by Perry Rhodan
The passage seemed to him to be endless. The hammer was heavy and if he had not been determined to show it to Nike Quinto as evidence he would have discarded it so that he could run faster. He did not look behind him but he could hear the slapping footsteps of the creature and he knew that in spite of its clumsy appearance it was gaining on him.
Just as he was wondering about Larry and Lofty he suddenly became aware of a different kind of light around him that was brighter and warmer. Fresh air blew in his face. There was a glittering shimmer on either side of him. He had come out of the passage and returned to the surface world. He was running through some kind of defile. To his right and left were bare slopes with a sparse growth of glassy shrubs here and there. From above the brilliant blue-white sun glared down. Its rays were broken up and reflected by the sloping banks of the defile, filling it with an unbearable shimmering heat.
Ron knew that he couldn't keep up the pace much longer. Behind him the sound of the monster feet was coming nearer and he didn't have to look around to know that his pursuer was not more than 30 feet or so away from him. He might have been able to scale one of steep inclines but the terrible thing on his heels could probably climb as well as he could. Moreover he could see the crowns of the glass trees above the slopes of the narrow canyon. Out there was the forest and he knew that he'd get no farther than 100 meters into it before the frog-bear would overtake him.
He could still reason enough to realize that he had to stop before all his strength was used up. At least he still had the heavy sledgehammer with which he had already taught the monster a little respect. He felt the heat of anger in him. He was not going to run anymore. He had a weapon in his hand, however primitive it might be. He had a compulsion to stand his ground like a man and face the inevitable.
His lungs were ready to burst. The heat had brought the sweat to his forehead and into his eyes where it smarted and blurred his vision. He came to a stop. He whirled around and raised the heavy hammer, ready to strike as soon as the beast was near enough.
And there it was, coming at him with its grinning frog face and its arms stretched out, ready to grasp its victim and crush him against his furry chest.
Suddenly a loud battle cry filled the air. Ron and the beast both looked around. Above on the right-hand top of the slope were Lofty and Larry. They were standing behind a barricade of boulders and were waving their arms. Ron couldn't make out what they were yelling at him but he saw them stoop down and cause the barricade to start moving. At first a single boulder came loose but the gap it produced started other stones rolling also. A pall of dust arose and finally an entire avalanche came roaring and thundering down the slope. Ron could see boulders bounding through the dust toward the bottom of the defile.
He knew what he had to do. He made a supreme effort to leap out of range and then he scrambled up the incline, He kept to the right of the tumbling avalanche but was still so close to it that he could feel the rising wind of its passage as a few smaller rocks shot close past his shoulder. But he got above it into the clear when he was about a third of the way up. The thundering of the debris into the ravine below was mixed with the tortured outcry of the alien creature as it failed to get out of the way in time.
Ron struggled onward until he stumbled over the top and fell to the level ground. He lay there panting against the heated rocks with the shining hammer still gripped in his hand, while he pumped the fresh air into his lungs. He was overcome by fatigue and relief simultaneously. He wanted to just lie there and go to sleep but he knew that the elimination of the frog-bear thing was far from bringing them a out of danger. They were still in enemy territory. The Springers were somewhere close by and they were not about to let the three Terrans discover their secret and get back to report it in the city without being challenged.
No, the battle would continue! There was no sense in just lying here.
He raised himself up. It was only now that he sensed what a toll had been taken from him by the events of the past few hours. His vision was blurred by spots and colored rings in front of his eyes. However he was still able to recognize the figures of Larry and Lofty as they came toward him and he suddenly felt their hands pulling him up.
"We did it!" enthused Larry. "That fur-coated nightmare is under the rocks. You can see some of him sticking out of the pile from up here. The Evergreens are fresh out of gods so the spook game is ended. Lofty's already had a look around. He knows just about where we are. The glider is about two kilometers from here at the most."
Ron was still too exhausted and wrung out to collect his brains at the moment but he knew there might be a spark of hope. He caught on to what Larry was saying about the glider. The craft was of advanced design. Even the Springers might need a couple of days to figure out how it operated. They might have left it where they had found it until they could find time to learn how to start its engine and get it into the air again.
He pushed free of their supporting arms. Glord!—he thought. He had done some heavy running, to be sure, but he didn't have any business being this washed out. "Where did you say the glider was?" he asked.
"That way," said Lofty, pointing. "But sir—shouldn't you take a breather first? In the woods you'll have to have your wits about you or otherwise..."
He didn't finish the sentence but Ron knew what he meant. He hadn't forgotten the Passa beetles. But he also knew that there was no time to lose. The Springers were not the kind of opponents who were slow on the uptake.
"Not another second," he growled. "We start at once. Have to get out of here as quickly as possible."
So with Lofty in the lead they set out on their difficult path through the forest. They made good headway, in fact faster than they had previously been able to travel through the hostile thickets. Fear of the Springers was hounding them. They all knew that every minute counted.
It was then that Ron remembered what he had been trying to recall but had so far overlooked: it wouldn't do them any good to fight their way through to the glider for all it was, was a wreck by now.
They had forgotten that Larry had ruined the flier before the Evergreens took him captive!
9/ THE STOLEN THUNDERBOLT
Thankful are we to thee, Almighty One, and we praise thy matchless grace. Thou hast seen the love of thy children and dost not condemn us for our sins. We shall honor and praise thy name for eternity, Ayaa-Oooy...!
• • •
"No, I don't have any idea how much is left of it," muttered Larry bitterly. "I wasn't in my right mind when I attacked the control panels and what happened after that is a complete blank."
They were crouched on the edge of the clearing that they had burned out with the thermos prior to landing here. About 30 feet away was the ship, which was apparently intact otherwise. They remained hidden in the glass thickets because they could not be sure whether or not the Springers had the place under surveillance. They stared at their 'skyhorse' as though they could guess from that distance whether or not it would respond to their know-how after they got on board,
They had arrived here but minutes before and Ron was already feeling the rising pressure of uneasiness. Every minute they wasted would narrow their chances of getting back to Modessa. Every minute that went by without being used would only increase the chances of the Springers to tighten their blockade around the region of the Midland Mountains.
Ron attempted to focus his mind exclusively on what lay ahead of them: the flight from the forest. While doing so he absently ran his fingers along the handle of the sledgehammer that he was determined to show Nike Quinto—if he ever got back to Terra. He was feeling certain protrusions on the handle without knowing it. With his mind completely absorbed in other matters, his senses failed for a moment to get through to him. His fingers touched the little buttons at least three times before he became aware of something unusual.
Wonderingly he lifted up the hammer and examined its handle. For the first time he noted the row of little switch buttons and his curiosity
was aroused. What could they mean? Now—all of a sudden he was seeing the frog-bear's situation in a new light. Working solo amongst the primitive serpent people, revered as a god, always ready to work new miracles—how had the beastly creature managed it? Without thinking much about it, Ron had presumed that the Springers had always been in the background, producing whatever effects had been necessary to build up the reputation of their imported god; but now this didn't seem to be quite so self-evident. Was this hammer perhaps the instrument by which the frog-bear had made his name so feared?
Gingerly, Ron pressed the lowest button on the handle. As he did so he held the hammer above him as a precaution. But in an instant he realized that he had underestimated the tool's capabilities. There was a roaring in his head; he felt the vibrations inside his brain and Larry and Lofty threw caution to the winds as they yelled out in sudden fright.
Hastily he pressed the same button again and the pain subsided immediately. In new amazement he reexamined the hammer suspiciously. However he was certain that he had just activated a powerful source of ultrasonic energy. Apparently it was this that had been used to bring the Evergreens into line whenever they did whatever was considered to be a transgression. There was little question about that part of it but the mystery that still remained was what effects might be unleashed by pressing the other buttons. Maybe the Springers had also figured that one day their frog-bear might be faced with a deadly situation and they may have fixed him up with a weapon that could kill automatically. As for instance, if he should activate the next button...?
Ron hesitated for some time. After considering the matter he realized that he didn't have any other choice. The hammer was the only weapon they had. They had to know how it functioned—otherwise they were sitting in a blind alley with nowhere to go.
He stood up and tried to imagine how the frog-bear might have held the hammer when he wanted to defend himself against an enemy. High overhead as though to strike a deadly blow? Hardly. That would make it too hard to aim. Or perhaps casually with his hand near the hammerhead as though he had no malicious intentions? That sounded more like it. It was much more probable that such a false god would have to strike suddenly and unexpectedly, rather than to advertise his animosity ahead of time.
Ron gripped the hammer close under its head so that the handle hung down at his side like a sword. In this position it was difficult for him to reach the buttons; for that purpose he had to twist his left arm around his back. But he remembered that the frog-bear creature was equipped with four arms not two. With either one of its, right hands it could no doubt reach the buttons easily.
Ron pressed the second button in the row, from the bottom, and was promptly knocked sideways, as a frightful force was unleashed from the hammerhead. A sharply focused flame of blinding white energy shot steeply upwards and expended itself harmlessly in the air. He was aware that in his startlement he had again pressed the button and thus inactivated the weapon in time.
There could be no doubt about it now: among other things the hammer was a full-fledged thermo-beamer.
The third button turned on a disintegrator. The greenish beam of energy was able to dissolve the crystallizing forces of cohesion in physical substances and turn all matter in its path into a vapor. However, when the fourth button was activated, no visible effect was seen and Ron decided to keep this one well in mind. On the other hand the fifth button was obviously connected to a tiny antigrav generator. When he pressed it he felt a momentary lightness. A slight jump took him upward easily and when he wanted to come down he had to shove away from one of the glass branches above him.
Thus it was revealed how the frog-bear had managed to make its miraculous ascension through the opening into the hall of the sacrifice.
The sixth button again resulted in no visible effect. Which was an additional reason for caution. Ron decided that he wouldn't press it a second time as long as he wasn't sure what it was for.
It was enough to know that in this hammer they possessed a very effective weapon. He had no precise idea as to its range but as long as the Springers didn't attack them from a great height in their gliders and airships, it was sufficient to keep them out of danger while they sought to repair their own flyboat.
Of course all this time Lofty and Larry had been watching his demonstrations with the greatest of interest. His command, when it came, was therefore not unexpected.
"OK, let's go! We have to get that glider moving. It's three hours to sunset."
• • •
Right from the start the situation looked promising. When Larry had gone into his rage and started to demolish the craft, it looked as though he had been shocked in time by an electrical short to prevent much serious damage. The equipment that had received the main brunt of his attack was an auxiliary panel which was used for flight stabilization and gyro alignment during emergency takeoffs. When necessary, Ron could fly the ship without this feature but Larry had also hit the main flight console to some extent and above all he had completely demolished both of the radio transmitters.
Larry and Ron got to work and since Lofty was no expert in this field he stood outside and kept his eyes open.
Shortly before sundown the repair work had advanced to the point where the glider could be started and under favorable circumstances it would be able to cover the distance to Modessa at low altitudes without much trouble. So far everything had been quiet, so Ron decided that they would take off at the present state of repairs, in order to increase their chances for escape.
He had just arrived at this conclusion when the drumming of the Evergreens started up out in the forest. The rumbling tones carried a note of tension; the reverberating pitch kept changing at least every three seconds or so while the volume swelled and ebbed at short intervals. Ron stopped his work to look outside toward Lofty Patterson, who was standing in the clearing and trying to understand the message of the drums. He suddenly turned and came running toward the glider. On his face was a look of bewilderment.
"They're giving thanks to their god!" he blurted out as he came panting up to the ship. "Because he has been gracious enough to forgive them for their sins. And all this time I thought we had knocked him off!"
At first Ron was no less surprised than Lofty. Had the frog-bear been able to work itself out from under the avalanche? That seemed an impossibility. Before the thing was buried all those boulders must have killed it.
But suddenly the solution came to him. He wondered that he had not thought of it sooner. The Springers had not been shortsighted enough to only bring one god along with them. In that case if anything happened to it they would lose their power over the Evergreens. They had a number of the frog-bear creatures with them so that if any one of them were to depart this life, another would spring into its place so that there would be no gaps in the Evergreens' induced state of awe.
He knew what this meant: they could no longer count on the serpent people being in a state of confusion whereby the Springers would have their hands full in controlling them. For the Springers, nothing had been disturbed. They had simply substituted another god and shrewdly caused it to reassure the Evergreens of its benevolence. So their hands were quite free to turn their attention to their most important opponents—these three Terrans out here in the glass forest wilderness with their half-wrecked glider.
Ron reached his hand down to Lofty. "On board with you!" he yelled. "We're taking off at once!"
• • •
Slowly and laboriously the flier lifted up over the glass forest. The blue sun had lowered behind the trees a few moments before but now it came into view again.
At the flight controls, Ron swept his gaze right and left and up and down the indicator panels, constantly on the alert for any warning signals affecting the operation of the various systems on board. But the power and liftoff systems functioned smoothly, the small antigravs helped boost the ship vertically into the air and the nav-jets furnished their calculated thrust when he cut in the horizontal prop
ulsion units.
Ron was satisfied. He breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was working out better than he expected. He was about to turn to his companions and give them a few words of encouragement when he heard a sudden shout from Larry.
"Look out! Enemy craft off to the right!"
Ron jerked around. Partially to his right the sun was lowering behind the horizon. The enemy had chosen the most favorable approach angle for the attack. Against the glaring brightness the ship was only discernible as a small, semitransparent shadow.
Ron forced himself to be calm. He did not change his course. The glider moved steadily westward over to the roof of the forest. It was going as fast as its propulsion system was capable of at the moment. "So let him come," Ron advised. "He doesn't know we're armed. Maybe he just wants to play around a little at first, to check us out."
His supposition turned out to be correct. The alien craft, which was also a glider, came toward them at a superior speed and circled them a couple of times. Through the other cockpit windows Ron could make out the powerful broad-shouldered shapes of two Springers. This was the first time on Passa that they had shown their teeth. Now they made no secret of the fact that they were the authors of the unrest here on the planet. Ron smiled bitterly when he realized that they were also showing themselves at the moment because they considered this Terran flier and its passengers to be helpless victims who couldn't escape them anyway.
He heard a growl from Larry: "I've got them right in my sights, Ron. If I fire they'll have a beautiful doughnut hole in their hull."
