Return from The Void

by Perry Rhodan

  The next consideration was his surroundings. The most outstanding feature was the apparent absence of a horizon. Of course as far as Rous could make out his field of vision was circular as it should have been but in place of a horizon there was an opaque wall of darkness. He estimated that it might be slightly more than a mile to that mysterious wall, from the point where he had come through.

  The whole aspect seemed to be like that portion of a stage that is illuminated by the footlights, suggesting that much else lay beyond and unseen in the surrounding darkness.

  He looked above him. The sky was pale blue and overcast with thin, transparent clouds. After watching the clouds for some time he determined that they were not moving.

  The ground or floor of the strange circular land he was standing in was paved with what looked like very broad flagstones. They were irregularly shaped but none of them had a surface area less than about 300 square yards. Where their edges came together there were dark stripes similar to plastic welding seams. Rous suddenly recalled the reference Rosita had made to 'tiles' when she had first looked at the image of this place.

  What at first had appeared to be machines when seen from Lloyd's room, proved on closer inspection to be a collection of weirdly shaped giant buildings. Rous had not underestimated their size: each of them could easily be compared with the tallest structures on Earth. He figured their average height to be around 1500 feet.

  The form of the edifices struck Rous as being weird and alien because of their almost absolute functionalism. As he stood before one of the gigantic structures and stared up at all of the crazy bends and twists and fissures and offsets of its walls lie was somehow firmly convinced that every curve or cleft or inset served some definite purpose.

  There were no windows anywhere—unless one could consider all the differently shaped holes as windows, which seemed to break through haphazardly in many different places.

  The color of these buildings was dark gray, offering a gloomy and sinister aspect that didn't quite harmonize even with the pale blue winter-hued sky with its transparent and motionless clouds.

  Close to the spot where Rous had emerged into this world he found the minibook he had thrown through the forcefield ring, as well as a can of preserves he had also tossed over. And there was the daybed lying in the same position that he and Lloyd had placed it in when they shoved it through with its legs in the air.

  Rous turned around. He attempted to locate the light circle through which he had come or at least whatever impression he could detect of it from this side. For a moment he almost froze in a shock of fear when he observed that the ground was as even behind him as before him and the air equally as transparent.

  But then he discovered a faint shimmering that began a few yards behind him, hovering in the form of an angularly disposed ellipse that was about three yards high. The shorter diameter of the ellipse was approximately one yard.

  So from this side the circle had a different appearance and more important it was harder to locate. Rous used the couch as a landmark, shoving it under the lower edge of the ellipse so that he could locate the place as swiftly as possible.

  He made no attempt to crawl back through the ellipse. The fact that it was present seemed proof enough that the return route was still open. And besides, he had no time to lose.

  He kept an eye out for the points which he and Lloyd had recently taken for image defects and he found them far away and close to the wall of darkness that formed the edges of the 'Stage'. From his present position they were not essentially any more recognizable than they had been when seen from Lloyd's room. So he started walking toward them in order to have a closer look.

  He got the impression that the ground he was moving over was extraordinarily hard in texture. After awhile his feet began to pain him with every step. He came to a stop and took the time to bend down and examine the material of the great, irregular flagstones. He had a knife with him, which he snapped open and used in an attempt to scratch the surface of the stone or whatever it was. He met with no success and so he was forced to conclude that the broad tiles were at least harder than his knife blade—and that meant very hard.

  Owing to the difficulty of walking, it took him almost an hour to cover the more or less 1500 yards that had originally separated him from the "points". Some time before he arrived at his goal he was already able to make out that he was approaching nothing other than a statue.

  The statue was variegated in color and represented a small, dark-skinned man who didn't quite reach to Rous' chin. The little man had bright spots on his face which looked something like pockmarks. His clothing was patched in places and his shoes looked dusty. All of these detailed features the artist had, taken care to bring out in his plastic sculpturing.

  Rous attempted to determine what kind of material the statue was made of. At first glance he got the impression that it was genuine: that is, flesh made of flesh and clothing made of cloth. But when he touched the man's cloak it felt like cold, hard stone and could not be moved by even the breadth of a finger.

  Rous stood there for awhile and looked at the strange likeness. The longer he reflected upon it the more difficult it was for him to dismiss the idea that the unknown sculptor had used an inhabitant from the world of Mirsal 2 as his model. If this little man were alive, he would have fitted into the general scene of Fillinan or anywhere else on the planet without causing the slightest disturbance.

  For a few moments Rous was visited by a grotesque suspicion: were the Mirsalese themselves the invisible and uncanny foe? Was the disappearance of 2,000,000 people nothing more than a massive diversionary action which merely served to mislead the Terranians and to drive them out of the Mirsal region if possible?

  Rous thought about it and then finally shelved it again. It was foolish. Mirsal 2 was at the threshold of the age of space flight. They hadn't the slightest knowledge of the presence of Terranians on Mirsal 3 where the puzzling human disappearances were first observed because till the present day no Mirsalese spaceship had so much as come close to Mirsal 3 much less landed on it. Moreover it could be assumed that the landing of the three agents on Mirsal 2 wasn't suspected at first—but in spite of that people disappeared when Rous and his companions approached the village of Keyloghal.

  No, the Mirsalese were innocent. Rous had no alternative other than to assume that the inhabitants of

  this world in which he now found himself were similar in appearance to the inhabitants of Mirsal 2, by a sheer coincidence.

  He looked about him. The wall of darkness he had first perceived upon his arrival was still about 500 yards distant from him. That enigma also interested him. He wanted to take a closer look at it and find out why nothing could be seen beyond it.

  He glanced for the last time at the unusual statue and suddenly stood rooted to the spot, staring in startled amazement.

  He'd been certain when he had first seen the little man that his eyes were wide open. He remembered having been especially struck by the fact that even the statue's eyes had the unique characteristic of the principal Mirsalese race, which was violet irises. But if the man's eyes had been in the position then that they were in now, he could not have noted the iris coloration at all. It looked as though the eyelids had slowly lowered in weariness during the past quarter hour. By now, both eyes were about half closed.

  Rous stood there. A horrible suspicion rose up inside of him. He observed the small, motionless man anxiously. He couldn't see the eyelids moving because the action was too slow; but after another quarter of an hour he was able to determine that the eyes were completely closed.

  Rous was so perplexed that it took quite awhile before the first clear concept could emerge from the chaos of Iris startled thoughts: this was no statue—the man was alive!

  But how did he live? Every movement of his body was slowed down thousands of times from the normal speed. Rous hadn't been able to detect the slightest sign of breathing on the part of the 'statue' and yet the man had to breathe
if he was capable of moving his eyelids.

  Rous made some feverish calculations. How long did it take for the blink of an eye? In any case at least a tenth of a second. Let's assume even five-hundredths of a second. Further, assuming that the eyelid movement he had observed constituted one-half of a blink, it was an event that in a normal framework of reference would last 0.025 second. But here the man had taken a full half-hour!

  This yielded a conversion factor of 72,000 to 1. The life events of this man happened at a time rate that was 72,000 times slower than normal—that is, provided that Rous' assumptions were correct and that he had not been deceived by his senses.

  It was no wonder that no other movement had been detected. The man could be in the act of turning his head or maybe lifting his leg in the process of walking. But what would be a matter of one second for the little man was to Rous a period of 20 hours, which was too long a time-span in which to perceive motion.

  And another thing: the man on his part was also unable to perceive Rous. For him, Rous was a very shadowy something that darted here and there with the swiftness of a bullet and could not be fixed by the eyes.

  Rous tried to figure out how he might help the unfortunate fellow. For example, he could drag him over to the daybed and guide him through the ellipse back into Mirsal 2 because there was now no further doubt that Rous had before him one of the 2,000,000 people who had disappeared from Mirsal 2 in the course of the past two weeks.

  But Rous decided against this idea. He didn't want to retrace his steps yet. He wanted to investigate the dark wall and find out what lay behind it. Upon his return, then he could take this man with him—or any one of the others. The other 'points' nearby were people like him, frozen in the same awful condition of time stasis.

  Rous hastened away. In his excitement he forgot how hard the ground was until the pains in his feet made him aware of it again. At the same time this brought with it a new realization: the apparent hardness of all the materials he had tested here was nothing more than an effect of the altered time relationship. A piece of material—for example the unfortunate little man's cloak—required an endless span of time, due to its inertia, to yield to an external pressure such as from Rous' finger. It was a time-span that was more than 70,000 times greater than that in which his finger moved. Without any yielding or giving to the touch, Rous' finger had sensed something that was terribly hard.

  It was the same with the ground he walked on. Probably the material that it consisted of was nothing much more than ordinary plastic. But in the time frame of this super slow world, Rous' feet struck the surface at every step with the speed of an interstellar rocket. It was similar to the effect of falling very swiftly into water, which though normally soft and yielding can become the hardest mass in the world.

  Rous sweated out his foot pains and covered the intervening distance to the dark wall in ten minutes.

  The wall was not material in nature but nevertheless it was as impenetrable as the strongest defense screen. His outstretched hand contacted something that he couldn't see and it was blocked. Rous pushed harder but the dark obstruction did not yield.

  Here was the world's end and while Rous was still wondering where he should turn to now, a thought occurred to him that was perhaps the answer to the astonishing phenomenon. The forcefield lens system only had the capacity of delineating a small cross-section of this world. No matter how the generator was turned, pushed or altered, the image remained the same. So in a physical sense the same was true. That which it gave access to was the same and with the same limitation.

  So logically under such circumstances the circular dark wall was not an actual characteristic of this continuum. It only indicated a limitation of the lens capability. It was a wall that didn't even exist here but rather something merely established by the lens. He was sure that if any inhabitant of this time-space-continuum happened along he would not be able to notice such a wall.

  Rous turned about. On his way back he came upon a number of the alleged statues and decided that he would take with him the one that was closest to the couch and the shimmering exit hole. Because distances were deceptively great and under the weird circumstances prevailing here the going was unpleasant and painful.

  As far as Rous could see, all the motionless people standing around here were Mirsalese. There was no figure higher than about five feet, but men, women and children were fairly evenly distributed.

  Finally Rous approached the rear side of the building he had faced a few hours before. He discovered one of the curious apertures at a level close to the ground and wondered if he shouldn't try to enter the structure.

  He had just about decided on this course of action when he heard a peculiar sound. At first it was just a faint humming that lasted about a minute, holding the same tone and intensity, but which then began to increase. Within five minutes it reached such a pitch of crescendo that Rous' ears were hurting. After that it faded almost with interminable slowness. By the time Rous could finally remove his hands from his ears, 20 minutes had passed and still the moaning and humming continued to emerge from somewhere in this strange world.

  He didn't know what the sound was or what it signified nor did he care about that part of it. But he did sense the danger that was involved with it. Without being able to explain it, he knew that he must not wait any longer. In delay itself was danger! He would have to postpone his inspection of the building to another time.

  He ran as fast as his sore feet would allow, going left around the gigantic structure so that he could get to his goal as fast as possible, which was the spot where he could reenter into the world of Mirsal 2.

  He was in the process of finding his way past various projections, clefts and extensions of the giant edifice when he discovered a motionless figure standing in the shadow of three pillar-like structures.

  He was about to push onward because at first glance he thought it was another transplanted Mirsalese who was dragging out his existence there in the semi-darkness. But then he noticed that this figure was taller than all the others he had seen so far. He turned back and pushed in between the two pillars.

  His eyes weren't adjusted to the darkness here after being exposed to the bright blue sky outside. The only thing he noticed at first was that this figure was about a head taller than the others. Then he discovered that in contrast to the Mirsalese style the figure was wearing long black hair.

  When his eyes finally adjusted themselves to the darkness he saw that this was Rosita Perez!

  Rous disciplined his astonishment quickly because of the menace that seemed to be at his heels. He attempted to guide Rosita's body between the pillars but he didn't succeed until he finally tipped her forward, grasped her about the waist and carried her out like a log. The girl showed no reaction because she was subject to the same kind of stretched-out time relationship as the Mirsalese. Instead of bending in the middle as would normally be expected with this means of transportation, she remained stiff as a board and actually made Rous' work all the easier.

  Rous hurried, although with his new burden he couldn't move as swiftly as before. The couch that he had positioned as a road marker was now no more than about 200 yards away but under his load those 200 yards stretched out to a near eternity.

  A momentary shock of horror went through him when he saw a figure appear out of the nothingness in the vicinity of the couch. In contrast to the slowness of movement with which this world was afflicted, the figure waved its arms and uttered shrill sounds that Rous couldn't understand.

  Rous stopped and the excited figure approached him. A big load went off of him when he recognized Fellmer Lloyd. As the latter came closer, Rous began to understand him.

  "Better come quick!" cried Lloyd. "There's danger brewing!"

  "Help me!" Rous called back to him. "I've found Rosita!"

  Lloyd came up to him. Out of concern for Rous he hadn't yet taken time to observe his surroundings. But now that he knew that Rous was as good as back to safety he di
d take a look around him. Rous saw him start.

  "Good Lord!" murmured Lloyd. "What kind of a strange, weird..."

  "Give me a hand!" Rous interrupted impatiently. "We don't have time to gawk!"

  It was easier to carry Rosita between the two of them. Within a few minutes they reached the couch, behind which the slanting ellipse of shimmering force could be seen.

  "Who's on the other side?" asked Rous. "Flaring?"

  Lloyd nodded. "I told him to keep an eye on everything."

  "Okay, then let's get Rosita through here first!"

  Which didn't pose any difficulty. The girl psychologist was still as stiff as a board. They shoved her through the shimmering oval of light and watched her disappear.

  Then Lloyd climbed into the ellipse, entering feet first. In spite of his excitement, seeing the phenomenon from this side was still a chilling experience for Rous, watching Lloyd's legs disappear bit by bit and seeing the border of invisibility creep up his body until only his head was sticking out. In another moment, Lloyd disappeared entirely.

  Rous followed him immediately. This time he had none of the previous sensations—neither the resistance he had originally expected nor the undertow that had come instead. He simply crawled through the ellipse and after a short period of grey-white shimmering light he found himself on the side wall of the dresser that they had shoved up to the light circle originally in order to facilitate 'entering'.

  Meanwhile, Rosita had recovered from her time-stasis condition. She had recognized Flaring and asked him what had happened. But Flaring couldn't do anything other than crook his finger at her. He had no information.

  But when Lloyd and Rous arrived, she stormed them with questions. They had to wave her off.

  "Later!" Rous told her. "Just now there are more important things. Lloyd, what makes you think there's danger brewing?"

  Lloyd made the observation indicated. He didn't even need the towels over his head to be able to see that the field of vision had become enlarged. It wasn't so much the borders of the field that had changed—there were still the same objects to be seen as before—but the image itself had grown larger. For example the couch was no longer a barely identifiable dot but had instead become an almost endless streak. The gigantic buildings had grown and under the present conditions the dark spots occupied by the Mirsalese could no longer be mistaken for image distortions or defects.