Crimson Universe

by Perry Rhodan

  5/ HOME OF THE DRUUFS!

  I was the first man to awaken on board the California. Somehow my Arkonide constitution seemed to have survived the shock. In fact this was astonishing because many another situation had shown the Terranians to have the stronger reserves and staying power.

  I sat up with an effort. A whole island universe seemed to be whirling dizzily before my eyes. In a subliminal fashion I was aware of the heavy throbbing of my activator. The device seemed to be at a peak of activity in order to give my cellular tissues the necessary stimulus impulses. After a few moments I felt better. My sense of sight returned to me.

  Rhodan lay in a cramped position on the deck. Sikerman who had activated the crash-jump into hyperspace was slumped forward in the grip of his safety belt.

  It had not gone any better with the other men in the Control Central. While I dragged myself over to the next seat I pondered what I should do now. I did not have to concern myself directly with the unconscious men because our medical robots had already appeared from the narrow access shafts and were moving out into the Control Central area.

  I wondered whether or not the drugs being dispensed to stimulate the circulatory system would be of advantage here. If we were so much in the dark concerning the physical laws of the Druuf universe then perhaps our knowledge of bio-physiological effects in this environment might be equally inadequate or even dangerous. At any rate I hoisted myself out of the chair with trembling arms and went over to Sikerman.

  As I released the buckle on his safety belt, he fell forward. I dragged him out from between the command chair and the horseshoe-shaped master console. I left him lying there and then took over the manual flight controls myself.

  At only half speol the California was gliding through the void in free fall. After completion of the emergency transition, all engines had cut off automatically. On the gallery screens a giant red star was gleaming at me and I saw that it had a greenish-looking companion sun. This binary star could not be more than two light-years from the discharge zone because our short crash-jump could not have covered a greater distance than that. So at least the distance controls had worked, in spite of the strange effects that had resulted.

  I listened to the clear bell-tones of the astronautical mass scanner. Then I activated the large telescopic screen in front of me. Measuring the celestial bodies ahead with hyper-fast scanning pulses, it provided me with a very clear echo pattern. Eight planets appeared immediately and the automatic analyzer traced out their astrophysical data on a rolling line graph.

  I had rarely ever seen such crazy and eccentric orbital patterns! The numerous planets of this apparently gigantic system wound their way partially between both suns, which undoubtedly caused catastrophic weather conditions. At the same time there were still other worlds which orbited both suns without going between them and this I considered to be more favorable. After 10 minutes the automatic mass-probe analyzer had indicated the presence of at least 58 planets.

  But there were phenomena here which forced me to new alertness. Among other things the gravity-field analyzes were indicating that many planets possessed numerous moons. On the vernier screens for individual observation the steady pattern of regular echoes was persistently interrupted by sharp spike pulses on the overlay graphs. Unquestionably the larger moons possessed their own satellites, in turn, which were moving in adverse directions.

  However, the most serious discovery was that we were already deep inside the system! Apparently we had made the hyperjump right into the middle of it The red giant's disc already filled the green sector of the forward position screen.

  By a supreme effort of will my still somewhat foggy brain finally began to function more clearly. I came to realize that we had simply hyper-jumped right over the most dangerous concentration of planets. If I was reading the mass-probe analyzer correctly, more than 40 planetary orbits lay behind us.

  The green companion of the mother star slowly emerged from behind the latter's tremendous bulk. The light that now reached the viewscreens was a spectroanalytical curiosity and I became sharply aware of the fact that we were definitely in alien territory! Capping this climax came an urgent humming sound from the automatic energy sensor. The planet now coming under surveillance on the data graphs and vernier screens was designated by the analyticomputer as number sixteen of the binary system. The entire vicinity of this celestial body registered an uninterrupted intensity of high-energy patterns.

  If the analysis equipment hadn't gone crazy, this number sixteen had to be the central world of this entire family of planets. At least all of my previous experience indicated that any celestial body with such a heavy component of energy radiation had to be an inhabited and highly technological world.

  Home of the Druufs!

  So said my extra brain with an electrifying suddenness. I actually had no reason to doubt the veracity of my logic sector. The indicated lightnings and bursts of energy occurring uninterruptedly around the hemisphere facing me could only be generated by spaceships constantly taking off or landing. They were hard radiation impulses which clearly indicated the operation of advanced propulsion units. All of which could prove to be very interesting!

  Behind me the medical robots were busy at their work. I could hear the industrious hiss of their high-pressure hypodermics yet neither Rhodan nor any of the other men were stirring out of their strange paralysis. I called to the various ship sections over the videocom but only the automatic tapes responded. Which informed me quite graphically that the entire crew had been knocked out.

  From then on my reasoning powers came into sharp focus. Not for anything in the world would I have risked another hypertransition in order to escape from this obviously dangerous region. There was still the possibility that the California had not been detected. If we had been traced, the aliens would have been swarming about us long before this.

  But then there was still another question that bothered me with an increasing persistence: just how was it possible that we had managed to emerge precisely within the Druuf system? Was it coincidence... ? I pondered over this until, as expected, my logic sector responded:

  Mass laws—celestial mechanics of the Druuf universe. An uncontrolled and uncalculated hypertransition results in a restriction of flight that narrows the direction toward stabilized matter at the highest center of gravitational attraction.

  It was a logical answer to the mystery yet it might not be as simple a conclusion as my auxiliary brain had just purported it to be.

  Moments later I told myself that for the time being the California could not be better concealed than in the lion's den itself. Because I was already half-convinced that with the sixteenth planet I had actually discovered the mysterious home world of the Druufs. The many takeoffs and landings could be regarded as nothing more than the regular spaceship traffic there. Also the moons of number sixteen appeared to be unusually busy.

  I raised a hand hesitantly to activate the quiescent engines of the cruiser but I finally desisted when I remembered the measurement data from our remote spy-probes. According to their findings the former time and velocity factors had been reduced to a ratio of one to two. If we had carried over our own time rate, then our present half-light speed must be just as fast as the Druuf ships at their highest velocity.

  So I rejected the idea of making us a perfect tracking target for the unknown enemy. Our pulse-wave radiations would have probably hit the sixteenth planet like a bomb. There was, however, another reason for leaving the engines silent. Close ahead of us, perhaps less than two million miles, a Mars-sized planet was swinging into our flight direction.

  I requested readout data on it from the auto-analyzer. It turned out to be a so-called 'static axial' type since it required a complete orbital cycle before completing one axial revolution—meaning that its day was as long as its year. This caused it to keep the same hemisphere facing both suns, a situation which was also common in the Einstein universe.

  Naturally the climatic condit
ions on this celestial body were probably extremely bad. But this meant without question that such a world would never have been colonized. It was number thirteen in the system. Considering its relative distance from the giant red star, its dayside must be stifling hot.

  These and other considerations moved me to carefully correct our course by means of intermittent thrusts from the auxiliary plasma engines. The automatic approach equipment took over the First Pilot's job from then on. All there was left for me to do was to adjust the destination cross-hairs so that their point of intersection zeroed in precisely on the clearly visible disc of the planet

  Using the electronic optical system I pulled in world number thirteen for a closer look. As the planet suddenly filled the viewscreen, I shuddered. It did not appear to have an atmosphere. The mean temperature hovered around 335°F. The hemisphere on the eternal nightside must have been close to zero Absolute.

  At any rate it had a 'twilight' zone of sorts, which must have varied greatly due to an unusual libration. That's where I decided to land so that I could enjoy a relative sense of security while waiting for the crew's worrisome paralysis symptoms to wear off. It would have been senseless and totally irresponsible of me to continue meandering into the sovereign territory of these alien intelligences.

  My limbs ached painfully as I got up from the pilot's chair. The small medical robots had ceased their activity. It indicated clearly that unknown symptoms were involved here. Laboriously I bent down to look into Rhodan's widely staring eyes. His face was terribly distorted. My own medical knowledge was insufficient for me to make a diagnosis. Still, I thought it possible that this benumbed condition was not a true state of unconsciousness. I had seen men in similar situations where they were mentally active even though they couldn't move a muscle. Rhodan's musculature was tensed as hard as a board, just as if he'd been shocked by a beam from a paralysis gun.

  I leaned down still closer to him and said aloud: "It's possible that you can hear me and understand. We have to wait until the numbness goes away of its own accord. We've flown right into a big solar system and I'm landing on planet thirteen—an uninhabited orb with no diurnal rotation. Our energy detectors don't show anything here. I'll bring the ship into the twilight zone and will attempt to camouflage it as much as possible. Can you give me a sign that you understand?"

  I looked attentively into his open eyes but there was nothing there that I could interpret as a confirmation. Although filled with inner despair I forced a reassuring smile to my lips as I got up again. The auto-pilot sounded. It was time for the approach braking manoeuvre.

  This time I had no alternative but to put the powerful main engines of the California into operation. The plasma drive units were not strong enough to reduce our half speol within the time limits allowed. I took the risk because I had to. The impulse converters came on with a roar. The G-shock neutralizers gave me a green light on the console board.

  I braked down at top power, knowing full well that at least one alert tracking operator somewhere would think a pack of fireworks had gone off in his energy-sensing equipment. But possibly our power burst would go unnoticed in the heavy traffic generated by planet sixteen. There were many possibilities, no doubt, but I didn't have the necessary factors for grasping them in a mathematical sense.

  Like a fire-breathing dragon, the light cruiser raced toward the hot planet which I had dubbed Hades. It impressed me as being analogous to the underworld of Greek mythology. If there was anything I had a distaste for, it was the so-called 'twilight' zones of such desolate worlds. These libration strips were always only a partial phenomenon which neither alleviated the burning heat of a nearby sun nor the true darkness and coldness of the void.

  Close to the surface, the California attained its landing speed. I held the ship in a braking ellipse while observing that Hades did seem to indicate some trace of an atmosphere. Evidently the residual gases had precipitated in the form of ice on the night side, whereas altering conditions in the twilight zone caused them to evaporate. So it was that violent storms were here also, raging along the shadow's edge. This was precisely what I had pictured in my worst imaginings.

  I had my hands full to hold the cruiser steady on its antigrav fields but with the help of the auxiliary nav units I finally landed on a broad and fairly even surface of rock that was, at the time, in the twilight zone.

  On the horizon the vast corona of the flaming red giant could still be seen. Its green companion was insignificant in a meteorological sense, since its heat energy wasn't sufficient to cause temperature changes. But when it appeared over the horizon the same greenish illumination occurred which I had noticed during the landing manoeuvre.

  It was a truly hellish planet I had landed on. I did not relax until the landing pads of the telescopic struts had dug firmly into the ground. Outside everything was silent. The storm I had noticed previously had abated as suddenly as it had come. Shivering slightly, I got up from my seat. The joints of the California snapped and crackled as was typical of the support structures of all spaceships after having been under a maximum strain. The plates cooled down very swiftly.

  "Perry, can you hear me?" I asked, bending over him. His face remained as immovable as a stone mask. If he could still think, see and hear, his internal anguish and pain must have been a nightmare to endure.

  6/ SURPRISE ATTACK

  I still had to wait a few more hours until the first of the Terranians came to. Rhodan was the fifth man to find his legs again. The ones affected the most were the mutants, whose slightly altered brains were apparently more sensitive than those of other men.

  Finally the entire crew became active again. There had been no actual casualties but our ship's medico, Dr. Skjoldson, who had been transferred from the Drusus, had ordered a strict schedule of rest.

  After a discussion with him I also learned why I had regained my faculties and mobility so quickly. I had a different brain structure. As it was explained to me the others had been spared any sensation whatsoever during their period of paralysis, so my fears in that respect had been groundless. What might happen during any future transitions, however, no one dared to ask!

  It was now definitely known that we were about 2 light-years away from the discharge zone. Prior to the landing I had been able to observe it clearly as a well-delineated line in the void. But if we avoided making a further transition we could look forward to at least a 2-year journey before reaching the fissure again.

  Owing to the time-dilation effect of the present continuum, probably only a few days had passed for us; but on another plane of reference the time-rate would have remained stable. We didn't allow ourselves to think of what must have happened at the Fleet base on Grautier. Certainly they would regard us as dead men by now!

  So it had now become our most urgent task to find a workable protection against the dangers of another hypertransition. Bell had been for hours in the computer room with the mathematician, Kenius, and he finally maintained that conditions in the Druuf universe would become more stabilized with each passing day. The paralysis effects had been the result of a disturbed balance between the forces of Nature.

  Since it appeared that we weren't able to discover a biochemical remedy for the effects, we agreed to stay on Hades as long as possible. Each passing hour would contribute to the final stabilization of the variable states of energy. But in case of an emergency a transition would have to be made in spite of conditions. If everything went wrong, I was supposed to carry out the hyperjump myself and after regaining consciousness I was to try to keep the California from being destroyed.

  However, if I had assumed that these madmen of Terra would be crushed by the morbid appearance of things I would have been properly deceived! What did they do after getting onto their feet again? Instead of being concerned about their physical recovery, they had nothing on their minds other than to start setting up their so-called 'transmitter base'.

  Dr. Skjoldson had been reduced to cursing his way through the ship looki
ng for his patients but they were so clever about eluding him that he hardly ever caught a man unawares. Skjoldson's 'armament' was an auto-hypo containing at least 500 cm of deep-sleep narcotic but it proved ineffective because he could never find a victim.

  I myself had only been able to escape the hypodermic by means of a glib reference to my alien Arkonide physiology.

  After Skjoldson came close to being cut in half by the sudden closure of an armor-plated section hatch, he finally gave up the chase. From then on there was a sign on the door of the ship's clinic: Entry permitted only to patients who are crawling on hands and knees.

  It was the physician's revenge, except that unfortunately no one came crawling. I was convinced these fellows would take out their own appendices before they'd crawl to Skjoldson. Normally these typical chicaneries of terrestrial spacemen would have occasioned hilarity to the point of tears if our overall situation had been less desperate than it was.

  This was the state of affairs eight days after our landing on the planet Hades, which meanwhile we came to recognize as an actual hell—eight days, that is, of standard time in our own universe!

  • • •

  All that remained to be done was to install the big transmitter with its slightly more than 2-light-year transport range, and for this the large cavern had been prepared. These Terranians certainly believed in direct action! They had lost no time in moving the California to the base of the very mountain range that I had taken care to avoid during the landing.

  Rhodan had dubbed the sprawling massif the Hope Mountains. The craggy cordillera stretched straight across the 50-mile twilight strip. Eastward from our position it towered into the merciless sunlight and westward the last peaks disappeared into the eternal darkness of the icy night side of the planet.