by Perry Rhodan
For this reason John McClears' loud expletives were drowned out by a devastating roar.
The control center of his ship, an auxiliary craft of theGood Hope class with a diameter of 60 yards, seemed to turn into a rattling loose tin can. The fine tuner of his range-finder conked out and the entire space-structure sensor threatened to self-destruct under the resounding vibration from the acoustic signal.
McClears' foot was a millisecond later. He kicked the main switch and the droning ceased.
"A structure disturbance?" wondered Lt. Everson, his deputy commander on board the auxiliary ship S-3. "Some zip, wow!"
"Don't drive me nuts, will you!" Capt. McClears snapped."I won't," Everson muttered. Slowly he rolled his burly body around to the now useless structure sensor.
"O.K.," he nonchalantly continued, "let's get this bucket ready for action. Looks as if it won't he long now. And I thought we had chased those lizards out of the Vega system for good! I guess at least 10 big ships must have jumped out of hyperspace."
"Or one that is colossal," McClears panted. Exhausted, he fell back onto his control seat. S-3 had only a crew of 10 on board. Nobody expected to get into serious trouble.
McClears was one of those young spacefighter pilots who were drilled and trained to a fine polish by Rhodan. Once it had been his highest ambition to fly a roaring rocketship of the U.S. Space Force to the moon and he did not expect to go beyond that in his fondest dreams; but toward the end of training, circumstances changed so rapidly as Rhodan established the New Power within a period of a few years, that he had soon become one of the first officers of the old, now defunctGood Hope under Rhodan's command.
In due course he had arrived in the Vega system and by now had been given the command of a ship which, a few years ago, would have caused him utter amazement. He probably would have regarded his S-3 as a miracle of titanic proportions. A miracle it was indeed. But he had meanwhile realized that it was far too small to be called titanic.
His lips were pressed against the microphone of the faster-than-light telecom.
"McClears to all Guppies, urgent. Evacuation operations to be immediately discontinued. Rendezvous at Ferrol spaceport. Be prepared to start at alarm signal. I must know what is zooming in on us out there. Let's hope it is the Chief. Otherwise we'll have to get ready for the worst. Stop."His message was confirmed by the other seven ships. Everywhere on the eighth Vegan planet the rescue operations were interrupted. The armored hatches closed and the engines began to blast.
The local population retreated in headlong flight from the starting crafts. Desperate outbursts followed as they fled to subterranean cities and tunnels, the only remaining places where survival was still feasible.
A ball of fire spewing searing heat and shining blinding light menaced the sky above the planet Ferrol. Ferrol had always suffered from extreme UV rays but it had never been as unbearable as this.
The commanders of the Stardust's eight auxiliary ships had been fully aware that it would be quite impossible to evacuate five billion Ferrons in time. Moreover, the entire system with its 42 planets was bound to be destroyed if the heretofore quiescent Vega had really changed into a nova.
The Ferronian scientists were deeply disturbed as they conferred about the so-called impossibility. The facts, alas, proved the exact opposite.
McClears, whose craft was stationed at the huge spaceport of Thorta, watched the quick take-off of the other ships on telecom. All transmitters were turned on. It was of the utmost importance to keep in constant communication.McClears' damp bright-red hair stuck to his perspiring forehead. His orders came quickly and sharply. His irritation was understandable. Before they had left the Stardust's airlocks four weeks ago, Terra time, Perry Rhodan had promoted him to Chief of the Guppies. McClears was dismayed that he now was stuck with the responsibility after Rhodan suddenly disappeared from the scene with the mothership.
Everson grumbled and fiddled around with the Arkonide structure-sensor. His hypno-training had prepared him to understand the functioning of the set.
With a delicate touch he restored the contact of the burned-up end of the cable. The shock of the spark did not bother a man like Everson.
"It works!" he triumphantly exclaimed.
But a fraction of a second later it blew up again. Everson was hurled against the legs of a fighter robot standing in the corner. This time the set just made a short, loud crack. Then it gave up its hyper-frequency ghost despite its special Arkonide material.
"I'll be a son of a gun," moaned Everson, "that was a humdinger of a transition. The first time somebody jumped out of the system and now he shows up again from hyperspace. What next? I better get out of this corner."
McClears rushed over to the communications center. He came just in time to see the lean face with the grey eyes appear on the videoscreen.
"McClears, are you there?" the voice called from the loudspeaker. "Stardustto all Guppies wherever they are. My orders for you are to land at once at Thorta spaceport. Be ready to come aboard the Stardust without delay. McClears, did you assist in the evacuation of the population?"
"Yes, sir!" McClears jubilantly bellowed into the mike. "All ships are on Ferrol. I notified the commanders as soon as we monitored your transition, sir."
"Good for you!" the curt answer came. "We were detained, never mind why now. I need everyone on board. Any questions?"
McClears had the uncertain feeling that a mad rush of events was about to break loose. Everson got the same impression."Yes, one question, sir," the captain nervously shouted. "Vega has started to act up like crazy the last 32 days Terra time. It's developing into a nova, sir."
"Oh!"
McClears was taken aback. Everson started to grin. If that wasn't just like the old man!
"Of course, sir," McClears muttered. "We flew every day to the outer planets where the Ferrous maintain some bases. If we now suddenly shove off with the battleship the Thort will have a fit. The ruler is still here. The mean temperature on Ferrol has gone up 30° F. during these last 32 days. We can no longer go outside without protective clothing. If we leave here now, we might as well forget about the trade treaty with the Thort, sir."
"And if we don't leave, that will be the end of the Thort, Capt. McClears," Rhodan replied impassively."Will you please comply with my instructions. I'm going to pay a visit to the Thort. That will be all."
The connection was cut off. Rhodan acted as if he had been absent only for a few hours.
McClears slowly turned around. The radio technician on duty looked astonished. Everson's eyes were half closed. The men looked at each other till McClears finally drawled:
"What did he mean by that?"
"I don't have the faintest idea; but I suspect that it has something to do with these damn guessing-games he is playing."
McClears smiled nervously. Then he gradually became more relaxed. The Chief was back again and everything would be all right.
• • •
The spherical monster of Arkonide steel and concentrated power raced into the flaming atmosphere of the eighth Vegan planet. Perry Rhodan came in for a direct landing as the Arkonides were wont to do. This meant that he flew straight toward the celestial body without utilizing the braking effect of an elliptical approach. This was made possible only by the quality of the products created by a far superior technology.
The huge battleship started a powerful tornado in the upper strata of the Ferrol atmosphere. White-hot pre-ionized gasses were compressed and forced out at high velocity from the trajectory to the sides of the ultra-energized reflective screen surrounding the vessel. Stardust II remained unhampered; there was no heat caused by air friction.
However, a vast vacuum developed behind the gigantic craft where the dislodged gasses furiously plunged in.
The power generators of the super-battleship howled. Rhodan retarded his speed at 12 miles per second, which was enough to effectively brake the battleship suspended in the antigravity field. Unfortunately, h
e was unable to prevent the perennially hot masses of air of the planet close to the sun from becoming even more heated. This was due to the flaming exhaust of the impulse-energy engine-jets.
Rhodan had good reasons for his haste. The world below him seemed in danger of disintegration.
Thora, the tall Arkonide woman and last descendant of the ruling dynasty of Arkon, stood behind the
pilot seat. Her arrogant bearing could not hide the fact that she was torn by her emotions.
Her strange love-hate relationship with Rhodan had begun at the time her exploration cruiser had crash-landed on Luna where it was subsequently destroyed by H-bombs from Earth. Thora had escaped at the last moment in a 60-yard-wide auxiliary ship of the Guppy class. Since the craft, namedGood Hope , could not travel the distance of 30,000 light-years to her home on Arkon, she had become dependent on aid by humans.
Her initial hate of Rhodan had gradually diminished. Only on special occasions did her old feelings surface again. Such was the case now.
She was consumed by a deep rage as she stood behind the man whom she had called an underdeveloped barbarian with the brain of a semi-intelligent ape only a few years ago when they had met for the first time. In the interim many things had changed. Rhodan had established—against resistance from all the nations—the sovereign state of the New Power. A major attack from the depths of the Galaxy had been repulsed.Vast installations had been created on Earth from Arkonide prototypes. Almost a year ago the space-sensors stationed on Pluto had registered a strong spacestructure disturbance in the sector of the star Vega 27 light-years away. Overcome with anxiety that superior alien forces had discovered the Earth and with deep concern for the safety of his home world, Rhodan set out in one of the small auxiliary crafts to have a look. This eventually led to a dangerous conflict with the reptilian race of the Topides who were finally dislodged from the Vegan system by ingenious strategy of his Mutant Corps.
Then Khrest's desire to find the secret of cell-conservation was rekindled. To find eternal life had originally been his reason for coming to this distant corner of the Galaxy. His emergency landing on the Moon,constituted a severe setback. On the Vegan planets they had discovered traces of the inhabitants of a world who, supposedly, were in possession of the secret of cell-conservation.
Meanwhile it had come to pass that Rhodan was able to conquer one of the Arkonide super-battleships. It was wrested by the mutants from the lizards who in turn had seized it before from the Arkonides.
Since that time Rhodan had been primarily occupied in finding answers to the puzzling questions of an unknown intelligent personality. Someone seemed to consider it of the utmost importance to test the integrity and wisdom of those who were seeking his secrets.
It was a physically and mentally exhausting undertaking which had strained the nerves of his men almost to the breaking-point.Now that they believed they were close to the discovery of the planet vanished from the Vegan system, they were facing a flaming sun which hardly any longer resembled the star they had seen for the first time less than a year ago.
Thora felt very bitter when she contemplated the devastating experiences in connection with the cosmic riddles posed by an infinitely superior intelligence. Without the help of the mutants from Rhodan's special corps they would have met certain death on the giant planet GOL. Its pure energy devouring denizens had not given them much of a chance.
And it had not been much better on the desolate world called Vagabond. The mouse-beavers living there were rather amusing and would have been quite harmless in spite of their uncanny telekinetic capabilities had it not been for their irresistible urge to play with everything in their reach. This was a characteristic of the fairly intelligent beings. They started to play with the ship's machinery and eventually with its weapons.
The mouse-beaver Pucky, who had come aboard as a stowaway, caused dire trouble for Rhodan's ship. It was solely Pucky's fault that they had arrived four weeks late in the Vegan system.
Thora pressed her lips together in indignation. She acknowledged Bell's questioning side-glance only with an inimitably disdainful tossback of her head.
If Thora, the commander of the destroyed exploration cruiser, deigned to recognize anyone at all from Terra, it could only be Perry Rhodan. Here she had met a man as hard as rock.
"I'd fly a little faster," she remarked provocatively. "Maybe you can destroy a great part of the surface!"
Rhodan's eyebrows moved up. Calmly he passed his instructions to the engine room. Then he looked into Thora's burning eyes. They had a slightly reddish tint which created a strangely contrasting effect with her more white than blond hair. She presented a fascinating appearance.
"Ferrol will survive it," he replied. "You'll have to give up the trip you planned. I'll take off again as soon as the auxiliary ships have returned to their hangars."
With an Arkonide battleship of the mighty Imperium Class," she scornfully said; "with a ship that's really mine."
"You're quite wrong, my dear. Your sleepy compatriots have lost it to the Topides. I've, won it from the lizards and put it back into action. As far as the Arkonide empire is concerned, it had already lost Stardust II when the invaders took it over. Haven't we already debated this for hours on end?"
Khrest smiled gently as usual. He had sympathy and understanding for both, sides. Then he said a little dejectedly:
"Perry, although I've come to this sector of the Galaxy to explore a mysterious planet, I'm now definitely of the opinion that we ought to give up the idea. We've arrived four weeks too late."
"I meant to teach that mouse-beaver a lesson," Bell complainingly interjected, "but I wasn't allowed to."He glanced reproachfully at the Commander.
"That has nothing to do with it." Khrest shook slowly his high-domed head whose non-human brain had the additional gift of a photographic memory."We ought to desist, Perry," Khrest again implored him. "I'm convinced that it was the unknown mastermind who converted Vega into a nova. We know from sad experience that all solutions of riddles and tasks are conditional in time. Vega is going to explode and we'll thereby lose our hard-found reference point,which means in mathematical terms that we'll never be able to locate the wandering planet."
The first mountains appeared on the observation screen. They approached at dreadful speed. Stardust II still hurtled furiously across Ferrol.
"Even if I didn't want to go through with it. I've no other choice than to make the best of it now, Khrest.
Because of our curiosity and ambitious desire to attain nature's greatest biological mystery, Vega has turned into a burning torch. I regret very much that I'm not in a position to save the doomed Ferrons."
"Underdeveloped creatures!" Thora commented. She reacted again like a true member of the Arkon dynasty. The human attitude seemed very odd to her.
A strong line formed between Rhodan's eyebrows. He retorted sarcastically:
"Thank you very much for your advice, lady. It happens to be the nature of humans to help when it's possible. We're a little different in this respect. My conscience demands that I do everything to save the threatened Ferrons. The Vegan planets will melt away as soon as the star erupts. We still have some time left even though it involves an artificially caused process which is running a million times faster than a natural occurrence. The only way to help the Ferrons will be to solve our last task."
"Which is what?" Thora demanded in a hostile tone.
"Locating the vanished planet which-according to the evaluation by the robot-brain-traverses the Galaxy on a fixed course."
"You're mad! No planet can exist without a sun."Now Rhodan countered with empathy in his voice.
"Thora, you're a superb scientist. You must have noticed long ago that we're dealing here with someone in possession of the most highly accomplished technology in the universe. These beings have discovered the innermost secrets of nature. Even with the scientific knowledge of the Arkonides I'm unable, utterly unable, to transform such an enormous star into a no
va. These unknown beings are far superior to us."
"You're quite right there. Superior, that is, to the terrestrial barbarians."
Rhodan suddenly grinned. She was playing that old cracked record again as she always did when she ran out of logical arguments.
"Of course, I must agree," he sighed. "Only strange that these barbarians have so quickly mastered your Arkonide technology isn't it?"
"Touchdown in two minutes," the automatic navigator announced. The drone of the engines became even louder. The super-battleship thundered at a steep angle toward the spaceport which already could be seen below. Thora finally remained silent.
Due to the anti-distortion field absorbing the deceleration they were not impeded in their movements by the braking manoeuvre.
"Don't try to slam the door!" Bell shouted after her as she left. "It's 36 inches of solid armor plate."
Khrest lowered his head. The ill-fated trip to the Earth's solar system had become the worst disappointment of his life. The human race was too young, too adventurous and eager to learn, to be fully appreciated by the descendant of a degenerating race. Nevertheless Khrest endeavored to practice tolerance. He had for some time realized that mankind was about ready to assume the heritage of the Great Imperium. Men like Rhodan seemed to be predestined. They scorned compromise and had an unlimited thirst for knowledge. They had a great capacity to stand up under painful reverses, and it looked as if a race of such men was made to rule the world. The Arkonides had long lost those talents which their ancestors, too, had possessed many years ago. But this was now ancient history.
Stardust IIcame down like a giant falling meteor. Only a few feet above the ground was its velocity fully retarded. The impulse waves from the mammoth engines in the ring around the middle of the hull churned up the ground and large molten puddles formed under the heat. The huge pads of the telescoped landing-legs buried themselves noisily in the rock-hard synthetic surface of the spaceport.