Caves of the Druufs

by Perry Rhodan

  But the screen remained empty. Nobody answered at the other end of the line. The Tommy was surprised. At this hour his subordinate, an 'Oscar' as the Terranians would have called him, should be present. He had no permission to leave his office. Then why didn't he answer?

  The Tommy kept the line open and turned his attention to the list again. When some time had elapsed, however, he became restless. He got up and went to the door, placing his delicate right hand on the wall halfway up the wall. The door glided to one side and opened the entry to the airlock whose opposite exit led to the main corridor of the cavern system. Inside the antechamber the Druuf pulled his helmet over his head and locked it. Then he made the inner door glide shut and waited until the pumps had removed the breathable air and pressured in the poisonous methane-ammonia mixture.

  He went out. In this section of the installation provisions had been made for normal Druuf weight. Farther back in the passage, where the prisoners' cells were located, they had even installed an additional gravity field that produced gravitation of one G to spare the prisoners unnecessary hardship before the advent of the commission.

  In the remainder of the cavern the gravitation of the methane planet prevailed unweakened. It would

  have been wasting energy to outfit the entire cavern with gravity protection just to accommodate the stored raw materials and spare parts of the low-ranking workers detailed there.

  The Tommy stepped on the conveyer strip and rode three doors down to the airlock of the room he had tried to contact earlier over viewcom. With no formalities he opened the airlock and stepped in. The pumping procedure repeated in reverse order. It took only a few seconds to pump out the high-pressure toxic atmosphere and let in the oxygen-nitrogen mixture. The Tommy let his helmet drop back over his shoulder and went past the inner door into the office of his subordinate.

  At first glance the room seemed to be empty, except for the numerous pieces of furniture with which it was provided. The Oscar was nowhere to be seen. Furiously the Tommy hissed his name but he received no answer. He went around the table and looked behind it.

  There he saw the Oscar. Her was lying behind the table and had one of his eyes shut.

  The Tommy let out a shrill cry of alarm and bent down to see what had happened to his subordinate. He felt his hand. It was cool and limp. He reached for his upper arm where, at a particular point, the blood-lymph mixture should be palpable. For a few terrible seconds he thought the Oscar was dead but then, when he tightened his grip, he felt a faint pulsating.

  Shortly thereafter he saw the wound. It was located on the lower half of the hairless head sphere, not far from the place where the sphere grew out of the body. The skull was crushed. The blow that the Oscar had received must have been very severe. Or perhaps he had simply fallen.

  In any case, it was obvious why he had not answered. The wound meant serious injury. A little bit deeper and it would have cost him his life. As it was, there was some hope that he would survive—but probably with permanent impairment of his intelligence. Druuf brains were very sensitive, if one knew the spot to hit.

  The Tommy knew what now had to be done. He must notify the medical service to administer first aid to the Oscar. Then he must see to it that the Oscar was brought to Druufon. His condition could not be healed here on the methane planet. The Tommy considered for a moment whether this event could cast a disparaging light on his capability as Commander and decided that would not be the case. If the Oscar had fallen and was severely wounded, it was his own business.

  The Tommy straightened up. It was quite a strain, as the Druufs were built to walk erectly and only to walk erectly. They rested while standing. Sitting was an uncomfortable activity, although it was unavoidable while working, and only the night was spent in a prone position. To lift his body weighing 800 pounds under normal gravity of Druufon required a great effort.

  That was the reason he discovered the absurdly small creature standing on the desk much too late. He made an effort to rise quickly to his feet but the little animal was holding some glittering, oblong object bigger than itself in both hands and swinging it ominously. The Tommy tried to avoid the blow but he failed to get out of the range of the flashing cudgel in time. The powerful blow landed exactly where the Oscar had been struck: at the back of the head. The Tommy staggered one step backward, then hurtled noisily to the floor, falling on top of his subordinate.

  He was no longer conscious to see the little creature cast aside the cudgel, cursing furiously, and begin to massage his arms.

  • • •

  Fellmer Lloyd was in desperate need of the massage. He had knocked out two Druufs and put his entire strength behind each blow. Lloyd thought his arms would be torn out of their sockets—but he had gotten through intact after all.

  Perry Rhodan's plan had worked!

  Yet it was so simple. The pressure of the ammonia-methane mixture in the passages of the cave was 2000 Torr, that is around 2.7 Atmospheres. A human being could easily withstand the pressure for a few minutes if he plugged his ears and nose and did without breathing.

  That was the basic idea. Since every cavern room had its own airlock and the atmospheric change in the lock took place within a few seconds, the poisonous air that filled the cavern passages no longer represented an insurmountable obstacle. They stuffed scraps of cloth into their ears and nose, pressed their hands to their mouths, ran from their airlock to the lock of the adjoining room and burst into the room. One uncertain factor had been the gravitation. Perry Rhodan had anticipated that the normal gravity of the methane planet would prevail outside their prison cells. Under those circumstances it would have been difficult to proceed at more than a slow, shuffling pace and it might have taken more than 40 seconds to get from one antechamber to the other. It was a lucky coincidence that in this very section of the cavern the gravitation had the Druufon norm of 1.95.

  After everything had been prepared, Perry Rhodan and Fellmer Lloyd set out at the same time. They were in adjacent cells and one could see the other as they left the airlocks and ran on, one to the left, the other to the right.

  Originally they had assumed that the Druufs had put them in some remote section of the cavern. Their human reasoning had led to this deduction: the prison cells were in the cellar, the offices on the first floor. Fellmer Lloyd soon realized that the Druufs thought differently but before that happened he had the good fortune of finding some sort of storage room. He had simply started to run when the door to his antechamber opened. He didn't take the time to select the right conveyer strip. He hurried along beside the strips to the next airlock door without undue strain. When he released the opening mechanism—he now knew that it was to the right of the door just about two meters up the wall—his ears began to buzz. He had barely enough strength to hold his breath until the airlock filled with breathable air. The rapid pressure adjustment made him a bit dizzy but he felt as strong and bold as before.

  In the room behind the airlock there were a great number of racks holding countless objects, from tiny little screws to three-meter-long bits of pipe, which were probably spare parts for the pumping system. Catching sight of the objects, it occurred to Lloyd that it might be good if he had a weapon. He considered the size of the Druufs and the breadth of the rooms in which they lived and chose a piece of pipe almost two meters long. It was rather heavy but he thought he could manage to hold it and strike with it when necessary.

  He heard nothing from Perry Rhodan. He received blurred thought patterns but he did not know from where or from whom they came. Only after concentrating with all his might did he determine that someone was in the adjoining room. He could make out the pattern but could not read the thought. It was the thinking of some strange brain. A Druuf brain.

  That horrified him. Now he knew that this part of the cavern was by no means remote or uninhabited. He would have to warn Perry Rhodan. While Rhodan was a telepath, when confronted with the thinking of a non-human brain he would be unable to recognize any thoughts.
He might only get a headache. Lloyd concentrated completely on calling Rhodan and finally he reached him. Rhodan had meanwhile made his way to the cells of Reginald Bell and Atlan and informed both of them about the change in plans. All three were now occupied with exploring the passageway on the other side of Lloyd's cell.

  Fellmer Lloyd picked up the pipe and set out. This time he was more economical with his breath and had no discomfort by the time he closed the next antechamber door behind him. As so on as he could inhale, he climbed up the pipes of the pumping system and found a place where he could hook his legs behind a metal bar, thus freeing his hands. It was not particularly comfortable but he hoped that he would not have to endure it for long. He tried out his prowess with his new weapon and was satisfied with the result. Then he banged hard against the inner door a few times and realized that the Druuf in that room had noticed the noise. He banged once more. The Druuf then got up and went to find out what was happening in the airlock.

  Fellmer Lloyd was hanging about 3½ meters above the ground. The Druuf saw him at once but apparently was so terrified that he did not move for a few seconds. His shining faceted eyes only continued to stare at the strange creature hanging on the wall, which gave Fellmer Lloyd sufficient time to swing his cudgel widely and hit the Druuf on the skull. He had not counted on an instant success but the Druuf slumped over like a heavy sack. Lloyd climbed down and examined the wound he had inflicted on the Druuf. It did not look particularly serious. From that Lloyd concluded that this part of the head behind the chitinous skin must house some easily injured part of the body, perhaps even the brain, and made a mental note of the spot.

  Since it was likely that discovery of the Druuf lying half out in the airlock would cause a commotion the moment someone entered, he made a supreme effort and dragged him through the room behind the lock over to the enormous desk. He hid the unconscious Druuf behind the desk and began to search for real weapons. He did not think that he and Rhodan and the two others would succeed in capturing the base by knocking out one Druuf after another with metal pipes.

  Nonetheless he was forced to use his crude weapon once again. He had just begun his search when the viewcom called in. Of course he had not answered the call. He would not even have known how to operate the device. From then on he was cautious and a few minutes later he sensed the thought pattern of an approaching Druuf.

  Grabbing his cudgel, he hid in a corner between the desk and some sort of filing cabinet to observe the course of events. Surmounting various difficulties, he succeeded in climbing onto the desk without attracting the attention of the Druuf, who was bending over the unconscious figure. When he straightened up, Lloyd struck with the same might on the same place. He also had the same success.

  And now he continued to search for weapons. The room was full of various sized cabinets, the mightiest of them no smaller than a weekend cabin on Earth. The doors could be operated in the same manner as the antechamber doors, by hand pressure on the right doorframe.

  After about an hour Fellmer Lloyd had looked through all the cabinets without finding anything resembling a weapon. He was familiar with the pistol-like objects used by the Druufs and had certainly not overlooked any.

  Suddenly he stopped short and slapped his forehead with his palm. What a fool he had been! Where does one keep a pistol? Naturally where it was comfortably within reach at the right moment.

  In order to get to the desk drawer, Fellmer Lloyd had to stand on the motionless body of the Druuf he had last knocked out. He saw that he was still unconscious. He saw, too, the six grey stripes on the right and left shoulders of his outfit. If those were rank insignias the fellow must at least be a general. So he was a Tommy.

  The drawer was no drawer as Lloyd imagined it. It consisted of two triangular parts to the right and left of the desk seat that flipped open at the touch of the hand at a certain spot. Fellmer Lloyd looked into both drawers and was holding the pistol in his hand after a few seconds. Pleased, he examined it and found that except for one trigger, it had no other movable mechanism. That seemed easy enough. He aimed at a closet door and fired.

  Nothing happened. Fellmer Lloyd pulled the trigger again. There was still no effect whatsoever. Astonished, he regarded the pistol from all angles and got the idea that it might be a shock weapon. One could not shock the nerves of a cabinet door, so he needed another experimental object. But there was none. And he did not have the time to look for one. There were more important things to be done.

  He climbed off the unconscious Druuf and looked at him again. There must be some way of outfoxing the ammonia, the methane and the 2.7 Atmospheres. He recalled how his eyes had burned as he ran through the passage and his desire to gain some relief had become overpowering.

  He scrutinized the two unconscious Druufs and in the process the saving thought occurred to him.

  • • •

  Initially things had gone more smoothly than Perry Rhodan had considered possible. He covered the distance between his airlock and the next one, about five meters, in less than three seconds. Getting the doors open took considerably longer. From the moment he had to hold his breath until he could exhale again, 15 seconds, had passed the first time. That was bearable. The greater nuisance was the abominable stinging of the ammonia in his eyes. Rhodan resolved to take a bit longer next time and keep his eyes shut instead. There was no missing the way. Just keep along the wall.

  He had found Reginald Bell and Atlan. Reginald Bell stared at him as if he were seeing a ghost. Atlan smiled and maintained that he had just had the very same idea. Perry Rhodan readily believed him. They were always just one degree of thought behind or ahead of each other.

  Together they had begun to search the passage. They learned that beyond their cells there were mainly storage rooms. There were a lot of things in sight but none that would be of any use to them. They were looking for weapons and their spacesuits. If they didn't find them, they might as well return to their cells and wait until the Druufs hit upon something new. They also discovered four rooms that looked like offices. However, they were empty and apparently had not been in use for quite a while. A fine layer of dust covered floor and furniture and, naturally, they had left no weapons behind.

  What put them very much at ease was the fact that they never caught sight of a Druuf. Without any weapons an encounter would probably prove fatal.

  After about two hours they reached a point at which the passage seemed to end. It was blocked off by a natural stone wall yet the conveyer strips continued on under the wall, which led Perry. Rhodan to conjecture that the wall might be a disguised door. They tried to open it but the wall did not budge. Atlan suspected that the Druufs had simply installed the reversing mechanism of the conveyer strips behind the wall to facilitate traffic in the passageway.

  At any rate they could go no farther. They had unsuccessfully searched through 21 rooms and now only one remained. If they failed to find what they sought in that one, their situation would be pretty hopeless.

  So they stormed into the last room. Since the atmosphere at the back of the passage was as toxic as in front, they naturally could not have someone stand guard in front of the airlock to spot any Druufs that might appear. This room again was used for storage and in the cabinets, on the racks and tables there were thousands of things, all of which were equally useless to the prisoners.

  Crushed, they turned to make their way back. There was still a slight chance that they could reach their cells and behave as if nothing had happened before the Druufs reappeared or the robot brought them their food.

  They had not quite reached the antechamber door when it opened. The picture that presented itself was unmistakable. Three massive Druufs stood in the cell. They held in their hands the very things the prisoners had so desperately sought for 2½ hours: weapons.

  4/ AID FROM—ERNST ELLERT!

  Conrad Deringhouse landed in the transmitter of the cavern base.

  The bolt on the cage door clattered as someone outside bega
n to unlock it. Through the grid Deringhouse saw a man in the uniform of a captain and recognized Marcel Rous, the Commander of the base.

  "Welcome, sir," Rous said simply as Deringhouse stepped out of the transmitter.

  Deringhouse shook hands with him. Nearby Pucky and Ras Tschubai also appeared. A quick smile crossed Rous' face as he spied the little mouse-beaver in the spacesuit tailored especially for him.

  Conrad Deringhouse had shaken off the tension of the last seconds on board the California . The first part of the venture had succeeded—not altogether smoothly but still as scheduled. There could be no doubt that the California had long since removed itself from danger.

  "You have just arrived in time," Marcel Rous struck up the conversation. "There is something going on in the Druuf Universe."

  Deringhouse gazed at him in surprise. Rous reported succinctly about the odd SOS call the base had received a few hours earlier.

  "The only place that call could have originated is a methane giant, a Jupiter type planet, sir. It seems that the Druufs are holding Terranians prisoners there. We have given the planet a name. We call it Roland."

  "A lovely name," Deringhouse muttered but it was obvious that his mind was elsewhere. He was deliberating.

  Was there any connection between the SOS signal and the call for help sent out by Ernst Ellert?

  Deringhouse scanned the transmitter station with one glance. There were about 20 of these devices set up in a hall that was 20×30 meters large. These devices maintained contact between the base on Hades in the time plane of the Druufs and the Einstein Universe. Ever since the transmitters had been installed it was no longer necessary for Terranian ships to break through the Arkonide blockade and continue through the overlap zone to penetrate the Druuf area where the Druufs kept a sharp vigil to prevent anyone from crossing their path. The only disadvantage the transmitters entailed was the fact that they could only be used in conjunction with a return device ready for reception. Upon depression of a button, the generators of both transmitters jointly provided the energy that was necessary to convey the object to be transported from one device to the other in a kind of hyperjump.