by Perry Rhodan
Rhodan looked at him puzzled.
"Of course not. What's the mystery?"
He turned off the searchlight.
A second later, after the intensive infrared light had disappeared from the screen, Rhodan saw what Deringhouse was after.
A vast multitude of pale and eerie glowing forms were now populating the observation screen. Bodies of light, numbering in the thousands and in at least that many different shapes. Only Deringhouse's sharp eyes were able to make them out in the brightness of the searchlight.
"The Valley of the Phantoms!" murmured Deringhouse.
His voice was derisive, but not derisive enough to hide the fact of how much he was distressed by the impression.
"What's the matter?" came Bell's voice from the last vehicle. "Why don't we go on? Where's the Valley of the Phantoms?"
"Right here!" answered Rhodan. "Directly in front of us. Watch out when you turn around at the spot where my car is standing now. Let's go on!"
The ledge turned out to be a very suitable road for the cars, as though somebody who knew they were coming on an expedition had laid it out for them and their three vehicles.
While driving on the ledge Rhodan used his searchlights to illuminate the way ahead and lost sight of the wavering, glowing bodies. But he had not forgotten about them. The big question was whether the peculiar phenomena would remain as peaceful when the three lonely vehicles encountered them in such overwhelming numbers as the one that was dancing behind them in its hyper-geometric shape.
The mountain wall curved around. The direction became southeast for a while and turned again exactly south. According to Rhodan's calculations the mountain peak which was their goal could be no farther than fifty miles away.
When the ledge had descended the twenty-four hundred feet which they had climbed up on the other side of the mountain, it became wider and finally merged into the level floor of the valley.
Rhodan stopped his vehicle as soon as he was far enough ahead to allow the other two vehicles to get off the ledge.
He turned his searchlight off again. But the lights from the other vehicles threw off too much glare. He asked Khrest and Bell to switch them off too, which they did.
And then they saw on all three observation screens a strange and awesome picture.
The huge valley was filled with bodies of light. There was a whole army of them.
They formed a front about twelve hundred feet south of the three vehicles.
The basin before them was the only way they could proceed farther south. Rhodan was convinced that the mountain bordering the basin in the south was the one for which they were looking.
The vehicles had to push through between the glowing bodies. So far they had not proved to be hostile except in the case where they latched onto the protective screen of Stardust II. But until now they had appeared only alone or in small quantities. There was no way of predicting how thousands of them would behave.
Rhodan conferred for some time with the drivers of the other two vehicles.
Bell's answer was straightforward: "We've got to break through! The sooner the better."
Khrest made his decision and told Rhodan: "I leave it to you, Rhodan. I'll follow your instructions."
Rhodan decided to break through. However, he attempted to set up some rear guard for his expedition. Since Tanaka was out of action because of his headache, he told Deringhouse to call the Stardust and give Thora a report about their situation.
Deringhouse gave the call signal and waited for response. But he got no answer. He tried again but had no more luck than before. Rhodan contacted the other two vehicles. They had received Deringhouse's call correctly. There was nothing wrong with the transmitter. But the Stardust did not reply!
5/ ENCOUNTER WITH THE GHOSTS
THORA HAD WATCHED the vehicles ascending the northern mountain slope and going through the pass as best she could with the imperfect communication setup. None but the most vital equipment had been installed in the vehicles. Communication by television, for instance, had been considered superfluous and was, therefore, eliminated. Every square inch of space and each ounce of weight had been utilized. Rhodan had regarded it an unnecessary luxury to look into each other's eyes while talking together.
Thora held her breath when Rhodan drove out to the narrow ledge and she became very jittery when Khrest followed him. She breathed a deep sigh of relief when the pass opened up before the vehicles and the perilous ride came to an end.
She vicariously shared the trip through the pass while listening to Reginald Bell's remarks and heard Deringhouse mention the Valley of the Phantoms.
That was the last she heard. The next moment things began to happen to the Stardust which made them think that the world had come to an end for them, had it not been for a last saving grace.
Thora was so engrossed in the telecom conversation between the three vehicles that she was unable to determine immediately upon hearing the first howling of the alarm sirens which sector of the ship had been endangered. She jumped up, regarded the control panel with frightened eyes and felt panic rising up in her when she could not find the emergency signal.
"All neutralizing machines running idle!" shouted a voice from the telecom above the din of the sirens.
The engineer sounded irritated and impatient. He was used to Rhodan's lightning fast reactions, not to the slow and panicky functioning of an Arkonide brain.
"What can we do?" Thora inquired hastily.
Then she remembered that the man did not understand her language. She repeated her question in English.
"That's what I wanted you to tell me!" screamed the engineer, who was so distraught over the failure of the generators that he neglected to show the customary respect
"What's the matter with the protective screen?"
"Its still intact. The gravity neutralization field is completely gone; but I can hold the ship with the engines."
The sirens had stopped howling. Some of Thora's tension subsided as silence returned.
"Keep holding the ship!" Thora ordered. "I'll try to find out what's going on out there."
The engineer signed off and Thora called the range finder officer.
"Can you see anything?"
"No. The observation screen turned completely black." Thora switched on the big all-around screen in the Control Center. Whereas it had before shown a homogeneous grey, it now showed an equally homogeneous deep black void.
The Arkonide woman went hastily to the receiver where she had heard the conversations between the three vehicles only a few minutes ago. She had not turned it off. But it was dead and did not even make the usual slight background noise.
Thora began to understand that something was happening which she had never before experienced. She wished Perry Rhodan were back to give her some advice and she cursed him at the same time because he had dared to leave her alone with the giant ship in this monstrous world.
Somebody has got to get out there, was her first thought. We have to find out what's going on outside.
Her second thought was that nobody would be willing to venture out and she could not blame anyone.
What did Rhodan always say? Don't ask any questions—give orders!
How easy it would have been for her a few years ago when she first met human beings and considered them a race of foolish savages! But now?
The telecom clicked.
"It's swarming with lights out there, ma'am."
The face of Wuriu Sengu, the "seer," appeared on the small visiscreen.
Thora nodded.
She recalled the experience Reginald Bell had a few hours earlier, bombarding these phantoms with his disintegrator. There were a number of different weapons at hand on the Stardust . Perhaps one of them would be useful.
"Come to the Command Center, Sengu!" Thora ordered the Japanese.
Sengu nodded and disconnected the line.
Thora instructed the Weapon Control Section to get ready to fire the impulse beame
r and neutron missiles. The all clear came as Sengu entered the Command Center.
"You can easily trace the trajectory of a thermo-impulse beamer," Thora advised Sengu. "The battle station will open fire in a few seconds. I'd like to know what effect it will have."
Wuriu took his position. He stared at a spot he had selected on the wall of the room. Somebody who did not know him, and was not aware that the Japanese had the faculty to influence the crystalline structure of matter by the strength of his will alone so that it became transparent for him, would have thought that he was pondering a serious problem.
"Fire!" commanded Thora. She watched Sengu. He kept staring at the wall for several minutes. Thora saw his forehead break out in a sweat. She wanted to query him but she knew it was useless to interrupt his concentrated attention.
Suddenly he slumped forward.
"Stop it!" he gasped.
"At once!"
"Hold fire!" Thora responded.
Sengu flung himself on a chair. He was breathing so hard and fast that it took a while until he could utter a word.
"They swallow ... everything. The thermo-rays are piercing their bodies but don't go through. The glowing becomes more intensive and they're growing in size. It looks as though they're consuming the energy of the shots."
Sengu was unaware that Thora knew about the similar experiment Bell had conducted a few hours ago.
She was thinking about making a second attempt with the neutron missiles. Neutrons were corpuscles, not energy in the sense of...
"Watch out!" shouted Sengu. "They're coming!"
Thora felt miserable and helpless.
"What are they doing?" she asked breathlessly.
One more moment and she knew.
A mighty jolt shook the ship. Thora fell to the floor and when she tried to get up again after the initial shock she felt that her weight had increased threefold.
Sengu sank deeper in the chair and kept looking through the wall.
"They're real close now," he panted. "They're sitting on the outer hull."
A voice shouted from the telecom:
"Engine power down to seventy percent. Strength of neutralization field on board greatly reduced."
It was the engineer again and this time his voice sounded more frightened than impatient.
Thora struggled to get up and dragged herself to the mike.
"Try to start!" she breathed.
It was as if the gravity had forced her body into a tight straitjacket. It was difficult for her to breathe.
"If you take the responsibility, ma'am!" answered the engineer.
Lights began to flicker all over the control panel as the engineer took over the steering of the ship in the technical department. Thora watched the lights as if she had never seen them before and waited for the reassuring green of the starting signal.
Finally it came. One second, two seconds, three seconds—it was shining brightly on the panel. Then it went out and the ship had not moved.
Thora moaned inarticulately, shaken by fear.
"We've lost all power!" reported the engineer. The realization of his inability to do anything about it had apparently restored his calm.
Wuriu Sengu uttered a muffled groan.
"They've become gigantic, gigantic..."
"But we have to do something!" cried Thora.
She took a step toward Sengu.
Something happened at this moment. She was pulled forward and tumbled to the floor for the second time within a few minutes.
She had fallen very hard and was dizzy. Lifting herself up, she glanced at Sengu; She felt no more pain when she turned her neck. Thora rose and noticed that the heavy weight had lifted from her and her body felt normal again.
The Japanese smiled.
"They're gone," he said quietly. "They vanished all of a sudden."
Thora looked around as if trying to find the reason for this miracle in the Command Center.
Her gaze lingered on the oscillograph screen of the structure sensor. It showed the brightly shining, modulated sine waves of the message from the unknown being for whose sake Rhodan had risked this daring journey.
She looked mechanically at the clock.
The transmission was on time as usual.
Rhodan had just made up his mind to abandon the expedition and return to the Stardust when the vessel contacted him again. He had started the car and was about to steer it back in a loop when Deringhouse yelled behind him: "They're back again, sir!"
"Calling Rhodan. Stardust calling Commander Rhodan!" sounded the telecom.
It was Thora. Rhodan could not remember when her voice sounded so meek. Impatiently he grabbed the microphone.
"Rhodan speaking. What was the matter with you?" The noise which preceded her answer could have been a sigh of relief or an atmospheric disturbance.
"We were attacked," Thora said, then gave a somewhat confused but detailed report of the events during the preceding minutes.
Rhodan interrupted her when he had understood her story.
"Can you start?" he asked.
"Yes, we can now."
"Take off and stay at a safe altitude, let's say a thousand miles up, until you get my next message. I don't
believe that these lights venture out that far."
"All right. But what's the purpose?"
"We've come here to a valley and as soon as we can find out what kind of company these assembled phantoms make I want you to land the Stardust in this basin. I'll give you the co-ordinates."
Thora seemed depressed but Rhodan paid no attention.
"Keep in touch with us at all times," he advised her. Rhodan had his own ideas about the incident to which the Stardust had almost fallen victim by a hairbreadth. There was no reasonable explanation as to why the light bodies had suddenly retreated from the ship, unless there was a connection between their retreat and the simultaneous arrival of the unknown's message.
Wasthere a possible relationship? Was the form of energy which the unknown used to send his messages the same that Major Nyssen had tried to discover for hours?
Khrest called.
"Rhodan, do you really want to go through under these circumstances?"
"You bet I do," Rhodan assured him. "We've practically no protective field around us, nothing therefore to whet the appetite of these lights."
He trusted that no one called his bluff. The glowing bodies had even swallowed the low energy of the infrared searchlight beam and one could expect that they would be very much interested in the powerful gravity neutralization field.
But Rhodan had an inspiration.
"Column, forward!" he ordered sharply.
His vehicle was again leading the pack. They approached almost leisurely the front of the lights which were dancing around by the thousands in the dark valley.
Rhodan switched off the searchlight. He could find his way by the light of the luminous bodies.
"What's the ball behind us doing?" he asked Bell.
"It keeps on doing the same thing all the time," answered Bell. "Dancing and rocking."
"You didn't notice anything different?"
"No."
Then the vehicles reached the forefront of the luminous bodies and from that moment on Rhodan had no time to think about any problems other than those which he was presently facing.
At first the lights took no notice of the vehicles. They were separated far enough so that the heavy vehicles could easily pass through between them.
"What do you know!" exclaimed. Bell, surprised. "They're not so bad after all."
Rhodan rotated the antenna of the optical screen. In the meantime they had advanced so deeply inside the front that they could no longer see any open terrain. Before them, at their sides and behind them, everywhere the lighted veils of the incredible energy bodies were swaying.
Rhodan gnashed his teeth.
He looked at his watch. Ten minutes had passed.
He knew that his luck was bound to run out and that he
could not drive through this mass much longer without getting into trouble. The end had to come some time; but when?
Fifteen minutes.
"Can you see the end of it?" asked Bell.
"No, not yet."
After twenty minutes the view in front of the vehicles still looked the same as when they had passed through the first row of the glowing ghosts.
The basin stretched wide and far in all directions and the entire valley floor seemed to be occupied by the luminous bodies.
Rhodan asked himself why the phantoms had specifically chosen this place to assemble and none other.
Was something here which attracted them particularly? Or could they have—like other intelligent beings—developed certain habits so that they always met in the same location?
Twenty-five minutes. Rhodan had not driven very fast. Even more important than passing through this swarm of glowing veils and shreds was an experiment which he wanted to conduct. He intended to try it first of all and jeopardize his men by this experiment.
Thirty minutes. Since the beginning of the experiment the vehicles had traveled about twelve miles. They could have driven much faster on the fairly smooth ground. It started in the thirty-second minute. Rhodan noticed, to begin with, that the luminous veils were not standing as far apart as before. He had to turn the steering wheel very hard to pass between them without colliding. "All weapons ready to fire!" ordered Rhodan. He could hear Khrest gasping for air. "What do you want to shoot? Not these energy bodies?"
"You'll see. Everybody, please listen: we'll concentrate the fire from all our weapons—except the oxygen canisters for the time being—on a point even with Khrest's vehicle and six hundred feet west of the line of our column. I'll give the order to fire. Nobody shoots ahead of time." He did not mean to act very mysteriously but there was no more time for long speeches. The lights had almost closed ranks and Rhodan could picture what was going to happen in a few moments.
Tanaka Seiko fainted. His mind could no longer withstand the strain. Rhodan had no choice left. The front before him was closed and if he wanted to drive on he had to go through the curtain of light which the phantoms formed ahead of them. He did not hesitate. He was of the opinion that the real substance of the energy bodies existed in hyperspace and that the light that emanated from them would not harm the vehicles by itself.