by Perry Rhodan
He stared at the figures pertaining to the time. What had happened last night on the TAL 6? Again the thought hammered into his deliberations: "The danger begins with the grand assembly."
The gathering of the patriarchs was just about in its closing stage. It had been resolved that Perry Rhodan and his home planet should be destroyed. The meeting had gone into the final phase of bargaining over the price that the Mounders demanded from the Springers for their part in the mission. Half an hour before this, Keklos had turned off his video receiver in anger and disgust. Which was a bad decision, because just then Cekztel, supreme chief of all Mounder patriarchs, had jumped to his feet with a loud curse and declared: "The Mounders will fly no attack against Rhodan and his Earth! To me, this haggling over 80 millions is an insult!"
Neither Cekztel nor Siptar, nor Vontran and all the others could know that Perry Rhodan's mutants were delivering their ultimate effort in order to turn the grand assembly into an exploding bomb of disunion and dissension. The two teleporters, Tako Kakuta and Ras Tschubai, had played 'tugboat' in the early dawn. In first-class teleport jumps they had brought Bell, Tama Yokida, John Marshall and several other mutants to the assembly hall and accommodated them in secure hiding places.
They could not influence the outcome of the voting any further. Against all expectations the decision had been arrived at immediately upon opening the assembly and the 30 patriarchs who went against the plan to destroy Rhodan and the Earth were defeated in the minority. However, when Cekztel made his financial demand, matters appeared to change somewhat.
Ishibashi had shouldered the heaviest part of the work. Almost one by one, he planted a suggestion in the Galactic Traders to refuse Cekztel's demands. Against a weak majority in favor of paying the Mounders the stipulated price, more and more voices were raised, shouting "Pirates!—Profiteers!"—finally casting doubt upon the voting results.
This very last part of Bell's plan included Betty Toufry, who supported John Marshall and Kitai Ishibashi. As these 3 stood up shortly before the debacle, Cekztel got up suddenly and prepared to leave the assembly. Bell was watching him gleefully from his hiding place, when something grazed him with such force that he came within an inch of losing his balance. He saw John Marshall hunch over as though suddenly cringing, then Kitai Ishibashi's startled face as he groaned, "There it is again!"
In that moment, Reginald Bell knew that they were still far from winning the battle. Something indescribable was reaching for them out of the Unknown!
It was then that the Ara fighter robots suddenly appeared in the wide center aisle and blocked the path of the Mounder's supreme chieftain.
Tama Yokida announced almost breathlessly, "Sir, the robots know exactly where we're hiding. More than 3 dozen of them are coming up here toward us!"
The sudden silence of the grave fell upon the hall, broken only by the metallic rumble of the marching fighter machines...
• • •
The greyish, hideous, synthetic creature stood before Keklos.
"So? Speak, then!" Keklos shouted at the bio-man. He had just learned that this creature had wanted to speak to him as early as last night, at the time he was inspecting Topthor's flagship. This bio-man was his 'intermediate transmitter'.
In a disconcertingly human-sounding voice, the bio-man said simply: "They have been found..."
"Where?" Keklos shouted, this time louder, since in his mind he was already sentencing the 3 Ara assistants to death for having neglected to tell him that this artificial being had asked for him even last night.
"Sir, where many are met together, and also where there are many..." Only the second part of the answer wasn't clear to Keklos but he set up an alert for the assembly hall of the patriarchs.
"...and also where there are many..."
The Chief Biologist considered this part briefly. The second half of the answer could only signify one place: Talamon's flagship,TAL 6! He had already ordered a second inspection but after questioning the bio-man further and getting a slightly clearer answer, he had no further doubts.
Defense alert for the TAL 6!
And he shouted again at the synthetic creature: "Tell him to attack them! Destroy—do you understand? Will you tell him at once?"
"Yes sir... destroy!" replied the test-tube being.
Keklos watched the thing's departure with feverishly gleaming eyes. For a very brief moment he seemed to drift off into space in a trance. Into this hiatus flashed the sudden cognition of how he could place himself in communication with the Basic Material from Gom without using an 'intermediate transmitter'.
And he admitted to himself, "Gegul landed in the converter a couple of weeks too soon!"
• • •
"40 units!" said Tama Yokida in low tones, his voice unwavering.
40 Ara fighter machines stomped up the ramp that rose toward them in a free-floating double curve. Over 100 robots were distributed among the patriarchs. They had occupied all exits with lightning swiftness, now standing motionlessly with their lenticular eyes fixed on the surprised Springers.
"Retreat!" ordered Bell. Ordinarily the daredevil, he now perceived that an inconspicuous change of position would be better than the most impressive victory.
John Marshall addressed him. "Sir, without—"
Then the invisible force clutched at them again. Bell felt himself seized and hoisted up into the air. Beside him, Betty Toufry shot higher. Marshall and Yokida lay in a comer; Ras Tschubai had been forced to his knees; and only Tako Kakuta had been able to hold his position.
Bell caught Betty almost before his feet hit the ground. The duration of the Unknown's attack was as brief as its grip had been powerful.
"Clear out! Beat it!" It was hard for Bell to say it but any resistance here was senseless.
"Too late!" Tama Yokida cried through clenched teeth. "First a couple dozen robots will have to fly from the ramp!"
A quick glance told Bell that the telekineticist was forced to resist. He gave the teleporters their order: "You're tugboats again!" It was a gross understatement of the real situation. No one took it as a joke.
Tako Kakuta was about to transport Bell in a flash 'jump' to the Gazelle but Bell glared him off. Kakuta whirled around, took hold of big lanky Kitai Ishibashi, concentrated, set the air around them to shimmering and then disappeared with the hypnotist.
The telekinetic mutant Yokida unleashed his power over the oncoming fighter machines like a primeval storm. The first 5 mechmen lifted from the ramp, describing curves in the air, then flew against the metal legs of the following 5. The thundering collision of 10 fighter machines was heard throughout the assembly hall but from their position the patriarchs could not see the scene of the action.
10 out of 40 robots were out of commission for the moment but the remaining 30-positronically controlled apparatuses which knew neither fear nor compassion but only obeyed their programming-stamped onward over the jumbled chaos and moved into the final curve of the high-vaulting ramp.
"I'll push them over the edge—"
Bell and Tama Yokida were gripped by brutal, titanic forces; they were whirled around at a crazy speed and then suddenly were released. The thunderous sound of their bouncing against the surface of the ramp was drowned under the stamping of the fighter machines. Bell was bleeding at the nose from the centrifugal force he had encountered. For long seconds, Tama Yokida could see nothing. When he regained his vision and peered through his observation slit, he was met with the glitter and gleam of robots.
Service in the New Power had imparted to each an ability for lightning swift reaction. Yokida jerked Bell to the floor. A thermo-blast hissed narrowly above them and struck the wall, which vaporized under the high-energy impact.
Then Bell discovered the shimmering in the air. He did something that he never was able to duplicate later: he reached into the midst of Ras Tschubai's materialization and jerked him to the floor. A fraction of a second later, Tako Kakuta was down with them. He had foreseen the dang
er and made his 'jump' for a belly landing.
"Grab on!" roared big, lanky, pitch-black Ras Tschubai. He felt Bell's arms around his rib cage and dematerialized with him in a 'jump' to the Gazelle.
But in the last moment a monstrous Something grasped at him. Tako Kakuta must have felt the same thing because he gave a howl. Bell felt that his arms would be torn from his body. Then suddenly it passed and they landed in the Gazelle.
"Whew! That's what I call a last minute—!" Bell started to say but in the next moment he and all the others were hurled into a corner.
He tried to resist the invisible force but did not succeed. Then he was aware of Betty Toufry's sobbing. The girl was in danger! Rage unleashed a giant's strength in him and suddenly the invisible strangling-grip desisted.
Bell stood up. "Yokida—Toufry! Rip off Talamon's hangar hatch! We're taking off!"
With one leap he was into the pilot seat of the scoutship, which had been in standby readiness in this secret hangar ever since the landing of the TAL 6. The Gazelle was a trans-light-speed craft in disc form. It had a diameter of 100 feet and an axial measurement of 60. Its formidability lay not so much in its 500 light-year range but in its abnormally heavy armaments.
Now Bell was keen for a full-power takeoff. For him, this 18th moon, Laros, had suddenly become Hell. A danger lurked here which they were helpless to fight.
On board the Gazelle, everything began to get into high gear for the liftoff but the two telekineticists had not yet announced that they had been able to break open the hangar hatch with their special powers. Finally, however, daylight burst over the viewscreen into the Control Central. Tama Yokida and Betty Toufry had managed to force open the outer hatch.
"Finally something worked!" shouted Bell triumphantly and he popped the 'ON' button of the automatic takeoff sequencer. With a whistling shriek, the Gazelle shot out of her hiding place and hurtled starward!
• • •
Talamon faced the Chief Biologist and his staff with a gaze that was cold and fierce. 10 of the oldest Mounders stood behind their patriarch. There was menace in their looming, squarish bulks and belligerent eyes.
"Prove it, Keklos!" Talamon challenged in undismayed and imperious tones. "Go ahead and prove to me that I have provided a hiding place for the scout spacer on board my ship! But before you try, I recommend that you take a look at the lock hatch."
The hatch doors had to be repaired. Forces, which were beyond Talamon to imagine, had broken them open and now they couldn't be closed.
"I'll subject you to brainwashing!" snarled Keklos. The Chief Biologist had an idea that Topthor's presence here might give support to his confrontation of Talamon.
Topthor heard the expression 'brainwashing' and shuddered. Something had happened on board his own ship the previous night which he could not comprehend. He had taken a nap on top of Arkon bombs—he, of all people, who ordinarily went 8 days without sleep—and Grugk, his grandson, lay with a broken arm in the ship's sickbay. No Mounder knew when or where Grugk had broken his arm, least of all Grugk himself. During the night he had been discovered in the hospital section.
All this shot through Topthor's head. A brainwashing process made mental cripples out of its victims. Did he not also run a danger of undergoing this treatment? And what had his friend Talamon said to him?
"If anything goes wrong, I want at least one person to keep faith with me."
Then, too, the big business deal still hung in the air!
Keklos whirled around as Topthor laughed aloud, standing behind him beyond the 10-foot distance limit. They glared at one another.
Topthor shook his massive head emphatically and bellowed: "Keklos, you're not giving any Mounder a brain washing! Before that happens, Laros will be a blazing hot sun! Besides, you have to prove all your accusations!"
Keklos was too shrewd to merely buck his head against the wall. He didn't have any really incriminating evidence against Talamon, except that the one proof he did possess was tied to one of the Aras' greatest secrets: the Basic Material from Gom! This closed his mouth; this tempered his whole approach.
Wordlessly he and the Commission and the fighter robots all left the TAL 6.
Topthor and Talamon watched their departure without expression. Slowly the other clansmen also filed out. When they were alone, Topthor placed a massive hand on the other's shoulder and winked at him. "Old friend, now we've got to get into this little business matter of ours!"
Talamon simply nodded.
Topthor nodded in return. "It's true I shouldn't ask any questions, my friend. And I will ask you none, Talamon. But I can ask myself a question and it goes like this: Doesn't your great big business deal smell pretty strongly of Perry Rhodan?!"
• • •
"What the devil—now what's going wrong!" roared Bell from the Gazelle's pilot seat as he glared at his control panel.
The Gazelle slowed down, then peeled off from its course, which normally would have required an acceleration of ½ speol. Bell shouted over the intercom to the power station, where the double-headed mutant, Goratschin, and Wuriu Sengu were on duty. All he was able to get out of the power room was a voiceless choking and throat-rattling gasps. In the same moment it hit him too; again the invisible Something grasped him, seemingly bent on crushing him into the pilot seat.
Somewhere in the Gazelle, equipment shrieked and grated which had never made a sound before. Behind Bell, John Marshall groaned. Tako Kakuta sat crumpled beside him in the co-pilot's seat. Bell felt his senses fading away, just as sudden release came and the terrifying phantom fled.
"Paramechanics!" gasped Marshall.
Bell only partially understood. His usually ruddy face looked grey and old. "Telekinesis from this distance?" he blurted out incredulously.
The Gazelle, which persisted increasingly along a course it was being forced into by an unknown power, hurtled toward the giant planet Gom.
"We have to send an emergency call to the Titan and..." Bell got no further. From two sides he felt himself grasped, crushed and tortured. This is the end! was the terrifying thought that ran through his mind. Desperately summoning his final strength, he rasped to John Marshall: "Communicate with... with... Pucky!" Unconsciousness overtook him.
Marshall forgot his own fate. He rose above himself and, concentrating in spite of his fear of imminent death, made contact with Pucky aboard the Titan. From that mysterious cranial location from which telepathic waves emanate, he managed to transmit a fragmented mental message: Data... Terra... Topthor's Tron... reprogrammed to... Betelgeuse.
The positronicon of Topthor, reprogrammed. To Betelgeuse! Pucky gasped, waited for further revelations. But none were forthcoming. The esper-waves died out.
All life aboard the Gazelle subsided into an unconscious state. The scoutship hurtled unimpeded toward Gom, caught in the grip of monstrous forces. It began to dip into the tenuous stratosphere of the infernal planet...
This was Perry Rhodan's darkest hour!
He had to stand immobile and watch helplessly while he lost Reginald Bell, his best friend; while his closest colleagues crashed on Gom in the Gazelle. He could not insert himself into the action. All space throughout the Gonom System was a radar-net of shifting skeins, sweeping nets. The spacers had buzzed up from Laros Eke a swarm of hornets to pursue the small ship that had been cached in the TAL 6.
The Titan resounded with alarm signals; seconds passed and then the mighty sphere was battle-ready. Perry Rhodan remained oblivious to his surroundings. He was concentrated deep within himself, struggling for enlightenment. He had only to speak a Word and the crash of the Gazelle would be averted, the lives of his friends saved.
But he did not have the right! More was at stake than his friends, his personal feelings: the destiny of Mankind on Earth lay in his hands alone!
With an emotionless voice he gave the command. "Pull out."
The vast ship was concealed behind a tremendously powerful anti-detection screen, still the possibility o
f their being accidentally tracked down could not be discounted in the face of this veritable explosion of battleships in this sector of space.
Those two fateful words—pull out—signed the death warrant of redheaded hot-tempered roisterous Reggie and other of Perry's best friends but Rhodan's order was dictated neither by courage nor cowardice. It was based on pure merciless logic: the security of the Earth demanded it of him!
A faint grim smile touched his lips as he thought. Of the altered memory data in Topthor's positronicon.
Pucky squatted down beside his dejected leader. "Reg will come back, won't he, Perry?" he chirped. "He has to come back. Else I won't have anybody I can really bug!" Perry, on the other hand, thought of how much he would miss being bugged by his bumptious buddy.
• • •
On Earth, Col. Mein was Perry Rhodan's second-in-command. He reported to Col. Freyt, Perry's first officer in his absence: "The day after tomorrow the new hyper-compensator will be installed on board the Solar System. Then the ship can take off for Honur with the special team."
"I'd rather keep the big cruiser here," replied Freyt, "and above all I'd like to see the Chief again! When I came back from M-13 in the Ganymede, the Gobi was overcast. I have a feeling that storm clouds are building up all over the solar system! I'm not superstitious but I can't shake loose a bad case of the downies. Somewhere in the Arkon System, I sense that something has gone wrong."
"When will the shockwave hit us?"
PROJECT: EARTHSAVE
Copyright © Ace Books 1974
All Rights Reserved
THE SHIP OF THINGS TO COME
MYSTERIOUS FORCES that make a mere plaything out of the Gazelle—what is their origin? What is their intent? And what is to become of Perry Rhodan's right hand—Reginald Bell? Not to overlook 8 highly important multi-talented paranormals who are the heart of the Peacelord's mutant corps? Forced to hastily depart after their dangerous mission at the conference of the Aras and Springers, have they only fled one hot spot for one even hotter? Only a single ship's positronicon contains the data revealing the location of Earth in the interstellar atlas of the great galaxy so Rhodan's agents have found it a comparatively simple task to substitute misleading information designed to keep Earth's whereabouts unknown to other races of the sevagram—alien intelligences more powerful than Terra, which is but a fledgling in the development of solar system colonization.
