Return from The Void

by Perry Rhodan

  "It's all come closer, is that it?" asked Rous.

  Lloyd nodded agreement. "Quite a bit," he confirmed. "It made one big jump and then it was suddenly as big as you see it now."

  "And that's what makes you conclude that there's danger?"

  Lloyd shrugged. "We ought to be careful," he answered. "I don't think any more that these sudden changes of the image can be blamed on variations in the generator. Maybe something is really coming closer to us and from what we've seen and experienced so far I'd say we can't keep that weird dimension or whatever it is far enough away from us."

  Rous conceded that point. "Perhaps another attack will occur," he said to Flaring. "Will your people inform you if it happens anywhere?"

  "Of course!" replied Flaring. "You might say all the 'wires' lead into this hotel."

  Rosita pressed them again. "Won't anyone just tell me what..."

  Rous still waved her off. "No, girl, Not yet! Lloyd, keep watching the image and give a shout the instant it comes closer. I'm putting through a report to the Drusus."

  Lloyd nodded. He put the towels over his head and took up his observation post in front of the light ring.

  Rous prepared a hypercom tape on which to compose his report to Rhodan. He had just started coding it when the door swung open. One of Flaring's orderlies came in gasping for breath. "There's an attack, Commissioner! The radio stations in Fregnaat aren't putting out any signals!"

  Rous pricked up his ears. "Where is Fregnaat?" he wanted to know.

  "Southeast from here," answered Flaring quickly. "About 800 miles."

  "Are your radio listening posts close enough together so that you can determine what direction the attack front is taking?"

  "Yes, on the average we have a post about every ten miles—they extend like spokes from Fillinan."

  "Good! Then keep track of the latest developments as they happen." The orderly departed swiftly, only to reappear within about two minutes.

  "The attack is moving toward Fillinan!" he declared. "Two more stations have been silenced. And in addition—"

  "In addition!" groaned Flaring. "In addition to that, the stations in the area of Kovan are being knocked out one after another. This front also is moving in the general direction of Fillinan!" Flaring stared at Rous helplessly. "What can we do?" he wailed. Rous calculated. Flaring's stations were at ten mile intervals. Within at the most five minutes two stations were silenced on a line of direction originating from Fregnaat. 20 miles in five minutes—that was a speed of about 240 miles per hour. Rous turned to the orderly. "Try to determine how wide that front is and if it's progressing at a constant rate of speed. How far is Kovan from here?"

  "1000 miles."

  "Good! Let me know as soon as you have found out something." The orderly disappeared. Rous looked gravely at Flaring. "For you I have a very heavy task." As Flaring returned his gaze with equal gravity, he continued. "We can evacuate 100,000 people out of the threatened area. We have only three hours to do it in. Do you think you can prepare 100,000 people for such an evacuation without causing panic among the rest of them?"

  Flaring watched him intently. "You... you want to evacuate... one hundred thou—"

  Rous cut in. "Yes, that's what we want to do. Don't worry about it. Can you get the 100,000 together?" As Flaring raised his hand in the Mirsalese sign of agreement, he continued. "Good. Then get going. We'll be able to start the embarkation within an hour."

  "Embarkation...?" mumbled Flaring in bewilderment. "Then you do have ships?"

  Rous shoved him out the door. "Don't ask questions!" he told him. "Show some action! We don't have any time to lose!"

  When Flaring hurried away, Rous turned back into Lloyd's room and called out to him: "You can drop that now! Come on—we have more important things to do."

  Lloyd threw off the towels.

  "Take the micro-com and send out an SOS to the Drusus and the Arc-Koor !" Rous ordered. "Both ships must land at once. Give them as much on the Fillinan situation as you can. There are only minutes to spare!"

  7/ CATASTROPHE STRIKES

  Perry Rhodan did not hesitate. Within a few minutes after Rous' emergency call was received, both of the giant ships were making an approach flight. The 18 million miles that had originally separated them from Mirsal 2 were traversed in less than half an hour. Of course the landing maneuvers required an extra 30 minutes, so that in all one hour transpired after Lloyd's SOS before the two gigantic spaceships had landed in the vicinity of Fillinan.

  Meanwhile, Rous had furnished additional information. The main idea was to throw a defense screen around the southwestern suburbs of Fillinan. Rous wanted to repeat the same kind of maneuver that he and Lloyd had used a few days before when they managed to save the Mirsalese in the Avenue of Kings. There wasn't any doubt that the field generators of both ships would be powerful enough to envelop an entire city section. And such would be necessary, according to Rous' plan, in order to save as many people as could be brought under protection of both ships, on board or otherwise.

  Rous was on hand with his companions and all his material that he had gathered to the present time as the Drusus landed on the western edge of the city. He had had the area blocked off by Flaring's police so that the embarkation might proceed quickly and without interruption by curious onlookers.

  But in this he had miscalculated as far as the Mirsalese mentality was concerned. By their nature none too plucky, and having been in a transport of fear because of the attack of the Unseen, the little men had no intention of gawking at the two space giants. Terrified, they ran away, and with them went the police who had been assigned to keeping the landing area clear.

  Rous reported to Rhodan, who was in agreement with his method of operation. He approved the plan of saving as many of the city inhabitants from the enemy as possible. Talamon, the commander of the Arc-Koor, had landed on the southern edge of the city. He was instructed to turn on his defense screen generators to their maximum power and to so form the screen that it would enclose about half of the southwestern suburbs, from the south.

  The Drusus generated a similar field configuration. A half-hour after both ships had landed, the still-populated portion of Fillinan was under the protective cover of an impenetrable bell of energy and Rous hoped it would be strong enough to hold back the hostile attack.

  The Com Central of the Drusus was able to monitor the signals from Flaring's radio sentry posts. By this means it was learned that the front of the attack had moved forward from 240 miles to 400 miles toward Fillinan in the Fregnaat area and also 600 miles out from the Kovan area.

  If the movement of the two attack fronts did not increase its speed by any marked degree, then there was a good chance of being able to complete the embarkation maneuver before the attack even reached the city.

  One hour after the landing, Flaring showed up with his first group of Mirsalese, who numbered about 15,000 men, women and children. Flaring stated that he had assigned a deputy to lead another group to the Arc-Koor. In accordance with Flaring's public announcement, another 70,000 Mirsalese stood in the outlying avenues of the city, ready to be evacuated. After the first panic caused by the appearance of the two monster spaceships, a comparative calm had now settled upon the suburbs.

  While the embarkation process was proceeding under the directions of Flaring and his deputy, along with the assistance of the organization-trained officers of both ships, Rhodan finally took time to obtain a more detailed report from the three agents he had infiltrated into Mirsal 2.

  • • •

  "Sir, I have described the phenomena, which were subjected to thorough observation," said Marcel Rous at the end of his explanation. "If I may, I'd be happy to give you my personal opinion of this situation."

  Rhodan nodded, smiling. "Please do. I'm anxious to hear your views."

  The lieutenant began: "Whoever the enemy may be that we're confronted with, he attacks from another dimension or continuum. He does not live in our universe. Further: fo
r Terranians the attacks on Mirsal 2 are not as dangerous as they are to the indigenous people, for example, and that's something to think about. For the sake of argument one might define a separate structure, for each different place in the galaxy and conclude further that the one who is most endangered by the enemy attacks is the one whose characteristic makeup is most similar to that of the foe. If we stay with this picture we have to say that the composition of a Terranian is apparently so different from that of the enemy that a Terranian can only be affected by an attack when it is at its greatest intensity—as in the case of Ms. Perez.

  "Thirdly: inanimate objects go through an aging process when an attack passes over them. Exactly the opposite happens to people who disappear in the attacks. You're familiar with Ms. Perez' report, sir. By our reckoning she was several days in that other world, yet she herself had the impression of being there only four or five seconds—just enough to take her first look around. Behind this effect—that is, an increase in the passage of time for inanimate objects and a slowing down of time perception for living, sentient life—perhaps in that is the reason why humans and animals actually disappear and inanimate articles are left behind. I have experienced this myself, sir. When I started to crawl through the forcefield lenticular system, as I have already described to you, I expected the same resistance as we had observed in the case of the palmbook, the can of food and the daybed that we had shoved through before. But the effect was exactly the opposite, not only was there no resistance but I felt a suction instead. To make it a little more plausible, one might think in terms of a negative and a positive charge. If one were to consider men and animals as being charged positively and inanimate things as negative, then it's possible to imagine that all the enemy has to do when he makes an attack is to place a negatively charged plate over the region involved. Positive charges are attracted—and they disappear as a result—while negative charges are repelled. Of course, sir, I hope you don't..."

  "...take you literally," Rhodan cut in, completing the statement. He nodded. "Yes, I can well imagine that no one actually places a charged plate over the countryside. Continue, Lt. Rous!"

  "We don't know what role plant life may play in the situation," Rous went on, "since after all plants do belong to organic life. But in each case of an attack they have been spared."

  "The fourth and last observation is that this enemy or force is superior to us, sir!" The only thing we can do is make use of the forcefield lens in order to slip through a string of men into their world. But we already know that the zone of action that the lens makes available is limited. We can't get through the dark wall. On the other hand, the enemy naturally is not restricted in his movements on his own world. We..."

  "One moment, please! Haven't your observations shown that our people would retain their own rate of time after going through the forcefield lens system, meaning that they'd be able to move 70,000 times faster than the enemy?"

  "I was coming to that, sir," answered Rous enthusiastically. "We would be considerably faster than the opponent. In the time he would take to draw in a single breath, we can rescue all the prisoners... that is, the ones we find within our allowed zone of action. The..."

  "The people who have been captured are living in the time-rate of the hostile world, right?"

  "That's right, sir. As reported, Ms. Perez had the impression that she had only been four or five seconds on the other side. The only ones who will have the advantage of swiftness will be those who go through the lens system. We can do a reconnaissance and maybe free a few prisoners, that's all. Inside the circumference of the area I could move around in I'd say there were about 100 captives. But in the past few days alone, two million people have disappeared from Mirsal 2, and then you can add to that the entire population of Mirsal 3. They weren't to be seen anywhere. Probably they are there somewhere behind the wall."

  Rous ended his discourse. Perry Rhodan sat there silently for awhile and stared seemingly into space. Then he suddenly looked up and smiled at Rous. "You have done your job well—all three of you. I'm very grateful. And above all: you've pulled more information together than I could have hoped for previously.

  "With regard to the opposition's superiority, don't worry. We've been in situations a few times before which seemed to be hopeless. The mere fact that we are still here proves that we still found a way out in spite of it all. We are men of the Earth, Lt. Rous, don't forget that! I have no doubt that we can also resolve this problem without it costing us our lives. So again, I thank you!"

  • • •

  Half an hour after this conversation, the Com Central registered the fact that both of the approaching attack fronts from the North and the Southwest had increased their rate of progression. Of the 100,000 Mirsalese whom Flaring had prepared for evacuation, so far 50,000 had gotten on board. The Mirsalese kept themselves under control. They were overawed by the size of the two ships and they were fearful of what lay in store for them if they didn't move along fast enough.

  • • •

  Shortly before 17:00 ship's time, the two attack fronts reached the city. At the moment, Rhodan himself was in the Control Central of the Drusus. The instruments registered a sudden power load peak in the defense screens and a few seconds later Talamon was heard from over the telecom system.

  His voice sounded nervous and fearful: "If we don't take off immediately, the generators will burn out!"

  Rhodan saw his panic-filled face on the small videophone screen. "They will not burn out!" he answered coldly. "That kind of load demand happens twice an hour to us out in space. Keep your nerves under control and see to it that the embarkation is completed according to plan. When we take off is something I will decide!"

  Talamon's worried face disappeared. Rhodan turned back to his instruments. A continuous stream of information kept coming in concerning the progress of the evacuation. The Drusus was almost at the limit of her capacity but on board the Arc-Koor there was still a lot of room.

  After the first peak demand of power that had been placed upon the defense screen fields it appeared that the enemy had turned away from the city. In the western part of the city where no transmitter stations had failed thus far, two of them were suddenly silenced.

  Rhodan breathed a premature sigh of relief.

  Minutes later another peak demand struck the screens, even stronger than the first one. For a few seconds all screen generators threatened to break down under the force of the attack.

  But these few seconds passed and the only thing remaining was Talamon's fear, which in the meantime had increased to hysterical proportions.

  "Get those people on board!" Rhodan told him in no uncertain tones. "And wait for my orders to take off. I don't believe that the Great Empire sent me the Arc-Koor to have it fail. Surely it's not such an old ship that its defense screens are going to cave in under the first heavy load!"

  The unconcealed sarcasm worked. From there on, Talamon was not to be heard from.

  • • •

  Rous, Rosita and Lloyd were helpful to Flaring during the embarkation because they could speak Mirsalese. Shortly after the second attack wave had driven both ships' generators to their maximum, the last of 60,000 Mirsalese were taken on board.

  According to reports, the Arc-Koor had only been able to take on 40,000 people in the same length of time.

  Flaring stood at the foot of the broad escalator ramp that led up into the heart of the giant spacesphere. He looked around. Across the broad expanse of trampled grass lay the first rows of houses of the suburb of Fillinan-Horun.

  "So it looks like we did it," he murmured.

  "Yes, come on and get on board!" urged Rous. "I think we're going to take off any time now!"

  Flaring looked at him in astonishment. "Who, me? " He shook his head. "I'm staying here. I belong to the people out there who are waiting for their destruction."

  This took Rous by surprise. "Don't be a fool, Flaring! You can't help them. Come with us. When this is over, we'll return
here. You still have a lot of work to do for your people."

  But Flaring gave him a sign of refusal by lifting his arm and then letting it sink down slowly. "No, I'll stay," he answered. "Perhaps the attacks will cease and we will survive. And perhaps not."

  Rous saw that he was serious and he sensed that all further words of argument against the other's decision would sound foolish. Nevertheless he said: "The second time we met I told you that you were a good man, Flaring. Be assured that we will never forget Mirsal! We shall come back—with better weapons. And then..."

  At that moment Rhodan's voice roared from the speakers down through the loading lock: "All personnel on board. Immediate takeoff in four minutes! Everybody on board!"

  Rous jerked to attention with a start. Whenever Rhodan announced a takeoff within the short time of four minutes one could be sure there was more fire than smoke. The escalator ramp began to retract into the body of the ship.

  Rous had been standing on level ground with Flaring but now he jumped onto the rising ramp "Come with us!" he shouted to Flaring.

  But Flaring gave him the refusal sign with his arm again. He bowed slightly to all three agents, then turned around and marched back toward the city with his head held high.

  A little brown man who walked to his demise with eyes wide open.

  • • •

  The third attack had knocked out one generator on the Drusus and three on the Arc-Koor. Rhodan knew that he couldn't wait another second. A fourth attack would mean the end of both ships.