by Perry Rhodan
Although the Springers doubtlessly contributed to the slow decay of the Imperium, there had never been a direct confrontation between them and the Arkonides. The Springers did their most lucrative trade by remaining neutral and selling weapons to both parties in a conflict. There was no place the Springers could call home as they never settled in any one world of the Galaxy. Their ships were designed to land only in emergencies. They lived on their vessels in free space and sprang from system to system to carry on their business.
That was why they called themselves Springers.
Each member was entitled to the protection by their battle fleet. All he had to do in case of need, was to call for help and it would arrive on the spot in the shortest time.
This is what had happened to Captain Orlgans and his ship ORLA XI. He had by accident come upon some merchant ships engaged in the exchange of goods between the planet Ferrol in the Vega system and the Earth in system Sol. The commerce was the result of a treaty Perry Rhodan had signed on his trip to Ferrol with the government of the Thort.
Orlgans suspected a violation of the trade monopoly of his race. Since he also smelled a profit he wanted to handle the matter by himself. He landed on Venus and sent special agents to Earth. Orlgans succeeded in capturing a ship of the Terranian space fleet, took its crew prisoners and transported them together with their ship to a safe place.
The captain learned from his agents that an important person of the Terranian space fleet was due to leave the Earth in another spaceship in a short time. The man, they said, was informed about the World of Eternal Life—that mysterious planet recounted in age—old legends whose existence was believed by all.
Orlgans coveted this information. He was anxious to obtain it at all costs as it would lead to the most important deal of his life. He ambushed the ship on which the man in question had embarked and fettered it with magneto-mechanical bonds to his own vessel. Then he jumped through hyperspace into the Beta-Albireo system to get as far away as possible from the inimical environment of Terra.
Orlgans had interrogated his man—the Cadet Julian Tifflor—several times but Tifflor steadfastly maintained that he didn't have the desired information.
Soon thereafter a task force of three mammoth ships of the Terranian fleet arrived on the scene in the Beta-Albireo sector. Orlgans called for help and received it at once—30 units of the Springer armada. In the ensuing fracas Tifflor's little ship, captured by Orlgans, managed to escape. The ship itself had been taken aboard by one of the immense Terrestrial ships after Tifflor had fled in a tiny destroyer. Eventually he crash-landed on Snowman, having suffered severe damage from a Springer battleship.
The victorious Terranian fighting team had forced the Springer group to retreat while the ORLA XI kept on the side lines and sneaked away from the imbroglio.
Orlgans had noticed Tifflor's plight and his emergency landing on the ice planet. After the battle was over he returned and resumed his search for Tifflor. He discovered his tracks and found out that the cadet was not alone. Orlgans dispatched a patrol craft after the fugitives. The cadets tricked the two-man crew into surrender, seized their vessel and released their two pursuers again.
The sudden appearance of the armada of 90 ships was not entirely welcome to Orlgans. Of course he had expected the war fleet to return with reinforcements after they had been dealt such a humiliating setback but he had not the slightest intention of letting all the rival Springer captains in on his business on Snowman and all the involved implications.
Orlgans obediently followed Etztak's invitation and flew in an auxiliary ship over to the ETZ XXI. Men from the repair crew were stuck like little flies on the outer skin close to the place where the disintegrator shot from the Terranian battleship had gouged a hole in the huge body.
The visitor entered the ship through the airlock, glided up the shaft of the antigrav elevator and stepped from the door of the shaft onto a conveyor running the entire length of the main corridor. Only 20 minutes after Etztak had voiced his demand Orlgans stood before the patriarch greeting him with respect and in a formal manner.
Etztak was not a man to waste his time on preliminary niceties although he had seen Orlgans during the past 15 years only on a hypercom screen. "We've got to finish this matter right away," Etztak said bluntly; "90 warships are lying in wait out there. We're sunk if one of the captains gets wind of our enterprise!"
"How could they find out lest we have a traitor in our clan?" Orlgans queried.
Etztak disregarded the remark. "Never mind what devious ways they can use. The longer it takes us to get to the bottom of this, the more risk we'll have to run. I've studied your report carefully. You believe this stranger can divulge information about the location of the World of Eternal Life, don't you?"
"Yes," Orlgans replied.
"How did you find that out?" Etztak wanted to know.
"By accident," Orlgans explained. Then he proceeded to tell once more the whole story which he had already mentioned in his written report. The story of the prisoner he had made and of the disturbance caused by the transition in the Vega system.
Orlgans was familiar with the patriarch's method. By comparison of the oral with the written report he tried to learn whether a captain of his clan had tried to keep something from him.
"Good," Etztak finally grunted. "What kind of a man is your prisoner?"
"He's an avowed enemy of the man who plays the most important role on the strange planet. We picked him up when he fled from that man."
"What's his name?"
Orlgans had already stated it in his report. However he deferentially answered Etztak's question: "Mouselet."
Etztak furrowed his brow. "What does he know?"
"Not much. He knows the organization and names of our enemies. But he never heard of the World of Eternal Life."
"So he says!"
Orlgans. looked up. "I've not yet put him through a psychogrill because he may not survive it. But I don't believe that he lied to me."
"Let's bring in the man! We'll dig out of him what he knows. We don't have time left to pussyfoot around with a stranger."
Orlgans raised no objections. He called the ORLA XI from Etztak's flagship and gave instructions to have three men escort the prisoner to the ETZ XXI as quickly as possible.
• • •
Jean-Pierre Mouselet had been incarcerated in one of the rooms of the ORLA XI ever since his capture a few months ago. He belonged to the retinue of the infamous and powerful Supermutant who had striven to destroy Rhodan and set himself up as ruler of the Earth and eventually of the whole universe.
Mouselet cursed the day when he set foot on board the ORLA XI and in retrospect, being consistent, also the hour when he was pressed into the service of the Supermutant. Admittedly the Supermutant hadn't had to exert too much pressure in his case since Mouselet was rather eager to work for him, hoping to make a lot of money. In the last ship the Supermutant had left, Mouselet slipped away from Terra. At the last moment before his nemesis caught up with him, he discovered the alien spaceship, accosted it and asked for permission to board.
And there he was. He wished he had never—
The hatch of the small room was opened without warning. Mouselet jumped up from his chair. A tall, stubble-bearded Springer stood in the door frame, his thermoweapon pointed at the Frenchman in an unmistakable threat. The guard said something unintelligible and two seconds later the little set he had pinned below his neck intoned his order clearly in French: "Come with me!"
Mouselet's eyes lit up. He rushed forward without paying attention to the weapon in the Springer's hand and stammered: "Have you got... a cigarette... for me?"
He stood still and waited, trembling, till the little instrument translated his question into the alien language. The Springer frowned and answered something which was later translated: "What's... a cigarette?"
Mouselet's shoulders drooped again. He had asked the question so often and always received the same reply. He
no longer believed that he would ever smoke another cigarette unless they sent him back to Earth. He stepped through the hatch with lowered head and the guard showed him the way through the corridors.
• • •
They shoved him roughly into a room where two men were seated, one of whom he knew. Two of the three guards who had accompanied Mouselet remained outside in the corridor but the man with the translator came in with him.
"What do you know about the World of Eternal Life?" Etztak asked brusquely and the little set translated the question.
Mouselet looked up in surprise. With a mixture of fright and astonishment he gazed at the imposing white-haired patriarch. Then he glanced with a pleading look in his eyes at Orlgans. whom he knew. But Orlgans' face was stern and immobile.
I don't... I don't know... what you're talking about," Mouselet stammered and the translator repeated his answer with the same stammer.
Etztak stood up abruptly and the sight of the broad-shouldered giant startled and intimidated Mouselet even more.
"Psycho-interrogation," Etztak stipulated and the translation followed.
Mouselet had no idea what a psycho-interrogation was but the word itself was enough to scare him to death. He began to protest. "Please, listen to me!" he whimpered and the mechanical voice of the translator trailing a few words behind increased his terror. "I'm willing to tell you all I know but I've never heard of a World of Eternal Life. What's it supposed to be? A planet? Or perhaps a country on some planet?"
The two Springers looked silently at each other. Finally Etztak raised his hand and waved to the guard. Mouselet understood the ominous sign.
"No!" he screamed. "Please, no psycho-interrogation! I can tell you no more than I did already."
The guard grabbed the puny Frenchman and dragged him out into the corridor and to the interrogation chamber 600 feet away.
"I really don't believe he knows anything." Orlgans expressed the doubt in his mind.
Etztak admitted grudgingly: "Maybe so. Perhaps he knows something subconsciously relating to the World of Eternal Life. The only dependable way of obtaining a systematic review of his memory content is by subjecting him to the psychogrill. The analyzer doesn't forget any information."
"But the man will be destroyed in the process," Orlgans voiced his misgivings.
"What do you care?" Etztak challenged him with a disdainful gesture.
• • •
"I didn't come here to do all your work," Pucky protested. "However I intend to investigate the situation thoroughly myself. We simply must know where the enemy can be ferreted out. As soon as we have found that out it'll be up to each one of us to make short shrift of them. I want to brief you on our objectives. The Springers have already made it clear that they're interested in Terra. According to the information we've so far collected their interest is of a hostile nature. Since the Springers are a technologically highly advanced race it is vital that we prepare ourselves for the coming confrontation to the best of our ability. For this purpose it is essential to gather intelligence and this is precisely our task on Snowman. We need to know what the Springers have up their sleeves and what measures they plan to take to advance their goal. It is imperative that we find out who their agents on Earth are and why we haven't been able to track them down. Once we've ascertained all this, our mission will be finished here."
He winked at Tiff, changing in a jiffy from an officer of the Mutant Corps into the droll furball. they all knew. "You probably know by now," he addressed Tiff, "what kind of a game Rhodan played with you during the past days. Rhodan has sent you out as a man with allegedly important information. Apparently the trick was successful, seeing how the Springers fell for it."
He didn't give Tiff time to recover from the awful surprise. He assigned jobs to the three cadets and instructed the girls in their tasks. Then he asked Aubrey to give him the co-ordinates of the closest enemy ship and disappeared in a teleportation jump after fixing a time for his return.
• • •
Mouselet's examination lasted only a few minutes. The machine probing him operated rapidly, precisely and unfeelingly. When Mouselet was released from the chair where he sat during the procedure, he had ceased to be an intelligent creature. It was the function of the analyzer to scour the brain of the tested person, store the data and furnish it at the termination. It operated with such exhaustive intensity that all it left was a squeezed out mass of brain which was barely capable of regulating the animal activities of a man.
Holloran, the guard, loaded Mouselet, who was Mouselet, no longer, into a patrol craft and flew him back to the ORLA XI. Mouselet offered no resistance. Holloran took him to his room and locked him up. Then he started out again to take the auxiliary ship back to the ETZ XXI and to ask Orlgans what he wanted him to do next.
The ORLA XI had been grounded at the beginning of the action because Orlgans had considered it necessary to occupy a fixed position. The ship was stationed about six miles from the ETZ XXI.
Holloran had just left the airlock of the ORLA XI when his little craft began to lose speed and altitude and failed to respond to his steering controls. The vessel acted as if it were sucked downward and its engine had become faulty. He had been flying fairly close to the ground. Before he could check his instruments or send an emergency signal to one of the other ships, his machine touched the fluffy white mass and slowed down to a stop leaving a swirling scintillating trail of snow behind. Holloran held on tightly to the control panel but this proved to be unnecessary. The landing was smooth and neither the pilot nor the vessel were hurt.
The Springer was completely vexed as he looked around. The vessel was half buried in the snow. The panoramic observation screen barely showed the upper outline of the ORLA XI as a grey line in the west. Nothing could be seen of the ETZ XXI from his low position.
Holloran studied his dials and the longer he looked the more baffled he was. Everything seemed to be in working condition including the engine. Why did the vehicle go down? With knit brow Holloran tried to start up again. He only had to move the vertical lift one step and...
Nothing! It was impossible to shift the lever. Incredulously Holloran tried harder, to no avail. Finally he pounded on the lever with his fist but all was in vain: the lever still refused to budge.
Holloran sat still a few seconds in stupefaction. Then he realized that there was nothing left to do but to send a call for help to the ORLA XI to come and get him and his ship. Mechanically he reached for the transmitter switch and tried to press it. He was severely consternated when he noticed that he was unable to move the switch. Holloran tested other switches at random. They worked properly. He turned the emergency light on and off, as well as the climate control, the sensors and the picture screen.
But he didn't need the emergency light nor the climate control, sensor and screen, what he needed was the vertical lift and the transmitter. Holloran looked around to see if there might be another ship going by in the neighborhood which could detect him by accident. But the sky was empty as far as he could see.
He began to worry about his predicament. Without luck he could be stranded helplessly in the snow for days, unable to leave his ship since he didn't wear a spacesuit. He had only intended to fly from one airlock to the other, for which he didn't require the protection of a spacesuit. They wouldn't miss him very soon. He was only an ordinary member of the crew and not a very important personality. And if nobody missed him at all and he was not picked up by pure chance...
In the middle of the thought Holloran's mind ceased to function. He believed he heard a soft mocking laugh and a voice telling him: "Don't you fret, son! I'll be right back and then we'll fly away again."
• • •
A long time before Reginald Bell returned with the Z-13 the highly sensitive telepath John Marshall on board the Stardust received a mental message from Pucky that his arrival on the ice planet and the transfer of the equipment had proceeded without a hitch. Pucky added that he first wan
ted to reconnoiter the positions of the enemy before he started with the specific task of gathering the desired information.
Marshall gave the message to Rhodan. Having only meagre knowledge of Rhodan's plans, he was surprised to see that a big load seemed to be lifted off Rhodan's mind when he heard about Pucky's success.
After Marshall had left the Stardust's spacious command center where only Rhodan and Khrest were present at the time, Rhodan said: "I'm happy that everything went fine. The venture is terribly risky for Tifflor and his four people. They might easily have been lost if Pucky had failed to do his job right."
Khrest the Arkonide looked at him thoughtfully. "I've been wondering all the time how, shall we say, frivolously you've used these people."
Rhodan smiled. He understood Khrest and his way of thinking. The Arkonide leader of an explorative expedition whose vessel was shipwrecked on Luna, belonged to a culture whose peak had already been passed at the time mankind entered the Stone Age. It was a characteristic of the Arkonide philosophy after the Imperium had reached the apex of its power and had stopped further development that the life of an individual was valued so highly that it should not be sacrificed by society even if the nation was in distress. A principle, Rhodan thought, only a satiated society could afford.
"You know," Rhodan answered, still smiling, "I don't believe you'll ever understand this. Nevertheless, I firmly believe I've done the right thing, even though Tifflor's chances were only 5050 at the outset."
Khrest turned his attention to the instruments again which he had offered to monitor. The sensors registered no irregularities. The two hostile fleets performed no transitions, if they moved at all. Quiet reigned in the Beta-Albireo sector.
The lull before a storm.
• • •
Holloran was not yet over his first shock when he was hit by a second which was even worse. Suddenly a creature sat beside him as if it had always been there. He had never seen its like before. At first glance he would have thought it an animal except for the fact that it was clad in a spacesuit.
