This story is based on characters created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson for the TV series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.

Some events and characters Copyright © of all trademarks materials (Captain Scarlet & the Mysterons, all characters, vehicles, crafts, etc.), owned by ITC/Polygram/Carlton. Information of the series are all been taken from copyright © materials (books, magazines, videos, T.V. media, comics, etc) owned by ITC/Polygram/Carlton.

As always, thanks to Hazel Köhler and Mary J. Rudy for their invaluable help as beta-readers.

PARALLAX VIEW

A Captain Scarlet & the Mysterons story

By Chris Bishop

PART 1 - THROUGH THE MIRROR

PROLOGUE:

Elsewhere...

Culver Atomic Centre,

Dorset, England.

2068

They told him not to go in. But Captain Blue wouldn’t listen to them. He was too concerned – too worried that she would get hurt. He had to try and do something to help her, even if it meant going behind everybody else’s back, even if it meant disobeying the Colonel’s orders. He didn’t care anymore about that. All he wanted to do was to make sure she was safe.

He had crept out of the office while everybody had been looking elsewhere. They would soon realise he was gone – probably they did, already, but there was no way they would stop him now – he was already too far away. The second he had crossed the doorway, it was too late to stop him, anyway. He was determined to go through with this – alone, if he had too. Symphony was in danger. He had to save her.

It was pretty easy to find out where exactly their prey would be hiding with his hostage. He had come back to the Atomic Centre for what reason, exactly? Because the radiation from the Centre would hide his own? Probably at the beginning, but it would mean Spectrum would know exactly where he was. Well, eventually, the radiation within him would wear off, but would he be able to get out of there then? Spectrum was watching every exit – they knew approximately when he’d no longer be radioactive, so they knew when he’d try to escape. So, he would take them by surprise. Somehow. It was exactly his style. And in that case, in order to get away, he would need to clean himself of his radiation.

There were only one place to do that, inside the perimeters where Spectrum knew him to be.

Captain Blue carefully pushed the door and entered the room. It was dark in there, nearly as dark as it presently was in the majority of the Centre at the moment. It was good for him, he thought, as he might be able to get in without being seen. Maybe he’d be able to surprise his prey, and get Symphony out of his clutches, without so much as a fight with her abductor. Maybe he’d be able to capture him, without having to kill him, as the Colonel would like, and then Spectrum would be able to free him from the Mysterons’ control? He was one of Spectrum’s best men once; in Blue’s point of view, their very best. Maybe there was still hope to save him too.

Silently, Blue advanced into the dark room, his gun drawn. In front of him there was a glassed-in cabin, with a console set in front of it. A kind of decontamination chamber, he reflected. Good. He was in the right place.

A sound on his right made him turn suddenly, his gun at the ready. He froze, when he found himself aiming it at Symphony herself, standing a mere six feet away from him. She was looking at him with eyes wide-opened with fear. Behind her stood Blue’s quarry, using Symphony as a shield, his forearm pressed against her throat, and holding a gun at her head. Blue could see a pale face over the young woman’s frightened features, with icy eyes, glaring darkly at him.

“Don’t make a move. Or she’s dead.”

Blue blinked, hearing the warning, as cold as the eyes were themselves. He couldn’t recognise the voice. It sounded so much like the Mysterons’ voice. It bore so little likeness to that of his friend – so devoid of emotion. He swallowed hard, and kept his gun steadily aimed at his target.

“The place is surrounded,” Blue declared with as assured a voice as he was able to muster. “You can’t hope to escape.”

“You’ve made a mistake coming in here, Earthman”, the alien voice said, through the lips of the man who had been his friend and colleague.

“YOU’VE made the mistake,” Blue replied. “You drove yourself into a corner by coming back here. Now, please. Surrender. Maybe we can help you…”

“Help me?”

The scoff was bitter, and so loathing. The gun against Symphony’s head was removed, and Blue nearly blew a sigh of relief. Until he saw that the hand holding it simply lowered down to press the barrel against the young Angel pilot’s side. She flinched, and gave a desperate look to Blue. “Adam…” Blue saw the arm pressing harder on Symphony’s throat, ensuring its hold on her. He blanched.

“Don’t hurt her!” he demanded. “Let her go!”

“I was about to,” came the cold replied. “I came to an agreement with her… I was going to give her ONE chance…”

Blue’s feverish eyes left those of the Mysteron agent and locked onto those of Symphony. He was trying to pass a message to her. Don’t be afraid, I’m here… I’ll get you out of this…

He lowered his gun, very slowly. Maybe he could gain time until the others arrived. Surely, they would arrive shortly. They would probably follow the same line of thought as himself, deduce where Symphony and her abductor were – and where Blue had gone – and come as quickly as they could.

“Don’t hurt her,” he repeated, trying to keep his voice calm. “There’s no need to…”

“You forfeited her last chance to live, Earthman.”

The rest was very quick, but for Blue it was as if it happened in slow motion. He saw the Mysteron agent’s finger squeeze the trigger and simultaneously, heard the detonation, and the cry of pain emerging from Symphony’s lips as she flinched under the impact. He saw the blood erupting from the left side of her body and nearly splashing into him. He froze for the space of a second, before a deafening roar tore through his throat, as the same time as an inexpressible pain tore through his heart. It was almost a physical pain, as if the bullet that had struck his beloved Angel had struck him too. He raised his gun, as Symphony fell and, blinded with fear and rage, fired at the tall figure in black that was now standing in front of him, unprotected. His aim was faulty, but he knew his bullet reached its target. At this range, he couldn’t miss. But the Mysteron barely recoiled. Instead, he raised his gun, and it fired anew; and Blue, hit in the right shoulder, lost hold of his weapon and staggered.

“Not good enough, Earthman…” The Mysteron was on Blue before he could react and violently hit him over the head with his gun. Blue’s knees buckled, and he fell down on the floor. With blurred vision, he could see his adversary make good his escape through the door, the bullet the Spectrum captain had put in him hardly slowing him down.

As the Mysteron disappeared from his view, Blue’s dazed attention instantly turned to the figure sprawled at his side. He could hear Symphony’s laborious and panicky breathing as he literally crawled to her, desperation distorting his handsome features. God, please, no… Don’t… Let me help her…

She was so pale, lying on her side on the cold floor, a pool of blood enlarging underneath her, staining her white uniform where the bullet had hit her. Blue awkwardly sat down, and with trembling hands, notwithstanding the pain from his wounded shoulder, he gathered her limp form and cradled her in his arms.

“Karen, I’m so sorry… Karen….” He could feel her body trembling, going into shock. She looked up at his apprehensive face.

“I’m cold, Adam…”

No… God, don’t let her die…

“I’m here,” he whispered, holding her close. “Don’t worry, I’m here…” Where’s my radiocap? he thought, panic overtaking him. I got to call for help… She needs a doctor…

I won’t let her die…

“H-hold me tight,” he heard the murmur in his ear.

“No.” His own voice was but a croak, now filled with tears. He could feel them starting to form on the bridge of his nose. He held her closer still, as if somehow hoping this way to chase the shadow of death threatening to take her away from him.

He heard rapid footsteps in the distance, drawing closer; he didn’t even see Captains Ochre, Magenta and Grey as they entered the room and turned on the light to discover the appalling scene. They awkwardly gathered around. He didn’t care to answer their calls. He didn’t care for their presence. He only cared for the woman he was holding so close against his rapidly beating heart, feeling her’s slowing down, at the rate of her breathing.

“Please, don’t die… Karen, I love you… Don’t die.”

She managed a faint smile; and tiredly lifted a hand to stroke his face. “I love you too, Adam…”

“Hang on… Please, hang on, darling…” Blue desperately looked up to the three faces staring down at him with uneasiness. “Call a doctor!” he demanded in a shaky, but still forceful voice. “She’s been hurt! Can’t you see she needs help?”

Ochre managed to briefly nod his acknowledgement and lowered his cap microphone, to quickly make the required call. But he knew, as he was doing it, that it was already too late.

“Who did this, Blue?” Grey demanded looking down at the prostrate man at his feet.

“Don’t die, Karen, please…”

“Blue, WHAT happened?”

Blue’s face was streaming with tears; Symphony’s head was leaned against his wounded shoulder. She was barely breathing now, and her face was even paler than before. Her lips were moving with not a single sound coming from them.

She was dying. And he was helpless to do anything.

“Blue, WHAT happened?”

That was Grey’s voice coming through the heavy fog enveloping Blue’s mind. The pain on the blond Captain’s face then metamorphosed – and gave way to an overwhelming expression of hate and rage that made his handsome face crease hideously.

“He shot her!” he growled in an undertone, his eyes taking a murky, sinister look. The tears of pain were now mixed with tears of bitter hatred, and his jaws tightened as if he was desperately trying to contain the righteous anger mounting inside him. “He shot her down without any mercy… I swear, by God…”

“Where is he, now?”

“He’s GONE!” Blue snarled at the insistent Grey. “But I’ll find him! I swear I’ll find him! And when I do, you’d better not step between me and him!” He held Symphony closer still against him, as in a protective way, not wanting to let her go, as he knew she was breathing her last breaths. “I’ll kill him for what he did to her!” he promised with a fury. “For hurting the woman I loved… I’ll kill that son of a bitch! I’ll kill Captain Scarlet!”

* * *

CHAPTER 1

Here…

Cloudbase,

2070.

“I HATE this kind of assignment!”

Captain Blue looked at his partner and friend, Captain Scarlet, as the two of them were strolling down the corridor of Cloudbase deck C in the direction of the Research and Development Lab. Blue was his usual happy-going self, while Scarlet, at the moment, would have given anything to be in another place.

“Courage, Captain Scarlet,” Blue chuckled with a wide grin. “It’s only going to take an hour of your time! How bad could it be?”

“You really want to know?” Scarlet replied, shooting an old-fashioned look at the American officer. “Then YOU be the guinea pig for a change!”

“I’m afraid that won’t give the same results,” Blue answered matter-of-factly.

“Right. I’ve been Mysteronised. So I’ve got to be the experimental subject. Lucky me.” Scarlet pressed a button, to open the first protective door of the airlock leading to the lab. He heaved a sigh, and he and his friend walked through the doorway. “It all goes to remind me I’m not totally part of the human race anymore.” The first door closed behind them and he was about to push the button for the second door when Blue stopped him in mid-movement.

“Come on, now,” the blond captain protested quietly, looking his friend in the eyes. “You should know you’re not THAT different from us.”

“Aren’t I? How many times have you died, Adam?” Scarlet saw the hurt look in his friend’s features and automatically regretted his harsh words. “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for. I should be grateful for you coming with me, rather than laying it all on you.”

“I can understand your frustration,” Blue replied with a faint frown. “No, I don’t think it’s a fun situation for you, when you’re called by security, or sickbay, or R and D, whenever they need to test or verify something that concerns the Mysterons.”

“Not fun at all,” Scarlet grumbled. He jerked his head in the direction of the closed door. “Especially when the person calling me is Doctor Lavender.”

“I haven’t had time to get to know him yet. He only arrived a month or so back, didn’t he? What kind of a man is he?”

“Oh, he’s not a bad sort… Don’t get me wrong. He’s very professional. With him it’s always… down to business. Kind of detached, when it comes to socialising with other human beings. Not at all like Doctor Fawn. Although he can get very enthusiastic about his work. I’m sure that down inside, Lavender is a great guy.” He paused. “Deep down.” Another pause. “When you get to know him, that is.” He pushed his fists into his trouser pockets.

Blue chuckled. “I can see you’re really not that eager to see him.”

“I would rather play a game of chess with you. No matter how boring it might be.”

“Since when are our chess games boring?” Blue protested.

“They always are when you’re not concentrating enough. Too easy to win against you, then.”

Blue scoffed. “See? You’re NOT different from us at all! You can be as insufferable as…”

The door slid open in front of them, and Captain Ochre stood on the other side, staring at them with curiosity.

“…Him,” both Scarlet and Blue finished, before sniggering. Ochre looked at them crossly, figuring he was the subject of some kind of a gag.

“Can I ask what’s going on?” he demanded, with a furrowed brow.

“Oh!” Scarlet replied with a vague gesture. “You had to be there.”

“And YOU have to be HERE,” Ochre replied wryly, taking his colleague by the arm and nearly dragging him into the room. “Doctor Lavender was sending me to see what could possibly be holding you. He’ll be happy to see you’ve finally arrived!”

“Hey! I was coming!” Scarlet protested, shrugging Ochre’s hold on him. “And of my own free will!”

“Riiiight. And that’s why Blue was escorting you? To make sure you didn’t get lost on your way here?”

“I came with him for moral support,” Blue defended his friend.

“What am I here for, then? I can give moral support.”

“Very reassuring!” Scarlet muttered.

“And anyway,” Ochre continued, ignoring the remark, and turning to Blue, “weren’t you supposed to meet with somebody at two o’clock?”

“What’s going on, at two o’clock?” Scarlet demanded.

“Symphony will have finished with her Angel One duty,” Ochre informed him.

“Oh my God!” Blue checked his watch. His eyes became suddenly wide. “I’m nearly late! I must go!”

“What?” Scarlet said in disbelief. “You’re leaving me alone here? What about your moral support?”

“Sorry, Paul, old buddy – but I have some more pressing business to attend to. You know, Symphony and I… That wedding we have to prepare? That meeting with the colonel to see how he can get round regulations so the wedding can be approved?” Scarlet’s face fell, as he realised there was no way his friend would be able to stay. Blue gave him a reassuring pat on the arm, and a big smile. “I’ll come back as soon as I can.”

“In an hour, I’ll be out of here,” Scarlet replied dryly.

“Then I’ll see you in the Officers’ Lounge. We’ll play one of those BORING games of chess, okay?” Blue backed away, still grinning. “See you later!” The door slid closed on him, and a discomfited Scarlet found himself staring blankly into empty space, where his friend had been, seconds earlier. He felt Ochre encircling his shoulders with his strong arm and forcing him to turn around. Like an automaton, Scarlet followed, looking in annoyance at the grinning face of Ochre.

“Don’t worry, pal,” the American told him. “Like you said, it’s only ONE hour… Blue, he will have to spend the rest of his life with the little lady.”

“Precisely!” Scarlet replied. “So what’s so hard about giving me that hour?”

“Don’t pout, Paul,” Ochre chuckled, greatly amused by his friend’s behaviour.

Scarlet sighed. “You’re right. I’m being selfish. This is important for Adam. And Karen…” Something seemed to suddenly register in his mind. “And she HATES being called a ‘little lady’. You know that.” He gave a suspicious look at Ochre. “And what are YOU doing here exactly, Rick?”

“I asked him to come,” a voice answered from behind.

Scarlet turned around with Ochre. Doctor Lavender, formerly a valued assistant of Research and Development head of research Doctor Giadello, and recently assigned as the resident R and D ‘Mysterons specialist’ of Cloudbase, was standing behind them, wearing a white jacket, and holding a plastic plate in his hands, with a small piece of white cloth concealing whatever was on it. He smiled broadly at Scarlet. “Good afternoon, Captain Scarlet. So nice of you to finally join us.”

“Sorry, doctor,” Scarlet defended himself. “I was busy with some pressing business that couldn’t wait.” That made Ochre roll his eyes. Scarlet wouldn’t be able to invent a lie if his life depended on it – not that he would have any need for it. He took a note to eventually give his British friend a few lessons in that field.

Doctor Lavender sighed. “Never mind your excuses, Captain,” he said, walking past the two captains with his plate. “And you shouldn’t worry. Today’s experience is quite unlike what you’re obviously afraid of. So you may put your fears to rest. As a matter of fact, I think you may find the demonstration… rather interesting.”

“Who said I was afraid of anything?” Scarlet followed Lavender, Ochre in tow. The doctor led them to the centre of the room, where was set some kind of hexagonal aluminium console, covered with circuitry, coloured knobs and switches of all kinds. Dead centre of the console was a slight bulge - smooth-surfaced, and flat-topped, with an empty centre where microchip circuits were visible. Scarlet frowned deeply upon seeing the contraption, and, stopping in front of it, turned an inquiring look toward Ochre.

“That’s Doctor Kurnitz’s machine,” he remarked.

Ochre nodded his acknowledgement. It was indeed the communication device that Doctor Kurnitz from the Radio Communications Division of the Nash Institute of Technology had designed, nearly two years ago, in the hope that Spectrum would be able to contact the Mysterons on Mars, in order to negotiate a possible truce in this war of nerves they were waging against Earth. The source of energy and communication Spectrum were to use at the time was an object that Captain Scarlet, along with Captain Blue and Lieutenant Green, had brought back from the moon, where they had been sent to investigate a complex the Mysterons had started building there. The object, a translucent stone the size of a man’s hand, dubbed ‘diamond pulsator’ by both the Nash Institute and Spectrum, possessed its own inner energy from which it glowed when hooked to the proper apparatus. Following Kurnitz’s instructions, and from studies of photos and information brought from the preceding mission on the moon, Spectrum R & D had constructed the console of transmission circuitry that Scarlet was presently looking at with Ochre. It had worked for its intended purpose. Colonel White had been able to contact the Mysterons, but the negotiations proved useless, as the Mysterons – in an ironic turn of events – tried to use the diamond pulsator and the device conceived by Kurnitz and Spectrum to destroy Cloudbase, as they had promised they would in an earlier threat. The diamond pulsator went into some kind of overload, threatening to explode, but Captain Ochre had successfully unhooked it from the console and tossed it out through a porthole. The pulsator then safely blew up while falling down to Earth, without hurting anyone or destroying anything.

“I thought that thing had been dismantled and sent to a warehouse,” Scarlet mused, looking down at the console, while Lavender took his place on the other side, depositing his plate on it.

“Well, it was,” Lavender admitted quietly. “Up until a few weeks ago, when it was assembled again, in order to pursue new tests. I had it flown to Cloudbase about a week ago.”

“What is it to test?” Scarlet asked with curiosity. “This thing is man-made – granted, using information taken from Martian technology. But aside from that, there’s nothing alien about it. It’s not as if we have another diamond pulsator to connect to it.”

“And even then, I would hesitate to take that risk again,” Ochre replied dryly.

“I noticed you modified it,” Scarlet said, examining the console.

“Yes, that we did,” Lavender admitted, nodding vigorously. “We did so after studying that other console you found in Greenland two years ago, Captain. You remember it, I think.”

Scarlet rolled his eyes. “Do I! I was supposed to negotiate with the Mysterons’ representative, but they ambushed me and tried to blow me up using that console – and another diamond pulsator they had hooked to it. I just escaped with seconds to spare.”

“Good thing you did too,” Ochre added. “Or you would never been have able to contact us and tell us of the danger Cloudbase was in from that pulsator.”

“But I don’t understand, Doctor,” Scarlet continued. “That explosion was pretty violent. There must have been nothing left of that device to examine.”

“Not much, I admit, but we found some bits of it. And we were able to reconstitute parts of the puzzle…”

“That’s a way of saying it!” Ochre scoffed.

“And while we were searching the area for bits of that puzzle,” Lavender continued, ignoring Ochre’s intervention, “we discovered this.”

He removed the cloth covering his plate to reveal three rounded stones of a semi-translucent dark red colour. There were half the size of chicken’s eggs and the surface was smooth and polished. Scarlet and Ochre narrowed their eyes at the objects, wondering what they might be. Lavender, his eyes as brilliant of those of a child who was showing off his most prized pebbles, grinned widely at them. “Aren’t they beautiful?”

“What are they?” Scarlet asked.

“They, Captain Scarlet, are pieces of what is left of a diamond pulsator.”

Scarlet gave the scientist a doubtful look, before looking down at the three stones. He shook his head. “They look nothing like a diamond pulsator, Doctor,” he remarked. “They’re dark red, and rounded… If they were broken pieces of the pulsator, wouldn’t they have sharp edges?”

“You would think so, wouldn’t you? They ARE pieces of the diamond pulsator, Captain, believe me on this. All the tests are conclusive. You see, when the diamond pulsator released that intense energy, the explosion transformed the molecular structure of the pulsator – giving this new dark red colour. The pulsator must have exploded into many, many pieces – and the generated heat of the explosion must have vaporised the tiniest of those pieces into nothingness – while polishing the surface of these three remaining, bigger pieces that we found in the vicinity of the explosion.” He shook his head. “I’m afraid that’s all that’s left of the diamond pulsator, we found nothing more around that place.”

“I’m not sure I’m that happy to see these on Cloudbase,” Ochre murmured. He discreetly looked around, as if in search of a porthole he would eventually need to get rid of those stones he wasn’t so sure of. A soft chuckle from Doctor Lavender made him turn to face the scientist.

“No need to worry yourself, Captain Ochre,” Lavender said, taking one of the stones in his hands. “We tested these rocks extensively. There didn’t seem to be a single trace of the energy previously found in the diamond pulsator.”

“You mean to say they’re inert?” Scarlet asked, watching warily as Lavender played with the stone. Somehow, he was asking himself if the doctor shouldn’t be handling it with more care, and certainly put on some gloves before touching it.

“We don’t know, Captain. Apparently. But here’s a curious occurrence. How much would you say the diamond pulsator you took from that complex on the moon weighed?”

“About… five pounds, more or less.”

“And that pulsator you saw in Greenland was about the same size?”

“A little smaller, maybe.”

Lavender nodded thoughtfully. Ochre standing closer to him, he took his hand and put the red stone into it, before the American captain could react. “How much would you say this stone weighs, Captain Ochre?”

The upset officer looked crossly at Lavender, not believing that he would be as careless as to put something potentially dangerous in his hands. Then, curiously, he lowered his gaze to the stone. It was cold to the touch, very smooth – and although small, weighed more than he would have expected.

“I would say, roughly, five pounds,” he answered. “If you have a scale, maybe we could check it out.”

“That’s impossible!” Scarlet replied. “There’s three of them – and if they came from the same pulsator…”

“I told you the explosion had transformed those stones’ molecular structures,” Lavender remarked. “And apparently, their mass was increased by the incident.”

Scarlet took the stone Ochre was handing him. He weighed it in his hand and came to the same evaluation as his colleague. He, too, took note of the smoothness and coldness of the surface. He eyed Lavender with a suspicious look. “What do you intend to do with this now?” he asked.

“Why… hook one of them up to the Kurnitz console, of course.” Lavender answered, putting one of his remaining stones onto the small bulging centre of the console. That simple gesture was enough to worry the two captains. The words weren’t really reassuring either. That was what they were afraid to hear.

“Are you nuts?” Ochre snapped. He didn’t take heed of Lavender’s warning look toward him, and removed the stone from its perch.

“Not to worry, Captain,” Lavender said with a reassuring voice. “The current is not on.” He put his last stone on the console to replace the previous one, much to Ochre’s dismay. “We would need to power the Kurnitz console first. And even if it had been on, I assure you, there’s no danger whatsoever.”

“No danger?” Ochre protested. “Last time we hooked up something to that, the whole base almost was blown to smithereens.” He pointed to the stone on the console. “So I advise you NOT to turn on the juice, doctor!”

“Did the colonel agree to this experiment, Doctor?” Captain Scarlet asked in turn.

“Gentlemen, gentlemen,” Lavender protested with a disarming smile. “There’s nothing to worry about. As far as the Research and Development lab in Valley Forge was able to gather, these stones have nothing of the old pulsator properties.”

“They performed tests down there?” Scarlet asked. “With this console?”

“Not exactly. We used the other console Doctor Kurnitz assembled two years ago in order to pursue his research at the Nash Institute. He has been gracious enough to give it up to the Valley Forge Lab after the – er – incident on Cloudbase.”

“That’s the same kind of console as this one?”

“Well, not exactly as modified as this one has been since our studies of the pieces of that other device found in Greenland. And… the tests didn’t prove conclusive. They didn’t work, in fact. That’s why I’ve been modifying this console – the one that had been previously installed on Cloudbase, two years ago, and which served to make contact with the Mysterons.”

“The tests didn’t work on the ground?” Scarlet repeated, suspiciously.

“The stones didn’t even produce a spark, I’m afraid. That’s why we suspected that they might very well be inert. Like you suggested earlier, Captain.”

“But nevertheless, you want to try them on THIS console.”

“We should find out, at least, if there’s a single spark of energy in these stones, that might eventually lead us to a chance to attempt communication with the Mysterons…”

“We’ve been trying that for the past two years, telling their agents what happened on Mars was a mistake, whenever we had a chance,” grumbled Ochre. “You don’t call that ‘attempting communication’?”

“It’s not the same, Captain. We have to get to the Mysterons themselves. Not their… puppets.”

“Did Colonel White agree to this test, Doctor?” Scarlet asked again, noting that Lavender had not responded to his earlier question.

“He does know I’m conducting tests…”

“Does he know about THIS test?” Ochre insisted in turn.

“Well… no, not exactly. But he gave me a free hand…”

“Certainly NOT for this kind of experiment,” Scarlet sharply cut in, as Ochre was rolling his eyes upward. “Doctor, there’s more than four hundred people onboard this craft. And in case you have not realised it, we’re way up in the sky, 40,000 feet up, to be precise. Do you realise the catastrophe that would happen if something should go WRONG with your experiment?”

“But nothing is supposed to go wrong, Captain.”

“I’m sorry, but I’ll have to refer this to the colonel. I’m sure he’ll allow you to pursue this experiment of yours, as it’s obviously an important one… But it’s more than certain that you’ll do it on the ground…”

“Where this will be MUCH safer,” Ochre agreed with a vigorous nod.

“But…”

“We’re sorry, Doctor.” Scarlet put the stone he was holding into Lavender’s hand. The doctor was presently looking very disappointed, as he stared unbelievably into Scarlet’s now set features. “I suggest we discuss this with Colonel White. As for Captain Ochre and me, we cannot allow you to continue.”

And thus putting everybody’s life on base in danger, he added to himself. Lavender lowered his head and then sighed, acquiescing. He put the stone back on the console, with a defeated gesture. “All right, Captains, since you insist that it may be too dangerous… I’ll ask Colonel White’s permission to continue this research at Valley Forge.”

“That would be the best course of action, Doctor,” Ochre agreed, relieved that the scientist had finally seen the light. He offered Lavender a large grin. “Now that that’s settled, then, is there anything else we can help you with?”

“Very gracious of you, Captain Ochre,” Lavender said with an enthusiastic tone, not noticing the murderous look Scarlet was addressing to his colleague. “Now if the two of you would come with me over here, and explain how some of the computerised controls of that console exactly worked? There are a few minor details I was unable to figure out, as it is quite different from the console used at Valley Forge.”

“I think Captain Scarlet would be more suitable to help you than myself,” Ochre remarked. “He was there when that thing was used, two years ago. I wasn’t.”

“As long as it isn’t powered up,” Scarlet muttered. “All right, Doctor. I’ll tell you what I remember. But I’m curious, though. You made your modifications without knowing how this whole thing worked?”

“I didn’t need the computerised controls, Captain. I was to use only those built into the console itself. But as you’re here, it’ll be interesting to know everything about the full controls.” He motioned to a far side of the room, where a huge, high computer-like device had been set up against the wall. “This way, please.”

He walked past the two officers and eagerly directed his pace toward the new device. Scarlet sighed deeply, and addressed a whitening look towards Ochre, who was still standing next to him, playing with the red stone he had removed from the console earlier. “You’d better put that thing down,” Scarlet hissed between his teeth. “Who knows what it has gone through? And what trouble it could bring us?

“Looks nice as a paperweight,” Ochre replied with a grin, obeying nonetheless, and putting the stone on the console. “If you want my opinion, this thing is simply a piece of volcanic rock that the good doctor mistook for a piece of that diamond pulsator.”

“You wish!” grumbled Scarlet. “You really think Lavender would make a stupid mistake like that?”

“Honestly? No, I don’t.” Ochre nodded in Lavender’s direction. “Come on, let’s join him before he touches anything important.”

“I’m with you on that,” Scarlet agreed.

Both men left the side of the Kurnitz console and quietly walked towards Lavender, who was presently busy examining exactly what command into the huge machine he wanted Scarlet to explain to him. Scarlet and Ochre hadn’t taken more than a few steps before a faint sound suddenly struck the British captain’s ears. He stopped in his tracks, grabbing Ochre’s arm to stop him too.

“Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Ochre asked, suddenly concerned by the tone of his friend’s voice. “Are you trying to scare me, or…”

“No.” There was such conviction in Scarlet’s voice that Ochre instantly knew he wasn’t trying to make fun of him. Both men suddenly had the same suspicion crossing their minds; they turned around toward the console.

They were petrified when they saw the stone on top of the bulge glowing – pulsating and obviously gaining strength with each glow.

“Oh no,” Ochre murmured. “Not again…”

“I thought those things were supposed to be inert!” Scarlet said between his teeth.

He and Ochre moved forward, quickly returning to the Kurnitz console. Just as the two other stones on it started to glow in turn, although very faintly. The first stone in the centre suddenly glowed considerably stronger, with a dazzling hue of red light that enclosed the entire console, reflecting on the other stones. They too started to glow more strongly.

That was starting to be REALLY distressing.

“Doctor Lavender!” Scarlet cried out.

Lavender had already turned around; he had seen the red light that was now expanding beyond the console. The two captains had instinctively stepped back, in order to avoid it. “What the…”

A huge, sudden noise, like that of a aircraft passing through the sound barrier made itself heard in the room, forcing the three men to cover their ears against it and Scarlet and Ochre to back away further from the console. Both captains felt their knees buckle under them, but they found the strength to stay on their feet. The light had now expanded throughout the entire room. The stone in the centre of the console was blazing wildly with a blinding light that made it almost impossible to look at. The two other stones were shining with more and more intensity.

“How come those things are glowing like that?”

Scarlet noticed he had yelled in order to make himself heard. His ears were ringing from the earlier deafening sound. He wasn’t sure that Ochre or Lavender had heard him, before he heard the doctor answering from a distance behind him, yelling as well:

“The system shouldn’t be operational! The power isn’t on! I don’t understand! These stones have never behaved like this on their own before!”

“Well, they are now!” Ochre responded. He lowered his cap microphone. “Ochre to Security! S.I.R.! S.I.R. at R and D lab! Request immediate assistance! Possibility of radioactive leakage and explosion!”

“That stone in the centre!” Scarlet then said, his eyes set on the object in question. “It seems to be the cause of the problem. I must try to remove it!”

He made a step forward to the console, determined to do his best to stop the flow of energy emanating from it, and very afraid that it would mean the doom of Cloudbase if he was unable to do just that. A deeply concerned Captain Ochre turned to him. There was no way to say if the energy coming from the stones was radioactive or not and what effect it might have on even the indestructible Captain Scarlet. What he was attempting might be pure folly.

“Paul! Get away from there!”

Ochre took a single step in direction of his friend; he was unable to do more than that, as the stone dead centre of the console suddenly seemed to explode. A booming noise even more terrible that the first one filled the room, covering any other possible sounds. A wave of pure, blinding energy seemed to emerge from the centre-stone, and hit everything around with tremendous force, tearing shelves from the walls, blowing away furniture that wasn’t bolted down, destroying smaller pieces of equipment, and knocking the three men in the room off their feet.

It was as if a hurricane of pure, white energy had suddenly been unleashed, with nothing able to stand in its way.

Lavender, who was still standing near the huge computerised device, and farther from the source of the explosion, found himself thrown against the wall and rolling to the floor, behind a fallen cabinet that, luckily for him, served as a shield to protect him from further hardships. His body hurt all over, and he was on the verge of losing his senses. As for Scarlet and Ochre…

Closer to the centre of the explosion, both captains had been flung through the air and onto the floor. That was the last Lavender saw of them, before an even brighter light engulfed them. Then, unable to hang on to what little was left of his consciousness, he groaned and let his head fall down on the floor, where he stayed motionless.

* * *

CHAPTER 2

Through the portal

Both Captains Scarlet and Ochre were in a whirlwind of total fury.

They could barely see; they could barely hear; but they could feel the wind lashing at them, the heat from the light nearly burning their skin and intensifying by the second, and the deafening sound making their heads want to explode. It was as if the loud bang that had nearly knocked them unconscious had now transformed into a loud, indefinite humming that was driving them crazy. The pain was nearly unbearable for both men, who were trying their best to protect their ears and were keeping their eyes shut. Ochre, his ears bleeding, was the first to lose his senses under the terrible pain, sprawling completely on the floor, a mere two feet away from Scarlet who was still desperately fighting to stay conscious.

Scarlet unsteadily rose to his knees, and tried to open his eyes to see what could be possibly going on around him. White light was bathing the entire room, making it so very hard to see anything. He saw Ochre lying by his side, on his back, unconscious. Or maybe he was dead, he couldn’t tell. As for himself, he was feeling so very weak, his mind in a total daze, his muscles like jelly, and his ears hurting him, blood dripping from them. A flash of red appeared on his left, and he realised, through the light, that it looked like a fire had started and was already spreading, coursing through the wires of the room’s electric installation.

Scarlet dazedly looked down at Ochre. Whether he was dead or not, he couldn’t leave him there. He had to get him out of this blinding light – this possible source of radiation, even if it might be too late. He crawled on his hands and knees to his friend, each move shooting a twinge of pain throughout his tortured muscles, and took him under the arms. Doing so, he noticed the pulse under his fingers.

Come on, Rick… I’m getting you out of here. I will not let you die like this…

He started to haul Ochre painfully away from where the light was most intense, inch by painful inch – to what he presumed would be safety. He probably guessed right. He could feel the furious wind dying down progressively.

That was when he heard sounds, very faint, through the continuous humming filling his ears.

Human voices, calling urgently, as the fire continued to spread through the room.

“Get a fire extinguisher around here! Quick! Call the fire team!”

“S.I.G.! We’ll get on with it!”

“Hurry up, man! There might be survivors in here!”