by Perry Rhodan
"Looks as if we might be in for a humdinger," Bell growled, speaking to nobody in particular, "but who knows...?"
• • •
Commander Deringhouse was ready to report that everything was all clear at the controls of his new ship Centurio when the top alarm was sounded. Perry Rhodan's firm voice issued from the loudspeaker and soon he appeared on the picture screen. "Commander Deringhouse? Take off at once! Hytrans to Pluto orbit. Locate the alien ship which leaped out of hyperspace yesterday. Be prepared for battle action! You'll receive immediately the computations of the positron for your start and distance of transition. Repeat order, Commander Deringhouse!"
Deringhouse acknowledged, the order word by word without hesitating. The air locks of the Centurio closed. Men and robots rushed to their posts on the ship's decks and the all-clear signals came in quick succession to the command center. Tension spread throughout the heavy cruiser.
With a whine the Centurio shot up into the sky. The huge sphere grew smaller and smaller, disappeared toward the bright sun and radioed back to Terrania from a height of 12 miles.
One hour later the second radio message came: "Ready for hytrans. Deringhouse."
All structure sensors in the solar system registered the disturbance when the Centurio jumped through hyperspace near Pluto's orbit.
• • •
Col. Freyt turned around briefly when he heard two men enter behind him and then no longer paid attention to Rhodan's and Khrest's presence.
"Another structure disturbance three minutes ago!" The information couldn't have been been delivered more tersely but it was enough for Perry Rhodan. He didn't' notice Khrest's admiring glance. The Arkonide was again impressed, as always, by Rhodan's method of concentrating only on the most crucial element of important matters. He was to be given another proof of this.
"The same ship, Freyt?"
"The brain's checking it out... Here comes the result, sir!"
They examined the read-out together: "Probability 98.3% that same ship is involved which performed two transitions yesterday. near Pluto orbit"
"And how about the evaluation of the rangefinder?" Rhodan was anxious to know.
Col. Freyt was ready with the answer: "The ship is coming from interstellar space and approaching the Solar system at 0.9% below velocity of light..."
The hypercom sounded and the Centurio came in: "Alien ship spotted! Determined coordinates of position. Will make immediate approach. Deringhouse."
• • •
The structure sensor of the Centurio had registered the transition of a spaceship in its vicinity. Commander Deringhouse glanced quickly at his radio officer. "Hypercom Terrania," he ordered and reported his message without realizing that Perry Rhodan listened in.
The Centurio soared away, leaving behind the coldly shining Solar planets. Pluto, circling the far distant
Sun in eternal darkness, stood in opposition.
Commander Deringhouse was in his element. He sat serenely in his chair, his eyes glancing across the observation screens, switch panels and controls. As he regarded his officers he had the feeling of being in the best heavy cruiser in the solar system with the best crew.
"Position of the alien ship!" he demanded in a stern voice.
The positronic brain near the cartograph table started clicking and automatically delivered the data Deringhouse asked for. An officer submitted them quickly and precisely. "Ten percent acceleration!"
The spherical spacer instantly leaped forward but the sudden thrust went unnoticed inside the vessel. Not one unnecessary word was spoken.
The Centurio raced toward the strange spaceship with its gun turrets manned, waiting for the command
to fire.
"Distance one light-minute!"
Deringhouse hesitated. The Centurio kept on course, racing toward the alien craft. All radio wave bands
were closely watched for a message expected from the unknown spaceship.
"Distance 10 light-seconds!"
Deringhouse slowed down his ship to half speed. He wanted to avoid abrupt braking manoeuvres as he
approached the limit of safety.
"Distance 300,000 miles!"
"Clear gun flaps!" Deringhouse tersely ordered the turret gunners.
The distance reports followed each other closer and closer. Now they were no more than 25,000 miles
away from their adversary.
"Damn Springers!" a man in the command center cried out. Deringhouse frowned but remained silent as he had just now had the same thought.
The Galactic traders were menacing a weak Earth. They had discovered the little planet in a minor arm of the Galaxy and believed they could mete out to it the same treatment they gave to many others of the inhabited worlds in the Milky Way.
And now they rushed headlong toward one of the traders' Ships, the mortal enemies of Terra.
"A message from the stranger!" a radio officer suddenly shouted, breaking Deringhouse's tension somewhat "Levtan asks permission to come aboard, Commander."
Deringhouse leaned closer to the microphone. "Attention, gun turrets! Use all weapons at the slightest suspicious move without waiting for command to fire!" He knew that he could depend on his men.
"Hypercom! Dunker, send a message to the Chief!" Deringhouse ordered calmly. "Alien spaceship asks permission to send one of its members named Levtan aboard. Permission granted. I'm giving you our coordinates..."
Terrania simply confirmed the message, nothing else. "Alien ship approaching us. Distance 5,000 miles!" the rangefinder section reported.
The safety limit had already been crossed. "Let him come!" Deringhouse said, full of expectation.
• • •
Next to the mighty Stardust II, Perry Rhodan's battleship of half a mile diameter, stood the two heavy cruisers Solar System and Terra, ready to start.
Highest alert had been ordered for its crews by Terrania but neither Rhodan, Reginald Bell nor the two Arkonides were on board one of the spherical spaceships.
"Why do we sit around here and wait?" Thora asked impatiently. "I don't know why you have to Smirk, Reginald Bell!" she angrily snarled a moment later at Perry's friend who sat in a chair with a grin on his broad face.
"Because you're so excitable, Thora," Reggie replied. "I think you're getting downright human. Didn't you once call us Earth dwellers barbarians?"
Thora and Bell couldn't stand each other. They never let an opportunity pass to needle each other.
"I wonder why we hear nothing more from Deringhouse," Khrest tried with his question to end the tiff between the two. "It seems foolhardy to allow Levtan to come aboard the Centurio."
"Deringhouse foolhardy, Khrest?" Perry smiled. "But he ought to keep us informed."
"Why don't we call him ourselves?" Thora insisted.
"All destroyers have been instructed to keep radio silence and I can't make an exception, Thora."
"When did the Chief of the New Power renounce his special standing?" Thora asked tartly. Perry was about to make a caustic riposte when he saw a pleading look in Khrest's eyes and so he only said: "It's a distinction of the great to use self-control in small things, Thora, and prying is considered on Earth to be a vice."
Throwing back her proud head, she walked out in a huff. Khrest quickly apologized for her behavior. "She's so, painfully disappointed that she can't go back to Arkon. Constantly waiting for the trip home, Perry; she's a woman..."
"Alright, Khrest!" Perry hastened to change the subject as his conscience bothered him when it came to
the topic of the Arkonides' return voyage. "But why does the Centurio fail to call back?" Rhodan looked out the window to his spaceships. They were insignificant compared to the might of the Galactic traders and the, Mounders.
A kingdom for an idea! He, Perry Rhodan, was the most troubled and nervous man of the three in the room but he gave the
appearance of an unshakable rock of calmness. Why doesn't Deringhouse report again?he kept asking in
his thoughts. The hyperoom remained silent.
• • •
Deringhouse bellowed into the microphone: "Turret two, halt ship with warning shot before bow!"
A bright flash exploded on the vast panoramic screen in the command center. The Centurio demonstrated its power for the first time and almost blasted away the nose of the alien spacer at a distance of 2000 miles.
"We'll stop!" the second radio message came through. "We've not come to attack you. We want to negotiate!"
Deringhouse thoughtfully gazed at his radio officer. There was something strange and disturbing in the message from the dealer's ship. In his opinion it sounded much too peace-loving.
"Commander to gun turrets!" he again called the battle stations. "Strike at once if the Springer fails to stop in a minute!"
He switched over to call the radio officer. "Send the same message to the other ship!"
"All of it?" the radio officer asked. "Yes, we want to let them know what they're up against." The tension in the command center kept growing. Deringhouse's eyes were riveted to the huge panoramic observation screen. The computer clacked as it reported the changes in distance. The message had been transmitted to the dealer Levtan.
"The alien ship stopped moving!" The Centurio slowed down. The heavy cruiser flew in a wide curve around the other ship at a distance of 2000 miles.
"Their ship remains motionless!"
The Centurio accelerated again. Now it was exactly behind the ship at rest Deringhouse exercised extreme caution, more than was called for in view of his ship's superior fighting power which exceeded that of the Springer a thousand times. He acted as if he were the weaker one. Perhaps Khrest had told too many exaggerated stories about the clans and patriarchs of the traders. Or was the reason the difficulty in understanding why the Springers sought negotiations when they were already in the Solar system close to Earth and had only to reach out to strangle it in their iron fist? Now the old instincts of the one-man pursuit pilot were aroused again in Deringhouse. The Centurio shot toward the strange ship. It quickly grew as a bright spot on the observation screen.
"A Springer..." somebody said in the command center.
"Heavens to Betsy!" Deringhouse exclaimed in surprise. "What kind of a rusty bucket did the traders sent us here?"
At the same moment James Hugh called from his station: "Foreign object, Commander. Body approaching at 67% below speed of light from Phi 3.65 and Theta 56.19!"
The positronicon had already registered these data and transmitted them to the gun turret of the Centurio. That was it! A simple trick of the traders—so simple that he had almost fallen for it. But why wasn't he given the report on the distance? How far away was the second ship?
With an incredible thrust of energy the Centurio shot in a tremendous leap past the rusty vessel, missing it by a hair. It performed a risky turning manoeuvre and raced toward the registered coordinates. "Distance? What's keeping you?" Deringhouse inquired icily. "Hugh, why don't you give me the distance?"
"The machine has submitted two different values," Hugh replied meekly.
Deringhouse nearly jumped out of his seat. "Then we'll have two more Springer ships against us! Both distances, Hugh! Hurry up!"
"4.38 and 4.71 light-seconds," Hugh stammered out the information.
"We'll soon put a stop to that!" Deringhouse spoke in a deceivingly soft tone. "And then we'll take care of Levtan, this treacherous angel of peace!"
• • •
Perry Rhodan looked up in dismay.
"What's the matter?" he asked angrily but indicated with a gesture of his hand that he was always willing to talk to John Marshall.
"The Ambassador of the Asian Federation requests an audience, Chief!"
"Send him to Bell, Marshall!" Perry quickly decided, since he was unable and unwilling to spare a minute to listen to the jealousies between the power blocs of Terra.
"But the Ambassador insists on speaking to the Administrator of Terrania himself, Chief, and he refuses to be put off."
"Nevertheless I'm denying his request. Tell him that as diplomatically as you can!" Thus Perry Rhodan put an end to the interruption. He contacted again the enormous communication center of the two million city of Terrania while John Marshall, the telepath, turned to leave.
"Nothing yet?" Rhodan asked impatiently.
"No, sir!" the speaker answered.
Rhodan instantly got in touch with the two heavy cruisers. "Solar System and Terra to take off at once. Take up positions for hypertrans to Pluto orbit. Order to leap follows separately!"
A moment later the roar of the powerful engines could be heard through the acoustic insulation of Rhodan's office as the spaceships started up. He turned his head and watched the heavy cruisers lift off and rush with increasing acceleration toward the high-flying clouds where they disappeared.
Rhodan was deeply worried and he breathed heavily. What had happened to the new Centurio beyond Pluto's orbit and what did the traders conspire to do? Was he—and with him the entire Earth—falling into a trap the Springers were about to spring? Had he failed to detect one of their ruses?
Once more he called the communication center. The heavy cruiser Centurio and its Commander Deringhouse had not yet broken the silence."
• • •
"Two meteors!" Deringhouse exclaimed in disgust. They happened to be chunks of metal with magnetic fields. Back to that rusty bucket!"
He had lost valuable time. Now the Centurio had to show what it could do. The commander looked at his watch and was surprised to see how much time had elapsed meanwhile.
For a fleeting moment he wondered whether to call Terrania. He decided against it since there was nothing new to report.
He set his course again for the Springer ship which was still standing at the same spot.
It looked as if the Centurio was going to ram the alien spaceship with full force. More and more of the officers were casting anxious glances at Deringhouse with the same question in their eyes: When will he brake? Deringhouse flew the gigantic spacer like a one-man ship.
At the last moment the braking lets shrieked and the flight of the battleship was stopped in the grip of titanic fists. The G forces mounted steeply but the absorbers didn't let them rise above Value One. The crew of the ship didn't even feel the tremendous deceleration pressure.
Now the Centurio again accosted the rear of the Springer ship up to the border of its powerful defense screen, a silent, fearsome and haunting menace.
"Levtan may come aboard!" Deringhouse instructed his radio officer. "But not in a vehicle, only in his space suit. Tell him we'll bring him safely aboard. Stress the wordsafe ."
The call went across and was confirmed by the Springers. Then they observed on the big panoramic view panel how a small airlock in the ship opened and a man in an Arkonide spacesuit firmly pushed himself away m the direction of the Centurio .
At this instant the radio transceiver picked up another message: "Terra and Solar System have just reported to Terrania that they've reached their positions in orbit of Pluto for a short hytrans manoeuvre."
Quickly a magnetic beam from the Centurio seized the stranger in the spacesuit while the protective field of the heavy cruiser opened momentarily to haul the trader safely aboard.
Even now Deringhouse still thought that no new events had happened that should be reported to Rhodan but he couldn't get rid of the unpleasant feeling that he would he called down on the carpet by the chief after his landing.
Then came the word from the Centurio's entrance hatch. "Man on board! Weapons search negative!"
"Escort him with four men and two fighter robots to the command center!" Deringhouse called back.
"It's a man seeking to negotiate after all," James Hugh said but the undertone of his voice revealed that he failed to understand the meaning of what was going on and was filled with mistrust.
Deringhouse was also extremely suspicious and wary.
3/ THE STRATA METHOD
; The Centurio and Levtan's 500-foot-long cylindrical ship had landed close together on the spaceport of Terrania. Terra and Solar System were once again stationed on the tarmac. Nothing indicated that their weapons of destruction were aimed at the LEV XIV. Rhodan had no intention of endangering Terrania by the deployment of his most devastating weapons.
The consultation on the situation had just come to an end. Bell looked incredulously at the dilapidated ship of the trader. "And Levtan looked just as disgusting on the screen," he related his impression. "It's quite some time since I've seen such a repugnant fellow!"
"And to think that because of this man our flight to Arkon was delayed!" Thora said pointedly disregarding Khrest's reproachful glances. Disdainfully she pursed her lips. "This LEV XIV isn't and never has been a ship of the Springers!"
"We'll soon find out what the LEV XIV is and who has sent Levtan to us," Rhodan quickly interjected, ending the discussion.
The stranger was brought to the door by Deringhouse and two fighter robots. The slender man with distinctly mongoloid features straightened up when he saw the two fighter robots leave. With a supercilious grin he bowed briefly before the group of people awaiting him. He looked unkempt and neglected like his ship: The LEV XIV was not only rusted but also smelled to high heaven.
Thora turned up her nose at him and stepped back. Khrest studied the trader with scientific interest Bell's broad face expressed everything a good diplomat is never supposed to show. Only Perry retained his usual composure and kept on top of the situation. He was not yet prepared to make a judgment as long as he didn't know what it was that had brought Levtan to Earth.
But it didn't take long to find out all about him as the best mutants who were assembled in the background began their task. John Marshall was already deeply. probing Levtan's thoughts.
