Space: 1999 "Operation Deliverance" Novella Written by Rupert Boothe Based on a story by Mateo Latosa 2019

As Earth's errant moon hurtles towards the edge of the solar system, Moonbase Alpha receives a distress call originating out of the moon's far side...from Moonbase Beta.

 

NOTES FROM THE SPACE: 1999 CHRONOLOGY

 

This story opens immediately after the events of "Breakaway" on September 13, 1999 and goes through September 20, 1999. 

 

DIDJA KNOW?

 

"Operation Deliverance" is an original novella published in the Space: 1999 Year One omnibus published by Powys Media.

 

The page numbers presented here come from the full Space: 1999 Year One omnibus. "Operation Deliverance" begins on page 34 of the book. 

 

CHARACTERS APPEARING OR MENTIONED IN THIS STORY

 

Paul Morrow

Commander Koenig

Victor Bergman

Benjamin Ouma (dies in this story)

Alan Carter

Sandra Benes

Commander Alex Preston (dies in this story)

Greg Sanderson

Dagmar Verstin (dies in this story)

Commissioner Simmonds

Dr. Russell

Dr. Sarah Jassiter (dies in this story)

Mr. Mason

Don (mentioned only, dies in this story)

Jeremy (mentioned only, dies in this story)

Takanda

David (Kano?) (mentioned only)

Mikhail

Thompson sisters (mentioned only)

Ally

Ally's partner (unnamed)

Commander Gorski (mentioned only)

Eric Sparkman (mentioned only, deceased)

Frank Warren (mentioned only, deceased)

Collins (mentioned only)

Steiner (mentioned only)

Eleanor Marks

Dr. Mathias

Vanessa (mentioned only)

Anatole Kotcheff

Doug Austin

David Kano

Dr. Angela Robinson

Bill Fraser (mentioned only)

James Kelly (mentioned only)

Wilson

Tanya Aleksandr

Janice Holstrom (dies in this story)

Lee Oswald

Pierce Quinton 

 

DIDJA NOTICE?

On page 34, Commander Koenig retires to his office in Main Mission after the cataclysmic events of the day (seen in "Breakaway"), thinking of the oft-repeated lines from the 1818 sonnet "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley:

     'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
     Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

     And the closing line:

     The lone and level sands stretch far away.

    The full sonnet is printed below for your edification:

     I met a traveller from an antique land
     Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
     Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
     Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
     And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
     Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
     Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
     The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
     And on the pedestal these words appear:
     'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
     Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
     Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
     Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
     The lone and level sands stretch far away."

This story reveals that there was a classified Moonbase Beta on the moon that had been there for at least two years. Morrow was aware of it because, as Controller, he and a few others had to monitor all Eagle traffic and communications...including non-regulation traffic. The base explodes due to severe damage suffered during the nuclear explosion on the far side of the moon in "Breakaway". Beta's personnel are evacuated before destruction and Moonbase Alpha inherits seven Eagles (though one is destroyed near the end of the story). On page 39, Alan implies there are 50 refugees from Beta.

The character of Greg Sanderson introduced here appears again in "The Séance Spectre".

On page 40, Dr. Russell awaits any causalities from Moonbase Beta, thinking, By the pricking of my thumbs. This is a quote from William Shakespeare's 1606 play Macbeth:

      'By the pricking of my thumbs,
     Something wicked this way comes.'

Moonbase Beta was established to work on a classified mass nullification drive prototype, a concept originally conceived by Bergman years ago, but he abandoned the research years before having come to the conclusion that an implementation of it was not feasible.

On page 47, an Alphan discussing with others their situation mentions that "David" helped unpack the mass nullification drive from one of the Beta Eagles. Possibly, this David is David Kano, a recurring character throughout Season One. Of course, with 311 personnel at Moonbase Alpha, it's quite likely there are several other Davids as well.

On page 48, Dr. Russell ruminates that Beta's Dr. Jassiter had been a classmate of her husband's. A comment Dr. Russell makes to Jassiter implies she lived in London before her assignment to Moonbase Alpha.

On page 51, Dr. Russell brings up to Koenig the symptoms caused by the magnetic energy from the nuclear waste dumps experienced by Eric, Frank, Collins, and Steiner. This was detailed in "Breakaway".

    On page 52, Koenig asks Dr. Russell if the incidents of rage that have broken out on Alpha are the result of green sickness and Dr. Russell responds that it is too soon for that to manifest. I have no idea why Koenig would come to think of green sickness or why Dr. Russell wouldn't respond, "Huhhhh?" Green sickness doesn't seem to have anything to do their situation. Green sickness was, long ago, thought to have been caused by a state of virginity (!), especially in women. I guess Koenig's concern is that Alphans haven't fucked recently? Anyway, you can read the description of green sickness (hypochromic anemia) at Wikipedia. (At least Dr. Russell subsequently tells him that it's really just stress resulting from the situation in which they find themselves.)

    Green sickness is mentioned again in the novelizations of "Guardian of Piri" and "Dorzak".

The character of Doug Austin, who is a member of Preston's abduction team, appears again as a security officer in The Forsaken. I guess Commander Koenig forgives his participation in the attempted coup against him and abduction of Kano here.

On page 63, Dr. Robinson is revealed to be a member of the survey party to Meta. A reference to her dark skin on page 70 would seem to confirm that this is Dr. Angela Robinson, who will also appear in the episode "Black Sun".

On page 64, Morrow calls for Fraser and Kelly to launch in a Rescue Eagle when Koenig reports trouble on Eagle 1 while descending to the surface of Meta. Fraser later appears in "The Immunity Syndrome" and Kelly in "Space Brain".

On page 66, Kano is found to have high levels of scopolamine in this blood after being abducted and shot up with drugs by Preston's team. An orderly in Medical Center remarks that it's often used for space sickness. Scopolamine, also called hyoscine, is a real world drug used to treat motion sickness. NASA actually does use this drug for motion sickness in space.

On page 72, Morrow contacts a pilot named Bill to warn him that a Beta security force is heading to the Eagle landing pad to ambush the returning Eagle 1. This probably refers to pilot Bill Fraser, seen in season two episodes of the TV series.

On page 77, an Alphan security guard whom Koenig calls Pierce appears. This is likely Pierce Quinton, who also appears in a number of episodes throughout the TV series (the character name was derived from the actor's name of Quentin Pierre).

The mass nullification drive prototype is a terrible failure, destroying the Eagle it was installed on and killing the crew.

On page 78, Dr. Russell quotes to Koenig, "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul." This is a line from the 1861 poem "'Hope' is the thing with feathers" by Emily Dickinson.

    Bergman provides the date of September 20, 1999 on page 78 as he records his personal journal, thus indicating it is has been 7 days since the moon was blown out of Earth orbit in "Breakaway".

    Bergman's journal entry reveals that his extensive analysis of Eagle 1 geophysical scans of Meta show that the rogue planet Meta is actually Earth's moon itself. Metallic ruins of a city, from which the Meta signal originates, show that it is Moonbase Alpha. Bergman concludes that this future moon has passed through a time warp. How old these ruins are, he does not know. And he is still unable to decipher the Meta signal. After consideration, he destroys the journal entry so that no one else will know of his discovery, to prevent fear of the future in Alpha's current inhabitants.

On page 78, the ruins of Moonbase Alpha on Meta, the future moon, are said to sit in the crater Plato. But in the novelization of "Breakaway", it is said to lie within the crater Tycho. As explained in the study of "Breakaway", PopApostle is going with the more commonly-stated location of Plato Crater.