A Touch of Eternity

by Perry Rhodan

  • • •

  Pucky did not lose consciousness.

  He could see and hear and he could sense the crippling effect of the shock weapon as he felt the pain shoot through his nervous system. He could not defend himself.

  He was unable to move as he saw the robot come nearer. The golden spheres on its antennas still spewed out their blue flames, which rushed toward him and held him fast. Even though Pucky could not concentrate enough to make a teleport jump he was still fully aware of his situation and was able to analyze it.

  He had fallen into the hands of the Druufs, those unknown beings who had absorbed them all into their time-plane. Perhaps he would soon be facing the first Druuf that anybody in the universe had ever looked upon but he would have to pay a high price for it. Maybe even his life.

  Most of all, Pucky was angry at himself for his carelessness. Like all high intelligences he was of course conceited. That this should happen to him of all people—or mouse-beavers, anyway—was a bitter blow to his pride. Now he was in the trap and all his miraculous faculties were useless to him. That part of his brain which he had used for teleporting seemed to be numb and it was impossible for him to activate it. In the psychokinetic department he was now as helpless as a newborn baby. And where telepathy was concerned he lacked the opportunity to try it out on anybody because robots just weren't cut out for that sort of thing.

  The rectangular monster stood directly in front of him now. All its arms and tentacles hung loosely down its metal body and only the antennas were still busy spewing out their bluish sparks of energy. They were sufficient to keep Pucky incapacitated.

  And yet he fancied that he jerked slightly in reaction when a giant shadow loomed in the doorway and a second robot came into the room. It was an exact copy of the first colossus. They both raised an arm and placed their 'bands' together.

  Was this a kind of contact connection and communication system?

  It must be so. Pucky's secret hope of freeing himself from the spell he was under was not fulfilled. He tried in vain to overcome the nerve paralysis and to activate his mutant brain. But the pains increased immediately to such an extent that he quickly desisted in his efforts.

  He at least tried to turn his eyes enough to see the portholes. To his amazement the Sherbourne had disappeared. At one side he could see the yellow-white sun in the midst of space. Before the sun had been red because of the Doppler effect but now even that had normalized itself.

  The ship must have altered its course. As far as Pucky could determine, it was hurtling out into space toward an unknown destination. From moment to moment, a blind teleport jump was becoming more dangerous. A jump into the outer vacuum of the void would be risky because if he didn't dematerialize instantly he would be lost. Circumstances permitting, maybe only a second would be enough to orient himself—but it might also be just enough to kill him.

  The surface of the Crystal World turned briefly past his field of vision in one of the portholes. There he saw a mushroom-shaped cloud rising which could only have been caused by an atomic explosion.

  Pucky breathed a sigh of relief. At least he could still breathe—which was a good thing, because neither he nor Ras were wearing a spacesuit.

  In fact it just now came to his attention that there was a breathable atmosphere in the Druuf ships, even though there were only robots on board. And what kind of sense did that make, after all?

  But why waste brainpower on things that couldn't be answered?

  So Ras had been successful. There below on the Crystal Planet the second ship had detonated. The mushroom cloud couldn't have been caused by anything else.

  If Pucky had been able to he might have heaved a sigh of envy. But his relief was greater than any such egotistical emotion at the moment. The Druufs had lost another ship and by now Rhodan must already know that his little friend Pucky had fallen into the hands of the enemy.

  The void of space beyond the ports was not entirely black. A veil of thousands of stars lay across the absolute darkness of Infinity and imparted a silvery shimmer of seeming timelessness to it.

  But the silvery shimmer was suddenly interrupted. Pucky saw it out of the corner of an eye: a black shadow appeared among the stars, revealing an oval outline. It approached swiftly. It was impossible for Pucky to estimate the length of the shadow but he guessed that it must be at least more than half a mile from end to end.

  A ship?

  Did the Druufs have such large ships as this? They were probably the ruling intelligences of the alien time-plane and had no doubt known space travel for thousands of years already...

  No, that wasn't right. According to Earth time-reckoning it might be but from the Druuf point of view...

  Pucky suddenly caught his breath. He became aware of the fact that the Druuf spaceships must have been shooting through the galaxy even a million years ago—without ever seeing anybody.

  A fight jar ran through the ship as it bumped against the giant. A loud clanging sound pervaded the room as clamps went around the body of the torpedo-shaped ship and the two vessels joined together.

  The robots terminated their soundless conversation. The new arrival turned and left the room again.

  The portholes closed suddenly without any additional lighting being turned on in the room. In the semi-darkness Pucky could hardly make out any details. The robot's dark silhouette loomed up against the dimly glowing wall but even if Pucky could not have seen it the darting blue lightning from the ball ends of its antennas could not be overlooked.

  And then, very suddenly, the blue lightning were extinguished.

  At first Pucky was oblivious to this because he was so relieved by the abrupt cessation of the pains in his nervous system, to which he had almost become accustomed. It was as though his brain had been enclosed by a steel kettle, the walls of which miraculously melted away and left him free.

  It was only then that Pucky understood what had happened: The robot had released him from its power because it was confident of being able to handle its catch. Here, docked firmly together with the Druuf flagship, it was impossible for the prisoner to escape.

  Pucky's first impulse was to teleport away. But then he couldn't resist one parting gesture. He would rather put himself in danger again than to leave the scene of his mortification without the satisfaction of revenge.

  The robot did not know what was happening to it when all 12 of its tentacles and both antennas were bent backwards, gripped by an invisible force that came out of nowhere. In its interior, electronic equipment obeyed command impulses as it strove to resist the invisible enemy but its efforts achieved an opposite effect.

  The first fuses burned out; then a spark hissed behind the metal skin and melted important connections. A second short-circuit caused the colossus to tremble. From the bent antennas streamed bluish rays of energy but they wandered haphazardly to the ceiling and exploded there. Pucky felt no effect.

  The monster made a final effort to defend itself against the attack, which it could only assume was being delivered by the small prisoner, but that was the end.

  Pucky sprang back, startled, as the final fuse burned through with a loud report. The great robot swayed and then fell helplessly to the deck as though it had lost its sense of balance. Somewhere in its innards there was a rattling and tinkling as if someone were throwing a jar of screws and bolts around. On the thing's breastplate or backplate appeared a glowing red spot and Pucky began to realize that it was high time to become scarce.

  He concentrated on the rocky surface of the Crystal Planet, dematerialized and jumped.

  But he didn't get far.

  His rematerialization was a violent one and it did not occur in the place he had planned for it to happen.

  Pucky felt pains shooting through him as he began to regain his vision. He seemed to be falling into a bottomless abyss but he could breathe. Before he got himself set for another jump, a thought suddenly came into his brain. It was not his own thought but rather an alien impulse
that was impressed upon him. It must be the thought command of a Druuf.

  You are in no danger, alien, if you surrender to me.

  Pucky felt a wave of panic rising in him. He was afraid to encounter a Druuf. He had changed his mind. He didn't want to see any Druuf. He wanted to go back to the Sherbourne —to Rhodan and his other friends.

  He envisioned Rhodan's face before him while desperately closing his eyes and activating the appropriate area of his brain for teleportation.

  He jumped blindly into the unknown in order to get away from the Druuf.

  The shaft or abyss he had been falling into disappeared.

  There was light around him.

  When he opened his eyes again, he stood in a green meadow under a blue sky. The grass came up to his haunches and the air was mild and fragrant as only the air of Earth could be.

  Two yards away stood Perry Rhodan, who seemed to be looking upward at the drifting clouds with a dreamy expression on his face.

  Pucky didn't understand what it was all about but just the sight of Rhodan made him forget everything. He didn't know how he had come here but there was Rhodan. It was impossible for him to mistake him for someone else.

  "Perry!" exclaimed Pucky in a shrill voice and waddled over to his big friend. "Perry, I'm so happy that I was able to escape. Are you mad at me because I...?"

  Rhodan did not move. He acted as though he had not perceived the mouse-beaver's words. He continued to look into the sky as though he was searching there for something.

  Pucky was astonished. However they had come here or whatever trick had been played on them by the other dimension, the main fact remained that they were out of danger.

  "Perry!" The mouse-beaver instinctively toned down his shrill voice. "All I did was to make a jump and..."

  While speaking, he had straightened up to reach out his hand to Rhodan. But Pucky's hand went right through Rhodan. It found nothing—where the hand of a friend should have been...

  • • •

  Without taking his eyes from the forward viewscreen, Col. Sikerman adjusted his controls. "The black ship is slowing down, sir. Shall I...?"

  "Keep your distance, Sikerman. Before we attack we have to know whether or not it's alone."

  They soon observed that it was not alone.

  The silhouette of a tremendous elongated ship emerged into visibility on the viewscreen. It was a good 3,000 feet in length and seemed to be floating in space. The nature of its propulsion system was not apparent. There were no portholes in its black hull. Like a life, less but sinister shadow the giant waited there in the void for the smaller ship, which slowly approached it and was finally grasped by long magnetic clamps.

  "The mothership of the Druufs!" Rhodan spoke softly as though he feared that those on board the black ship would hear him. "That's what it has to be! I wonder if they've spotted us."

  Col. Sikerman shrugged. "Most likely they have, sir. But maybe they're not worried about an attack since they have a hostage: Pucky."

  Rhodan turned to Marshall. "Still nothing, John? Don't you get anything from Pucky at all?"

  "Only now and then but they're foggy and incomplete. Their intensity wavers considerably. Sometimes the impulses come through stronger, then they are weak again so that I can hardly pick them up. Unfortunately they still don't make any sense."

  "At any rate Pucky is still alive and on board the smaller ship," said Rhodan. He hesitated a moment and then spoke to Ras. "Tschubai, you're going to have to make a jump pretty soon. I don't see any other way of getting Pucky out of there."

  "We can attack," suggested Sikerman. "With our weapons..."

  "...we'd do a nice job of frying Pucky for good," concluded Rhodan realistically. "No, this time there's nothing much can be done with mere brute force. Only the mutants can give us an edge."

  Atlan approached and placed his hand on Rhodan's shoulder. "When your little friend is back safe, we'd better make a serious attempt to get back into our own time-plane. I'm deeply concerned, Barbarian..."

  "That, my friend, makes two of us," admitted Rhodan but he stood there motionlessly as though he feared the Immortal would remove his hand. "We have stayed here far too long already. But I still don't know how we can break through the energy curtain. The risk is too great."

  "The risk of staying here longer and losing all the time in the universe is considerably greater." Atlan shook his head. "During just the few seconds it would take for a crash breakthrough it couldn't possibly wreck the Sherbourne ."

  "And the Druufs, Atlan? We wanted to know what they looked like and who they are. Are we never to find that out?"

  "We'll find it out—maybe very soon, when Pucky is back with us again."

  Rhodan turned his attention once more to the viewscreen and was about to say something when John Marshall cried out in astonishment. "Pucky! I'm getting him! His thoughts are coming through real strong now! He's able to get away but he's holding back. A rectangular robot and with antennas that terminate in golden spheres..."

  "That's the same kind of robot that I ran into," interjected Ras swiftly.

  But Marshall was not to be diverted. "He wants to knock out the robot before he comes back. He doesn't know where we are. He doesn't seem to receive my thoughts. Maybe he's too busy to pick them up because he's making an attack..."

  Everyone listened breathlessly to the words of the telepath as he depicted the fight between the mouse-beaver and the robot—as far as he could extract the details from Pucky's racing thoughts. There wasn't too much of it but at last he could report success.

  "Wiped out! Pucky did it! Now he's concentrating on a jump. He's thinking of you, sir! Now—he's jumped..." Marshall paused for a moment and looked about in the Command Central as though expecting to see Pucky. "He's gone, I can't pick up any more of his thoughts. But Pucky jumped!"

  Rhodan's eyes narrowed suddenly. His glance swept first to Khrest, then Atlan, to finally return to Marshall. "He has jumped...?"

  "I've lost all contact, sir. He must have jumped—or he is dead."

  Rhodan's face became hard, as though hewn out of stone. For long moments it was completely silent in the semicircular room. No one said a word.

  Then Rhodan turned to Sikerman. "Course full ahead to the two Druuf vessels. We attack!" He stepped over to the intercom and pressed a switch. "This is a top alert! All battle stations stand by! Capt. Aurin—fire ready with the teletransmitter!"

  He was using his most effective weapon first.

  The teletransmitter originated on the planet Wanderer, the synthetic world of the Immortal, a mysterious being of pure energy who had granted Rhodan a prolongation of life. The transmitter was capable of teleporting material objects, from one second to the next, to any desired distance. When the corresponding forcefields cut across the giant ship out there it would simply disappear, just as if it had never been there. Somewhere at a distance of 1,000 or 10,000 light-years it would materialize in the 4th dimensional universe and be lost in time and space.

  It only took the Sherbourne 10 seconds to slacken its pace and go into attack position. The defense screens built up rapidly in order to fend off any enemy energy beams.

  The intercom speaker crackled and then Aurin's voice was heard: "Transmitter aimed at target. We await the firing order, sir!"

  "Wait!" replied Rhodan.

  He lay in wait for the first action from the Druufs... which wasn't long in coming.

  The magnetic clamps unfastened themselves from the stern of the smaller ship and set it free. They retracted swiftly into the hull. A shimmering wall of energy built itself up between the Druuf ships and the Sherbourne . The dark shadows of the two enemy vessels seemed to hover inside an almost invisible bubble.

  Such energy defense screens had no influence on the effects of the teletransmitter; it could also teleport the screen itself through the 5th dimension if it were necessary.

  But the Druufs did not seem to be disposed to surrender themselves to an unknown fate without
a battle. In the bow of the large ship, dark hatches slid to one side. Then the spiral barrel of an electronic cannon crept forward out of a recess and its muzzle aimed itself at the Sherbourne.

  In the background Khrest released the air from his lungs with an audible sigh. His tension had eased, as he perceived the intent of the enemy—the uncertainty had been worse than the actuality.

  "There—!" Atlan called out involuntarily as the brilliant bolt of lightning shot forth and struck the Sherbourne 's screen. The energy shot sprayed out like a fan and was dispersed.

  Rhodan nodded grimly. "And I had wanted so very much to see what a Druuf looked like. It's a shame!" He bent forward slightly without taking his eyes from the screen. "Aurin! Fire—10 seconds duration—on the smaller ship. Maybe that'll make the giant more reasonable."

  Actually not much was to be seen happening during the following 10 seconds. At first it appeared that the shell of energy around the two enemy vessels intensified its shimmering effect. Then the shell broke in two only to reform again. But this time only around the larger ship. The smaller one hung there for a moment without protection, somehow deserted by its giant brother—then it simply disappeared without a trace.

  But not without some very remarkable side effects.

  The teletransmitter had been developed in the normal universe and thus obeyed the normal laws of time and space. Even the Sherbourne 's lapse into the alien plane of time could not alter that fact. The small black Druuf vessel was torn out of the 4th dimension with unimaginable force and hurled into the spaceless and timeless 5th dimension. In the 5th dimension of the alien time-plane! The force and velocity with which this event occurred was 72,000 times faster than any normal material teleportation. The effect was like that of a high-speed object striking water. Time itself in the alien plane took on the characteristic of solid matter under the impact of the lightning transition.

  The teleported ship practically crashed against a wall of time that had acquired mass and substance.

  It blew into atoms but at the same time caused a fracture in the time wall. Without Rhodan or any of his companions on the Sherbourne realizing it, they were all thrown back some distance into the past. From a purely superficial standpoint this was not noticeable to the observers because the visible effects were limited to the immediate vicinity of the impact.