by Perry Rhodan
When the shaft began to curve too sharply for walking, Rhodan hooked the psychograph to his belt and grabbed the ropes also, climbing upward hand over hand.
Gorlat was in the lead and had already started the airco's engine by the time Rhodan emerged at Atlan's heels. Tompetch sat in the rear seat with an unhappy and confused expression on his face.
"Let's go!" panted Rhodan. He grasped a boarding flange and let the craft's starting momentum swing him up into it.
Gorlat knew what to do without any instructions. The craft shot steeply up the slope, putting both vertical and horizontal distance between itself and the eerie hole in the ground. He guided the vehicle just beyond the ridge while looking at Rhodan questioningly.
"Wait!" ordered Rhodan as he unhooked the psychograph and stowed it in the instrument box.
He jumped out and crawled back up to the crest—a distance of some 20 yards. He had not quite reached the top before the ground beneath him began to tremble. But it trembled in the grotesque slow-motion manner of all such events on Solitude and in this whole alien universe. It was more of a jolting and shoving motion than a normal earthshock.
A few seconds later a pillar of pale greenish light rose upward from the valley on the other side. Meanwhile Rhodan gained the ridge top and was able to see the flame rise sluggishly out of the ground. Down where the column of fire broke out of the shaft, earth fragments scattered away in all directions but even these sailed through the air in such a lackadaisical fashion that one might have easily caught them in his hands. The whole thing was happening in comparative silence. The only sounds that could be heard were a deep rumbling that came from the interior of the ground and a dull growling tone that was being emitted from the rising pillar of fire.
There could be no doubt that the subterranean cave was being destroyed by an explosion of considerable magnitude—along with its mysterious inhabitants, provided that there actually were any living entities down there in the first place.
Rhodan remained more than a half hour behind the crest of the ridge and even then the explosion had not yet completed its cycle. Of course the flame pillar had reached its peak and was beginning to subside as slowly as it had risen. Rhodan could make out a 15-yard funnel-shaped crater down below where the five-foot entrance had been. He finally got up and went back to the air car, where he was met with questioning looks.
"Wiped out!" he said laconically. "You saw the pillar of flame."
"Yes sir!" blurted out Tompetch, who could no longer restrain his excitement. "And it was the funniest explosion I ever saw or heard!"
Gorlat got the small flier under way again. Without any orders he veered toward the ship, to which Rhodan made no objection.
"What happened back there, sir?" asked Tompetch. "Who set off the explosion?"
Rhodan shrugged. "Who knows?"
"But there must have been some sort of indication down there below, sir," Tompetch prattled on. "I mean... oh-oh! I just remembered... it was just before you climbed out of the hole, there was a signal from the..."
"Oh stow it, Mike, will you?" interrupted Gorlat heatedly. "You can drive a man up a tree with all that chatter!"
Tompetch was somewhat offended but he became silent. On the other hand, Rhodan became interested. "What signal, Lieutenant?"
"The airco's micro-com, sir," answered Tompetch. "I was about to pick up the receiver because I thought Bell might be calling from the ship... but that was when Gorlat came tearing out of the shaft and he started to move things so fast that I didn't know what was coming off."
Rhodan leaned forward to turn on the micro-com. He beamed out the customary 'Calling-come-in-please!' and got an immediate answer.
Bell's excited voice asked, "What's the matter out there? How come I didn't hear from you till now?"
"No need for it," answer Rhodan. "Did you call us before?"
"No," answered Bell without hesitation. "I just sat here and listened by the receiver. Why?"
"I'll explain it to you later. We'll be there in a jiffy." Rhodan shut off the micro-com and turned again to Tompetch. "Lieutenant, you said that there was a signal from the micro-com. What did it look like?"
The question confused Tompetch. "Well... as usual, sir. The signal lamp lighted up."
"For long?"
"Sure! That is... I can't just exactly say, sir. As I said, Capt. Gorlat came storming out of the hole like a madman and from then on everything was a cloud of dust."
Atlan laughed at the figure of speech.
Rhodan pressed him further. "Try to remember. When Gorlat got into the airco was the lampstill on?"
"No sir," answered Gorlat. "I was pretty excited but I'm sure I would have notice if the lamp was still on..."
Tompetch interrupted him. He slapped himself on the forehead and groaned. "That's right!" he exclaimed. "What a donk I am! I recall I was still thinking when Gorlat gets here he can take the call himself. You know, sir, that when a captain's around a lieutenant shouldn't answer the radio signal. I was about to tell him when he climbed in—actually, 'climb' isn't the right word for it. He flew in! But at the, moment he had other things to do and then I saw that the signal lamp wasn't on any more. It all comes back to me clearly now, sir."
Rhodan nodded. "What luck!" he said.
"Does it have any special significance, sir?" pursued Tompetch. "I mean, does it have any connection with the explosion...?"
"Please, sir," said Gorlat, turning to Rhodan. "If he gets on your nerves, let me know. I think I'm the only one who can make him calm down."
Rhodan laughed. "Let him be, Captain. He's led us to an important clue. And as for your question, Tompetch, the answer is: I still don't know."
A few moments later the 200-foot sphere of the K-238 loomed up out of the darkness. Reginald Bell was instructed to open the cargo hatch. Gorlat brought the small craft up and allowed it to glide through the wide opening into the body of the ship.
Rhodan took charge of the psychograph and asked his companions to get to the control room as quickly as possible.
• • •
Rhodan's most important documents were two work graphs—one from the psychograph itself and the other from the recording system of the micro-com on board the ground glider.
The psychograph had operated for a total time of 15 minutes and some seconds. During this period it had produced a graph. After reducing the scale in the ratio of 1:72000, a clear indication was shown that 'something' down there in that subterranean room had been thinking.
Basically the psychograph was a comparatively simple instrument. It registered the weak magnetic fields associated with thought activity, whereby the intensity and frequency indicated the intelligence level of the thinker. For example, such fields associated with animal thought waves were found to be incomparably weaker and lower in frequency than those of a human. The psychograph was in no way intended for deciphering thoughts; it only determined the degree of thought activity. This capability had earned it the name of 'vibe scanner' among the more whimsical researchers.
The micro-com recorder graph was next examined. This equipment had picked up a signal that had duration of about 5.5 seconds, which was in the form of two hyperwave groups showing two sharp peaks. In the alien time-plane this meant that the entire signal had lasted about 76 microseconds. Under the greatest possible rectification the two wave peaks revealed no further harmonics or modulations. They represented nothing more than two closely spaced current surges that were being transmitted to an unknown receiver. So what was involved was not a message in the sense of someone wishing to convey intelligence to a person at the receiving end. It was just a straight signal and Rhodan was firmly convinced that it was the triggering signal that had set off the subterranean explosion.
Finally he summarized the situation: "First: some kind of living and thinking intelligences lived in the cave. We have to assume that one of them—or perhaps it —attempted to get in touch with me by telepathic means. Due to the time-ratio differences, ho
wever, all I received was a dull headache.
"Second: there was a demolition charge hidden in the cave. Just as the alien being was in contact with me—or was in the act of trying to do so—the bomb was triggered from the outside. The most logical assumption would be that some unknown observer became aware of this attempt at a contact and such an event was not desired. He made a quick decision and blasted the alien intelligence and the cave into fragments. Apparently he intended also to include us in the destruction but thanks to our faster time-rate we were able to merk out of there in the nick of time."
"And what about that 'phantom' we saw?" asked Atlan.
"That's something we don't know," admitted Rhodan. "It seemed to be related to the alien intelligences who were destroyed by the explosion. Apparently he wanted to lead us to them."
Atlan nodded. "There's one other item," he continued. "You said you experienced a headache. When did it go away?"
Rhodan seemed to have expected this question. Without any hesitation he said: "At the moment that I grabbed the ropes and started climbing out. It's my opinion that the telepathic strength of the alien intelligences has a limited range."
The Arkonide sighed. "So what remains is to find out who or what our 'phantom' is, what connection it had with the events that took place and where it disappeared to. Because we certainly didn't find it in the cave."
Rhodan nodded. "And another thing," he added. "Why did the cave have only one means of ingress?"
Atlan looked at him nonplussed. "Why? Well now, ghosts don't exactly need a paved street do they? They can move through solid walls as easily as through the air. Is that what you mean?"
"More or less," said Rhodan. "Down there in the cave there wasn't a single piece of movable equipment. Everything was built in there or firmly attached to something else. But the phantom appeared through closed bulk-head doors. So what is or rather was the purpose of the tunnel?
"Of course there are many conjectures that could be made. For the purpose of bringing fresh air inside, for example; but for that one wouldn't need a five-foot shaft. Or for bringing in the equipment, because certainly all that gear hasn't been sitting there for eternity; but for that purpose one would have built a straight tunnel and not a curved one.
"So none of it fits very well. I'm certain that there's a good, solid reason why that cave had such an entrance." After a pause, Rhodan smiled and added: "I could offer one other guess. Naturally it's lacking any kind of proof so far but maybe we'll still come across it. The way I see it, this being or community entity in the cave was indigenous to the planet and was subjugated by another unknown agency. What task or purpose it was to accomplish for the suppressor we don't know. In any event, it tried to make contact with us... maybe even hoping that we could liberate it. But its unknown captor detected this and reacted in a manner that was as rash as it was brutal."
Atlan had listened to him attentively. After awhile he offered his rebuttal: "That's just a hypothesis, isn't it? If we take that line of thought at face value, then in the future every phantom we see must be regarded as the mental entity or spirit of a subjugated Solitude intelligence, all of which could lead us neatly astray... do you see that?"
Rhodan laughed. "Relax, Admiral. I'm well aware of the weakness of hypotheses. I was only thinking that there had to be some reason why the unknown agency wants to hinder any form of contact here. The simplest reason that comes to mind is that the Solitude intelligence knew something that we weren't supposed to find out. So what we ought to do is try to discover another phantom and make sure this time that our unknown observer won't be able to interrupt our conversation."
Even Atlan couldn't argue with this suggestion. "Of course," he said, "that depends on whether or not there are a number of such beings on Solitude."
This remark elicited a suspicious look from Rhodan. "Who is going to convince me, Admiral, that a physically extant race—whatever kind it might be—could consist of a single entity?"
4/ TIME TRICKS
During the entire interim the positronicon had been working without interruption. Upon interjecting a machine question as to the time schedule, the answer returned to the effect that it would still be five or six hours before even partial results would be available.
So Rhodan sent the crew to their bunks again but he was not surprised when Atlan declined the offer, explaining that he'd prefer sitting up in the control room rather than take a chance of being surprised in his cabin by another midget.
Rhodan knew that there was another reason. Atlan had an idea and he didn't keep it to himself for long.
"Has it occurred to you yet, Administrator," he asked pleasantly, "that our unknown suppressor of the Solitude intelligences may not be satisfied with the results of the recent action? Perhaps he's not willing to make the assumption that we were decimated by the explosion and he might just come to have a look for himself. He might even be around here somewhere, maybe sharpening up a few missile warheads for us..."
Rhodan smiled. "A shrewd observation, Admiral. If you hadn't mentioned it, it would have skipped my mind completely."
"I hope you choke on that lie, Barbarian," Atlan said with a good-natured pretense at anger. "So anyway, how is it that we're not making the appropriate preparations?"
"Because we have a sufficiency of time," replied Rhodan.
"How do you arrive at that conclusion? If he's anywhere in the vicinity he can strike at any second."
Rhodan nodded. "Alright, let's suppose he's around here somewhere. How far away? Say an orbital distance of about 600 miles? OK—what can he do? He can take potshots at us with missiles or other weapons. Let's take a worst case: he has a disintegrator whose decrystalization field propagates at the speed of light. How fast is speol?"
It took a moment for Atlan to grasp the full import of the question and then he became very annoyed with himself. "What kind of an idiot am I that I didn't think of that before!?" he cried out with a fist pressed ruefully to his forehead. "Time goes 72000 times slower here than what we're used to. And naturally that lapse also affects the speed of light. So here it would travel at... not much more than 2.5 miles per second. Right?"
"About 2.58 would be more exact," answered Rhodan. "So if a spaceship aimed a disintegrator at us from orbit—say 600 miles or so—even though the shot would he coming at us at their speed of light there would be a delay of around four minutes between firing and contact. That's more than enough time for our instruments to detect and locate such an attack and for the K-238 to merk out of here. And that's aside from the fact that any spaceship that close would be tracked even if it didn't fire a shot."
Atlan groaned. "Where was my mind? It's a bitter pill to swallow, I'll have you know—being trumped by a Barbarian."
"There are worse things," Rhodan laughed. "Seriously, it looks like we're going to be able to kill two birds with one stone here on Solitude. First, we'll find but where Wanderer wandered off to; and secondly we may get to see the Druufs face to face. I don't think there's any doubt that the Druufs are the ones who so recklessly sent the poor Solitude intelligence to his death tonight."
"I think you're right," agreed the Arkonide, "unless one would care to assume that the Solitude intelligences and the Druufs are one and the same. However, considering what we know, that's a supposition that hardly holds water."
"Because," added Rhodan, "we would then have to suppose further that there is someone mightier still than the Druufs themselves... and frankly a thought like that brings on cold sweat."
Atlan nodded in agreement.
At that moment the automatic tracking alarm sounded. Rhodan made a quick instrument reading and then turned on the general ship alarm.
"Eight unidentified units en route to Solitude," he explained to the Arkonide. "Distance is 6200 miles."
• • •
For the time being the K-238 didn't have much to do. The tracking system registered the flight trajectories of the unknown objects and came to the conclusion that they were e
ither manned or equipped with very ingenious automatic—pilot mechanisms because they carried out their manoeuvres without a hitch. Since there was no good reason for suspecting the presence of automatic-guidance and piloting equipment, it was more plausible to believe that the ships were manned.
1 hour after the first alert the alien ships had not come substantially nearer. This was due to the fact that they were hardly moving 1000 feet per second. But in their own real-time perception, this speed converted to almost 14000 miles per second, which was exceptionally fast for this close distance to a planet. One was thus forced to suspect that the aliens were somewhat in a hurry.
When two hours had passed and the intent of the aliens had still not become apparent, a certain degree of tension began to pervade the control room of the K-238.
After some 3½ hours, four of the eight ships began a braking manoeuvre at about 3700 miles and shortly thereafter came to a halt. On the other hand the remaining four retained their original pace and disappeared two hours later into the shadow of Solitude. Apparently they were intending to land on the daylight side.
Only then did Rhodan start to go into action. Since it had been determined that the first four ships were keeping their positions and inasmuch as it could be presumed that they were merely holding a defense position above the highest strata of the atmosphere in order to cover the retreat of the other 4, the K-238 took off. While it shot upwards at a steep angle, on a command from Atlan the positronicon interrupted its labors to project the probable landing area of the enemy ships, based on their courses that had been recorded by the tracking equipment. Since all necessary data were available, it solved the problem with a minimum of error by the time the ship left the atmosphere of Solitude and flattened into a horizontal course. Atlan could find no further objections against its return to the original assignment—namely, the calculation of the point in time when Wanderer passed by Solitude.