by Perry Rhodan
Without any measurable time delay the girl reappeared in the receiver chamber on the planet's larger moon. Auris of Las-Toor was ready to carry out the instructions of the Governing Council. Calmly she observed the landing of the three flying vehicles. Certainly something had to be done!
A technician at master control station 18-IV-3645 communicated with her. "Should they be treated as guests?"
Auris frowned, rejecting the suggestion. "By no means! Their behavior is very improper and crude. They must be aware of the fact that we have no intention of answering their clumsy attempts to contact us. Send me a robot glider and inform the travelers. These degenerate throwbacks are not to be given any consideration."
8/ WHERE ANGELS FEAR
Shortly prior to the disembarkation Rhodan issued orders that from now on all hands were to speak in Arkonese. Every member of the crew had a perfect command of the language. The landing party flew unmolested over the gigantic buildings and dome structures of the powerplant center they had detected. As seen from above the extensive installations had the appearance of a city.
At some distance beyond the buildings the light phenomena became visible. Ranging in color from white to deep red, these were glowing, deadly-looking energy beams which emerged abruptly from the ground to form into a sort of rainbow arch at a distance of 50 to 100 meters above the surface. Thus were formed a strange assortment of mighty portals at whose thresholds the world appeared to end.
Rhodan staked everything on a single card. The three shifts landed at a distance of only a few hundred meters from the largest of the arching light phenomena. These unknown people had laid out wide avenues, kilometers in length, all of which ended at the dark gaping orifices of the energy portals. It was as though the thoroughfares there had all been sliced off with a knife.
The 30 Terranians gazed in wonder at the countless aliens who were milling out of the long buildings surrounding the area or who busied themselves in the vicinity of the energy portals where all types of commercial goods were being loaded. Giant, robot-controlled machines crawled out of the warehouses. The cargoes were carried in antigrav fields and were transferred to wheelless, basin-like freight vehicles. Once loaded, the latter hummed softly and glided weightlessly to the various gleaming archways.
It was obvious that transmitters were involved here which were beyond the technology of either Earth or Arkon. Rhodan watched the various proceedings closely until he was sure that he was familiar with the nature of these extensive installations. This whole vast area of countless transmitter gates was nothing more than a super spaceport which was used for dispatching and processing the general traffic in goods and personnel. In principle what was happening here was neither sinister nor abnormal but simply technologically advanced.
The pre-Arkonides—if that's what they actually were—had found a practicable and technically perfected method of reaching the farthest planets. So they had dispensed with complicated spaceship travel. If these arching energy fields were transmitters for the dematerialization and shipment of all types of material, it meant that the transportation could take place without any time loss and with no laborious loading and unloading operations.
Now Rhodan understood why such a colossal power station had been located in this area. It furnished each individual transmitter with energy but there were no power cables or field-isolated power-beam projectors to be seen. Just how the transmitters received their operating supply of current was not determinable. Also there was no sign anywhere of the synchronizing and control-switch panels and stations which were unquestionably here somewhere.
Rhodan and his team of scientists had already seen enough to get a picture of the state of technology of the local inhabitants.
"Take a look at that!" said Bell in a tense voice. His water-blue eyes were wide with amazement.
Rhodan looked in the direction he was pointing. About 300 meters away a seemingly endless train of gigantic floating platform vehicles was rumbling toward one of the largest transmitter gates. The antigrav hovercraft were carrying monstrous machines, carefully packed goods and immense numbers of pre-Arkonides who sat in neatly-ordered rows on board the transports. There where the weirdly gaping maw of the energy gate began, one vehicle after another disappeared in brief flashes of brilliant light. Only a few minutes went by until the entire column had dissolved into nothingness, undoubtedly to reappear on some distant world as they emerged from a similar transmitter-receiver gate.
"We couldn't hold a candle to such people as these," said Bell with an uneasy smile. "Apparently they can bridge across any distance they want to."
Lt. Sikhra's lean face wore a grim expression. "On each of their bases they must have at least one receiver station," he said. "Sir, when you look closely at this whole situation you have to assume that the pre-Arkonides still must be using manned spaceflight techniques, as well. How else would they get their indispensable receiver-transmitters to other worlds? Or do you mean to say that they're using equipment here that operates without receivers? That would be weird, sir!"
"It's not entirely impossible. The entity on Wanderer uses such a method. On board the super battleship Drusus was a teletransmitter from Wanderer which enables us to transmit material objects to any desired place."
"But these installations don't look like that," said Bell in a blunt rejection of the idea. "At least they don't seem as primitive! Anyway, all this makes me feel like an apeman fresh out of a cave. What do you plan to do?"
"Pull back. Let's turn around as fast as we can go, answered Rhodan finally. "These high-and-mighties don't even consider our presence to be significant. To them we're like an undesirable odor that they avoid breathing in for fear of being contaminated. Sikhra, call back your sergeant!"
Mahaut signaled to one of the men in his command, a small dark-haired sergeant named Totrin. For several minutes the enterprising noncom had been trying to strike up a conversation with the passing natives.
Totrin was possessed of both humor and patience. Thus all he did was smile innocuously when the people either left him standing there or else looked through him as though he were nothing but air. However, he had found out a few things in the process. Responding finally to Sikhra's signal, he sauntered slowly back to the leading shift and climbed over the low rail of the cargo-loading bay.
"Well?" asked Rhodan, disquieted.
Totrin made a wry face. "No go, sir—nobody will answer. If you stand in their way they simply go around you. They just go on talking with each other as if they hadn't been spoken to. I tried it with at least 50 different people. Most of them have copper-colored hair that sometimes has a dark bluish shimmer to it. They all have a velvety-brown complexion. From that standpoint they don't look at all like Arkonides and yet they speak Arkonide."
Rhodan wrinkled his brow at this. "What? Say that again."
"They speak an archaic form of Arkonese, sir. I was able to understand them quite easily. It's about the same language we always found on the Arkonide colonial worlds. What's important is the name they have for this system's blue sun. They call it Akon!"
"That does it!" exclaimed Bell tensely. "Akon! Just add an 'r' to it and you have Arkon! It's pretty evident that today's Arkonides must have shoved off from here long ago. Our good friend Atlan shouldn't give himself too many airs about the great past of his people. They're only a degenerated offshoot of the people here."
"A hovercraft approaching, sir," came an announcement.
Rhodan turned swiftly to look. The glider swept along over one of the wide avenues and headed straight toward the three quads. "Oh, so now they're getting impatient, are they?" muttered Rhodan as though to himself. His eyes narrowed. The blue sun was almost deceptively pleasant The average temperature outside was 85° Fahrenheit. He waited a few more moments until the person sitting in the glider could be seen more clearly.
John Marshall spoke swiftly. "They're sending a woman to us—in fact a young and pretty one. She's thinking of us and of a certain assignment sh
e must accomplish. These people send out para-vibes that are unstable and distorted, sir. Very hard to get hold of their thought content."
"You can say that again!" confirmed Pucky. He had been very reticent since their escape from the cloud of matter. Everyone knew that the delicately-framed mouse-beaver had suffered considerably from the high-G effects of that experience.
"She has an assignment in mind?" asked Rhodan. "Sikhra, get ready for takeoff. If she keeps on flying toward us, let's merk out of here! Who knows what she may have up her sleeve? To me she's a representative of a mighty people. There are circumstances which could cause them to lose their patience and become angry with us. I don't have to tell you what might happen then."
Pucky became slightly more animated. "She's really heading for us! She's thinking of something tiny—something scrabbly and crawly with feelers on its head that's very disgusting to her. She associates the crawly thing with us!"
"Maybe we're bedbugs," muttered Bell.
"They don't have antennas, sir," grinned Mahaut Sikhra.
"No matter. Maybe the local variety does. But this is the limit!" cried Bell. "This lady appears to think more highly of her race than Thora did in her day of the Arkonides. To her we were also something not much better than cavemen.
Rhodan was visibly startled by this remark and Bell suddenly looked guilty. Ever since her death Thora's name was only rarely mentioned in Perry's presence.
"Sikhra, take to the air! Back to the ship—on the double!"
With humming antigravs the three quads lifted off the ground just as the scientist Auris of Las-Toor was bringing her glider to a stop. For the first time she was surprised by these strangers. She was suddenly thrown into confusion when a certain tall man among them looked directly at her. His features were strong and impressive and his grey eyes seemed to smile in mockery as he removed his cap and pointedly bowed in her direction as his vehicle bore him away. With an unaccountable sense of consternation she watched the flying tanks race away from her and disappear seconds later beyond the powerplant buildings.
Hastily, Auris made a radio report to her headquarters. She received instructions not to molest the strangers any further since they had obviously broken up in fright and retreated. But the girl could not explain why the term "fright" did not seem to apply here. That tall, superior-looking man had appeared to be far too self-possessed to be retreating in any panic. In a clear and unbiased manner she attempted to analyze the situation. Finally she decided to hurry back to her headquarters and research all the data she could concerning the earlier history of Arkonide emigrants.
Auris of Las-Toor was a galacto-sociologist. As such it lay within her sphere of duties to examine the sociopolitical problems of alien worlds that had been settled by Arkonides and to also handle them, if need be, in accordance with the principles of ancient laws.
As she hurried back to the transmitter base she was of the opinion that she'd be able to clear up the situation with little difficulty. However it was with some exasperation that she attempted to eradicate a certain tall figure from her memory. If only that man had not looked down upon her with such a superior expression of mockery!
"It was because of the situation," she told herself angrily. "He was physically in the air above me. That degenerate freak couldn't do anything else but look down!"
• • •
Lt. Brazo Alkher removed his fingertips from the direct contacts of the weapons console as the last of the flying quads came unharmed through the big equatorial launch-locks of the Fantasy. At the moment Stant Nolinow had no particular ship duties. He appeared in the Fire Control Central to brief Brazo on the latest developments.
"...and nobody even paid any attention to us!" he was saying with some intensity. "I'd say they've got their nerve! But that girl now—hm-m-m. Nothing but class!"
He rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers. Brazo smiled. In such matters Nolinow was apparently easily inspired.
"Did you get to see her, Budrick?" Stant countered, seeing his skepticism. "No, of course not. You had to keep your eyes on your target, screen. But I was in on the remote TV observations. Mahaut had promised to cover everything of importance with his portable camera transmitter. And that's how I got to see her! Just imagine the slim, resilient figure..."
"What..?"
"The willowy figure of a goddess," Stant continued, unperturbed. "With long wavy hair of the color of old copper that gave off a hint of green in certain light angles. The slim straight nose of a Greek noblewoman, the full lips of a Spaniard and the proud indifference of a British queen. There was ice in those green sphinx eyes of hers, but when she saw Perry she started breathing about 2½ times as fast."
"Not three times as fast?"
"No—2½ times. I counted. Why should I lie?"
"Don't you find the lieutenant to be a little peculiar, Sgt. Enscath?" Brazo inquired of the old noncom.
Enscath smirked. "It's not my place, sir, to express an opinion of the ship's officers in public."
"I'd like to just catch you at it!" threatened Stant "But my friends, you've no idea what heavenly visions there are on this barren-looking moon! You see me in a heady transport of patriotism, gentlemen—quite ready to offer my life for humanity, provided that I might negotiate the fate of the Fantasy's crew with her! in a smiling euphoria of joy I would stride to my death... No, what am I saying? I'd even jump but then...
Claudrin's thundering voice was suddenly blaring from every loudspeaker. "All hands to stations! Stand by for emergency takeoff—and confirm!"
Stant became silent but looked around with an injured expression. "What a braster, to interrupt me so crudely," he muttered. "Did you hear me at all? I was talking about her!
"OK, but now you'd better flee to your robots, you frustrated poet!" said Brazo somewhat callously.
As Stant stomped away toward the armor-plate lock-hatch in the interconnecting bulkhead, Sgt. Enscath called after him solicitously: "Sir, you know we are concerned about your welfare. Maybe if you'd like to put a red wig on one of the robots—I could speak to the supply officer about it...
"You donk dome!" Stant exclaimed, giving him a withering look.
When he disappeared through the hatchway, Brazo raised a finger didactically. "We'll have to check regulations to see if ship's officers have the right to insult other crew members, even though they deserve it."
"Let's hope there's an excuse, sir!" laughed the sergeant. "OK, the weapons power pile is flashing green!"
• • •
"Where are we off to now?" groaned Bell, flabbergasted. "Where are you taking us?"
Rhodan buckled himself into his seat. Far below him the antigrav projectors were rumbling. They were nullifying the effects of the moon's gravity on the ship. "To the 5th planet of this solar system, which we named Sphynx," he explained matter of factly.
"That's crazy! We've seen enough! You know my upper neck vertebra is throbbing and that's a bad sign!"
"It's because you're too fat!" cried Pucky mischievously.
Bell made an impatient gesture. "Keep your snout shut, you imp! This is a serious, matter. Perry, what do you have in mind?"
"Not much. Just want to have a quick look around on #5 to see what's going on. This moon is just a big power plant and we know its operation already. As for these Akonides—and we might as well call them that from now on—I'd like to see how they take their transmitter-receivers to their various other worlds. For that they'd really need to maintain a space fleet. Where are those ships? How fast are they? What kind of propulsion do the Arkonides use? What's more important: what's the status of this people's thirst for conquest, if any? It wouldn't be very pleasant, you know, to find some arching energy gates secretly placed on Earth some day and to see maybe a million combat robots marching out of them. When you think back on the warring conquests of the old Arkonides you're forced to ask yourself how their original root race feels about such things. Ready, Jefe. Let's take off!"
Bell's comment
s were drowned in the thunder of the engines. The Fantasy hurtled so swiftly into space that it was lost to sight in a few seconds. All that remained was a hot shockwave that whistled across the vast area of the strange transmitter spaceport.
Somewhere an Akonide control technician exclaimed angrily: "They've really forgotten the rules of etiquette! We ought to destroy them!"
Destruction—it was the one thing Perry Rhodan did not believe would happen. That's why he had decided to utilize this unique opportunity up to the last second. The trip only took a few minutes. For the Epsalian commander it was child's play to carry out a nearly full-power landing. The heavy cruiser shot into the 5th planet's air canopy with a brightening contrail of incandescent gases and only went into retro-braking in the stratosphere.
Meanwhile, Claudrin commented: "They seem to have spotted us. No reason to be super cautious here. At least they'll get to see that Terranians know their way around with heavy class spaceships."
Maj. Krefenbac looked wonderingly at the backs of his hands. He had just wiped his forehead with them and his skin was wet. "Can you beat that!" the First Officer muttered to himself. His taut, melancholy face was more expressionless now than usual. He recalled that he had not perspired in this way for at least 10 years. As a consequence, Hunts Krefenbac finally took the precaution of strapping. on his weapons belt. In spite of service regulations in this regard he had always categorically refused to wear it.
"Holy Jupiter!" exclaimed Bell excitedly. "That long drink of water is grabbing his guns! I don't get it. Confound it, why don't these Arkonides do something? Claudrin's shaving down their forests with his shockwaves. Now I'm really curious how much longer their patience is going to hold out."
"Sam here," said Rhodan. "This can't keep up much longer. Jefe, there are cities coming into view ahead. We'll land at the best spaceport we can find. Keep the ship ready for emergency takeoff. Energy Central, come in...!"