by Perry Rhodan
Khrest was the first to address the Springer. "You're not a trader, Levtan! You were a trader. Now you're a traitor!"
A vicious look flashed briefly in Levtan's narrowed eyes. Then he looked up to the tall Arkonide. "You're from Arkon?" he asked impudently instead of replying to Khrest's assertion.
"And you're a pariah!" Khrest reiterated his remark, admitting at the same time that he was indeed an Arkonide.
Perry Rhodan now received John Marshall's whispered advice: "Levtan is a traitor and a desperate outcast. His thoughts are rife with insidious and vile intentions of blackmail. At present he's trying to figure out the most effective way to deceive us.
Perry Rhodan stepped forward and told Levtan his name.
"Perry Rhodan!" the expelled Springer repeated, staring at the head of the New Power. "Where is your second Arkonide battleship, Rhodan? I've always believed that it was nothing but a bluff. I know that the Arkonide empire has so far lost only one ship of this class but your secrets will be well kept by me if we can do business together."
Perry remained unperturbed. He kept his eyes coldly fixed on Levtan. "I don't find it necessary to bluff..."
The insolence of the abominable Springer was amazing. Brazenly he interrupted Rhodan: "I wouldn't admit each lie I've told either. You're lucky, Rhodan, that the Springer clans still believe you're in possession of two spacers of the Stardust class. Be that as it may..."
Now John Marshall came out of the background. He walked past his chief and stopped in front of Levtan just short of stepping on his toes. Perry Rhodan considered it premature to teach Levtan manners and he whispered an order to Marshall to confront the Springer only with the facts.
John Marshall immediately bit his tongue and changed his line of approach. "Levtan, are you planning to repeat the surreptitious plot by which you ruined the Gaxtek clan on the star Casters?"
Everybody in the room could hear how Levtan gasped for air. Then he uttered a gurgling groan and ducked like a dog that had been kicked. With a feral look in his eyes he asked Marshall, full of hate: "What do you know about that?"
"Let's get to the point, Levtan!" Perry interjected in a tone which tolerated no contradiction. "Why didn't you contact us via hypercom? Why did you use the slow frequency?" He purposely formulated his question carefully. Levtan's confidence had to be restored for the time being since the telepathic mutants had not yet extracted all information from him.
Levtan grinned arrogantly. "I'm no fool. I didn't want to attract the Springers' attention by a hypercom message. Each of their ships monitors all communications ever since you appeared on the scene, Rhodan. Alright, let's talk business. I can sell you some crucial information. When I considered getting in touch with you, I first made sure that I'm protected. I'm not the only one who is an outcast I have two friends who also know about your bluff of a second Stardust battleship and they're out there waiting for me to be back in 24 hours. Unless I return by that time they're prepared to take action. Now can we make a deal, Rhodan?"
Marshall whispered to Rhodan: It's only a trick of Levtan's but he thinks constantly about the traders and mainly about a meeting of great importance."
Mention of a meeting greatly alarmed Perry Rhodan. "Get to the bottom of this!" he gave Marshall to understand while Bell told Levtan: "We know how to take care of you and your accomplices but we want to be peaceful, Springer. Anyway, don't try to tell us your story about your non-existent friends again. We..."
But Levtan could not be intimidated so easily and Bell's threat fell flat. Slyly be examined the burly Reginald Bell. "I made two transition jumps yesterday and one again today. The Galactic traders are not asleep. They probably have already taken the bearings, of the structure disturbance and a fleet of the Mounders is perhaps now on the way..."
Now the telekineticist Tama Yokida who, by the power of his will could move objects wherever he wanted, decided to get into the act. He willed Levtan to rise to the ceiling.
The pariah began to rise with horrified expressions slowly but surely toward the ceiling, wildly flailing his arms and trying to grab ahold of something.
"We ought to let you starve to death up there!" Bell growled, watching him intently. "Levtan, you better tell what you have to offer us or we'll give you the same treatment as the Springers!"
Tama Yokida, the medium-sized stocky Japanese who had been a student of astronomy until Rhodan recognized his talents as a mutant and requested him to join his organization, stood motionlessly in the background and kept the outcast Levtan floating near the ceiling.
Soon Marshall was able to inform his chief: "He's weakening and has lost his desire to use his bag of tricks. He's not so sure anymore that his information has any value for us. Somewhere in the Galaxy an extraordinary meeting of the traders is going to take place..."
Perry Rhodan recognized that the stage had been set for him to take over the negotiations with the scurvy Springer. He passed the word through Marshall to the telekinetic Yokida to let Levtan come down again.
The terrified trader slowly descended like a balloon and stood on the floor. He wiped his bald head and stroked his sparse heard with his wet hand; sighing in anguish.
"Levtan," Rhodan began calmly. "You need help. You'll get all the assistance your ship needs. In turn we want you to tell us all you know about the meeting of the Galactic traders."
It was a typical attribute of Perry Rhodan. He acted as if he had played his highest trump whereas he had only shown his lowest card.
"I need weapons," Levtan rasped and his almond-shaped eyes glistened greedily.
At the same instant he screamed in fear and retreated toward the door. A man had taken form in front of him. A small slim man with the face of a child, appearing from nowhere. This man, a Japanese like Yokida, followed in Levtan's steps.
"I need weapons only as a last resort," Levtan corrected himself quickly, obviously unwilling to make closer acquaintance with the slender man. "By all the patriarchs! This is ghastly..."
"He's not leveling yet, Chief!" John Marshall whispered to Perry Rhodan.
"Call on Ras Tschubai!" Rhodan ordered.
Levtan's fright exceeded all restraints. Just as he saw the little man take his last step toward him a second tall slender man with dark skin appeared out of thin air. "My name is Ras Tschubai, Levtan! Shall I introduce my friends?"
"Chief, we've got him now where we want him," Marshall informed Rhodan.
"Levtan," Rhodan said in a tone pretending utter indifference, "I will give you one minute to sell me your bill of goods. If you're holding any part of it back I'll see to it that the Springers will be informed of your attempt..."
Suddenly Marshall interjected excitedly: "Chief, Patriarch Etztak will give a report about you at the meeting of the Springers!" and Perry Rhodan with his customary presence of mind quickly added to his words to Levtan: "Etztak will be highly pleased to drag you from the LEV XIV. Don't you think so?"
The pariah almost collapsed, barely managing to stay on his feet. He was glad to have the support of the black and the slight man at his left and right but when he reached out to lean on them he felt nothing and found himself standing alone near the door. The two had vanished in a flash; dissolved into nothing. In the same moment he saw them quietly standing together at a window behind the group of people in the room.
"I... I..." he panted and staggered, pressing his hands against his temples, "I'll... I'll tell everything. I don't want to make a deal..."
"Then let's have it!" Perry Rhodan said tersely, reinforcing his words with a stern look.
• • •
The LEV XIV was refurbished on Terrania like a new ship. Perry Rhodan put 300 robots to work on the battered craft and showed such generosity toward Levtan that Bell was consternated and muttered disgustedly: "You don't have to stuff millions down the throat of this traitor by force, Perry!"
Rhodan looked thoughtfully at his friend. "Remember when I was ready to give a kingdom for an idea?"
"
So what? Are you trying to tell me that this brigand of the stars has provided you with such an idea with his treason? Perhaps you want to conquer the planet where the patriarchs gather to plot our destruction?"
"Yes!"
"A kingdom for a chair!" Bell gasped with a futile look. "Perry, you're playing as bad a joke as It when we were shown a cold shoulder and denied admittance through the protective screen of Wanderer, Conquer a planet? With what? Our tiny fleet against the Springers?"
"Maybe there're better ways of conquering a planet than trying to attack it with a space armada," Rhodan replied undauntedly, smiling at Reginald Bell and stepping aside to greet Kitai Ishibashi.
Disconcertedly Bell gazed at his friend. It was true that Perry was ready to give a kingdom for an idea but now he was throwing away millions for that roving gipsy. A kingdom is expensive! Blast it, how did he expect to tackle the patriarchs without using the fleet?
He saw Perry and Kitai Ishibashi, the Suggestor, huddle together but Bell didn't figure out what they were up to.
• • •
The alert was canceled. Rhodan's highest aides pleaded with him not to run such a risk. He refused and remained silent on the subject even to Bell. But Reginald Bell knew his friend well and sensed that Perry was forcing an idea to take shape.
Rhodan went to visit Khrest. They chattered together and the Head of the New Power ostensibly acted as though there existed no danger at all from the Galactic traders.
When Rhodan ended the conversation Khrest was under the impression of having spent a rare leisurely hour in pleasant conversation with the usually preoccupied Perry.
On his way to Dr. Frank Haggard, the discoverer of the anti-leukemia serum which saved Khrest's life after his Arkonide spaceship crash-landed on the Moon, Rhodan ran into Bell.
"Where are you going, Perry?"
"To see Dr. Haggard."
"And where have you been?"
"Oh, with Khrest."
"Seems you're in a hurry, Perry! I'm too."
With amusement Perry watched his burly friend leave. He knew what bothered Bell: he was still trying to guess what action he had in mind to protect the imperiled Earth. Now Reggie was on his way to sound out Khrest for some clues.
Dr. Haggard was also surprised to see Perry Rhodan in such high spirits and didn't notice anything unusual when Bell came to inquire about the purpose of the visit. He willingly told him all about their conversation.
Bell went back to his office in a disgruntled mood. He had not been able to find out anything tangible and when the Chief held a conference with the mutants he didn't attach any special importance to it. Routine consultation, he thought.
However in this conference Perry Rhodan's plan had already taken on definite form.
Kitai Ishibashi unobtrusively wiped the perspiration from his brow. The tall; haggard Japanese suggestor looked completely exhausted. He had faced a formidable task and just accomplished it: Kitai Ishibashi had succeeded in impressing his will so indelibly on the crew of 40 men of the LEV XIV, including the wily Levtan, that they now believed they exercised each act and thought and made all statements according to their own free will.
He had implanted a mass of data in their minds, installing them furtively like a complicated maze of gears and now Perry Rhodan had conducted a grueling test of Levtan in his presence. Everything. had functioned smoothly.
"Thank you, Ishibashi," Perry Rhodan said warmly, shaking the hand of the Japanese, "but this was not the last job for you."
His ingenious plan, which later became known as Galactic Interception in the chronicles of mankind, had more than one aspect.
• • •
Everything fell in place with the precision of a structure sensor. Bell suddenly missed the teleporter Tako Kakuta. Before he inquired about him, he became aware that he had seen neither John Marshall nor Tama Yokida in a few days.
"Where are they?" he bellowed into the telecom. "Did I understand you right? Kakuta, Marshall and Yokida are all in the sickbay? In Haggard's private section?"
And that's where they were, indeed, as Reginald Bell found out when he sought them out at once. Dr. Haggard led him to three beds. Bell was baffled, looked again and growled at the physician: "I came to see our mutants, not these gypsies from the stars."
"But these are our mutants," Dr. Haggard explained patiently.
Bell had one of his grouchy days. "Dr. Haggard!" he said sharply at the moment when one of the three beds was suddenly empty and the patient materialized close to Bell.
Bell swallowed hard. "Kakuta!" he shouted and tried to grab the slight Japanese who now looked like a member of Levtan's crew. However his brawny hands gripped nothing but empty air. Tako Kakuta had teleported himself in a second tiny jump back to bed.
"I'm sick, sir!" Kakuta exclaimed, grinning all over his face. The little man who had pulled many such pranks on Bell was also cautious. He knew the temper of the other.
"Some day I'll wring your neck!" Bell hissed. He gave Dr. Haggard a grim look and stomped out
Slowly it began to dawn on him, He divined Perry's plan and didn't think too much of it. In the corridor outside the private section of the sickbay he murmured: "It's a desperate clutch at the famous straw!"
• • •
Reginald Bell had been sent as Rhodan's emissary to Peking. The Asiatic Federation believed it had reasons for complaining about transgressions of the western power bloc.
He had been detained for three days by meetings and conferences with the Asian Federation and for three days he had been annoyed by the bagatelles which were of inconsequential proportions compared to the peril threatening Terra as a whole. But the western power bloc had not been entirely blameless in the discord with the Asiatic Federation.
Bell had conducted his talks in Peking with the voice of an angel. On the evening of the third day, however, when he realized after interminable consultations that he had made not one iota of progress, his patience was exhausted.
Perry Rhodan couldn't have sent a more undiplomatic emissary to Peking then Reginald Bell! But Bell's methods seemed to bring results. When he called Washington from the conference room and talked in no uncertain language, he was finally able to drop into bed at midnight, muttering to himself: "At last!"
He flew back to Terrania in a pursuit ship. He piloted it himself. It was a pleasure of which he never let himself be deprived. The commander of the craft sat next to him in the co-pilot's seat
Bell was in the best frame of mind. The commander of the craft broke out in cold sweat and had trouble catching his breath. He pictured his craft lying smashed on the ground as Bell plummeted in a reckless steep curve down to the edge of the spaceport.
"Sir!"
"Why, what's bothering you?" Bell asked with a grin on his broad face, taking time out to look at his co-pilot.
Then, all of a sudden, the immense braking forces of the pursuit ship pulled the craft out of its course. Bell moved in a horizontal direction and the ship touched the ground with a hardly noticeable tap.
"Back home again," Bell said, looking over the space-port. He had already forgotten that he had nearly scared his co-pilot to death with his stunning manoeuvre. Suddenly he leaned forward. and stared at the landing pads of the heavy spaceships.
Stardust II was missing! The half-mile big spherical battleship of Perry Rhodan was nowhere to be seen!
"Where is Rhodan?" he yelled into the microphone.
"On Venus," the answer came from the loudspeaker.
• • •
Using the positronic brain on Venus was the only way to evaluate the chances of success Perry Rhodan's plan could have.
The positronic brain had been installed by the Arkonides on Venus inside a rock many thousands of years ago and then forgotten in the course of time until Rhodan had rediscovered it. He used it frequently.
Now he stood once again alone in front of its huge control panel and fed almost endless sequences of data into the mammoth mechanical brain.<
br />
On the flight to Venus he had talked for hours to Khrest about the Galactic traders, their clans, laws and customs.
Soon the positronic brain informed him that he would be furnished the result in 24 hours. Patiently he settled down to wait. As he quietly relaxed in the room before 'Ron', he contemplated the traders and the potentially greatest danger Terra had faced.
The race was as old as the Arkonides but had developed between the stars into a race of their own and adopted laws to maintain their identity and a loose unity.
The ancient code stipulated that an exiled member of the clan could only be reinstated if he performed an extraordinary deed from which the whole race of the traders drew a rich benefit.
Finally the brain furnished the sought for answer to the problem. Perry's hands trembled when he read the exact evaluation and realized that new problems had to be mastered in addition to the given solutions.
One hour later he returned with the Stardust to Earth. He arrived 30 minutes after Bell had come back to Terrania from Peking.
• • •
Kitai Ishibashi, the suggestor, called the procedure he used Strata Method.
Perry Rhodan interrupted him: "Ishibashi, I can't take chances. The risk is too great. This time I must depend solely on your ability. You'll have to put not only Levtan into a state of deep suggestion but the same treatment must be applied to each member of his crew. Is that clear?"
"Certainly, sir!"
"Come with me. Levtan is waiting in the next room. I've asked him to come for a session with me."
• • •
Kitai Ishibashi's suggestive powers penetrated deeper and deeper into Levtan while Rhodan watched them both.
The Suggestor imbedded his will in the dispelled trader in stratas. Earlier he had mentioned transplantation to Perry Rhodan, the method of grafting healthy skin to large sections of a burned body.
