Infinity Flight

by Perry Rhodan

  Gravitation bomb! The most hideous of all weapons thus far known! He himself had never dared deploy it. And now he faced the threat of being annihilated by such a bomb.

  "Weapons center—transmitter one—fire!"

  The co-ordinates were correct to the nth degree. One of the ships suddenly puffed up as though an atom bomb were exploding inside it—which actually was the case. A sun sprang into existence. After it ceased glowing and the luminous cloud spread in all directions, no trace whatsoever could be detected of the ship.

  Without any difficulty the teletransmitter had transported the bomb through the enemy's protective screen and had then exploded it in the ship's interior. There was no defense against such a weapon. Rhodan swept away all his moral scruples. He realized it was a question of self-survival. No sense fooling around with these Springers. He didn't even know that he was dealing here with another clan.

  "Transmitter two—fire!" The second ship was just as promptly wiped out as the first. "Horrible!" groaned Bell. "What an awesome weapon we have acquired..."

  Rhodan clenched his teeth and resolutely spoke into the microphone: "Transmitter one—fire!" Then, "Transmitter two—fire!"

  The last of the attacking ships now decided to proceed with an act of desperation. Like a Kamikaze ship it accelerated its speed and raced toward the Stardust. In the nick of time, just before the two ships would have collided, Rhodan managed to annihilate the suicide-bent ship.

  The fiery glow of the explosion grazed the Stardust's energy screen. Wide-eyed, Topthor had followed the events. He began to realize that something incredible had just happened. Rhodan must have succeeded inside hardly 10 minutes to obtain some sinister weapon on the Planet of Eternal Life. Although this seemed most improbable it had to be the truth. How else could the five ships have been wiped out within barely two minutes? This could not have been accomplished with conventional weapons—not even by Rhodan.

  But Topthor also realized something else: Rhodan did not intend to attack or annihilate anybody unless he was first assaulted. Therefore the last three ships remaining of his fleet of eight vessels were safe. "Grogham, get ready for the transition! Destination doesn't matter! Two hundred light-years. We'll get our bearings again from there! In two minutes! I'll radio the message to Etztak in the meantime."

  And now Rhodan made a tiny mistake. He no longer paid any attention to the three remaining enemy battleships but switched the Stardust over to acceleration and raced with breakneck speed into space, leaving Topthor and his three barrel-shaped ships far behind. "How about those three?" asked Bell. "Don't you want to...?"

  "...destroy them too? Why? They no longer constitute a threat to us. Our foremost task now is to come to the aid of Tiff. Don't forget that he is sitting on an ice planet which might easily turn into a flaming hell if Etztak loses patience and gets to the bottom of the game we're playing with him. The transition will take place in eight minutes. We'll materialize in the system of Beta-Albireo."

  At first Bell seemed to agree but he quickly changed his mind. "No, wait a minute. We can't take her along with us."

  Rhodan looked at him with unbelieving eyes. "Her?... and who is she?"

  "Man alive, don't you know? Rallas, of course!" For a moment Rhodan thought his friend must have lost his mind. He frowned and regarded the man whose face had taken on a desperate expression. "Rallas! Do you mean to say...?"

  "Exactly! She's sitting in my cabin, deadly insulted that I don't care for her. Good grief, if the crew should find out about that—especially that Redkens! I won't have a quiet minute left in my life."

  Rhodan made certain that his navigation robot was calculating the transition point and the intensity of the leap and that they had at least seven minutes left. Then he grimed mischievously: "Calm down, it isn't the genuine Rallas!"

  "What difference does that make? Everybody will believe she's the real thing—and that's what she is, after all. What am I supposed to do with her?"

  "Ignore her! The way I know our old friend the Immortal, It'll let her disappear if we don't pay attention to her. But for the time being, keep her in your cabin."

  "In my cabin?" Bell made such a desperate face that Rhodan had to laugh out loud. "I can't live with her in my cabin! Not that I have anything against the fair sex but under the circumstances..."

  Rhodan looked at his watch. Six minutes remained. "She'll vanish during the transition, for sure. The Immortal is just playing another one of It's jokes..."

  From outside in the corridor came the sound of steps, a confusion of voices. Somebody laughed. Suddenly Bell turned pale. He threw an astonished glance at Rhodan, then, resolutely, he opened the door.

  Outside in the corridor stood Stella giving autographs. Several members of the radio crew, amongst them also Redkens, were crowded around the famous film star, eagerly talking to her. Redkens, in particular, wanted to find out from her if she had spent the whole time in Bell's cabin.

  That was too much for Bell.

  Hissing furiously, he rushed right into the crowd of enthusiastic autograph hunters, pushed them aside with his strong fists. His hair still on edge, he faced the movie luminary squarely. She gazed at him ecstatically with innocent eyes.

  "How dare you," he spat out his words, "attack my good name like that? People will think I smuggled you secretly aboard in order to..."

  "In order to do what?" inquired the curious film star.

  Bell masked his embarrassment with rudeness. "You know exactly for what purpose!" he roared and stepped on the toes of poor Redkens, who had come too close. "Everybody's bound to believe that!"

  "But that's the way it was!" whispered the film star and blushed. "Didn't we spend such happy hours together?" Bell's complexion could have been called an anatomical miracle. Rhodan could not recall ever having seen such a deep red face. The men were so startled at this sight that they withdrew slightly, perhaps fearing he might burst at any moment.

  "We did...?" stammered Bell, then couldn't find any more words. His self-control finally came to an end. Foaming with rage, he pulled himself up to his full height, his hands shot out, grabbing the Hollywood beauty firmly around the neck. "I'll kill you! You're totally sabotaging the morale of our crew..."

  Then, dumbfounded, he fell silent. His eyes wide open, he stared at his own face, which suddenly grinned at him familiarly. Cries of astonishment could be heard. Someone in the background was shrieking in horror.

  Bell was just about to strangle his exact doppelganger. The divine Rallas had vanished and another Reginald Bell had taken her place! Two Bells were confronting each other! The genuine one beet-red with fury and ready to kill the other one. The false Bell sported a nonchalant grin, one of his characteristic, customary expressions.

  Rhodan could hardly refrain from laughing. There were just three minutes left before the transition. "I hope you understand now that the Immortal has been playing a trick on you—and all the others have witnessed it here. Your good name has been cleared, Reg. And let go of your doppelganger, he's not the one to be blamed."

  Bell released his grip around his victim's neck and stepped back. Slowly his complexion returned to normal. "How is it possible?" he asked, his voice tinged with awe at the inexplicable. He pointed to his double. "This—that's me, how can that be? Or isn't that myself?"

  "Just an imitation, the same as the divine Rallas or our good friend Homunk. It could also have been me. But enough now, let's forget It's pranks, there are more important matters to attend to. Bell, help me here to check over the transition data. Everybody else, return to your stations! Yes, you, too, Redkens! Keep that autograph, you can bet anything it's genuine."

  The cadet kept looking back and forth from his signed photo of his film idol to the broad, grinning face of the false Bell. Redkens was unable to regard that face with the same admiration and love as that of the beautiful movie star. His disappointment was so obvious that Bell turned toward him shouting furiously: "Get lost, Redkens! After all, you can't expect me to
be as pretty as your Rallas!"

  A very downcast Redkens slowly joined the radio crew as they left the command center. The pseudo-Bell, however, changed now into a white luminous sphere which, giggling derisively, disappeared into the wall panels.

  "Good riddance!" was Bell's comment as he slammed the door. 'I'd like to be several hundred light-years away from here already."

  "How come you've become so touchy? Can't you take an innocent little joke anymore?" Rhodan asked. "After all, you asked for it; you practically challenged the Immortal, don't you know?"

  Bell checked the instruments. "Sixty seconds left. Co-ordinates OK. Everything alright!" He threw himself down into a chair and leaned back. He closed his eyes and continued: "In two minutes we'll be more than 1750 light-years away from here."

  He was silent—and Rhodan was grateful for that.

  Now, just this very second, he had started on the journey together with the Immortal. He could feel a wave of non-comprehension sweep over him, engulfing him completely. For a moment it seemed as if he were falling into a neverending abyss. He was plunging downwards unchecked. His eyes were wide open but they saw nothing—only coal black darkness with a tiny, washed-out spot of light, way ahead.

  The Milky Way!

  He was hurtling straight toward it—with unimaginable speed. But this lasted but one second, then the vision disappeared, making way for reality. Once again he saw before him the control panels of the Stardust, the instruments, dials and the many levers and needles and buttons.

  He was reclining in his pilot's chair and felt the vibrations of the power drive. That was incontestable reality. Yet the past second—what had that actually been? Rhodan was horrified when he realized that he had twice experienced that second. No, three times!

  Once above the planet Wanderer, the incomprehensible structure of an even more incomprehensible being. Then in infinity, where this second became two things: a reality of 10 weeks and a vision of 300,000 years. And now, once more in a perfectly normal second!

  But which second was the true one, the real one? What actually was a second if it no longer had validity?

  "Thirty seconds!" said the robot counter with its metallic voice. "Twenty-nine..."

  Rhodan closed his eyes.

  Twenty-nine seconds or 29 eternities, as you like it!" How much time do we miss, actually, by dividing it in time units?

  And, as he had halfway expected, the answer came from the void, a familiar and well-known voice, soundless and yet so clearly audible:

  A very clever question. Just imagine there were neither day nor night, no seasons nor tides on Earth. Would man be aware of growing older? Wouldn't he be very surprised if suddenly he would feel death approach? Would he even know that time does exist?

  "But—is time not something quite real, just like space?"

  Both are absolutely unreal, Perry. Ahead a distance of more than 1750 light-years now lies, an almost unimaginable distance which was considered insurmountable in your world hardly 10 years ago. You will cover this distance in a single second. Your watch will show that indeed only one second has passed when you reach your destination. Disregard time and you will realize that the conquest of space in this form is impossible. And despite this, it does happen! Do you have an answer for this?

  "Hyperspace, paraspace. We are traveling through the fifth dimension..."

  Words, nothing but words. Man will say these words without comprehending what they actually mean. Even for your well-trained mind they must remain incomprehensible. The human brain shows a predilection to coin abstract concepts. I would like to transmit to you a concept of true reality but I begin to see that I would confuse you all the more with it. But there is a lot of time left before you leave me.

  Not much longer, thought Rhodan and consulted his watch. Unchanged it still read 29 seconds. Next to him, Bell was lying in his chair, unmoving. His face was rigid, like dead.

  All the time in the world in this state, thought back the Immortal. Look at your watch, it has stopped! Listen to the robotcounter, you can't hear it any more because for it too time has stopped. Or your friend Reg—from your point of view he is dead.

  "DEAD?"

  Yes, dead. For as long as you might observe him, only a fraction of a second will be passing for him. The blood has stopped in his veins. The Stardust remains in the same spot. Time does not pass—except for you.

  Rhodan was struck with horror. A cold wind, as if coming from a grave, seemed to penetrate the command center. He shuddered. He threw a glance at his watch. The second hand was not moving.

  Rhodan fought against the panic that swept over him as best he could but he was unable to prevent it overwhelming him—at least partially. He nudged Bell with his elbow.

  Bell's body was like a stone. He didn't budge a millimeter from the spot.

  "Reg, do you hear me?"

  It's senseless! said the Immortal's voice from the void. As seen from your point of view, Bell is frozen in time. He can see you seated next to him but he can't perceive your lightning-fast movements, neither can he hear the words you speak. Consider that as far as he is concerned not even a fraction of a second is passing while we are endeavoring to solve the problem of time—and we may be remaining for hours in this plane of timelessness.

  "And I? What's happening to me? What if I should get up now and wander all over the Stardust ?"

  Nobody is holding you back. You'll leave your seat—but in reality you'll have left it only for a thousandth of a second. Your movements are too fast; they can't be registered by human eyes.

  Rhodan didn't get out of his seat. "I can't understand it—my mind simply refuses to recognize this as reality. I can't simultaneously exist in two different time planes."

  Of course you can. While you are sitting in front of a television set you are also existing twice at the same time—providing a film is shown on which you are to be seen.

  "But that's altogether different!" protested Rhodan.

  Is that really so? If one considers that they are changing from second to second, practically becoming another person? The cells of bodies constantly renew themselves, the same as our blood. Consequently the person of this moment cannot be identical with that of a moment later. They are two different human beings. But bring them together in the same second—and that's possible if you have mastered time—two similar but not identical people will be facing each other.

  "You mean to say Bell was trying to strangle himself and not his mirage?"

  The Immortal was chuckling to Itself. He almost killed that Reginald Bell who was going to exist in 10 minutes' time. That's where I fetched him from.

  Rhodan asked: "And if he would have killed him, what would have happened then?"

  The Immortal ignored his question. Apparently It was not willing to answer all inquiries. We had been discussing the possibility of influencing the future. You have seen the proof. In your own interest I'm going to supply you with another proof. But don't believe that I want to undo something that is taking place this very moment. I only want you to have been forewarned. Accompany me into Topthor's spaceship.

  "Who is Topthor?"

  The leader of the Trader clan who attacked you. A Mounder. Don't be frightened when you see him. He is just about to execute a transition together with his three remaining ships. This very moment he is issuing an order to his radio officer to broadcast a message to Etztak.

  "Etztak—the patriarch of the Springers! What is it all about?"

  You know as well as I do that Etztak has lost patience. He plans to transform the planet on which your friends are hiding out into an atomic hell. As soon as he receives this radio message he'll no longer hesitate to carry out his plan. Besides, you know, he was only waiting that long because he was still hoping to obtain important information from your people. But once he gets Topthor's message he'll realize that you were fooling him. For then it will become clear to him that your men on the ice planet were merely engaging in diversionary tactics, leaving you fre
e to fly undisturbed to the Planet of Eternal Life in order to secure the new weapon. Topthor will inform him that you now have obtained this new weapon and probably will proceed to another attack. Thus Etztak has been warned. The Traders stick to one another when their common interests are at stake. They are not of the type who foul their own nests. Etztak will summon the fighting fleets of the galactic traders to come to his assistance.

  "I don't want war," groaned Rhodan. "Not even when I possess superior weapons."

  To a certain degree this can't be helped, came back the Immortal's voice. And besides I'm not permitted to mix into the existing conflicts of the galaxy; this would constitute a transgression against the laws of nature. But I may give hints. And if you have been warned then this is nothing but a clue I gave you. He laughed softly and with irony. Come with me, Rhodan. I want you to meet Topthor, your future opponent. I want you to know that he won't be able to see you and neither can there be any physical contact between you two. Your body will stay here seated in the command center of your ship while your mind will leave—for a fraction of a second. "

  Before Rhodan had a chance to reply something strange happened. He began to move away from himself. He seemed to float below the ceiling looking down at his own self. At the same time, his body fell back into the normal time plane, while only his mind stayed in that plane where time was standing still. The 'Rhodan' he was gazing at 'froze.' His glance was rigidly and unmovingly fixed on the instrument panel.

  And then Rhodan, or rather his mind, penetrated the hull of the Stardust. He was floating free in space. In vain he tried to see himself. He was nothing. He was invisible. The Stardust became an unmoving sphere which did not advance even an inch. The ship and all the hands in it as well as the machines turned into a realistic photo, which also represents merely one-thousandth of a second of a life. And then the Stardust kept shrinking in size until Rhodan no longer could see it.