Galaxy of Terror

Xerces.

A small world on the fringes of occupied space.

I am Mitri.

The interpreter of the signs.

The oracle of the Game.

I play at the bidding of the All Powerful One,

Planet Master of Xerces.

Master, we have lost all contact with the Remus.

First the hyper-wave and now even the bioscans show nothing.

- Location? - Morganthus.

We don't know why they landed there.

Morganthus, at last.

You would do that? Such risk.

It's been too long. I'm tired of waiting.

Death will surround you.

It is the only way.

A terrible way.

But sure.

- Yes, Master? - Put together a class-three ship

with the normal exploratory and defense equipment.

You will command the rescue mission.

I will personally select the crew.

They are not to be informed of this.

Yes, Master.

Now, old woman, leave me. The waiting is over.

I play alone.

Who are you?

And what are you doing at my station? I'm flying this scrap heap.

Ilvar, mission Commander. Welcome, Captain.

- Ancillary systems checked? - Yes, I just...

Fine. Seconds wasted here could be costing lives on Morganthus.

Tech check.

Tech check complete. Main hatches closed.

Give me full standby.

Full standby, Captain.

All crew, this is Trantor. Liftoff in 30 seconds.

And, mark.

But Captain, no one's prepared.

They've got 30 seconds to get prepared.

- Ranger, glad you're with us. - Cabren.

Cabren.

Wonderful. Just what we need.

Still the same kindly old Baelon.

I don't know what in Master's name you're doing back in active duty.

But I'm second in command this time. You take orders from me.

It's nice to see you too, old buddy.

- Here, here, quick. - We've got a live one.

Liftoff.

- Tech Second? - Yeah.

Oh, Tech Chief?

Sure gets the gear stowed in a hurry.

Everyone in there all right?

- I think so, Commander. - What's going on in there?

Dameia, are you okay?

A little out of breath, Commander. All systems stable.

Bit long in the tooth for this kind of job, aren't you, Commander?

I haven't been on an active mission for some time.

Yeah, but you've been on the go now for, what, nearly 25 years?

- Since the Hesperus, if I'm not mistaken. - Hesperus...

Yes, everyone's forgotten now.

Yeah, if I hadn't kept on the move after that,

I'd be an oxer in a breather bar by now.

Let me see your hyper-jump coords, Commander.

Captain, those were pre-sets.

If we have to get there at all, we might as well get there fast.

- This is insanity. - Who is this, Trantor?

The only survivor of the Hesperus massacre. She flew the ship back alone.

It's good to know we're in safe hands.

Come on, baby.

Jump it.

Morganthus!

Full manual override. Quick!

Tech control. When I call it.

I want a five-second null on the gyros and all the reverse thrust the boosters have.

I'm going to try to spin us out of this.

Master knows what's got us, but this is going to be some ride.

If I live through this, she better stay out of my way.

If you live through this, you'll be bringing her roses.

Come on, baby. Give me more.

That's it, Captain. On full.

Pox.

We nearly had it!

There's nothing I can do.

- What about the landing jets? - Are you crazy? At this speed?

Hey, wait a minute. We're going down, only not so fast.

Give me landing jets.

Gyros. Thrusters. Hit 'em... Now.

Hang on to your shorts. We're gonna dump.

Son of a cyborg!

Take a deep breath.

Hold it. Okay. Relax, relax.

It's never easy the first time. But it gets easier.

Exploratory team prepare for surface deployment to Remus.

And confirm bioscan and atmosphere checks before departure.

It doesn't look friendly out there, but you should be able to breathe.

Well, Commander, I got you here.

The rest is up to you.

Remus team entering airlock, Commander.

Atmosphere reading within 5% safety.

Remus position confirmed to 5.3 kilolat, but all bioscans read negative.

Alluma, are you sensing anything?

Absolutely nothing.

If there's anything to be found, Cabren, I'll find it myself.

Baelon, I'm psi-sensitive. The subtle energies do exist.

They even pay me to sense them. All right?

Get back!

Cabren and Quuhod, Alpha deck and Comm room.

Alluma, with me. Cos, main control.

I can go with Cos if you want.

I'm in command here.

Death trace, there may be survivors.

Wait, Baelon.

Anything?

Anything?

Baelon!

What is this?

What is it, Cos? What is it?

- What's that? - A Remus crew member.

- Anything else? - One death trace, one burned one.

Let's get back to the ship. I want that analyzed.

If I didn't know better, I would say it was coming from Cos.

Come on, kid, let's go.

Cos, come on!

If it weren't so gruesome, it would be fascinating.

Yes. The human mind is still as dark as Morganthus, isn't it, Sir?

What do you mean, it just disappeared?

- How can a life scan just disappear? - It did.

I sensed something around Cos.

Then when he died, it just vanished. Gone.

Those are the facts, Baelon, I don't guess.

What I can't understand is how it disappeared so quickly.

- We were all there. - That's how it was on Hesperus.

At first you don't see them, and then they're everywhere.

The other one you brought back,

he'd sealed himself into a room and still something got him?

Dameia, anything?

Sorry, nothing useful at all yet.

Cos died of a massive hemorrhage from the puncture wounds.

- Just as it looked. - Nothing revealing on the other one, either.

What was left was such a mess, that the cause of death is uncertain.

The fact of the matter is, we don't know anymore now than when we started

except that the Remus wasn't safe, neither are we.

We're not even doing the repairs we need.

Baelon!

This is a rescue mission specifically ordered by the Master.

We are required to do everything within our means

- to locate and assist survivors. - There are no survivors!

We know of five certain deaths, so there are still four unaccounted for.

Look at this.

Here it comes.

- Scan malfunction? - No.

Once again.

There's something along 4-1-9 that so overloads the instruments,

we can't even get a reading on it.

Whatever sucked us into this slag heap pulled from a single point.

A point I'm afraid we have no option but to investigate.

I don't sense life.

I feel absolutely nothing at all.

I've never felt anything so empty, so dead.

I'm not getting any surface movement,

but I'm getting a neg density reading in the center well up.

What do you say, Commander?

Uh...

Yeah, I suppose...

Well?

All right, Baelon.

You take Alluma, Quuhod.

Dameia and Cabren, come with me.

We'll check the perimeter before joining you.

Let's get out of here.

- Be careful. - You be careful.

Commander?

Shall we go, sir?

Of course.

I wonder why the Master put me in command of this mission.

I'm getting old.

I'm tired. I'm tired of giving orders. And I much prefer home.

You're not old, Commander.

Not when I'm looking at you, I'm not.

Commander!

Commander.

What's the matter, Commander? What's the matter?

I'm sorry. I must have lost my grip.

Doubt is brother demon to despair.

The demons tail, doubt withers those who dare not dare.

Commander?

Shouldn't we be moving on?

I... I don't know.

Maybe it's just my nerves.

Commander, you don't need to do that.

If there is something down there we all should go down.

Commander, why take the chance when we could?

I give the orders here, Cabren.

I'm a tri-crom rated climber, why not let me?

You and Dameia cover me.

Nothing so far. I'm going down another four lat.

Cabren, the line!

Your piton slipped, Commander, we've got you now.

How much more? Commander!

Three lats.