by Perry Rhodan
Presumably Lloyd had the key to the secret. Rhodan decided to interrupt the search immediately and to leave the planet for a while at least, if Lloyd did not bring any pertinent information.
Ormsby did his best and by noon Lloyd had recovered enough to confer with Rhodan, who interrogated him so long that the mutant almost collapsed from fatigue. But by then Rhodan had learned the following facts:
The steering of the aero-car Lloyd was flying suddenly failed. The vehicle crashed and Lloyd was knocked out for some time. When he came to, the first thing he saw was the dead mouse-beaver and then an iridescent sphere hovering above the ground close to the rodent.
Lloyd got out of the wreck and tried to attract attention. But suddenly the sphere flew up into the air as if pulled by an invisible thread, moved some distance away and was thereupon flung down with great force on the slope of the hill. Lloyd saw how it was flattened out.
After that he felt it would be more prudent to leave the scene of the accident, at least until help arrived. Armed only with his impulse-beamer he felt helpless against the invisible enemy. He crawled away between the hills, but he did not get very far. Something he could not see hit him on the head and instantly knocked him out.
When he woke up again, he found himself in some kind of machine hall. It was fairly large but unusually low. There were a lot of machines which he did not recognize and about a dozen little beings who worked at the machines. After a few minutes he decided that they, too, were mechanical robots. They did not resemble humans in the slightest. Instead of a head they had a crown of arms and two legs which ended in smoothly polished metal clubs.
Lloyd was paralyzed and lying on a stretcher but not tied down. He suspected that he had been drugged. His space helmet had been removed. He was able to breathe but the air was very foul.
After one hour had elapsed, a few of the robots dragged him into a small room adjacent to the hall. He was put on a seat which looked like a lie detector to him. Then he got another blow on the head and was again unconscious.
When he woke up the second time, he was lying in another room. There was nobody around. He found the helmet of his spacesuit on the floor. He put it on and tried to open the door of his room. He finally succeeded. He was again in the machine hall he had seen previously. He searched the hall and found an exit which led to an elevator. He used the elevator to go up and discovered that he had been underground all the time.
The elevator stopped and he got out at the side of a hill. There was nobody to prevent him from leaving. When he tried to call the camp with his helmet's transmitter, he found that it had been demolished. They probably thought that by doing this they could keep him a prisoner.
Notwithstanding the perils, he crisscrossed the territory for hours during the night and finally reached the base camp, hungry, thirsty and utterly exhausted. It was much more likely that he would have missed it.
Yes, he was confident that he could find the machine hall again.
Yes, he had studied the brainwave patterns. And this came as a surprise.
"I've analyzed many patterns," Lloyd said. "some from people who were completely different from myself. But I've never experienced anything like this."
"They have two basic oscillations, sir. One indicating a fantastic, almost ridiculous urge to play and another revealing such a deep hatred that it makes my head hurt. Hatred against the enemy, hatred against the intruder and hatred against everything that doesn't belong here.
"I believe that these beings who emit these two waves simultaneously must be mental cripples. The urge to play and the abysmal hate go together as little as... as..."
He wanted to use a familiar comparison but could not think of any.
"Did you see any of these individuals who harbored both these urges?"
Rhodan asked.
"No, sir. All I saw were the little robots."
"Hate and play—did they always appear together?"
"No. When I was lying in the hall, I only felt the hatred. The urge to hate and play at the same time was noticeable when I tried to crawl away from the aero-car."
Rhodan had now determined what he had to do next. He instructed Bell to send him five more aero-cars with a total crew of forty men, armed to the teeth. As soon as the reinforcements arrived, Rhodan would let Fellmer Lloyd locate the hall in which he had been held captive. Then they would see what else had to be done.
There had been one more incident on board the Stardust. One of the protective screen generators malfunctioned and endangered some sections of the vessel with gravitation fields up to 15 G.
A few people collapsed and suffered bone fractures or concussions. It took fifteen minutes until they could regulate the generator which had been enveloped in an extremely strong field.
Khrest and Thora were close to despair. This was provoked not only by the anguish they suffered but also by the fact that it was not in their power to break off the mission and leave the planet. Khrest had tried to persuade Rhodan, but the "abominable, stubborn Earthman," as Thora called him in a fit of anger, declared that he would order retreat only when the situation was really hopeless.
Nobody assumed that the opponent would voluntarily allow them to enter their underground support base. Rhodan advanced very cautiously in the aero-car which he occupied with Fellmer Lloyd and Major Nyssen, who had been in command of the reinforcements.
Lloyd directed them. Sometimes in the wrong direction, but the squadron gradually made progress. The day was ending when an incident occurred which made it plain that they were approaching their destination.
Major Deringhouse, who was in charge of the second machine, had pulled up closer to Rhodan and was flying a few yards behind him and off to the side. Rhodan had instructed all pilots to stay at the same height as himself. He never flew more than three feet above the ground so that the enemy would sight them as late as possible. It offered the advantage of unhampered mobility combined with an extra margin of protection due to the close proximity to the ground.
Deringhouse announced over the telecom:
"Sunset in twelve minutes, sir. Do you think we—"
Then the ruckus started. Rhodan already knew the effect. Something lifted him with brutal force and attempted to toss him against the wall. The world outside the windows was whirling around.
But this time Rhodan was ready for it. With his last ounce of strength he clung to his seat and yelled into the telecom:
"Stop and get out! Find cover!"
With a desperate effort his hand reached for the drive shift. The motor generator counteracted the alien force with full power and he managed at least to slow down the rotation. Rhodan reversed his direction and manoeuvred the spinning vehicle over the nearest hilltop.
The disturbing influence did not cease, but became weaker. Rhodan forced the vehicle down on the sand. It turned once more around on its axis until the friction dissipated the energy of the weird weapon. A little woozy, Rhodan and his men got out. Nyssen had hurt his head and his legs were shaky.
Deringhouse's vehicle had been much less affected. He reacted instantly and took cover behind the hill. The other aero-cars had not been exposed to the attack. Only two of them had advanced over the hill at the time Rhodan was assaulted.
They had enough time to turn back and to land.
The crew wore Arkonide transport-suits which generated their own protective fields. In addition, the suits had a provision allowing the wearer to put on a helmet, thus transforming them into complete spacesuits.
Rhodan made his men move forward toward the ridge of the hill. The sun went down and when they arrived at the top of the hill they had to use infrared binoculars to be able to see.
Fellmer Lloyd was first in line.
"Damn it," he swore softly. "All these hills look alike, but I believe that the hall is under that one there!"
He pointed to a rather flat hill lying northeast about six hundred feet away.
"Where's the entrance to the elevator?" Rhodan aske
d.
"If this is the right hill, it's about thirty feet above the bottom and almost exactly in the middle of the side."
Rhodan did not know what defenses the enemy had and he could not wait until they demonstrated them all. He picked five men and advised them that they would have to leave the cover of the hill and expose themselves to the enemy.
"I'll go with you!" he assured them.
Major Nyssen had brought enough transport-suits for everybody. Rhodan changed into one of the suits, put on the helmet and checked it according to the safety rules. Then they got under way.
Without special precautionary measures they marched over the top of the hill and down the other side. Rhodan was first and the five men followed in single file. In this manner they presented their adversary—assuming that he was in the other hill—the least possible target area.
Rhodan had inserted the infrared filter behind the faceplate of his helmet. He searched the terrain with a portable infrared light for signs that they had been discovered.
They did not have to wait very long. Rhodan glimpsed something dark tumble clumsily through the air and somebody behind him shouted in panic:
"Take cover!"
Rhodan alone remained standing.
There was a blinding flash and a crash which was reduced to a tolerable level of decibels by the helmet microphones. At a distance of thirty feet to the right of Rhodan gaped a crater of the same size as had been blasted under his tent two nights ago.
It had apparently produced a strong pressure wave. The rim of the crater had a three foot high wall of sand. The men rose again.
"What fool screamed 'take cover'?" Rhodan demanded.
"I did, sir!" Somebody spoke up. It was Corporal Seaborg.
Seaborg raised his hand to let Rhodan know who was speaking.
"You young jackass!" Rhodan bellowed, more amused than angry. "Remember that you're wearing a suit with a protective screen. If we get hit by a missile this shield cannot ward off, taking cover isn't going to help either. Keep marching and don't hold up the works!"
"Very well, sir!" Seaborg replied.
They resumed their forward march. The foe seemed to have realized the futility of throwing these weapons resembling old-fashioned hand grenades and remained quiet for a while.
This permitted Rhodan and his men to reach the valley between the hills before the real show began.
One of his men suddenly screamed loud and long. Rhodan turned around and saw in the glow of his searchlight a man being carried away through the air in wild gyrations.
"Go back!" Rhodan shouted. "Over the hill!"
He pulled along two men who failed to understand as quickly as Rhodan what was going on. They were already halfway back when the horrifying rotating field grabbed the second man and whirled him away through the air. They scurried up the side of the hill in long leaps, aided by the low gravity, and reached safety before the attacker could snatch a third victim.
The shrill cries of the two abducted men could be heard in the helmet's receivers. They had been hurled in a southerly direction. Rhodan continued sweeping the neighborhood with his searchlight but found no trace of them.
Suddenly the cries ceased. They heard two dull thuds at short intervals, then everything was very quiet.
"Lieutenant Tanner?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Take an aero-car and three men. Try to find the lost men!"
"Very well, sir!"
Tanner had watched the two men flying through the air. He knew the direction in which they had been driven away. He was furious about the ambush but went silently to the rescue with his three men.
Rhodan had learned what he wanted to know but it had cost him two men.
The vortex created by their antagonist seized its victim even though he was protected by a defense screen. Although they were unable to penetrate the shield, they scooped it up with the same result. They were firmly enveloped in their protective screens and if the screens were rotated, the men inside were turned around, too.
Rhodan came reluctantly to the conclusion that they had to deploy stronger means for their attack. The necessary force to overcome the adversary exceeded the capability of his moderate expedition.
Rhodan sidled up to Fellmer Lloyd.
"Do you get any vibrations?" he inquired.
"Oh yes," replied Lloyd. "It makes my head hurt the whole time. They hate us more than I can express in words."
Deringhouse was lying nearby. From time to time he raised his head above the cover of the ridge and peered through his infrared field glasses.
"Heaven protect us," he murmured, "when they get the idea to come out of their lair to annihilate us!"
Tanner returned around midnight. He had found both men—dead. The protective screens of their suits had not been able to withstand the mighty onslaught. The field of the screens had become neutralized by the influence of the aliens' weapon. When the influence ceased, they had plunged down from considerable height and died as a result of the crash despite the low gravity before Tanner had been able to locate them.
Rhodan felt a cold rage welling up in him.
He seriously considered calling in the Stardust to work over the enemy's base with the vessel's vastly more efficient arms, but concluded that he would prefer to make ten other attempts before he took a chance with the Stardust.
He kept pondering the situation. Then something happened which rendered his deliberations superfluous. It started with a rumbling roar like thunder. Before they knew where it came from, the ground began to shake under them. Seconds later a wide crack appeared in the opposite hill where the enemy was hidden. Behind Rhodan one of the aero-cars began to totter and fell on its side.
"An earthquake!" somebody shouted.
Rhodan looked across at the gap and realized all of a sudden that he would never get another chance like this.
"Let's go!" he shouted, climbing up to the top of the hill and waving where everybody could see him.
It took a few seconds until they all got back to their feet. The tremor became more violent and many stumbled as the ground buckled under their feet. They went all together over the hill and ran down the other side. They rushed forward through the valley in wide jumps.
The adversary made no move.
While they were running Rhodan shouted to point out the spot where— according to Lloyd—the elevator shaft terminated. They were unable to recognize it from a distance but when they reached the place they could see a small platform on the side of the hill. It was square and the sides were about six feet long.
Fellmer Lloyd pressed forward.
"Here!" he puffed.
He dropped down and wiped the sand from the platform with both hands. A smooth grey surface appeared underneath. Rhodan turned on his light and they examined it in bright illumination. Lloyd ran his fingers over the plate and suddenly it slid open. It was dark behind it. Rhodan aimed his light down and found a shaft the same size as the platform, going down about thirty to forty feet deep. An antigrav elevator! Rhodan threw in a handful of sand and watched it float down slowly.
"We're going in!" he said.
Rhodan was first, with Fellmer Lloyd right behind him. Above their heads the shaft was quickly filled by the men who were in a hurry to get down.
In the excitement they had forgotten to worry about the earthquake. Rhodan strained his ears as he went down the elevator shaft. Above the murmuring of his men he could still hear the rumbling inside the planet. The tremor was not yet finished but it seemed to have shifted somewhere else.
A few moments later they reached solid ground again. The elevator opened into a little hall and the entrance door to the machine hall was, according to Lloyd, in the wall across.
Rhodan waited until as many men had come down as the little room would hold. Then he aimed his heavy thermo-impulse-beamer at the door and blasted it away.
They saw a glaring flood of light. Hastily they jumped through the opening where they presented a perfect tar
get for the enemy and took cover behind the first suitable object. They met no resistance.
What's going on? Rhodan wondered.
The hall looked just as Lloyd had described it. It was large but surprisingly low. The installations which abounded—some anchored to the floor, others on movable casters—did not resemble anything Rhodan had seen before. An alien technology on a foreign world.
Where were the little robots?
His men spread out. Even when the robots recovered from the earthquake and dared a counter-attack, they would not succeed in routing their opponents.
Fellmer Lloyd motioned to Rhodan.
"What's the matter?"
"I don't feel a thing anymore, sir!" Lloyd answered. "The birds seem to have flown the coop."
Rhodan nodded and got up. He waved his men on to proceed along the left and right side walls. They crept cautiously forward, crouching behind covers, but when they found no obstacles they became bolder and marched along the walls while Rhodan advanced alone on the walk in the middle of the hall.
They approached the end of the hall when they were attracted by a weird machine standing close to the wall. It was bigger than those in the hall but it had hitherto been covered from sight by other installations.
The thing was a flat cylinder, about fifty feet in diameter, and so high that it touched the ceiling. It reminded Rhodan of a medium-sized cyclotron. Rhodan was unable to see whether it was solid or only a ring. The left half of the cylinder was tilted as if the ground under it had raised up and a ragged crack ran along the smooth metal surface.
Then they saw the robots.