around..."

Eagle Two-Ten lands at the centre of the plaza. The ship is surrounded by ruins. Ruins of a once and spectacular civilisation that has long since died out.

John Keonig unstaps himself from his seat in the pilot section and pushes his seat back. Paul follows suit. In the module section the commander taps into the outward scanners. He turns to Paul.

"Well well...a breathable atmostphere, there's a surprize"

Paul reaches for the weapons rack. John does the same and soon the modules door slides open and they decend down the steps to the plaza.

Both look around them. The ruins seems to tower over them, like they could topple at any moment.

John points, "lets try over there"

Paul follows him and they enter a tunnel. The tunnel is lit eeriely by a green light making their faces glow. At the other end they find themselves in somekind of hall. There is dust and cobwebs everywhere. The green tinge of light still evident from the tunnel behind them.

"That light in the tunnel? Any ideas" asked John.

Paul shrugs as he looks about him, "Some residue of a power supply. I think that indicates that, however how much it looks it, this place is not entirely dead"

John crosses the hall to the far wall where there is a bank of computers. He brushes away the layers of thick dust and sees that a moniter is on. It has a weak signal and there is the same alien jargon rising up the screen that had been on the monitor aboard the Eagle.

He turns and sees the chair. It it on castors and he wheels it forward, then looks up at Paul, "So these people were humanoid, they wouldn't need chairs is they weren't"

Paul turns and sets his eyes above him to see a glass dome above them housing them inside. There was crack in the glass.

Wires and cables hang down.

"This place was destroyed"

John looks up, "What?"

Paul nods around them, "They were attacked. This is all what's left after an aerial assault"

Koenig agrees. The place did seem to be in a state of only that a war could result in. He looks up, "Tara and Adam...or the ones that have taken control of them...they said their people were as old as time...is it possible it could have happened that long ago"

Paul smiles, "anythings possible"

Koenig heads over to an metal archway and moves into the next chamber. It is darker, his shadow looms out ahead of him in the eerie green light. Paul follows. He has no shadow. Not that the commander has noticed.

The chamber is gloomy. There is more dust and cobwebs covering most of the equipment around them.

John puts his commlock to his mouth, "Koenig to Alpha...come in Alpha..."

Paul comes to his side, "We can't get through to Alpha...there is somekind of block inteference"

The commander frowns at him, "How would you know"

"I just do"

Koenig puts his hands to his temples, "I'm starting to feel dizzy...there's a lack of oxygen in here"

Morrow nods, "Yes there is"

"But YOU are not effected?"

Paul shrugs, "Not yet"

Koenig watches as Paul crosses over to the banks of computers and studies them, "at last something I can work with"

{The alien is in it's element...it is free of the primitive technology that it found himself trapped with}

{it thinks it can contact the collective...the collective no longer exist...I cannot see how finding out the truth will help it}

{It won't...it will finally learn things the collective mind failed to share with its sequences...}

{Commander Koenig is starting to suffer the effects of the gamma rays. Even now his body is being poisoned by it's lethal strain}

{That is of no consequence...}

{And the alien? Will it suffer the effects also?}

{One can always hope so...}

Commander Koenig's vision was blurred. He crosses over to the chair on castors and sits in it. Paul looks back at him, then gets back to what he is doing.

"It CAN'T be...I cannot be the only one..."

He turns and looks up to the air above him, "I know who you are...WE were the enemy wasn't we? WE DESTROYED YOU"

Koenig looks on from where he sits, his breathing is laboured...and then he closes his eyes and knows nothing more...

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REVIEWS AND OPINIONS WOULD BE GRATEFULLY RECEIVED!