by Perry Rhodan
The leading robot dissolved into the air. First its lower portion disappeared up to the torso linkage. Its weapons kept firing but then they suddenly ceased and were no longer there. Briefly the upper portion of the body hovered above the ground without apparent support, then it disappeared, including the head.
So these enemy beings could also snatch up the heretofore unconquerable fighting robots into their shadowy realm, from which there had been no return thus far.
The remaining robots still fought as they retreated.
At least one thing was certain: they had seen the enemy and attempted to destroy him. They had no weapons other than their energy guns at their disposal. They could not be blamed for the fact that such weapons were of no use here.
The second Arkonide colossus disappeared.
"If the Unseen continue to press forward, they'll destroy all our robots-I mean-well, destroy isn't the right expression. I should say: grab them all. That's what they do-they just haul them over into their invisible realm." Rhodan spoke factually as though there were no danger present. "I'd give plenty to know what it looks like on their side."
"Where?" asked Tschubai, who stared motionlessly at the marching robots, just as another of them dissolved into nothing.
Rhodan didn't go into the subject. He was facing another problem.
"We have to stop them because if they get to our ships the enemy will attack them too. And I wouldn't know how we could prevent it. Back to the Drusus, Tschubai!"
Baldur Sikermann was still standing in the open airlock. He sighed in visible relief when he saw Rhodan.
"A short message came in from the Arc-Koor, sir. Talamon hasn't gone into transition yet and is staying here in the system. He has made a remarkable discovery that he wants to inform the Regent on Arkon about. He hopes it'll get him the permission he needs to be able to help us in the fight against the Unseen."
"A discovery?" asked Rhodan. "You mean he didn't say what it was?"
"No, sir, I'm sorry. He'll be getting in touch again. Did you have any luck, sir?"
Rhodan shrugged. "It depends, Sikermann. The Unseen are even attacking our robots. I'm afraid we'll have to get out of here."
"And the robots? Do you want to sacrifice a hundred of the best fighting machines?"
"I'm afraid most of them have been sacrificed already, Sikermann. We were too optimistic. If we wait much longer we'll be lost along with all of our ships-and I wouldn't even know what kind of a fate that would be. Maybe we'd just simply dissolve or be invisible and continue to lead a shadow existence. Get going, Sikermann. Clear for takeoff. The guppies are to return into the Drusus and then we go."
"Where to, sir?"
"If I only knew-!" Rhodan was angry with himself for letting himself go like that. He had to get more control of himself if he was going to be the leader. He was urgently in need of a clear head.
"Take an orbit around Mirsal 3-distance, two light-minutes. Hypercom on continuous reception. If Talamon calls in I want to be notified immediately. I'll be in my cabin."
He left without another word.
Ras Tschubai watched him go, then met Sikermann's gaze.
The lieutenant colonel cleared his throat in some embarrassment. "I've never seen Rhodan like this," he said.
The African agreed with him.
The guppies glided into the hangar deck of the Drusus. The outer locks closed at the same moment the two last fighter robots came through the city gate, still defending themselves against the enemy. Then the mighty spherical spaceship raced upward into the clear sky, to disappear shortly thereafter into the depths of the void.
Sikermann furrowed his brow when the intercom buzzed. Disgruntled, he switched it on. "What's the matter? I've got enough to do with this navigation..."
"Hangar here-Lt. Wroma. One of the guppies is missing, sir."
Sikermann almost lost his tongue. "Mat?" he gasped, disconcerted. "But all of them were..."
"The K-7 is missing. The commander is Lt. Rous, sir. I thought he was assigned to stay outside but then I found out over the intercom that all guppies were on board..."
"Baloney!" shouted Sikermann, forgetting his decorum. "Who's going to lay that one on the Chief? Right now he's just about had it!"
Naturally, Lt. Wroma didn't know. He switched off.
Sikermann connected himself with the Corn Central. "Stern, are you in contact with the K-7?"
The Israeli took a few seconds to verify, then returned a negative.
"I'm sorry, sir. No contact."
Sikermann stared grimly at the controls and viewscreens while Mirsal 3 continued to recede into the well of emptiness.
Lt. Rous must be down there somewhere.
If he still existed...
5/ PHANTOM PLANET
Marcel Rous was well aware that he was violating all orders when he shoved the accelerator of the K-7 to full power and shot out into space in a shallow parabolic curve. However he was also aware that he would never have gotten Rhodan's permission to go searching for his vanished crewmen. Not that Rhodan was inhuman. It was just that unalterable resolve of his not to reveal to anyone the position of the Earth.
But it would only take one prisoner in the hands of the enemy to make that danger possible. And the enemy already had three of them. If the K-7 should fall into their clutches, they'd have 15.
One of these 15 might spill the beans...
Rous saw the Drusus recede from him as he followed the planet's curving surface and glided once more into the night side. All videoscreens were operating; the communications were shut down; the K-7 was cut off from the outside world.
Rous knew that his own men would be against him if they found out that he had acted contrary to Rhodan's orders. And the fact that all he wanted to do was to help his three missing men didn't alter the situation.
It wasn't too difficult to relocate the town where the two robots had been left behind. They were still standing unharmed in the market place, passively waiting. Marcel landed close to them and took them on board. Anxiously, he listened to their report.
"Nothing further has occurred," said R-2 unemotionally. "There was no attack made against us. There is no trace of Cadet Becker and the two other men. We have searched through all the houses in the vicinity. The city is uninhabited."
Marcel asked, "What about the shadows? Didn't you see any?"
"None, sir. The city is uninhabited."
Rous cursed silently to himself and sent the robots to the hangar. Then he gave orders to prepare the small scout flier.
These scoutships were only ten feet long. Equipped with antigravity fields, they could hold two men, but were not intended for long-range operations because they were only capable of reaching light-speed. However, for observations within a solar system they were ideal.
Marcel Rous selected Cadet Dubruque, a countryman of his, to accompany him.
Even to his closest friends, Dubruque was to some degree an oddball. In his spare time be devoted himself to the still not-quite vanished art of painting and it gave him immense satisfaction to do portraits of his comrades, even thought they would always claim after a sitting that they did not recognize themselves on the canvas. It was no wonder, since he painted in the abstract.
There was hardly room for the two men in the narrow cockpit. Rous asked his companion not to touch the radio. The K-7 received his order to stay put and wait for their return. Only in case of an emergency were they to ascend into an orbit. Then the small flier shot out of the wide open airlock, after which it slowed down quickly and floated along through the brightly lit streets about six feet off the ground.
Marcel Rous felt safe. He knew that with a single movement of the controls he could shoot out into space. Nobody would be able to grab him that fast, not even, the Unseen.
He remained high enough to be able to look into most of the windows at the lighted rooms inside. Often he would even stop whenever he thought he detected any movement. But each time he was deceived. All the room
s he saw were empty and deserted.
They cruised through the city for two hours before Rous was convinced that not a single living being was to be found here-other than himself and his men.
The Unseen, if that was the appropriate word, had simply decamped. If such were not the case they would have attacked long since and spirited them away.
Discouraged by not having found any trace of his three missing crewmen, he returned to the market place.
And there the sight that met his eyes was such a terrible thunderbolt that it paralyzed him momentarily. With his eyes fairly popping in fright, he could only stare at the place where the K-7 had stood.
The guppy had disappeared.
• • •
"Rous must have lost his mind!" raged Sikermann. "If I catch up with him, he'd better watch out!"
From a prone position on his bed, Rhodan looked up at Sikermann's face on the inter-station vidscreen. He did not betray how tired he was-nor how exasperated. The commander's news had torn him out of a much needed nap.
"I don't know whether you will ever see Rous again," he said calmly. "Do you know his motive? Why did he do it?"
"I don't have the slightest ideal He's gone crazy.
"I don't believe so. I have a much stronger hunch that he wanted to rescue his three missing men, however insane such an attempt may be. I believe he's only following a sense of duty, in spite of disobeying my orders. Lees wait and see what comes of it-if anything. Do you have anything additional to report?"
"None, sir," replied Sikermann, somewhat troubled. "We've reached the orbit you wanted. Still no news from Talamon. We're on open reception."
Rhodan got up and nodded to Sikermann. "If you need me, you can reach me in Marshall's cabin."
Without waiting for the vidscreen to darken, he went out into the corridor. He took a lift to another deck level and minutes later entered the cabin of the telepath. The latter had already sensed his approach and was therefore not surprised to receive Rhodan's visit.
"I've got a decision to make," said Rhodan after he had seated himself. "Either to stick around here beating a dead horse and waiting for a chance break or to return to Earth. What do you think?"
Marshall appeared startled. "Don't tell me you're giving up, Chief!-when Rous and even a whole ship have disappeared!"
"That isn't what makes the decision so difficult," returned Rhodan, attempting to correct the mutant's train of thought. "The exaggerated caution of the Regent sort of dampens my enthusiasm for pulling Arkon's chestnuts out of the fire. If I didn't think that maybe someday the Unseen could also find the Earth..."
"You would have already made your decision in that case," said Marshall, smiling at him.
"You read my mind, Marshall. Call in the other mutants."
He remained seated in silent thought until they had all been assembled inside the small cabin: Tama Yokida, whose talents had not yet been utilized; Fellmer Lloyd, who had a close call; Ras Tschubai, who had rescued him; Ralf Marten, whose attempts had thus far gone awry; and Pucky, who appeared to have an immense respect for the powers of the Unseen.
Marshall remained close to the door. "Mutant Corps present and accounted for!" he announced with mock-military seriousness.
Rhodan looked up. There was a warm light in his eyes as he regarded his old friends. And a little hope, as well.
"I don't believe that we've ever been faced with such a crisis as this," he began while apparently looking beyond the men. "The Regent said that this invisible enemy has already depopulated entire solar systems without anyone having been able to do a thing about it. What would happen if they were to find the Earth is unimaginable. For this reason my original plan of returning to Terrania cannot be carried out. One of the Unseen could be on board the Drusus. We have no possibility of determining that, because telepathy has failed us. So we have no alternative: we must remain here until we have found our opponent and unmasked him. A return to Earth can only happen after were absolutely certain that the Unseen have gone from this system. I don't dare to believe in the possibility of our being able to destroy this enemy."
Pucky's lower lip sagged, producing a tremendously sorrowful expression on his roguish face. "Why did we have to meet up with invisible phantoms? Why not just ordinary monsters, Springers and other freaks? Them I could toss clear into the next star. But the Unseen...? Br-r-r...!"
"We'll take care of them yet," said Tama Yokida calmly. "So far we've always been able to face any danger."
"Well spoken. However, I'd be grateful if you could at least give us a hint of what to do."
"Unfortunately, I can't do that," admitted Tama dejectedly. His confidence was demolished at one stroke.
"Let's add this all up," continued Rhodan. "The Unseen depopulate inhabited planets but don't seem to be concerned about inorganic matter. They don't even bother with plants, only animals and humans. It was only after we engaged them again that they also defended themselves against the robots, thereby proving that they're probably able to bring inorganic matter under their influence. So this suggests to me that they're clearing off the planets with a very definite purpose in mind. It appears that they need them for some reason. But not inorganic matter. They only destroy that in self-defense."
"And the end result?" asked Marshall.
"It's too early yet to make a summarization. We can only register the facts and make suppositions, nothing more. It's certain that we can't make a stand against the Unseen without suffering a defeat. But it's also been established that they can never catch a teleporter if he jumps in time."
"Then we've got it made," chirped Pucky and looked at Ras Tschubai. He didn't answer. Undistracted, he watched Rhodan.
"I wouldn't say that too loudly," advised Rhodan, addressing Pucky. "If I should just happen to decide that I want to send a spy detail down to Mirsal 3 it would be made up of teleporters."
Pucky caught his breath sharply and sat down on his broad hindquarters. "You mean you're serious? I might have guessed it. But count me out! I'm not fighting any space ghosts. Ras should go. If the Unseen get a look at him, his looks alone would be enough to frighten them to death."
"Maybe if you go," countered the African, "they'll betray themselves by fits of laughter. But anyway, Chief, if it absolutely has to be-well, naturally I'll go."
Rhodan knew that even Pucky wouldn't refuse to obey the order. He could rely on his mutants.
"It may be necessary, perhaps, if Rous doesn't come back, because I shouldn't like to risk the loss of an entire ship." As a buzzer sounded, he looked at the vidscreen.
Sikermann looked into the cabin. He seemed excited. "Talamon is in contact with us, sir. He wants to talk to you."
"Well then, switch it over, Sikermann."
The commander nodded and disappeared. Seconds later a swirl of colored circles and dots was seen on the flat surface of the screen, which slowly gave way to a forming pattern that came to be a face.
The Mounder.
He put on a grim mien in which a certain satisfaction was unmistakable. "Is that you, Rhodan?"
"I hear you, Talamon."
"But I can't see you. Turn on the camera.
"I'm not in the Com Central, Talamon. Just talk and we'll save valuable time. Why haven't you gone back to Arkon as the Regent ordered you to?"
"I got permission to stay here another ten minutes because I've made an unusual discovery. I wanted to tell you about it."
"What discovery?"
"A strange ship, Rhodan. A very small one. It's shaped like a spindle and flattened out astern. It's going out of the system at a very low speed. The flame-jets of the engine would indicate it's using the old prehistoric fluid rocket propulsion, the kind that even the Arkonides once used in the beginning of their space travel. But that was many tens of thousands of years ago."
Rhodan sat motionlessly in his chair. He stared at Talamon, regretting that the video portion was only one-sided. After a few seconds he asked, tonelessly, "Do you think that it's a
ship belonging to our invisible enemy?"
Talamon was hesitant in his reply. "That's what I thought at first but it's hard to imagine. Beings who can make themselves invisible would have to have an advanced technology that would at least be equivalent to ours. I just can't swallow the idea that they'd be limping through space with chemical rockets with every light ray in the place passing them up. How can they hope to get to another solar system?"
"You're right," admitted Rhodan with reluctance because he would have preferred that a ship of the Unseen had been found. "But who could it be otherwise? The inhabitants of Mirsal 3 don't know about space travel."
"I've been beating my brains over that question and can't come up with an answer. Can you join me where I am, Rhodan? I'm trailing the alien rocket at a proper distance and am not letting it out of my sight."
Rhodan demurred. Down below on Mirsal 3, Marcel Rous was carrying out a desperate mission-or at least he was trying to. Could he leave the brave young officer in the lurch? True, he hadn't acted according to orders but his motives were honorable and unselfish. In such cases Rhodan was in the habit of considering the circumstances. If he were in the Frenchman's shoes he'd hardly have acted any differently.
He made a decision. "I'll get there very shortly, Talamon. Meanwhile, give your position to my navigator. I have to take care of a small matter here."
The video image faded, to be replaced by that of Sikermann.
Rhodan took care of his 'small matter'. "We're going to go down and make a landing again, Sikermann. Remain only for ten seconds-then take off again and lay a course for the position that Talamon gives you. Is that clear?"
"But..."
"No exceptions, Sikermann. I know exactly what I'm doing. Get under way! Land somewhere down there on Mirsal 3."
Sikermann's bewildered countenance disappeared from the vidscreen.
"So it's that again!" sighed Pucky. He had taken part in spy sorties before and knew what Rhodan was planning.
While the Drusus hurtled once more toward the planet and prepared for a pit-stop fast landing, Rhodan gave his instructions.
