by Perry Rhodan
Bell stared at the automatic calendar.
Terrestrial time prevailed on board the Stardust . Rhodan had made this decision not only out of sentimentality but because any time was as useful and practical as another on the far-flung flights of the Stardust.
"December seventh, eighteen-twenty hours," said Bell. If the slight melancholy in his voice could be detected it was only because of the more preponderant anxiety. "At this time I am..."
"Two hundred forty miles!"
"...and at this time I am..."
"Wind velocity twenty-one hundred feet per second, sir. Remaining constant for last ten minutes."
"...and at this time... Navigator to Commander. The surface below us does not appear as smooth as before. I don't see any explanation for it."
"Can you describe the change?"
"Yes, sir. It looks as if a meadow has suddenly turned into a sea." That's it. At the surface of the planet, the temperature is near the melting point of methane. A slight rise in temperature is sufficient to turn the frozen methane into a liquid. Make a depth probe of the density. I want to find out how deep the methane has melted.
"Yes, sir." And barely a minute later: "I found solid ground thirty feet below the undulating surface."
"All right. No change of course!" Bell sighed sadly and gave up his attempt to tell what he would have done on Earth at this time. He turned his attention to his instruments.
The control light of the protective screen began to flicker. Bell responded before Rhodan noticed it.
"Co-pilot to Protective Screen Generator. What's the matter with the screens? Why don't you shift to full power?"
"The generators are running under full power, sir," replied the engineer resentfully.
"Stabilize the ship! The screen is out of control." Rhodan reacted in his own way. He reduced the thrust of the engines and lowered the ship at an accelerated pace. If anything happened to the protective screen, he preferred to be on solid ground. Solid, ground!
"Attention! Ship is touching down!"
Rhodan stood with concentrated attention before the huge pilot switch panel. The automatic steering had taken over the task of probing the bottom and switching off the engines, or rather adjusting them to minimum output, as soon as adequate contact had been made.
The methane was liquid up to a depth of thirty feet and beneath it was a treacherous strata. At sixty feet the landing pads of the hydraulic legs found enough support so that the generators were turned down by the automatic control.
The humming which had pervaded every last corner of the Stardust, and to which everybody's ears had become readily accustomed, died down to almost nothing so that all became aware of the quiet.
Rhodan set a limit switch to govern the generators in order to prevent the gravity value from sinking below nine hundred sixteen G's. The gravity neutralizers together with the engines kept the Stardust in a weightless state even after the landing. The support legs had found solid ground but they did not depend on it. Rhodan was sure that the ship could take off anytime he desired.
He posted three guards at every generator and explained to them with great emphasis that the safety of the ship and its crew depended upon the engines being ready to start at any moment.
The incident which had occurred at two hundred forty miles altitude had made him very apprehensive. A few seconds after Bell's talk to the protective screen engineer the screen had become stable again. But the phenomenon remained inexplicable. There was no apparent reason why the intensity had fluctuated for half a minute.
The engineer assured him that the adjustment had remained untouched. The protective screen generators were controlled from a central switch panel which had been under the watchful eyes of the engineer at all times.
They could find no explanation for the incident.
"It looks as if somebody on the outside has tapped our screens," speculated Bell.
The idea was absurd. But the incident was of such a nature as to cause all sorts of absurd thoughts.
"I would like to ask you to examine the record of the structure sensors," said Rhodan gravely. "It looks as if some kind of a message might be hidden in these structure changes. Tanaka Seiko was unable to detect anything. That leaves only the structure sensor to be studied."
Khrest nodded thoughtfully.
"Do you have any clues?" he asked.
Rhodan shook his head. Only later did it occur to him that this was the first time Khrest had asked his
advice on a technical matter.
"No, not the slightest. Unless you want to call what we so far know about the mentality of the stranger a hint."
"Well that doesn't give me much to go by."
Khrest stared dejectedly at the narrow plastic picture strips which were lying on the table in front of him.
"And what do you intend to do?" he finally asked.
"The technicians have built an exploration vehicle with remote control. I'll have it tested outside. If it performs according to expectations, I'll drive it myself and look around."
"Out there?" Khrest pointed his thumb over his shoulder.
Khrest shook his head.
"Sometimes it makes me shudder when I sense your ambition. Don't you have any fear?"
"Plenty," assured Rhodan with a grin.
"Everything is satisfactory, sir. The car was outside for three hours and was driven around about thirty miles. The screen generators are functioning faultlessly as well as the remote control steering. If you pass out somewhere we can always bring you back home."
"Thank you," said Rhodan with an appreciative smile.
The "car" was a monstrous vehicle. To begin with it had been hopeless to build it like a glider to move above ground. The extreme gravity of Gol—Rhodan had accepted the name—forbade such experiments at the outset. Therefore, it moved on caterpillar tracks. The technicians had adapted the chassis of one of the robot work machines. Only thirty percent of the vehicle's volume could be utilized. A small compartment held the engine and almost seventy percent of the space was required for the protective screen generators which had to protect the vehicle from the incapacitating gravity.
For the sake of his own safety, Rhodan would have preferred to have the car tested more thoroughly. But he had no time to lose in this enterprise. The unknown individual had very definite ideas as to how much time it should take for a man to solve his mysteries to be considered worthy of him. So far no one knew what time he had allotted for the solution of the Gol enigma.
Bell had insisted that he accompany Rhodan on his first trip but Rhodan refused his request
"You must never forget that you're the only man, except myself, who has acquired the entire knowledge of the Arkonides. Mankind cannot afford to lose both of us at the same time."
Instead, he selected Major Deringhouse and the Japanese Tanaka Seiko as his companions.
The tractor-like vehicle was driven out through the lowest lock of the Stardust, which was at a normal landing level with the ground. Rhodan steered it himself. The observer screen which served to find him his bearing was coupled with an infra-red searchlight. Its invisible, highly concentrated beam penetrated the darkness on Gol's surface more than half mile and thus provided sharp and clear pictures on the screen.
Major Deringhouse handled the regular microwave range finder whereas Tanaka Seiko served as radioman for the time being.
Rhodan watched on the all-round screen the closing of the huge doors of the ship locks behind the "caterpillar." Meanwhile liquid methane had flowed into the locks and evaporated in the warm surroundings. The dangerous gas was pumped out and rose in great bubbles through the sea of methane in which the vehicle was striving to gain solid ground.
Rhodan made a complete sweep with the searchlight and saw that the carrier was indeed floating like a submarine. The upper boundary of the ellipsoid-shaped antigrav-screen still had twenty-five feet of liquid methane above.
Rhodan tried to picture what would happen if the temperature sud
denly dropped and the methane became solid.
However, the difficulty of steering diverted him from all these useless speculations. The viscosity of the ground was so sluggish that the caterpillar tracks were ineffective unless all available power was turned on. This way the vehicle made about twenty miles per hour.
Rhodan followed a direction which according to magnetic measurements on board the Stardust had been defined as south. There in the south was the mountain range in which the transmitter of the inexplicable pattern on the visiscreen of the structure sensor was situated.
After about fifteen minutes the ground began to rise. The height of the liquid methane above the carrier decreased. Tanaka transmitted the first of his routine reports to the ship. It was perfectly received and confirmed.
A few minutes later the vehicle emerged from the sea of methane. The generators howled as they climbed up the steep shore.
Rhodan stopped and rotated the searchlight all around.
"Take a look at that!" he exclaimed.
He had stopped the searchlight and illuminated a lonely, needle-shaped rock which jutted high out of the terrain. It stood no more than six hundred feet away from the shore of the lake from which they had just now emerged. The diameter at the bottom measured about fifteen feet. The needle was tapered and formed a sharp point at a height of about three thousand feet.
"What is that?" wondered Deringhouse "It's moving, isn't it?"
Nobody answered.
Indeed, the needle moved. It seemed to contract. It became visibly smaller and the circumference was reduced at the same speed. Rhodan looked at his watch. After scarcely six minutes the needle vanished completely. Where there had been a fabulous rock formation a glistening plain stretched unbroken to the mountain chain twelve miles in the distance.
Rhodan started up again.
"What was that?" groaned Deringhouse. Rhodan smiled at him.
"An icicle," he said above the purring engines.
Deringhouse, stared at him uncomprehendingly.
"Frozen methane," explained Rhodan. "It looks like a regular piece of rock. But when the temperature rises above the melting point of methane it disappears slowly. If you looked closely you could see rivulets of methane flowing in all directions."
Half an hour later they had reached the foothills. In the meantime they had encountered a number of different rock formations which vanished before their eyes.
The scenery was in motion. In Rhodan's opinion there existed nothing except frozen methane or ammonia in the immediate surroundings. Therefore, everything was subject to the transforming effects of minor temperature changes.
Rhodan realized the difficulties of orientation created for those who traveled in such a world. The only safe way to proceed was to follow a set of co-ordinates. Rhodan told Tanaka to report to Stardust II accordingly.
The question remained: the mountain where the mysterious transmissions originated—of what did it consist? It was improbable that such tremendous formations were created spontaneously from masses of the frozen atmosphere. It had to be assumed that part of the true surface of Gol was protruding there and that it underwent far fewer transformations.
"...only the mountain will pulsate for you...!"
Rhodan remembered the last sentence of the strange message which Tanaka Seiko had translated.
One did not call something a mountain unless it really was a mountain.
With churning tracks the vehicle swung slowly around a foothill.
The slopes of the hills reflected the typical infrared glimmer which Rhodan had noticed everywhere—ice and snow.
Behind the hill there was another stretch of level terrain. But farther back a wall of rock rose lip almost vertically. It did not look very inviting. There seemed to be neither a crack nor a gap. The wall was so solid that Rhodan began to search for ways of circumventing the obstacle.
As he was sweeping the beam of his searchlight he reduced the speed of his vehicle. The spot of light moved hundreds of yards over the wall and suddenly disappeared.
Rhodan was baffled and repeated the search again. Slowly the beam moved across the wall and disclosed the normal cracks, crevices and chinks in rocks.
Then, by advancing merely one more degree, the light became extinguished. There was no indication that it had reached the end of the wall and that the beam was shining the full length of its range into the grey night of Gol.
The wall was still there but the searchlight made no visible mark on it.
Rhodan had no time left to wonder. The little fusion-aggregate from which the searchlight drew its energy suddenly started to hum. Rhodan bent forward to see what had happened. From the connection of the aggregate to the searchlight switch on the control panel crackled a foot-long blue spark. The stench of burning insulation pervaded the interior of the carrier for a while until it was pumped out. The searchlight was completely extinguished and a red light on the board lit up to signal that the searchlight was defective.
Rhodan recognized the danger of the situation. From now on he would be forced to proceed in darkness. The radar did not distinguish very clearly between the atmosphere and the obstacles of methane and ammonia ice which presented the greatest difficulties.
Rhodan turned the vehicle around.
Deringhouse and Seiko had watched the incident without reaction. Neither of them seemed to understand the dilemma they faced through the failure of the searchlight. Rhodan did nothing to enlighten them. They would discover it soon enough when the first icicle collapsed on the vehicle and bombarded it with chunks of congealed gas.
3/ GLOWING BEINGS
"I DON'T HAVE the faintest idea how to decipher this," said Khrest disgustedly and switched off the projector. "The unknown we are chasing must have a warped sense of humor."
Bell shrugged his shoulders. "What do you expect? He's guarding a very precious secret. If we want to obtain it we shouldn't let the eccentricity of its keeper deter us. Won't you try once more?"
Khrest sighed.
He started to return to his projector but after two steps he stumbled and had to throw himself across a chair to keep from falling to the ground. Bell had lost his footing at the same moment. He threw up his arms and tried to balance himself before he crashed with his broad back against the switch panel of the radio officer. Alarm sirens wailed through the quiet of the Command Center. Khrest got up and studied the floor of the Command Center carefully. He looked around and found on one of the tables a small plastic cylinder, narrow and long like a pencil, which served as a test probe for tube lines. He put it on the floor and rotated it. Finally he let go. The little cylinder started to move. Gaining speed, it rolled across the smooth floor and came to rest at the wall.
"That's what I thought," exclaimed Khrest. "The ship is leaning over!"
Bell went into action. He quickly dialed and within seconds got the engineer in charge of the protective screen on the telecom. "I'm about to regain control, sir," the engineer reported hastily, shouting loud enough so that Bell could hear him in spite of the wailing sirens. "As far as I can tell, two gravity generators were running idle momentarily. As a result the neutralization screen became weak or failed completely on one side. That's why we toppled over."
"Were idle?" shouted Bell. "Are you trying to tell me that they're operating normally again?"
"Yes, sir!" Bell ended his call.
At the same time the wailing of the sirens ceased. Bell went over to the pilot compartment and examined the reports. There could be no doubt that the ship was leaning. The support leg had sunk more than sixty feet into the ground and the inclination of the vessel floors measured in excess of one degree.
The correction of the situation was no problem for Bell. He could increase the power of the engines by the proper amount to raise the ship to its normal level and then revert to the previous output. He took the necessary steps and determined that everything was functioning as it was supposed to. The incident was a mysterious manifestation which was gone as qui
ckly as it had come.
His inability, however, to find an explanation for the failure of the generators upset Bell very much. Even though he possessed the entire knowledge of the Arkonides he did not succeed in detecting the reason for the interruption of two faultlessly operating gravity generators which functioned perfectly again after a few seconds.
Khrest looked at him, downcast, and asked: "You don't understand it either?"
Bell shook his head angrily. "No," he said, "I don't have the foggiest idea."
The telecom signal interrupted them. "Observer to Commander! Please inspect screen C, sir. I believe you'll be interested in the sighting."
Bell turned on the visiscreen with curiosity. The screen lit up. Dark grey flickering spread all over it. "I see..." began Bell. "Nothing," he wanted to say but at this moment he did see something. It was a dimly glowing, shapeless image which moved like a veil through the grey murkiness. It looked like a light trail of smoke or... Bell knew no comparison for it. However, it was something else which impressed him most about the glowing form. Out there where the light patch cavorted reigned wind velocities and pressures which were beyond human imagination. Smoke or nebulous formations—or whatever the thing out there resembled—would have been torn apart or blown away in seconds by the continuous storm. The patch outside, however, was swaying, stretching out and contracting again. It did not seem to be affected at all by the raging atmosphere of Gol. Bell stared at the patch until it disappeared. "Thank you," said Bell weakly to the observation officer. "Keep an eye on it." He avoided looking at Khrest and stared at the floor instead.
Khrest said after a while, "I don't know if it's worth racking our brains about it. The aerodynamic conditions in this atmosphere are so strange that all sorts of symptoms can occur. They look very mysterious and defy explanation at first but could turn out to be quite simple. For instance, the phenomenon we've just observed could be an exotic form of an electric discharge similar to a thunderstorm."
Bell nodded.