by Perry Rhodan
"Damn it!" Bell cursed and glanced helplessly in the direction of Lloyd and Sengu. "where's Rhodan? Can't you locate him, Sengu?"
"I can see him, down in this direction," said the Japanese. "Alban's just about to enter the cell. He's armed. Now he's pointing his weapon at Rhodan. I can't properly judge the distance from here."
"Let's go!" Bell commanded. Quickly he removed the red contact lenses from his eyes. "We'll show him who he's dealing with! Sengu, correct the direction if we're going the wrong way. But hurry!"
And still - Bell almost didn't make it in time, if it had not been for...
Rhodan listened intently for the slightest noise that filtered through to their prison cell. There was fighting going on outside. The hissing of the pulse-ray shots mingled with desperate cries. In between came the powerful blast of an explosion. Pretty close! Then silence, soon followed by screaming and shouting! Hurried footsteps, running far above in the corridors and halls of the palace. The shots fell less frequently now. Only once could he distinguish the typical buzzing sound of an Arkonide pulse-ray gun. That must be Bell with his mutants.
And then came the distorted voice of Lord Alban over one of the loudspeakers, relaying his last message.
Rhodan drew himself up to his full height. "Alban's made his decision. He's going to kill us if he can't use us as hostages. Khrest, lie down on the bed and remain completely still, please. I'll talk with Alban. Marshall, you stand behind the door and try to overpower Alban when he enters the cell. Rathon, you too, do nothing. Is that clear?"
Khrest shook his head. "It's useless, we have no weapons. How can you defend yourself against a ray gun?"
"Wait and see, Khrest. Those who give up the fight so easily don't deserve to rule an empire."
The Arkonide scientist gazed long into Rhodan's eyes, then slowly he nodded his head; he had understood. Without a word he stretched out on the bed. Beads of perspiration covered his forehead.
Marshall, who had freed Rhodan from his handcuffs, was quicker to comprehend the situation. He stepped behind the door and waited, a resolute expression on his face.
Steps were coming closer.
Actually, thought Rhodan,this is the first time in my entire life that I'm facing imminent death. I cannot defend myself. I'm at the mercy of a desperate man who can neither gain nor lose from my death. My chances are very slim, much smaller than my friends would guess. Actually, we have no chances whatsoever! It was short sighted of me to get us all voluntarily into this situation.
The steps came to a halt in front of the cell door.
A key turned in the lock.
Our time has come, thought Rhodan with calm determination. Whether we come through now or fail will depend on whether we react fast enough, if we can bluff Alban. If only we can string him along long enough for Bell to find us! Bell's our last hope now!
The door opened slightly. A swift kick made it fly open all the way. The first thing Rhodan saw was the spiral-shaped barrel of a dangerous looking weapon - pointed directly at him! Behind it he could make out Alban, standing in the dimly lit corridor, keeping at a distance from the door. His thumb rested on the firing button.
"I can see only three Arkonides," he said, strangely calm. "Where's the fourth man? Is he behind the door? Unless he steps forward I'll shoot at once."
Rhodan saw the icy-cold eyes of Alban and knew he meant what he said. Marshall, the telepath, realized the danger even faster. With a resigned shrug of his shoulders he left his hiding place to stand next to Rhodan.
Alban, with obvious satisfaction, nodded and kept the four prisoners covered with his ray pistol.
"I suppose you've heard my proclamation - it's your life against mine. You've no other choice left."
"You're defying the empire," warned Rhodan in order to win time. Bell must be inside the palace by now. Perhaps one of the mutants would still manage to seize control of Alban's brain in time.
"One of you will go upstairs now and relay your order to withdraw from the palace. Then you'll accompany me to a secret hanger below the roof where I have a small rocket ship waiting. As soon as I've started you'll be free."
"He's bluffing," warned Marshall. "He plans to shoot us before his escape."
"I thought so," said Rhodan. "Well, how about it, Alban?"
For a moment the Lord was dumbfounded, then his face contorted with fury.
From somewhere out in the corridor came a sound as if something were being softly dragged along the ground. In between, the gentle padding of soft paws. John Marshall said in English:
"Somebody's approaching. I can sense his thoughts. Peculiar thought streams. My God - it's Emby! He's looking for us."
We must keep stalling, thought Rhodan desperately. Just a bit longer. maybe Emby can help us. But how does he know about out dangerous situation?
"Answer!" shouted Alban, nervously fingering the trigger of his weapon. In his present state of mind the Tuglanian was extremely dangerous, his reactions those of an insane man. No knowing what he would do the next moment. "Answer or all will be over!"
Rhodan felt the feverish excitement that gripped every one in the room. He strained his ears but could no longer hear the noise that had come from the corridor outside. Shouts rang out, far away, hollow and muffled. A door slammed; it sounded like a shot.
"Who's to accompany you?" Rhodan asked.
Alban seemed relieved, but then his mistrust won out. Once more his fingers tightened around the ray pistol.
"You want to trick me, Arkonide. It's probably better if I kill you all right now. I'll..."
Then the thing happened that Rhodan had so fervently hoped for.
Lord Alban felt a mighty blow from an invisible fist strike his back. His pistol came to life and rose with a will of its own toward the ceiling, barely fifteen feet above the floor of the corridor.
Alban could not understand how his pistol could suddenly defy gravity but under no circumstances did he wish to let go of it now. He clung to it with all his might and, naturally, was inexorably pulled up along with it. His legs kicked desperately in the air as he lost the firm ground beneath his feet. He was suspended from the barrel of his gun as though from a horizontal bar that was being pulled upward by invisible ropes.
Then the gun touched the rough ceiling, wedging the fingers of the hapless Alban tightly in between. Howling with pain, Alban let go and dashed to the ground.
He did not fall a great distance, true. But, unfortunately for him, he twisted his body during his fall and as his feet slammed forcibly into the floor, his body jackknifed and his head bounced sideways, hitting a sharp protruding pillar of the wall.
There was a dull thud. Alban collapsed. His body grew limp.
Rhodan saw at once that Alban was beyond all help. He was dead.
A noise from behind startled Rhodan. He turned around quickly and looked straight into Emby's brown eyes, peering up at him like those of a faithful, trusting and very pleased dog.
"Down with Alban, the traitor!" he squeaked merrily and then his voice changed to a bright chirping tone.
"Long live the galactic empire and the new Lord Daros!"
Khrest, Rathon and Marshall had stepped out into the corridor, too. Gradually, the tremendous tension of the last few minutes was subsiding. Khrest smiled weakly.
"That was a close call - a last minute reprieve."
"Much too close for comfort," remarked Rhodan. "But we can leave Tuglan now knowing for sure we've installed the right Lord as ruler. But, first, we have to find him!"
Steps came closer, became louder and more forceful. Then a well-known voice roared:
"It must be here somewhere - that door over there! What are you saying, Sengu?What? That beast of a mouse? With Rhodan? Impossible! I'll die if that thing beat us to it! Sticking his nose into everything!"
Light flooded the corridor. Bell stormed down the hall, stopping abruptly the moment he noticed the group around his friend Rhodan. He shook his fist at Emby, who sat at Rhodan's fee
t. The little fellow concentrated blissfully on having his chin tickled and gently stroked.
"You damned Mickey Mouse, you! Won't you leave anything for me to do? If I get my hands on you you'll end up in the nearest cooking pot!"
Bell's threats changed rapidly to furious protests as he floated toward the ceiling. Soon his back touched the stony vault and Emby twittered joyfully:
"I'll keep you there till you die of hunger, if you don't behave nice. Well, are you going to behave?"
Bell grunted a reply nobody could understand. The mutants, who had joined the group meanwhile, laughed at the ludicrous sight. Even Rhodan could not help grinning.
In the midst of it all, the Japanese Sengu said suddenly:
"We must set Daros free. He's in the next cell. And more people are imprisoned down here."
Nobody paid the least attention now to Bell who, helplessly, was struggling with his hands and feet to climbdown the walls.
Energy rays melted the lock of the cell door. Seconds later a very frightened Daros was brought out of the dark vault.
The next day the Stardust left the planet Tuglan. From the high commissioner's robots Rhodan had obtained the exact data he needed for the hyperjump to the Vega system. He had ordered the robots to keep strict silence about the entire Tuglanian interlude. He knew he could rely on them to obey his instructions as his rank in the Arkonide hierarchy was even higher than Rathon's.
Daros had been appointed the new Lord by the inhabitants of Tuglan and the united planets of the Laton system. He signed a trade treaty with Khrest, acting as the official Arkonide representative, which would become effective at a later date at the right opportunity.
Rathon was promised that he would shortly receive a new hyperwave installation to reestablish contact with the empire. Rhodan did not commit himself as to the exact date.
While the planet Tuglan sank away into the depths of the universe, and while the Stardust was surging forward to the point of transition, Rhodan took special care to insure the presence of not only Khrest, Thora and Bell in the Command Center, but particularly that of Emby, the playful beaver!
A short while before the transition Bell spoke up after he had visibly been laboring under some thoughts.
"When you stop, to consider it, we made a quite unnecessary detour to Tuglan. Tuglan had really nothing to do with our search for the planet of eternal life - or was the problem on Tuglan another part of the Galactic Riddle?"
"If so, then only in a roundabout way," replied Rhodan. "But you're wrong if you believe that our Tuglanian adventure was of no value to us. without our intervention Alban would've put his evil plans into effect. Tuglan would've been lost to the empire."
"And since Emby with his playfulness brought about our temporary stay on Tuglan, the Arkonide empire will give him the credit for our successful mission there?" Bell did not sound too happy.
Rhodan appeared unusually serious as he replied:
"That's quite possible. I must admit that Emby managed to squeeze us into a tight corner, but nobody can deny that he didn't do his very best to get us out of it again! Without his help I'd probably be dead by now."
Rhodan bent down to the mouse-beaver and gently stroked his fur. Emby was purring not unlike a cat.
Thora joined the little group. "Once we reach the Vega system we'll be able to calculate the position of the planet of the immortals. There's no point in delaying any further - we must resume our search at once! My patience is thoroughly exhausted!"
"You're being unfair, Thora." The voice that spoke was cool and passionless and to everyone's surprise it was her fellow Arkonide who took up the defense of Rhodan. Khrest continued: "We returned law and order to Tuglan. We witnessed with our own eyes how efficiently this was accomplished by our Terran friends. They're powerful allies in an attempt to revitalize our decaying star realm. I fully trust Rhodan in his promise that one day he'll bring us back to Arkon. But I realize this longed for homecoming can only come about when the time's propitious - and the right moment hasn't come yet."
He made a slight bow in Thora's direction, then absented himself silently from the Command Center and returned to his cabin. The beauteous Arkonide was obviously startled by Khrest's admonition but without protest followed the great scientist from the room, politely nodding good-bye to Rhodan and Bell.
A green light glowed, indicating imminent transition. Rhodan stooped down to Emby.
"No nonsense now, young fellow! We're friends now, aren't we? And you know I'm the commander of this ship, don't you? Then you also know you have to obey me - no playing around now!"
Perry placed a hand on the transition lever. "Commander Rhodan, I promise to obey you!" the little mouse-beaver chirped solemnly, scant seconds before the hyperjump that would transport them over a distance of thirty-five thousand light-years to the Vega system. "But I'll never obey that red-haired monster at your side-"
Bell bristled but the tension was broken when a new voice spoke up, a young voice with an infectious laugh. voice and laugh belonged to a young crewman from Independence, Missouri, back home on Earth. His hobby was xenophilology. It served him well now.
Spaceman First Class Phillip Callen spoke words which, in a matter of moments, would lead him to speak a name destined to become famous throughout far expanses of the space-time continuum. Spontaneously, he would christen the impish alien from Vagabond who heretofore had answered only to Emby, M.B., the initials for what he was a mouse-beaver.
"Shades of Shakespeare," Phillip Callen began, "If Emby doesn't have the personality of Puck!"
"Puck?" echoed Bell.
The young spaceman suddenly wondered if his thoughts were welcome to the commander and his friends but Perry set his mind at ease by smiling and saying, "I think I know what you mean."
Phillip, encouraged, continued: "Puck - from Midsummer Night's Dream. Originally thought, by the people of the sixteenth century, to be a mischievous spirit, a tricky sprite."
"More of a Midsummer Night's Nightmare! I'd call him," growled Bell.
All laughed.
"Well, the little skeezer's certainly plucky!" said Phillip. "Plucky Puck! Say-"
"Yes?" Did Rhodan anticipate the boy's next thought but graciously refrain from speaking? The world would never know, but his nature was very kind, and it was very likely so. In any event, it was Phillip Callen, Spaceman First Class, aboard the stellar sphere Stardust II, bound for Vega, who spoke and said:
"Pucky!"
"Pucky!" As one, all repeated the name. Even the mouse-beaver squeaked it, bidding good-bye forever to Emby, accepting himself forever after as ... Pucky.
And, with the leader of the New Power, the Peacelord of the Universe, the normal men and mutants, Pucky was on his way to the ultimate confrontation with the Immortal.
The adventure continues with the next stirring story...
The Immortal Unknown