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Dragon's
Domain (Year 1 / Episode 23)
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World Space Commission
Medical Authority Case Report
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"It was the eight hundredth and seventy-seventh day since our moon left Earth.
We were between galaxies, drifting through empty space . . . when Tony Cellini began
to believe that he was closing for a second time with his mortal enemy."
"John's anger was understandable, he and Cellini had been the driving force
behind the Ultra Probe. In nineteen ninety-four, before this moon left Earth's orbit,
Professor Victor Bergman had discovered a new planet beyond the then know limits
of the Earth's solar system. He had called it Ultra."
"The launch date for Ultra Probe was the sixth of June, nineteen ninety-six.
Commander, Captain Tony Cellini; Astrophysicist, Dr. Darwin King; Radiation Expert,
Professor Juliet Mackie and Dr. Monique Fauchere, responsible for medical, dietary
and psychological well being the team. They were shuttled to the Interplanetary Space
Station where the Ultra Probe ship was docked. Embarkation and countdown continued
without a hitch. Launch took place at twelve hundred hours, on schedule. So the longest
ever, manned space flight began. It continued through eight months of uneventful
routine. Nothing disturbed the measured pace of the voyage. No malfunction of the
ship broke the monotony. Navigation was faultless. For days excitement mounted as
progressive readings confirmed the planet's condition was similar to Earth's. Plans
were made for a manned landing, but as the probe ship moved behind Ultra, all contact
was temporarily lost with Moonbase Alpha. A landing was never made."
"Despite his ordeal Cellini executed a brilliant maneuver to put his lifeboat
into a low orbit around Ultra, which hurled him back towards Earth. He survived alone
in that module for over six months. Cellini's module was eventually located and brought
back to Alpha. He was on a point of death. But as Cellini began to recover his strength,
the official attitude towards him changed from congratulation to doubt. The story
he told of his encounter with the monster was difficult to believe, and the recorded
data of the black box cast further doubt on his voracity. As a member of the Space
Commission Medical Team, I began to inquire into the mental state of the patient."
"By September thirteenth, nineteen ninety-nine, the day the moon blasted out
of Earth's orbit, John Koenig was back on Alpha as Commander of the base. Victor
Bergman, Tony Cellini and I were also there. Memories of the Ultra Probe ship disaster
were obliterated in our fight for survival, until the night when Tony's nightmare
revived all the old conflicts."
"The monster was more than any of us could believe. According to our criteria
it was never alive, so how could we be sure, that it was dead. As we hurried back
to Alpha, before our moon drifted beyond reach, we could only wonder about the astronauts
of those other fabulous ships. All we knew about them, is their terrible fate, the
fate of Tony Cellini."
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Episodes
are in production order.
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