by Perry Rhodan
Then he closed his eyes.
It was as though he did not want to see any more of what was happening.
He remained completely apathetic when an Ara approached him and gave him also a paralyzing injection...
5/ 'NON-KILL' NULLIFIED
10 valuable seconds went by.
However, in these 10 seconds the cubicle plunged almost a mile deep and the rate of fall increased with the square of time. The air resistance braked their fall slightly but beneath them there must have been an auxiliary shaft or they would have been cushioned by now.
Rhodan floated in the middle of the chamber. His face reflected alarm and momentary indecision but then his accustomed presence of mind returned. "Pucky! Stop us! Hurry!"
The mouse-beaver could move purposefully and without hindrance, even in free fall. In spite of the more than grave situation, however, he did not forget the main purpose of his presence here. "Tiff's transmitter has gone out—I mean, at least the telepathic impulses. I only hear the normal carrier signal. He must either be asleep or unconscious. I don't pick up anything about Sengu anymore."
"Anaesthesia!" shouted Rhodan in new anguish. "Hurry, Pucky! We only need one minute for a 6-mile drop. We've covered half of it now!"
The mouse-beaver nodded calmly and shoved RK-999 to one side; the robot floated like a balloon into the other corner. The dead Ara followed him
35 seconds... Over 3½ miles deep. And now Pucky demonstrated what telekinesis could do.
He turned his gaze toward the control panel where the end of the broken lever gleamed metallically. He concentrated his telepathic streams of power on the control rod that he could not reach with his fingers.
"40 seconds!" said Rhodan tonelessly. "Almost 5 miles!"
Pucky heard nothing. His eyes stared strangely.
The axis of the broken lever moved by fractions of an inch back toward the zero position. It did not stop in its slow movement. It continued to turn.
Rhodan sank to the floor of the cubicle and the two robots followed him. Then he sensed that his normal weight had returned—and now gradually doubled itself. The pressure increased. Rhodan dropped to his knees and then did the most sensible thing, which was to lie flat on his back with his arms and legs stretched out. Khrest followed his example.
One minute. They must have overshot the 6-mile mark by some distance and yet the shaft had not come to an end. No one knew how deeply it penetrated into the bowels of the planet.
Pucky appeared to be listening. He no longer looked at the control lever but angularly toward the ceiling. "We're already deeper than Tiff and Sengu but the elevator is starting to rise again. We're making it!"
"Bring it to a stop when we're on the same level as Tiff!" advised Rhodan, while struggling for his breath.
Pucky concentrated again. The remnants of the lever tamed slowly in the opposite direction. Their weight became normal and then the elevator stopped. 'We're there!" chirped Pucky, who seemed quite satisfied with the success of his activity. "Tiff can't be far. In any case, he's on the same level as we are."
Rhodan searched for some means of opening the door to the elevator but didn't find anything. Pucky read his thoughts and gave a shrill whistle, which—as usual—was off key. With his neck fur bristling, he solved the problem in his own unique way before Rhodan could make any objection.
"Watch out, RK-999—but don't be alarmed!"
Before the heavy fighter robot knew what was happening to him, he felt himself raised into the air. He floated back against the rear wall of the cubicle and then picked up speed in the opposite direction like an arrow shot from a powerful bow. With a splintering crash, he broke through the locked door and stood in a well-lit hall. Without ceremony, Rhodan sprang after him, followed by Khrest, then RK-935, and finally Pucky, who beamed like a conqueror and looked all about him as though he expected applause from an invisible audience.
But the Aras who chanced to be in the hall at the moment were not thinking of applause. Stark fear gripped their slender limbs and they stood motionlessly staring at the incomprehensible. Two metal monsters, two men—one of whom was evidently an Arkonide—and one very strange little creature, had come through the wall.
"Rhodan!" Pucky's sudden cry was shrill with alarm. "Tiff's impulses are receding. They aren't any
weaker—I mean, "they're going away!"
"The Aras have been warned," surmised Khrest. 'They are securing their hostages."
"Pucky, follow those impulses—quickly!" ordered Rhodan. "We'll be right on your heels! We don't have to bother about these Aras here!"
Pucky raced ahead. The doors in front of him opened, again as though moved by invisible hands. Aras looked up from their work and their eyes widened in sudden fright as they saw this uncanny group storm past them. As one of them in the second laboratory made an imprudent move, the concentrated paralysis beam of a robot hit him instantly. With a brief outcry, he collapsed unconscious.
After they had gone about 160 feet or more and passed through several laboratories, Pucky suddenly came to a halt. Rhodan stared at the two tables with the attached leather straps. Only one Ara stood in the background and was just switching off his videophone. He turned around calmly and looked fearlessly at the intruders. There was a cold gleam in his eye.
"You have come too late, Rhodan. Your friends are in security!"
Rhodan asked Pucky. "Where's Tiff?"
"They are bringing him below, but not far—at the most, maybe 30 feet. Now the elevator has stopped. Yes, Tiff is directly underneath us. There is no further change of location."
The Ara had listened to them incredulously. Perhaps at this moment he began to believe in magic and to regard Rhodan as some kind of superman. At any rate, the rash precaution that headquarters had ordered had been in vain. How these strangers knew where the prisoners had been brought remained a puzzle. In any case, it was necessary to thwart the escape of the hostages.
Before anyone was aware of it, he pushed down a small lever on the v'phone. "Order from Themos: kill the prisoners at once!" he cried loudly, then ran for the open door. He dashed directly into the paralyzing energy stream emitted by RK-999 and suddenly dropped to the floor as if struck by lightning.
Rhodan was about to rush to look for the elevator but then he thought of a better solution. "Pucky, 30 feet isn't too far away. You say Tiff is directly beneath us? Good! Then go get him and Sengu! We've only seconds, so hurry!"
The mouse-beaver didn't even take time to confirm the order with a nod. The air began to shimmer. His figure blurred as though surrounded by water—and then Pucky was gone.
• • •
The effects of the anaesthetic only lasted a few minutes.
As Tiff opened his eyes, Sengu was also just coming to. They lay on top of a large, wide packing case in a dimly lit room. Here the dazzling cleanliness of the laboratories was missing. The walls were dark and exuded an icy coldness. Crates and entire stacks of packages ready for shipment filled the room. A conveyor belt moved slowly along the aisle and ended in a shaft that led vertically upward.
A warehouse! A warehouse filled with medical supplies!
Tiff had no idea how this change of location had taken place. He knew he had just been on the white operation table and had received a paralyzing shot. And now he was in a storage room. Three Aras in white smocks were running excitedly back and forth. They were piling boxes in front of a door that led out of the room, as if they wanted to block any entrance into it. Workers came by and assisted them.
Then suddenly a bell rang shrilly. At the same time, a loud and excited voice was heard. Tiff understood every word.
"Order from Themos: kill the prisoners at once!"
The 3 doctors ceased their barricading activities and looked at each other in amazement. One of them wearily wiped sweat from his forehead. He glanced briefly at Tiff and Sengu, then said to his colleagues: "What good are they to us if they're dead? How can we study their organism? "It's getting to where I don
't understand Themos' orders anymore. First we bring the prisoners into the storage room and now we're supposed to kill them..."
"Themos knows what he's doing!" another one interrupted him. He grasped a crowbar that was leaning against one of the cases. "I'll do it so that it won't damage the bodies!"
"I am a scientist," interjected the first Ara. "I am not a murderer and I'll have nothing to do with this...!" Without paying further attention to his colleagues, he tamed in a dignified manner and marched off into the darkness of the warehouse.
The Ara with the crowbar watched him go and then laughed apathetically. His cold gaze rested on the two prisoners. "Well, of course I would have preferred to have you alive, but..."
It was as far as he got.
Directly between him and the two Terranians, the air began to flicker. A small figure materialized. Pucky hunched on his hind quarters and supported himself on his broad beaver tail, which looked like a large magnified spoon. He grasped the situation at a glance and recognized the only dangerous opponent present.
The Ara overcame his surprise. He did not waste time trying to find an explanation for the unexplainable. Instead, he lifted the metal bar.
But Pucky was not in favor of having his skull bashed in. I am the bogeyman!" he twittered sweetly and stretched his arms out toward the Ara, who suddenly stopped his movements. He had not reckoned with a talking ghost who looked like an animal. But then all reason left him. The heavy bar came up and remained hanging over him as though someone were holding it tightly. Surely not he.
It raised up by itself and whirled out of his hands like a propeller. It completed a loop and circled once around, the storage room. Then, as though gripped by incomprehensible forces, it bent itself into the shape of a letter 'R'. This ironwork letter R floated like a sword of Damocles over the head of the terrified and paralyzed Ara—and then it fell. Tiff saw the heavy iron fall on the Ara, who collapsed under its weight.
"Pucky!" he yelled. "That was cutting it mighty close!"
"Well, you know me—I'm a stickler for punctuality!" nodded the mouse-beaver calmly. He looked around for something with which to cut their bonds. When he failed to find anything, he went over to Tiff and said to Sengu, who lay next to the Lieutenant, "Just take it easy, Wuriu. I'll bring Tiff upstairs and be back in a second. These moles down here won't dare lay a hand on you or I'll drop the ceiling an their heads. See you!"
He put his arms around Tiff and a second later disappeared with him.
Sengu remained behind, alone.
It took longer than the promised second. He looked across at the door with mixed feelings. The last of the scientists was still standing there as though welded to the floor. The workmen had watched the proceedings uncomprehendingly; apparently they grasped nothing of the situation and appeared to be accustomed to not having anything explained to them anyway.
Then Pucky returned. "Well," he chirped expectantly. "Anybody looking for another lesson?"
"They were well-behaved," commended the Japanese with a gasp of relief. "And now let's get out of here—I'm sick of looking at packing crates!"
Pucky grinned and teleported him one story above, where Tiff was already rubbing his wrists and getting his blood circulation back in order. But the mouse-beaver did not seem to be quite satisfied. "You wanted to make a call to Themos on the videophone?" he inquired of Rhodan. Once more he had probed the thoughts of his chief. Rhodan nodded. "Good! In the meantime, I want to have another look around down below. I—ah—forgot something."
"Forgot something?" asked Khrest, astonished.
"Yeah, it just skipped my mind, sort of," Pucky confirmed—and he could not be deterred, for the reason that he had already disappeared.
Rhodan shrugged his shoulders and went over to the pictophone. He didn't find it difficult to operate: A short depression of a call button and the connection was made with headquarters at the surface. On the small screen appeared the face of the old Ara, which immediately twisted with fear and surprise. On his forehead was a colorful bruise but otherwise he seemed to have withstood the fall from the ceiling very well.
"You...!?" he stammered, incredulously.
"In the flesh, Themos," returned Rhodan. "Lt. Tifflor and Sengu were freed, after all. The sacrifice of your expensive elevator operator was a wasted effort. But now what you're going to do for me is to release Thora—otherwise you're going to be in trouble. Because if anything happens to her, I will transform this entire planet into a living hell!"
"That you would not dare, Rhodan! You would have the entire galaxy against you!"
"Hardly, if the galaxy were to learn the truth. You know what I'm getting at, Themos. There is only one single reason why I am sparing you. Your race is intelligent and has an extraordinary experience and background in the field of medicine. The Aras could render invaluable service to the Empire without having to resort to deception. But if you persist in being stubborn and if you continue to refuse to take such advice, then only one alternative will remain: Aralon—the breeding spot of all diseases, the epidemic center of the universe—will have to be destroyed. Have I made myself clear?"
Themos stared at Rhodan hatefully. "Who are you, anyway?"
Rhodan returned a cold smile. "I am Perry Rhodan Of Terra, authorized deputy and plenipotentiary of the Robot Brain of Arkon. The range of my authority is unlimited, Themos. It extends to the full destruction of Aralon, if required. And now I want you to decide; otherwise, I'll have to set Thora free myself. And that I will succeed is something that you had better start believing."
Then something very remarkable occurred. The expression on Themos' face changed suddenly. He smiled, and it was a triumphant, satisfied smile that caused Rhodan to become extremely wary. "Very well, Rhodan of Terra, I will set Thora free—unconditionally. My orders will be given at the end of this conversation. Where do you wish her to be delivered?"
"Up there in the hall my robot RK-940 is waiting. I want to see him on the videophone."
No more than 20 seconds passed before Rhodan was looking into the glistening crystal eyes of the fighter robot.
"RK-940! This is Perry Rhodan speaking. Within 5 minutes you will be looking at Thora and you will take her into security immediately on board the Titan. If you do not have Thora before you within 5 minutes, you will kill Themos and you will destroy all communications equipment in the control center there."
"Understood!" rasped the voice of RK-940. In his complicated innards, a ticking began. The countdown had started...
The face of the Ara appeared again on the vidi-grid.
"Hurry up!" ordered Rhodan. "Each second is precious. And don't believe that the robot will give you one small second of grace!"
Rhodan cut off the connection abruptly and left Themos to his confusion. RK-940 would hold to his instructions with the precision of an infallible machine.
"If I only knew about Pucky..." fretted Tiff. "Sure like to know what he's looking for down in the cellar."
"Cellar is putting it mildly!" Rhodan reminded him that they were 6 miles under the surface. "I think I can guess what he's doing down there. You say one of the medics is still on two feet?"
"Yes, sir. Do you mean—?"
"What else, Tiff? If were not mistaken, Pucky's going to show up pretty soon with a very valuable package. It is the package for which we started this whole undertaking—aside from the fact that we wanted to unmask the Aras—and their methods to all the races of the Empire. Or did you perhaps think that I would have carried through such an extensive and apparently unnecessarily complicated operation without any particular reason?"
Behind him, something crashed to the floor. They tamed around and saw Pucky materializing. The elongated crate had fallen a few feet but was not damaged.
Pucky straightened up and announced with the pride of a conquering field general: "The serum for the laughing sickness!"
But the merciless illness of hyper-euphoria was anything but something to laugh about.
"W
ell done!" praised Rhodan. "But—are you certain you didn't grab the wrong medicine?"
"Relax!" said the mouse-beaver reassuringly. And he exposed his incisor tooth, which was a sure sign of happiness and good cheer. "The Ara with the white smock was very happy to be able just to talk. And in his thoughts I read the truth. The serum in the case here is for a thousand people. We only need to inject it. It works its effect within one hour."
Tiff sighed with relief and looked in the direction of the door leading to the other laboratories. Behind it a suspicious silence reigned. "Then lees get to the Titan ! The only question is, how do we get up to the surface? The elevator needs repairs, if I'm not mistaken."
"They'll need a long time to put it in order again," Pucky observed absentmindedly. He was listening. Perhaps he was receiving telepathic impulses. The conjecture of the others was soon verified. "RK-940 has just received delivery of Thora. She is fresh and active but she is very worried—extremely worried!"
"Worried?" said Rhodan wonderingly. "But why?"
"Why, I couldn't say. But as to whom she's worried about, I do know..."
"So?" queried Rhodan.
"About you!" exclaimed Pucky and again revealed his incisor tooth. "There's no question about that...!"
Khrest took the time to nod to Rhodan with a knowing smile but he was again interrupted by Pucky, who perceived the opportunity for a somewhat snide observation. "Then I guess Tiff will have to shop around for a new bride."
Tiff blushed like a schoolboy. "I—ah—I didn't have a better idea at the time," he stammered, embarrassed. "Unfortunately, Thora didn't know about our plan, and she naturally was furious—I mean, to wake up like that and find out that I planned to live with her on some paradise planet somewhere..."
Now Rhodan also smiled. "A fascinating idea, to say the least," he admitted, but then became serious again. "I believe it's time that we put this medication in a safe place. I still don't trust these Aras as far as I could throw them!"
