by Perry Rhodan
"An entire world?" Orlgans was honestly surprised. "But this planet contains nothing but ice and snow. Nobody can exist here."
"You are wrong!" Pucky's voice suddenly became shrill and furious. The hair on the back of his neck resembled porcupine needles. "This world is inhabited by the semi-sleepers, a highly intelligent race in comparison with others of their kind on other worlds. They know that there is a bomb at the North pole which will detonate any moment now. They know that a chain reaction will result which is irreversible. They know they have to die because their world is coming to an end. And they have authorized me to punish their murderer."
Orlgans had listened with increasing amazement. Now and then he threw a glance at the pistol which was hanging from the ceiling and out of his reach. There was life on this world? He had not considered such a possibility. Did this relieve him from his guilt?
Pucky shook his head. "No, Orlgans, not at all. The judgment of the semi-sleepers is legal and valid."
The Springer captain looked at the screen. "We're landing—what's going on? Where are we landing?"
"I have seized control of the ship," Pucky informed him. "It will touch down some 180 miles from the North pole. The bomb will explode in three minutes. You have 180 seconds to abandon your ship. There is no time left to send an emergency call to Etztak—for this craft will blow up in less than three minutes. Do you understand, Orlgans?"
Orlgans understood, even if he couldn't imagine how his ship could go up in air. But still, he had witnessed a few examples of such wizardry. The ship touched down very gently.
"Inform your crew to clear out of here instantly!" Pucky ordered. "They won't have time to take along any food. But that won't matter: you'll just have to go hungry till the atomic conflagration overtakes you."
Orlgans was shaking uncontrollably. "But this is cruel! You can't leave us to such a horrible fate. You'd better kill us at once..."
"I'll make sure you have a few pistols at your disposal," Pucky reassured him mercilessly. "Whoever wants to use them, may suit himself. I won't hold anybody back. But this is as far as I can help you. A dying race uttered its last wish—and I am merely carrying it out. That's all."
Hardly a minute and a half later Pucky watched from a nearby mountaintop how Orlgans and his crew proceeded to evacuate their ship. Some men were rather slow and reluctant to do so. But the scheduled time limit did not allow them to take along any food or gear. Raganzt, who tried to call Etztak from the communication center, discovered that the current had been cut off. Pucky had not overlooked a thing.
And then the ship began to glow. It started at the bow and spread rapidly. The first aggregates detonated. The moment the ship's arsenal was reached by the all-devouring fire, a final explosion rent the ship apart.
Several of the Springers were still too close to the ship and were covered by huge chunks of wreckage and debris. The rest of the crew took to their heels and ran for their lives. Pucky noted angrily that they ran in the direction of the equator, not the North Pole. They would have to run mighty fast if they wanted to escape the atomic fury which this instant was unleashed at the North pole.
5/ SNOWMAN MELTS
"The semi-sleepers—flowers?"
Tiff uttered these words in total unbelief and looked at Felicita, expecting to get an answer from the young botanist. But it was Pucky who supplied the explanation.
"I had quite a talk with them, Tiff, and I think I have learned practically all there is to know about them. During summer they live on the surface and in winter they return here. The fountain supplies the water and the soil the nourishment they need. Up above shines the eternal sun but even the semi-sleepers have no idea how it got there. But they do know at least that there are similar suns in other caves. They say the Gods created them. I suppose these were their ancestors who were at a higher level of technical development but who perished at a later date."
"How do they get to the surface when summer comes?" Hump inquired. There was a trace of sarcasm in his voice. "Or do they take a walk through the cave in order to reach the outside world?"
Pucky remained quite serious. "Yes, they do walk. They have dainty feet, which serve them at the same time as roots. They can sink their feet into the soil and absorb water and food through them. In summer they lead a downright nomadic life; they wander from place to place and this is also the time of fertilization. The semi-sleepers are multi-sexual. Every five members of their race—you probably noticed that their petals are of five different colors—form a unit."
Tiff bent forward. His face was one giant question mark. "How do you converse with them? Are they telepaths?"
"Yes, very much so. They receive thoughts over great distances and are even capable of picking up those coming from the deeps of the universe. This is their only entertainment during the long years of their semi-sleeping state."
"How old can they grow?"
"Up to 200 years—Earth time. That means they live for one Snowman summer and one winter."
All of a sudden Pucky cocked his head and seemed to listen to something. His incisor had disappeared behind his lips and made no attempt now to become visible again. Then Pucky stepped over to the red tulip whose five eyes were wide open and looked straight at him.
There was a striking resemblance between the eyes of the tulip and those of Pucky. They not only shared the same brown color but also the same expression of kindness, loyalty and sincerity.
For nearly three minutes Pucky remained in the same posture without moving. Then he raised his head. "If you try hard you'll understand her thoughts. I regret but I must leave you here alone for five minutes. Something horrible has happened. The Springers have started an atomic conflagration on this planet, which cannot be stopped. They have placed a bomb which will detonate in five minutes. I can't remove it since the process has already started in the interior of the bomb. Any dematerialization would lead to a catastrophe. It is too late. This world is doomed—I can only avenge it."
And then the four human beings were alone with the semi-sleepers. Pucky had vanished without any ado in order to execute the death sentence pronounced by the tulip flowers.
Tiff was trying to inject some sense of reality in this dreamlike situation. The plant was still fixing him with unflinching eyes when he suddenly started to feel that it was talking to him. It was like a gentle probing of his brain, a cautious exploration of his conscious mind.
"You are creatures of goodwill," said the semi-sleeper without making a sound. "You didn't know either that this world is inhabited. Your enemies want to destroy you, therefore they destroy our entire planet. They are wicked and mean."
"They will be punished for this," murmured Tiff, realizing how little this fact would comfort the unfortunate tulips. He saw that both girls as well as Hump were standing stockstill and listened intently. They too must be able to understand the soundless voice.
"Yes, they will die—but our whole race will perish along with them. The history of us semi-sleepers, as you have named us—is nearing its end."
"If we had a ship and could save our own lives, we could take you along—at least a sufficient number of you so that your race need not die out," said Tiff. At the same time he was aware that these peculiar alien creatures would not be the only ones to die. Unless Perry Rhodan hurried to their rescue, he as well as his friends were doomed to share the fate of the tulips. "We shouldn't abandon all hope yet."
"Tiff!" interrupted Felicita, who had understood everything. "We ought to try and save some of these semi-sleepers. If Rhodan arrives in time we could save this race from total extinction. After our rescue we will certainly find some new uninhabited world where they could make a fresh start."
Tiff nodded in assent and bent down to the waking semi-sleeper. "Did you understand? We'll make an attempt to preserve your race. But this is going to be a most difficult decision for all of you. We can—if at all—take only very few of you along with us. Who will make the selection?"
The wa
ve of panic swelled and reached a crest but the thoughts of the red tulip managed to drown it out.
"We all love life but the survival of the race is more important than individual survival. I shall make the decision. I'll chose 50 healthy young specimens of the race. They will go with you."
"Go?" asked Tiff, puzzled.
"You have some boxes, I read in your thoughts. One of these boxes will be enough to accommodate the chosen members of our race. They are not heavy. It will not be at all difficult for your friend Pucky to transport them in his peculiar fashion. Later, many thousands of years hence, the Terranians will have a grateful ally who will be forever in your debt—our descendants."
"Let's wait till Pucky returns," suggested Tiff. "Meanwhile we want to learn everything we need to know about you. Do you breathe in carbon dioxide?"
"Yes, and we breathe out oxygen," confirmed the red tulip. "But only as long as the sun is shining—or our artificial sun during our long winter."
"You are related to our plants on Earth," stated Tiff and saw that Felicita was wandering from niche to niche, gently pulling one of the tulips out of the ground. The flowers had very long roots which rolled up immediately once they lost contact with the soil.
"This way they will take up least space," said the red tulip in its silent fashion. "They can endure many days without food or water. And if they are not exposed to extreme conditions they will not die."
"I promise if we are saved they will be saved with us," Tiff said solemnly.
In the meantime Felicita had finished pulling 50 plants from the soil and had arranged them in a bundle. The eyes of the plant population remained closed but the four human beings felt an intensification of panic-stricken thoughts sweeping over them like ocean waves, now weaker, now stronger, in regular intervals. It was the desperate death song of a race doomed soon to perish.
Suddenly, without any preceding announcement, Pucky returned. His normally so kindly looking brown eyes sparkled now with something Tiff had never before seen in them: hatred.
"The murderers of this planet will perish with it," he said in a shrill voice. "I have annihilated their ship and they have no means of leaving this planet. According to what I could read in Orlgans' mind, Etztak is too busy elsewhere to come to his assistance. Besides, the patriarch does not know what has taken place here. He believes Orlgans is on his way back after having accomplished his accursed mission. Although he has carried out this vile deed, the murderer will not go free, he will die together with his victims."
"And how about us?" asked Tiff. "Won't we die with them?"
Pucky did not respond to this question. Instead he said: "Something else has happened. A Springer ship, probably Orlgans' battlecruiser, made a direct hit with a ray cannon on the entrance to our cave. The rock melted. We are imprisoned inside the cave. For me this presents no obstacle, for I can teleport myself to the outside. But I cannot transport you through a solid rock wall which seals us off from the outside world."
Tiff looked very frightened. "We are cut off?" He sighed in desperation. "That's all we needed! What's going to happen now?"
Felicita joined them. In her arms she carried the last bundle of tulips. She had heard Pucky's last words. "Sealed off from the outside world?" she repeated. "This means the semi-sleepers are also lost—at least those we hoped to save."
"We still have Aubrey, our robot," said Hump without much hope. "Maybe he can help us."
"Definitely," chirped Pucky. "We have at least two days time left before the atomic fire will reach the equator. Aubrey has enough energy to break through the rock wall. It is true, we'll have to count on a tremendous generation of heat, but the cave is fortunately deep enough. Aubrey can shield himself effectively from the heat."
"And once we reach the outside all we need is Perry Rhodan," Milly remarked timidly. "If only he knew our situation here he would rush to our aid, I'm sure."
"Rhodan has enough worries of his own right now," said Tiff, but he didn't sound very convincing. "Sure he'll remember us—if he has time."
"He does have time!" Pucky terminated the discussion. "I don't think he'll leave us here in the lurch."
Felicita wanted to complete her task. "Pucky, can you fetch a longish box to accommodate the semi-sleepers we want to take along? We promised..."
"I know all about it," interrupted Pucky. "Wait a moment."
And he left them alone for the second time. Orlgans realized that he and his men were lost unless help reached them. A blinding flash of light from the north had told him that the fateful chain reaction had begun. Panic-stricken, he and his men fled south after the ship had exploded. In a forced march he traveled almost 25 miles through the icy desert during the first day. Behind them followed the threatening spectre of the raging atomic fire which gave evidence of its existence by newly born rivers which rushed south despite the freezing cold. It had become warmer as Orlgans could read on his arm instrument, although the temperature was still hovering around -60°. The rivers froze again but the heated water masses flowed over them, soon themselves to freeze in turn.
The ice barriers made it more difficult to continue with their march. Night fell when the two suns sank below the horizon. But instead of cooling off it became warmer. The rivers no longer froze over but rushed southwards. They filled the wide shallow valleys with a gurgling, steaming flood of water, which here and there flowed into the many subterranean caves, drowning all life existing underground. As dawn broke and the suns rose, a horrifying red glow shone near the northern horizon. The temperature had climbed to 32° and the snow began melting everywhere. The rivers were rising.
Orlgans and his men tried to gain higher ground. After a long and strenuous march they reached a plateau which was covered by a thin layer of ice. The terrain fell off steeply to one side, thus effectively draining the tabletop area. They would be safe from drowning up here. However—was this actually an advantage?
Orlgans stopped and looked to the north where the fiery glow had intensified. The whole sky seemed to be burning. Gigantic columns of whirling flames raced like tornado funnels in the direction of the planet's rotation. The waves of the new ocean were surging around the base of the plateau. The Springers realized now that their mountaintop had become an island in a huge ocean. They were cut off from any chance of retreating to a different area. They were definitely doomed.
Raganzt, his features distorted with frustration and horror, gazed toward the northern sky. "We are finished," he stated, trying to give a firm ring to his voice. "We are sitting in a trap. If only there were trees on this place here we could build a raft. The currents of this ocean would carry us to the south."
"We'll all burn alive here," nodded Orlgans with a trembling voice. "This planet is going to die a terrible death."
"And we'll roast alive along with it," said Raganzt, unless Etztak comes in time to rescue us. We are already one day overdue. He ought to be aware that something unforeseen has. happened to us."
"He knows the planet is burning. Maybe he thinks we are already lost. Look here, Raganzt—the atomic fire! It approaches faster than anyone can run in the other direction to save himself. And the temperature keeps rising. We're still protected by the air conditioning in our spacesuits. But this too will fall shortly and they'll be utterly useless."
The ocean that was rolling and heaving around the rocky coast began to steam more and more. At some spots the water began to boil. The two suns had long since vanished behind the increasingly dense cloud banks, which mercifully hid from the stars in the sky the face of the planet struggling in the last throes of death. The ground under their feet grew hot. Nobody could remain standing more than half a minute on the same spot. The last remnants of the ice had long since melted.
An immense curtain of fire was racing toward them from the north. The chain reaction had seized not only the land and the water but also the atmosphere. The air was burning. It changed to energy. The iceworld was coming to an end. When the raging hell reached the mount
ain and the preceding wave of heat swept across the plateau they encountered no trace of life. Orlgans and the crew who shared his guilt had died a death they had intended for others.
6/ THE LONGEST HOUR
It was not easy for Etztak to remain calm. The lightning attacks carried out by the two Terranian cruisers, gigantic spheres 600 feet across, fully occupied his attention. Orlgans had not yet returned and the commander of the other vessel that had accompanied him could not supply any reason for this delay. Radio contact had suddenly been interrupted, though this in itself might not he of any consequence as even the most refined technology could suddenly run into snags. Besides, there wasn't much time for Etztak to speculate a great deal about Orlgans' failure to return as promised. In any case, he had carried out his mission: the second planet of the Beta-Albireo system was burning. The atomic conflagration had started at the North pole and was spreading evenly toward the equator.
This should be a lesson for that fellow Rhodan. He should learn that nobody could cross the plans of galactic Traders and remain unpunished.
Etztak had already lost two of his ships when he received a second radio message from Topthor the Mounder. It was a brief announcement:
To: Etztak, Patriarch of the clan of Etztak!
Received latest offer. Must decline. No longer prepared to fight. Rhodan's forces hopelessly superior. Advise you retreat.
Topthor,
Clan of the Mounders
Foaming with rage, Etztak stared at the radiogram that had arrived from a star system over 15,000 light-years distant. So Topthor and the rest of his miserable fleet had turned tail in order to save their skin! Etztak felt let down.
While he was still brooding over this bad news and realizing that he was now standing alone, he noticed a sudden draught of air in his command center. That was unusual, for all the doors were closed and there was no one besides himself in the room.