by Perry Rhodan
Perry Rhodan
The Third Power #27
Planet of the Gods
The Springer onslaught on Earth is imminent – unless Perry Rhodan's Mutants can stop them. The Mutants penetrate to the heart of the Springer forces – Goszul, Planet of the Gods. With the aid of the Wily Vethussar the Mutants take on the Springers and bring their own brand of guerrilla warfare to the Planet of the Gods. Only they can save humanity – but the odds are stacked against them! This is the stirring story of–
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THE PLANET OF THE GODS
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1/ STRANGER FROM SPACE
Perry Rhodan had lust announced "We're eight light-days from 221-Tatlira and outside the range of the Springers' observation." His tone was casual, calm, as he sat with his back to the console aboard his ship the Stardust.
But the peculiar reddish eyes of the ice-and-fire alien from Arkon burned even redder in anger as Thora approached Perry Rhodan, scoffing: "Beyond their observation, you say! But to reach here you had to pass through two hypertransitions. Surely the Springers would be more than inept if they hadn't noticed."
Ignoring Thora's angry outbreak, Rhodan turned to his co-pilot. "Bell!"
Reginald Bell knew what was expected of him by his friend and commander. He snapped to attention for the Arkonide woman's benefit and reported in official tones: "Our structure sensors registered transitions at a rate of 55 per hour. Presumably Springer ships blasting off and landing on their base, Tatlira II."
Rhodan turned his head toward his severest critic. "Well, Thora? Satisfied?"
Thora was visibly exasperated to be treated in such a cavalier fashion and her indignation mounted swiftly. "I know exactly what you're thinking!" she exploded. "You assume that your own transitions went unnoticed among so many others. But what if you're mistaken."
Rhodan shrugged his shoulders. "Then we'll make another quick hytrans farther away to a place where the Springers won't suspect us to be."
Thora relaxed her antagonistic tone. Her voice softened to an almost pleading whisper. "Why won't you listen to my proposal, Perry? Why don't we fly to Arkon and ask the Galactic Imperium to come to our aid?"
Perry leaned forward in his executive chair so far that he almost reached Thora's hands. His eyes sought hers earnestly. "Let me explain the situation to you," he said, and there was no hint of condescension in his voice. "We learned from a Springer renegade that the patriarchs of the Springers convened their Great Conclave on the second planet of the sun Tatlira 1012, light-years from Earth. Four of our mutants—Marshall, Kakuta, Ishibashi and Yokida—were smuggled onto the renegade captain's ship, bound for Tatlira II, in order to convince the Springers, by applying their parapsychological powers, that an attack on Earth involved the risk of their own ultimate destruction.
"However our plan met with only partial success. One of the patriarchs decided to subject the outcast captain to a forcible brain analysis. We know that Marshall managed to prevent the critical cerebral probe by killing the traitorous captain and averted the menace of the patriarchs by the blast of an atomic bomb.
"But we still don't know how well Kitai Ishibashi, the Suggestor, has succeeded in making the patriarchs believe the bluff that we on Earth are armed to the teeth with irresistible weapons. We've no assurance that the Springers won't launch their offensive against Terra in the next few days—or hours, for that matter—in spite of our past efforts.
"But we have to know and we'll soon find out. We don't have time to fly to Arkon, to negotiate for weeks with the Galactic Council, perhaps with negative results. We must stay here and get in touch with at least one of our four mutants.
"I appreciate that you've made your offer out of a generous wish to help Terra and not as a scheme to return to your home. Nevertheless you'll have to agree that we simply don't have the time to accept your proposal."
He drew back his hands and got up. He took a few random steps, suddenly stood still, turned around and smiled at Thora. "Besides," he said softly, "Four of my men are stranded out there on Tatlira II. Barring an absolute necessity I will not permit them to fall into the hands of the enemy. So far we're not in such desperate straits as to leave four of our men in the lurch!"
• • •
Tako Kakuta contemplated his present predicament with unkind expletives. Here he was with his parapsychological potential of teleportation enabling him to transport himself anywhere within 30,000 miles as long as he was familiar. with the outstanding features of the locality and was constrained from making use of his gift. Instead he moved closely above the uneven grassy plain toward the town in the vicinity where they had landed.
They—Tako Kakuta himself, John Marshall the telepath, Kitai Ishibashi the Suggestor, and Tama Yokida the telekineticist—were invisible due to the deflector screens around their spacesuits powered by a small built-in generator.
After the mutants had started to influence the patriarchs' thinking by implanting fanciful ideas in their minds about the formidable defenses of Terra the old patriarch Etztak thwarted their operations at the Great Conclave. They were forced to kill Levtan, the renegade who wanted to ingratiate himself again with his people, as well as slay most of the patriarchs in the ensuing showdown. Finally they fled.
They flew over a vast ocean and landed on this island where time seemed to have stood still. The city they were approaching was situated only six miles from the place where they had come down. It consisted of high but narrow frame houses built so closely together that there were no streets or only very narrow ones running between them.
The city stretched out along the ocean and possessed a natural harbor that presented an unusual sight.
Sailing ships!
Sailing ships of all sizes and of many varied types but none of them more advanced than those on the seas on Earth at the beginning of the 18th century! And all this existed in a world the Springers regarded as their personal property and where they had come to meet in an important conference.
On Goszul's Planet.
Tako Kakuta adjusted the speed at which he moved toward the city. He didn't intend to land at the harbor before he had familiarized himself with the layout of the city. He was about three miles away from its western end. The little antigrav aggregate in his transport suit held him at a constant height of 15 feet above the ground. The terrain gradually inclined toward the city. It was covered with grass broken by low irregular outcroppings. Tako had concentrated all his attention on the city before him so that he failed to notice the grey shadow gliding rapidly across the land.
The object throwing the shadow raced through the air at considerable speed about 1500 feet above the ground. It had a circular cross section and displayed the general shape of a lens as could be seen by observers watching it execute a skilful turning manoeuvre 10 miles west of the city. It turned back toward the city, losing height and speed and giving off a slight whistling sound.
The whistling was the first sign of the threatening danger which Tako perceived. He turned around and discovered the lens-shaped craft a few hundred yards behind him.
He saw that it was one of the auxiliary ships which the big Springer spaceships carried on board by the score or even hundreds. His first impulse was to go down to the ground and seek cover. On second thought he realized that no cover could be more effective than the protection provided by his deflector field. He slowed down and hovered motionlessly in the air. The auxiliary ship came gradually closer. It didn't fly in a straight line but on a zigzag course as if searching for something.
Tako suddenly shuddered. What could they be looking for in this deserted prairie unless they pursued him? At the same moment T
ako became aware of his danger it had already become acute. The occupants of the auxiliary ship seemed to be certain of their target. A concentrated pale-green energy beam shot out from the outer rim of their craft. It missed Tako by less than 15 feet and streaked into the ground, blackened it and raised a cloud of vaporized grass. Tako reacted quickly in the only sensible manner: he focused on the spot where
Marshall, Ishibashi and Yokida waited for him and performed a hurried teleportation jump.
Due to his hasty imperfect concentration Tako landed about 600 feet from the temporary place where the companions he left behind had settled down. The terrain was hilly. It looked as if a high mountain had been covered with soil almost up to the top. Steep rocky peaks towered from the grassy surface to a height of 300 feet. Dust and soil swept up by winds had managed to gain a precarious hold on the steep walls of rock during the years and airborne grass seed had grown a dense cover of vegetation on the flanks of the peaks, changing their rugged contours to softer lines. The opposite side from the prevailing winds on Goszul's Planet, however, still dropped off almost vertically in a dangerous precipice.
Soon after their arrival the four fugitives had discovered a spacious cave on the west side of the highest hill and taken refuge. From there Tako Kakuta had started out half an hour earlier to look at the city. When Tako materialized again on his return he first gazed at the sky. The lens-shaped Springer ship was nowhere to be seen. Probably, Tako thought grimly, they're now racking their brains how it was possible for me to disappear so suddenly.
Now he began to worry about the still unexplained fact that the Springers had been able to spot him so easily although he was invisible.
He concentrated his mind on John Marshall's name. He was certain that the telepathic Marshall could pick up his thoughts over the distance of 600 feet between them. He endeavored to give a mental description of the incident which had just taken place. He wanted them to avoid the great danger to which they were exposed should they rush out of the cave. They would make perfect targets for any other Springer ships scrutinizing the fields from high altitudes. Marshall would be in a position to warn his friends.
Tako then floated back to the cave, taking time to observe the surroundings. Although the ship of the Springers failed to show up, Tako didn't draw the premature conclusion that they had lost his track. He reached the cave, switched off the deflector field and recounted the attack. When he noticed the consternation on his comrades' faces he added: "Of course it could be nothing but an accident!"
Marshall smiled. "Thank you for your tranquillizer pill, Tako!" Then he shook his head. "No, we can be quite sure that it was no accident. I've been afraid all along that the Springers have the means of detecting our transport suits. The suits contain a generator to supply the energy for the deflector screen, antigrav field and the protective shield against gunfire. All these aggregates together produce a considerable amount of scattered radiation and it isn't very difficult to pick up this radiation and pinpoint the source of its origin. If this assumption is correct the transport suits are no longer useful to us. On the contrary, they attract the Springers. We'll have to..."
"But we don't know what the critical distance is!" Yokida interjected anxiously. "If they can make us out from a distance of less than 300 feet it would still be preferable to wear the suits because of the protective shield."
Marshall raised his eyebrows. "If..." he answered with emphasis. "We don't know. Perhaps they can spot us from a hundred miles." He shook his head and stared with a vacant look. "No," he murmured, "I'm afraid we'll have to discard the suits and..."
Marshall suddenly threw up his head and gazed at the ceiling of the cave. Yokida wanted to say something but Marshall hastily waved him off. "Quiet!"
Two seconds later he got up. "They're above us," he said calmly. "Rather close at that. I can almost distinguish their individual thoughts. They know our location within 50 feet. Quick! Take off your Suits!"
Tako stripped off his suit and ran to the opening of the cave. Without sticking his head out of the exit he saw the auxiliary ship hovering 150 feet high above the grassland. In an instant he was ready with his plan. He returned to the others and demanded: "Give me your suits!" They looked at him questioningly. "Quick—no questions!" His team mates picked up their suits and handed them to Tako who had to carry the full weight of the heavy outfits. All aggregates were switched off. At the moment the Springers could receive virtually no impulses from them. "Wait here!" Tako told them. "I'll lead them astray."
Marshall called to him: "No, it's too dangerous. You won't..." But Tako had already disappeared. When he materialized again he could only guess how far away he had moved from the cave. He had leaped too swiftly to get his bearings. The Springer ship was out of sight. He had landed not far from a slim rock, jutting up high. He ran to seek cover behind it. There he put down his heavy load and donned one of the suits. He turned on the generator and waited.
• • •
Back at the cave Marshall posted himself behind the entrance and kept a sharp lookout. He glanced up at the Springers' ship.
"They don't move," he commented. "If we had more efficient weapons than our little impulse beamers, we could bring them down."
"Maybe if we fire all together..." Ishibashi started to suggest. But Marshall shouted at the same time: "They're flying away!"
Ishibashi and Yokida rushed forward. They saw the auxiliary ship gather speed and fade away southwest in the direction of the ocean.
"Tako has done it again!" Marshall exclaimed admiringly.
• • •
Tako Kakuta saw the ship coming.
It proceeded close above the ground in the same zig-zag course which he had observed earlier. The instruments with which the Springers tracked down the radiation of the transport suits didn't seem to be very efficacious. Tako waited till the craft was about to circle the rocky needle. Then he jumped, but only 300 feet.
The pilot seemed irritated. He kept flying around the rock without detecting the three transport suits carefully hidden by Tako but eventually he locked on to the radiation from the suit Tako wore. The ship discontinued its circular path and approached him again. Tako waited till it had once more come in a critical range and took another leap. This time he bounded twice as far away.
He felt certain that his impact shield could absorb such shots as could be fired from the auxiliary ship. But it was also certain that the impact shield would in that case require additional energy from the generator which would have to be diverted from the deflector field, thereby rendering Tako visible again. This Tako wanted to avoid in the interest of his own health, especially since the automatic target tracker was capable of holding him in sight as long as desired once it had locked on to an object like him. If necessary he could have been kept pinned down until reinforcements with weapons strong enough to pierce his protective screen arrived on the scene.
This time the pilot reacted in a different manner. As soon as he received the new signal he broke off the search at the previous spot and closed in on him. Tako repeated his jump and reached the shore half a mile away. The Springer ship kept close on his heels. Hiding behind a cliff Tako slipped out of his transport suit but left all aggregates running so that the Springers received the impulses with undiminished force. Then he teleported himself a few miles out over the ocean, carrying the suit in his arms. He appeared again a few feet above the water's surface, fell down into the water and dropped the suit. He swam away and watched the white outfit slowly sink into the ocean.
Then he transported himself back to the place where he had deposited the three other suits. He completed his job, covering up the transport suits with heavy boulders and making sure that it was impossible to detect them, all the more so as the residual radiation from the aggregates which had been turned off would be damped out in 15 minutes, furnishing not even the slightest impulse to the Springers. He performed another hop, getting within half a mile of the cave and vaulted with a final effort in t
he midst of his companions.
"Everything's fine," he grinned. "Right now they must be scratching their heads trying to figure out what we're doing at the bottom of the sea."
He related briefly what he had accomplished and Marshall slapped him on the shoulder. "Thank you very much, Tako!" he said simply.
Tako shrugged his shoulders. "You're welcome. But what are we going to do next?"
Marshall pointed out of the cave. "We'll walk to the city," he proposed. "We can't stay forever in this queer place!"
There were no objections.
• • •
The constantly rotating beam of theStardust 's sensor system struck a metallic object at the limit of its effective range, was reflected and made a green blip appear on the observation scope. The automatic monitoring system was, following Perry Rhodan's instructions, on constant alert and reported alarm stage No.3 in a fraction of a second. Rhodan was at once informed in the Command Center. He kept in touch with the Rangefinder Section and watched the identification of the object.
"Distance 42 x 106 miles. Velocity 11.4 x 104 miles per second. Component in our direction..."
Seconds later: "Object measures less than 300 feet, sir!"
Another few seconds later: "The object is cylinder-shaped, sir! Length 250 feet, diameter approximately 30 feet."
And finally: "Movement apparently directed by steering. The object is a spaceship."
It had been quite obvious to Rhodan. The craft seemed to come straight from 221-Tatlira. A Springer ship from the depth of space. Rhodan called the Defense and Security officer. "Sensor shield?"
"Functions in perfect order, sir! The alien could have located us already without the shield. We're continuously receiving impulses from him."
The field of the sensor shield surrounding the Stardust was as new as it was effective. The device prevented the reflection of wave beams up to very high intensities and above this limit it was capable of confusing all approaching opponents by creating a minor reflex indicating a distance of millions of miles when the Stardust was only a few hundred thousand away.