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The Andromeda Mystery
STATS
Bastei Lübbe #25007, ISBN 3-404-00903-7, 151 pages, 18 chapters, 34 lines/page
Intriguingly, the first of the German original novels, Das Andromeda-Rätsel, provides a resolution to Michael Butterworth's The Edge of the Infinite cliffhanger. The Moon is at the edge of the galaxy and is about to enter intergalactic space. The Alphans are now facing their worst predicament since blasting out of Earth orbit - as there will no longer be hope of planetfall for thousands of years. H. W. Springer makes one significant change to the setting however - the Moon is now, and always has been throughout all of the prior adventures, within the Milky Way galaxy. Butterworth, however, placed the Moon at the edge of the Andromeda galaxy (p 99 and 100 The Edge of the Infinite), having hopped from galaxy to galaxy via multiple space and time warps. There are other elements in the novel (as detailed below) that indicate that prior to writing this book, H. W. Springer had read at least one or two of the Butterworth novelizations for characters and situations.
The Andromeda Mystery, besides featuring the six main cast members, (John, Helena, Maya, Tony, Alan and Sandra), introduces the reader to 13 new crewmembers of Moonbase Alpha. These crewmen and women have parts of various lengths; from just a few pages to extensive secondary stories. Additionally, H. W. Springer also brings back principle characters from throughout the second season that were only seen in several episodes or even just once - namely Dr. Vincent, Yasko and Annette Fraser.
The character that was the biggest surprise to encounter, however, was Mark Macinlock, who only makes a quick appearance near the end of the novel. As diehard fans will recall, this was the name used in an early draft of The Metamorph as the replacement to Alan Carter - prior to Nick Tate being asked to return for a second year. Although the character was never used in the show itself, Michael Butterworth, who was adaptating from early drafts of some of the scripts, used the name in his first book The Planets of Peril. Making the situation even more confusing is that Macinlock is appearantly killed off in The Space-Jackers when he never returns from his mission to examine the Beta Cloud (p 137 US edition). Another bit player that only appears in The Planets of Peril and who also makes a cameo appearance in this book is Jameson (which is the original name for Petrov), the operator of the surface lasers.
The story is a fast paced action adventure set squarely in the Year 2 mold, although with more thought placed on the logic of the story, and even the scientific aspects, than depicted in many of the shows. Although a "Mysterious Unknown Force" does show up partway through the novel, by the end of the story the "mysterious" events are all fully explained and all the loose ends are tied up.
As the back cover for Das Andromeda-Rätsel states: Moonbase Alpha is at the edge of the Milky Way and heading out into intergalactic emptiness. No more stars are in the sky above Moonbase Alpha - just the dim glows of incredibly distant galaxies. And although the Moon is on course towards the Andromeda Galaxy, it will be thousands of years before reaching its outskirts. Of a more immediate concern to the Alphans though is the Tiranium supply; which, at most, will only last for three more months.
As the novel begins, the reader is quickly brought into this bleak and depressing scenario. We are shown how the situation is affecting the behavior and morale of various crewmembers. We see apathy, religious enlightenment and even murder. Worse still, Commander Koenig is slowly losing control of the situation and beginning to have dark thoughts of his own - thinking back to the lost opportunity on the The Immunity Syndrome planet, seen in the final story of The Edge of the Infinite .
Soon, however, Alpha encounters a bizarre collection of hundreds of spaceships hanging motionless in space at the shore of the infinite gulf separating the galaxies. Can these ships offer the Alphans hope, who are otherwise faced with certain death? Upon investigating one of the strange ships that has the appearance of a Medusa's head of snakes, one of the Alphans encounters three recognizable humans: Moses, Mary and a small child named Tom. They state that they, as well as all the other ships around them, have been trapped in space, their ships turned immobile, by the mysterious Watchers from Andromeda. After a short debate, Koenig gives them sanctuary on Alpha.
Although the aliens are friendly, Koenig remains suspicious of these beings who have the appearance of historical figures and he wonders about their true natures. These suspicions are well founded, as these aliens turn out to be even more bizarre than any Alphan could ever guess. They are actually three pieces of the Dju, a single large amoeba-like creature of multiple intelligences, which can separate itself/themselves out from the whole as necessary. But even more important to the Alphans than discovering the true nature of the Dju and its/their desires, will be finding out why there is a graveyard of spaceships at the edge of the galaxy and if the Watchers from Andromeda really do exist.
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The picture transmitted into the Moonbase Alpha Command Center from the infrared observatory was both fascinating and frightening. Before the Moon, in the infinite expanse of emptiness at the edge of the Milky Way, floated the wrecks of spaceships. Hundreds of ships, stuck motionless, in the nothingness between this galaxy and the Andromeda-Nebula. "From now on, we will have to watch them", ordered Commander Koenig. He did not suspect that the Watchers from Andromeda were already watching them... |
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