"What happened?" asked Talamon almost tonelessly. "Rab-Ort, pull yourself together. Every detail is important! The smallest particular could be a matter of life and death!" The Mounder sensed that he had become suddenly cold and clearheaded. His fear vanished and all that remained was an iron resolve to be able to furnish Rhodan with some small clue. "Speak out! We haven’t a second to lose! What happened at the moment of transition?"
The Arkonide’s momentary paralysis began to leave him. Talamon’s firm levelheadedness had its effect on him. Still weak, he finally found his voice: "Morlag was standing over there when it began. I happened to look at him and saw that his legs had become invisible. He didn’t seem to notice it, himself, because he continued his work as though nothing was going on. He seemed to be floating in the air without his feet."
"Go on!" demanded Talamon as the other paused a moment. "Keep talking!"
I called to him. He looked down at himself and gave a yell of fright. That’s when I put in the alarm. Morlag panicked—he was running all over the place, even though he hardly had any legs. But he moved sluggishly, like he was wading through a bunch of mud or something."
"Aha!" cried Talamon. His brain registered the first clue.
"Then came the transition. Suddenly, Morlag cried out in pain. I could see how the invisible part of his body seemed to be struggling to get free of the unseen forces, that’s the way it was! The Unseen were gripping him tight but the transition was stronger. They had to let go of him—but it only happened a second after. I’ll never be able to forget Morlag’s death cry!" The Arkonide covered his face with his hands and sobbed to himself. Talamon waited patiently. He could understand the lieutenant, realizing that he might have had the same reaction were he in his place.
Anyway, what he could see before him was enough—it gave him the rest of the story. Morlag’s body had been violently elongated in the process. Formerly about 6 feet tall, the dead man’s body was now at least 8 feet long!
Silently, Talamon turned about and returned to the Command Central. His hand resting on the transition control, he waited tensely and impatiently for Rhodan’s return…
* * * *
David Stern picked up Dubruque’s emergency call and located the castle 5 minutes later. A guppy was launched from the ship, which served to transfer the men on board along with Pucky. Also the rescued Mirsalese, apparently the last of his people, was brought to safety.
There was no trace of the K-7. Since Rhodan had witnessed the disappearance of the rocketship from Mirsal 2, he gave up hope of ever seeing the guppy again. The Unseen had snatched it away.
The manoeuvre for receiving the other guppy on board had hardly ended before Stern announced the new position of the Arc-Koor. Rhodan changed his transition course and the Drusus made its hyperjump.
He felt relieved when he saw the great Arkonide space-ball appear not more than a light-second away. Talamon’s face gazed at him from the videoscreen.
The Mounder gave his report. Rhodan became grave and remote as he listened to the story of the terrible death the Arkonide had suffered. But he did not forget to register every detail and to draw corresponding conclusions.
His voice sounded husky when he said: "So transitions help only when they come at the exact time. We’ll have to remember that. And now set up a contact with Arkon, Talamon. I’d like to speak with the Regent."
Talamon nodded and gave the necessary orders. When the steel half-dome of the robot Brain appeared on the viewscreens of the Arc-Koor and the Drusus its face was composed and expressionless. The positronicon left it to Rhodan to lead the conversation.
"Regent, our first encounter with the Unseen is behind us. The planet Mirsal 3 was depopulated. We could not prevent it. Our psycho-cybernetic analyser indicates a strong probability that Mirsal 2 is the Unseen’s next point of attack. The Arkonide catalogues list this planet as uninhabited. However, we have evidence that Mirsal 2 is inhabited by a race of people who have advanced to the beginnings of space travel. We have to help them."
"I can’t forbid you to do so," came the mechanical voice of the robot Brain. "But Talamon will return to Arkon with the Arc-Koor."
"No!" said Rhodan sharply. "Talamon is going to stay with me and we’ll work together to combat the Unseen. The only way I’m going to take this risk is with the support of the Empire. That’s a matter of principle, Regent!"
"A ship like the Arc-Koor isn’t just carelessly tossed into the gamble and…"
"Is this the only ship you’ve got?" inquired Rhodan scornfully. "Do you want to weigh one ship against the existence of the galaxy?"
The robot Brain took about one second before it answered: "Very well, Rhodan—the Arc-Koor will accompany you."
"I’m also taking command of the Arc-Koor, Regent! Talamon will be under me."
"I cannot…"
"You can, Regent! Talamon himself would rather answer to me. Besides, it won’t work to have such a mission be led by 2 equal commanding officers. Only one can give the orders, Regent—and that will be myself!"
Once more the robot Brain needed only a second in which to weigh all the alternatives and to announce its decision: "Your request is granted, Rhodan. I have known that it would come to this. The Arc-Koor is under your command. And behind you stands the full power of Arkon! Liberate us all from the menace of the Unseen, Rhodan!"
"And then what happens, Regent?"
This time there was no hesitation: "We shall then talk about an alliance between Arkon and Terra."
Rhodan nodded. In his eyes was a barely perceptible gleam that expressed a Terranian sense of secret triumph. He was close to the long-awaited goal. But first, the Unseen had to be defeated.
"Well make contact again, Regent, maybe after we’ve left Mirsal 2. If I need help I’m going to ask for it."
"It’s at your command, Rhodan," came the unemotional reply of the robot Brain and then the screen went dark.
For long seconds there was silence and then Rhodan looked into the expectant eyes of Talamon. Suddenly he smiled and then the Mounder also began to grin with relief.
"Congratulations," said Talamon.
Rhodan continued to smile as he answered: "Let’s hold off until we see if congratulations are in order. Anyway, during the coming days—even hours—there won’t be much cause for laughter. We have some rough times ahead of us, old friend. But the thought of having Arkon’s strength behind us makes the going a little easier." He caught Sikermann’s questioning glance. "You can follow the same instructions I’m giving my First Officer, Talamon. The same coördinates apply to you."
"Will we fly directly to Mirsal 2?"
"That’s right. If we succeed in making the invisible danger visible, then it will have lost its terror. We have to give it a try. Until later, Talamon."
"Until later," answered the Mounder. His voice sounded shaky even though his eyes harboured a gleam of confidence.
Rhodan went back to the Command Central, where Marshall met him.
"Well, John? How’s that Mirsalese we rescued?"
Marshall shrugged. "He has nothing to report that could be of interest to us because he’s been down in the dungeon for days. I’m sorry, Chief, but his story doesn’t bring us one step closer."
"Never mind," said Rhodan. "We’ll find the clues we need on Mirsal 2."
He gave Sikermann his orders. Sikermann took the calculated coördinates from the small nav-computer and relayed them to the Arc-Koor.
Across the room, Pucky slipped off the couch and waddled over in a rather stiff-legged manner. He drew himself to his full height in front of Marshall and Rhodan and made an observation. "This fellow Talamon," he said. "He has a terrible fear."
Before reacting, Rhodan ascertained that the Drusus was on its course to the 2nd planet. The Arc-Koor followed like a Siamese twin.
Then Perry looked down at Pucky, a hidden twinkle in his eyes. "So?" he said, considerately bending down slightly toward the mouse-beaver. "And what may your little problem
be?"
"I—? My—?" Pucky was taken off-guard by the question. Disconcerted, he stroked his rust-brown fur for a few seconds, as a man might finger his moustache in embarrassment or nervously run his hands through his hair. Then his bright eyes gleamed and his incisor tooth appeared in an expression indicating he was in control again. "What—me worry? What problems should I have? I’m no Mounder! I’m not even one of you poor humans—I’m a superior animal! I leave it to the rest of you to be wary worts!"
Marshall found Pucky’s puckyism infectious. With tongue in cheek he replied, "Well, I guess that puts us in our place, Perry. A wort to the wise is sufficient!"
But, Perry Rhodan was already in another place. His attention was firmly fixed on the viewscreen where Mirsal 2, deceptively at that distance, appeared as a small star. In his mind’s eye, he resolved the pseudo star from an incandescent fireball to a globe of land and sea masses. A planet where he would soon risk his life in the service of the Earth and for the principle of Peace to try to eliminate the awesome threat to planetary existence of the invisible menace of… the Unseen.
THE SHIP OF THINGS TO COME
ALL GALACTIC INTELLIGENCES indiscriminately are endangered by the invisible alien attackers, the Unseen.
A defence against this incomprehensible & diabolical enemy must be found if, planet by planet, the inhabitants of uncounted worlds are not inexplicably to disappear from the face of space like the pitiful population of ghost world Mirsal 3.
What, indeed, happened to the Mirsalese people?
No one knows the answer yet to the wholesale vanishment of the populace of Mirsal 3 but Mirsal 2 now takes stage front & centre as the most likely spot to confront & apprehend the uncanny opponent.
A trio of Terranians volunteer to risk their all to save a doomed world in—
RETURN FROM THE VOID
By
Kurt Mahr
#58 - Attack from the Unseen Page 10
