- After investigating a planet where all humanoid life had been eradicated, Koenig becomes trapped in a prison on one of the moons where no one knows that their planet has been wiped out.
- Five days ago, two planets had been detected (one of them being the moon of the other) that may support human life. Now that Moonbase Alpha is close enough for a reconnaissance, Commander Koenig and Blake Maine - a member of Alpha's medical rescue team - head for the parent planet in Eagle One.
Upon arrival, sensors read ample vegetation, but no other life-forms. Maine informs the Commander that there seems to be a sophisticated city below the clouds. Before they close in, however, a life-form signal has suddenly appeared several miles north of the city.
After setting the ship down in a clearing within a forested area, the pair of Alphans travel on foot toward the previous signal with hand-held sensors. However, Maine announces that his sensor no longer reads any life-forms. They soon come across a single structure in the form of a booth surrounded by several apparently deceased clothed humanoid male bodies. Passing his sensor over one of them, Maine declares that the injury-free body has somehow been perfectly preserved; sensor readings unable to determine the cause nor the time of death.
Moonbase Alpha has been contacted, Maine having asked Dr. Ed Spencer, who's currently stationed in Command Center, his opinion of the situation. Spencer diagnoses a swift death, possibly caused by a sonic beam or a high potency ray. He requests a close-up of one of the victims followed by the present Alphans reacting to a gruesome scene on the Big Screen; Maine having raised the victim's eye lid, revealing that his eye's blood vessels have exploded. Spencer lists several causes that could be responsible for creating the tremendous pressure the victims' nervous system must have experienced; a nerve gas; a lethal pathogen; or a bacteria that had been released in the atmosphere.
Suddenly, the booth begins to glow. A humanoid male similar to the others instantaneously materializes inside. As soon as he steps out of the small structure, he instantly becomes engulfed in pain, falling to the ground. Dr. Spencer urges for the two Alphans to get away from that planet immediately.
After launching the ship and returning to the skies, the two Alphans realize that according to instrument readings, all humanoid beings on the planet are deceased. Dr. Ed Spencer (on the ship's monitor) judges that if the inhabitants have been killed by a nerve-killing pathogen, the Alphans must have a built-in immunity to it.
Blake Maine reports that the planet's moon is a miniature twin of the mother planet, including its gravity, atmosphere and vegetation. Koenig decides to try their luck with that one. However, as soon as they begin a "re-entry", malfunction alarms indicate that the ship's system's have suddenly gone dead across the board. Command Center operatives track their location leading to Bill Fraser and Alibe racing to a launch pad. Eagle One crashing on the small planet is imminent.
Koenig and Maine manage to walk away from their crash site. Hiking through Earth-like trees and foliage, they suddenly hear whip-like sounds. They witness a man being chased by a trio of whip-wielding females dressed in red skin-tight garments with gold-colored headdresses and shoulder/chest coverings. The alien male runs up toward an ornamental column situated atop a large rock, but the women ensnare him with their whips, stopping him short of touching the column. Koenig dashes out from behind the shrubbery he and Maine had been observing from. Attempting to assist the victim, he pushes one of the women away from the man. Maine runs up a dirt embankment, unknowingly catching himself in an invisible forcefield. Charred clothing is all that is left of him. As Koenig stands in shocked horror, one of the women slams the Commander in the head with the handle of her whip, knocking him out.
It turns out that Eagle One had crashed quite close to the aliens' penal colony. Inside, a grievance meeting is currently taking place by a group of prisoners (who are almost all male). Led by the prison's token trustee Crael, the facility's warden Elizia (who refers to her position as the "Mistress of Entra" - whose subordinates are all female) refuses to be intimidated by Crael's eloquent complaints involving humanitarian issues within the prison. She is then approached by the head of the guards - Sares - who produces Koenig's hand weapon. Elizia observes it, then nonchalantly fires it at one of the prisoners in Crael's group. The man collapses. Crael tends to him, reporting that he's been stunned. A heated discussion then commenced between Elizia and Crael involving a cat-and-mouse game Elizia has devised called "the hunt" in which a prisoner has the chance to be pardoned and sent back to their home world of Ellna if they can elude the chasing guards and reach the "sanctuary column". Crael calls it inhuman, but Elizia points out that if any one of the prisoners are offered a chance to participate, they won't refuse.
Elizia enters the Security Ward, where a woman simply titled as "Interrogator" tends to Koenig, who lays unconscious with an electronic device over his forehead. The Interrogator informs Elizia of his identity and origin, as well as the fact that Commander Koenig has sent his people a message as his ship was malfunctioning; having been caught in their atmospheric forcefield. Elizia now knows a search party will be arriving and suggests they can simply hand him over to his people. The Interrogator points out that he's been to Ellna and knows about the nerve bacteria in the air.
Before deciding what to do with this alien, Elizia has other matters to tend to. The prisoner Beron has been given his freedom due to good behavior. Elizia supervises his return to home. He enters an enclosed booth referred to as the "transbeamer", instantly materializing within the booth Koenig and Maine had come across on Ellna. Unseen by anyone on the moon of Entra, Beron drops dead as the others had before him.
Crael grills Elizia as to the reason why contact with anyone on their home world has been recently forbidden, as well as the sudden lack of any new prisoners being sent down from Ellna. Evading the answers, she accuses him of stirring up trouble. When he becomes insolent, a guard snaps her whip, which wraps around his neck. After mocking him, Elizia departs.
Returning to the Security Ward, Elizia watches the results of the Interrogator's mind-probe of Koenig which produces clear visual clips on the large wall monitor. They learn of his life on Moonbase Alpha, then Elizia asks how he has achieved immunity to the nerve bacteria on their home world. The Interrogator informs her that his mind resists certain questions, as his brain composition differs slightly from their own. Being the only two individuals who are aware of the extinction of their race on Ellna, the Interrogator changes the subject and pleads with Elizia to divulge their secret to the rest of their people. However, Elizia insists that they would become ungovernable if they found out, then they would all be doomed. The Interrogator points out the likelihood that Koenig will share his knowledge of their home world with the prisoners. Elizia is sure that they won't believe him. To demonstrate her confidence, she orders that he be placed among them.
When Koenig finally revives, he finds himself laying in a cot within a prison cell housing three other prisoners. Treating him with some hostility - as they suspect him to have been planted as a spy by Elizia - they interrogate him as to his identity. Untrusting of his claim of being an alien, they insist that their only secret plotting involves how to evade their pursuers during "the hunt", which is permitted. When Koenig realizes that they volunteer for the hunt as a chance to return to their home world, he warns them that everyone on that planet is dead. They initially react with shock, but Elizia has been secretly observing them, interrupting them with impeccable timing. The prison-wide Weekly News Report of the current events on their home world of Ellna is suddenly broadcast over the speakers. Fabricated details involving Beron happily returning home and another prisoner having just become a father causes Koenig's cellmates to unleash their wrath, convinced that Elizia has sent him here to lie to them. As he's getting pummeled, Elizia arrives with several guards and rescues him.
After being released and escorted through the hallways, Commander Koenig asks to be allowed to contact his people to be picked up. However, Elizia informs him that no aliens will be allowed to land here. He introduces himself, claiming not to be a threat to them. She confesses that they already know his identity, having probed his brain. He assures her that they have nothing to fear from him, as he and his people are not violent (despite the fact that he had attacked one of her guards out at the Sanctuary Column).
Having arrived at the Security Ward, escorted by Elizia and her guards, Koenig meets the Interrogator and observes the surrounding equipment. He warns Elizia that his people will come looking for him. Almost on cue, Sares appears on the screen, informing Elizia that a spaceship has been detected, on course for this planet. Elizia orders the guards to place Commander Koenig behind the screening panel. Using their whips, Koenig's forced into a small alcove where a forcefield is switched on, trapping him within. The guards then depart.
Now within the outskirts of the planet's atmosphere, Eagle Four occupants Fraser and Alibe have pinpointed the site of Eagle One's wreckage. Elizia contacts them, informing them that they're approaching the Penal Colony of Entra, ordering them to stay clear. Fraser states that that they intend on investigating the wreckage of one of their spacecraft. Elizia refuses to allow any space vehicles to land on the planet. When Fraser states that they're searching for the two pilots who were aboard the ship, Elizia claims that they died in the crash. Fraser and Alibe attempt to suppress their shock; Fraser stating that they must land to return the pilots to Moonbase Alpha. When Elizia informs them that they'll be unable to penetrate the defense shield surrounding the planet, Fraser tells her they'll come in firing missiles if they have to. When Elizia lets them know that their scanner readings show that their weapons aren't powerful enough, Fraser tells her they will then return to Alpha to retrieve more potent armament. Due to what Koenig had claimed earlier, she lets Fraser know that she's aware that his people's philosophy wouldn't allow him to carry out his plans. "Try us. You have one minute to decide" is his response. Turning to Koenig, Elizia angrily accuses him of lying about his people being incapable of violence. Koenig clarifies, explaining that they don't commit mindless violence, which is what she and her people have been exercising. Realizing it would be for the better to cooperate with the Alphans, she allows Fraser to continue his approach, requesting that he switch his ship's systems to Automatic so they can be guided in safely.
The Interrogator asks Elizia what the aliens will do when they find no bodies within the crashed ship. Elizia assures her they will find evidence of the deaths of Koenig and his co-Pilot.
At the site of the Sanctuary Column, two of Elizia's guards are overseeing a male and female prisoner using branches to brush away the footprints on the wide path. Behind some rocks, Crael is helping prisoner Phirly get into Koenig's uniform. Phirly is to walk into the area of the forcefield that Blake Maine had stumbled into, leaving footprints from Koenig's boots. He's then to leave Koenig's clothing on the ground. When Phirly expresses his distrust of the situation, Crael assures him the forcefield is switched off, demonstrating by walking into the designated area, but staying atop rocks so as not to leave footprints. He then returns to their starting point. However, when Phirly reluctantly walks into the appointed place, Elizia - who's been observing them on the screen in the Security Ward - hits a button on a hand-held remote device which activates the forcefield. With Phirly now deceased, Crael shakenly contacts Elizia, asking why she went back on her word. She claims to be acting out of self-preservation.
Now occupying his own prison cell several stories above ground, wearing similar garb as the other prisoners, Commander Koenig observes Eagle Four through his window, landing in the distance. He soon sees Elizia's guards escorting Fraser and Alibe to the front of the building, where they're greeted by Elizia and the Interrogator. Koenig shouts down to them, but no sound permeates the structure's exterior.
Declining refreshments, Fraser asks that they be taken to the wreckage of Eagle One immediately.
Fraser becomes elated to discover that the totaled ship is unoccupied. However, when he and Alibe are taken to the Sanctuary Column, they become horrified when they're shown the charred remains of the Commander and Maine, being told how they'd stumbled into one of the Penal Colony's defense screens.
Koenig becomes horrified himself to observe Eagle Four lifting off without him. Now he truly is a prisoner within the Penal Colony of Entra....
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content