by Perry Rhodan
"Yes, Reg, that's me!!" Rhodan was shaking with laughter, which caused a good deal of pain in his weary body. But if Bell was already thinking of revenge then things couldn't be that bad with him.
"What's with Tako?"
"Don't know. Is he here with us?"
"Yes. Can you move?"
"Wait, let me try. Yes, a bit."
"Then you look for Tako! I have to concentrate and think."
"Not necessarily, sir!" said a weak, squeaky voice in the darkness. "I'm awake again."
"Again!" blustered Bell. "First he sleeps till all hours of the day, and then ..."
"Quiet!" demanded Rhodan. "We've more important things to discuss. Tako, can you move okay again?"
"Yes."
"Good. Listen! We've found out now how hard it is to get your own way with these Arkonides. As decrepit as these people might seem to us, they still have a few more tricks up their sleeves than we imagine. We don't know what Sergh has planned to do with us. Might be anything from letting us rot here in this dark hole to suddenly setting us free; we simply don't know. In any case, I believe whatever decision Sergh eventually arrives at, he'll want to make sure we don't escape from here. And the only way he can make sure is by periodically repeating the nerve gas paralysis.
"No doubt that must be the same sprinkler system built into the ceiling here as downstairs in the anti-grav tunnel where we got caught in Sergh's trap. Any moment now this paralyzing spray might start up again. "That means we've got to hurry if we want to get out of here. "Tako?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Find out where we are and how we can get out of here."
"Yes, sir!"
"But be careful - don't take any unnecessary risks. Just keep in mind: for the time being the Arkonides have not the slightest inkling that we have a teleporter with us here. Rely on your telejumps as a weapon and leave your thermo-raygun here. Hurry, will you, please!"
Tako vanished. "And what other plans have you for us?" Bell wanted to know. "Set free the Ganymede, of course ... or have you forgotten why we came here?"
"You still plan to do that?"
"Now more than ever. I don't know if Sergh was lying when he claimed the generators for the suction field were down in the funnel stem. But I'm inclined to think he felt so sure of tricking us that he didn't bother to invent some lie. Besides, such installations are usually to be found in the funnel stems."
"I see. You want us to steal down there and demolish Sergh's switch boxes so he can never again nail down people who have landed on his spaceport with honest intentions."
"Well, something like that. Howeveryou will have something else to do in the meantime."
"I? What?"
"One of us has to stay in Sergh's private apartments while the other two work in the control panel room. Sergh somewhere has a room from where he can keep the whole palace under surveillance. Tako will find that room, then you'll sit there and make sure that nobody stabs us in the back. All clear?"
"Hum, I don't like the idea. Every funnel has search devices. If somebody wants to talk to the Administrator they'll activate this device and let it carry out a thorough search from room to room. And once he gets to the surveillance center I'll be waiting there like a sitting duck - and the whole balloon will burst.
"No searching device reaches as far as the owner's private rooms, you ought to know that. And especially a man like Sergh wouldn't let others stick their noses in his private affairs."
"Alright, I give up," sighed Bell.
A few second later Tako returned. "We are here on the 43rd floor, sir. This terrace is built lower than all the others. There is a circular walk, fenced off by a railing toward the funnel's interior. Near its outside there are two circular rows of rooms. The first row has windows opening toward the circular walk but the outermost row has no windows at all. We are in one of these rooms here."
"Hm, sounds like a prison. Any doors?"
"The usual ones. But the locks are barred; they can't be opened."
"Any guards?"
"None. The house is as deserted as before."
"What's the time?"
"The sky is still dark." Rhodan got to his feet. It hurt to move. The effects of the nerve gas had not yet vanished and Rhodan would have given a lot if he could have waited here quietly till all the after-effects had word off and he was perfectly fit again. "Take the heat beamer, Tako, telejump outside and shoot off the lock. Be sure to aim right because the instant the lock's gone an alarm is bound to go off somewhere."
Tako disappeared once more. Shortly afterwards the room was suddenly filled with an ugly hissing sound and soon grew to a fist-sized hole, finally to be replaced by the wide opening of a door. Rhodan and Bell rushed out of the room and came to a halt at the window wall which faced the circular walk. Not a single Arkonide was in sight anywhere.
"It's of paramount importance for us to get away from here. They'll come and check up on us. By that time we must have disappeared from here. - Bell, you go with Tako. He'll locate the surveillance room for you. Tako, afterwards you'll join me. I'll be waiting for you in the uppermost room of the funnel stem. You remember that small room, don't you?"
"Yes, sir."
"Fine. Get going, you two!"
Rhodan waited until Tako and Bell had disappeared in the anti-grav tunnel in the back part of the room. Only then did he set out on his own way. In order to confuse his opponent he did not use the same anti-grav shaft but first shot out two of the windows - which undoubtedly would set off some alarm - ran around the circular wall along the window wall till he got halfway around the funnel's interior, entered by force another room there which once again activated an emergency signal - and used one of the anti-grav tunnels leading downstairs.
He hoped that his strategy of using so many detours, and also causing innumerable warning signals to give off false alarms as he kept shooting out windows, locks and doors, would wreak utter havoc at some central alarm installation. The Arkonides would no longer know what to believe, or at least assume that they were dealing with a much larger number of yet undetected intruders.
Rhodan reached the 10th floor without encountering a single person. But then his luck ran out; all hell seemed to break loose.
As he was running from one shaft to another, a man wearing a uniform shot out of a lower lying tunnel opening. He probably belonged to Sergh's palace guard. Rhodan saw him open his mouth wide in sheer,terror. But he also noticed the man's hand move swiftly to his side pocket to get at some weapon or perhaps a telecom instrument he carried there.
Rhodan jumped forward, although he felt he was moving like in a slow motion film. The after-effects of the nerve gas had not yet completely worn off. The Arkonide guard, who by nature and conviction was slow and phlegmatic, almost managed to pull out his weapon, but fortunately Rhodan Beat him to it. Cursing angrily because of his snail's pace, Rhodan dealt a mighty blow that lifted the guard off his feet and sent him crashing against the wall, where he crumpled unconscious to the ground.
One floor below, Rhodan ran into a woman. Seeing the stranger, she started to scream, which attracted another Arkonide.
Rhodan dealt first with the man - luckily the slow reacting Arkonides even in an emergency failed to match Rhodan in his current weakened condition. Then he vigorously slapped the woman's face, forcing himself to abandon all gentlemanly feelings, whereupon she fainted, probably more out of indignation than real pain.
Slightly faster - but still not as fast as he was under normal conditions - he stormed on. On every floor he had to fight off at least one or two Arkonides, until he finally reached the anti-grav tunnel leading down into the funnel stem.
With a last, almost regretful glance around the lovely, fragrant gardens, he entrusted himself to the anti-grav field, kept pushing himself off the walls with his hands and feet and shot down into the room where he was supposed to meet Tako Kakuta.
But the Japanese had not yet arrived. There was nothing left for Rhodan but to wait.
>
• • •
Tako found the room Rhodan had spoken of within a few minutes. It was situated on the same floor as the simultan game room. Tako described the path leading to it and Bell was confident he would find his way there regardless of what obstacles he'd encounter.
Tako disappeared.
Bell passed through a series of Sergh's private rooms until he finally came to the room Tako had described for him. Bell activated the instruments 0 although there were a few among them with which he was unfamiliar - and felt greatly relieved once the videoscreens lit up one after the other. He used one of the devices to undertake a thorough search of the uppermost room of the funnel stem. It did not take long until he found Rhodan there together with the Japanese.
Since he did not know whether the search instrument was coupled with an acoustic device, he pulled the helmet of his special suit over his head and spoke into the mike: "I can see you clearly!"
Rhodan heard the words in his receiver and also closed his helmet.
"Okay," he said. "Stay glued to us, will you?"
"You bet!" exclaimed Bell.
• • •
The funnel stem housed altogether some 50 different engine rooms. Rhodan was sure that the room they were looking for was one of the largest among these. Therefore he sent Tako ahead and from every place the teleporter would materialize, he had to send a brief but precise description of the machines he'd see there.
Rhodan knew what he was looking for: a collection of instruments capable of regulating one or more suction field generators. By remote control, of course.
This necessitated first of all a telecom connection over which the guidance signals could be transmitted. Next, a generator was needed for especially high sender energies for the suction field generators on the landing strip of Naatral spaceport generated such strong marginal fields that a normal strength guidance signal could not penetrate all the way to the engines: it was either bounced off the marginal fields or else absorbed by them.
Equipped with this knowledge they had no difficulty finding what they wanted. It took six telejumps till Tako located a big hall from which he sent a quick report corresponding so closely to what Rhodan had in mind that there was no longer any doubt they had reached the right spot.
Tako's voice sounded very distorted because of the manifold interferences that all the machines caused in their telecom. Rhodan had trouble understanding him. "Tako, somewhere in this room must be another strong telecom instrument! Find it!"
Tako's answer was unintelligible. But in a short while his voice came through loud and clear once more.
"I'm standing directly in front of it, sir! What should I do now?"
"Go back three steps, take aim at it with your thermo-raygun and blast that thing to bits and pieces!"
• • •
Reginald Bell could see both on his videoscreen: Perry Rhodan and the Japanese. Breathless with excitement he watched as Tako was raising his thermo-beamer, took careful aim at the wide front of the telecom box—
He heard the roaring sound in his video receivers as the telecom began to activate its energy reserves. He saw how suddenly the picture changed to violet. He called out: "Perry! Tako! Stop! That telecom has a mento-fuse! Don't ... !"
It was too late. Both Rhodan and Tako Kakuta reacted too slowly. They lacked the sudden spurt of energy that had soared through Bell's pain-stricken body. Tako's finger was already on the trigger and his weapon discharged before he had a chance to react to Bell's warning shouts. Something as powerful as a bomb exploded inside Tako's brain.
Something blinded Rhodan, made him scream in murderous pain and flung him, unconscious to the ground. Something shot through Bell's skull, left a burning trail and catapulted him out of his comfortable chair. His senses had completely faded away by the time he hit the ground. Something took care that this very instant all conscious life was extinguished in the Exalted Administrator Sergh's house.
6/ PERRY ON THE SPOT
Whatever the mento-fuse had triggered, its after-effects at least were not quite so unpleasant as those of the nerve gas Rhodan had inhaled but a few hours earlier. Perry opened his eyes and stared, amazed to find that he was in the sickbay of the Ganymede. Two concerned faces bent over him. He recognized Dr. Manoli - Eric, an old friend, one of his companions during his first trip to the moon on the good old Stardust I - and the beautiful features of the imperious Thora.
"Don't carry on like that, boss - it isn't that bad!" the doctor said.
Perry protested: "I haven't said a word!"
Thora inquired, worry and concern clearly showing on her stunning features: "How are you feeling, Perry?"
"Not too bad, considering. What's going on? Where are Reg and Tako? How did we get here?"
"Easy, Perry." Dr. Manoli tried to calm him - a task perhaps tantamount to trying to tame a tornado with a paper fan. "One thing at a time. First - what's going on. Well, that's what we hoped to find out from you. Second: Bell and Kakuta are in a cabin next door. If I know Bell, it won't be long till he'll regain consciousness; the Japanese will probably take longer to respond. Third: you arrived here in the arms of some robots. Unmanned gliders delivered you in front of the Ganymede. All we had to do was pick you up - they even had adjusted the neutralizers in your transport suits so that you weren't harmed by the greater gravitational pull of Naat."
"Hm. And what—?" wondered Rhodan while he rubbed his head, remembering that the pain which had made him faint had come from inside his skull.
Manoli understood his gesture. "As far as I can tell, you suffered a mental shock. It knocked you unconscious. The cerebral blow was most likely artificially induced. It must have been as powerful as an impulse from a thousand hate-filled suggesters."
Rhodan stared ahead, still wondering. "Does that mean anything to you?" asked Manoli.
"I think so," Rhodan answered slowly. "How about it - can I get up now? I'm feeling..."
"Sure, I know. You're feeling as strong as a tyrex and ready to tango. You have my permission as your physician to get out of bed."
"Thanks! And how are things with the Ganymede ? Is she still glued to the ground?"
"What did you think?"
"Right - what did I think. Well, please see to it that all officers come to an assembly in the mess hall in half an hour."
Manoli nodded assent. "Will do. By the way - there's something else."
"Yes?"
"Thora and Khrest - their permission to fly to Arkon has been revoked."
Rhodan nearly choked. "What—! How did that happen?"
"Quite simply. An imageless telecom call came. A rather haughty voice announced permission had been canceled, there'd be no ship to come to pick them up. That was all; no explanation, no chance to ask any questions."
Rhodan's attention turned to Thora. His features softened, his voice lowered. "I'm afraid I'm to blame for this," he said softly. "You know we attempted to switch off the suction-field generators and we have incriminated you with that. I'm very sorry."
Thora gently waved aside his apologies. She said in English: "Don't be concerned. It would probably not have been so good for us to return to Arkon in such a humiliating fashion anyway."
Rhodan's eyebrows shot up. "Do you still believe there'll be another chance for you to reach Arkon?"
Thora smiled - a very becoming, coquettish smile, Perry Thought.
"Oh, yes, I'm convinced we will," she replied.
"Really? And how do you plan to arrange that?"
"I don't."
"You don't? Then by what miracle—?"
"Oh, you consider you have miraculous powers?"
"Me?"
"I have confidence in you, Perry. You will find some way to do it, Perry, won't you?"
For some reason, when she put it that way, Perry felt as tall as a tyrex, and twice as strong. For Thora, nothing seemed impossible, even escape from Naat and journey's end on Arkon. Odds, orders, threats, perils, out of his way! For Thora, he could no
t fail. Perry would prevail!
TO ARKON!
Copyright © 1973
Ace Books
by arrangement with
Arthur Moewig Verlag
