by Perry Rhodan
Deringhouse had barely time enough to throw himself on a reclining seat before the G forces became dangerous.
Tifflor gasped with great difficulty for breath. Rous' face before him was distorted into a painful grimace in the typical manner facial muscles changed their shape under such stresses.
Tiff estimated that they were exposed to 10 G's over the tolerable amount when the structure sensors reacted violently. A tremendous ship must have emerged from hyperspace.
The still-functioning telecom sensors showed the huge glistening sphere of an Imperium class battleship. Stardust II had arrived!
Tiff heard the rasping laugh of the Commander. Suddenly he realized that Conrad Deringhouse had this up his sleeve all along. The Stardust was his trump. But the question was whether Perry Rhodan had come in time.
The alien spaceship accelerated at a fantastic rate, which was made easier due to the high velocity it had attained in the meantime.
The pressure reached 11 G's. Then came the stupefying dematerialization shock for which Tifflor had subconsciously waited.
Evidently the large ship had performed this manoeuvre together with the locked on K7 by injecting the booster mass.
Rous' face became blurred. It had faded into a pale hazy spot without recognizable contours. The soft rustling noise accompanying the transition was also audible.
Unforeseen events had taken them by surprise.
7/ The Secret Weapon
Perry Rhodan, always distinguished by his ability to shift his attention spontaneously, grasped the
situation intuitively.
As the Stardust returned to the normal universe, the alien ship was immediately detected and projected on the observation screen.
It took Rhodan only a second to shake off the materialization shock and be alert again.
The rangefinder registered the distance between the two ships as 1.9356 light-minutes. The transition had been executed with high precision but they emerged about a minute too late from hyperspace.
The awesome roar of the gigantic drive engines broke into Rhodan's deliberations. Chief Engineer
Manuel Garand had quickly and accurately complied with the instructions given before the transition.
The superbattleship surged forward. Within a few moments it reached the absolute maximum for travel below the speed of light. This limit was at .6% of the speed of light in accordance with the physical laws
of normal space.
The crew also came back to life again. The observation officer reported:
"Unidentified ship accelerating at extreme rate. Transition appears likely."
Rhodan heard the voluble curses of his First Officer. Reginald Bell realized that they came a moment too
late because of the time-consuming calculations.
"They probably hold the K7 in an enormously strong retaining field," the observation officer reported again. "A bombardment is inadvisable."
Rhodan knew this too. Quickly, without wasting words, he tried his last chance.
The rolled out gun turrets of the gigantic ship remained silent. Instead the power stations were abruptly switched over to howling transformers and through wireless conductors. Almost simultaneously the upper tractor-ray was activated by the combined energy sources of the Stardust. A lightning-fast gravitation beam measuring 60 feet shot from the projector. Where this highly concentrated field was applied, a small planet could be blasted out of its orbit. If the alien spaceship was caught in its beam, there was not the slightest chance of escape for it, including the mass of the K7.
The heated discussions on board the battleship stopped. The pale shimmer of the tractor-ray swishing away was clearly visible. It was even faster than the Stardust's own considerable speed.
Unfortunately its running time was still too long. Rhodan was the first to realize that he was laboring under an illusion.
Before the desired goal could be reached, the structure sensors reacted vigorously. The strange vessel vanished in a flicker of light.
Rhodan punched the button of the power switch. The tractor-ray projector went out like a light.
"Quiet on board!" Rhodan's voice resounded from all the loudspeakers in a cool, steely tone that caused even Bell to remain silent. "As you can see, we've come too late. The K7 was corralled by a substantially bigger ship. It's amazing that the aliens have been able to go into transition with our ship in tow outside. Attention, rangefinder section! Be on alert with structure sensors. Make sure you locate where the unknown ship emerges from hyperspace. It's unlikely they'll leap very far. I assume it's merely an emergency transition without a special target undertaken for the sole purpose of a quick escape. It's essential that you determine at once the approximate position after their reappearance."
After the rangefinder section confirmed the instructions, the commanders of the two heavy cruisers Terra and Solar System were ordered to advance in half an hour to the orbit of Pluto.
Major Nyssen and Captain McClears acknowledged the order.
"You aren't ready yet to give up?" a sonorous voice asked.
Rhodan turned his head. Khrest, the Arkonide, stood tall and erect behind him.
"I wouldn't think of it. If we succeed in spotting the ship on its return into space, we'll be able to calculate its approximate position. I've another question. Were you able to tell from the shape of the unknown ship whom we're dealing with?"
Khrest shook his high-domed head. "I'm sorry but I've been unable to come to a conclusion. There are many space travelers who build their ships like that. I'd have to see more details."
Rhodan was disappointed and turned back to his controls. A few moments later a weak rumble was heard in the RF section.
"Rematerialization has occurred, at a considerable distance," the observation officer reported. "It'll be very difficult, sir, to compute the exact position."
"Thank you, I'm aware of the margin of errors involved," Rhodan interrupted. "Give me the rough figures. I'll have the mathematical group take care of the precise results. Khrest, may I ask you to help me?"
Twenty minutes later both heavy cruisers arrived simultaneously. They approached at high speed and skilfully lined up in formation.
Rhodan joined the circle of his mutants who were all present The telepaths among them concentrated on the intensive vibrations they had received so painfully a short time ago.
"How about it?" Rhodan inquired. His face looked slim and impassive.
Marshall was the spokesman for the special corps. He slowly raised his shoulders. "Chief, if it's really possible to hear Tifflor two light-years away, he must be farther than that at this time. We can receive nothing at all."
"Does the presence of the ship's crew interfere with your perception? If so, I can take you a few light-hours out into intercosmic space."
"The emissions from the men don't disturb us. We're used to them. Cadet Tifflor is of no help to us now. We can't make contact with him."
Rhodan walked slowly toward the hatch. The three ships were in the process of braking. Now it was crucial to compute the reentry position of the escaped ship precisely. Rhodan knew that this would be a formidable task.
The mutants eyed their commander silently. Up to now everything had worked out according to his plans but the mysterious strangers had reacted expertly and too fast to suit Rhodan under the circumstances. It had been clear from the beginning that it wouldn't be practical to show up earlier since it would've been self-defeating to follow the decoy ship too closely.
Nevertheless, Rhodan was so far satisfied with the result. He had already determined beyond doubt that a first class spy organization existed in the territory of the New Power. The allegedly highly important mission of Cadet Tifflor had been discovered.
However, Rhodan was for the moment very little concerned with the elimination of the agents. He considered it more urgent to find out who professed such a burning interest in Terra. Only after this had been determined could Rhodan come to more definite conclusions as
to their proficiency and technical equipment as well as to their intentions.
Rhodan brooded for a minute before the big antigrav elevator in the central axis of the ship. A few men saluted. The lean man looked right through them as if they didn't even exist.
Rhodan's thoughts dwelled on the best weapon he deployed in this contest, namely Julian Tifflor. Tiffs implanted transmitter was working continuously. If Rhodan succeeded in getting within a distance of two light-years, it would be an easy matter to pinpoint his location.
It wouldn't help his adversaries one whit to hide in the deepest burrows under the mountains of unknown worlds, where they would have been safe from detection by technical means but nonetheless exposed to probings via all-pervasive telepathy.
Now it was necessary to bring the 'secret weapon Tifflor' back into play and to do this they had to perform some intricate calculations.
Rhodan found some solace in the thought that he had allowed himself at least two light-years leeway. This was a considerable margin of tolerance.
Before riding up to the Command Center he checked in at the Machine Control room of the superbattleship.
The technical team under Manuel Garand had done exemplary work. The bewildering array of installations for the mechanical guidance held no more secrets for the team.
Garand's cherubic face lit up when he recognized the Chief. "What can I do for you? Any special wishes?" he inquired, sounding like a pleased child who had just received some presents.
Rhodan was cheered up again by Garand who was one of those goodnatured characters who talked in the most cordial manner when conditions were at their worst. When Chief Engineer Garand began to beam it meant that stormy weather was brewing.
"None," Rhodan exclaimed. "Just keep everything shipshape. You understand that we'll soon be in the thick of things. It'd be ridiculous if we couldn't corner these kidnapers."
"We'll do our part," the corpulent engineer promised happily. "By the way, sir, I've given some thought to the retaining field we've observed. Would you like to take a look at the data?"
Rhodan grinned with real pleasure. "Well," he said broadly, "I knew I could get something out of you."
As Rhodan walked over to the computer,Stardust II was losing the last of its speed. The ship came to a complete stop about 180 miles beyond the orbit of Pluto. The familiar Sun was only a pale little disk that could hardly be suspected of making a burning hell out of a planet like Mercury.
In the Command Center Reginald Bell switched his controls over to standby and grumbled as he got up from his seat. "I wonder what the devil we're getting into," he mumbled. "I'd love to get these hijackers before a cannon. That would simplify our questioning, don't you think?"
The robot he addressed didn't react and Bell saved himself some very abusive and very useless words. Disgustedly he trotted over to the drink dispenser.
In spite of his state of gloom he had the feeling that Rhodan would persevere in the end no matter what setbacks he encountered.
8/ Enter: The Springers
They were painfully familiar with the pangs of rematerialization and knew that the transition had ended.
The temporary derangement of the senses and the blood-red surge before the eyes indicated that they had made a long leap. Such effects were produced only in jumps of over 200 light-years.
Deringhouse struggled to get out of his reclining seat. The other men in the Command Center were slowly coming to. The cadets—not being used to such extreme stress—took a few more minutes to recover.
Tifflor saw the Commander stagger from the radio room. Deringhouse's breathing was heard as shrill, whistling noises in the closed helmets. Apparently he had to gather all his strength to overcome his exhaustion.
Rous, too, was up again. Tiff's first feeble effort was to touch the metal cylinder in his breastpocket. As long as his spacesuit remained closed, he was unable to trigger the built-in self-destruct device.
He was gripped by panic. Nobody had to tell him what the unknown skipper had done with the K7. He didn't have the haziest notion whether their pursuers were merely intent on intercepting his secret message or capturing their spacesphere, though in the final analysis it made very little difference to him.
He was fully convinced that the explicit orders he had received required him to destroy at once the capsule containing the secret microtapes.
The observation screens had become unobstructed again. Tiff quickly glanced at the front panel. Not far from the ship, still moving close to the speed of light, a clearly recognizable doublestar was shining. The larger, orange-colored sun seemed to stand much closer than its blue companion.
Tiff tried for a moment to search his memory for the names of such doublestars but he quickly gave up since there were too many in the universe. It was much more important that he follow his orders regarding the message.
After a few seconds he also got up on his feet. It was at the same moment that the strangers began to open the large freight airlock above the circular bulge.
The warning lights flashed in the Command Center. Sergeant Rous cursed dreadfully. Farther back the roar of a firing impulsebeamer sprang up. Tiff spun around in horror. Who could be so stupid as to blast away in the narrow confines of the K7 with an energy weapon releasing bursts as hot as the sun?
"Disintegrators only!" the commander shouted into the microphone. "Cease thermo's at once! Do you want to vaporize the ship?"
The answer came in the form of shrill warning sirens from the climate control. In some departments of the vessel the temperature must have reached intolerable levels.
Tifflor stopped watching the events. It was obvious the little crew of the K7 didn't stand a chance.
Deftly he caught the weapon Eberhardt threw to him. It was a heavy disintegrator, shooting rays that dissolved solid matter.
An infernal din broke out in the radiohelmets that forced the men to tone them down to nearly zero. Everybody was screaming and yelling in unison. The mingled cries of pain made Deringhouse fear the worst. The deep-toned explosions from unknown weapons was unmistakable.
"Run to the rangefinder section!" the Commander called out to the cadet. "Hurry!"
Tiff took the risk of opening his helmet inside the hermetically sealed section room. Now the din of the battle grew much louder. It was getting closer. Several of the picture screens in the department had stopped functioning. Then the electric current was shut off and the lights went out as all other screens also became dark.
"They've taken over the Machine Control room," Rous said dispiritedly. "They must be pretty tough. They broke in when we were still half-unconscious. Otherwise this wouldn't have happened, you can take my word for that."
Rous could have been right but it was now already highly irrelevant. As the noise outside the closed hatch rose to a fever pitch and a white-hot spot appeared on the armored steel panel, Tifflor pulled the spacesuit from his body. He became desperate when the magnetic lock on his collar jammed and stubbornly refused to give way under his impatient tugging.
The room was empty of people. Whoever could hold a gun had taken cover behind heavy pieces of equipment.
The collar lock finally broke open when the hatch began to melt under the tremendous heat applied. A painful gust of hot air was blown against Tiff's unprotected face and the hatch disintegrated.
There was a blinding light outside. As Tiff tore open his uniform, the Command Center was raked by flashing bursts. They shot into the room with unfamiliar shockweapons and Deringhouse suddenly realized why he'd heard those cries of pain before.
Cadet Eberhardt was the first to collapse. He was followed by Rous, Martin and Hifield. Deringhouse managed to get off a shot into the hallway before he too was felled by one of the lightning flashes. He crashed moaning to the floor, stiff as a board.
Disregarding the battle, Julian Tifflor paid only attention to the task at hand. He didn't touch his weapon and wasted no time looking for cover.
When the giant figures s
tormed into the Command Center and the lamps flared up again, Tiff stood calmly in the middle of the room with the transparent armored walls which had repulsed the rays from the enemy guns.
With fascination he watched the metal capsule go up in bright cold flames on the radio set where he'd placed it for all to see.
Tifflor, the youth constantly plagued by self-doubts and insecurity, had in a moment become a man without nerves.
With an ironical smile he faced the approaching intruders, who looked like intelligent humanoid beings. When the first one reached him, Tifflor was still smiling.
The six and a half foot tall, extremely robust stranger stopped in his tracks. He wore a light spacesuit of the Arkonide pattern, yet he was no Arkonide.
Tiff first noticed the red short-trimmed beard, the big menacing eyes in a broad face and the fiery red hair. He looked like a veritable giant as he planted himself in front of the slim young man from the planet Terra.
More figures of the same huge size came in. Their raucous voices fell silent. They stared threateningly at Tifflor, whose quiet smile was probably more effective than senseless resistance.
Tiff surpassed himself in a remarkable performance. In his most charming manner, without a trace of trepidation, he began speaking in Intercosmo: "Pero! Hello! May I welcome you on behalf of the indisposed Commander on board the Terra spaceship K7? Although your entry was a little stormy, I'm going to bring out the champagne right away. I beg your pardon, if you're not acquainted with the customs of our civilization that has produced such a delicious drink. Would you like to sit down?"
One of the red-bearded men raised a hand that looked more like a paw. He snarled something as if he were in charge. His eyes flitted from Tiff to the scorched spot on the radio set, where not even a speck of ash remained.
Nevertheless, Tiff subsequently came close to fainting. The man with the red beard folded his hands in front of his belly, bent over backwards and let go such a bellowing laugh that Tiff thought his eardrums were going to burst.
Tiff couldn't help being reminded of the old fire siren he had found as a boy in a junkyard and fixed up again together with a friend. Now he understood why his father was apoplectic with rage the first time they tested it. He, Tiff, was now in a similar situation.
