by Perry Rhodan
Our eyes met. Yes, I understood very clearly! It was now or never! For me there was no more time.
I switched on the impulse cannon's power supply. It was a fixed bow gun that was similar to the caliber of a 500-meter battle cruiser. All the modern space-jets of Terranian design were similarly equipped.
Because of its necessarily fixed position it could only be aimed by aiming the entire ship. This was of considerable advantage in terms of accuracy, yet it also had tactical disadvantages.
The target viewscreen lighted up. In spite of the close range the picture resolution was not very good. I could hardly make out the stern of the tiny ship.
The cannon was ready to fire. The fusion catalyst charge which had been injected into the reaction chamber waited only for the igniting arc to produce the nuclear action. The screen compensator fields along the barrel were giving me a green light; I could beam out the unleashed forces without fear of converting the space-jet into an atom bomb.
Following my course correction data, Rhodan aimed for the target. It was a matter of moving mere fractions of a degree through vertical and horizontal coordinates. The green dot of my target indicator wandered to the stern of the alien craft which had been built by an unknown space-faring race. It was in no way comparable to Arkonide or Terranian designs for that small size of vehicle. Unknown technologists had worked a masterpiece when they managed to install a hyper spacedrive in such a limited space.
This was probably the reason the high priest had chosen such a spacecraft. It was also why he had traded off other capabilities and now was the time to turn that fact to his disadvantage! All products of technology and science were limited in their development by certain natural principles. One could always compromise with such laws to obtain a seeming advantage. And such was the case here. It was true that Segno Kaata had a ship capable of exceeding light velocity in spite of its small size but in terms of acceleration and transition capabilities it fell way behind other designs.
The tracer light zeroed home. I had the flaming tail jets of the Anti in my sights. I called for a vernier adjustment just slightly forward of the stern, whereupon I carefully and firmly depressed the firing button.
A ring of sun-bright atomic forces formed in front of the impulse cannon's muzzle, made visible by the fact that our velocity was compressing the cosmic dust particles of space ahead of us. The phenomenon enabled us to see the energy beam stretching out ahead of us for about 100 meters, as thick as an arm. Beyond that point it disappeared because the space-dust compression effect tapered off at that distance.
There was a frighteningly long moment of waiting until the light-swift bolt of energy reached the steadily accelerating ship but then Goratschin suddenly shouted. Just as he detected the impact burst we obtained a visual sighting of the white-glowing flame emerging from the vessel's stern. The diminutive ship was torn from its course. It was just then I noticed that we were heading toward the methane planet that encircled the dwarf sun of Gela.
Rhodan cut back the engines and threw all systems into idling mode. In free fall we raced after the now apparently unguided ship.
"Good!" exclaimed Rhodan with a strange smile. "In fact, quite excellent! The Anti should be a little pale around the gills right now. But look—his nav jets are still working!"
We observed the small pulsejets emerging from the curved bow. The bluish flecks of light were clearly discernible on our screen.
"He's in retro!" snorted Ivanovich the Younger excitedly. "Putting on his brakes!"
Rhodan also went into retropulsion to brake our speed. The velocity of the alien vessel dropped rapidly. Now the Anti was cut off from escaping through hyperspace. Evidently my hit had destroyed vital parts of his main spacedrive.
To our surprise the priest made a swift manoeuvre we hadn't expected. After a strenuous deceleration he suddenly made a sharp curve into an orbit around the large methane planet and at increased speed. Thanks to our super-powerful equipment we were able to brake our higher velocity just in time. Rhodan strained to force the space-jet into the orbital curve and the ship seemed to protest in every atom. The fugitive had already disappeared behind the planet's curvature. Under such high-stress manoeuvres I could not have risked a second shot anyway.
We almost thought that the Anti had gotten away until we perceived a narrow echo blip on our tracking screen. Then it became clear that the high priest was about to land on the largest of the planet's three available moons. With flaming bow jets the ship plunged toward the nameless celestial body which could not have measured more than 1,000 km in diameter. Our instruments indicated its gravity at 0.11, no atmosphere, and its astonishingly fast rotational rate of 21 hours.
We had hardly detected the other ship before it again disappeared behind the horizon of the fast-approaching satellite. Rhodan once more overburdened the retro system in an attempt to adapt our course. At the full deceleration of 750 km per second squared, he manoeuvred onto a wide elliptical orbit. With our high velocity, the centrifugal force was almost too much for the weak gravitational pull of the moon to counteract it. We were forced to hold the orbit with the help of our vernier jets until our speed diminished sufficiently for free fall.
"If he's lucky, his plan may work," said Rhodan with exasperating calmness.
"If I were in his shoes I'd make a jump from the falling ship and throw the incriminating activator as far from me as possible. Then I'd find a hiding place somewhere. I'd figure my pursuers wanted the device itself much more than they wanted me. But I wonder if he's that smart."
No, he was not that smart—at least in that sense of the word. We traced the high priest on our third orbital pass. He was carrying the activator on him, which obviously invited his discovery no matter where he went. Then something occurred to me. Tensely I turned around.
"This is just a thought," I said quickly. "He knows that we were already in the air at the moment of his escape. Do you think he'd give any credence to the idea that we wouldn't have had time to bring along the sensor device I mentioned to him? He surely couldn't guess that the sensor was installed on the space-jet from the beginning."
Rhodan rubbed his nose and glanced at me doubtfully. "Hmm... anything is possible with this character. That much we've learned. Apparently he doesn't know we've got the sensor with us or he would have ditched the activator by now. OK, it's just as well he has it on him, as far as I'm concerned!"
At that particular moment we were looking at the provisional 'night' side of the moon when we saw the sudden burst of a nuclear explosion. The sun-bright blossom of flame was intense enough to be seen visually.
Rhodan exclaimed: "That was his ship; It crashed—a total wipeout! I wonder if he was in it."
"He's alive," said our two-headed companion immediately. "And he's got the activator. After he saw his damage was greater than expected, he probably made a jump with an antigrav pack. Sir, I'm picking up a nice clear set of beeps. Don't give up now. The Anti is safely away from the crash location."
With a last retro-thrust from the forward nav jets, Rhodan brought the space-jet into an orbital stall. Following Ivan's signals, we slowly dropped toward the surface. The bare, twisted face of a mountainous world emerged in our screen, utterly devoid of vegetation. Somewhere down there was the Anti.
Our grav-absorbers had automatically adjusted us to the local gravitational pull. These space-jets were excellent interplanetary vehicles with high manoeuvrability. We glided weightlessly over the surface until Ivan announced that the activator had come to a halt. If we could assume that the Anti was carrying it on his person, it meant that he must have finally landed.
I got up silently and went to the lockers to find a spacesuit to fit me. Which reminded me that the two-headed mutant would certainly not be able to find a special outfit for himself on board. I stopped in front of him thoughtfully.
"What are we going to do about you? You can't go out—there's no oxygen here."
Goratschin had already worked out the problem.
"There's a light flying tank on board—you know, a quad, a four-way. It has enough room for me. I can even keep you covered with a lightweight energy gun."
Rhodan agreed with the plan just as the space-jet slowed down over a mountainous and heavily fissured terrain. The airless moon's surface was bleak and desolate. But at least the temperature outside appeared to be bearable. The small weak sun was far away.
I slipped into a Terranian-designed spacesuit that was equipped with an antigrav pack. Although it did not afford a flight capability in the full sense of the word, it nevertheless made it possible for one to progress in mighty leaps.
I also pulled out a suit for Rhodan. Goratschin selected two cumbersome-looking impulse beamers from the locker. They would have been too heavy to use on a world the size of Arkon but here they could be handled by any person of normal strength.
I double-checked the small defense screen projectors that were built into the suits just under the oxygen packs. The micro-reactors revealed a full charge although they could only put out about 80 kw. It was an indication of the comparative weakness of the protective screening but a beam-shot of normal intensity could be repulsed.
When Goratschin announced that the amplitude of the sensor signals was at a maximum peak we knew that we were directly over the spot where the priest had landed after his desperate jump from the ship. At the moment he was probably thunderstruck that we had found him so quickly. If he hadn't yet relinquished his sharp reasoning powers he would have to know now that we actually had the personal frequency sensor on board.
Rhodan went into his landing manoeuvre. The landing struts extended as we made a hovering descent while at the same time the ship's mighty energy screen was cautiously built up to full strength. We sat down softly without a jolt. The engines subsided. Only the heavy fusion reactor for powering the ship's systems hummed as actively as before.
Rhodan glanced significantly at my special timer. I read off the elapsed time since the theft: 58 hours and 16 minutes.
"Still one and three-quarters of an hour, Barbarian," I told him with feigned serenity.
Rhodan put on his spacesuit. Goratschin disappeared into the small hold behind the control room. Outside the bright light of the yellow sun glared from the surface, unhindered by an atmosphere. Where the sharp shadows fell was the deep blackness of night. It was an inhospitable and foreboding world we had landed on.
We waited until Goratschin announced that his 4-way vehicle was ready for launching. Rhodan operated the lock doors so that the mutant could drive the quad outside. When we saw it safely out, we shut down the ship.
Once we were outside and the outer lock door had closed, Rhodan cleared his throat and spoke through his helmet transmitter. "Where is that logic sector of yours hiding, Atlan?" I looked at him in some confusion until he added: "We forgot to send off a hypercom signal to the waiting fleet. How are they supposed to find us in case of emergency?"
The question elicited a curse from me. When I was about to open the airlock again in order to take care of the matter at once, Rhodan called sarcastically: "Nobody is infallible, not even the Anti. Take cover, Arkonide!"
I fell instinctively to the ground, noting that the hatch door of the ship was about 20 meters away. A blinding energy flash zipped close by me. My defense screen glowed briefly and I was aware of a light electrical shock.
To the right and left of me the ground was heated to incandescence by further beam-shots. The sharp energy blasts came toward us at a low angle and ploughed up semi-molten furrows in the sandy ground.
From then on we could only run until we reached the first outcroppings of rock and the low cliffs.
The Anti had cut us off from the ship and we had neglected to radio our position!
9/ THE BARBARIAN STRIKES
Even over the radio the sonorous voice of the high priest was unmistakable. It rang out with a deep fullness in our helmet phones.
I still felt fresh and active. The injection of parastimulin Goratschin had administered was now at its peak of effectiveness. But from a purely tactical standpoint our situation was untenable. With our first attacks against him the Anti had proved that he possessed the best defense screen in the galaxy.
With my heavy duty impulse gun I had managed a direct hit when Segno Kaata sought to change his location. Although he was hurled violently to one side under an effective impact of tons of force, his energy screen had functioned flawlessly and reflected the nuclear jolt.
Rhodan had also fired at him after he fell and converted the ground all around the Anti into a molten lake. In spite of this, Kaata survived it and got away. It left us dumbfounded.
It was Goratschin who finally thought of an explanation. He maintained that among other faculties of the Antis they had the ability to structurally strengthen and stabilize a normal force field by means of some sort of physical catalytic emanations. The explanation was complex but sounded probable. After all, we knew very well that Segno Kaata's field projector was not a jot better than the ones we were using.
So we had lain there firing back and forth without effect, and for me the time was dwindling away. The relativistic concept of time had suddenly become very real to me. It signified existence or non-existence.
Then after a final exchange of fire, Kaata's voice was heard. Apparently he had tuned in on our voice band. He was on our same frequency. I listened breathlessly, searching desperately to find some clue to salvation in his words.
"I presume, Your Eminence, that you have troubled yourself personally to come to this moon," said the high priest in calm, objective tones. "Naturally, then, you do not have a duplicate activator, in which case I urgently beseech you to give up your foolish strategy. I am invulnerable."
I looked over at Rhodan. He lay at a distance of some 30 meters from me behind a massive boulder. At the moment nothing was to be seen of Kaata. He seemed to have found cover in a depression of the ground.
Rhodan motioned to me strenuously. Behind the hemisphere of his helmet I could see him shaking his head negatively.
I glanced at my watch. My time was running out. All I had left was a single hour. How long would the energizing effect of the parastimulin continue? Certainly the drug could not completely hold back the imminent deterioration of my strength.
I decided to speak firmly and effectively then. With careful deliberation I depressed the transmitter button. "Atlan to Segno Kaata," I announced. "You are surrounded. Right now there is a heavily armed tank moving up behind your position. There is no way that your weapon can penetrate its powerful defense screen. You must surrender!"
His laughter shocked me and caused my spirits to slump. I was slowly getting shaky. I could no longer suppress my constant anxiety over the ebbing minutes, no matter how hard I tried. I could see that I was losing control of myself. If only this devilish enemy had not laughed in such superior tones!
"You consider my weapon to be weak, Your Eminence? It happens to be of special design. If I should make a direct hit just once, your personal defense screen would collapse. You still have 58 minutes in which to accept my proposal."
I gasped in surprise and looked in alarm at my timer. Kaata was very precisely informed. He was only three minutes off because my period of grace had actually only 55 minutes to go. I could have shrieked like a madman! My instinct of self-preservation seemed to overpower the processes of reasoning—yet I was able to get hold of myself once more.
"You know my terms," I replied. "Surrender the device to me and after your psycho-conversion treatment I will allow you to go your way."
He only laughed again. At some distance behind our position, Goratschin's terrain tank emerged into view. It was armed with a disintegrator gun that had the effect of destroying the molecular bonds of matter. Any matter struck by the weapon was atomized.
Almost as though he could read minds, the high priest spoke again. "There can be no talk of a brainwashing, Your Eminence. I demand my freedom and your ship. For that I will promise to throw your
device on the ground where you may find it after I have taken off. It goes without saying that I shall not relinquish the activator prior to that."
Everything within me urged to give in to his demand. I was almost about to raise up to reply when Rhodan signaled to me again. He abruptly switched into our conversation.
"This is Perry Rhodan, First Administrator of the Solar Empire," he said, introducing himself. His voice was cold and threatening. "Your offer is denied, Kaata. Kindly refrain from trying your tricks on me. I discovered you and I will destroy you."
"Oh, the Terranian barbarian!" said the priest.
This time it was Rhodan who laughed. But I realized that he knew how to handle people like this better than I. He was the personal embodiment of decisiveness. He seemed to radiate an aura of primordial force which made every foe apprehensive. The high priest felt this immediately as Rhodan continued.
"I'll give you just five minutes, Kaata. If by then you haven't come out of your hole with your arms up, you will experience what we barbarians call Hell."
"You are mixing into the internal politics of the Empire," said Kaata evasively.
"To me you are a criminal. Crawl out of your hole!"
"I demand to have the activator!"
"Come and take it from me!" cried the priest. But this time his voice was not so self-assured. He felt himself running into a granite wall with Rhodan.
Ignoring the Anti, Rhodan called out to the tank. "Ivan, veer a little farther to the left and speed it up! He can't get through your defense screen."
Goratschin answered. It was obvious that Segno Kaata could understand every word, until Rhodan suddenly changed over to English. "OK, now listen carefully. That character can't understand English. I've an idea his energy screen may have certain weaknesses. Something doesn't quite figure with him. Otherwise all he'd have to do is simply wait calmly for us to try something. Possibly in some way his paranormal warpage of force fields can be his own Achilles' heel. Our task now is to find that out. Since he's hoping to take the ship, if you get closer to him, Ivan, he'll probably make a try for it. Under no circumstances must he be allowed to get there! Even if we can't destroy him he won't be able to escape injury under the high impact from our pulse beams, at least not for long. By being knocked around he can be wounded and maybe end up with some broken bones. Of course he's aware of that."
