by Perry Rhodan
It took only a few minutes to traverse the basin where the phantoms had roamed a few hours ago, and they were pushing the vehicle up the mountain slope as fast as it would go.
Rhodan was the first to run out of luck. It was a rather ridiculous mishap but dangerous nevertheless.
Almost three hours had passed since he had sent Bell and Khrest back to the Stardust. The ground was still smooth and permitted Rhodan to proceed at top speed.
However, he now had to slow down rather abruptly as he suddenly had the feeling that the vehicle no longer responded properly to his steering.
He looked at the observation screen and watched the ground on which they traveled. He did not notice anything in particular. He reduced his speed even more—and then he saw it all of a sudden.
The ground underneath the vehicle was sinking.
It looked as if he drove on a tautly stretched cloth.
Rhodan stopped and racked his brains to figure out the phenomenon. Deringhouse sidled up to him and also stared at the screen. The effect was now clearly discernible. The weight of the car caused The ground to form some kind of a dish which tapered out as far as Deringhouse could see, about one hundred fifty feet away.
Rhodan acted immediately. He gunned the engine and pulled the vehicle forward with a rough jolt.
"We're damn fools!" growled Rhodan. "It's ice! We've been driving for an hour and a half on a frozen lake and nobody's noticed it."
That explained the incline about which he had wondered. It was the shore of the lake.
Rhodan started to breathe easier when he saw that he approached a similar embankment to the south. It could be no more than eight hundred yards away, and if they were lucky— No such luck!
The body of the vehicle reverberated with the acoustic waves and with surprising clarity transmitted the loud detonation with which the ice broke. The observation screen showed that the ice had developed cracks which became wider with alarming speed.
Then the picture slanted down. The vehicle started to capsize.
"Anne!" shouted Rhodan. "Full power for the generators!"
The howling of the freewheeling engines was mixed with the roaring hum of the generators running at full power to reinforce the neutralizing field of the vehicle to keep it from sinking.
Rhodan knew that there was little hope. The vehicle was filled with air at normal pressure. But far more important than the volume was the weight of the vehicle's body, the generator and engine. Even if one considered that the density of the lake's methane was far greater than that of Terrestrial water and produced more buoyancy, there was no doubt that they would sink in a few minutes.
Had Rhodan known that the lake was less than fifty feet deep at this spot, he would have made no efforts to prevent the vehicle from sinking, since the vehicle's body was still able to withstand the pressure of compressed liquid methane at a depth of fifty feet.
The treads churned up the sluggish liquid and set it in motion. Rhodan kept the engine spinning at maximum speed in order to propel as much methane as possible from the front end of the car to the rear. Every little bit helped to push the car forward. Under the circumstances, every yard closer to the shore was worth a fortune.
Tanaka got set to operate the far ranging telecom transmitter for an emergency call to the Stardust in case Rhodan's radio was unable to span the distance. A few feet of liquid methane ruined the best radio communication if there was not sufficient energy available.
Rhodan watched the screen which was half covered with sluggishly moving methane. The other half showed the shore and safety. It had not come appreciably closer. The neutralizing generators delayed the sinking but did not stop it altogether. The crazily swirling tracks imparted no measurable velocity against the viscous mass in which they threatened to drown.
Rhodan used his own set to call the Stardust . As yet it functioned faultlessly. The antenna still extended above the surface of the methane.
"We'll take off right away and fish you out!" Bell assured Rhodan. "You'll have to hover closely above our vehicle and reinforce the neutralizing field of the ship till you can lift it out," explained Rhodan quickly. "It's the only way."
"All right!" answered Bell. "Have the stronger transmitter send us guide signals!"
Rhodan turned to Tanaka. "Get the transmitter..."
At this instant they felt a jolt. The vehicle groaned a little, rocked slightly and came to rest. The observation screen showed only muddy methane except for an inch wide stripe at the upper edge.
"What was that?" asked Deringhouse breathlessly.
Rhodan started to laugh. "We've touched ground!"
It took a while until they all realized it. They were saved. The lake was only ten feet deep at this point. Four-fifths of the vehicle was in methane. But the treads grabbed the ground of the lake and pushed the vehicle forward. Rhodan called the alarm off. Bell was relieved. The vehicle proceeded like an icebreaker. Rhodan steered prudently and went ahead by taking advantage mainly of those places where the methane ice had already split. In this manner it took him half an hour to surmount the last eight hundred yards to the shore. The vehicle emerged dripping from the lake and clambered up the embankment.
Rhodan wanted to say a few encouraging words to his crew. However, the picture he saw on the visiscreen fascinated him.
Five hundred yards ahead a needle-like rock soared up high. That it was a needle, Rhodan only recognized after sweeping the searchlight a few times up and down the sides of the rock. The diameter was quite impressive and it evidently reached up way beyond the range of the searchlight. Rhodan remembered that the range finder on board the Stardust had made out the peak of the mountain only from a relatively low altitude. This indicated that the actual peak of the mountain was not a wide object—as, for instance, this needle.
Could it be the mountain?
Suddenly Tanaka Seiko began to scream. Rhodan whirled around. The face of the Japanese was distorted in pain and he pressed his hands against his temples.
Then the Japanese abruptly stopped his screaming, his hands dropped and he stared with a look of alleviated feelings.
"What's going on?" asked Rhodan.
"A message, sir."
"What did it say?"
"It said: 'You are on the right way. Keep going! Are you endowed with the higher knowledge?'"
In answer Rhodan merely growled. He had not expected to hear from the unknown again at this time. Nevertheless it was comforting. The cluster of mountains was of huge dimensions and he had to be thankful to be told that he was on the right path. The carrier rolled leisurely toward the needle rock.
Rhodan gave the information to the Stardust and to Major Nyssen in his vehicle.
"The humming's getting stronger, sir," said Tanaka suddenly.
At the same time Rhodan recognized a peculiar pattern on the north side of the tremendous needle which was now a mere six hundred feet away.
The needle was, as all rock formations in this world, covered with methane and ammonia ice. Because of the steep slope, however, it was only a thin layer which did not entirely hide the more distinct features of the rock's surface.
One could easily perceive a groove in the shape of a horseshoe, the two ends of which started at the foot of the rock and converged at a height of sixty feet. The ice was also lodged in the groove but it reflected the light of the infrared searchlight at a different angle, which made it stand out clearly against the environment.
Rhodan believed that he was able to explain the groove.
"There's the gate!" he said earnestly. "Anne, I assume that it takes a telekinetic knack to open it. Please apply your higher knowledge!"
He turned around and smiled at Anne.
Deringhouse added: "And give it a good try, Anne! Because here come our friends from the other dimension!"
Rhodan spun around again.
A whole company of dancing, scintillating energy bodies approached from the right. They seemed to know their goal. They were marching s
traight toward the horseshoe-shaped gate in the side of the mountain. They would reach it no later than the caterpillar.
"The heck with this weather!" Nyssen growled, annoyed.
The past few minutes the storm had become more violent. The vehicle which was provided only with a neutralizing field for gravity was fairly helpless against the elements. Only its extraordinary weight and the fact that it was rather low to the ground and did not offer much of an area of resistance to the storm prevented it from flying away.
Nyssen apprised the Stardust of the storm. The Stardust had not even noticed it.
Nyssen would have had to be more familiar with the high pressure dynamics of this world to realize that, due to the enormous pressure and extreme gravity on Gol, there was no such thing as great meteorological areas. The storm was continuous but the variations of its intensity were restricted to a few square miles of its surface. Beyond these limits no change in the weather could be noted. It was the same with temperature fluctuations.
"It's getting colder," complained Klein, who was monitoring the measuring dials.
"I can tell," answered Nyssen, avoiding an icicle which had just begun to grow up in front of the vehicle.
Suddenly the terrain became uneven. Mounds, boulders and veritable hills sprang up from the ground and blocked Nyssen's view. He increased his speed to escape the maze of new formations as quickly as possible but was forced to slow down again after a few moments. The danger of a collision was too great.
As the vehicle was evading a man-size piece of ice, another mountain of frozen methane formed incredibly fast in front of them. Klein noted the outside temperature of minus 330°F. No wonder the methane was condensed by the ton from the atmosphere, but it was astonishing to see the mountains grow before one's eyes.
Nyssen cursed and stopped the car. He backtracked a little in order to make a left turn. He moved a few feet and got stuck in the back. The rear screen sector showed a second mountain growing up behind him. In addition to the obstacle at his right, which he was trying to circumvent, another one was shooting up from the ground on his left with terrifying rapidity.
"Damn it!" Nyssen swore, utterly disgusted. "We're stuck!"
He called the Stardust and described his situation. "We'll get you out!" promised Bell. "Rhodan appears to have reached his destination, judging from the latest conversations we've overheard. It won't do any harm to leave here and come up to you."
"All right, sir," replied Nyssen, a little more at ease. "We'll wait." The storm had ceased since the four walls of ice held it back. Nyssen kept watching the observation screen till his eyes hurt. Finally he leaned back and relaxed. Klein was busy with his instruments. He seemed to be profoundly interested in what was happening outside. Nobody had yet observed such low temperatures on Gol.
Neither of them watched the generator box in the rear of the car which was separated only by a plastic panel from the main compartment. The interior was illuminated by a single small light—weak so it would not interfere with the observation of the screen.
All of a sudden Nyssen had the impression that the light turned brighter. Wondering about it he turned around and it was at the same moment that Klein shouted: "There...!"
Nyssen saw it at once. A small glowing cloud extruded from the center of the panel which closed off the generator compartment. It was wavering back and forth and its light increased from second to second. Nyssen and Klein sat, scared stiff, without stirring in their seats. The cloud did not seem to know what it wanted. It moved here and there without leaving the panel. But its luminosity gained continually.
Nyssen felt that an invisible force pressed him down on his seat. It took a little while till he realized what was going on. "It's drawing the power from the generators!" he yelled.
Klein jumped up. He looked as if he felt threatened by the cloud of light. It began to shrink again and vanished in a short time. Klein dropped back into his seat and groaned as he became aware that his weight had doubled. "Remove the panel!" ordered Nyssen.
The cover was held by four screws which were easily unfastened. Klein was able to unscrew them without leaving his seat. The plate toppled forward. Nyssen stared into the generator compartment. The generator for the engine and all auxiliary motors was a shapeless lump of metal.
The protective screen generator was damaged but apparently still partly functioned.
"Check it!" he snapped at Klein. "We've got to know whether it'll hold up."
Klein crawled back, moaning, and examined the generator. It took some time. Then he awkwardly turned his head and said over his shoulder: "It's in pretty bad shape, sir. It can conk out any time."
Nyssen gulped. "Well now..."
The carrier was immobilized. The hyper-transmitter, because of which they had undertaken this trip, was useless as it was connected to the drive generator. The light was burned out and the illumination in the interior was furnished solely by the observation screen which was connected to the protective screen generator.
Nyssen turned it off.
He knew the telecom received its power from the protective screen, and therefore he was able to contact the Stardust . He was reaching clumsily for the microphone when another jolt hit the vehicle. Klein and Nyssen grunted simultaneously. Nyssen's outstretched hand dropped and smacked against the steering wheel. The gravity had grown even more severe; the generator was losing energy. Nyssen estimated the gravity inside the carrier to three G's. Then he stretched his hand farther out and grabbed the microphone. It had become very heavy but it was still working. He called the Stardust. But the Stardust gave no answer.
"We'll take off!" Reginald Bell had just announced. Then he issued the routine commands from his console to initiate the starting procedure.
But the Stardust did not move. Bell was sure that he had not made any mistakes. Anyone authorized to command this vessel could not make mistakes.
Besides himself there was Thora in the Control Center and a few other men who could possible be useful under the circumstances. Bell quickly countermanded his orders and stopped everything. Without showing the alarm he felt, he called the engineer.
The engineer answered immediately and by now Thora had also noticed that something had gone awry.
"Anything wrong?"
Bell shook his head.
"I'm going down to the Technical Guidance Section," he said. "Wait a few minutes, I'll be back right away."
Then he was gone.
He covered the considerable distance from the Control Center to the Technical Guidance Section in record time. He stormed along the moving belts in the hallways and struggled with the reduced drag of the antigrav elevators.
The Guidance Section was located about six hundred feet below the Control Center. Bell squeezed through the door which opened reluctantly and surveyed the room full of switch consoles.
Nobody was there.
The Guidance Section was closed off at one side with a transparent wall behind which the room containing the generators was located. Bell looked through the wall and behind the shining, colossal atomic HHe-piles, the protective screen generators and the array of auxiliary installations.
The protective screen generators were working and produced a slight hum which affected the separating wall and was audible in the Technical Guidance Section. Nobody was to be seen in the generator room. It was empty and—except for the slight hum—quiet.
With resounding steps Bell stomped to the other end of the Guidance Section and released a door behind which a small moving belt led down to the level of the generator room. He stepped on the belt and moved down.
A nauseating sense of danger threatened to overwhelm him as the belt carried him down to the huge room. He pulled his weapon and released the safety catch. So far there was nothing in sight at which to shoot.
The atomic piles and generators were arranged in long rows. The walkways between them were a few yards wide. However, since the installations were sixty feet and higher, the view of the room was q
uite obstructed.
The feeling of impending danger grew as Bell left the moving belt which stopped running behind him. He entered the first walkway. Left and right stood the atomic piles for sector A drive. Behind them were the two protective screen generators for sector A and then a long row of auxiliary equipment. This row was two hundred fifty feet long.
The protective screen generators were functioning. Bell examined the dials and found everything in order.
What annoyed him was the fact that he could not see anyone in the entire room. The Technical Section had instructions to keep a guard of at least ten men to watch the generators at all times. In spite of the obstructed view he should have seen at least one of the guards. Bell marched on. His steps sounded hollow and muffled. He walked firmer than usual and did not realize that he did it only to hear another noise above the haunting hum.
He was standing in front of the two protective screen generators when he heard an odd noise. He did not know where it came from but it sounded like a series of clanging bells. Then, before he could counteract, a jolt ripped through the ship and made him lose his balance so that he was hurled violently to the floor. When he tried to get up again he saw that the floor slanted down.
He quickly got up on his feet. He bent over to pick up his weapon, which had fallen from his hand, and as he raised his head again, he saw it clearly. His thinking had become slow and cumbersome as in a dream.
It's only one, he thought. At least so far— It peeped out from behind the far corner of the walkway, flowed like a cloud of heavy fumes and then moved slowly around the corner.
They've discovered a new trick, reflected Bell bitterly. Why satisfy their hunger out in the field of the protective screen when it was just as easy for them to penetrate the walls and to gorge themselves at the source.
He had already before witnessed with his own eyes that solid walls were no hindrance for them. Instinctively he raised his hand with the weapon. The glowing cloud came closer. It had tapped the atomic piles, Bell thought, which was the reason he could not start. Moreover, they had drained one of the generators, causing the vessel to tip over.