Return from The Void

by Perry Rhodan

  Rous raised his right hand in a sign of agreement but he said, "Of course we can't help it if your people have poor memories."

  Flaring smiled. "They have very good memories, I can assure you. Moreover, I haven't finished yet. The three of you were downtown this afternoon when the new disaster struck. And you three are the only ones who survived it. What explanation do you have to offer for this?"

  Rous's hand sank down again. "None," he admitted. "We can only be thankful that we did survive."

  Flaring frowned gravely. "What about the assertion you made that at the time of the disaster you happened to be on the Finnestal Bridge? Is that no longer true?"

  Rous was startled. "You know that already, too?"

  "Yes, that... and also that you seem to violate all our customs, which as I have been given to understand are also practiced on the island of Wollaston. In spite of the friendliness of the sentry who questioned you, you did not give him the proper courtesy of a goodbye when you left."

  Rous stared at the floor in front of him.

  "Now listen here!" said Flaring, taking a new approach. "We are scientifically advanced enough to be able to detect that you are not of this world. We ourselves have just entered the age of space travel. Presumably your race is already well into the middle of such an age. You have attacked Mirsal—on what basis we are not aware. So far we have done nothing to antagonize any alien race because heretofore we were not in contact with any to be able to do so.

  "So we don't really know what you have against us. But if we knew, then perhaps we might be able to remove the cause of your resentments instead of suffering the disappearance of millions of our people."

  "It is our most ardent wish to arrive at a reasonable peace with you. We will do what we can... if only no more of our people disappear. Mirsal has an approximate population of three billion inhabitants. In the past number of days two million of them have disappeared without a trace. We don't wish to have our world become totally depopulated in the next five or ten years."

  Rous had listened attentively. Now he looked up at Flaring and asked, "Are you authorized to negotiate...?"

  Flaring saw himself closer to his goal. "Yes, of course. Do you wish—?"

  Rous waved him off and got up. He spoke to Lloyd in English. "Put that thing back in its case!" he said.

  Lloyd tucked the psycho-beamer out of sight in its case.

  Rous took a few steps into the middle of the room before he, turned around and faced Flaring. "You're a reasonable man, Flaring," he said. "And that's why I'm going to be frank with you. But of course I'm going to have to disappoint you on one issue: we are not the ones you think we are. Admittedly, we are aliens, but we are not responsible for the disappearance of two million inhabitants on this planet. Neither we nor any other members of our race."

  He gave Flaring a penetrating look, which Flaring returned. Then the latter finally raised his right hand in a sign of assent.

  But his tone was one of disillusionment. "I figured that you wouldn't really confide in us."

  Rous shook his head without realizing that Flaring would not understand the gesture, which was of Earthly origin. "You're on the wrong trail, Flaring!" he said severely.

  And then he explained to him as much as he needed to know, concerning the situation involving three Terranians in their midst. He kept silent about those things he must not reveal—such as his home world, its name and where it was located. He also maintained silence concerning the role that the Solar Empire was playing in the overall framework of galactic power politics, although he had to comment on the fact that the galaxy contained a multiplicity of power blocks and separate interest groups.

  Rous' lecture lasted about a quarter of an hour. At the end of it he said: "You can't commit a greater mistake than to consider us as enemies. We have resources and weapons against which your most modern equipment would be like so many stone-age hatchets. If anybody can track down your invisible enemy, we are the ones who can do it. So you will be depriving yourselves of this possibility if you persist in making difficulties for us."

  It could be seen that Flaring was still not quite convinced. "Explain to me," he asked, "what possible interest your race could have in Mirsalese events, You admit that you've already been in two situations where my countrymen have disappeared without a trace but you emerged unscathed. If these attacks are not directed against yourselves, why do you trouble yourselves about them?"

  Rous started to grin. "That's a very adroit question," he had to admit. "Don't think we're doing it just for charity. You know a prime principle for survival out in the galaxy is that anybody who wants to stay around had better know what's going on. In other words, he has to know all of his potential enemies. If he comes across a phenomenon that doesn't affect him directly, he shouldn't close his eyes on that account but instead should try to get to the bottom of the mystery. If he doesn't do that then maybe he'll be the next victim of the Unknown and because he didn't take the ounce of prevention and prepare himself in time, he becomes helpless to defend himself. Can you understand that?"

  "Yes," answered Flaring simply.

  "Good—and over and above all that we do happen to be a cooperative and philanthropic race of people. So if we can do anything to keep the Unknowns from taking you lock, stock and barrel, we'll certainly do it. But if that is to happen then it's necessary, of course, that you don't put roadblocks in front of us!" With this last statement he gave Flaring a challenging look.

  Flaring hesitated for awhile and then he said: "I am not authorized to make decisions on this type of matter. I shall have to submit what I have heard here to a higher authority, who will have to decide."

  "The only thing I can arrange to ease the restrictions a bit," here he smiled slightly "is to discontinue keeping you under surveillance. Will you give me your word that you will not leave the city?"

  Rous raised his right hand. "That I can assure you."

  "Good. Then I will let you know as soon as possible what has been decided."

  He made the formalities of departure. Also there was not one of his men who exited without saying a proper goodbye Outside, evening settled upon the city. It grew dark. Nowhere was there a light to be seen. The police had enough to do without also manning the power plant.

  4/ 20,000 YEARS IN AN INSTANT!

  Lloyd and Rosita had returned to their rooms. Under an emergency light, Rous prepared a coded report concerning their experiences on Mirsal 2 up to the present moment. He wished to send it to the Drusus .

  The report also included the negotiations with Flaring, and Rous requested an approval of his method of procedure. Although the uncoded text of the report was 3000 words or more in length, the punched plastic tape containing the coded version was small enough to be rolled up in his hand.

  He started for Lloyd's room where the latter kept the micro-com in his equipment case. En route he passed through Rosita's room. Rosita stood at the window and stared out into the night. She didn't turn around when Rous came in but he heard her speak. "Everything is so terribly quiet!"

  He came and stood by her at the window. There was nothing to be seen—not even the front of the houses across the street.

  Almost a million and a half people had become victims of the invisible enemy during this second attack. This was a count that Flaring had mentioned.

  A million and a half people who disappeared from the face of this world in the space of only a few minutes! Why? To what purpose?

  Rous was overcome by a sense of outrage as he thought about it. "Just wait!" he growled angrily. "We'll get them yet!"

  Rosita did not answer. Rous drew away from the window and walked over to Lloyd's door.

  When he opened it he was met with a bright glow of light. He was momentarily blinded but then he was able to see that Lloyd's room was almost completely filled with a light of even intensity which seemed to emerge from all directions at once. It was just like coming from a darkened room into a sun room with all windows open to a ful
l flood of sunlight from all sides.

  Rosita also noticed the light as it fell through the doorway.

  Lloyd was stumbling around somewhere in the flood of brightness and was apparently very busy.

  "What is that?" cried Rous. "What did you turn on?"

  Lloyd came to a stop. "For the time being I don't know myself what it is," he answered in some exasperation. "I was tinkering around a little bit... and suddenly I got this blast of light."

  "What were you tinkering with?"

  "With the defense screen generator."

  Rous was speechless. In Lloyd's equipment case were all kinds of things for generating light—even the emergency light he had used to prepare the coded tape report for the Drusus had come from his collection. But of all the apparatuses that Lloyd carried around with him, the last one to be considered as a substitute light source was the defense screen.

  Rous and Rosita stepped in and closed the door behind them. Rous sat down on a chair. "Tell me what happened!" he requested of Lloyd.

  Lloyd put a hand across his forehead as though he had to think it over and recollect. Finally he said, "You recall how we saved that Mirsalese on the Avenue of Kings? Well, I took the generator apart to see if the forcefield could be strengthened under certain circumstances if you connected the apparatus to an auxiliary power source. Of course you know that it's possible in theory. The only question is, how much energy can the little thing absorb and make use of?"

  "And what else?" asked Rous.

  Lloyd shrugged. "I don't know about the rest of it. I took out a couple of capacitors and completed the circuit without them. Then all of a sudden there was blazing light in here. I have no idea why!"

  Rous had gotten to his feet. "Show me—where is that thing?"

  Lloyd pointed to the table.

  Rous approached the small generator cautiously. The apparatus was no larger than a palmbook. Lloyd had removed the cover and attempted to work in the complicated inside of the generator with a tiny soldering tweezers.

  Lloyd was a specialist. In addition to his astonishing parapsychic ability he had an almost complete knowledge of all electronic and gravito-mechanical problems such as occur in the construction of force-screen generators and similar equipment.

  On the other hand, Rous was equally knowledgeable. In the Academy he had completed courses in electronics and gravitomechanics. So he was familiar with what he was doing and was able to see at first glance at which places Lloyd had made changes in the small generator. He tested the newly soldered connections and traced the altered circuitry in his mind. His mental findings startled him suddenly. He reviewed his steps and arrived at the same results. Lloyd stood behind him looking over his shoulder. "Do you know what you have made?" asked Rous.

  Lloyd nodded. "Well, the way it looks to me, I've only changed the form of the forcefield."

  "Precisely, The protective field is built up by the generator in a spherical form with a variable but limited radius. And now..."

  "...it's nothing but a circular field," finished Lloyd. "More or less a ring-shaped field."

  "Correct. A ring field that in the first place we don't even know enough about to know where it is."

  He continued the experimental investigation. He seemed to find what he was looking for and asked for the soldering pincers. He undertook a few changes, turned the adjustment screws on the front panel of the apparatus and checked through everything several times. "I'm trying to determine the position of the field," he said as he went along. "It has a ring form at present but where the ring lies we don't yet know."

  He continued working until finally Rosita let out a startled cry from the background. "There... at the window!" Rous looked up. On the window a circular spot of bluish-white brightness had formed. Beyond the bright circle everything was dark. The light that fell into the room now came solely out of the circle.

  "That's strange," murmured Rous.

  "Did I say it was a ring field?" asked Lloyd. "That's no ring, it's a circle—a circular spot of light!"

  Rous shook his head. "Nonsense. What you see there isn't the field but simply light, as you say. The field itself is invisible. It lies as a ring around that circle of light."

  Rosita had become curious. "Where does the light come from?"

  "Ha... if I only knew!" Rous stared thoughtfully for a few full minutes at the round spot of light. Then he jumped suddenly as if something important had occurred to him and thereafter he began to work as if possessed. Lloyd and Rosita noticed that the light spot grew smaller while the intensity of the light itself increased.

  So the brightness within the room remained more or less the same except that the corners were not as evenly illuminated as before. Finally, what had been originally an area about 25 feet in diameter had become a small point of almost unbearably bright light. While Rous continued to work, the light point again began to spread out. He noted this and went on turning things, switching and resoldering as necessary until the light point was back again on the window pane.

  Then he stood up. "So!" he sighed. "Do you know what that is?" He pointed to the spot of light.

  Lloyd shook his head.

  "Well, naturally I don't know either," admitted Rous. "But I have a hunch. I surmise that our annular field here is working as a kind of lens. Light rays from some very distant object are brought through it and are cut off just at the focal point."

  Lloyd looked at him uncomprehendingly. "What light are you talking about—and where does it come from?"

  Rous scratched his head. "That's the big mystery. If I turn off the generator the light disappears, so the light does not exist in our room—we know that."

  "That's a little too esoteric for me," grumbled Lloyd. "So what room does it come from?"

  Enthused by his discovery, Rous gave him a friendly elbow nudge. "Remember that we could never see the aliens when they attacked," he said. "They were invisible. If it's too complicated for you to grasp the concept of two space-continuums being coexistent in which we and the enemy are located, then simply imagine that we may have found here the means of nullifying their invisibility.

  "Actually it works something like this: the ring field with its lens-like properties causes an instability in our own space structure and that instability acts as a bridge between two continuums. The light from one continuum can go over to the other."

  Lloyd nodded. "Good. I think I can understand that. And what else?"

  Rous pointed to the spot of light. "What you see there is a picture. A picture of some sort of object in that other realm of space. If we take a magnifying glass and enlarge it, we will be able to see something."

  "Okay then... so we'll just get ourselves a glass."

  Rous waved a hand negatively. "A glass magnifier is nothing more than a lens. If the first lens consists of an annular force field, then the second one can be made up the same way. So all we have to do is to slice our generator ring into two parts and thus obtain two annular rings, the one as the objective lens and the other as the eyepiece." He looked around. "There behind us we have a wide white wall. If we're lucky we'll be able to project the picture over there."

  Lloyd caught on. Eagerly the two of them began to work with the field generator while Rosita watched them curiously but without the necessary experience to know what she should make of it.

  "I always thought lenses were made out of glass," she interjected. "Isn't that so?"

  Rous laughed. "For the most part," he admitted. "But even 100 years ago there were electron microscopes with lenses made up of electrical fields or magnetic fields. So why shouldn't our forcefields serve just as well as lenses?"

  "Okay, okay," Rosita protested, waving her hands defensively. "I don't understand all that. I'm just anxious to see what kind of wizardry you're going to put together there."

  Lloyd's and Rous' enthusiasm was so great that within only a half hour a second circle of light appeared in the middle of the room, which was not discernibly different from the first in its bri
ghtness. It was larger than the first one had ever been and Rosita drew their attention to it.

  "Oh, good!" smiled Rous. "That is our eyepiece. Now we will focus that down until..." He interrupted himself and gave his forehead a slap. "I'm a fool!" With only one ocular lens you can't project a true picture... unless we also have a third lens. But the generator can't put out that much... We'll have to observe directly."

  He stepped to the lens in the middle of the room. "I don't see anything but brightness," he asserted somewhat disappointedly. "Lloyd, give a turn on the potentiometer."

  Lloyd started turning the tiny power knob while Rous stared intently into the light circle.

  "Stop!" he cried suddenly. "Mark that spot on the panel, Lloyd!"

  Lloyd marked the stop position of the potentiometer on the panel with a small etching blade. Meanwhile, Rous was asking for more things. "Rosita, bring me a couple of cloths or scarves or towels and hang them over my head. The lateral light interferes with the observation."

  Rosita brought towels. Once under these, so that only the light circle was visible to him, he stared ahead without uttering a sound.

  Only after ten minutes or so had passed did he step back and shake off the towels from his head. "You look in there!" he said to Lloyd. "Without any shadow of a doubt it's a picture but I can't orient my mind to it."

  Rosita could no longer contain her curiosity. While Lloyd was adjusting the towels about his head she asked, "What do you see?"

  In Rous' place, Lloyd described the picture: "There's a wide, flat surface of some kind. Dark objects are strewn around at random. It's a polychromatic picture but there don't seem to be many colors to speak of in this region. Those dark objects... well, they could be machines I guess. I don't know..."

  "Is anything moving?" Rosita wanted to know.

  "No, nothing. Everything is peaceful and still. The whole thing looks more like a photograph. I can't even wait! What's that?" He was silent for a moment and then continued excitedly: "Now something has moved. I mean the whole scene in its entirety. It looked as if someone had shoved the whole picture a bit forward. The dark objects have gotten bigger... ah yes, they are machines!"