by Perry Rhodan
Yet this temporal catastrophe served to save Rhodan from a very tragic surprise because if it had not occurred he would have lost many years of actual time—years in which perhaps the Solar Empire might have crumbled and died.
Thus it was that all he saw for a moment was a shimmering hole at the place where the black ship had been. Even while he was registering this in his brain and was searching for an explanation of the phenomenon, the hole closed up again; everything was as before.
"We're rid of that one," said Col. Sikerman, unimpressed. "And now.
"Capt. Aurin!" Rhodan called into the intercom. "Stand by with the transmitter but fire only on my expressed order."
"Understood!" came the unemotional answer.
"Our defense screens won't take much more of that Druuf fire," warned Sikerman worriedly. "If we don't attack..."
"Let's sweat it out a bit longer," interrupted Rhodan. "After all, the Druufs have seen with their own eyes what kind of a weapon we have. They should act accordingly."
"If they have any eyes at all," said Atlan..."
6/ RHODAN'S GHOST?
Pucky stared fearfully at his hand that had passed through Rhodan. Then he came to realize that his hand was made of matter and thus had to be real. If anything around here wasn't real, it had to be Rhodan.
His eyes wandered to Rhodan's ghost, for the apparition could be nothing else. But the earth under his feet, the grass—all of that was present, after all, otherwise he'd not be standing...
Pucky didn't have a chance to develop further conjectures. An invisible hand came out of nowhere, grasped him and hurled him downward into the darkness of a timeless Infinity. He felt himself dematerialize as though he had concentrated on a teleport jump.
But it happened involuntarily.
Pucky could not have ventured to guess how long this condition persisted, if indeed it were possible to measure such a situation in terms of time standards. Suddenly he was again able to sense and feel—and it was a comfortable warmth that now surrounded him.
Warmth meant life and materialization.
And a functioning set of brains!
He opened his eyes for orientation and if need be to jump, no matter where. But even before he could recognize anything he heard an astonished shout of relief: "There he is—Pucky!"
Simultaneously streams of thought inundated him with a wave of joy and sympathy.
"Yes, there he is," said Rhodan also, and for a moment he forgot the great ship of the Druuf. "Pucky, you sure thunged (Contraction of thumb-hung, from hung by the thumbs? —21st century slang for 'ran us through the wringer') us! Why didn't you jump right away as soon as you realized you'd only be taking revenge on a robot?"
In obvious cogitation, the mouse-beaver studied the faces of those who were present in the Command Central. It seemed difficult for him to remember the event. He finally looked at the viewscreen. "How long has it been," he asked, "since the small ship has been gone?"
Rhodan waved off a remark by Marshall and interjected: "Just a few minutes, Pucky. I presume that you've been on board the large Druuf ship in the meantime. What did you find there?"
The mouse-beaver slowly shook his head. For a second he looked into the timeless eyes of Atlan as though he were searching there for an answer to his secret questions. Then he announced: "It was just 10 seconds ago that I attempted a jump here from the small ship—but in between I materialized someplace else. On the Earth."
Rhodan suppressed an exclamation of bewilderment as he saw the astonished looks of the others. In Pucky's assertion were two impossibilities at the same time. They had to be proved or disproved.
"Pucky, you couldn't have jumped only 10 seconds ago because it's already been three minutes since we atomized that ship with the teletransmitter. So you must have made a mistake in your timing." Rhodan drew a deep breath. "And that you were on Earth in the meantime can only be a hallucination—or what...?"
In the mouse-beaver's brown eyes flickered a shadow of fear before the unexplainable and uncanny that could yield no answer. Almost pleadingly he clasped his little arms to his chest. "Perry, I jumped 10 seconds before I arrived here and I was also on the Earth. I saw the blue sky, I smelled the familiar air—and I saw you! "
Rhodan recoiled slightly. With a quick glance he reassured himself that Col. Sikerman wasn't letting the black ship of the Druufs out of his eyes and was ready at any moment to react instantly. "You saw me? "
Pucky nodded. "You stood in a broad meadow with high grass and blooming flowers. There were no clouds in the sky. I materialized close to you, not two yards away. I called to you but you didn't hear me. Without any sign of recognition you remained standing there while I approached you. I wanted to shake hands. And then..."
Pucky's voice trailed off with a pitiable sound of genuine anguish. The recollection of the weird experience was about to overwhelm the mouse-beaver who was normally plucky and shrewd but when Khrest came to him and placed a hand on his shoulder he pulled himself together again. "Perry, my hand went through you. I didn't contact you but just your ghost or something. Oh no, it wasn't any dream!" He looked down at himself and suddenly stooped to brush his feet with his fingers. "The pollen from the flowers is still there."
Rhodan glanced uncomprehendingly at Khrest and Atlan. "How is it possible? Maybe a hallucination?"
Atlan came closer. He nodded confidentially to Pucky and then turned to Rhodan. "No, Barbarian, it was not a hallucination. There are things that we still cannot comprehend because they are beyond the capacity of our understanding. But we should at least attempt to find a logical explanation. So we will presuppose that Pucky has not deluded himself—with the exception of the duration of his jump. In that area there has to be a deception because we knocked out the ship that Pucky was on three minutes prior to his appearance here. So Pucky was underway for a total of three minutes, even though he believes he only took 10 seconds for his jump."
"Keep going, old friend," invited Rhodan as the Arkonide made a slight pause. "Don't leave us up in the air."
Atlan dampened their expectations. "I'll have to disappoint you. I don't know much more than that. During his teleportation, Pucky was in some kind of time-field. He concentrated on you, Rhodan. One thing is certain: At the moment Pucky jumped, you were not here in this spot but—on the Earth."
"That's crazy!" said Rhodan, shaking his head.
But Atlan persisted. "Let us grant that Pucky sprang into some kind of an energy barrier that the Druufs had placed around their ship. Who says that it was even an energy barrier—or still is? Can it not also be a time barrier? Pucky jumped into it and was transplanted either into the past or the future. Yet his brain had to obey the command to bring him to Rhodan. However, you were still on Earth—or back there again as the case may be. So Pucky transferred to the Earth. That's the only explanation I can find for the phenomenon."
Khrest nodded slowly and went back to his seat.
But Rhodan still wasn't satisfied. "And why was I a ghost? Didn't you hear Pucky say that his hand simply passed through me?"
Atlan nodded, not particularly impressed by the problem. "We don't know the effects or consequences of a time trip. However I can well imagine that a meeting between two people would not necessarily be on a material basis if they were separated by past, present or future. In other words: Pucky saw a Rhodan as he once was or as he will only be in the future. And you, Rhodan, were not aware of him at all."
"Fantastic!" murmured Rhodan, although he was now convinced that Atlan might have a point in his argument. "So you're saying that Pucky dipped into the future for 10 seconds?"
"Or into the past," confirmed Atlan with a touch of his unfathomable and mysterious personality. "Of course I'm not able to explain why he didn't stay there. After the 10 seconds he came back into the present. Otherwise he couldn't be on board the Sherbourne ."
"Then if that's so," interjected Khrest, "Pucky must have succeeded in breaking through both time-planes. He must have lived
for 10 seconds at the real-time rate of the normal universe and then by returning he again lapsed into the alien time-plane's time-rate. So the whole thing is a bit shaky, to say the least."
"The whole thing is pure madness!" said Marshall, breaking into the ensuing silence. "It goes against all natural laws and understanding. A person would have to be crazy to believe—"
"On the contrary," Atlan interrupted him calmly. "It would be quite insane not to believe in such possibilities because then a man would deny himself the chance of fathoming the ultimate mysteries of the Universe."
This time, there were no further contradictions.
• • •
When the telepathic contact broke off, the Druuf knew that the prisoner had escaped. Almost at the same moment he noted on the viewscreen that his unknown opponent was going into an attack position.
"Activate the time barrier!" he commanded.
At the same time he had the magnetic clamps pulled in and released the smaller ship. The bow cannon was extended and it fired off its ineffective shot at the enemy.
And then—in the transition from one second to the next—the smaller fighting ship of the Druuf disappeared. It seemed as though it had gone into a hypertransit.
His connection with the 17 ships surrounding the light-ring was still intact and clear. The Druuf utilized the ensuing pause to inform himself of the general status of things. So far nobody from the other plane had attempted to come to the alien's assistance.
"Maintain energy curtain! Repulse all attacks! Stay together! The enemy can only destroy our ships on an individual basis."
That was pure supposition, nothing else. For what did they know so far about their opponent? How had he been able to break through the time wall? And to what purpose?
The Druuf brooded silently and sought to answer his own questions. He arrived at nothing except a decision to make one last try at overcoming the unknown enemy.
The Kruukhs lived on an isolated planet at the edge of the universe and had no actual civilization of their own but they had served the Druufs for thousands of years.
This was understandable in view of their unusual characteristics.
• • •
Atlan was standing by Rhodan when the shimmering energy screen—or time curtain—suddenly vanished from around the Druuf ship. At the same time the barrel of the energy weapon pulled back into the black ship; the bow hatch closed again. It looked as if the Druufs were giving up the attack.
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Rhodan uncertainly.
They stared at the viewscreen and searched for an answer. Far beneath them the Crystal Planet turned slowly on its axis. Life on its surface had awakened and there was no longer any difference to be noted between the two time-planes.
Under other circumstances Rhodan would have taken interest in the caterpillar civilization and might have taken a hand in the task of setting free the Arkonides and other races of people who had been swept away from their own worlds by the moving time front, but now that he was also a prisoner of this alien dimension he considered it more important to think first of his own safety and return.
With their respective propulsion systems inactive, the Sherbourne and the large Druuf ship hovered at a meager distance from one another and orbited about the Crystal Planet.
Atlan raised his arm to point. "A lock is opening." And after a slight pause he added: "But that's no weapon port."
Col. Sikerman looked questioningly at Rhodan. His right hand was on the command switches for the defense weapons. Capt. Rodes Aurin was standing by in command of the Fire Control Center.
Rhodan shook his head almost imperceptibly. Just like all the rest, he stared at the viewscreen which clearly showed the open lock of the Druuf ship. For the first time humans were to be given a glimpse of the inside of the black giant.
Nothing much could be made out.
Probably it was only some kind of airlock which allowed entry and exit to and from the ship.
Were the Druufs about to...?
A dark shadow became visible. It was not much higher than about three feet, perhaps half as broad and thick. Sikerman instantly switched on the magnification and they saw that it was some creature or entity enclosed in a spacesuit. Exhibiting both arms and legs, it now stepped to the outer edge of the lock. There it remained and waited. The men on board the Sherbourne had the feeling that they were being watched.
"What is it, anyway?" asked Rhodan, not expecting an answer.
Almost simultaneously, Pucky and John Marshall said: "It's thinking!"
Both telepaths were able to detect the initially weak impulses quite plainly, even though they didn't know how to make sense out of them. The sentient being must be thinking in completely alien and unknown thought channels.
"Do you think it's a Druuf?"
Marshall shrugged. "I don't know—but actually I would have imagined the Druufs to be different."
"It's wrong to even try to conceptualize in that sense," said Rhodan in a slight tone of rebuke. "Now everybody on your toes! That defense screen over there is gone now. It means that we'll be receiving a visitor. Sikerman, shut our screen off too."
The Colonel looked at him in startled amazement. "But—if a sudden attack follows, sir...? Any energy weapon can wipe us out then."
"Do what I tell you, Sikerman! At the moment we are in no danger. We're receiving a visitor. Look for yourself. That fellow's already left his ship and is floating across to us."
They all saw it.
The figure in the spacesuit had deftly pushed itself from the threshold of the airlock and was slowly approaching the Sherbourne . Almost at the same time the energy screen of the Terranian ship snapped off. The distance between the two opposed vessels was at the most 1500 feet.
"He's measured the distance well," said Atlan, breaking into the waiting silence. "He'll make it even without any further corrections. Aren't you going to greet him at the airlock, Barbarian?"
Without taking his eyes from the screen, Rhodan said, "I'll stay in the Command Central. Pucky will go."
"Pucky?"
"Yes, Pucky. If I'm not mistaken, this alien ambassador may have something in common with him. Certainly the smaller stature and the telepathic capability, in any event. Well, Pucky? Are you going?"
The mouse-beaver waddled to the door. "Naturally I'm going. Where do you want me to bring the visitor?"
"Bring him here. But be careful! We don't know who he is or what intentions have brought him to us. Try to learn more from his thoughts. And at the slightest sign of a betrayal..."
"I understand," growled Pucky and he disappeared outside in the corridor.
Marshall looked at the door after it had closed. "I should have gone with him, Chief."
Rhodan shook his head. "Whoever the visitor may be, we should not frighten him. Pucky is small and looks relatively harmless—that is, from our point of view. We are about twice as big as the alien, which is a handicap for him. He'll be in for a surprise soon enough when he confronts us here."
"Well then I can at least try to keep a thought contact with Pucky," suggested Marshall. He did not intend to ignore his bad premonitions.
Rhodan had no objections.
Now the alien was seen more clearly on the viewscreen, or at least his spacesuit. Then he glided laterally from the field of vision and was lost to the sight of the viewers.
Meanwhile, Pucky had teleported to the lock. There he slipped into his own custom-made spacesuit and closed the inner door of the airlock. Then he evacuated the air from the chamber and opened the outer lock.
The visitor was still 50 yards away and was approaching the lock with a remarkable accuracy, just as though he had previous knowledge of its location. Naturally this could have been coincidence but Pucky didn't believe much in coincidences.
I come in peace. The thought came clearly into his alerted brain. If you are able to receive thoughts, then you will know that I seek peace. Can you understand me?
Be
fore Pucky made up his mind to answer, he thought it over. He still had enough time for cautious cogitation. He probed for Marshall and found mental contact. With lightning swiftness the questions and answers went back and forth while Pucky kept his screens up in the direction of the alien so that the latter would not be able to eavesdrop on the telepathic conversation.
Finally he dropped the screen and asked: Who are you?—thereby revealing that he was a telepath. During his telepathic contact with Marshall, the latter had conferred with Rhodan and Rhodan had suggested that Pucky might as well reveal the secret. What was the use of hiding it when a whole corps of gifted mutants was at their disposal?
I am Kruukh, returned the clearly detectable answer. The Masters have sent me to you.
So this wasn't a Druuf either, observed Pucky with relief. They had sent somebody else. The mouse-beaver didn't know why but he feared the actual Druufs, whoever they were. It was an instinctive timidity that he could not explain.
We are waiting for you, Kruukh.
The alien landed with a light jolt on the hull of the Sherbourne and then stepped into the airlock. He seemed a stranger to fear or misgivings of any kind.
You are the Commander of this ship?
No, just one of his servants,
returned Pucky cautiously.
Now he had an opportunity to study the visitor while he closed the outer hatch and let the air stream in. He wanted to get out of the heavy suit as soon as possible—and maybe this would induce the alien to unmask himself in a similar manner. There was not much to be seen through the dully-shimmering faceplate. Nevertheless Pucky thought he recognized a face behind it.
Is our air breathable to you? he asked.
Yes, on our home world we have the same kind of atmosphere.
Pucky peeled out of the suit and hung it on its proper hook. At the same time he allowed the inner door to swing open.