by Perry Rhodan
When and where had his men made contact with Springers and how had they been able to convince these galactic traders to help them?
Now Exwin's voice sounded again from the loudspeaker. "Sir, Gen. Sutokk's space soldiers have also taken up the search for the Terran merchant crew as of just a few minutes ago! The General demanded that I issue an order forbidding all ships from taking off... for an unlimited duration! When I refused he threatened me with his fleet."
"Do what he wants, then," said Egg-Or, oddly calm. "But if he gives you any new orders, let me know first before you carry them out. Over and out."
He glanced up and looked at Ostal. "Take a seat if you will, Terran. This may take awhile. I have some things to take care of yet."
Then he remembered the watch robots and sent them out. He watched them go until the door had closed behind them.
Maj. Clyde Ostal sat down hesitantly. He had to admit to himself that he did not know the defense chief very well. Was this Ekhonide simply a declared opponent of brainlashing or was he one of those influential men who in their actions resisted the rule of the positronic Regent on Arkon 3 though through wisdom never displaying their resistance in any revolutionary form?
"Terran," Egg-Or began, forgetting about all the things he was to take care of, "you told me in our last interview that every Terran is a Perry Rhodan. I'm giving you the opportunity to prove it!"
"Look here..."
Then the telescreen sounded again. Exwin was at the other end. "Sir! Gen. Sutokk's space troops have captured the Terran crew without a fight!"
"Where?" Egg-Or demanded.
"In the headquarters of the United Small Traders on the north edge of the city."
"In the headquarters of the United Small Traders on the north edge of the city," Egg-Or repeated softly, not realizing he had said it out loud. He considered only what he might still do and did not sense the alien force overpowering his thoughts.
Egg-Or suddenly stood up. "Terran, from this moment on it would be senseless to ignore the orders of the Regent. Whatever you and your men have to hide the General will soon know. Meanwhile, Arkon is already aware of Earth's galactic position. Yes, in spite of your erasure of the Tigris ' positronicon memory banks, we were able to obtain enough data to indicate the place where Terra might be found.
"But just tell me one thing which interests the General and me considerably: was Perry Rhodan behind this puzzling mistransition of your ship?"
Ostal managed a sympathetic smile. "Egg-Or, the Tigris is a small merchant vessel and not a ship in the Terran spacefleet. What is so mysterious about the mistransition of my ship, really? Doesn't it happen to every spacer now and then? Or do you have something to hide? It almost seems that way to me, Ekhonide."
"What do you mean by that, Terran?"
"What do I mean? Well, the crime of illegally capturing the Tigris is hardly enough for a Gen. Sutokk to make a murderer out of himself as well by ordering members of my crew to undergo a brainlashing! Behind this murderous order is hidden much more... but what, Egg-Or? That is what I'm asking myself and what I'm asking you!"
Unnoticed by Egg-Or but evident to Maj. Ostal, officer of the Solar Security Service, an astounding change came over the Ekhonide defense chief. His tense face relaxed and a pleasant and friendly Ekhonide made his appearance, nodding affably to Ostal.
Rhodan's here!the Major thought. One of the mutants is at work on Egg-Or with hypnotic or suggestive power. The cavalry certainly arrived at the last minute this time!
Egg-Or was chatting now but mentioned nothing of the Tigris, Gen. Sutokk or anything else relating to the Tigris operation. Then he stood up and approached Ostal, who instinctively rose as well, reached out his hand and said: "You are free to go now. Come visit me again, Ostal, should your travels bring you back to Ekhas. I would be very happy to see you again..."
...though I rather doubt it,the Major thought as he stepped out onto the street. He was not at all surprised when a small, slender Springer hurried past and whispered to him in English: "Maj. Ostal, go to the head of the third street on the right!" The 'Springer' went on and after a few steps was lost in the press of the crowd.
9/ THE DESPERATE GAME ENDS
Gen. Sutokk had assembled his staff around him. The newscaster ran constantly, broadcasting one report after the other. All the news was coming from the offices of the United Small Traders. That was a union of small Springer clans who conducted their business together on many different worlds, thus keeping their overhead low. Considered as a single entity, the UST was no small economic factor and the tirading General was reminded of that by an adjutant.
"General, we should let the matter drop. If it should also become known that the Arkon Defense interfered with the strict rank-ordering laws of the Springers in the case of the Mab 1, we'd drive a large number of Springer clans straight into Rhodan's arms. The Terran agents are already spreading it quietly around that the Positronicon on Arkon 3 can't be trusted. So I urgently advise that we accept at face value the claim of the Springers in the United Small Traders' offices that the crew of the Tigris came in only by chance. We'll find out the truth when we get the Terrans under a brainlash."
Gen. Sutokk finally realized that his adjutant's suggestion was reasonable and would save him a great deal of trouble. With a grim expression he turned to the officer at the newscaster. "Have the Terrans sent to headquarters at once! Should we send out watch robots?... What for? 50 men would be enough to safely bring that weaponless group here. Pass on the order, then! What are you waiting for?"
In spite of his success, the General's mood was still bad. He simply could not rid himself of the feeling that Perry Rhodan could be behind the mistransition of the Tigris. Moreover, just an hour before his scientists had reported their thoughts on the coordinates obtained from the Tigris positronicon.
"General, it's possible that the whole lot of data is false. With the help of the great Arkon Star Catalog we checked out the galactic coordinates and while we did find a solar system in that position, it's a system that has been known to us for 8,000 years and contains no inhabited planets."
"You're just now telling me this?" Gen. Sutokk had stormed. "You know that I've already passed the data on to the Regent by hypercom. Have Arkonide ships started flying out to that system yet, gentlemen?"
"So far as we can ascertain, sir, no."
"Then the catalog’s wrong!" With that rather audacious statement he had sent the scientists away. He thought of it again as his order was transmitted to the office of the UST for the Terrans to be brought to fleet headquarters, which was located in that part of the spaceport reserved for the Regent's battleships.
The streets leading past the business offices were completely blocked off, resulting in two enormous traffic jams. Hundreds of Ekhonides and vehicles grew in minutes to thousands. The civilians were ill pleased by the stoppage and Arkon's space soldiers suffered all manner of insults.
Then the Ekhonides saw the 30 Terrans whose picture had been continuously broadcast over the television channels since the day before, the same Terrans who had accomplished the impossible by breaking out of the Star of Arkon.
No one paid any attention to two galactic traders wedged in the crowd and looking across the street to the Springer trading office door. I was small and slender, the other tall and lanky with a slight slouch in his posture. They did not speak. They only saw.
Three armored vehicles pulled up from the side streets. A cordon of heavily-armed space soldiers formed a narrow lane to the armored cars for the Terrans.
The tall, lanky Springer gazed calmly at the loading site. Nothing about him betrayed the vast powers he controlled.
Then the officer wearing a portable communicator, in direct contact with the newscaster in Gen. Sutokk's office, declared the leading operation finished and announced that the 32 Terrans would arrive in the next half hour.
Then the order came for the space soldiers blocking the street from both sides to climb aboard the ar
mored vehicles.
A minute later the convoy rolled out. Nothing more could be seen of the Terrans inside the vehicles.
Traffic moved again and the Ekhonides and tourists could go on their way. The two Springers who had stood silently next to each other entered the nearest building.
In the middle of an empty floor, the tall man stood behind the short one, wrapped his arms about his companion's chest—and the air shimmered and the room was suddenly emptier than before.
Out in front of the reception building at the spaceport, two Springers stood on the street seeming to wait for something in particular. Their patience was not put to any great test. A small modern truck rolled up and stopped near them. They climbed inside without a word and the man at the throttle, a Springer with a steely gaze, set the truck in motion once more. He drove up to a fork in the road: an unmistakable sign read to the effect that the sideroad led to the headquarters of the Arkonide fleet.
Four Springers sat in the somewhat cramped cab of the truck along with a man who could be recognized at first glance as a Terran: Maj. Clyde Ostal.
They were all waiting for the crew of the Tigris.
From their parking place they could see the Terran merchant spacer. Its name shone clearly in the light from Naral reflecting off the surface of the sphere: Tigris.
"They're coming," a Springer with Fellmer Lloyd's voice said suddenly. "They're driving at top speed. Everything seems to be running smoothly."
Then the convoy thundered past them but it did not turn in to the sideroad leading to Arkonide Fleet Headquarters. It went straight on!
The small truck started up again and sped up, maintaining a position just behind the armored transports. The group raced past the huge reception and administration building. Now the convoy went out on the spacefield itself, streaking across the flat plastic concrete surface of the spaceport towards a small Ekhonide spaceship whose crew came out to meet it and seemed to think nothing of leaving a spaceship behind with the engines running and no one aboard.
The armored cars rolled up to the broad ramp leading up into the spacer. The space soldiers sprang out, again forming a double line to make a pathway for the 32 Terrans to reach the alien spaceship. They did not concern themselves with the truck that had held close to the rear armored car nor did they take notice of the five men who pushed through the line of guards to climb into the Ekhonide ship too.
In front of the second transport vehicle stood an officer making his report over the audio-video communicator. "In three minutes the convoy will turn back towards headquarters. ETA: 15:67 and..."
A high-pitched voice bellowed out of the loudspeaker. "What did you say, Thur-Ges? Why did you stop in front of a spaceship? What's going on over there? Answer me!"
With incredible calmness Thur-Ges, officer in the spacefleet of the Regent of Arkon, repeated his statements. "In three minutes the convoy will turn back towards headquarters. ETA..."
The last Terran to enter the hatch of the small Ekhonide spacer heard the scream from headquarters: "All ships take off immediately! Alarm! Take off immediately! Details will follow!" Sgt. Fip had been the last man. He closed the hatch and the ramp automatically drew itself in. Meanwhile, Perry Rhodan, at the head of their men, ran through the ship to the control room.
Every second was precious. The lead they had over the Arkonide fleet was only relative. They did not know how many ships the headquarters had already underway in the Naral System.
Perry Rhodan threw himself into the pilot's seat. Kitai Ishibashi, the suggestor, had once more accomplished an excellent piece of work. All the equipment aboard this small spacer could be immediately turned on at full power. Just then a light came on indicating that all the hatches were closed.
Syncontrol set at '1'! The engines began to howl. Antigrav field: max! The spacer leaped into the blue Ekhonide sky and accelerated like it never had before. The absorber hummed as it soaked up the inertial force of acceleration before it could affect the crew. "Hypercom ready?" Rhodan asked over the intercom to the Com Center, which on this small ship was
adjacent to the control room. "Ready, Chief," the man at the hypercom unit called back. The word 'chief' sounded like a fanfare. "Prepare a hypercom message for the Lotus : Arkon, Arkon... No, not that!" Rhodan decided,
remembering suddenly that he had already used the word 'Arkon' in the middle of the Milky Way for the call from the Lotus to the Mab 1. "Use this instead: Mercant, Mercant, Mercant..."
"Chief...?" Rhodan already knew what the man at the hypercom wanted to say. "Pronounce it with an Arkonide accent: that's all that's necessary. Then the boys listening in on the 'other side' will have their work cut out for them, trying to figure out what that word repeated three times can possibly mean..."
The small radar also functioned. The man posted at it reported: "Sir, a battleship is nearing Ekhas.
Position..." and gave its coordinates. "I've got him," said Kitai Ishibashi with uncanny calm, meaning the commander of the oncoming Arkonide battlespacer.
Just as he had influenced Egg-Or, 50 Arkonide soldiers and the crew of this small ship, so now he reached across a gigantic distance in space and forced the mind of the enemy commander to his will. 10 minutes later Gen. Sutokk was overcome by a third outburst of rage because his radarman reported that the Arkonide spacer had taken a different direction than the one ordered over the radio."
"Has everyone gone crazy?!" he exploded.
Meanwhile the small Ekhonide ship had left the atmosphere. Mercilessly Rhodan drained the ship of everything that it was capable of. Every second was precious. If the Arkonide spacers lying at the spaceport had already taken off, their desperate game would soon be at an end. His suggestor Kitai Ishibashi was no magician and, no matter how much he was capable of, Rhodan knew where his mutant's limits lay.
"Transmit hypercom message!" he called to the Com Center, using his raised voice instead of the intercom as he was even then attempting to raise the small hangar on the latter.
"Fellmer Lloyd?" was all he asked over the intercom.
"Lifeboat ready, Chief. The crew's getting in now."
"Thank you!" Rhodan turned around. "Everyone leave his position. There's a small hangar on B-deck: go there immediately and get into the lifeboat spacer there. You've no time to lose!"
The last report Rhodan received was: "The Arkonide fleet has taken off, sir!"
He looked at the chronometer. Their head start amounted to a matter of 12 minutes. If the Lotus had immediately understood the thrice repeated "Mercant", it could arrive in five or six minutes and take them on board, lifeboat and all. The newly developed frequency damper would prevent the Lotus from being spotted.
"Get going!" he ordered Maj. Ostal. "I'll get this ship ready by myself. Save a place for me in the lifeboat—of course the pilot's seat! See you soon, Major! You've done a good job!"
The compliment from the mouth of the Administrator of the Solar Imperium in this dangerous situation struck the Major as a bit odd. Had Rhodan said it because he knew that if the Regent's robotships arrived very soon he would never have another chance to say it?
Perry Rhodan had no time for such thoughts. The small Ekhonide ship raced at a speed that threatened to tear it apart, yet in spite of all its strain, it was slow in comparison to the ships of the Arkonide fleet.
But perhaps it was possible to shake off the pursuers in some other manner? And for the preparations for that, Rhodan allowed himself no time to think of other things.
He made an atomic bomb out of the ship!
His brain functioned as precisely as a positronic computer
A twist of a dial, a press of a button, a twist of another dial. And then he was ready.
The small transformer would explode first, in two or three minutes. Its explosion would detonate half a dozen energy storage banks and then the entire ship would be a blazing atomic inferno.
Now Perry Rhodan raced to the hangar on B-deck.
Two or three minutes remaining unt
il the ship blew up—that span of time was considerably limited. But there was no other way out.
Maj. Ostal had saved him his seat.
With a reverberating cracking the inner hatch of the hangar closed, then the entrance hatch of the lifeboat was shut. Rhodan transmitted the electronic signal that triggered the opening of the outer hatch in the ship's hull.
Slowly—much too slowly—it started to open.
Finally the outer hatch had opened 1/3rd of the way. Rhodan could wait no longer.
Engine thrust at 33% capacity! The small lifeboat engines pushed the tiny spacecraft, crammed with nearly 40 men, out into open space with only centimeters to spare on either side of the partially blocked hatchway.
They hurtled into the void. To the right shone the yellowish star Naral, glowing like the eye of a beast of prey. Somewhere behind them the robot spacers of the Arkonide Fleet were shooting towards them.
Perry Rhodan had sped the small lifeboat up to full speed. The little craft, first supplied with the velocity of its mothership and now well underway thanks to its relatively powerful engines, was not nearly out of the danger zone yet. Behind them the Ekhonide ship became a tiny sun swiftly expanding in all directions at once.
Over the large vidscreen in his office, Gen. Sutokk witnessed the destruction of the Ekhonide ship as relayed by cameras aboard one of the robotspacers.
His hard face twisted into a satisfied smile but it quickly gave way to an expression of regret. "Now I'll never find out which Springer clan was collaborating with these Terrans. That's too bad. But I won't tell the Regent that. I'll just say that the Tigris crew no longer exists..."
