A Touch of Eternity

by Perry Rhodan

  The Druuf in the center of the trio slowly turned around.

  Pucky still attempted to establish a telepathic communication with the alien entity but he did not succeed. Not the slightest mental reaction was detectable. It seemed to Pucky as though the Druufs were nothing but soulless, automatically functioning creatures.

  So he tried the acoustical method. "Why are you chasing us?" asked Pucky, using the Arkonide language which was known everywhere in the universe. "We do not wish to have groshk —war."

  By now the center Druuf had finally turned completely around. It was evident that it had not quite fully reached the time-plane of the Terranians. Nevertheless he came dangerously close to it.

  Pucky and Ras could perceive that the upper walking limbs in the creature's body had retracted and in their places appeared arms, on the ends of which was a great variety of instruments. Small tongs, screwdrivers, even fingers and suction cups. The Druufs must have reached the evolutionary class of universal intelligences.

  Nevertheless they still lacked faces.

  It was still a complete mystery to Pucky and Ras as to how they could hear, see or speak—if indeed they were able to do any of them.

  One of the creature's arms drew inward slowly and about a half minute later a round, dark opening emerged from the spherical body. The Druuf emitted no thought-waves so it wasn't possible for Pucky to learn the alien being's intentions. He was as unprepared as Ras when the two of them were fired upon.

  Without the slightest warning a green beam of energy shot from the muzzle of the weapon and passed between Ras and Pucky to strike the wall, where it seemed to fan out in an explosion of dying sparks that finally glided downward to the deck.

  "You two-faced no-face!" hissed Pucky, diving under the beam for cover. A block of metal offered him a sufficient haven for the moment. Simultaneously his telekinetic force-streams grasped the Druuf and forced it to roll back slightly. Now the energy beam shot vertically to the ceiling of the control room, causing it to melt.

  Ras had also gone for cover and he didn't hesitate to use his own weapon. He aimed at the belligerent Druuf across a machine block, pressed the trigger and didn't release it until the alien thing ceased its attack in a holocaust of molten metal. So far nobody had ever survived such a bath of ravening energy.

  Nor did the Druuf.

  Something hit the deck with a metallic clang. Pucky raised his head cautiously over the rim of his protective cover and sought to discover the cause of the unusual noise. What he saw was so amazing that for a critical moment he forgot about the other two Druufs in the Control Central. Their attacker had fallen apart.

  A wide crack gaped open in the round figure, exposing its interior. Gleaming silvery conductors, burned here and there and also discolored in many places, made up a jumble of windings and coils which reminded Pucky of a highly advanced electronic brain. Partially destroyed metal modules and containers still popped out of their mountings and rolled or fell to the deck with a clatter, where they lay motionless. With a dull explosion a vacuum tube or what looked like one burst apart. A bluish jet of flame jumped upward from it, only to subside and become extinguished. Suddenly there was a stink of burned rubber and ozone in the air.

  Ras gave out a startled groan: "Robots! The Druufs are nothing but robots!"

  Pucky continued to stare at the incomprehensible thing. "It's true enough that they're robots," he confirmed but added: "Still, that doesn't prove that these tin-plated basketballs are the Druufs."

  Ras was about to answer but interrupted himself. "Look out!" he roared, at the same time raising his impulse weapon and firing ahead at random.

  The two other spherical robots must have become aware of their companion's demise in the meantime. They reacted accordingly and began to attack. Ras Tschubai's warning came not a second too soon. Pucky ducked behind his hiding place and sought to make a telekinetic attack against the enemy but because of the slower reaction time of the Druufs—or robots—Ras had an advantage over them and managed without Pucky's help. He took care of the two robots with two quick shots.

  The Command Central was a scene of wreckage. There wasn't very much that remained undamaged. The two color rings drifted out of the screen and Ras discerned at the same time that the Sherbourne was slipping off the large oval screen.

  The Druuf ship lost its course. The surface of the Crystal World became visible and seemed to rush toward them with increasing velocity.

  "We have to get out of here!" yelled Ras as he prepared to make a telejump.

  Pucky saw that there was no other alternative. They hadn't missed anything else on this ship and it wasn't possible to linger any longer on board without gambling their lives.

  "Let's blast off!" he said regretfully while showing his incisor tooth, for once, however, without intending it to be a grin. "But we'll still have a look later at those other two scows, now that we know what's up. For the moment, anyway—to the Sherbourne !"

  And they dematerialized.

  Two minutes later the Druuf vessel ploughed its way into the surface of the Crystal World with a tremendous explosion.

  Lt. Rous stood beside Rhodan in the Command Central of the Sherbourne and observed the spectacle through narrowed eyes. "That can't be!" he murmured in bewilderment and turned slightly pale. "It's simply not possible!"

  "What?" asked Rhodan tersely. Although the inference was dawning on him, he voiced the question.

  "It's entirely impossible for the whole planet, the whole time-plane, to have adapted its temporal frame, thus! Can you figure any other reason why that detonation down there appears natural to our eyes? Look for yourself—the mushroom cloud is rising swiftly into the upper atmosphere. And I don't mean slowly or imperceptibly! Before, you know, even raindrops were falling at the rate of only fractions of an inch per second. But now...?"

  Rhodan nodded slowly. "Do you want another reason for it?" He stood there as motionlessly as a statue with his lips tightly compressed. "There isn't any other time-plane, Lt. Rous—at least not any more!"

  But he knew in the back of his mind that there was another, though he dared not recognize the fact for the moment.

  For it meant the end of all hope.

  4/ PUCKYS PERIL; RHODAN'S THREAT

  Ivan Ragov shook his head disconcertedly and looked at John Marshall as if the latter had suggested that he jump out of the ship. Noir constrained himself while biding his time. He searched for a reasonable explanation for the fact that the formerly motionless caterpillars were beginning to adapt to the human time-plane.

  "There can be no doubt that we are bringing them up to our ratio—and without having to travel at light speed. I can't explain it but the facts are clear before us. The limbs of the caterpillars are already moving at half normal speed and if the change continues at the same rate, within a half hour their movements will be as fast as ours."

  "We can be happy," said Noir, "that it isn't the reverse process."

  Ragov narrowed his eyes. "Would we be able to determine which way it was going?" he asked tensely.

  "What?" Noir appeared not to comprehend his meaning.

  "I mean," continued Ragov, "would we be able to tell if the reverse of the process were in effect? Where is the neutrally established reference point to which we may address ourselves?"

  Now Noir saw his point, as did Marshall.

  "But you aren't really trying to suggest, Ragov—"

  Marshall was not able to finish the sentence because he was interrupted at that moment by the intercom buzzer. Rhodan's face appeared on the small screen. "All officers and leading scientists are requested to attend a discussion in the wardroom. We will begin in 10 minutes."

  The screen darkened.

  Marshall looked at Ragov. "Well?" He had already perceived the thoughts and suppositions of the

  Russian. "What do you say to that? It looks as though some others are thinking the same thing."

  Ragov nodded. "In 10 minutes we'll know." He took a last look at t
he captive caterpillars which were coming out of their time stasis at an ever-faster rate, then left the room without another word.

  John Marshall followed him slowly.

  • • •

  "...thus resulting in the following observations, gentlemen, which lead to an unmistakable conclusion. But this you will see for yourselves."

  Rhodan made a short pause and looked into the faces of his men. The Sherbourne 's officers stood between technicians and mutants. Their faces were grave since they realized that Rhodan wouldn't call a briefing while they were being chased by the two black ships unless he had a good reason.

  "Ragov was the first one to discover that the movements of the captured caterpillars were adapting themselves to our rate of time. These movements became accelerated gradually and have already come to within half our normal rate. Further, we had already been forced to recognize the fact that apparently the Druufs were able to see us and follow us in spite of the fact that our movements were 72,000 times faster than theirs. Until now we've been racking our brains trying to figure out how they could do it; but now that question doesn't seem to be so important. When Pucky and Ras were on board the Druuf ship they only found robots there, which also functioned only slightly slower than we in our own time-plane. So there you have another time-rate approximation. However the first definitive disclosure of what's happening has come from the crash of the other ship and its destruction. Even if we may assume that individual Druufs are able to approach our time-plane with the help of some unknown factor or device, it would nevertheless be absurd to suppose that an entire planet is adapting itself to our ratio, as the ship's explosion appeared to indicate."

  He paused again, this time for effect. But most of the listeners didn't dare face the only logical conclusion because it was too fantastic—and too terrible.

  But Rhodan was not fond of leaving his friends in the dark. He flipped on the connection with the Command Central. "Sikerman, channel the observation video in here to the wardroom. I'll use the large intercom screen."

  He waited until the large screen brightened and revealed the slowly passing surface of the Crystal World. Actually the surface was not rolling away under the Sherbourne as imperceptibly as it had done before. The planet's increased rotational motion was now apparent.

  "We have not increased our pace," said Rhodan calmly. "Our flight shows an apparent increase of speed but it's due to the time-plane approximation. Col. Sikerman, cut in the magnification now and slow your speed enough so that surface details will be visible. You'll still have to watch your distance from the pursuing Druuf ships, however."

  The screen's image blurred momentarily. Then deserts and mountains came into view, moving more slowly across the fluorescent screen. This gave way to a scene that was so surprising that a wave of whisperings ran through the group of watchers.

  Previously the Crystal World's slow rate of existence had caused all motion to be imperceptible. All living creatures had appeared to be rigid and lifeless.

  Until now.

  There on the screen were hundreds of the caterpillars, crawling or walking about and carrying on their affairs as though they had never existed at a slower rate. There was now not the slightest time difference to be detected.

  The onlookers even recognized several inhabitants of Tats-Tor who had lost their own time-rate and had disappeared as a result of the interfacing of the time dimensions. They lived down there on the Crystal World at the same rate of motion and consciousness as the caterpillars—which now included those on board the Sherbourne.

  A groan was heard—probably from someone who now comprehended the meaning and purpose of Rhodan's demonstration.

  Ivan Ragov spoke up. "I began to suspect this change when I was investigating the caterpillars in their cages and noticed that their movements were becoming quite perceptible. It is not their plane of time that is adapting to ours but rather our own that has lost its former real-time ratio. We have slowed down. In actuality we are living at a rate here that is 72,000 times slower than that of the people on Earth or the crew of the Drusus . Each second in this state He broke and put his face in his hands.

  Rhodan went to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "That's nothing but a pure hypothesis, Ragov. Nobody knows really what the time-lapse is and we should take pains not to jump to any premature conclusions. At any rate we now know that we are in the other time-plane in the full sense of the word and we can't dodge the fact that we'll be lost if we don't return to our own universe as quickly as possible. But that's a long way from saying that the men on the Drusus are growing 20 hours older with each passing second here. The relationship between the two planes of existence is flexible and not calculable. We don't know the natural laws existing between them which are the basis of the differentials in effect."

  Khrest, who had been speaking in undertones with Atlan, now came forward. "Is there an explanation for the phenomenon?" he asked.

  Rhodan shook his head. "That was the next question, Khrest. Unfortunately, for the time being I have to answer no. Do you have an explanation—or Atlan?"

  "We have one," said Khrest while suppressing an expression of pride. "However, we can't guarantee that it's correct. An event of this nature has never happened during the past 10,000 years. It's completely unique—but so are our technical methods—and the warp-field generator is a case in point. Of course we know that it made it possible for us to penetrate the other time-plane but who would venture to say what effect it may itself be exerting on the function of time here? Nobody! For hours now we've been under the influence of the warp-generator's energy field, which surrounds the entire planet. Also, we have repeatedly flown through the time wall structure, or the time bubble that surrounds the generator like a dark dome. It isn't possible to break through that wall at ground level but we succeeded in getting through it at higher elevations where it is weaker. Do we know what effect that may have on our own time-lapse rate?"

  He was met with silence. Even Rhodan didn't answer. He began to suspect that Khrest might have solved the puzzle, even though it wasn't much help to anybody right now. Everybody knew that they were the prisoners of another time... a time-sphere which when embedded in the normal universe gradually broke it up and over-flooded it.

  Rhodan asked himself secretly if in the long run such a phenomenon constituted such a terrible misfortune but then he forced himself back to the hard and unrelenting present.

  "We shall now attack the Druufs," he said, and he saw in the hopeful faces of his officers and friends that no one had thought of any other possibility.

  Actually,was there any other...?

  • • •

  The two pursuing torpedo ships had come closer. Rhodan again reduced his own velocity and gave the order to Pucky and Ras to make an immediate attack. The African took his raygun along. He knew what conditions to expect on board the Druuf ship and was fairly confident he could make it crash in a hurry. The spherical robots were relatively harmless and easy to overcome.

  On the other hand, Pucky again declined to take a weapon with him. He was also convinced he could take care of the enemy.

  Seconds before their teleport jump, something of grave import occurred at another location...

  • • •

  "Master, they are becoming visible."

  The announcement came from the Druufs' fleet commander whose ships were deployed around the light-ring in an effort to prevent the strangers from returning to their own time-plane. The Druuf who had been addressed as "Master" reacted in surprise.

  "Visible? How are we supposed to take that? What do you mean?"

  "They're still faster than we are—about twice as fast. But now we can see them without reference to your viewscreen."

  "How do I appear to you?" asked the Druuf tensely.

  "Normal and in the same relative time-rate."

  The Druuf breathed a sigh of relief. "Then it is the aliens who have been absorbed into our own time-plane," he confirmed. "We have won. Keep the
light-ring under bombardment so that they can't get away. Now we will catch them alive in order to learn how they came into our sphere without losing their own time-rate initially. Take up their pursuit. I'll shut off my equipment and go to normal ratio."

  "Three of my ships have been chasing the strangers. One of them has crashed."

  The Druuf pondered over this information. Then he said: "If the aliens will not cease their resistance, I shall bring the large ship into the attack. We shall continue in contact with each other."

  With a jerk of his massive limbs, he drew back on the flight lever. The velocity of the giant ship decreased rapidly. Slowly it approached the surface of the Crystal World...

  • • •

  Pucky landed with a jolt on the hard metal deck of the corridor. He stood unmoving in order to listen but the 'thump-drag-thump' patter of robot feet was absent this time. They must not have noted his arrival. On the other hand he could be wrong: they might be lying in ambush somewhere already and waiting to jump on him.

  It really didn't happen very often that Pucky felt fear. Actually it wasn't fear that suddenly came over him so much as it was an uncanny awareness of being alone. He wasn't especially reassured by the knowledge that he could teleport to safety at any moment.

  Somewhere down in the body of the metal ship, machinery was pounding and throbbing. Nobody could venture to guess what kind of propulsion system the Druufs had developed. Still it was to be assumed that they had attained to the speed of light and surpassed it; without that technical prerequisite there could be no interstellar space travel.

  Pucky began to waddle softly along the passageway, ready in an instant to teleport to safety. His assignment was to incapacitate the ship, nothing more. In all probability there was no living creature other than himself on board, which made his task the simpler. But just the same...

  One of the doors was standing open. It led into a large room which had the customary portholes in the walls instead of viewscreens. Pucky recognized the passing landscape of the Crystal World which was now no longer crystallized. Life down below had awakened from its relative paralysis. Not the slightest trace of difference was detectable now between his own motions and theirs.