Galactic Alarm

by Perry Rhodan

  He turned around on his heels. "All we need to do is wait a little while longer. Maybe three or four thousand years. What does this time span mean in comparison with the long way we have come since the Stone Age? At the end of this time we will get the ruins of your whole Empire for a song! I would not want to be the person who taught the Arkonides the tricks that would enable them to delay temporarily the advance of the human race. Not stop it, only delay it.

  He advanced toward her a couple of steps.

  Cold rage was rising in her. She wanted to get up and leave so that she would not have to listen to his words. But his voice seemed to affect her suddenly as if she no longer had a will of her own. For the first time Rhodan was unconsciously endowing his utterances with the suggestive power that was a result of the hypno-training he had undergone. His voice kept her chained to her seat.

  "You see what will happen if we don't succeed in beating back your robot ships? They will attack Earth and annihilate us. But some of us will survive. Maybe a hundred, a thousand, or even a million. These people will never be able to forget what has been done to their fellow human beings. They will be possessed by the thought that nothing like their own fate will ever befall their descendants. You don't realize the extent of our vitality yet! It will take about 2,000 years for the human race to catch up again with our present level of development. But in the meantime your galactic Empire, which is already ripe with decay, will have to face us as an enemy. The odds will then be all in our favor; there is no doubt about the outcome of this confrontation. it will be a fight to the bitter end, because for as long as we can go back in our history, we have always kept battling against our opponents to the death. it will not be any different in the future war against your Galactic Empire, but then the human race will end up becoming the rulers of your realm."

  Thora tried to gather up all her strength in order to leave the room. Before she had reached the door, however, Rhodan had started to speak again, and he kept her rooted to the spot.

  "But we are not that far yet. You know as well as we do that there is a solid chance that we might wipe out the robot ships. They will believe us to be the harmless explosion. They might even perhaps take us aboard their robot vessel in a rescue mission, before attacking our planet. That will provide us the right opportunity for action. There is still hope for us here, we are far from being lost!"

  She tried to advance A couple of steps toward the cabin door, but he yelled,

  "Stay where you are!"

  The brutal energy of this command gave her a violent headache. She whirled around.

  But to her utter surprise he was just smiling at her. "Here on Earth we know of many cases like yours. Young girls that have been brought up in a sheltered, wealthy environment and who one day find out, to their utmost horror, that the majority of mankind lives in poverty and must struggle for sheer survival.

  "You are not at all different from these young girls in your attitude. You feel compelled to despise us for the simple fact that we are a younger race than your own.

  "The day that you come to me and tell me how foolishly you have behaved during the past weeks, I will confess how much I am in love with you, Thora!"

  Now she was utterly confused. She wasted some precious moments trying to make up her mind whether to reply. Finally her pride won out. She turned abruptly and left the room.

  His declaration had shocked her far more than she cared to admit to herself. For on Arkon during the course of many thousands of years the rules of the game of love had been subordinated strictly to the laws of reason. It would have been considered a sign of mental decease if a man had have confessed his love for a woman after having scolded and insulted her but a short while before. She understood, however, despite her anger, that it was not possible to apply the same standards here on Earth. She sensed that Rhodan's timing of his declaration of love, was part of a skilful manoeuvre. She felt quite helpless in the face of such calculated illogic.

  For the first time she recognized with clarity how terribly young the human race really was and the amazing and horrifying forces that were hidden in that youth.

  The big event they had been awaiting came two days later. Rhodan had not heard anything more from Mercant. That meant that no further developments had taken place among the big power blocs. Those in charge were waiting for the threat from space to materialize.

  Manoli was sitting at the radio. The robots had finished their work and returned to their stations, where Khrest switched them off for the night. Thora kept very much to herself. She made a point of avoiding Rhodan. Rhodan knew why.

  Bell and Haggard played interminable games of chess. Manoli was mostly bored. The Arkonide auxiliary vessel had excellent receiving sets. He could listen in to everything without difficulties whether it was the Peking police short-wave broadcasts or the news from the space station Freedom I or the long wave broadcasts of international senders. But the news had become rather dull in the last few weeks, and this post at the radio was no longer entertaining for Manoli.

  But things changed radically that day! Manoli was just listening to a program of the space station, when it was suddenly interrupted by an important message from the announcer. "Squirrel to Aphid, Squirrel to Aphid. Located an unidentifiable object, direction phi 210, Theta 89. Distance 2 x 106 yards, speed about 2 x 104 yards per second. Shape cannot be determined. The object is approaching the moon. Over."

  Aphid promptly confirmed receipt of the message and requested, "Send all further news in code!"

  Manoli had taken down the message in shorthand. He tore the note off his writing pad and ran out of the cabin. He raced at high speed down the corridor toward Rhodan's cabin and could hardly wait until Rhodan let him in. Manoli read the note to Rhodan, who reacted in a very excited fashion that puzzled Manoli.

  "That's incredible" Rhodan exclaimed.

  Then Rhodan no longer paid any attention to Manoli; he called Khrest via intercom, asking him to come over to his cabin. only then did Rhodan turn again to Manoli. He commanded, "Inform Tako to watch out for Klein's signals we will soon find out more about this."

  Manoli nodded briefly and left. Khrest appeared in Rhodan's room a moment later.

  "We intercepted an announcement from the space station that an unidentified object is approaching the moon, coming from the direction of Mars," said Rhodan calmly. "I would like to hear your opinion, Khrest."

  Khrest listened attentively to Rhodan's words and then inquired, "Any further details you can give me?"

  "Speed 2 x 104 yards per second."

  "Shape of object?"

  "Unknown."

  Khrest gazed at Rhodan.

  "Thanks to the hypno-training you should suspect the same as I do, Rhodan. Our base on Myra IV is no longer in the hands of the Galactic Empire. The approaching spaceship is not one of our robot cruisers but must originate from some rebelling part of our colonial fleet. Its crew appears to be rather inexperienced."

  "Let's hope this spaceship is alone!" added Rhodan.

  Within half an hour Klein had arrived with some additional information. In the meantime the strange object had come nearer and it was possible to recognize its shape. While Klein conversed with Tako at the perimeter of the energy dome, more bits of news were received constantly, which Klein deciphered on the spot with the help of an automatic decoding mechanism that he carried on him. Tako had receiver set that picked up the new data, which Manoli transmitted to him as soon as he obtained them himself via the powerful Arkonide communications apparatus.

  The unknown object was spindle shaped, like, two torpedoes that had been cut through the middle and then put together again with their pointed ends facing each other.

  Rhodan listened in to what Klein was deciphering. He knew that spindle shaped ships belonged to the older models of the Empire and that their use was generally discontinued except in remote colonies. This proved to him what he had already suspected-the unknown approaching vessel could not possibly be one of the expect
ed robot ships.

  Khrest confirmed Rhodan's suspicions by adding, "The Fantan people own a number of spindle shaped transport vessels; they can't afford better ones. I am positive that this is a Fantan boat. The Fantan group is not too far from our Myra base. They might have occupied Myra IV and intercepted our emergency signal coming from our destroyed cruiser on the moon."

  They found the final proof for their identification of the Fantan ship in the fact that it did not shield itself against radar or optical detection. The spindle shaped Fantan ship came closer to the moon, at miserably slow speed, as if it were alone in the universe and had nothing to fear from anywhere or anything. This one Fantan ship was the only craft that had come Earth's corner of the universe.

  Thora had plugged into the telecom circle and had heard that Klein was reporting from the outside. When Tako returned from the meeting with Klein, Rhodan sent him to Thora's cabin to ask her to come for a discussion of the situation. The Japanese found Thora lying unconscious on the floor. The disappointment had proved too great a shock to her delicate system.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  One hour later Lieutenant Klein announced more startling news. "The chiefs of defense request an interview with Mr. Rhodan!"

  Rhodan was surprised to hear this. "Which chiefs?" he barked. Klein seemed to find his reaction amusing. "A supranational security committee came into existence just a few minutes ago, Sir. The chairmen are Ivan M. Kosselow from the Eastern Bloc Secret Service, Mao-tsen of the Asiatic Defense Forces and last but not least Allan D. Mercant, our patron Saint."

  Rhodan grasped the implication at once. "I'll be willing to receive these gentlemen without delay. When can they be here?"

  "They are all agreed that things are most urgent. Mercant is already in Peking. He and Mao-tsen can travel here in about forty-five minutes. Kosselow won't take much, longer to get here."

  Rhodan thought for a moment. "Well, Lieutenant, announce the people as soon as they arrive. If need be I can let them in here one after the other."

  Exactly one hour after this discussion the chiefs of the terrestrial secret services arrived at the Arkonide auxiliary vessel in the Gobi Desert. Rhodan arranged for Khrest to participate in the meeting. Rhodan learned that the evacuation of the population as well as the most important industrial concerns, was already in full swing.

  "We would like to find out from you Rhodan, how much sense all these precautionary measures make under the circumstances," said Mercant, "if you take into consideration the likelihood that the attacking robot ships will most probably make a hypercritical reactor out of this whole planet."

  Rhodan enlightened Mercant about the conjectures he and Khrest had arrived at regarding the approaching ship. "I am presenting the facts to you the way they really are," he added. "We have a good chance to get rid of these attackers with one single well aimed shot."

  "But if you should then give the all clear signal you would make a grave mistake. For we must count on the possibility of failing with our counterattack measures, as hopefully as they, might seem to us.

  "In addition to that, I do not believe that we will have to face only a single enemy ship. Even if we should succeed in destroying it, others will surely follow, ones that have intercepted the automatic emergency signal sent by the bombed Arkonide cruiser. In case we should overcome the first enemy onslaught we would gain a short breathing spell of a few weeks or at most a few months. We must utilize this brief span to get ready for the next attack, out having to cope with any additional risks.

  Rhodan gazed intently at Mercant. "You know very well what I am referring to with this remark, Mercant! The nations of this world can no longer afford to keep up the embargo against the Third Power. We are the only people who are capable of protecting this planet against the threatening attack. We must have full freedom of action in order to make efficient use of the means that we have at our disposal to defend Earth."

  Mercant looked at the two men who had come with him. Then he turned to Rhodan. "As far as the NATO group is concerned, we no longer consider the embargo to be in force from this moment on. We would also like to assure you that we place full confidence in you in all matters relating to the defense preparations for the impending enemy attack from space."

  Rhodan's face bore an expression of utter amazement, the same moment Kosselow declared, my own government shares the views just expressed by Mr. Mercant."

  Mao-tsen added smilingly, "My people, too, join the other two governments in lifting the embargo against the Third Power, Mr. Rhodan."

  Rhodan's reaction was one of complete surprise. He was overwhelmed by the unexpectedly swift acceptance of his suggestion. Then a slight smile played around. his lips as he said with a hint of sarcasm, "Gentlemen! From the moment your governments are willing to extend the same confidence they show in us regarding the defense measures we will take against the threatening danger to all other areas from that moment on, the Third Power will cease to exist. We will abandon this base here in the Gobi Desert, and put at mankind's disposal all we possess and all the knowledge have obtained from the superior Arkonide technology."

  The discussion proceeded along the lines of working out the necessary details. Rhodan described his plans intercepting the approaching hostile spindle ship while it was still in outer space. But in case these plans should fail, he gave instructions how to protect the inhabitants of Earth. Mercant, Kosselow and Mao-tsen were busy taking down notes.

  As a conclusion to the meeting Rhodan declared, "Gentlemen! I wonder whether you realize that you cannot count on the support of the Third Power in case we should not succeed in annihilating the spindle ship. This is a fight to the bitter end. Whoever loses will lose not only the battle but also his life. Since we must reckon with such an eventuality, I have written down some of the matters that are important for mankind to know. This document will be deposited in a safe place, where it will weather the impending attack on our planet.

  "I am confident that these notes will be of help to man kind. In case of almost total destruction these descriptions should give a good start to the survivors of the holocaust. From this day on we must never forget that we are not the only living beings in the universe. We must accept the fact that other races exist, and we must be prepared to recognize that some of them will be hostile toward us.

  "With this in mind I have described some of my recently acquired knowledge of matters."

  The documents turned out to be quite lengthy, costing precious hours for Rhodan to complete. In the meantime the spindle ship had reached the moon's orbital path. It remained in the same orbit, following the moon at a constant distance of about 6,000 miles.

  Rhodan had called his men in for a short meeting. Thora did not join them. She needed rest. Rhodan's suggestion that Tako and Dr. Manoli should remain behind on Earth was generally accepted. The two would find safe refuge there within the energy dome in the Gobi Desert. There they would be completely protected against any attacking force and later radioactive contamination. Tako received Rhodan's document for safekeeping with the promise to hand it over to mankind, Or whatever remained of it, only at such a time as there was no longer any doubt that Rhodan and his companions had been destroyed, together with their, ship, during the battle with the approaching invaders. Tako and Manoli took up quarters in the former Stardust I. Rhodan started out immediately afterward on his mission.

  They ascended in the Arkonide auxiliary vessel to a height of about sixty miles. Rhodan had mapped out a plan of action that could not be accomplished with the automatic guidance system. Reginald Bell was his co-pilot, and Haggard and Khrest stayed in the central cabin.

  The ship hovered motionless. The light of the automatic controls was dark. A small screen in front of them showed the position of their ship in relation to Earth's surface. All instruments except the altimeter registered zero. Only the panel where Bell was sitting was illuminated, by five shinning green bulbs. They indicated that the five nuclear storage condensers, each a giant of its ki
nd, were charging and storing up their energy for the right moment when their full potential would be needed and discharged. This stored up nuclear energy would be sufficient to surround the auxiliary vessel with a hyper-gravitational field that would insulate it from its surroundings. It would thus also take it out of the four dimensional space time continuum. A body inside such a hyper-gravitational field no longer existed within normal space. It passed into a space system of a higher order, which was subject to the same physical laws although of quite different values. Rhodan had called this superspace system "the path behind the curvature of space" when he had learned about it during his hypno-training sessions. This also explained the Principles of the problems of hyper-flight. Any body, such as the Arkonide ship in this instance, could penetrate into this superspace system by piercing through the convex surface of the space time continuum, then proceed in a straight line and, once at its destination, come out again through the surface.

  But no one had ever tried to cover a distance of more than a light second by means of such a hyperjump. The difficulty in this case was that the relatively small auxiliary vessel was not equipped to store sufficiently large amounts of nuclear energy. Therefore, it would need enough time after the completion of its jump through hyperspace to store up new energy again. its storage capacity was exactly calculated to provide energy for twice penetrating the space time surface. After the completion of one set of jumps, the craft needed a certain period of recuperation before resuming its flight. But unless their jump placed them in the exact spot Rhodan had calculated, this needed pause would afford the enemy enough time to locate them and assume a favorable position for attack.

  According to Rhodan's calculations their jump should terminate within the shadow of the moon. The spindle shaped ship of the Fantan people still remained on the same course as before, It moved along the orbital path of the moon, still maintaining a distance of 6,000 miles behind Earth's satellite. The auxiliary vessel, however, would reappear in front of the moon. Rhodan placed his hand on the red push-button that would initiate the jump. Then he pushed down hard on it. The button clicked softly; then the video screens grew suddenly dark, without any transition whatsoever. This lasted just one second; then the video screen lit up again. The image on the screen had changed. In front of the ship appeared the thin crescent of the moon, illuminated by the sun, which had just come out from behind Earth. Rhodan leaned back in his chair.