A Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons Story
By
Ralph Ferreira
The three World Navy officers were walking down one of the streets of the
Hamburg harbor, and it was evident that they wanted to get to their destination
as soon as possible. Helmut
Dirkschneider, an experienced submarine commander, was a short man, especially
so for a German, and he looked a little odd between those very tall men who were
going with him. Despite his appearance, everyone who was
under his command knew that he was very competent and they respected him a lot.
That was the reason why the World Navy Command chose him to command this special
mission.
"This is going to be different hunting, isn't it, Herr Kapitan?" asked
one of the officers.
"I think so, Herr Hoffmann," Captain Dirkschneider answered.
"We will not have much to do except just watch on cathode ray tubes, seated in
comfortable chairs."
"But that's technology, Herr Kapitan," said the other officer.
"Ja! I know that, Her
Buccholz," Dirkschneider smiled.
"I'm not against it; for me it's much easier to keep my boat in a safe and
strategic position, and less likely to put myself and my crew in a danger zone."
The discussion went on as they were going to their submarine, the Bayern, which
was waiting for her captain at the dock.
The talking ceased when they saw a strange man coming in their direction.
They recognized the uniform the man was wearing as soon as he got near them.
"Look, a Spectrum officer," Hoffmann whispered. "That's not a good sign--means trouble
in the vicinity."
They passed next to the solitary man and politely greeted him; he simply did the
same.
The World Navy building was a truly beautiful sight at night; its modern lines
were accentuated by the big spotlights which illuminated it, making it contrast
with the darkness of the night.
Captain Black stopped walking at a point where no World Navy building guard
could see him and stood there impassive and alone looking at the huge edifice. Slowly his body started to disappear as the
Mysterons tele-transported him to perform another misdeed.
Black reappeared in a corridor of the 10th floor of that building and
silently went toward a room at the end of it.
A soldier seated at a desk next to the aluminum door of that maximum
security room got up, saluting him.
"What can I do for you, sir?" the young soldier asked.
"Spectrum." Captain Black
showed his identification.
"My task here is very brief.
I'll just use the computer for a few minutes."
"Captain Black?" The soldier
interrogatively frowned.
"Your face is strange to me.
May I see your authorization, Herr Kapitan?" the young man politely
required. "I cannot permit you to
get in without an...without...an..."
The deep glance of Captain Black mesmerized the poor man, who now looked like a
zombie.
"You...can...get...in...now...sir."
The man robotically opened the heavy door by entering the appropriate code on
the electronic locking device; then Captain Black calmly entered the room.
The Bayern was leaving the dock, and the three men who had arrived together were
on its large tower watching the land recede from them. It was almost impossible to distinguish the horizon ahead of
the submarine, since the Black Sea met with the black sky. The Bayern was one of the most modern
submarines in service to the World Navy and was leaving with the latest advance
in naval war technology.
Captain Black silently closed the aluminum door after completing the
Mysterons' work, and stood again in front of the petrified man, looking directly
into his eyes without saying a word.
"I cannot permit you to get in without an authorization," said the
soldier after lightly shaking his head as if he was waking up from a deep sleep.
"Oh, I didn't know that," Captain Black answered with a Machiavellian
smile. It was obvious that he would
not kill this man, to avoid leaving any possible clues in this place; the
Mysterons had something bigger in mind. "That's O.K.
I'll come back tomorrow."
"Sorry, mein Herr!"
"No problem. Auf
Wiedersehen."
"Auf Wiedersehen."
Captain Black left the building as easily as he had gotten in. Walking alone again on the desert
streets in the dead of night, he went back to the harbor, heading toward a light
yacht. The only witness to see him
was a black cat, who was seated on a wooden keg on the dock. Strangely, Black petted the cat's head
before getting in the yacht. His
attitude was so odd that it was impossible to distinguish whether the Mysterons
had guided the action or it had been a manifestation of the personality of
Conrad Turner.
Some minutes later, the yacht was moving rapidly to high sea.
"This is the voice of the Mysterons.
We know that you can hear us, Earthmen.
We have not forgotten your unprovoked attack on our Martian Complex, and we
shall continue our revenge on you.
Our next act of retaliation will be to destroy the Pride of the Seven Seas."
The menace of the Mysterons echoed in all parts of Cloudbase. Knowing that the Mysterons didn't waste
time, Colonel White called his officers to a meeting in the conference room.
There was no time to lose.
"Well, gentlemen, we all heard this last menace of the Mysterons,"
started Colonel White.
"'Pride of the Seven Seas'" is the nickname of the transatlantic Neptune,
the biggest and newest ship in her class, capable of carrying up to 4000
passengers. Neptune is going to
make her inaugural voyage in two days, from Southampton to New York."
"It was easy for the computer to identify the new target of the
Mysterons," Lieutenant Green added.
"Almost all tickets for the first voyage of the Neptune had been sold and
her owners had planned big parties for the departure and arrival."
In the conference room, Captains Scarlet, Blue, Ochre, Gray and Magenta were
carefully paying attention to Colonel White's words. "Would it be possible to postpone this first trip until we
solve the problem with the Mysterons?" asked Captain Ochre.
"No, it wouldn't," Colonel White frowned. "The owners of the ship have stated that
they will not make any change to their plans."
"In other words, money is more important than people!" protested Scarlet
in a tone so angry that all the other officers looked at him.
"I know," Colonel White continued. "But we know this is not the case, Scarlet. More than 4000 people will travel on
that ship, and we have to protect them."
"Certainly, sir."
"Well, Scarlet, you and Captains Blue and Magenta will travel on the
Neptune," determined Colonel White.
"Due to a request from the ship's owners, you'll not be wearing Spectrum
uniforms. They told us this is to
avoid panic among the passengers.
Captain Ochre will go to Southampton and Captain Gray to New York."
In an unknown location in the North Atlantic, Bayern proceeded with her secret
mission. "Full stop!" ordered
Captain Dirkschneider, looking at a big screen with a map of the Atlantic Ocean
which had some white points marking several locations and a green triangle
indicating the submarine's position.
"Prepare to launch torpedo one."
A seaman seated next to a control console in front of the big screen pressed
some buttons , and one of the white points turned red.
"Torpedo ready, sir."
"Feuer!"
From the modified bow of the huge atomic submarine, a strange shark-shaped
torpedo silently left its tube. On
the conning tower, the crewmembers looked closely at a yellow point which just
appeared on the screen and started to trace a blue straight line.
Thousands of people had come to the Southampton port to see the departure
of the Neptune. Nature helped a
lot, giving to these people a beautiful, sunny day. The place was decorated with flags, flowers and ribbons. A philharmonic orchestra was playing
live on a stage built for the event.
Captain Ochre was commanding a complex operation to check everyone with a
Mysteron detector before letting them board the ship.
After speeches by some authorities and the owners of the ship, Laura
Hill, the daughter of one of the ship owners, broke a bottle of champagne on the
Neptune's bow.
The sea was very calm, no wind, no clouds.
An old ship solitarily sailing was there to break the monotony of the
scene. But even so, the silence was
sepulchral. The vessel was
deserted, looking like a ghost ship.
The automatic navigation system was controlling all systems required to keep
that ship sailing. Suddenly, a huge
explosion broke that serenity, and an immense dark gray cloud rose. The ship literally broke in two at the
middle and sank in a few minutes.
"Torpedo right on target, sir!" said Roth, the weapons operator,
frenetically. "Direct impact!
The ST-20 is a success!"
"Ja, I think so," smiled Dirkschneider, who was standing behind Roth's
chair.
Neptune was slowly leaving the dock, while lots of people were waving
their hands to the ones on the ship's decks.
Basically, Neptune was a big hovercraft with four decks for the
passengers and one for general services.
The bridge was located on a forty-foot-high aerodynamically-shaped tower
located on the upper deck, on the bow.
Captain Scarlet was disguised as a crew member, Captain Blue as a
bartender, and Captain Magenta as a tourist.
On the bridge, Scarlet was talking to the ship's commander, Captain
Jonathan Halford, about all the precautions Spectrum had taken to protect the
ship and everyone about it, when suddenly a very beautiful girl came onto the
bridge, deviating the attention of everyone there. Her black hair made a nice contrast to her delicate white
skin. She stopped in front of the
big fair-haired ship's captain.
"Captain Halford, I'd like to meet the Spectrum people," asked Laura Hill
politely. "You know that I have
access to this information.
After all, part of this ship belongs to me, doesn't it?"
"Well," Halford smiled, "one of them is right here."
He pointed to Scarlet. "Mr. Metcalfe, Miss Hill."
Captain Black was solitarily yachting, getting close to an old cargo
vessel. After stopping his yacht,
he went to the stern, got in the small motorboat and launched it to the sea. Black took the motorboat very close to
the cargo vessel in a dangerous maneuver, then threw a hook with a rope attached
to it onto the ship's deck. Black
held the rope, testing its firmness, then jumped from the motorboat. Half of his body got in the water, but
even struggling against the wake of the old ship he was able to get out of the
water and start climbing. When
Black got on the deck, he went immediately to the bridge.
Roth was setting up the controls of the weapons systems prior to the next test,
when suddenly one of the white points on the screen simply disappeared. "Herr Kapitan!" screamed the confused
operator.
"What's happening?" asked Dirkschneider when he got near Roth's chair.
"Target three just disappeared."
"Have you checked all systems?"
"I made all usual checks, sir."
"How much time does it take to make a calibration test on the weapons
system?"
"36 hours, Herr Kapitan."
"Do it.
If no fault is found, we'll contact the W.N. command about the failure of target
three."
"Jawohl."
The old cargo ship was drifting.
Captain Black had switched the controls to manual and brought her to a full
stop. Black was working with the precision of
a Swiss clock, everything he had planned right on schedule. Silently he was leaving the vessel in
one of its lifeboats, going rapidly back to his yacht.
Everything was quite quiet on the Neptune. Captain Scarlet and Captain Blue were chatting on the
observation deck above the bridge, glancing at some heavy clouds on the horizon,
a prelude for a tempest at the end of the day.
"Things are much too calm," frowned Blue. "I don't like that."
"I understand you very well, Blue," Scarlet answered. "I'm worried too, but I'm trying to keep
myself calm. When the Mysterons
come, they'll attack with full power and we'll have to be ready to
counter-attack."
"You're right, partner," Blue agreed. "What about Captain Magenta?"
"Ah!" Scarlet smiled.
"I think he's enjoying this mission much more than we are."
Scarlet went to the rear end of the observation deck and pointed to a very
relaxed Captain Magenta taking a sun bath beside the ship's swimming pool.
"It's not a bad deal to be disguised as a tourist!" Blue grinned.
"Oh, yes!" Scarlet had a
good laugh. "And the weather is
helping, too. I'll ask for a role
like that next time!"
When the night came down, strong winds came with it, announcing a storm. Most of the passengers were at the
recreation deck, some dancing, some gambling, some eating; everybody was having
fun. Blue, Scarlet and Magenta were
at the bar. Blue was using his role
as a barman to arrange a little meeting with his partners.
"Soon I'll have to go back to the bridge," Scarlet said, while drinking a
glass of refreshment.
"Anything new, Captain Magenta?"
"Nothing, Captain Scarlet, absolutely nothing," answered Magenta.
"I checked and re-checked all passengers, talked to a lot of people.
Everything is okay."
The bar was so crowded with people talking at the same time, the noise, together
with the music being played there, gave a perfect cover to the conversation of
the Spectrum trio. Who would
suspect a barman talking to a passenger and a crew member while drying some
glasses?
"Tomorrow we'll have a day stop at A‡ores," alerted Blue. "We'll have to keep our eyes open."
"Even tonight," Scarlet said, frowning. "I think something is going to happen
tonight."
"Are you feeling something wrong, Captain Scarlet?" asked Magenta.
Scarlet shook his head.
"It's just intuition. I'll
go back to the bridge."
The rain fell for about two hours.
It was very heavy, making it unsafe to walk in any outdoors area. Erik Hammett and Bob Smith, two
experienced technicians, were working in Engineering, performing preventive
maintenance on the two big nuclear engines of the craft.
"I'm not feeling very well," complained Hammett.
"What's wrong?" asked Smith.
"My head. I'll go back to
our office for a coffee."
"That's O.K."
While drinking his coffee, Hammett took a look at the window of his
office to see the tempest when, to his surprise, he saw a little light on the
sea shaking a lot with the big waves.
He wiped his eyes, thinking it was an illusion, but when he opened them
again the light was still there.
"What kind of idiot would be on the high sea in weather like this?" he
muttered to himself, then took a set of binoculars and went out to better see
what kind of boat it was.
He took a look and could distinguish a little yacht almost heeling over
due to the high waves. After
adjusting the lenses of his binoculars, he was able to see a lone man on the
tiller who was slowly turning his head to face him.
Hammett could not avoid the glance of Captain Black, whose eyes were
fixed upon him, like the eyes of a snake hypnotizing its victim before killing
it. Hammett staggered for two
seconds before leaning on the railing, then lost all control of his body and
fell over, into the sea.
Hammett's body was floating hundreds of feet away from the Neptune when
the two sinister green rings appeared from nowhere and silently and slowly swept
over the lifeless man. The
Mysteronized Hammett returned to the office and shamelessly took the glass of
coffee the poor technician had been drinking on, finishing it while looking at
the window seeing the little light standing off from the Neptune.
The transatlantic vessel was already near Açores when the sun broke above the
sea. Hammett and Smith were almost
finished with their work shift when suddenly Hammett heard a toneless voice
coming from nowhere.
"This is Captain Black, relaying instructions from the Mysterons on Mars.
Only you, Hammett, can hear me.
Tonight you will meet me on the quay, on the bonded store eight at 11:30; there
you will
receive the rest of your instructions."
Captains Scarlet, Blue and Magenta were having a rapid meeting outdoors
on the forward end of the second deck.
As it was very early in the morning, there were no passengers in the
vicinity, and the few crewmembers who were busy coming and going paid no
attention to those three men leaned over the railing and talking while they saw
the approaching harbor.
"I'll go out with the crew members who are taking shore leave," said
Blue.
"It's better if I go with the passengers visiting the city," continued
Magenta.
"That's O.K.," Scarlet concluded. "I'll stay aboard.
I still have that sensation that they'll try something very soon."
Bayern continued with her top secret mission under the sea, navigating
somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic.
Since they were still making tests on the submarine's weapon system, the
craft was traveling in a circular course.
Captain Dirkschneider was talking to the executive officer Hoffmann about
a possible cancellation of the mission if a problem were found, when Rosenthall
arrived with a message in his hand.
"Herr Kapitan!" said the communications operator politely.
"A message from the W.N. Command, sir."
"Vielen Dank, Herr Rosenthall." thanked the short blond man after taking
the message.
The message was sent in code-one, as the W.N. Command had planned in the
eventuality of sending messages which should be sent only in extreme situations;
otherwise the submarine's crew should maintain total silence, no oral or written
communication with the ground people or any other vessel.
WE FOUND A FAILURE ON THE TRANSMITTER OF TARGET
THREE. THE
PROBLEM WILL BE SOLVED IN 12 HOURS. YOU MUST PROCEED NORMALLY WITH
THE MISSION.
"They found the problem faster than we imagined," smiled Hoffmann, who
was reading the message beside the Captain.
"Doch!" answered
Dirkschneider.
"They have more
resources over there than we do over here, Herr Hoffmann. Well, let's go on with our task."
Captain Black's face bore a growing sardonic smile while he removed a CD
from a computer connected to a complex radio transceiver. Knowing all codes and frequencies that
the World Navy was using on that operation, he had built a miniature
communications station inside his yacht.
He was sure of the success of his task, since he knew that the W.N. Command
would spend at least 24 hours more before finishing all tests on their tracking
system and consequently getting in contact with the Bayern. That would be enough time to conclude the Mysterons' plan.
It was late at night, and almost all the passengers and crewmembers had returned
to the Neptune. Only one man was
still on the quay, seated on a wooden keg in front of bonded store eight. Hammett took a look at his watch, which
indicated 11:30 PM, w hen he raised his head and saw a man dressed in black
carrying a box and coming toward him from the darkness.
"This is the device which transmits signals to the ST-20 torpedo," said
Black, who knelt down to open the big box and pointed to a red button on the
upper side of the strange device inside. "Tomorrow you will turn this transmitter
on at 6:00 AM."
"Tomorrow the Neptune will go to the bottom of the sea," Hammett said,
slowly and coldly.
Laura Hill and two friends were going back to the Neptune in a taxi when
she saw a man walking alone in the quay carrying a big box. She recognized him as a crewmember and
immediately asked the taxi driver to stop the car next to Hammett. "Hey, we're going to the Neptune. Come with us, get in the car," she said.
"That's not necessary, ma'am," Hammett answered, a little apprehensively.
"I like to walk."
"Oh, come on!" Laura Hill insisted. "Don't be so shy!
Get in the car!"
After much insistence, Hammett accepted the offer and went with them.
During the way back to the ship, he said no word—his expressionless face seemed
so odd that the three women in the rear seat of the car suspected that the man
was not feeling well.
When they arrived, Hammett was the first one to get out of the car, but when he
was going out, he accidentally touched a fastener which released the
spring-loaded box cover, revealing the strange device in its interior. Hammett closed it immediately.
"What's that?" asked Laura Hill curiously.
"Ah, it's a...a..."
Hammett had not expected this.
He was excitedly trying to find a good answer for the woman. "It's a pressure controller used on our
engines. It was failing and I knew
a man who has a very good workshop down on the quay who could repair it for a
good price and save a lot of time and money for us." He concluded, "Working so many years for
the company, one gets to know lots of people like him, all over the world,"
Hammett insincerely smiled.
"Oh, it's good to have people like you working in our crew," smiled Laura
Hill. She believed the technician,
but due to his strange attitude she determined she would talk to someone of
Spectrum about him the following day.
Target three suddenly reappeared on the tactical screen of the Bayern, as
Captain Dirkschneider and his men had been anticipating. "Those guys are really accurate with
time," Dirkschneider called.
"They're certainly Germans!" joked Hoffmann.
"Herr Roth," Dirkschneider called the weapons operator, "prepare torpedo
three."
The white point which indicated target three on the map turned to red. Everything was ready to continue the
tests with the automatic long-range torpedo ST-20.
"Torpedo ready, sir."
"Feuer!"
One more time, a yellow point started tracing a blue
straight line on the map. In the
upper right corner of the screen some messages appeared as soon as the torpedo
was launched.
DISTANCE: 800 MILES
TIME TO IMPACT: 9 HOURS
Magenta was having his breakfast in the ship's restaurant when Laura Hill
arrived and asked to have breakfast with him. Magenta was literally mesmerized by those wonderful blue
eyes. He was so fascinated looking
at that beautiful and intelligent woman that he almost forgot he was still on
duty; but being a very well-trained and experienced officer, he knew how to deal
with this.
The great time Magenta was having changed when the woman started talking about
what she had seen on the previous night.
"Could you see what he was carrying in that box, Miss Hill?" asked
Magenta anxiously.
"Just call me Laura, O.K.?" she smiled.
"O.K., Miss... oh...Laura," Magenta choked. "But tell me, please--what have you
seen?"
"I don't know what it was, it was a kind of electronic device. Sorry, I'm not a technical person. I remember he told me it was a kind of
controller."
"Don't you remember any detail of that device?"
"It was...like a cylinder with a soccer ball on one of its ends.
I could see two big red letters on its body, W and N, and below them, I remember
seeing some little blue letters: S...T...mmm, I can't remember the rest."
"You have helped a lot, Miss...ah...Laura," thanked Magenta, hastily
standing up.
"Are you not going to finish your breakfast?"
"I have no time," Magenta answered, leaving the table. "I've got to go to the bridge."
Magenta contacted Blue and Scarlet, and in a few minutes the three
Spectrum officers were at the bridge.
While Blue and Magenta were explaining to Captain Halford what they had
heard, Scarlet contacted Cloudbase using a small radio transceiver disguised as
a simple pen.
"I have Captain Scarlet on Channel 022," said Lieutenant Green.
"I'll transfer him to you, Colonel."
Although everything Scarlet had reported to Colonel White was not a real
menace, they could not take any chance, and decided to check any possibility of
danger. They analyzed the clues and
deduced that W.N. probably meant World Navy.
"We'll contact the World Navy Command to see if they know something about
what you've reported, Scarlet," said Colonel White. "After doing that, we'll contact you
again. In the meantime, it's best
you check out that man you told me about."
"S.I.G."
Moments later on the Neptune's bridge, Scarlet, Blue and Magenta were
talking to Hill to see if she could remember who the man was she had seen the
night before.
"A maintenance man?" Halford intervened.
"Oh, yes, he told me he was a technician," Laura replied. "I've seen his name on the uniform, but
I can't remember it. Something like
Hamm...Ham...maybe Hammer."
"Can't you check that in the ship's computer, Captain Halford?" asked
Scarlet.
"Sure!" Halford entered the
available data into the computer and some seconds later the computer presented
two names, Hanson and Hammett. "O.K.," said Halford calmly in his British accent
after reading the two names on the computer screen. "Now, let's see what you look like,
gentlemen."
The first face to appear on the screen was Hanson's.
"Is that the man?"
"No, it isn't."
"Hm-m-m.
Let's try the
other one." Halford typed again at
his keyboard, and Hammett's face appeared on the screen.
"It's him! That is the man I
saw last night!"
"Erik Hammett."
Halford read the data displayed on the screen regarding that crewmember.
"He's off duty now and is probably in his quarters."
"Let's check on him," said Blue with a worried tone. He didn't like what he was hearing,
because he also knew that sooner or later the Mysterons were going to try
something.
Captain Halford gently knocked on Hammett's door. Scarlet, Blue and Magenta were just
behind him. Although the situation
was totally under control, they were a little apprehensive. "Mr. Hammett!
Mr. Hammett!"
"Who's out there?" a voice from inside Hammett's quarters answered.
"Captain Halford, Mr. Hammett.
Please open your door. I
need to talk to you."
When Hammett opened his door and saw Captain Halford with those three men,
immediately he suspected they were Spectrum people. He allowed them to get in, then he closed the door and sat in
a chair in front of his writing desk.
Halford started explaining to him who the men were, when Scarlet's
pen-radio transceiver signaled.
"Captain Scarlet here," Scarlet spoke into the little microphone after
removing the cover of the pen.
"We know what the device is that you described, Scarlet," Colonel White's
voice came out of the micro-speaker of Scarlet's transceiver.
"It transmits signals to a long-range torpedo called ST-20."
"A torpedo?" Scarlet
frowned.
"Yes, Captain. The ST-20 is
a new kind of weapon which is being tested by the World Navy. It can navigate for hundreds of miles
following the signals of a super-high-frequency transmitter. According to our data, the transmitter
which is supposed to be used for test three is on board the Neptune!"
"So we have to seek and destroy it, Colonel?"
"No!" Colonel White's voice changed to a nervous tone. "An ST-20 was launched some hours ago
and is dangerously close to the Neptune.
If you destroy it now, the torpedo will look for the nearest target,
which will still be the Neptune.
You'll have to locate the transmitter and take it as far as possible from the
Neptune, and you only have 30 minutes!"
"S.I.G."
"Stay right where you are, Earthmen." Hammett opened a drawer on his writing
desk and took a gun before Scarlet, Blue or Magenta could take any action. He had taken advantage of the fraction
of time when the Spectrum officers had deviated their attention from him to hear
Colonel White's message.
Pointing his gun at the four men, he went to a locker, opened it, and
took out a huge rucksack. It was
evident that the transmitter was inside it.
"Don't move!" Hammett shouted when Blue tried to whip a gun out of his
pocket. "Hands up! All of you, hands up! Come on!" Then he moved very close to Captain Blue and put his gun
betweenBlue's eyes. "If--if!--if
you are good, boys, I'll permit you to live, so maybe you'll have a chance to
survive when the ST-20 hits
this ship!"
Blue was in a cold sweat; he could feel death just in front of him and had to
keep his self-control. Any wrong
movement and that lunatic Mysteron agent could kill him. He took a breath when Hammett stepped away.
"You all can use my quarters.
You are my guests, Earthmen," said the ironic Mysteron who was going to
the door. "Now relax and
contemplate our revenge. This ship
will travel to the bottom of the sea in a few minutes. Farewell!"
Hammett rapidly went out and locked the door from outside.
"O.K., let's go after him!"
Blue whipped out his gun as soon as the Mysteron agent left and fired on
the door lock to open it.
When they went out, they could see Hammett turning right at the end of the
corridor. They pursued the
Mysteronized man through lots of corridors, and climbed and descended several
stairs, going in the direction of the Engineering section.
When Hammett arrived he found two technicians on the day shift working
there. With no mercy, he fired at
the two defenseless men, being very careful not to wound them mortally; he knew
that the Spectrum officers would certainly stop to help those poor men.
"Oh, God!" Scarlet cried out when he got into Engineering and saw the
technicians lying in a pool of blood.
"Captain Magenta!" he called his partner, who was just arriving in
Engineering. "Stay with them and
ask for some help; Captain Blue and I will go on pursuing Hammett."
"S.I.G."
Hammett had enough time to climb one of the huge engine turbines of the
Neptune. He was well established up
there but his visual angle was very limited.
He sat still and lay in wait for his pursuers.
When Scarlet and Blue arrived, they were welcomed with bullets. In a rapid movement they ran toward the
turbine wall, getting out of Hammett's visual angle.
"I'll climb that turbine," said Scarlet. "Go climbing the other one and give me
cover, Blue."
"S.I.G."
Scarlet started climbing, the expression of tension on his face denoting
that he was very nervous--once again, he was racing against time. He got close to the top, knowing that he
should make his next movement fast, because one more tread and he would face the
Mysteronized Hammett. Scarlet took
a deep breath and went up, using one hand to hold the ladder rung and the other
to point his gun at the enemy. He
did everything rapidly to take the advantage of the element of surprise--but to
his own surprise there was nobody up there.
Carefully, he began to look for the Mysteron. This was a strange situation; there were not many places for
someone to hide, so he was wondering where the man was. At the left end of the top of the
turbine, Scarlet saw a bridge which connected the turbine top to a kind of
control cabin. There was no other
place to go, so Hammett had to be in that cabin.
Scarlet was already in the middle of the bridge, when suddenly he heard a
different noise. He looked to his
right but before he could do anything, a huge blow to his shoulder threw him
down.
Hammett was hidden and had waited for the right moment to activate a
traveling crane to get Scarlet. The
Spectrum officer was able to hold onto the bridge's railing, avoiding a 60-foot
fall. Scarlet hung up there,
struggling climb back onto the bridge as soon as he could. The situation had changed drastically for him; he had lost
his gun when the crane's block had hit him and his fingers were aching too much
to keep their hold on it. He looked
down seeking Magenta but nobody was there.
When he looked up again, he saw Hammett, a sick smile on that pale face,
pointing a gun at him.
"This time I'll give you no chance, Earthman!" Hammett said, pointing his
gun at Scarlet's forehead.
Scarlet had already closed his eyes, as there was nothing more he could
do, when suddenly he heard a shot followed by a terse scream of pain. He opened his eyes and looked around.
He saw Blue below him, his gun aimed right up at Hammett, who was now bleeding
profusely from a neck wound.
Scarlet breathed a sigh of relief that his partner did not take his
indestructibility for granted and backed him up as he was supposed to.
Even
with a bullet in his neck, the fanatic Mysteronized man turned to Blue to fire
at him, but before he could shoot, Scarlet held his ankle and pulled it.
Losing his balance and being weak
due to the bullet wound, Hammett fell down from
the bridge.
Blue went to Scarlet and put out his hand to help his friend climb up to the
bridge again. "It's going to become a habit for you to save me," Scarlet
smiled.
"It wouldn't be fair if only you got to try your luck at it," Blue joked.
"Right," Scarlet laughed.
"Adam, we still have lots to do, and little time."
Scarlet left the Neptune in a small motorboat to take the transmitter to
a safe place. He had less than five
minutes; that meant that the ST-20 was very close and could hit him before he
could accomplish his task. At a
distance of more than five miles from the Neptune, Scarlet inflated a rubber
boat and left the transmitter on it.
When he turned on the motor of the boat, he had the first visual contact
with the ST-20. The torpedo was
coming quickly, its dorsal fin outside the water like a hungry shark coming in
fast to attack. When the ST-20 hit
its target, its high explosive ogive created a huge wave which capsized
Scarlet's boat. Some seconds later, Scarlet surfaced,
caught hold of his capsized boat and waved his hand to the people on the Neptune
to show that everything was going to be fine.
Back on the Neptune, the Spectrum trio reported the success of their mission to
Colonel White, who became actually quite happy when he heard what his personnel
had done.
"Captain Scarlet, Captain Blue, Captain Magenta," said White proudly,
"you really did a very good job.
My congratulations. I was
already informed that the Neptune will arrive tomorrow in New York, so I decided
to concede a forty-eight hour leave period for all of you--if Captain Halford
agrees to your continued stay on the Neptune, of course!"
"Sure, Colonel!" Halford promptly answered. "I'll provide first-class accommodations
for them."
"Thank you, Captain," said Colonel White. "Well, gentlemen, enjoy your time on the
Neptune."
Scarlet turned his pen-transceiver off with a big smile on his face.
"Well, well," he said, stretching, "Magenta is already wearing the right clothes
for the occasion. I'll change my
own."
"Good idea, Paul," Blue smiled. "I'll do the same.
How about all of us meeting in the pool in one hour?"
"Great!" Scarlet and Magenta answered in chorus.
Neptune went safely on to complete its first journey. Most of the people thereon didn't know
about the danger that had surrounded the ship for some days, or about the heroes
who had saved their lives.
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