Power's Price

by Perry Rhodan

  Pucky reacted with quick decision. He knew that nobody was supposed to see him under any circumstances, not even robots. But they had seen him and that's why they had to be destroyed, because their positronic memory registers would be able to betray him.

  Suddenly the machine men felt themselves floating in the air. Their antigrav fields had little effect against the mouse-beaver’s telekinetic attack. They moved inexorably to the big cargo unloading lock, sailed through it and then rose vertically into the air. Pucky gave them sufficient velocity to enable him to release them for a second. He teleported outside onto the slightly arched roof of the wharf building where he was able to bring the robots under his control again. In the distance he saw a hemispherical structure that was apparently made of steel.

  He made the two robots fall toward this metal structure on a collision course and the force of impact was such that their sensitive positronic brains were completely demolished. After all, Pucky was an old hand at the art of deactivating such mechanical monsters.

  The mouse-beaver was not yet concerned with the fact that the flight of the three ponderous work robots had not gone unnoticed. He disappeared from the roof and rematerialized and a few kilometers below in one of the subterranean industrial sections of Lus.

  He found himself between gigantic, roaring power presses. When he raised his mouse-beaver paws to protect his ears from the noise he heard the blaring sound of alarms. The great presses which had been stamping out sections of cylindrical spaceships all became silent at once.

  I caused the alarm, thought Pucky in sudden fright, and his incisor tooth disappeared. This was nothing to laugh about. The situation was far too serious.

  How was I detected? he asked himself. Optically? By a mass detector? Did I cut through a signal beam?

  He concentrated swiftly. He determined the direction from which most of the thought impulses were coming and in the next moment he disappeared from between the presses only to reappear behind a humming magnetic regulator in the main control station of this kilometer-long press assembly line.

  "What?" Pucky heard an excited Springer shouting. "No further meter response? Doesn't the mass detector still mark the spot between 217 and 218?"

  "Vanished!" replied another Galactic Trader. "As though snatched away! I don't understand it?".

  When these two Springers were interrogated 10 minutes later by a security team they would not admit that a trespasser had been involved in the incident. They had been present when the positronic surveillance equipment had signaled the presence of somebody between presses 217 and 218—but what was reported, even gave the security detail second thoughts. The mass indicated only represented the bodily weight of a five or six-year-old Springer child!

  The mystery remained unsolved.

  By the time he'd made his sixth goof, Pucky began to become desperate. He found himself in the subterranean part of the city of Mold. The entire city on the surface had been completely destroyed under the ray bombardment of the Druuf ships. When he materialized here he set off his 6th alarm!

  He swore like Reginald Bell and with good reason because he also had reason to give his ungrudging admiration to the Galactic Traders' security system. No alien intruder could penetrate this gigantic underground industrial empire without being seen or detected.

  He listened to the howling of the alarms without knowing whether or not he might have also set off a planet-wide system of alerts. Ever since Archetz had become the central world for the Springers there had not been as many alerts and arrests as on this day!

  Three times Pucky had been forced to flee from Springers and three times the Galactic Traders had to be locked up. Pucky had also been forced to use his telekinetic powers to demolish two control stations, which had incapacitated several staging lines of production, the magnitude of which he had no idea.

  Two hundred fourteen km beneath the surface of the demolished city of Mold he was spotted by the optical surveillance system but in spite of it he had a stroke of luck. In the main security central for a total of 28 cavern systems, three out of 20 super-sized viewscreens revealed the figure of an animal.

  Eight Springers were on duty in the Security Central; seven of them were not able to recognize the mouse-beaver. The 8th crewmember had once observed his likeness in an intelligence transmission but without paying much attention. This man was about to recall who or what this animal was, since it struck a familiar note. At the moment he couldn't remember where he had seen it before.

  But the other excited Galactic Traders didn't give him a chance to think. For this reason the observation was not transmitted immediately to the planet's Central Security.

  That was Pucky's stroke of luck.

  He made an unobserved appearance in the local Security Central. Using his Arkonide hypno-beam weapon he erased the memory of his image from the brains of the eight Springers. And then Pucky began to play. He had no other recourse. The positronicon had registered his picture. Eight strangely lethargic Springers looked on apathetically as the multi-ton positronic computer was ripped out of its deck-bolt anchorage. It floated toward the compact but super-powerful power plant and with a swiftness that was incongruous in view of its weight it finally crashed down into it.

  Within seconds the positronicon was melted in the ravening short-circuit fires of unleashed energies but Pucky fled it all in a teleport jump.

  Only to rematerialize in the main exhaust channel of the giant cavern system! Completely immersed in every imaginable filth and with dust and fine metallic particles penetrating his throat and lungs, Pucky felt himself in the grasp of a tremendous warm air-stream and carried upward like a wilted leaf through the giant suction shaft. He thought his last hour had arrived and he would suffocate in his own indescribable odor. He only knew one goal: back to the Lorch-Arto. There he thought he would be safer than in this inferno of dusty, stinking filth in spite of the inventory robot.

  • • •

  But what a sight Pucky was! And where was that awful stench coming from?

  "Pucky!" yelled Rhodan, jumping away from the dust cloud that the mouse-beaver shook from his fur.

  Pucky rubbed his eyes with his paws. The dust particles irritated his tear ducts and water ran from his eyes like little brooks. He was coughing incessantly.

  "Water!"

  Tako Kakuta teleported aft and came back with water, which Pucky downed like a man dying of thirst.

  "Oh that terrible taste! What kind of rubbish have I swallowed?" But his seizure of coughing subsided considerably as well as the watering of his eyes. "Is that stink coming from me?" he asked suddenly.

  "It's not coming from us!" bellowed Bell.

  Pucky disappeared but Marshall was able to trace him telepathically.

  "He's taking a shower," he reported.

  Dripping wet the mouse-beaver emerged again out of nowhere. "Now Perry!" he began. "This time I'm innocent of everything! That's for sure. I was not on any side excursion."

  "So? Then make your report, Lt. Puck! You probably know that we have you to thank for the fact that we've been questioned by the Alien Control police again?"

  Pucky normally began to tremble whenever Rhodan left the "y" off his name. He was never reassured by being addressed by his rank. But all he could say in response to Rhodan's reproachful question was: "It's no wonder I brought the tourist police on the run!"

  "Listen, Lt. Puck," Perry uncharacteristically exploded, "I want your report and I want it now!" And without any of your famous remarks. Dunk this donking around if you want to see another carrot before you're a year older!"

  To everyone's surprise, Pucky did not appear to be the least bit shaken by this rebuke. In fact, he showed Perry Rhodan his incisor tooth!

  Then he began his report. "A nude born baby could not be more innocent than I. But why should I go into all these affirmations when it's not necessary? I'll let the facts speak for themselves, First Administrator..."

  Bell howled at him and bellowed. Pucky let him go on a
nd paid no attention to him. He had turned toward Marshall and while Bell was still raging he spoke to his Corps Chief. "Just now there'll be no reading my mind, John. You'll have to wait for my report the same as the non-telepaths here. Is Fatso still raving...?"

  And then finally he made his report in which he not only depicted his daring exploits but also furnished detailed information concerning the Springers' security system.

  The mouse-beaver felt that he was well in control of the situation. "Well, Perry, am I still Lt. Puck, you First Administrator of the..."

  "Pucky, don't you think you should cough a little more?" Rhodan asked him. "It may be the only thing to keep that mouth of yours shut!" And he laughed at him with his ugly Soltenite face, every quill of his false beard shaking visibly.

  • • •

  At the 274th km level under the destroyed capital of the planet, Patriarch Cokaze was being driven through the manufacturing sector. He hardly looked to his right or left nor did he seem to marvel at the expertise of his people who had settled here and artificially created a pleasant living environment. The naked grey stone of the cavern's ceiling could only be seen occasionally. Everywhere else an almost clear blue sky appeared to arch above the residential communities. At the same time the synthetic sky emitted a diffused light so that the eternal cavernous night was transformed into a bright summer day such as one would expect on the surface of Archetz.

  After a swift journey the small high-speed car suddenly slowed down. It came to a stop and its door opened automatically for the patriarch. His destination was this large open space or plaza which was paved with a blue-tinted plastic material. Only a northern semicircle was enclosed by houses. Toward the South began the realm of Patriarch Gatru, the king of heavy industry on Archetz.

  Cokaze had to use three different antigrav lifts to reach Gatru's administrative headquarters. He had not been down here before but he had soon given up marveling at this great concentration of monitoring and security installations.

  He finally stood before Gatru.

  Since their recent altercation they hadn't seen each other. They eyed each other almost with hostility.

  "Gatru," requested Cokaze, "I have to see Thomas Cardif."

  "He's in isolation, Cokaze—nobody talks to him!" replied Gatru curtly.

  "That's interesting, Gatru." The big Springer remained calm. Silently he handed Gatru an official permit, entitling him to speak to Cardif.

  Gatru didn't look at it.

  Cokaze smiled thinly. "Has Cardif perhaps died on your hands because he couldn't assimilate Ara drug treatments?"

  Even this insinuation failed to get a reaction out of Gatru.

  "Alright." Cokaze gave the appearance of having been defeated. As he started to leave the luxuriously furnished office he paused at the door. He smiled and said: "For your information, Gatru-bankers Atual and Ortece are more impressed with Cardif's tactical advice than they are with your dilettante operations. You've no doubt been informed that the uprising on Hoond's Planet was crushed by Arkon's robot fleet. It was specifically your idea to renew the flare-ups there. And it was your idea to pick a quarrel with me. But it is my idea to boycott you into bankruptcy and you know old Cokaze doesn't just whistle in the wind, Gatru. You can believe it."

  Cokaze had threatened this once before but now Gatru felt that he would follow it through. He knew the influence Cokaze had with the other space-faring Springer clans.

  "What do you wish to discuss with Cardif? The uncanny happenings that have taken place in our factory areas? Is this arrogant Terran supposed to be clairvoyant, too?" Gatru had fired off three questions and to all three Cokaze had laughed almost scornfully. But he didn't answer them.

  "I want to be present when you speak with the Terran, Cokaze!" There was Dot much evidence now of Gatru's overbearing attitude. Cokaze's boycott threat had shaken him severely.

  "You can be with me when I question him, Gatru—why not? All I'm going to ask him is if he thinks Terrans are wandering around loose on Archetz!"

  "Terrans on Archetz? In the midst of us? Down here? Are you in your right mind, Cokaze?"

  But once more the Springer patriarch declined to answer these questions.

  A half hour later he asked: "How deep are we here, Gatru?"

  "Five hundred thirty-nine kilometers."

  "And what's the meaning of this raybeam security barricade—perhaps a prison?"

  "What does it look like?" growled Gatru.

  They passed through one more security gate that was positronically controlled and then they were facing Thomas Cardif.

  "Cokaze?" There was both surprise and scorn in the single word. Thomas Cardif did not get up. During the few days of his imprisonment he had come to look more like Perry Rhodan than ever.

  "Cardif..."

  "Patriarch Cokaze, you are a traitor!" Cardif interrupted him sharply. His yellowish Arkonide eyes flashed indignation. "I've deserted, broken my oath. That too, is treason, but it's not based on any cheap and underhanded motive. You know, Cokaze, why I am Rhodan's enemy and why it must be so if I want to hang onto one last spark of self-respect and honor. I have one goal: to avenge the murder of my mother, Thora. To achieve that goal, all means are justified. You could have profited by that, you greedy Springers! The Solar Empire would have dropped into your laps like a ripe fruit, along with the Arkon Imperium. But you weren't big enough to swallow just one reversal. You want the prize in your money-hungry hands instantly. Patriarch, I thought that in you I had an ally. But what did you do when you and I lost the first round? You betrayed me to this petty miser! You permitted me to sit here in prison! Protective custody—don't make me laugh! Put on ice so that one day I might take Perry Rhodan's place as a phantom Administrator of the Solar Imperium—a puppet to you! How often do I have to insist that I have no political ambitions? I want to see my mother's murderer pay, and after that I want nothing, nothing more at all, and I also don't want to be the Administrator! Get that through your head, once and for all! I just don't have a merchant's soul like yours, Cokaze. What do you want from me now?"

  Neither Cokaze nor Gatru had been able to interrupt him. The words had gushed from his lips like a torrent.

  Forcing himself to remain calm, Cokaze finally spoke. "Cardif, later we'll go more into detail as to whether or not I'm a traitor. Then you will realize that I did not betray you. But the reason for our visit here..." And he proceeded to describe the mysterious acts of destruction which had gone on incessantly during the past five days in the underground industrial installations. He ended his report with a question: "Cardif, based on these observations would you say that Terrans are on Archetz and that this destruction may be attributed to them?"

  When Cokaze had first begun his account, Cardif had started inwardly, realizing that this must be the work of Rhodan's mutants. But the same cold calmness came over him that Perry Rhodan himself had always demonstrated when in dangerous situations.

  "So all of a sudden, Cokaze, you have need of me again! Now I'm supposed to play the traitor and voluntarily put a noose around my neck? No, I like it here very well, Cokaze. Thanks for the visit!"

  He did not reveal by word or action what he knew now: Rhodan's mutants were on Archetz! They were looking for him! And Thomas Cardif was certain that they would track him down.

  This was the end for him—at least for now...

  6/ THE DREAD DECISION

  It was now eight days since Pucky's first excursion into the underground industrial complex of Archetz and since his first acts of destruction which had been forced upon him as the only means of saving his mouse-beaver skin. But now suddenly the sharply increased surveillance of the tourist police seemed to be tapering off.

  Fellmer Lloyd, the mental tracker, was the first to notice it, and soon the other telepaths confirmed his observation. After that the Galactic Traders' Allen Control police excluded the 17-man Soltenite crew of the Lorch-Arto from the area of suspicion because on the entire planet there were no intelligent
beings who acted more harmless than these 17 Soltenites. They were a simple lot who could expect to be punished when they returned to Solten and their stern, tyrannical wives. On the other hand, the unknown 18th member, who was actually Lt. Puck of the Mutant Corps, became more active than ever.

  But Pucky had changed considerably. Having been placed strictly on his own resources he was driven now by the heavy weight of responsibility that rested in his hands—for the fate of his best friends and the Solar System itself. Thus he had put aside his usual impishness and turned to his work in earnest. Before each of his self-ordered missions he planned how he might cause these agitated Galactic Traders the greatest trouble with the least effort.

  His operations increased from day to day. And from day to day he became more familiar with the hollowed-out planet of Archetz and its labyrinth system of caverns. But the overview he obtained of the security arrangements was of inestimable importance. However—there was no trace of Thomas Cardif and this worried him greatly because for Rhodan and his men the time was running out in which they could legitimately remain on Archetz. The freighter in the repair dock would soon be ready for flight.

  Today as every day before, Pucky reported to Rhodan by means of telepathy. He was crouched inside the air-regeneration case and was gnawing on a giant carrot. While pleasantly chewing his favorite food he beamed his thoughts out to the Chief.

  Nothing again, Perry! I don't understand it but I can't find a single clue that would point to Thomas' whereabouts. Of course I can't demolish every industrial plant that's underneath Titon. That would be beyond my telekinetic powers.

  From his hotel room Rhodan answered by the same means: They've advised us the fighter will be ready by early tomorrow, Pucky. Do you still advise against putting the mutants into action? Pucky, think carefully what your answer means—for me and all of us and also for Thomas!