by Perry Rhodan
"Take pictures!" he suddenly shouted. "Quick!"
The man with the Arkonide camera had so far not had the slightest indication why he had had to drag it along. It took a few seconds before he realized that Rhodan was addressing him and Rhodan minced no words.
"Come here!" Rhodan ordered. "Wide angle lens! What are you waiting for?"
Turning a lever, the man zoomed in with his lens on the plate above and started to take pictures. He saw for the first time what the plate depicted. He was so startled that he almost forgot to operate his camera. Rhodan had already recognized it before and he knew that he finally had arrived at the goal he was seeking on Vagabond.
The object which looked like a plate from the side was a model of the Milky Way. At first glance he was not sure whether it was a model of the Milky Way or possibly another galaxy. But it did not make sense that the Great Unknown, with his unlimited resources, would have projected the picture of a strange galaxy in the cave of the mouse-beavers.
The man kept shooting with his camera until the projection dissolved in a rain of glittering points which lit up the subterranean cave brightly.
Subsequently it turned so dark that they could see nothing with their blinded eyes. Somebody switched on his flashlight, but Rhodan ordered him to turn it off. The light went out. For a while they did not understand why Rhodan had demanded it, but in time those with keen eyes could make it out.
The cavern had a number of exits. A weak light shone through some of them, diffuse and barely discernible. Starlight from the sky of Vagabond.
Rhodan approached one of the exits. It was shaped like the tunnel through which they had entered. Its walls reflected the dim light of the stars, showing some kind of covering. It was leading rather steeply upward. When Rhodan turned up his head as far as his helmet permitted, he could see the stars above.
"Light!" he ordered.
A dozen flashlights blazed up.
The strong light exposed the smooth floor of the cavern and the walls covered with something resembling plaster. The cavern had an irregular shape. The northern end looked like a rectangle and the southern like a semi-circle. The total area was about three hundred square yards.
Along the walls were piles of dried plants in a neat arrangement. The plants were of the species they had encountered on the surface of Vagabond. It was of the same variety on which the mouse-beavers were feeding the first night they had watched them.
Mouse-beavers!
"Where's the rascal who stole our refrigerator?" Deringhouse asked.
He was standing next to Rhodan. Rhodan pointed to the exits.
"Outside, feeding with the others."
"Others? What others?"
Don't you see that there are twenty-four pads here? That is if you want to refer to it as straw."
"You mean to tell me that these animals use these for beds?"
"Yes, beds, if that's how you prefer to call them."
Other than that there was nothing unusual. If the mouse-beavers had collected stores of food in the normal manner of rodents, they probably were hidden in the numerous burrows radiating in all directions from the cave. Rhodan did not care to look into them.
They left the cave through one of the light shafts. The shaft was too sleek to climb up. But the moderate gravitational pull did not hinder them very much and so they were able to reach the upper rim by a vigorous jump. They shinned themselves up and emerged from the ground out into the open.
Rhodan had deliberately selected this particular shaft. Several tracks trailed from the spot where it terminated in the sand of the desert.
They followed them cautiously toward the north and around a hill. They were led into a valley which was wider and longer than the other valleys in the area. There was some sparse growth which could clearly be distinguished against the light-colored background of the sand.
Farther north a dark mass was visible. The fringes of the mass seemed to be in constant motion. They went closer and when they inserted the infrared filters into their helmets, they recognized a herd of mouse-beavers grazing peacefully.
They counted twenty-four animals.
"Well," Rhodan said finally, "it's time to go back!"
However, the night had another surprise in store for him. As they marched south to some place where they could summon Lieutenant Tanner to bring the aero-cars without disturbing the leisurely feeding mouse-beavers, Rhodan studied the terrain around him.
All the hills looked the same. Not very high and not very large. They gave the appearance of an artificial landscape. He recalled that he had had this impression once before, when he and Deringhouse had first run into the opalescent sphere.
This was the home of the mouse-beavers. One of these typical hills was constructed over the cave they had just left, and presumably, an identical cave was located under each of the other hills.
A few hours later they were back on board the Stardust. Lieutenant Tanner was directed to break camp and to return with the tents and the equipment. The pictures taken in the cavern were developed but Rhodan had not yet shown them to anyone. However, he was going to show them in the evening at the Command Center.
"Before we look at the pictures," he began, "a few things must be clearly understood."
His audience was the same as at the beginning of the enterprise, when the Stardust was motionlessly suspended in the vexing region of space with fifty-six peculiar stars. They were hanging on his words with rapt attention.
"We've come here to find another sign of how we can reach the world whose civilization has discovered the biological secret of cell conservation thus the secret of eternal life. For this reason we have dubbed our project 'Fountain of youth.'"
"We were convinced that we could find on this planet an intelligent race that is in possession of the desired clue. We were hoping to gain the confidence of this race.
"A few days after we arrived here, we noticed that an invisible telekinetic intruder amused himself by pushing buttons, lifting objects and playing all sorts of tricks. We set out on an expedition, soon encountered an exotic, glittering sphere and assumed that it was a product of the alien race. The same race which had a few hours earlier demonstrated its hostility by attempting to blow me sky-high in my tent.
"We persevered in our efforts to track down the elusive strangers. During the first days none of us kept in mind that the positronic computer on board the Stardust had predicted the end of the purely technical tests. We were once more prepared to face a race with unheard-of resources, and to gain its secret regardless of its superior technology."
"Strangely enough everything went suspiciously well. We occupied the subterranean machine hall with negligible losses and were even aided by the lucky coincidence of an earthquake. A subsequent attack by the opponent was easily repulsed."
"This astonished us."
"You!" Bell said dryly. "Not us."
"Have it your way—me," Rhodan answered with a smile. "We suddenly realized that the adversary was not so superior after all, even though he knew how to create rotating gravitation fields. In addition we must take into account the observations made by Fellmer Lloyd. Whenever he received a brainwave pattern, it betrayed a blind, destructive hate or an uncontrollable, childlike urge to play."
"How much longer will it take us to wake up to the realization that we were on the wrong track and that there are in reality two intelligent races on Vagabond?"
His question shot like a shockwave through his audience. His listeners were so startled that they gaped in amazement at Rhodan without uttering a protest.
"Two?" Deringhouse finally gasped.
Rhodan nodded.
"Which one is the second?" Bell asked.
"The mouse-beavers!"
"Impossible!" Deringhouse shouted. "Lloyd studied them on the night we set up the first camp in the hills. He didn't find anything to support your statement."
Rhodan nodded a second time.
"The selective rule—as the positronic computer
calls it—consisted of two parts. We first had to discover that there were two intelligent races on Vagabond and then we had to verify which one held the key to our quest.
The mouse-beavers are a race such as never before encountered in our—that is, the Arkonide—experience. There can be no doubt about it that the intelligence of these animals is of intermittent nature."
"What do you mean by that?"
The question was fired—with a minimum of respect—by Bell.
"An intermittent intelligence is characterized by the fact that the affected being is alternately intelligent and unintelligent. Have I made myself clear?"
"No! Are we to understand that the mouse-beavers are smart from Monday to Wednesday and dumb from Thursday to Sunday?"
"Something like that," Rhodan said quietly. "The interval is different. It coincides with the night and day cycle; The mouse-beavers lose their intelligence—which in any case is probably very limited—in the darkness of the night and regain it when the sun rises again. Since this effect does indeed occur, it's only natural that it's in harmony with the environment of this world. Mind you, it strictly varies with light and darkness. Otherwise the beavers would have been dumbfounded by the earthquake which changed the position of Vagabond's axis."
An animated conversation ensued.
By odd contrast the two Arkonides, Khrest and Thora, remained completely quiet. Rhodan smiled at them and Khrest smiled back but Thora raised her eyebrows.
They represent the heritage of a knowledge fully aware of the existence of unknown mysteries, thought Rhodan. When will our hotheads from Earth learn that nothing's impossible just because they haven't seen it yet?
He interrupted the discussion. They refused to accede to his arguments—as could be plainly seen on their faces—but accepted the proposition he offered.
"I'm going to prove my theory to you. The Stardust will remain a few more days on Vagabond and we'll have the opportunity to observe the mouse-beavers further."
Then he proceeded with the next topic.
"Nonetheless we have—in spite of our ignorance—discovered the remnants of an ancient culture on Vagabond. I admit that I believed for a few hours that this planet is the World of Eternal Life and that the little robots were the helpers of the Great Unknown who is leading us in our search.
"Well, I was wrong. The Unknown is probably considerably older than the Vagabond culture. In the meantime the robots have been dissected. They know a great many things of which we have no knowledge and other things, albeit trivial, are unknown to them. For ten thousand years they've obeyed the last command they received: to repulse intruders and to make them perish."
"Their brains are organic, probably because it seemed to be the simplest way for their masters to make them. The brains are preserved in a tank containing liquid nutriment sufficient to sustain them for one hundred thousand years."
"However, the mechanical energy of the robots was supplied by generators. One of them was shattered in the big earthquake and the result was fifteen inanimate robots. Somewhere there must be a second generator which supplied the remaining five robots that raided us and were destroyed."
"We now have the opportunity to bring the fifteen robots back to life and to adapt them so that they won't regard us as deadly enemies. We'll do our best to accomplish it."
He smiled.
"Anyone in our position cannot afford to pass up the slightest contribution to his knowledge. I believe that we'll be able to gain much valuable insight into Vagabond's culture."
He reached for the stack of pictures lying on the table.
"The most interesting aspect of the robots," Rhodan said as if talking to himself, "is that they retained without reservations the entire knowledge of their extinct masters. A hand grenade is as good a weapon for a robot with orders to kill as a gravitational rotation field, a fact we had at first failed to understand. This seems to have taught us a lesson about another facet of robot logic: attack with anything at hand, as long as it can be used as a weapon."
He picked up the picture on top of the heap.
"Of all these pictures there is only one I have to show you. It exhibits what we've hoped to find on this planet."
He inserted the picture in the projector. The room went dark as he switched on the projection light.
In three-dimensional projection the audience saw a cropped sector of the galaxy model they had found in the cave of the mouse-beavers. In the center of the picture was a little point of light from which a shining band extended to a much brighter star in the upper right-hand corner of the picture.
"I have to make some comment here," Rhodan broke into the silent attention. "Initially, the point in the center could not be seen. At first glance the light band ended nowhere. We had to use all the refinements of Arkonide development technique to make the little point visible."
"We've determined that all stars in this model are shown in accordance with their actual brightness. The result is quite surprising. The star we're concerned with doesn't radiate any light. The light it emanates is reflected from other suns in the vicinity.
"This star is a planet without a sun!"
"Is it the World of Eternal Life?" Khrest asked.
"That's what I think," Rhodan answered. "I wouldn't know what other meaning this picture could have."
"And which star is at the other end of the light band?" asked Bell.
"Vega!"
Somebody was breathing very hard.
"Then we know our present galactic position?"
"Yes, we do. We're at a distance of twenty-four hundred light-years from Vega and Sol."
His listeners fell silent again. They marveled at the reproduction of the mysterious projection Rhodan and his men had discovered and photographed in the cavern of the mouse-beavers. Although they were loath to admit it, they felt a growing admiration for the strange, fabulous technology of that unknown race inhabiting the World of Eternal Life.
A world, as they now had learned, moving alone and sunless through galactic space. Since they were now familiar with the location of the mouse-beavers' retreat, it was no longer difficult for Fellmer Lloyd to hide in their vicinity. He confirmed what Rhodan had predicted.
During the day the mouse-beavers were creatures with moderately developed intelligence but with an extremely strong parapsychological, telekinetic sense. Their very pronounced urge to play was commensurate with their limited intelligence.
During the dark hours they turned into unintelligent animals feeding on the vegetation of the valleys. A few hours before dawn they returned to their caves to sleep. By the time they woke up, the sun was shining in the sky and their intelligence was restored.
One of nature's infinite variations!
Fellmer Lloyd no longer perceived the consuming hatred which reposed in the brains of the robots; organic brains which were protected in a tank of special material so that they were invulnerable to the influence of the Arkonide psycho-beamers.
Ten Vagabond days after they had detected the model of the galaxy in the cave of the mouse-beavers, the Stardust was ready to take off. There was no necessity for Rhodan to make a detour to Vega as the picture indicated. But he deemed it advisable to apprise the men in the eight auxiliary ships and possibly Colonel Freyt on Earth of the events which had taken place in the meantime.
Consequently they set course for Vega.
Rhodan regretted very much that he had not enough time to explore the secrets of the ancient culture of which the twenty robots were the last remnants. Diligent attempts to bring the robots back to life were in progress. As soon as the data for their commands had been corrected, they would voluntarily reveal their knowledge. However, Rhodan felt that the full extent of his desire to know the secrets of Vagabond would not be satisfied until they returned there to investigate the machine hall. Meanwhile they had to be content with what they could pry from the data banks of the robots. Among that was the realization that the robots had the capability to rise and fly above the
ground for short stretches utilizing a tiny gravity generator in their ellipsoid-shaped bodies. This cured Rhodan's nightmare, because it finally explained why the tracks of the robots started and stopped suddenly.
Two enigmas still remained unsolved:
Why had Rhodan's telecom failed to function on his first reconnaissance flight to explore the sector of the fifty-six stars?
And why was he unable to see the light of the Vagabond sun directly, whereas he could perfectly well see it reflected by the Stardust?
The explanations would have to come from the Great Unknown. At least now, for the first time on this long and arduous search, they knew the co-ordinates for the location of the World of Eternal Life.
Thora entered the Command Center just as Rhodan was about to set the autopilot to launch the Stardust. Imperiously, the beautiful platinum haired Arkonide strode past Bell. Ignoring him as though he were a fixture, she addressed Rhodan.
"Will we ever return to Vagabond?" she asked the Peacelord.
The leader of the New Power nodded.
"Definitely. I don't greatly relish the company of creatures who playfully push Arkon bombs around in the air and try to kill men and crush them under overturned aero-cars, but I must pay another visit in order to take a further look at the machine hall."
The regal woman said, "You're right," and her tone was surprisingly agreeable.
It was not this proud alien's nature to apologize for unpleasant behavior but she demonstrated by her voice and expression that she was anxious to make up for her reaction against Rhodan, even though her act had been no worse than an angry look.
Perry smiled in return but held back something more that he felt for this strange female from the stars. He would first have to seek out the secret of the Great Unknown before he could relax and unravel the secret of her puzzling Arkonide psyche.