Thora's Sacrifice

by Perry Rhodan

  "I suspected as much when I charged Taa-Rell with acting in bad faith. If you're right, Deringhouse, we've no alternative but to make a desperate attempt to escape. How high do you think we can go?"

  The officers in the Command Center exchanged appreciative glances. They were greatly impressed by Thora's courage and calm. In a most casual tone she had just inquired at what altitude the Burma would evaporate in space after the futile attempt to flee.

  "First of all we'll have to do something about these. Fifty fighter robots. It may be ridiculous but we can't take off unless these robots withdraw and they won't do that voluntarily without taking you and me with them. Or..." Deringhouse stopped to think hard. "Yes, that's what we'll have to try! Com Center, connect me with the Robot Brain. Use the Urgent Code!"

  "Yes sir," the radio officer answered, "Urgent Code."

  7/ SENSELESS TRAGEDY

  The connection with Arkon 3 could not be effected.

  Taa-Rell called again to issue an ultimatum. He gave them 10 minutes. Fifty Arkonide fighting machines waited for admittance.

  The antigravitators of the Burma droned even louder to keep the ship in horizontal position. Deringhouse kept a close watch. "Where did the robots take up positions outside the ship?" he inquired with pretended calm.

  The observation instruments at airlock 3 were still intact after the hurricane of unleashed energy and Deringhouse received the information on the spot.

  "Is that so?" Deringhouse responded, to the disappointment of everybody.

  Fire Control Officer Alden returned from his special assignment. The sweat dripped from his face but he didn't seem to mind as he reported happily: "All energy lines to the weapons sector have been channeled to the propulsion system. Our impulse-engine technicians have assured me that the propulsion ring assembly won't be blown away, General."

  Deringhouse ignored the questioning eyes of his staff officers. "Seven more minutes. I think it's time we got busy, gentlemen. Pasgin!"

  "General?" the First Officer looked expectantly at Deringhouse.

  "Have all connections to the destroyed telescopic supports been severed?"

  "Yes sir!"

  "Very good. Now pay close attention to the following instructions. This is Gen. Deringhouse!" he called into the mike of ship's telecom. "All men are directed to take precautions against injuries by a violent change of the ship's stability. Make sure to remove all hazards from falling objects!"

  Only Pasgin and Olavson seemed to have an inkling of the general's plan and they grinned with great satisfaction.

  Next Deringhouse called airlock 3. "Assemble our fighter robots at your station. As soon as the ship has come to rest again they must launch a lightning attack on the bunkers of their opposite numbers!"

  "Now I can see your strategy," Thora commented as she secured herself in her chair and the personnel in the Command Center followed her example.

  Five minutes before the ultimatum expired, Joe Pasgin timed the abrupt retraction of the remaining number of telescopic legs with the simultaneous cessation of the antigravitators' boost. The light cruiser hit the ground, toppled over and buried itself deep in the icy surface of Mutral.

  A thunderous roar shook the body of the sphere. The ice was crushed with an infernal din and compressed under the impact of tons of steel. The sudden compression heated the ice and caused it to melt so that the Burma sank deeper and deeper till it finally settled on the rocks underneath.

  The incidental reduction of 50 Arkonide robots into a pile of junk was a welcome side effect.

  Unfortunately Deringhouse's calculations were erroneous in one respect: the Burma was so hemmed in by, the ice that it would be unable to free itself under its own power. Deringhouse saw his mistake at once and gave orders to disembark 30 more robots through airlock 1.

  The men watching the action on the panoramic screen made bets as to how many of their robots would reach the entrance to the subterranean fortifications.

  They were well aware that the planetary defense installations of the Arkonides could bring no more than one-thousandth of their potential pressure to bear against the intruders because the system was designed to repulse attacks from outer space and only a very small part of their artillery could be deployed against targets moving on the icy plain. However the Arkonides and their robots had already proven how much damage they could inflict by smashing the highly effective protective shield of the Burma.

  Thirty Terranian fighting machines, soaring in the protection of their own antigrav fields, self-controlled and able to make their independent decisions, raced from three directions toward their goal although they had started from the same exit.

  An energy beam fanned out broadly from one of the numerous dark openings in the ice of Mutral. Two robots went up in smoke and a third was cut in two by the devastating power of the ray and plummeted to the ground.

  Two more ray cannons joined the fray with a deafening thunder, making the massive rock and compact ice shake as they sent their blasts out into space with the heat of a sun.

  Four robots were caught together in the blasts of impulse-cannons and formed long white-hot trails in the sky.

  "Disintegrator rays!" Hendrik Olavson exclaimed as two other mechanical men suddenly evaporated and made the aligned wave concentrations of the energy field discernible.

  "Two of them got through Merck shouted triumphantly. Then he suddenly gasped when he failed to see any other robots in the air. Soon he realized that he had underestimated the resourcefulness of the robots. Those who were still in fighting shape had dropped down between jumbled ice formations and hugged the ground as they advanced like infantry.

  "Attack from the right!" Merck warned loudly.

  Eight Arkonide robots dashed out from a concealed underground bunker. The first got no farther than five meters before it perished in the heat of thermo-beams.

  But then the situation became critical. Two other openings spewed Arkonide reinforcements out on the surface till more than 40 robots confronted their 20 equals from Terra. There was no room for courage or cowardice in their make-up: they only did what they were designed to do.

  "Release second team of robots!" Deringhouse bellowed into the mike.

  A few seconds later airlock 1 reported to the Command Center: "Diffraction projectiles ejected, General!"

  None of the staff officers had noticed the launching and they were reluctant to ask Deringhouse about it. Their attention was glued to the fascinating battle raging between robots bent on each others' destruction. The outcome could decide if they were ever to see Earth again"

  Thora leaned forward and asked Deringhouse: "What's the purpose of the projectiles?"

  Deringhouse answered ominously: "The Arkonides will be wondering about it too when their computers go berserk and feed the craziest data to the rangefinder instruments of their artillery."

  Thora had been too much isolated from the constantly improving technology of the Solar Imperium and his answer didn't mean much to her. She asked another question but had to wait for his answer.

  "Airlocks two and four! Let the robots go!" Deringhouse was seized by battle fever but remained on top of the action. Nor did he forget Thora's question. "These diffraction projectiles are jamming devices which were built by the Swoons. They are even better than the ones Pucky's dearest friend Muzzel has supplied for the Drusus. Look, Thora!" The transmitters are already functioning. Did you see those three impulse-beams which shot almost straight up into space? I hope that the Burma won't get hit by accident."

  Pandemonium had broken out on the icy world of Mutral. What first looked like a probing mission of the Terranian robots now had developed into a relentless battle of crunching steel colossi who were better suited than human beings by virtue of their positronic control and ability to react with instant accuracy.

  Suddenly Deringhouse gained the impression that the artificial light had grown a little dimmer outside. Thora had noticed it even before him. "Three robots have spread out in t
he darkness. I wonder if they're knocking out the searchlights?"

  Shortly afterwards their guess was confirmed when it suddenly went dark in the north. However the machines were still able to tell friend from foe.

  Now the ground burst open. Tremendous flames licked the sky and violent explosions ripped through rock and ice as a small part of the subterranean bulwark dissolved in a red cloud.

  "Glord!" Merck wondered aloud, "what are they shooting at?"

  "Attack from outer space," the officer at the space screen sensor guessed before he looked at the instrument in front of him which could supply the information. The space sensor registered nothing at all. "What's the matter with those skony Arkonide target-trackers?" he added. "What are they shooting at?"

  It was the same question Merck had asked but he was too puzzled to take notice of it.

  More and more guns opened up and fired their deathly rays into the sky in a steady stream without varying their useless direction.

  All around the Burma, lying slanted in the ice, the planet erupted and spewed out chunks of red-hot Arkonide steel. An atomic chain reaction appeared to be in progress at seven different places.

  Deringhouse wondered about the havoc the shockwaves of the explosions would cause throughout the subterranean fortifications and whether the commander of Mutral and the Aras who had joined him on orders of the Robot Brain would survive the inferno.

  Ignoring the uproar around him, which devastated the surroundings of the Burma and made its hull reverberate like an enormous bell, Olavson tried once more to pull the ship out by applying the antigravitators to the hilt. He was overjoyed by his success and yelled lustily: "Up we go! The suction field is gone. More power to the generators... a little more... here we go!"

  The 100-meter sphere bounced up, swayed back forth and finally settled down on its extended telescopic supports.

  Deringhouse was on the verge of giving the order to clear out and to leave about two dozen robots behind since their loss didn't matter very much. His mission to get 100 warships from Arkon had been frustrated in any case. But before he was able to issue the command to start, he noticed that three of their robots came running back. Each one carried in its metallic arms an Arkonide clad in a spacesuit.

  "Wait a minute, Deringhouse!" Thora had put her hand on his arm. The pressure of her fingers was strong and although the tone of her voice was urgent it was no order but a plea to attract his attention to the three robots racing toward the ship.

  Deringhouse looked at her in utter astonishment. He couldn't believe his eyes. Was this the same woman who was supposed to suffer from a disease like leukemia?

  But he had no time to reflect further on the thought as the robots had reached the Burma with their loads and ducked into its shade.

  All of a sudden Mutral seemed to fly apart! A volcano of pent-up energy issued forth from the depth of the planet and tore it asunder. The Burma tottered under the convulsions of the ground until the antigravitators restored its balance again.

  The tremendous explosion ripped through the powerful subterranean machinery installations which generated the energy for thousands of artillery emplacements. This sector of the planetary fortress of Mutral was so thoroughly demolished that it would automatically result in the intervention of the Robot Regent. The loss of the gigantic power stations was extremely serious.

  Although the 27th planet was at the outer fringes of the Arkon, system, it bristled with weapons and was linked to Arkon 3 in a defense network which had stood the test of time for thousands of years. It was unthinkable that the mammoth brain wouldn't register the loss it had sustained without delay and the Terranians had learned from bitter experience how quickly it could react.

  "Emergency start!" Deringhouse roared above the din of churning rocks which answered their collision with the unfettered torrent of energy with a noise that could be heard around the planet.

  There was a report from airlock 2 which was drowned out by the frenetic turmoil.

  The First Officer of the Burma yielded his seat to the general. Hendrik Olavson instantly slammed his controls on Start. The protective field generators whistled briefly with an intensity that surpassed everything else and the high-tension screen guarded the light cruiser again as it blasted out into space with maximum thrust.

  "Eight units spotted at yellow, General!"

  This was the answer of the Robot Brain to the destruction of one of its large power stations on Mutral. The giant positronicon had already mobilized eight robot-battleships.

  "Fourteen units approaching from green and yellow!"

  Now the Burma demonstrated its supreme power of acceleration and the superb coordination of all its aggregates. One minute had passed since the takeoff and the ship had reached 0.3 speol when the computer began to emit the transition data. Mutral had dropped away from the vessel like a stone but now the planet belched fire. A thermo-beam of incredible size missed the Burma by less than one kilometer, taking the breath away from the officers in the Command Center.

  The radio officer announced: "Call from the Robot Brain. Demands return to Mutral."

  "Go to hell!" Thora Rhodan exclaimed in a vibrant voice. Her eyes gleamed as she followed the ever-faster turning dial showing the phenomena! Acceleration of the Burma.

  "Over to Phi, Olavson! Deringhouse shouted fiercely. He knew that only Olavson's genius could get them out of this witch cauldron that threatened to engulf them.

  The thrust-absorbers screeched and red lamps flickered on the instrument panel. Warning sirens joined in. Olavson shoved the main control lever up against the stop.

  The Burma responded instantly to the seething forces and the acceleration leaped up on the scale as the light cruiser performed a sweeping curve at fantastic speed. A blinding deluge of energy raced toward the ship faster than the eye could follow. Four spaceships of the Imperium class had loosed broadsides against the little Burma but had failed to allow for the abrupt change of course. The energy shafts streaked past the protective shield of the Burma like a hot breath, out of hell and their slight touch was enough to push the field projectors up to over 100%. The warning lamps and howls of alarm combined to create a mad spectacle in the Command Center as the Burma was in danger of flying apart or losing its ring of engines.

  Mutral resumed its fire. Had they scored a hit? The hull of the Burma droned like a bell but the fear of an atomic explosion was averted, as it remained intact.

  "Enemy object at blue..."

  The field projectors of the protective screen had dropped to 100% again but the output of the propulsion system had risen to the magnitude of 107!

  Deringhouse was bathed in sweat and his eyes burned. Watching Olavson operating with unnatural calm from the copilot seat didn't give him much relief.

  At this moment the computer brain of the Burma began the countdown for the transition which was set to take place in 30 seconds. Arkon seemed to know when it was coming.

  Mutral kept shooting with all guns at the fleeing cruiser from Terra while more than 30 Arkonide warships approached the Burma in concentric flight.

  Olavson's hands flitted like shadows across the extensive control panel. He conducted more reckless evasive manoeuvres than any other spaceship had ever been forced to fly. Something or other was constantly taxed to the limit of its performance aboard the light cruiser or exceeded it—either the propulsion engines, the antigravitators, the protective shield projectors or the thrust-absorbers. It was a true miracle that the bulge around the vessel had not become separated from the hull by the strain.

  "Transition in 10 seconds!"

  Suddenly they were 'greeted' by a fortress in space—one of 5,000 such bulwarks which were part of Arkon's defensive system that stretched 20 light-hours far into space beyond the most distant planet.

  Five impulse-beams streaked past the Burma. The course of the ship seemed to carry it to its doom.

  Finally it was time for the transition! The moment they jumped into hyperspace they were stru
ck by a volley—a direct hit which caught the ship as it dematerialized.

  The full energy of a disintegrator beam from the gun of an Arkonide super-battleship combined with the transition-energy of the Burma. Its destructive effect was eliminated but the transition-energy was multiplied enormously.

  The crew was in the throes of the most painful transition shock and fought desperately to pull out of it. Only Thora was unaffected by any physical discomfort and she was the one who first raised the cry of alarm: "We're plunging into a sun!"

  The panoramic screen of the Command Center was inundated from all sides by a flood of brilliant light.

  Once again it was Hendrik Olavson who reacted instantaneously. He performed an emergency transition without computer data and without asking questions.

  Only after they had materialized again in the normal universe did he turn to Deringhouse, tapping his brow. "Should I have waited for your orders, General?"

  Before Deringhouse replied he glanced at the panoramic screen where the sun which had nearly swallowed them up a few seconds earlier now appeared as a tiny luminous disk. "To fly with you, Olavson, is a hell of a torture." He put his hand on Olavson's shoulder in admiration. But the next moment he roared: "How was it possible that we got the wrong transition data and almost collided with a sun when we emerged from hyperspace?"

  Deringhouse was completely unaware that the Burma had received a direct hit from the Arkonide battleship when it was just entering the stage of dematerialization and had adjusted its energy to the dynamics of hyperspace.