by Perry Rhodan
Doubtlessly Ivan had applied this method to repulse the Bios. The Aras' fierce fighting force of 200 giants had become an atomic torch under Ivan's powerful will and only the fact that calcium- and carbon-fusions take place at a much slower rate than that of hydrogen had spared Ivan's. companions from perishing in the blast the same way as the artificial creatures of the Aras.
Bell reflected on this aspect as he awkwardly crawled toward the rock behind which the two-headed mutant had sought shelter. A shudder ran down his spine when it dawned on him how closely he had treaded the deep abyss of death this time.
It took him half an hour to cover the 150 feet. He edged around the rock and dropped down at its back to catch his breath and give his tortured body a rest.
His 4 faithful friends were assembled behind the rock: Ivan, Marshall, Betty and Ras Tschubai. Marshall and the Afroterranian leaned with their shoulders against the rock. Ivan and Betty were stretched out on the ground.
"Next time," Bell glowered at the two-headed mutant after he had recovered a little from the ordeal of his trip, "I want you two to wake up half an hour earlier and start your fireworks when the target is still at a safe distance, got it?"
Ivan the elder's face broke into a grin. Ivanovich, the younger, acted guiltily: "I was already awake a few seconds before Ivan," he said accusingly. "But the old cretin wouldn't wake up."
"Hey!" Ivan snapped. "Did you hear that? He finally admits that I'm the older one. He never..."
"Oh, shut up!" Bell bellowed. "You were both magnificent! I don't think any of us would be alive without you."
He turned around and looked at Marshall. "How did we get this wall over there?" he queried.
Marshall looked mysterious and hesitated to answer. Finally he came out with it: "The Goms!"
Bell gasped for air. "The Goms...?" he rasped. "What are they doing here?"
Up to now he had paid little attention to the dark wall. Now that he studied it, he noticed that it rose from the ground at a slight angle, using the boulders scattered everywhere as anchoring bases. The highest edge of the baffling wall was about 20 feet up and no more than 30 feet away.
Bell turned around on his back and stared into the sky. Suddenly he realized what the Goms wanted to do.
The storm raged on with unabated fury. It blew an endless stream of dust over the top of the wall and when he turned up the outer mike a little he could hear it howl and thunder.
The wall created a windbreak on a long narrow stretch lying on the leeward side. The Goms had come to protect Bell and his party from being blown away by the tornado.
"Incredible!" Bell was astounded. "Why are they doing it?"
"It's really unbelievable," Marshall admitted. "They contacted me after I came to. Their impulses were extremely precise. There must be an enormous number of Goms that got together here. But all they said was that they had built a barrier against the storm and would stay here till the storm blows over. If you ask me why they're doing this, you've come to the wrong address."
"Then why didn't you ask them?"
Marshall grained somewhat embarrassedly. "That's the trouble. When I ask them why they do it, they answer that they want to protect us from the storm. They don't understand that 'why' can have another meaning."
Bell muttered bemusedly: "Fascinating creatures!"
"And how did you get away from the blast?" Bell inquired, changing the subject. "Were you also blown away?"
He addressed his question to all of them. They affirmed that this was indeed the case and Betty explained with a smile: "I really sailed through the air. But I must have made a very soft landing. When I woke up I was deposited over there near the Gom wall. The others were already here, so I came over."
"Looks like we all were lucky this time," Bell commented. "It could have been a lot worse..." He interrupted himself in the middle of the sentence, stared around with wide eyes and groaned.
"That's right," Marshall interjected. "Everything would be dandy... if we only knew what happened to Tako!"
Bell raised his hand in a futile gesture to beat against his forehead—he merely knocked his helmet instead. "For heaven's sake," he grumbled. "I really must have bumped my head; how else could I forget about him?"
• • •
The moment Tako Kakuta entered the small space disk, he realized that he had fallen into a trap. The inside of the vehicle was round like the outside. There were neither windows nor observation screens. Nothing except a smooth floor, unadorned walls, a plain ceiling and a bench running full circle around the wall. There was nobody inside. Reginald Bell's guess that the Bios had left at least one of them in each ship had obviously fallen flat.
Tako felt a gentle push when the ship started to move as soon as he was aboard. He gathered that some extraneous mechanism had registered his arrival and that he was about to be kidnapped. Tako took his time making a decision. There were two possibilities: leave the little spaceship the same way he had come or wait and see where it would take him.
After awhile Tako concluded that it would be too dangerous and serve no purpose to find out where the ship was headed. The craft had come from Laros and was evidently steered by remote control from there. How could there be any doubt that it was bound to return there?
But another possibility intrigued the Japanese. He was trained as a mechanical engineer and worked in this profession long before he had been discovered by Rhodan's staff. Was it feasible to examine the remote control steering mechanism and to deactivate the receiving device, thus enabling himself to pilot the ship? Was the technology of the Aras really basically so different from the Terranian methods that an Earthling had no way of knowing it? Tako knew this was not the case. The technology of the Aras was derived from that of the Arkonides with which he was thoroughly familiar.
He made up his mind to hang on. His little thermo-beamer had been set for a widespread fanning operation in order to catch at once all the Bios who might have occupied the craft; he now adjusted it to a low-energy pinpoint ray and began to detach the cover plates from their mountings underneath the bench around the walls.
Plate after plate toppled and clattered on the floor. The more progress he made the more it became obvious that his choice had been right. He soon surveyed not only the entire drive assembly including the receiver for the remote control signals but also the generator for the artificial gravity field inside the cabin, the television camera sending its impulses to the picture screen of the distant controller and finally the field component of the two heavy disintegrators built into the outer surface of the spaceship.
He was aware that he had made an important discovery but he realized at the same time that all depended now on how to secure it. The distance from Gom to Laros could be negotiated by this type of spacecraft in less than one hour. If he didn't wish to skirt too closely the dangerous vicinity of the base, he better act fast.
With a few quick operations he severed the connection to the remote control receiver and broke all contacts so that the drive assembly could no longer react to outside signals. Then he checked the drive assembly and determined that it had stopped working at the same time. The little craft was moving through space in free fall.
The first and most important thing Tako had to do now was to find out in which direction he was moving.
• • •
Bell tried to get in touch with the Japanese for half an hour. Then he gave up in dismay. Marshall figured that the Goms would know what became of Tako but he received no answer to his query. The reason seemed to be that they were apparently extremely busy at this particular time. Marshall picked up a multitude of impulses against which his weak call could not prevail. He was unable to make out what was on the mind of the Goms but after awhile it became evident.
The wall began to shrink. The dust clouds raised by the storm high above the narrow calm strip became lighter. The storm abated and the Goms relinquished their posts. Marshall turned up his outer mike and clearly heard the rustling noise cau
sed by the swarm of Goms moving over the stones. A few minutes later the wall had disappeared and an endless mass of dark-brown Goms blanketed the roughness of the terrain.
As they crept away it became clear that the Goms had merely buried the roughness of the terrain and not smoothed or removed it. The rocks passed over by the front of the moving blanket later appeared again at the rear, unscathed.
The Goms made no attempt to approach the space disks in which the Bios had arrived. Bell kept his eyes glued to the ships. "We're going to get one of them," he growled. "I don't think they can do much; it may take us 2 or 3 weeks to reach the Titan but it'll still be better than nothing."
"You better figure on more," Marshall advised. "We've got to make a tremendous detour if we don't want to fall into the clutches of the Aras or the Springers. I don't believe that these little tubs are armed. By the way—don't you notice anything?"
"No, what?"
"There were 40 ships when the Bios came. Now there are only 39 left."
Bell counted them. Marshall was correct. "Perhaps the Goms have eaten one of them after all," he speculated uncertainly.
"I hardly believe that," Marshall countered. "I'd guess Tako had filched one of the disks."
• • •
Laros received the news about the fate of the 200 Bios seconds after Ivan Goratschin had put his talents to work. The only reaction it elicited from the 3 patriarchs Siptar, Vontran and Cekztel consisted of the friendly advice to the Aras: "Well, you didn't have enough of an army over there. Send a thousand across and let's see what they can do!"
The Aras were more skeptical. Although they didn't admit it to the Springers, the loss of 200 Bios was a severe setback for them. There were only 700 of these artificial monsters on Laros and now their number had been reduced by 200. Thus the Aras were not even in a position to follow the advice of the Springer patriarchs and they preferred to keep it a secret from their partners.
Moreover it dawned on the Aras that they had met an adversary who was not to be underestimated. The base on Laros, situated far from all trade routes, was of considerable importance to them as a secret laboratory and shipping point of the Bios whose sale brought in a constant stream of welcome money. For these reasons they reacted very sharply when someone wanted to meddle in their affairs on Laros.
And now someone had landed on Gom, who was not content with meddling in their affairs but seemed to be determined to force the expenditure of all their Bios. And this despite the fact that they had been compelled to crash on Gom by its inhabitants on orders of the Aras.
A few of the Aras harbored the suspicion that the Goms made common cause with the fugitives. However they were unable to communicate with the Goms without the link of the Bios and it was therefore very difficult for them to obtain any indication confirming or denying their suspicion.
In their predicament the Aras decided to risk 400 more Bios. In addition they did something they had hitherto avoided during the entire period of their 'collaboration' with the Goms: they commanded the Goms under threat of draconian punishment to seize the fugitives and hand them over to the Bios.
Several Bios transmitted this order by means of an electronic telepathy amplifier from Laros to Gom. The punishment the Aras contemplated was carefully spelled out: destruction of at least half the Goms' substance by nuclear bombs.
Gom gave no answer. The Aras were aware that their message could only be received when somewhere on the surface of Gom a sufficient number had coalesced into one unit to accumulate enough intelligence. The statistic probability, however, was such that at any chosen time such a 'brain-trust' existed on Gom.
Notwithstanding the fact that their order had failed to be acknowledged, the Aras were convinced that they had been perfectly understood.
One minor incident occurred without being given special attention in the hectic crush and mental torment they went through: the remote-control relay-station registered that at least part of the crew had returned to one of the space disks which had landed on Gom. Since about half of the time the Aras had allotted for the expedition of the Bios had already elapsed, the relay station started the ship on the way back to Laros. However about half an hour after the takeoff the little ship wandered away and the remote control lost it altogether.
The relay-station reported the strange incident and the message aroused some curiosity. However when the news broke that all 200 Bios had been annihilated by their opponents, nobody raised much fuss about such an insignificant matter as a puny lost vehicle which was, according to the report of the relay-station, probably occupied by only a single Bio.
5/ BATTLE WITH THE BIOS
Tako Kakuta had finally solved his most, urgent problem in the simplest way. Since he wore a spacesuit it presented no further difficulty for him to remove as many plates as necessary from the upper section of the circular wall to provide a lookout at least each 30°. The air was instantly sucked out from the vehicle through the first hole he cut but this did not affect the functioning of the engine nor any other equipment and armament. Tako was very careful with his drastic measures to avoid any damage to such parts of the ship as were essential for the stability of the craft.
Now he was able to see that Gom was so far away that the huge planet looked as small as an orange. Ahead of him—in the direction of the moving vehicle—appeared a somewhat smaller, yellowish-white celestial body which Tako recognized as Laros. Since he knew the relative sizes of the planet and its 18th moon, it was easy for him to make a fairly accurate guess that he had already traveled about three-quarters of the distance between Gom. and Laros.
Gom's strong gravity exerted its constant pull on the momentum the spaceship still had. Tako estimated it would take about 30 minutes until the ship came to a standstill and started to fall back on Gom. There was no possibility it would ever reach Laros.
Nevertheless Tako had no intention of waiting that long. He felt sure he could start the engine again and manipulate the steering controls himself.
He purposely refrained from considering the perils such a flight under these primitive conditions would entail. He was afraid of his own courage and that he would lose his nerve if he clearly analyzed the slim prospects of a man trying to fly an impaired spaceship to its destination by sight alone. So he went to work to get the engine back into operation.
• • •
Bell and his people needed 5 hours to reach one of the space-disks. The Goms had left long ago and remained uncommunicative. There were no signs of other Bios. The grey sky was devoid of foreign objects. Only the stars displayed their diffused splendor. As soon as they had approached their target within 600 feet Bell instructed Betty Toufry: "Take that thing apart, Betty! We want to see what's inside."
He estimated in his mind the distance from the ship to the one next to it. Once Betty had broken down the first vehicle it would be useless to them. The distance was considerable. It would require at least 2 hours to reach the next ship. Ras Tschubai was too fatigued to transport them to their desired goal by teleporting them.
Betty lay prone on the ground and pressed the faceplate of her helmet against a flat slab of stone. A few minutes went by without visible results. Then the ship began to sway. Bell watched as an irregularly shaped piece was pried loose from the hull, crashed to the ground and shattered. "Keep it up!" he exclaimed.
Betty was unperturbed. The tremendous exercise of her telekinetic power dismantled sheet after sheet of the sidewalls till finally the roof had lost all support, buckled and tipped down to the rear. The round cabin thus exposed was empty. Bell sighed. "We could've saved ourselves the trouble. There's nothing we can do with it now. We'll have to crawl to the next ship."
Marshall sensed his concern. "Don't let it get you down!" he consoled him. "We couldn't have done otherwise in good conscience."
"Thank you!" Bell replied in disgust. "Let's get on our way!"
• • •
The message of the Aras had unmistakably been received by the Goms. Since
so many of them—about 100,000—had assembled to shield the aliens from the storm because they had wiped out the cruel Bios, the Goms understood at once what the warning meant.
They were not unaware that the Aras had terrible means of destruction at their disposal although they themselves had no knowledge of technology. They realized that the fate of the Gom race would be sealed except for a tiny remnant if they didn't obey the command of the Aras.
The Goms hurriedly broadcast a signal to join together and to meet as quickly as possible at their assembly places. A regular network of places used for their union was distributed over the entire surface of the planet.
The answers came from all points and when they arrived at the rendezvous, several hundred thousand had already congregated and waited—according to their instructions—in separate areas. The pragmatic experience of the Goms had taught them that the intelligence of the largest unit dominated the final assembly. At this time it mattered most what the 100,000 Goms had learned from the Aras. Therefore the other smaller combinations waited for the arrival of the 100,000 and joined them one by one, so that the mental content of the first 100,000 remained preponderant.
In this fashion it required more than 20 hours till a Super-Gom was formed that could take the action the Aras demanded. It was the greatest conglomeration the Super-Gom could recall. This was the more remarkable as the Goms awareness of their own history had a collective base which was in some respects more dependable than written records.
At any rate, more than one billion Goms were locked together, complying with the orders of the Aras. They covered an area of approximately 400 square miles.
It represented a truly formidable array. Although the vast dark-brown sea of Goms was no more than a few thousandths of an inch thick at any one place, the ground reverberated when the mass moved.
