by Perry Rhodan
• • •
And something else occurred the same night.
Fij-Gul, Wee-Nii's adjutant, who had paid a clandestine visit to the Fair Lady the night before, was plagued since that time by an uncertain and disturbing suspicion. Somehow he felt that there was something wrong with the strangers or their contentions. But what?
After Fij-Gul had mulled over his doubts long enough, he rose in the middle of the night and went to the record office of the Airfleet which was located in one of the towers at the southern rim of the city. There he found the meager notes which the captain had recorded after his first flight to Weelie-Wee. The translator of the language spoken by the primitive settlers on Weelie-Wee had been retained as part of the record.
The archives also contained a second translator which reproduced the language of the strangers who now were visiting Heeninniy in the spherical spaceship moored on the landing field. Fij-Gul, who was entitled to free access to the archives and all its records at any time by virtue of his rank as General Staff Officer took both translators, paper and pen, and put them on a desk to begin his comparative language studies.
At first he spoke simple sentences into the transmitters and tried to absorb the sound of the foreign languages. He determined that there was no phonetic similarity between them.
However this left him extremely dissatisfied as he had come to the record office with the expectation of unearthing some sensational discovery. He then proceeded to speak single words into the gadgets in the firm conviction that a resemblance-if it existed at all-could be better established through single words than whole sentences.
But this method didn't seem to result in success either until he used the equivalent word for 'people' in both instruments and obtained the French pronunciation for 'peuple' which was distinctly related to the English pronunciation.
The similarity was unmistakable and Fij-Gul suddenly realized what he had done wrong. He shouldn't have anticipated hearing the same sound pattern but should have compared the basic structure of the words, their consonants. The word 'people' was made up of the same consonants p and pl but the vowels between them sounded different.
Encouraged by his first success, Fij-Gul quickly tried the word 'population' which also seemed to confirm his theory. Although the words sounded quite differently in the two languages their construction was obviously identical.
Fij-Gul continued his probe with excitement through the rest of the night and he found about 20 more words which had the same roots and sounded more or less alike.
He was very elated and wanted to drive immediately to the residence of Admiral Wee-Nii, wake him up and report his discovery to him. On second thought he refrained from giving in to his impetuosity. He was afraid of Wee-Nii's response when he realized that his revelation was not conclusive enough to suspect the foreigners. He had discovered 20 words which had the same meaning in both languages and the same order of consonants. Was it really enough to prove that the two languages were related to each other? And if the philological scientist actually confirmed their relationship, what would that accomplish? Nothing! The primitive settlers could have come from Aurigel to Weelie-Wee many centuries ago. They might have been either shipwrecked or simply put down there and it didn't necessarily follow that they maintained a connection with Aurigel. In fact it was conceivable that the settlers and the aliens knew nothing about each other.
No, there was as yet no pressing reason to rouse Wee-Nii from his bed at the crack of dawn.
Feeling a sense of letdown, Fij-Gul returned to his quarters and tried to make up for the sleep he had missed.
6/ TO THE TOWER!
The first thing Chellish and his friends wanted to do the next morning was to take a ride to the city and he requested an escort. As usual two men occupied a vehicle so that they formed a column of five aircushion cars. The requested escorts joined them in the parking area of the residential tower.
The Whistler who entered Chellish's and Mullon's car said: "I hope we're going to have a pleasant trip," just as Chellish had hoped.
He gave the Whistler a friendly nod and asked him to take the seat next to him. Mullon sat as usual in the back seat. The automobiles quickly left the tower one after another by the wide gateway and drove along a road lined with poplars toward the city.
"What's the latest of importance?" Chellish asked the Whistler.
"Two spaceships are being prepared for takeoff," the man replied without hesitation. "They're the last two units of the fleet since Sey-Wuun must be considered as lost."
"Destination?"
"Weelie-Wee and Feejnee," the Whistler answered. "One is sent to Weelie-Wee to bring back wheat and the other one to Feejnee to check up if your fleet has occupied a base on that planet."
Chellish was taken aback. He quickly figured out that a Whistler ship would need about 80 Peep-days under the present circumstances to reach Weelie-Wee, alias Grautier. The Fair Lady covered the same distance in a few hours. If they left Heeninniy 75 days after the start of the Whistler ship, they would still come in time to prevent its landing on Grautier and any harm the colonial city of Greenwich might befall.
Seventy-five days! This sounded very good. But he doubted nevertheless that the time would be enough to instil such formidable long-lasting fear and awe of the legendary world of Aurigel in the Whistlers that Grautier could stop worrying about future aggressions.
"Of course our fleet has a base on Feejnee," Chellish stated as casually as possible in order to hide his concern. "And if I were Iiy-Juur-Eelie I wouldn't send any warships over there. Our forces exercise the greatest vigilance when it comes to safety."
"I believe that his Excellency has already been warned about this," the Whistler admitted. "However he doesn't tolerate any questioning of his orders. His subordinates have no choice except to risk the flight although they've no hope of every returning. They'll either be shot down by your side or the expedition will fail because our ships are not designed to undertake such far trips and have never been tested for it."
Chellish concluded from this information that the Whistlers would have no warship left that was able to travel in space if he succeeded in torpedoing the vessel on its way to Grautier. "Anything else?" he inquired.
"Yes. I've heard that you've decided to go on a flight around Heeninniy. The plane which you'll use has been fixed so that it'll go down in the Eenee Desert. Your lives will be spared but you'll be forced to cross the desert on foot. It'll take you at least 10 days to get back to a civilized region. The radio transceiver of the plane has been rigged so that it'll be demolished when you have to make an emergency landing."
Chellish nodded. It was just about what he had expected. "Did they already choose a route for the flight?"
"No. This will be left up to you. However the pilot has instructions to fly over the Eenee Desert at the first opportunity he gets."
Chellish asked his escort for a description of the Eenee Desert and its location and he got a picture which resembled the topographic features of the Gobi Desert on Earth.
Finally they discussed the rough outline of Chellish's plans which he had developed to aid the partisans. "The most important problem," he declared, "will be to prevent the armed forces from taking the side of Iiy-Juur-Eelie if it comes to an open revolution. This requires subversive work and it'll take money, plenty of it. How are you fixed for money?"
"We're poor," the agent answered quickly. "The lack of funds has always been our biggest trouble. Iiy-Juur-Eelie knows what he's doing. He has won the friendship of the rich and the nobility by granting them privileges. There's hardly a wealthy man among our supporters."
"That's what I thought. We'll have to do something about that. We're willing to give you a part of the money Iiy-Juur-Eelie has put at our disposal but it won't amount to more than about 20,000 Diijeeh."
The eyes of the Whistler widened when he heard the sum. It was probably more than the partisans had ever seen in one lump.
"Of course this wo
n't be enough," Chellish continued the conversation. "I believe we've got a few things aboard our ship which you should be able to sell and convert into cash. Instruments and chemicals which probably are new to Heeninniy. I'd roughly estimate that you should be able to get about 500,000 Diijeeh for the stuff, perhaps even more. This should be enough to get you started. It would be best to invest the money some place where it will earn you interest."
The Whistler was dumbfounded and Chellish pursued his ideas further. "It would be helpful if you could take advantage of the accident on our flight to launch a propaganda campaign against Iiy-Juur-Eelie. Perhaps you can spread the news that the posters-which you probably have already seen-were put up by the hirelings of Iiy-Juur-Eelie in order to foment a belligerent mood among the people. You can reveal his hostile intentions against the people of Aurigel. Try to arouse a big clamor against his provocation when he caused our plane to crash."
The Whistler was deeply impressed. Chellish had a feeling that the insurgents, though imbued by the best intentions, were dilettantes who didn't know the art of preparing a revolution.
Meanwhile the aircushion car had come to the inner city. Chellish had to pay more attention to his driving and the conversation expired.
There seemed to be an accident at a street intersection. A number of vehicles were caught in a traffic jam and when Chellish tried to go around them a big van drove up from the side and wedged him in so that he was unable to move forward or backward.
His escort rolled down the window and looked outside. A few uniformed men stood around a wrecked vehicle and discussed the accident. Crowds of pedestrians and onlookers coming from the surrounding apartment towers observed the scene.
The van in front of Chellish's car made no effort to move. Chellish got out and saw why. A Whistler, either unconscious or dead, lay on the ground next to the wreck and if the van had gone on, the whirling stream of compressed air under the vehicle would have severely maimed the victim further.
One of the uniformed men recognized Chellish. He came over and said the obvious: "There's been an accident."
"So I see," Chellish replied. "Don't worry about us. We can wait till everything is cleared up."
"Oh no," the Whistler answered after the translator had transmitted Chellish's words. "We've got a car back there which can move freely. You won't have to wait if you want to take it."
Chellish agreed. Mullon and the escort left the car. The police car was parked at the curb far enough back to let it turn around and drive off on the other side of the street.
Mullon and the agent got into the car and when Chellish opened the door on the other side to get behind the wheel he heard Mullon cry out in surprise. Chellish turned around and saw three uniformed Whistlers sitting on the back seat. They had taken Mullon and their friend between them.
They must have been hiding behind the seat, Mullon thought, and he suddenly realized that they had walked into a trap.
The three policemen held their ultrasonic weapons ready to shoot. "Drive back to the palace of His Excellency!" one of them ordered. "Don't try to do anything foolish. We know that you're dangerous and we won't take any chances."
Chellish wanted to protest but then he thought that it was probably useless. They must have had compelling reasons for the arrest and the longer he thought about it the more he became convinced that he knew what it was; there must have been a listening bug in the vehicle they had used before.
How stupid that he didn't think of it sooner! He should have known that it wasn't enough to check only the first vehicle they got after their landing on Heeninniy.
With resignation Chellish started the car, turned around and drove to the palace.
He and Mullon were put in a narrow windowless cell which contained no furniture. The cell was located in one of the towers which were part of Iiy-Juur-Eelie's palace. It was far away from the residential tower where Chellish and his companions had been housed as privileged guests of His Excellency.
The incarceration took place without any formalities. Their weapons were taken away and there was nothing they could do to prevent it. Their jailers refused to answer their questions about O'Bannon, Milligan and their other friends. Nor were they told what would happen to themselves.
The cell received a little light from a fixture which was built high up in between the wall and the ceiling.
"Fine pickle we're in," Mullon muttered, just to be saying something. "We really stepped into this one."
"You can say that again," Chellish said gloomily. "I just wonder where Iiy-Juur-Eelie wants to go from here. He must be miserably scared that our fleet will zoom in on Heeninniy in a few hours or days and make it hot as hell for him."
"Not necessarily," Mullon contradicted. "After all he has caught us in the act of high treason or whatever they call it."
"That may be a sufficient reason in the eyes of their people but not for us," Chellish insisted. "If it were indeed the case that our warships were lurking in the background to retaliate against him, they would hardly wait till Iiy-Juur-Eelie submits all the justification and proof for his action."
Chellish glanced around to see if he could detect any listening bugs but he was unable to find one in the bare room. "Iiy-Juur-Eelie must expect to get some advantage from our arrest," Chellish concluded. "However the way the situation appears to me, it'll be a long time before we find out what he's got up his sleeve."
"I feel sorry for our escort," Mullon changed the subject. "They'll probably make short shrift of the poor devil."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that. The conspirators have more than one man in the Secret Service. Maybe another one can help him fly the coop."
Mullon stared at the ceiling and mumbled: "Maybe!"
• • •
Fij-Gul finally gave Wee-Nii his report. Wee-Nii listened with great interest but when Fij-Gul came to the point of drawing some conclusions from his observations, the Presidential Chamberlain issued instructions to occupy the vessel of the aliens with at least 200 men.
He gave no further explanation for the order. Wee-Nii was aghast, wondering what made Iiy-Juur-Eelie so bold as to seize the foreign ship in broad daylight and to violate all the rules of diplomacy which would entail dire consequences.
Wee-Nii tried to learn from the Presidential Chambers what had happened in the meantime but they pretended to know nothing. Therefore Wee-Nii passed on the order to Fij-Gul, giving him the feeling for the second time in a short span of time that he was stuck with all the disagreeable jobs.
Fij-Gul summoned the airport guard company and marched with it to the alien ship which stood calm and mighty on its landing pad. He peered with suspicion and anxiety at the many hatches in the hull, expecting them to open up and spew out a consuming fire or a hail of bullets.
However nothing stirred. When Fij-Gul and his soldiers had approached the vessel within 100 meters, an aircushion car roared in from the edge of the landing field. Two officers alighted and Fij-Gul recognized them as the technicians whose job it was to open the airlock of the foreign spaceship.
• • •
"To be honest," Sheldrake growled, "there are too many of them. Look at them! There are at least 200 men and I don't see any of our people among them."
Krahl and Loewy stared apprehensively at the observation screen. They saw the aircushion car glide in over the field and stop 100 meters from the Fair Lady. Two men got out and walked toward the ship.
"These are the break-in specialists," Sheldrake commented. "They're trained to open all types of airlocks."
Loewy pointed to the picture panel. "What are we going to do about the others? Shall we let 'em all in?"
"I don't want to commit suicide," Sheldrake grunted, getting into the pilot seat. "Something must have happened to Chellish and the others or the Whistlers wouldn't dare to send out the guards against us. We're on our own and have to use our own judgment. Perhaps it would be good to have two hostages."
Sheldrake pushed a number of switches
and listened with satisfaction to the deep hum which came from the belly of the ship.
Meanwhile the two technicians had reached the airlock and had disappeared from the picture under the curvature of the hull. A few moments later an alarm buzzer warned that the outer airlock hatch had been opened.
The company of Whistlers with the officer leading them now had come within 80 meters of the spacecraft. Sheldrake watched them with a scornful grin and after they had advanced another 20 meters, he slammed down a lever on the panel above the pilot console.
The hum in the ship's belly swelled and outside-
• • •
Fij-Gul saw the airlock open up after the technicians had manipulated something at the outer wall of the ship. He noticed that the airlock was empty and felt relieved. Among the many contradictory thoughts which churned in his mind during the last few minutes he wanted to cling to the one that Iiy-Juur-Eelie-although stern and abrasive-was certainly no fool and he wouldn't be so rash as to embark on any irrational or irresponsible action. Iiy-Juur-Eelie must know what he was doing.
This feeling made little sense but it reassured Fij-Gul nonetheless and he led his men with new confidence toward the ship.
Suddenly it seemed to him as if the air had begun to flicker in front of his eyes. He blamed his tenseness for the impression and wiped his eyes as he kept up his pace. Then he bumped into an obstacle. As he had marched very fast, he was thrown back by the impact. He staggered and fell to the ground. A few soldiers rushed to his side and helped him to get back on his feet. He could see in their faces that they were just as flabbergasted by the incident as he himself.
Incredulously and with outstretched arms he approached the spot where he had been so abruptly stopped for a second time. There was nothing to be seen except the ship about 50 meters away. The air was clear although it still flickered in a peculiar way.