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Accidentally thrown into a parallel universe, Major West, Judy and Dr. Smith have found themselves aboard the Gemini 12, a ship nearly identical to the Jupiter 2. After facing a hostile Professor Robinson, Don has gained the upper hand. . . . In all his years of military service, Don West had never faced a more difficult situation. Here he stood, holding a gun to Professor Robinson, a man he considered his closest friend. In fact, during their years aboard the Jupiter 2, the Robinsons had become his surrogate family. He respected John and Maureen and often thought of them as his own parents. But this man before him now wasn’t the same John Robinson he admired so much. Not at all. In whatever strange dimension they had been hurled into, this John Robinson regarded Don, Judy and especially Dr. Smith with great distrust and suspicion. Don couldn’t really blame him. In John’s eyes, the three of them were saboteurs. There was no telling what lengths this Robinson would go to in protecting his family from a perceived threat. Don didn’t want to find out. His only hope was to convince John that their story was true. "Listen to me Professor," Don said firmly. "I’ve got no reason to hurt you. I’m just trying to make you understand. We’ve been telling you the truth. We need your help to get back to our universe." John glared at him. "For someone who’s asking for help, you’ve got a funny way of gaining my trust, attacking me like that." Across the deck, Judy and Dr. Smith watched this confrontation in shock. "Don! Put that pistol down," Judy shouted. "How dare you hold a gun to him! What’s the matter with you?" She tried to go over to them, but Dr. Smith held her back. "Don’t go over there dear girl," he cried. "It’s much too dangerous! Can’t you see they could erupt into violence again at any moment?" Smith’s eyes widened as he spoke and Judy could feel him quiver with fear. "It could very well be the end of us all!" Judy squirmed in his grip. "Let go of me Dr. Smith! Weren’t you just saying how this was all a dream?" "I find myself having to re-evaluate that conclusion!" She pulled herself away from Smith and sprang over to Don. "This isn’t doing us any good," she hissed at him. "He’ll never trust us while you’ve got him at gunpoint! Now stop it!" "Judy, stay out of this," Don said. "I’ll put the gun down as soon as Professor Robinson agrees to help us." She grabbed his arm and tried to pull the pistol away from him. "Do you really think I’m just going to stand by and watch you do this to my father? Give me that gun!" She fought him for the gun, but he pushed her away. "He’s not your father," Don said. "Your father’s aboard the Jupiter 2, back in our universe. In case you’ve forgotten, this man just pulled a gun on us." During all of this, John felt his fever grow. He stood, leaning against the astrogator, desperate not to reveal his condition. Something was very wrong with him, but if the others caught on they just might take over the ship. With the traitor Smith apparently on their side, anything could happen. He struggled to keep his composure, but he needed to get off his feet. The fight with Don had really taxed his strength and unless he got some rest, he would surely collapse. He noticed the girl who claimed to be Judy seemed less hostile than the others did, and he realized that if any of them could be persuaded to help him, it would be her. To that end, John decided to play along with them. "All right," he said, holding up a hand to Don. "Just suppose what you’re telling me is true. That the three of you really are from some alternate universe. What do you expect me to do to help get you back there?" Don lowered the gun slightly. "Well, Professor, you can start by not drawing any more weapons on us." "Fair enough," John said. "If you’ll allow me to get to the ship’s controls, maybe there’s a way I can verify your story." He glanced down at the gun, then simply walked over to the pilot’s chair and sat down. Don set the pistol down and silently followed. Professor Robinson, greatly relieved to get off his feet, flicked a few switches and studied a readout on the control panel. What he saw was nearly enough of a shock to completely bring him out of his fever. "What the devil! We’re way off course! What did you do to these controls?" "The only thing I touched was the cryo-tube controls while I was reviving you," Don said. "Wait a minute," John said. "This doesn’t make any sense. According to these readings, the Gemini was thrown off course nearly four years ago after a series of in-flight collisions. Maybe a meteor storm. Since then, we’ve been aimlessly travelling through space. But then about two weeks ago, the course was changed again; this time it was deliberately altered." "But we just got here a little while ago," Judy said. Dr. Smith chimed in. "Oh yes, it’s true. We’ve only just arrived. So you see it couldn’t have been us who did it." Despite his condition, John jumped to his feet and grabbed Smith by the collar. "When I want to hear from you, I’ll say so. Otherwise, you stay away from me and keep quiet. Is that clear?" He raised a fist as if to punch Smith, but Don held him back. "Whoa, Professor, take it easy," he said. Robinson reluctantly released Smith, who promptly scampered behind Judy to hide. Don cocked his head and chuckled. "You know," he said. "Back on the Jupiter, it’s usually you keeping me from letting him have it." "Well I don’t think it’s funny at all," Judy said. "I’m really seeing a different side of you today. I didn’t know how cruel you could be." Don turned to her. "Oh, come on Judy!" "Just leave me alone," she said. Taking Dr. Smith, she moved over to the radio control station, away from the others. "As far as wondering how the course got altered, I bet that whoever’s hiding in the storage room probably is the culprit." John stopped what he was doing and looked at her. "You’re telling me there’s really someone in there? I thought you were just saying that to distract me." "There’s something in there, all right," she said. "I didn’t see anyone, but I definitely heard something. A kind of weird breathing sound coming from the shadows. I tried to tell you, but the two of you were too busy fighting to listen." "We may need that gun again," John said. He got up and led the others over to the entrance to the storage room. * * * Will slapped his notebook onto the table. "I just don’t understand this," he said. "I marked down every step of that experiment, but now it just won’t work." "Don’t loose your cool, son. There’s too much riding on this. The answer’s got to be in that data," Professor Robinson said. "Let’s just go through it again." "Okay," Will said. "I adjusted the thrusters settings to include the reactions from the anti-matter processors. Then I marked all those settings here on this chart." Maureen checked the chart against the current settings. "It all checks out, John," she said. "The settings are the same." John crossed his arms and stroked his chin, thinking. "Is there any way those settings could have been changed without you knowing it? Did anything unusual happen before the accident?" Will thought back. "Well, I was getting ready to start the last cycle of the experiment when Dr. Smith came in and complained about the noise. I told him to go upstairs where it was quiet. I guess I kind of snapped at him. I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings." "Will, did Dr. Smith touch anything? Change the settings somehow?" Maureen asked. "No, he just sat down and started complaining," Will said. Suddenly, his eyes widened. "Wait a minute! He knocked into the control box as he got up! Now I remember! That’s when I snapped at him. He must have changed the settings." John looked at the control box. Sure enough, the settings were different than on the main panel. "That’s got to be it Will. Take a look at these settings. Let’s see if we can match them on the board." Excited, Will got to work. Within minutes, he had re-adjusted the settings to match the control box. "That’s it! Now we can cross over ourselves and get them back!" John held up a hand. "Now hold on there, son. Nobody’s crossing over; it’s too dangerous. We’ll send the robot with this data. Hopefully, Don will be able to set up just the right conditions to get them home." Will, slightly disappointed, began downloading the data onto a tape. "It’ll take a minute to get these instructions ready," he said. * * * John stood at the entrance of the storage room. Don was at his side, holding the laser pistol again. This time, he aimed the gun into the shadows. "All right, whoever you are, you’d better come out where we can see you. We know you’re in there," John said. "We’re not going to hurt you, so you might as well come out." Dr. Smith trembled, holding onto Judy for support. "Oh dear," he said. "What kind of horrible monster could be lurking in there?" "Don’t be afraid Dr. Smith," Judy said, patting his hand. "I won’t let anything get you." "You’re so kind, dear girl," he said. "Always there to comfort me when I’m distressed. If we ever get out of this predicament, I’ll have your mother bake a cake in your honor." John ignored Smith. He felt his fever starting to flare up again, and he wondered if something had gone wrong when Don had revived him. As far as the others, he didn’t know how much he trusted them, but now he had to consider the possibility that they might be telling the truth. Whatever was in the storage room might be more of a threat than the three of them. Maybe it was fortunate they they had appeared on the Gemini after all. They all heard it at the same time; a scraping sound followed by footsteps. Dr. Smith gripped Judy’s arm tightly and closed his eyes. The others held their breath and watched. Then, a form moved in the shadows and came into view. Before them stood a strange alien about five feet tall. The grey-skinned creature had a round, tall head with large, black eyes and some sort of muzzle that extended down to the middle of its chest. It resembled a tall anteater more than anything else, and it was dressed in a weird silver and purple suit. "Don’t hurt me," it said. "I can explain everything." *** |
