by Perry Rhodan
Uncomprehendingly, Vicheline's red eye gazed at them. Where were the Terrans?
To the gunners the Trox was merely a form of organic life which must be destroyed under all circumstances. On board a robot ship the Trox was a monstrosity. His presence was a blasphemy.
They waited for the order.
Uncertainly, Vicheline hovered at the hatch opening while his thin body trembled visibly. Then he gathered all the courage he had in his meager frame and whispered: "Who are you?" Vicheline felt nothing when he died because his 10 pounds of fragile matter were simply atomized under the concentrated thermo fire of the gunners. Only for an instant it had seemed as if the delicate Trox tried to flutter away in wild retreat—but in the next instant he was nothing but a dark cloud of smoke.
The gunners pressed forward into the control room, followed by several communicators whose electronically-controlled spiral tentacles curled forward eagerly. However, of Vicheline, the nobleman from the race of the Trox, there was not a trace remaining other than a vaguely unpleasant odor.
• • •
Maj. Teluf again couldn't rid himself of an uneasy feeling. Although the fragment ship only seemed to be interested in the Hat-Lete now, the commander felt as if he were sitting on a powder keg. From a military standpoint the Frisco was playing the role of a useless observer. The light cruiser's distance from the other two ships had increased considerably.
It had been a relief to receive a confirmation from Perry Rhodan. Now he was counting on the appearance of the Theodorich at any moment. The enemy attack had cost two men's lives and seven had been injured. Dr. Gerwain was treating their wounds. The lower part of the ship was completely burned out and riddled with leaks. It would have been senseless to enter that area now without spacesuits.
The Frisco was traveling through space in free fall and if nobody came to their assistance they would go on like that for years endlessly until they were trapped in the gravitational field of a sun. At such time, however, no one on board the light cruiser would be left alive.
Teluf rejected such thoughts. Rhodan had been alerted and he had promised to take immediate action. The major knew the fighting strength of the Theodorich and could not imagine that the fragment ship could stand up against her. In the Control Central of the Frisco there was a suspenseful silence, now and then broken only by Dr. Gerwain's calm voice. The men were waiting for the flagship of the Solar Fleet and they expected it to avenge this attack or a Terran warship. The Theodorich alone would have been enough to raise great hopes in these spacemen but the presence of Perry Rhodan caused their confidence to soar and made the mighty ship seem to be impregnable.
Teluf knew that the flagship would not appear on the scanners until it had emerged from its libration zone, and that would probably occur close to the fragment ship.
Tonrim, seated on Bottischer's shoulder, appeared to have made an adjustment to the new situation. The Trox didn't seem to be any weight at all for the muscular lieutenant because he moved about apparently unencumbered. It looked as if Tonrim was contented with his new perch because every once in a while he would emit satisfied sounds.
For the first time Teluf felt a certain sympathy for the spindly little creature. Weren't all the races of the universe bound together in some inexplicable manner, even if they were enemies? "For Heaven's sake, now I'm beginning to philosophize!" the major muttered.
Galahad looked up suspiciously but Teluf only shook his head.
Then Ikaze gave a triumphant cry. Before he could say anything the others gathered in the Control Central started shouting wildly, letting out all the tension that had been building up in them for the past few hours.
On the scanner screens a bright blip had suddenly appeared, quite close to the fragment ship. The Theodorich had arrived.
• • •
Linear flight within the libration zone had the priceless advantage of permitting observation within the line of sight while the observer himself could not be seen. The officers of the Theodorich were thus able to see the Hat-Lete, the fragment ship and the heavily-battered Frisco long before either of the latter two ships were aware of their approach.
The first Officer of the Theodorich, Reg Thomas, examined the indicators sceptically. He had replaced Hunts Krefenbac who was now commander of the former flagship, Ironduke.
"Look at the shape of that thing, sir" he said. "Has somebody gone mad?" Judging by his tone of voice he had evidently not taken previous descriptions of the fragment ship seriously.
From a Terran standpoint anything even remotely cubical was about the worst possible shape for a space vehicle. Yet Rhodan maintained that if a spacefaring race could come up with a superior means of propulsion the shape of their vessels wouldn't matter. However, the Administrator suspected that the cubical form of the ship had more to do with the mentality of its builders than it probably did with the propulsion system.
"Shall we move in closer, sir?" interrupted Claudrin. "I'm ready for your orders."
"Hold off awhile before we show ourselves to them," said Rhodan. "We're going to use the A-N guns on them so as to avoid any unnecessary bloodshed." A-N guns were officially known as anesthetizer cannons which had been standard equipment on all Terran ships for the past three years. They operated on a type of hyper-frequency in such a range that it could pass through any type of defense screen. These vibrations had the effect of immediately numbing the nervous reflexes of any organic life form, which produced a deep narcosis within seconds. In this way the destruction of life could be avoided. After a period of time the victims of the A-N attack awakened from their condition of unconsciousness without any harmful after effects.
The fragment ship could now be seen clearly on all screens. Its position relative to the Hat-Lete seemed to indicate that it had already sent out a boarding crew.
"They seem to be very interested in the robot ship," said Rhodan thoughtfully. "They must have some special motive." If he had only known who they were he might have been able to explain it easily enough but neither the design of the ship nor the actions of its crew provided the slightest clue. Rhodan hoped they would soon know more. He nodded to the stocky Epsalian who had been promoted to Commodore and Claudrin smiled broadly. Perry made contract with the Fire Control Center.
"We will be reducing speed in a few seconds," he said. "At a low approach velocity we will emerge close to the fragment ship. All anesthetizer cannons on standby for action." Of course it was impossible for one man to navigate a giant like the Theodorich all by himself but Claudrin, who had taken over the flight controls, was backed up by countless automatic devices and indicators. The mighty converters thundered as he went into a retropulsion manoeuvre. In the Control Central there was no sign of the tremendous inertial forces that the men and the high-precision equipment would otherwise have been exposed to.
Then the Theodorich shed its protective shell of semispace and fell back into the Einstein continuum. The fragment ship lay within firing range next to the Hat-Lete. Rhodan coldly observed the viewscreens. He could imagine now that the tracking scanners of the cube ship would be indicating the unexpected appearance of the Theodorich.
"Fire!" he called into the microphone.
An invisible barrage of hyper frequencies emanated from the A-N guns and rained down on the fragment ship, unimpeded by the latter's defense screen.
"Cease fire!" Rhodan ordered.
The men in the Control Central watched the giant ship tensely.
The Theodorich's sensitive scanners and detectors were concentrated on the alien vessel in order to pick up any reaction or change. But nothing happened.
Unimpeded, the fragment ship continued to draw nearer to the Hat-Lete. Yet nobody doubted that by now its crew must be in a deep state of narcosis.
"I guess that does it, sir," said Nacro drily.
Rhodan didn't answer right away because he suddenly had a feeling that something wasn't as it should be. If the fragment ship had already sent over a prize crew to the Hat-Le
te, it could certainly be assumed that they were in constant communication with the mother ship. Theoretically, that contact must have been broken when the Theodorich fired its anesthetizer guns. The boarding party should be showing some kind of reaction. Rhodan's mind began to race. He had an instinctive urge to order the heavy energy guns into action—yet he hesitated.
"I wish we could see what's happening on board that monster," he said to Nacro.
"Do you think something's gone wrong?" asked Nacro.
"Yes," confessed Rhodan with out explaining more.
Two seconds later the fragment ship opened fire on the Theodorich.
Rhodan would never forget that moment in his life. Jefe Claudrin jumped up to yell something but then everybody was swept off his feet in a scrambled confusion of flying and sliding bodies. The generators shrieked as the absorption screens swallowed a monstrous energy load, attempting to withstand the terrible impact. The howling and screeching of the overloaded system rang in Rhodan's ears while the lights in the Control Central alternately dimmed and brightened.
Then something happened that had been considered almost an impossibility.
Parts of the Theodorich's supposedly impregnable defense screens collapsed. The fragment ship had become a flashing blob of destruction which mercilessly turned all its weapons on the battered Theodorich.
When Rhodan got to his feet again he saw Claudrin's mighty figure standing before the flight controls. The flagship was making crackling sounds as if charged with electricity. Rhodan knew those noises from experience. If they remained here a few more seconds the screens would collapse entirely and expose the Theodorich to the full effective fire of the enemy.
Claudrin knew what to do. He shoved the ship into full power acceleration so that it virtually leapt out of the danger zone and vanished into semispace.
"Get back to normal right away, Jefe!" shouted Rhodan, almost without realizing it.
When the Theodorich returned to normal space a few moments later they were already one lightyear distant from the enemy ship. Rhodan forced himself to take some calm, deep breaths while he gazed at the grim faces of his officers.
"I guess that does it," he said, looking pointedly at Nacro.
The major grinned in embarrassment and wiped his forehead. The Theodorich's overloaded machinery gradually settled back to normal operation again. On the men's faces was a common expression of their burning desire to immediately go back and show the fragment ship that the Terrans also had powerful weapons at their disposal. Rhodan was well aware of the spacemen's feelings but he did not intend to yield to them not yet.
Reg Thomas was straightening out his twisted uniform. "They seem to have recovered from the A-N strafing alright," he said. "Or do you think maybe their counterfire was automatic?"
"In a figurative sense perhaps," replied Rhodan enigmatically. Before he could say anything more, Pucky entered the Control Central and waddled over to Claudrin.
"I had just dozed off in a cat nap," he said with mock dignity, "when some crazy person took over the ship controls and threw me out of my bed without a word of apology!" Claudrin's eyes narrowed. "And maybe you noticed that we were almost destroyed," he said in a rumbling tone.
The mouse-beaver looked at him harshly and turned to Rhodan. "What are you going to do now, Perry?"
"You could have found out by now if you hadn't interrupted our conversation," Rhodan chided him.
Of course Pucky knew exactly what had been going on but he loved to use every tactic to get himself in the spotlight.
Rhodan continued. "Before the anesthetizers were mounted in our ships we went through countless experiments with them. We have reason to believe that no life form exists that would not be affected by an A-N attack. So there can be only one logical explanation for the reaction of the crew on that fragment ship.
Whoever is on board is not alive at least in an organic sense."
"Sir, do you think they're robots?" asked Thomas.
"That would of course explain a lot but at the same time it would present some new questions. It would be stretching it to talk about robots at this stage because we still have no definite information." Rhodan interlaced his sensitive hands. "First of all we have to call in a salvage tender for the Frisco. It's true that the light cruiser is out of the danger zone by now but we have to rescue the men from their uncomfortable situation." Nevertheless, Rhodan had to think and move quickly. The fragment ship had apparently won an effortless victory over the most modern ship in the Solar Fleet. If this news of a Terran defeat were to get out, it might encourage various galactic races to start new attacks against the Solar Imperium. Also he could not underestimate the effect on his own crewmen. Bringing all these dangers to a common denominator, Rhodan's decision was obvious.
The fragment ship had to be attacked.
Rhodan alerted more than 20 heavy units of the Fleet and ordered them to get under way immediately. They were to emerge as quickly as possible in the vicinity of the enemy marauder. Meanwhile the Administrator had another plan in mind which was risky but nevertheless gave promise of success. He called teleporters Ras Tschubai and Tako Kakuta into the Control Central. This caused Pucky to brighten up because he suspected that he would now be ordered into action.
"We're going to try to settle accounts for the slap in the face they gave us back there," said Rhodan decisively. "I suggest that we send out Ras, Tako and Pucky in a three-man destroyer. It will be their springboard for teleporting into the fragment ship and finding out what's going on inside. I realize that this mission is almost unfeasible and that's why I'll leave it to the decision of the mutants, as to whether they want to undertake it."
"Of course we'll undertake it, Perry," chirped Pucky hastily.
"Very well, sir," said Tschubai, and Kakuta nodded his agreement. "You have to choose exactly the right moment," warned Rhodan. "That little destroyer is going to be ripped to atoms by the guns of the cube ship."
"We'll work it out," said Kakuta confidently.
"Hopefully. We'll get in as close as possible to the fragment ship, depending on how much fire power we can bring to bear. Then we'll launch the destroyer and the rest will be up to you." It was a wild plan but Rhodan was counting on the experience of the teleporters which they had gained from countless missions. Tschubai and Kakuta were level-headed men who took no unnecessary risks. Only Pucky had a tendency for fool hardiness but he was especially endowed with other paranormal gifts which had helped him survive many dangers before.
Rhodan contacted the hangar and the mutants prepared themselves. The three-man destroyer was checked out. The teleporters provided themselves with weapons and then left the Control Central to take over the destroyer.
"We're flying them straight into Hell," said Thomas.
• • •
It was the end of the legend. The Theodorich, considered to be invincible, had only been able to escape complete destruction by means of instant flight.
The stunning shock of this fact was hard to swallow for Major Reja Teluf.
Heretofore the ship crews of the Solar Fleet had always gone into their missions with the confident thought that the mighty helper was behind them but now?
The major didn't have to search the faces of his men to know the mood they were in. Teluf's own pessimism had nothing to do with the fear for his own life.
He was asking himself what might happen if a whole squadron of these fragment ships were to attack the Earth. So far they had shown up singly, and perhaps their present enemy was the same one who had destroyed the space station, BOB 21. If that were the case it only proved that the dangers of just one ship could not be underestimated.
Still more puzzling than their origin was their goal or purpose.
Their attack on the BOB 21 had not been launched directly against the Terrans but had been aimed instead at the mysterious invisible aliens. Unexpectedly the Earth had gotten involved in the middle of a conflict between two unknown powers. And now here was the fragment
ship concentrating its interest on a pilotless robot ship, whereas the two Terran ships had merely been swept aside as a sort of "incidental" action. Certainly no definite conclusions could be drawn from such inexplicable circumstances.
And what was the real meaning of the strange symbol messages that the two agents on the BOB 21 had picked up? "Are you a true life form?" Teluf bit his underlip reflectively. Every race could assume from its own standpoint that it was the only representation of the "true life form." However, behind such a self-judgment must lie certain standards which could only be based on their own behavior. It seemed to Teluf very strange that a spacefaring race should have such an isolated attitude, and even the idea of some theoretical form of existence would not stand the test of logic.
There were a number of possibilities which might shed light on the tangled mystery. In fact it was possible that the concept of "life" could be so abstract in some alien mentalities that it could only fit a specific pattern. Such beings would have to be operating on the basis of an unorthodox system of logic that was strictly adhered to.
Like robots—thought Teluf.
Besides, the idea was not to be rejected that the symbol messages were only sent out in order to confuse the opposition. Whatever was hidden behind the giant cube ship would not be known until the first Terran set foot inside of it.
Bottischer was the first one to find his voice again. "If I know Rhodan," he said, "he'll soon be back." Teluf looked at him doubtfully. "You think so, lieutenant? The Administrator isn't about to take such a risk again. My guess is that the next thing we'll see is about half the Solar Fleet showing up."
"In the meantime the fragment ship could have disappeared already, sir," argued Bottischer. "I'm sure Rhodan will think of something." Ikaze called from the still functioning scanner console. "He's right, sir!
There's the Theodorich again!" The giant flagship was only visible on the screens for a few moments before it went back into the protective realm of semispace.