by Perry Rhodan
For precisely these reasons they decided to seek shelter on a sailing ship, provided they could throw their pursuers off the track by planting misleading clues. The Springers had to be induced to believe that the hunted men took off in a different direction—to the spaceport, for example—so that they would pull back their search squads from all other parts of the Northern Continent.
This was the mission that fell to Tako and Pucky. Pucky had insisted that one of the heavy weapons remain with Marshall's group and gave the impulse-beamer to Marshall. Tako and Pucky armed themselves with the disintegrator besides carrying small rayguns in their pockets.
There was no doubt that their task was extremely risky. The moment they went into action they would have to face the full might of the hostile fleet. They had the disadvantage that they were unfamiliar with the terrain. Thus it was possible that one of their leaps would land them in the middle of a Springer formation and in such a case their chances for escape were virtually nil.
But it had to be done.
Marshall, Kitai Ishibashi and Tama Yokida sent off the two teleporters with rather uneasy feelings before they proceeded south to the coast.
• • •
The sky was darkened by swarms of auxiliary craft, flat bulky ground-to-gound transports used by the Springers as trucks, and smaller reconnaissance craft about the size of the FRER LXXII on which Pucky had traveled. Tako and Pucky had slipped into a cave and waited to see what the Springers would do next. A few minutes earlier they had brought down two of their ships and, as expected, the whole armada dropped in from the skies.
However they gave their pursuers no clue to the presence other than the two demolished ships. Pucky and Tako emitted no such radiation as the microcom gave off that they had left with Marshall's team.
Tako checked his watch. Marshall had started out on his way to the coast one hour and a half ago and the closest harbor was about 60 miles away. With the intensive search they were conducting, the Springers must have found the two wrecks immediately. To give Marshall enough time to reach his goal it was essential to keep up their feint as long as possible.
"We must get to the other side," Pucky lisped.
The other side of the long valley stretching from east to west was a few hundred yards to the north and presumably outside the zone where the Springers suspected the attackers to be. Tako agreed. He considered it advantageous to spring another stinging surprise on their antagonists from a different location.
They quickly leaped one after another to a point which they had predetermined as accurately as they could. They landed on a wide hillside strewn with stones and large boulders. Pucky, who came in second only 15 feet away from Tako, scrambled for cover behind a huge rock. They worked like a practiced team.
At the southern edge of the valley they could see the first Springer ship descend with circumspection and their crews climb out using even greater caution. A few single craft periodically veered away from their formation and flew along the steep sides of the valley trying to find a trace of their quarry.
"How about helping them a little?" Tako suggested.
He supported his disintegrator on an angular rock and lined up the sight of his barrel. He took his time. It wasn't necessary to follow their flights. Sooner or later one of them was bound to get into his sight. It took only a few minutes before it happened. All Tako had to do was bend a finger and let go of the trigger. He accomplished what he aimed to do. The beam from his disintegrator—lasting only one tenth of a second—struck the small ship that had ventured too close and vaporized a section of its hulk.
Tako could easily have blown the entire ship, crew and all, to smithereens but he was satisfied to put the aircraft out of action and see it reeling helplessly and losing height. It hit the ground very hard but Tako was sure that the crew survived the impact. Rescue squads instantly rushed to their aid from all sides. The rescuers looked excited and disturbed.
It was interesting to watch the reaction of the other Springer ships. One of the men seemed to have spotted where the shot came from and passed on this bit of knowledge. With a sudden determination which the Springers hitherto had rarely shown they abandoned the scene of their activity and turned their attention to the northern slope of the valley.
"Stormy weather in sight," Tako growled and picked up his heavy weapon. "Let's move to the west!"
A few seconds after they had given up their position the Springers detonated their first shells there.
• • •
After marching for three hours without being molested Marshall and his two companions reached some kind of a road. Marshall was carrying the impulse-beamer on his shoulder. The weapon didn't weigh him down very heavily because Tama Yokida lightened his load by applying his rare telekinetic power. Marshall stopped to study some wheel tracks which lined the road.
"What's wrong?" Kitai inquired.
"Look at these tracks!" Marshall replied. "Do you think the Springers would allow the native Goszuls to roam the land this far from the coast? The shore must be at least 35 miles to the south."
Kitai shook his head. "Perhaps the tracks weren't made by Goszuls. Why couldn't the Springers have done it?"
"Because the Springers don't have wheeled vehicles. They're basically nomads roving through space and they dislike to land on a planet and do it only very seldom. They don't have any use for vehicles with wheels."
Kitai muttered, "Who else could it have been?"
Marshall shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know," he admitted. "We'll find out if we keep walking along the road."
They kept to the side of the road where the wheels had left only intermittent tracks. The deep ruts in the middle of the road made it difficult to walk. They continued their march for another 30 minutes, their curiosity remaining unsatisfied.
But then Kitai suddenly stood still and made Tama stop as well. "Listen!" he exclaimed.
Straining their ears they detected a clattering and hissing noise which seemed to come from the base of the foothills where they had wandered onto the road.
"Wow!" Marshall called out. "That sounds just like my grandaddy's first car!"
They remained still and waited. Not for a moment did the thought occur to them that a thing which made such pitiful wheezing noises could constitute a danger.
Eventually it came into view. It shot around the last bend in the road in a daring curve, ran too far out onto the grass and got stuck. The puffing died down but started up again a few seconds later with increased volume. The strange vehicle rolled slowly but surely through the grass, cutting a wide swath and returned to the road gaining speed again as soon as it was back on the tracks. Finally it rumbled toward the waiting men.
Marshall started to laugh. "Not my grandfather's jalopy... it looks more like my great-grandfather's horseless carriage!"
Actually it had little resemblance to an automobile. It was simply a flatbed wagon, about 5 by 10 feet, with a little motor mounted underneath and some kind of a mechanism which probably was designed to steer the front axle.
Three men who were doubtlessly Goszuls sat on the contraption but they were dressed quite differently from the people Marshall and his group had seen before. Marshall didn't have to read their thoughts to recognize who they were: they belonged to the class of natives who were deemed by the Springers to be suited for a superficial hypno-training to create cheap workers, a euphemism for slaves.
They teetered proudly on their wondrous automobile and started with amazement at the three pedestrians who did their best to hide their amusement. The driver of the vehicle obviously tried to bring it to a halt. He finally managed to stop his rattling conveyance after it careened far beyond Marshall and his men.
Marshall was able to understand the thoughts of the Goszuls. They took Marshall and the two Japanese as well for hirelings of the Springers, or 'servants of the Gods' as the simple-minded Goszuls called them.
"Kvogo?" asked the driver after he had accomplished his difficult job. "Where ar
e you going?" He spoke Interkosmo with the same melodious intonation as the other indigenous people of Goszul's Planet.
Marshall didn't try to imitate his intonation. "To the harbor," he answered simply. The Goszul was baffled. "On foot?" Marshall recognized the doubts which were in the Goszul's mind. Didn't the Gods have a vehicle to spare for them?
"The Gods didn't have a car for us to use," he informed the Goszul. "Would you give us a lift?"
"You know very well that it can't be done," the Goszul regretted.
Marshall verified the instructions that the vehicle could carry only three passengers. He looked at Tama and whispered to him, "The car can't carry more than three people. Can you give us a push?"
Tama nodded and Marshall turned back to the Goszul. "How about trying it out? What do you say?" Without waiting for a reply he clambered on the wagon. The driver was about to protest that his automobile would collapse as Kitai and Tama quickly followed Marshall without damaging his fragile contraption.
Marshall laughed. "You see you can do it! Go on!"
The Goszul wouldn't even think of it. Marshall noticed the suspicion entering his brooding mind. "Who exactly are you? Why do you talk so strangely and what is the thing you're carrying on your shoulder?"
"I don't know," Marshall replied impassively. "The Gods only told me to take it to the harbor. They never confide in their servants."
The answer seemed to satisfy the Goszul. "But where do they speak so differently as you do?" he inquired.
"I come from a country which is very far from here," Marshall explained.
"Not from the Southern Continent by any chance?" The Goszul's eyes lit up.
Marshall neglected to read the brain of the inquisitive man and simply answered: "Yes."
He instantly realized that he had made a mistake.
"That's where I'm from!" the Goszul exclaimed. "We're fellow countrymen..." He hesitated and narrowed his eyes. "But then I can't understand why your speech sounds so odd."
Marshall was about to give a long explanation about his fate and his travels which had taken him to many countries but before he could open his mouth the Goszul waved his hand and said: "You know, I could have the wrong impression. Your way of talking is really not that peculiar." With these words he turned around and started up the motor.
Marshall looked at Kitai who grinned roguishly. "Thank you! He was beginning to get difficult."
Kitai had allayed the suspicions of the Goszul by suggestion. Marshall was curious about the motor powering the vehicle. After the driver had started it up Marshall listened to it closely and had no doubt that it was indeed a combustion motor of the type of gasoline engines. The smell of the fuel didn't remind Marshall of anything he had ever inhaled before but that didn't mean much: after all, a combustion engine can be run with alcohol too.
The most amazing aspect was really something else. The Springers, who were strictly space travelers and completely disinterested in rolling vehicles, had gone to the trouble of inventing something like an automobile for their servants. They probably didn't dare let the Goszuls use more efficient machines than these primitive, poorly functioning combustion engines.
Did this mean that the Springers didn't feel safe in the presence of the hypnotically trained Goszuls? Marshall probed the thoughts of the three servants of the Gods but detected no hint that they resented the Springers. However this proved little because the men were not even thinking of the Springers at this moment.
In the meantime Tama Yokida had achieved the task of making the vehicle lighter so that the coughing motor was able to pull the lead. The driver was astounded by the speed at which his old crate bounced down the road. He turned around and announced happily: "We'll be in the harbor in three hours!"
• • •
The weird battle had shifted farther north. Tako guessed that they were at the same latitude as the northern border of the spaceport. It was time to move to the west. The intermittent fighting had so far cost the Springers five auxiliary ships and two air transports and all they had to show for it in their reports to their superiors was that they never failed to find the position of the hostile gunners after the first shot and yet were always beaten by a nose when they arrived on the spot.
A panic began to spread among the searchers. These weren't normal fighters—they were ghosts! However Etztak screamed in a new outburst of his ire that he would punish by death anyone retreating from the search before the enemy was caught—dead or alive.
• • •
Four and a half hours had elapsed since their separation from Marshall. Tako figured it would take at least four times that long till Marshall reached the harbor. Till now Tako had not learned that Marshall had been able to commandeer a vehicle.
The town looked quite different from Saluntad. They couldn't see a single house which compared to Vethussar's residence in the south. However it possessed a harbor where three transoceanic sailing ships were lying at anchor. The ships were big enough to hide an entire company of Terranian guerrilla fighters.
Suddenly Marshall was in a hurry to get off the motorized cart. It was apparent at first glance that there were numerous Springer robots present in the town and as long as they didn't know for what purpose they were here they had to reckon with the possibility that one of them might decide to check up on the passengers of the clattering automobile and that no suggestion could deter them from their task, only the force of weapons.
Marshall expressed his thanks to the three Goszuls and promised to return the kindness if the occasion should arise. Then he quickly departed with his friends. The driver was baffled that his vehicle responded again in the same cumbersome old way although his load was greatly reduced. Marshall got off the main street, which had the heaviest traffic and where most of the robots appeared to congregate. They kept walking along a side street which seemed to lead into the direction of the harbor.
Marshall considered sending a message to Pucky that they had arrived at the harbor earlier than expected. But fortunately he didn't have enough time to use the microcom to carry out his intention. Out from another side street crossing the lane along which they were walking, a group of metallic robots rounded the corner with noisy clanking steps.
Marshall looked furtively around. There were several other people in the streets who had also noticed the robots but paid no further attention to them and so Marshall decided it would be best to behave in the same disinterested manner. He continued walking as closely along the houses in the lane as the barrel of his impulse-beamer allowed him, staring straight ahead in the air as if he had other problems on his mind.
However the robots were unwilling to let the three men pass without further ado. When they had come within 20 feet the first robot stopped and the other three lined up at his side blocking the narrow lane completely.
"Halt!" one of the robot's rasped, "It was you who arrived in town on the last wagon, right?"
It took all of Marshall's aplomb to face the inquisitive robot squarely. Looking him up and down, he replied: "Yes, but it's none of your business!"
The onlookers who had hoped to watch an amusing spectacle reacted in a characteristic manner. The lane was deserted in a trice. Everybody scrambled to get behind the nearest house door. Only the four robots and the three Earthlings were left in the lane.
"What's this thing you're carrying?" the robot insisted, disregarding Marshall's inciting remark.
Suddenly it flashed through Marshall's mind: the microcom! Pucky had warned him that it emitted radiation. The robots had registered it automatically.
Well, Marshall resignedly thought, at least we know it's useless trying to pull the wool over their eyes. "I don't know," he replied with an expression of indifference.
The electronic brain of the robot made an instantaneous decision with its customary built-in efficiency. "Follow me!" he ordered.
Without another word he turned around and marched back down the lane. The three other robots remained in their position til
l Tama had passed them by last and then formed the rearguard. Marshall was aware of the chances he took by following the order and he whispered to his comrades in English: "We'll hold our fire till we get to a lonely neighborhood. We don't want witnesses!"
They understood his reasons. If necessary Kitai could have ordered two, three or even four witnesses to forget what they saw but more than that would have been too difficult under the circumstances. A tumult caused by the news spreading through town that four robots were destroyed was the last thing they needed.
Obediently they trotted behind the leading robot and avoided looking behind at the three robots marching in the back. The first robot turned into the street from which he had come and Marshall saw with pleasure that farther away toward the southeast the houses were getting sparser. If they could get as far as that without being incarcerated by the robots the battle was as good as won.
• • •
Tako blasted another machine out of the sky, watched as it plunged down to the ground and was ready to make a jump. By now the Springers had learned to react to each attack with utmost swiftness. But this time it was different. Tako waited for the machines to swoop down on him but they remained where they were. For a while anyway. Then they regrouped, zoomed into the sky, flying southward over the next mountain chain, and disappeared.
Tako grinned. "They must have something new up their sleeves, hey?"
He couldn't know that Etztak had talked a minute ago with the port of Vintina and that the pilots of the search commando had received new instructions.
Pucky lisped: "I don't understand it!" Shaking his head he was about to add something but at the same moment his eyes widened with a blank stare as if he were listening to something. When he returned to normal he was rather excited. "Marshall and his men have been captured in the town by robots. I didn't get it all but they seem to be in trouble. We've got to go there at once!"