Space: 1999 "Cargo" Short story Written by Brian Ball 2010

During the dispersal mission at Nuclear Waste Disposal Area 2, one Alphan decides to go for a walk outside.

 

NOTES FROM THE SPACE: 1999 CHRONOLOGY

 

This story takes place during the events of "Breakaway" on September 13, 1999. 

 

DIDJA KNOW?

 

"Cargo" is an original short story published in the Space: 1999 - Shepherd Moon collection published by Powys Media in 2010.

 

The page numbers presented here come from the full Space: 1999 - Shepherd Moon collection. "Cargo" begins on page 77 of the book.

 

CHARACTERS APPEARING OR MENTIONED IN THIS STORY

 

Dr. Ernst Linden

David Kano

Jim Haines

Commissioner Simmonds

Commander Koenig

Paul Morrow

Dr. Russell

Alan Carter

Victor Bergman

Linden's wife (unnamed, mentioned only)

Sandra Benes

Charles Borges (mentioned only)

Haines' sixth grade teacher (unnamed, mentioned only)

Jay-Jay Smythe

"Shortie" Schultze 

 

DIDJA NOTICE?

On page 77, the term "Lunnite" is used for the dirt of the moon. As far as I can tell, this word has been made up for the story.

    Page 77 reveals that Kano received his doctorate in computer sciences from MIT when he was 17 and was believed to be a near-genius. MIT is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    It is interesting to note that while it is said that Kano is believed to be a near-genius, Professor Bergman is described as a genius in Alien Seed.

On page 78, Linden thinks of Voyager Two. (Not be confused with the real world NASA robotic probes Voyagers 1 and 2 which studied the outer planets of our solar system before entering interstellar space.) Linden's Voyager Two probe mentioned here is described more fully in "Voyager's Return" when his Voyager One probe is discovered in space by the Alphans.

On page 79, Linden reflects on Koenig's idea of dispersing the nuclear waste canisters in Nuclear Waste Disposal Area 2 in a wider area to minimize the fusion effects and possible explosion. This was actually Bergman's idea; Koenig called upon the base's personnel to implement it, as seen in "Breakaway".

On page 80, the liquor Linden is offering to Haines is said to be Talisker. Talisker is a brand of single-malt Scotch whiskey made on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.

Speaking of the accumulated nuclear waste in the disposal areas on the moon and its incipient explosion, on page 81 Bergman utters, "All the curses of Cassandra. The end we all saw coming. But couldn't do anything to prevent." Cassandra was a priestess in Greek mythology who was cursed to tell prophesies of the future but never to be believed. Her name has come to denote anyone who has warned of trouble or disaster but was not believed.

On page 81, Linden reflects back on a time with his lost love, looking into the grotto of Aphrodite's pool on Cyprus. This presumably refers to the Baths of Aphrodite, a natural grotto on the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea that is said to be where the Greek goddess Aphrodite came to bathe and where she would meet with her lover, Adonis.

Moonbase Alpha is said here to lie within the crater Plato. This is also stated in "Operation Deliverance" and most other Space: 1999 material (though there are a few mentions of it being on the edge of Tycho Crater in some sources).

Page 81 states that the moonbase space boots are formed from a development of Kevlar to prevent piercing by razor-edged shards of rock. Real world space suits do have Kevlar fibers woven in to prevent abrasion of the suit material in the work environment. Kevlar is a synthetic high-strength fiber that is best known for its use in the production of bulletproof body armor.

As he searches for Linden on page 87, Haines reflects on the danger of a cracked suit on the moon's surface for both himself and Linden and mutters to himself, "Then if not softly-softly, let it be softly-slowly." His utterance is a melding of the Scottish proverb "softly, softly, catchee monkey" (meaning "patience gains the day") and the more general "softly, slowly" to mean "don't rush it."

On page 87, Linden reflects on a time when his lover had made the Sicilian pasta dish bucatini, and he wonders what the word means. Bucatini is a thick, spaghetti-like pasta with a hole running through the center. The name is derived from the Italian word buco (hole) and the suffix -ini (small).

Page 87 reveals that Linden won a Nobel prize, presumably for his Queller drive. The Nobel Prizes are awarded once a year by a committee of the Scandinavian countries for work in the studies of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace and are considered the top prizes in the world in each field.

Linden's old lover is said to have been from Galway, Ireland.

Linden recalls telling his dark-haired Irish lover about a Spanish sailor of the English-harried Spanish Armada after a failed invasion attempt to overthrow Queen Bess (Queen Elizabeth I) who washed ashore on the coast of Ireland after his ship was sunk and lent his dark hair and sallow skin to the Irish genome. This general story has a been a legend since the 17th Century, but is generally discredited.

On page 91, Haines catches up to Linden at the crater "named for the Danish genius Brahe." This refers to Tycho Brahe (1546–1601), the Danish astronomer for whom Tycho Crater is named. But Tycho Crater is over a thousand miles from Plato Crater, where Moonbase Alpha is said to be located earlier in the story (though the novelization of "Breakaway" claims Alpha is located on the edge of Tycho Crater.) There have been conflicting accounts of where Alpha is located throughout Space: 1999 media for decades and I suspect this story was written with Alpha located one way and then editorially changed to be the other and one of the references slipped through the cracks.

Linden thinks he spots Vancouver Bay on Earth from the moon on page 91. This is a Pacific Ocean bay at Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

On page 95, Haines asks the reminiscing Linden, "Where is it now, the glory and the dream?" and Linden responds, "I knew we would become friends, Jim. Any man that can quote Wordsworth at a time like this is more than worth knowing." Haines' quote is from the 1807 poem "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" by William Woodsworth.

On page 98, Linden remarks that Jay-Jay and Shortie coming outside to help pull him out of the hole when they're all about to blow up anyway "...can only be relief of the comic sort. It's Syd Field territory, really." I assume he is speaking of the American writer and speaker Syd Field, known for his books and seminars on screenwriting. One of the things he emphasized in his teachings was the importance of comic relief in screenplays.

Page 100 relates a somewhat different version of Simmonds' confrontation with Koenig regarding the danger the base is in (with an emphasis on the danger Simmonds is in) than was depicted in "Breakaway". Besides this, the story also has Koenig apparently out in an Eagle over Nuclear Waste Disposal Area 2, assisting with the removal and dispersal of the waste canisters and then returning with a warning that the waste area was going to blow in approximately three minutes. In the "Breakaway" episode, Koenig is in Main Mission throughout the dispersal mission. Perhaps this is a story of the alternate timeline seen in "Another Time, Another Place"?

On page 101, Linden compares the moon's current situation to Wagner's Gotterdammerung. Gotterdammerung is the fourth and final cycle of the musical dramas called The Ring of the Nibelung (or just The Ring) by German opera composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883). In Gotterdammerung, the world is burned and then flooded before being renewed, based on the Norse mythology of Ragnarök.

After briefly contemplating Gotterdammerung, Linden thinks, Give me Gershwin anytime! This refers to George Gershwin (1898-1937), an American composer.

As the rescue attempt of Linden progresses on page 105, the command comes from Koenig to lock down Alpha from the pending explosion and Shortie remarks to Jay-Jay, "Don't mean a thing," and Jay-Jay retorts, "If you ain't got that zing." This is a popular play on a line from the 1931 jazz song "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" by Duke Ellington and Irving Mills.