by Perry Rhodan
Marshall nodded agreement.
"Suggestion... hypnosis... telepathy...?"
"None of those," retorted Marshall sharply. "It was something new, something I have never before experienced. I believe it is something that is after us..."
Bell had made a lot of momentous decisions in his time and had always come to the right conclusions but what command could he give if his two mutants couldn't classify the threatening danger any closer than that? He rapidly reviewed everything and a logical conclusion was evident in his question: "Marshall, have you been able to grasp which peripheral device Topthor may have altered in order to switch polarity in the ultra-barrier of the core memory?"
This problem took precedence over all others. Their own safety was insignificant. They had to get to Topthor's ship positronicon in order to remove its astronomical data pertaining to the Earth!
The warning system in Bell's brain sounded a faint alarm. In all of his deliberations he had committed an error somewhere.
Positronic technology had eliminated the possibility of a destruct mode—stored data could not be destroyed. Magnetic erasure of formula constants did not exist. Only corrections of data were possible but they had to be actual pertinent corrections, otherwise the computer wouldn't accept the new information and would simply leave the old values in memory!
"I've got it!" exclaimed Marshall, jolting Bell out of his mediations.
"What?" asked Bell and thereby differentiated himself from the 'safety switch' that Perry Rhodan represented.
"I know now what ancillary equipment for the ultra-barrier that Topthor was thinking about..."
In spite of Marshall's explanations, Bell couldn't quite grasp it all. He glanced at the 'seer', Wuriu
Sengu. This average-looking Japanese possessed the astounding faculty, using high mental concentration, of being able to increase the optical resolving power of his eyes to such an unbelievable extent that he could see between molecules and atoms of solid material and then still be able to see the target-object as 'normal'.
Wuriu Sengu understood Reginald Bell's unspoken request.
He took a pad and pencil and concentrated, whereupon he saw the schematic arrangement of that part of Topthor's positronicon which Bell in his own mental gyrations had not been able to visualize clearly enough. The weird optical sojourn lasted just 10 minutes; then the 'seer', Sengu, was normal again. He handed Bell the circuit diagrams of the ultra-barrier and the auxiliary device.
Bell had to smile at his own obtuseness. Now only a glance at the schematics sufficed to clarify the anti-tampering hookup in his mind.
"Okay," he said in English. "We're moving our headquarters back to the Gazelle again. I'll follow you; first I have to talk to the Titan. Marshall, how does the Betelgeuse look?"
The Australian laughed softly. He had been able to read Bell's thoughts. His answer was: "I believe the Chief would say she's in quite good shape!"
• • •
Three patriarchs saw Chief Biologist Keklos leave the room. Two Springers and one Mounder then stared at each other angrily. One after the other shook his head in rebellious disapproval.
After collecting himself together, Mounder top chief Cekztel grumbled: "If I ever get sick again, I'd rather drop dead then be nursed back to health here under this Chief Biologist! I've seen a few planets in my time that our bombs have turned into suns but it didn't particularly fill me with joy to see them destroyed. Now I'll admit I never was much for compassion but in the final analysis those were our deadly enemies that we annihilated. I've never tortured anybody to death but I will lay you odds that Keklos does!"
Siptar, the ancient patriarch, nodded prudently. Old Vontran did not conceal his antipathy.
"Tomorrow is the assembly." Siptar's cryptic words implied much and he looked across at Cekztel with a certain sage expectancy.
The latter's grim wrinkled features became fierce as his gaze swung from one to the other of the Springer patriarchs. "Without you Traders, the Mounders will not attack the Earth! If you fly with us—every one of you with well-armed ships—then you can count on us. Otherwise..."
If ever a voice carried tones of authority, it was Cekztel's. He was the lord of patriarchs of all the Mounder clans. Nobody knew how many space battleships he commanded. Perhaps Cekztel himself didn't know but a space battleship of the Mounders, when measured by its heavy caliber weapons, was as powerful as 50 well-armed Springer ships.
Siptar's dark eyes had not been dimmed by age and he was famed for his sagacity and self-control. Now he asked coolly: "Is this to be taken as a threat, Cekztel?"
Cekztel laughed aloud. Banging a fist on the table, he thundered: "As extortion, Siptar! Do you Springers think we are fools? When somebody like Perry Rhodan can manage to steal the Empire's greatest battleship and in spite of that end up working with the robot brain on Arkon, in my eyes that one is not a mere nothing! And because nobody knows what kind of a giant fleet Rhodan may have at his disposal in the Terra sector, that's why we Mounders are only going to attack when and if the fleets of the Galactic Traders accompany us! Now—is that condition still a piece of blackmail or merely applied logic...?"
"How will you vote tomorrow, Cekztel?" asked the ancient Siptar craftily.
Cekztel's eyes flared up. "Whether or not I speak tomorrow for an attack on Terra is of no consequence! It depends on your decision! And when you are ready to also take a gamble, then you will not have called upon us for help in vain!"
Votran thought to hear in this a financial proposition from the Mounder and he sought to nail Cekztel down with a short question.
But the latter leaned back comfortably and chuckled slyly. "Do you really believe that we'd take on a mission like this for nothing? Have you Traders ever sold something, without receiving a payment for it? Were any of you ever in any negotiation with the Aras where you didn't have to settle a bill? Friends, you're being facetious! Our assistance will cost several hundred millions—and come to think of it, Topthor is the only one who knows Earth's position and Topthor is a Mounder—so I'd say you ought to pay double that amount!"
"Cekztel!" snarled Siptar. "You can't be serious!"
The other replied coldly: "When it comes to money, I don't make jokes. You want to bargain? You want a cut-rate price? All right, then you go twist Perry Rhodan's neck! I'll tell Topthor to let you have the navigation data. Go ahead—fly off to Earth! Tackle Rhodan there—and have fun, you tightfisted peddlers!"
• • •
Chief Biologist Keklos listened to Moders' report. The latter took care not to overstep the 10-foot restriction.
"The production of bio-men has begun. I have ordered the first of the retort-autoclaves to be heated. This evening at change of shift we will be able to observe whether or not the mass production is operating perfectly. Then I will apply all batteries of the retort-autoclaves—?"
Keklos interrupted his speech sharply. "You're going to wait until the Springer meeting is over with, Moders!" He ignored his co-worker's astonishment. "Has the space freighter from Gom been unloaded yet?"
"No."
"Then give immediate orders that the unloading is to be postponed until later. I want that put through at once. But before you do, bring me a bio-man!"
Moders was dismissed. He left the Chief's office, mentally confused. He didn't understand Keklos' instructions. All of a sudden had the mass production of bio-men lost its top priority? And why should the basic material from Gom remain in the spaceship?
Moders was not nimble-witted enough to connect these new instructions together with the bio-man, to whom he gave the order to go to Chief Biologist Keklos.
The colorless, greyish 10-foot tall creature was a synthetic life form out of a chemical retort. It entered the Chief's room and stood there waiting with one pair of arms folded across its chest and another pair behind its back. Keklos had just established a communication with the space freighter that had landed the raw material from Gom.
On board the freight
er his orders were causing a stir and a general shaking of heads. When the bio-man was included by Keklos, the officers in the Control Central of the freighter gave up trying to find a key to these mysterious changes in their orders.
But Keklos knew quite precisely what he wanted!
• • •
A quarter of a million miles above Laros, Talamon's large fleet hovered in a waiting position. His smallest fighter ship had been called down to Laros by the ponderous patriarch in order to undergo inspection by the Ara physicians but as of an hour ago it had flown off again.
For Talamon, the shock of the hypercom episode still sat in his bones. What was still more distressing to him was the fact that he must look at each of his clansmen as a possible traitor. At this moment he found himself en route to Bell's 'headquarters', now set up in the scoutship which stood in Talamon's secret hangar and was held in standby readiness for instant use.
Even Bell hadn't been able to reassure him. Talamon continued to be convinced that a deception was afoot among his followers. He refused to buy the theory that capricious chance alone had turned on the hypercom transmitter. Bell didn't buy that one, either, although the telepath, John Marshall, maintained that it had to be. He had taken upon himself the gigantic task of 'monitoring' each crewmember and the results had been zero.
However, the landing of the smallest Talamon vessel on Laros and its successful return flight an hour ago had not been for nothing. This flying back and forth was a camouflage action in order to establish the heavy radio traffic of the TAL 6. Inasmuch as it was all on Talamon's frequency, Perry Rhodan automatically received it also, and he must of course have been startled by the uncoded text.
The Mounder entered the Gazelle and gave a sly chuckle as he handed Bell the foil-printed message that the small space fighter had again joined the fleet hovering over Laros. Bell was not interested in the clear text. He knew that this dispatch was Perry's work and that it carried hidden information. The Gazelle's positronicon received the foil text; Bell depressed the decipher key and the computer calculator transformed the ordinary message into astronautical data. According to this, the Earth was a planet in the Orion sector—a satellite of the giant sun Betelgeuse, the third planet of the stellar Colossus, and thereby actually displaced 272 light-years from its true position. As viewed from Star Cluster M-13, the coordinates now positioned the Earth 272 light-years closer to M-13!
Bell grinned to himself. "I'd hate to have to walk that far!" He failed to notice that Talamon had already left him.
John Marshall appeared from the background of the small control room. "Sir," he announced, "Talamon will neither warn us that Topthor knows Earth's position nor will he betray us to Topthor. And if he sticks to his latest idea he's also not liable to enter into the big venture with us with the Arkon scrap metal on Honur. On the one hand he feels duty-bound to Topthor and on the other hand to us. And to all that if you add the hypercom situation—"
Bell hastily motioned him to silence. "Marshall, spare me all that. Just brief the mutants that nobody must let anything slip in front of the Mounder that has the slightest hint of what we know. Can you imagine what would happen otherwise?"
"Yes, sir! Then Talamon would come to us and tell us that he was on his way to Topthor to advise him of the fact that we were in possession of his secret—"
"Which would no doubt warm the cockles of his big, fat heart!" interrupted Bell with a cynical laugh. "Send Tako Kakuta and Ras Tschubai up here—they are going to make a soap bubble out of Topthor's great secret!"
8/ ATTACKED BY AN UNKNOWN FORCE
Keklos did not forget the warning of Chief Inspector Gegul, who had since been sentenced to die in a converter, and now there was just this one night separating him from the patriarchal meeting. At that time Gegul had said to him: "Chief Biologist Keklos, the danger begins with the grand assembly. That's the way it happened on Goszul's Planet and that's the way it will be again on Laros. However, I shall foil any further repetition and those who are on Perry Rhodan's payroll are going to get snared in my net. Can you guess what kind of a net I am going to throw out to them, Biology Chief?"
He had guessed it even as Gegul had stated the question and he told him so. Independently from Gegul he had conducted his experiments along similar lines and he was all the more impressed by Gegul's near clairvoyance because that which he had perceived as a weapon, based on his senses rather than on knowledge, was indeed a weapon—a frightful weapon!
Well, Gegul had now ceased to exist. To Keklos this fact was not even worth a shrug of the shoulder but Gegul's plan lived on. It had become reality.
"I want Moders in here at once!" Keklos snapped into the intercom.
Moders did not appear.
Keklos sounded an alarm. He often sounded alarms; afterwards somebody would usually disappear, sometimes several Aras at a time. No one knew where they were. No one dared make official inquiries concerning them.
Still Moders did not appear!
Within the gigantic system of caverns of the moon Laros, a condition One alarm was instituted. It was an alert that encircled the entire moon, emerging at many places from the inner world to the surface and spreading its branches from there.
Moders could not be found!
In the brain of Chief Biologist Keklos hammered Gegul's warning prophecy: "The danger begins with the grand assembly."
Many patients died that night. Surgeons set aside their instruments in the middle of operations, leaving their responsibilities to the nurses and crippling entire hospital tracts. They went searching for Moders, Chief Biologist Keklos' closest assistant.
Moders was not found...
• • •
Furiously, Talamon sat down in the chair. Raging mad, he glared at his friend Topthor. "What is with these fighter robots?"
He had been stopped in front of Topthor's ship by robots and examined; he had been stopped in front of the lock and been examined; and again on the main deck of the vessel and finally in front of the bulkhead door of the Control Central. Each time they had taken his brainwave pattern and beamed it off somewhere for examination. It was understandable that he should be, in a bad mood.
But Topthor's disposition didn't appear to be any better. "Did you happen to take a good look at the robots?" He stressed the word 'good'.
Then something began to dawn on Talamon. "You mean—they're not yours...?"
"Aras!"
Talamon shouted and got to his feet. "And you stand for that?"
"Sit down again, my friend. With my approval, the Ara robots are standing watch! Two hours ago aliens were seen in my ship! Probably Springers!"
Topthor noticed how his friend seemed to slowly collapse back into the massive seat and he heard him groan in disbelief, "A-l-i-e-n-s...?"
What Topthor could not guess were the thoughts that blanketed Talamon's brain. He thought he knew who the aliens were!
"Yes, aliens, Talamon—aliens in the power rooms."
At that moment an invisible load was lifted from Talamon. He had assumed that the aliens had been seen here in the Control Central, where the Earth's position was registered in the computer core-memory bank. What could they be looking for in the power section? On that basis he could remove Rhodan's people from his suspicions with a clear conscience—it must actually have been Springers.
In genuine astonishment he asked, "What's there so special to look for in our power rooms?"
"I reported this to Cekztel and he passed it on to Chief Biologist Keklos. Ever since then the Ara robots have been blocking everybody and getting in the way but I still feel better because of it. The only thing that gripes me is tomorrow's big meeting... Talamon, can I actually pull 500,000,000 out of that business deal?"
"At the least!" replied Talamon gravely. He regarded the other penetratingly. "Whatever happens, Topthor, you may and you must trust me. And keep your mouth shut! Don't ask me questions even when things start to happen. I don't want to have to lie to you! I can even pull this deal w
ithout you. On my own accord I've marked off a piece of it for you because if anything goes wrong, Topthor, I want at least one person to keep faith with me!"
"For that you wouldn't have had to make me a present of 400,000,000 in profit, Talamon, and I—" In that instant he thought he heard a strange noise behind him. "What was that?" he cried out and looked hastily around...
• • •
At this same moment, Wuriu Sengu sat next to Bell with his eyes closed and said: "Topthor must have heard something. He's whirling around to stare at the nav-computer. Now he's getting up—no, he's sitting down again, but he's uneasy about something. Talamon is asking him something. He doesn't answer him but instead he's switching on the P.A. system and is giving out instructions. Just now I can't see a sign of Tako Kakuta."
Reginald Bell lifted his, head to study Ras Tschubai reflectively. He was his second teleporter and according to plan should have hidden himself in Topthor's Control Central long since in order to help Tako Kakuta alter the memory register of Earth's position data. But Tako had not remained entirely unnoticed upon his arrival in Topthor's Control Central. Bell was just about to ask the 'seer', Sengu, a question, when all 3 of them—Tschubai, Sengu and himself—were startled by a loud noise.
The sound came with the rematerialization of the small, slender teleporter. Under a forward jutting forehead, the child's face was troubled. Tako Kakuta was jolted in the midst of materialization!
"There was something..." he said in great distress. "Exactly the same thing intercepted me when I arrived near Topthor in the Control Central, sir!" He raised himself slowly from the floor and shook his head. But what it was, Kakuta could not explain.
Bell directed his question to the suggestor. "Ishibashi, did you notice anything?"
"Yes, sir, but I can't explain it, either. It grazed me only just lightly. I have a sense of something 'concentrated'—a concentrated force of some kind."
