by Perry Rhodan
John Marshall, the telepathic chief of the Mutant Corps, entered the Control Central and beckoned to Rhodan. The Administrator left his place and went over to him.
"Troubles, sir," he said in his succinct manner. "A few minutes ago I picked up a telepathic signal from Pucky. At present the teleporters are on board the Hat-Lete. They were attacked with paralysis beams and are still too weak to get back to us. Pucky reported that a large force of robots have boarded the Arkonide vessel from the fragment ship and they're giving them trouble. He's afraid that still more of them are coming over." Rhodan had listened without interrupting but was feverishly arriving at decisions even while Marshall was speaking. The three teleporters had to be helped. The were valuable helpers of humanity and had decided the outcome of numberless other battles in favor of Terra.
"We have to do something for them," he said quietly.
Marshall remained silent but watched the Administrator gravely. He knew that Rhodan would leave nothing untried in his attempts to save the teleporters.
Rhodan returned to his observation position and reported to his staff: "Pucky, Ras and Tako are stuck in the Arkonide ship. We have to think of something to get them out of there." Jefe Claudrin turned his massive head around. "We can't get any closer, sir.
If we take more chances the hit ratio will double on us. Our screens could go." The other fleet units should be here soon," commented Thomas.
"We can't wait for that," decided Rhodan. "We have to depend on ourselves." With slow deliberation, Dr. Riebsam asked a question. "Sir, have you thought of a plan already?" A smile touched Rhodan's lips when he realized that the mathematician had read his intention and was letting him know that he was in agreement. "Yes—I'm asking myself why we installed the fictive transmitter on board the Theodorich." He saw himself surrounded by a group of astonished men. Slide Nacro closed his gaping mouth but soon found his voice again.
"Sir—you want some of us to be transmitted on board the Hat-Lete?" he asked.
"Yes, as a backup for the mutants." For a moment Claudrin forgot to concentrate on what he was doing and the Theodorich took a violent salvo impact that shook the massive ship like an earthquake. Rhodan directed Fire Control to keep up a continuous bombardment.
"We want to keep them occupied," he said. "Meanwhile, Capt. Brazo Alkher will collect a 10-man volunteer commando team to accompany him on board the Arkonide ship." Like an angry flying hornet's nest the Theodorich darted around the fragment ship without being able to damage it. On the other hand the flagship took a well-aimed hit now and again.
"Of course you may refuse the assignment, Captain," Rhodan added.
Some of the gentleness went out of Alkher's brown eyes. "I'll get busy and select my men, sir," he answered, and he withdrew from the Control Central.
"He won't have it easy, sir," said Thomas after Alkher was out of hearing range. "I can imagine they'll give him a hot reception." Rhodan nodded. "I'm sure of that—but we have to try to give the mutants support until the fleet formation gets here."
• • •
Corporal Gallik sat daydreaming and tried not to hear the hits that the Theodorich was receiving. He was sitting with his chair tipped back against the wall of the small cabin he shared with Sgt. Oaliason when the door opened and Capt. Alkher entered.
"Hello, Gallik," said the captain pleasantly.
"Chick" Gallik gathered himself together and stared suspiciously at his guest. "What's happened, sir?" he asked.
Alkher raised a brow at him in mock surprise. "I thought you already knew about your offer to be a volunteer." Gallik sensed an alarm signal in his brain. It shot him to his feet.
"You—you must be confusing me with Sgt. Oaliason," he said hopefully. "I don't remember having volunteered for anything."
"I'm sorry, there isn't much time," said Alkher. "In 10 minutes we have to be on board the Hat-Lete—so it's time you checked your weapons." Gallik scratched his head in desperation. "With your permission, sir," he said peevishly, "this is a strange way to drum up volunteers." Alkher chuckled softly. "The others are already standing by," he announced.
"But I'd like to have you with us." Chick Gallik pulled on his uniform jacket and followed the captain out of the cabin. "Where are you taking me, Captain?"
"To the fictive transmitter. We're going to shoot over to the Arkonide ship." Alkher winked at Gallik. "How does that grab you?" Gallik thought a moment before answering. Finally he said, "Oh that's terrific, sir! It fills my heart with rapture." It was a sentiment that the corporal did not quite demonstrate, however, as he shuffled along sullenly behind his leader. Yet it was this same Chick Gallik who had penetrated the headquarters of the Forghs on Klotor with only three combat robots and had blown it up, preventing them from turning against the Terran colony there.
• • •
As Perry Rhodan looked at the small group of brave men before him, he wished secretly that he could go with them. He knew that he could rely on every one of them, that each one would fight for the lives of the three teleporters as though he were fighting for himself.
Brazo Alkher stepped forward. "We're ready, sir." Rhodan recalled to mind the slender youth who had once been shipwrecked with him on board the Fantasy. What had become of his carefree youthfulness now?
Alkher had turned into an experience hardened man who accomplished his assignments with a strict attention to duty. Only once in a while the captain's eyes betrayed a flash of the earlier brightness and swift-handed ease with which he had performed his work in the Fire Control Central. A dry humor remained from those days which often bordered on sarcasm.
Rhodan brought himself back to the present. These men had been molded by life in outer space. He himself was a prime example of the results. There was nothing about it that would ever change.
"Each of you knows why it's necessary to carry out this dangerous mission," he said to them. "The success of it will depend on a number of circumstances but the main thing right now is for you to change the odds on board the Hat-Lete as quickly as possible." Dr. Riebsam had taken over the controls of the transmitter, and now he signaled to Rhodan. The adjustments had been made.
"Good luck!" said Rhodan.
The commandos filed into the transmitter and Rhodan waited until they had all vanished.
"There they go to an unknown fate," commented the mathematician.
A new hit shook the Theodorich and Rhodan had to find support to stay on his feet. The uncertainty of fate, he thought, was something they all shared in common at the moment.
6/ DEATH TRAP
Chick Gallik saw Solensky, the little Pole, appear beside him, and then came Alkher, Owesian and Leggert. Behind Solensky appeared Mesenhohl, Gunnarson, Pearson and Tannert. The last one through was Stumpy Heffner, his wrinkled face set in an expression of almost fanatic resolve. They had materialized in a cargo hold which was unoccupied at the moment.
"We'll separate into two groups," ordered Alkher. "This room has two entrances. Chick, you take Heffner, Owesian, Solensky and Gunnarson over there—the rest of you follow me." Gallik was a big man with fleshy muscles and a large round head. His face had the appearance of being flabby and flushed. He nodded to the captain and Alkher beckoned his own men.
At the head of his small detail, Gallik charged toward the exit.
The corporal was 38 years old. In two years he would be promoted to sergeant and after that he would retire from the Fleet. For years he had harbored a secret dream of which he had told no one. With his small savings he would set up a small bar and stand behind the counter and wash and dry glasses. His patrons would be former members of the Fleet and they would sit on long-legged stools at the counter where they would converse about their old adventures together.
Gallik knew that at this moment he was farther from realizing his plan than ever before. Just before he reached the exit he turned to see Alkher and the other men leave the cargo room through the opposite door. Gallik was determined to get through this mission alive. He
looked into Heffner's wrinkled face and saw no sign of emotion other than his dumb look of fanaticism. Stumpy was always like that in every battle. Then there was Solensky who always had to fight down his fear and keep his face muscles from twitching. Gallik cursed softly. What kind of men were these to be with in a setup like this? What were their own dreams? What would they be doing now if they weren't stuck in those uniforms?
Gunnarson reminded Gallik of a car mechanic with a yen for tinkering around old-style models, and the dark-skinned Owesian looked like a born butler.
They left the cargo room and came into a corridor that led in two directions.
As they entered it they saw Tako Kakuta coming toward them from one side, and from the other direction six metal monstrosities were approaching. The Japanese mutant was limping and he was bleeding on one side of his face. He let out a cry when he saw the Terrans and signaled to them with his weapon.
Momentarily the six robots appeared to be confused because the situation had been changed by the unexpected reinforcements their single quarry had received.
Stumpy Heffner was the first to react. He raised his energy rifle and opened fire against the machines, whose defense screens glowed with a bluish light under the impact. Gallik ran past the other men to Kakuta who was leaning against the wall, very weak.
Now Solensky, Gunnarson and Owesian were also firing and the corridor glared blindly under the brilliant flashes. Fiery rivulets crept across the deck and there was a crackling of reflected energy. Within a minute the temperature had risen 10 degrees.
Gallik gripped Kakuta by an arm and drew him into the cargo room. Solensky staggered in after them, white as a sheet.
"We separated," gasped Kakuta. "We wanted to break up the robots' concentration. We're still too weak to teleport. New robot reinforcements keep coming from the fragment ship." Solensky peered out the doorway into the passage and immediately ducked back inside. "Owesian's down on the deck," he said, "but he's still moving. There's only three robots left out there that I can see."
"Take care of the teleporter," ordered Gallik, and he sprang out into the corridor.
He heard Owesian shout something even as a cascade of light hissed over him and melted a glowing hole in the wall. Heffner hopped like a crazy man toward the robots while holding his energy rifle at his hip, sweeping its beam back and forth. Gallik thought he would perish from the heat and his eyes burned as if filled with acid. Gunnarson was kneeling by Owesian, taking careful aim before he fired. The robot shots were not concentrated and were widely scattered.
Glowing metal dropped from the ceiling like molten wax, splattering on the floor with loud hissing noises.
Gallik ran after Heffner to stop him but just then one of the robots caved in and sank with an odd slowness to the deck, its tentacles waving about helplessly. Heffner's shout of triumph was broken by a wild clattering sound and four more machines rolled into view. They were larger and wider than their predecessors and their appearance sent a shudder down Gallik's spine.
He shouted after Heffner but Stumpy charged on ahead like a Sgt. York. When he looked back he saw Gunnarson trying to drag the badly wounded Owesian into the cargo room. He wondered why Solensky wasn't helping him but just then the little Pole came dashing out. He grasped the Afro-Terran by the shoulders and helped Gunnarson to drag the wounded man out of the passage.
Gallik whirled around and was astonished to see that Heffner was still in one piece. "Get back, Stumpy!" he yelled.
Heffner was swept by a glancing shot and was knocked to one side.
As the trooper whirled around, Gallik thought he saw him laughing. He didn't know what was more uncanny, the attacking robots or Heffner. At least five raybeams zipped past Stumpy. Gallik fired like a madman while behind him he heard Gunnarson come back into the fray. A series of brilliant flashes scattered past on both sides and a wave of heat came over him. He felt as if he had been hit and fell backwards. Even as he fell he saw the robots coming closer. They simply ignored Heffner who lay motionlessly on the floor. Gallik thought he heard Heffner yelling but in the deafening commotion it was difficult to differentiate individual sounds.
In Gallik's mind's eye arose a vision of his dreamed-of little bar, and that lent him superhuman strength, just as Gunnarson fell gasping and coughing beside him. Gallik's clouded vision cleared and he saw that Gunnarson's uniform was on fire. He rolled over him in order to smother the flames and the Swede muttered something unintelligible. He glanced behind him and saw Solensky and Kakuta.
Both of them were firing at the robots. Owesian came crawling on all fours from the cargo room and seemed to smile in this odd moment as he nodded to him.
One of the robots exploded with a dull roar and its fragments flew over the heads of Gallik and the Swede. The machine behind it burst into flames and came rolling toward the men like a glowing torch. It finally crashed against a wall and collapsed.
Then suddenly the passage before them was free except for some smoke and fire and the remains of shattered robots. Gallik trembled in his weariness and there was a salt taste of blood in his mouth. He saw Gunnarson rise up and tear off part of his smoldering uniform just as Heffner came staggering out of the smoke. Solensky came to Gallik and helped him get up.
"They'll be back here soon!" cried Kakuta. "We have to get out of here!" Gallik looked at his battered and wounded group of men. "Into the cargo hold," he said quietly.
His idea about the bar seemed to recede from him at this moment because he knew that whenever a spaceman would sit down at the counter he would have a vision of Owesian, badly wounded yet crawling through Hell to aid his companions.
They dragged themselves into the hold and closed the hatch. That was when Stumpy Heffner collapsed into unconsciousness and Gunnarson had to lay him down beside Owesian. Gallik was incredibly weary yet he felt relieved that they were all still alive.
"It's time we figured something out," said Kakuta. "We won't be safe here for a minute. The robots are after us like mad. If most of them weren't so busy repairing the Hat-Lete we'd be totally outnumbered."
"Repairing the Hat-Lete?" queried Gallik in some surprise. "I wonder what that means."
"I don't know," said the mutant. "It almost seems as if the robots from the fragment ship were taking care of their own kind around here. At any rate they're very concerned about this Arkonide robot cruiser." Gallik didn't understand much about robots and he was at present in no condition to think too much about them but he had never heard that a robot could be concerned about anything, or that such machines could have any emotions at all. "Then you think maybe we're still alive because the robots were going easy on the ship instead of on us? I mean—because they didn't want to damage the Hat-Lete more than they had to?"
"Looks that way," said the Japanese teleporter. "Our rattling friends from the fragment ship seem to have characteristics that you wouldn't normally expect to find in robots." Heffner came to and grinned weakly. "I'm not badly hurt," he said painfully "Just hard to breathe…" Gallik, could tell at a glance that Stumpy would need medical treatment as quickly as possible. For that matter, Owesian wasn't much better, not considering the lesser injuries of Solensky, Kakuta and himself. With the exception of his ruined uniform, Gunnarson appeared to be the only one who had come through unscathed.
Just as Gallik was about to have a closer look at Heffner the Hat-Lete began to vibrate and a faint humming sound became audible. Gallik paused. "What's that?" he half-whispered.
"The engines," replied Kakuta almost tonelessly. "They're bringing the old crate back to life." As the men stared at each other there was an expression of growing alarm on their faces.
• • •
Ras Tschubai realized that he owed his life to a sheer coincidence—namely, that he had happened to take cover by the main converter in the power room. The robots from the fragment ship hesitated to shoot at the Terran because it seemed they wanted to keep the converter intact at all costs. So all the African had to be careful abou
t was that none of the strange machines came too close to him. He himself was free to fire at will and he had thus knocked out four robots already since they had merely come rolling toward him without shooting. Now the alien things had become more cautious and resorted to merely keeping Tschubai under constant observation. Somewhere in the machine room a number of robot's were working with a sheer fanatic fervor. Tschubai got the impression that the cube ship's crew was very eager to correct every last defect of the Hat-Lete. It almost seemed as if the robots wanted to awaken their positronic colleagues of Arkon to a new mechanical life.
Tschubai finally gave up trying to figure it out. He began to wonder how Pucky and Kakuta were faring. Tako and the mouse-beaver were still too weak to be able to make use of their paranormal functions. For Pucky especially this would be a handicap. Not only was he at present unable to teleport but also it was doubtful that he could generate any psychokinetic forces. And his telepathy wasn't going to get him very far in this kind of combat.
Tschubai looked past the curved surface of the converter into the combination power and engine room. He noted that the robots were beginning to construct a strange-looking apparatus. He wasn't interested in what the thing was supposed to do as long as it didn't mean some kind of new trouble for himself.
When he took another look around the converter he saw Capt. Brazo Alkher come into the large chamber with drawn weapon. Ras had to blink his eyes several times to make sure he wasn't having hallucinations. Behind Alkher came Mesenhohl, Leggert, Tannert and Pearson.
"Watch out!" yelled Tschubai, and he sprang into view from behind his covering.
The robots attacked almost in the same instant that Alkher and his men threw themselves on the floor. Tschubai opened fire and the robots realized they were being attacked from two sides. Alkher took cover behind the heavy generators and with a daring leap Leggert landed between two blowers. Pearson retreated back through the bulkhead doorway while keeping up a steady fire, whereas Mesenhohl and Tannert took refuge between some control cabinets. Tschubai smiled grimly and drew back to his former position.