Blockade: Lepso

by Perry Rhodan

  Rhodan was able to give him some consolation. "Tiff, in spite of that your operation was a success. You noted their direction of flight: to the north-north-west. The Antis couldn't have done us a better favor." As he switched off he turned to his telepaths. "I want all of you to keep at it-make another concerted effort to use that tracer and try to find Thomas Cardif's brainwave patterns."

  Perry Rhodan did not realize then the consequences that would result from his command.

  • • •

  When the para-mental powers of the anti-mutants in the Baalol temple enabled them to sense that other mutant forces were reaching out in search of them, they did not reveal the slightest trace of panic. Only Tu-poa sprang into sudden action. Since he had been in closest contact with Dr. Edmond Hugher for many years, he knew what he had to do. He rushed into the laboratory where Hugher sat unsuspectingly at his scientific work.

  The doctor had just been thinking about a certain catalyzer but now he looked up in startlement as he saw Tu-poa burst in on him. "Tu-poa, what's the matter?" he asked, gazing at him with his usual entranced expression.

  "Nothing," the fanatic lied to him. "It's just that conditions are becoming too unsettled here on this world. It appears that we'll be forced to vacate the temple and leave Lepso as well." While he spoke he unleashed his Anti-powers and threw an impenetrable screen around Hugher. He knew it would block any attempts to penetrate the scientist's thoughts.

  "Has this anything to do with me, Tu-poa?" Hugher asked almost indifferently.

  "That's what we want to discuss with you. It's why I've come. Please drop your work and follow me. Every minute is going to be precious to us-I don't want to keep my brothers waiting for us too long."

  But the dreamy and peace-loving Dr. Edmond Hugher only had one leisurely speed. He slowly shoved his work papers to one side and after taking a careful look about him he finally got to his feet. "Tu-poa, please don't walk so fast!" he admonished, ever smiling, and he followed with measured tread.

  The fanatic's red eyes flared up in uncontrollable rage but he managed to turn his face away so that Hugher wouldn't see his grim expression. They left the laboratory area together and went across the temple courtyard past a long stretch of other buildings. Their goal was the towering pyramid structure which in its imposing size and form stood out uniquely from every other building in the temple compound.

  While the two were floating upward in the antigrav shaft toward the third level of the pyramid, Hugher raised a question: "Why don't we simply withdraw into sector TT-1 in the Cif Mountains? Certainly Rhodan couldn't bother us there."

  The Anti controlled himself with an effort. An uncomfortable suspicion had awakened within him. He avoided the scientist's gaze and evaded the question with a simple explanation: "The Council has decided to leave Lepso."

  They left the lift shaft together and traversed the wide corridor that led to the door of the great hail where the Antis were accustomed to holding their Grand Assembly. Edmond Hugher was surprised to see the servants of Baalol gathered here in somewhat disordered array. The ever-smiling dreamer, accustomed to an eternal unruffled calm, could not understand these cult members now as they stood about in small groups and conversed in livelier tones than was their custom. When he turned to find Tu-poa he discovered that his companion had left him.

  At this moment Tu-poa was standing before the head priest of the temple, whispering an important message to him.

  "What?" asked the priest, obviously shaken.

  Tu-poa confirmed what he had said. "Yes, Master! It is only a suspicion. I should have thought of it much sooner but now it has come to me because Rhodan's mutants are trying to reach Hugher's mind."

  The ancient Anti's face was wrinkled and inscrutable. His eyes narrowed suddenly. "Tu-poa, it would not be too difficult, would it, to alter Hugher's brainwave frequency? In that way it would become impossible for the Terran mutants to ever trace him again. In the course of the forced readjustment of frequencies it might be possible to verify your suspicions or to disprove them. But do we have that much time? Just before you came in we received a message from the trading house that all of our brothers there were put to flight by Rhodan's robots. Thanks only to their anti-powers were they able to survive a heavy energy bombardment. They should be here any minute now."

  For the first time a real panic seized Tu-poa. "Master, we must make the time for it! For the time being, Hugher is indispensable to us!"

  The ancient Anti met this hectic outburst with stoic calm. "Then we have been in error. He should never have been allowed to become indispensable. If your suspicion is correct, why didn't Laoo-o ever inform us concerning it?"

  "Master, Laoo-o died unexpectedly. At that time, Hugher was still studying on Aralon. Laoo-o had no close friends among the true servants of Baalol. Master, if there is any error it did not begin with me!" He spoke the last sentence as though to exorcise an evil spirit.

  The ancient one came to an immediate decision. He had noticed that the scientist was approaching them. His lips hardly moved as he gave instructions to his assistants. "Place Hugher under the frequency changer and while you're doing it check out Tu-poa's suspicion."

  This was the moment in which Rhodan's telepaths renewed their attempt to locate the thought-impulses of Thomas Cardif, alias Edmond Hugher, among billions of mental vibrations.

  The ancient one froze. His mental forces concentrated entirely on this alien invasion from outside. His assistants as well as Tu-poa created a barrier around Hugher's brain. Now the screen was so strong that not even technically-amplified probes could get through.

  "Make the alteration at once!" ordered the old priest. His withered lips had thinned to a narrow line.

  Edmond Hugher suddenly saw himself surrounded by priests. He had already been wondering about Tu-poa's strange behavior but even when they pulled him gently but firmly from the great hall his objections were made in his usual peaceful manner.

  He looked at Tu-poa with a smile. "Aren't you going to explain what this is all about?" he asked, still in his dreamlike state.

  "Later, Hugher, later. You aren't aware of it but you are in the greatest danger right now. You probably know that any person's brain impulses can be violated by means of para-mental forces. Do you want this Terran, Rhodan, to rob you of the Flaming Sword that you have placed in the hands of Baalol?"

  While Hugher walked along the hail accompanied by eight Antis, he nodded thoughtfully and smiled. "So Rhodan wants to snatch the secret of the liqueur from me? Interesting. It suddenly interests me very much to have Baalol be mightier than this aggressive Terran and so I'm quite ready to do anything I can to keep Rhodan from stealing my knowledge."

  Hugher did not suspect how much his words brought a feeling of relief to the Antis who were with him. However, in Tu-poa his awful suspicion had turned to certainty. Secretly he cursed the Arkonides on Arkon who had spread the news throughout the Greater Imperium, 58 years ago, that Perry Rhodan's son had suffered a near-fatal brain injury in an accident. They had said then that it was doubtful that he would ever regain his full mental faculties again. Everybody had believed it and those who knew his identity as Hugher even believed it because of the astonishing changes that gradually appeared in him after his convalescence.

  The main problem was that the Antis had fallen for the story, nor had they known that Hugher was Cardif. To them, Rhodan's son had met with a near-fatal accident; he would never be the same again; they did not know exactly where he was or if he were alive at all.

  Only one of the Baalol priests must have known the truth or at least surmised it: Laoo-o. But why hadn't he shared this knowledge with his cult brothers? Had he been carefully waiting for Rhodan's son to complete his medical studies on Aralon before revealing to him who his father was? Had Laoo-o been working on secret plans of his own? If so, then his unexpected death had been an ironical twist of fate which had turned the results of his labors to an entirely different goal.

  A wild excitement
possessed Tu-poa now as he and his cult brothers led Hugher into the most secret room of the temple pyramid. With a haste that was very unusual for the Antis, they urged Edmond Hugher to take his place in the psycho-converter chair. To the scientist the hurried attitude of the Antis was becoming more and more of a mystery. He felt there was more behind their actions than they had revealed to him thus far. Yet he still persisted in suppressing such apprehensions because of his overriding gratitude to the cult which had enabled him to get away from Zalit and escape from a clique of decadent Arkonides.

  He submitted to being strapped in. Metal contact discs on flexible leads were attached to his temples while a third contact device was fastened by means of suction to his ribs just over the heart. His hands were placed around two glistening metal cones and instantly two clamps snapped over his wrists so that he could not let go.

  Somewhere behind him a transformer began to hum. Two other Antis joined Tu-poa at the control console. As Tu-poa made finer adjustments the humming sound increased. Still in his lotus dreaming, Dr. Edmond Hugher smiled as ever while watching every switch adjustment on the panel. So far he had not felt the slightest change come over him. Even the cold metal contacts at his temples had begun to warm up to his bodily temperature.

  Suddenly, however, the world seemed to come apart. There was a searing flash seen only by his mind but that was the last sensation he was aware of-at least for awhile.

  Tu-poa stood at the console panel as if frozen in time. His eyes focused with burning intensity on an oscilloscope screen. The broad brainwave curves were indicated there with amazing clarity but in the lower third of the graph was a prominent spike.

  "Brain-blocked!" he called out tensely. There was a demoniacal expression on the fanatic's face. "They've blocked his personality! He doesn't know he is Rhodan's son! Summon the Master!" This last was shouted over the rising hum of the transformer.

  Three cabinet-sealed devices nearby were crackling with new sounds which were suddenly drowned in the rising howl of a motor-generator. All of which made the hurrying footsteps of the Anti inaudible as he went away to summon the Master.

  Tu-poa had come out of his frozen trance of concentration. In panicky haste he rechecked all of his control settings. He snapped out one order after another like a spaceship captain in a battle crisis. Other equipment was turned on and soon the room was thundering with the sound of operating machinery. Through it all, Dr. Edmond Hugher remained unconscious in the psycho-converter chair.

  Then came the Master, the highest cult authority of the Baalol temple on Lepso. Tu-poa only realized he was beside him when he felt himself pushed to one side.

  "Master, please don't disturb me just now!" he pleaded anxiously.

  The ancient one complied. He was content to merely look over the other's shoulder as he worked. His tense attitude was a silent tribute to Edmond Hugher's importance for the Antis. The block-sensor was activated. It was a device which could probe Hugher's brain electronically, enabling the operator to determine where the hypno-block was located and to what extent it was influencing adjacent nerve centers.

  The still unconscious scientist in the converter chair could not know that this was the most dangerous moment of his life. The slightest mistake at the console or the slightest error in evaluation could cause him to wake up as a mental derelict.

  Tu-poa's fanatic eyes saw only the oscillating needles of the instruments, the racing numbers on the color-coded digital meters and the changing comparison diagrams on the double scopes. The left-hand oscillogram indicated the strength of Hugher's hypno-block whereas the one on the right gave a curving indication of how much energy was needed to break the block.

  Toward the lower edge of the small control panel was the target-focusing device. This was a kind of 'frequency sight' which made it possible to adjust the block-rupturing beam to the fraction of a millimeter so that it would precisely impinge upon the hypnotized area without endangering the unaffected portions.

  Time seemed to race by alarmingly but actually only a few minutes had been consumed by the operation. Tu-poa again checked all settings of the block-sensor equipment. Then he took a deep breath and threw the main switch.

  Behind him the man in the converter chair suddenly screamed like something inhuman. Tu-poa and the other Antis turned toward him in a panic. Dr. Edmond Hugher's half-breed yellow-red eyes glared at them with a new light of awakening.

  Tu-poa had instinctively pulled the main switch back to zero, not realizing that he had cut off at the moment of the scream. As though to confirm his action, he turned briefly to the panel and observed with relief that the sensor was no longer in operation.

  "Release me!" The voice rang thin the room in the harsh tones of one accustomed to command.

  The Antis stared at the scientist in speechless amazement. Where was Edmond Hugher's dreaming smile? Where was his peace-loving diffidence and moderation now? Or his unassailable calm?

  "Dammit I say-are you going to let me loose?!" he insisted angrily.

  The Antis did not move. A stranger sat in the psychoconverter chair. They had strapped in a man named Dr. Edmond Hugher but now this other man's features were changing from moment to moment and he rattled his fetters in an impatient rage, demanding to be set free. More and more the weak and expressionless features of his face disappeared, to be replaced by the hard lines of an unyielding will.

  "Unbind me!" His voice had an icy, brittle ring. His eyes flashed commandingly, almost hypnotically. "Tu-poa, do I have to tell you again?" he demanded.

  Tu-poa stepped to the chair and activated a release switch. The bonds sprang free. Without a word, the man formerly known as Hugher got to his feet. At the level of his head the gleaming metal canopy over the chair reflected his face clearly. When he saw himself he tensed as though shocked. He raised a hand to his face and hesitantly ran his fingers over his features.

  "Is that me? You have brought me to this, Rhodan? First you murder my mother and then top everything off by stealing my very life away from me-58 years!"

  He turned slowly to look at the Antis who were standing around him in breathless suspense. He addressed each of them by name and finally Tu-poa himself.

  "I have not forgotten a thing, Tu-poa. I still remember when you first came to Aralon and visited me. I still know everything that's happened during the last 58 years nor have I forgotten what went before or who I am. My name is Thomas Cardif! My mother was Thora, an Arkonide princess, and Rhodan-that unscrupulous Terran!-was the one who sired me and became my own mother's assassin! Enough, then-you know the whole story!"

  Cardif looked again at his reflection in the gleaming canopy panel and saw himself as a stranger. "You have made me a mockery of myself, Rhodan, but for that you will receive your reckoning from me!" While speaking he began to look down at his body. "My physique hasn't changed too much..."

  Gripped by a fanatical excitement, Tu-poa cried out to him: "But Hugher-since we released your hypnoblock your face has changed!"

  "Cardif is my name, Tu-poa!" came the sharp correction. "And now? Are we going to wait around here until Rhodan brings his fleet over the temple and forces us all to throw our hands in the air?"

  It was difficult for even the Antis to make an adjustment in just a few minutes to this new Edmond Hugher, alias Thomas Cardif. It was still more difficult for them to realize that he had not forgotten a single event of the past 58 years.

  However, the ancient head priest wanted to be sure of one point in particular. "Cardif," he asked, "are you aware of what you have done for Baalol out of gratitude to our cult?"

  "Gratitude? Yes, why not? That's right-it was gratitude, Ancient One!" He stretched his arms while pondering this question for a moment and then he demonstrated the real change in him for the first time. "But I want the Flaming Sword back, priest! With the help of Baalol I want to wield it so mightily against the Solar Imperium that it will be turned into nothing but raving madmen! Rhodan must have pulled all his fleet units into this act
ion, so that leaves his colonial worlds defenseless. Have they been well-saturated with the Liquitiv?"

  Having been released from his synthetic personality, his real self was revealing the heritage of his genius father. He had almost been equal to Rhodan in terms of planning and strategy. More than once he had thrown the Solar Imperium into its gravest crises. Almost always his shrewd manipulations had served to block Rhodan's countermeasures.

  The ancient priest stared at him in some confusion.

  Cardif smirked at him critically. "Are you telling me no? You failed to see your biggest chance? But there's still time! Beam out an order to flood the colonial worlds of the Solar Imperium with Liquitiv. Make it a gift to all those Terrans who have such a thirst for eternal youth! Do you still fail to see that we're on the verge of losing a unique opportunity?"

  He spoke compellingly and with a minimum of gestures. After being under the most powerful type of partial hypnosis for 58 years, Thomas Cardif had become once again the bitterest enemy of his father. He hated and despised him more than ever and in the moment of his awakening he had sworn to make Rhodan pay for the years that had been stolen from him.

  Tu-poa was startled as Cardif stepped closer to him. "Tu-poa, why was I brought in here to the psycho-converter?" he asked.

  Under the forceful gaze of Cardif's reddish Arkonide eyes the Anti was compelled to speak but during the explanation Rhodan's son did not reveal any trace of surprise. He only alluded to it after the Anti had finished.

  "So he still has his Mutant Corps. Well, Tu-poa, have my brainwave patterns been altered or haven't they?"

  The god priest had to admit that he didn't know.

  In three steps Thomas Cardif was back in the chair. "Find out, Tu-poa!"

  Two of the priests rushed forward to set up the contacts again while Tu-poa turned to the controls. It suddenly seemed as if there were only one man left in the room who was capable of giving commands and that was Thomas Cardif. Minutes later it was determined that the forced breaking of the hypno-block had altered his frequency pattern by a very slight margin.