The Starless Realm

by Perry Rhodan

  "At least it will enable you to establish permanent bases there which will serve as observation stations. What's happened here must never be allowed to recur. I happened to come here by chance but next time I might be too late. Are you going to awaken the rest of your people now?"

  "Not yet," said Nex. "Only when we're sure that the invisibles are no longer placing us under attack."

  "And what if you can be sure that their attack is going to continue?"

  In a typically human gesture, Nex raised his hands to reveal his helplessness in the matter. "I really can't say."

  Sengu spoke up. "We ought to go to the surface with Pucky and take a look around. If the invisibles attack us then we'll know that they still haven't given up their plan."

  "Later," said Rhodan after some hesitation. He could not shake off the thought of what a terrible threat the invisible entities might become to the inhabited galaxy. There'd have to be a better defense against them than random shooting in the dark. Maybe energy curtains...

  Regoon interrupted his train of thought. "it might be a good idea though to wake up a few of our technicians. We can't carry out this task alone. The machines require constant care and monitoring."

  "Only the top personnel," said Nex conservatively, and he gave the necessary permission for the awakenings. "What about the life support and food-generating equipment?"

  "Also in operation," Regoon informed him.

  Rhodan got up. "I'd be grateful if you could place one of your living quarters at our disposal. One of us will keep a watch on the reactor but we also need some sleep. We've come a long way."

  "Right next door," said Nex, also getting up. "Come on, I'll take you there."

  Later when Rhodan and Sengu were lying on the freshly made beds, the sleep they desired did not come to them. Suddenly Rhodan realized he was not fatigued any more. It seemed to him he had just awakened from a deep and refreshing nap. Was it that he had only imagined his fatigue before?

  He began to suspect that the Immortal had reached across the incredible distances to them and that It was with them now to help them. He was giving them new strength so that they could accelerate the rescue activities for the Barkonides.

  With his eyes still closed, Rhodan asked: "Sengu, are you able to see Pucky?"

  "He's standing there daydreaming in front of the console. Ah, now he's looking up—in our direction. Do you think he's—"

  "Of course, he's caught your thoughts, Sengu. Pucky, do you read me?"

  "He's nodding!" said Sengu, obviously enthused over this simple method of communication. "He reads us!"

  "Excellent, Pucky. Any more signs of the invisibles?"

  Pucky shook his head negatively, according to Sengu.

  "Good, then come here!"

  The mouse-beaver materialized in the room. "I think they've got their snoots full," he announced. "That is, if they have snoots. No impulses, no more button-pushers. Are we taking off?"

  "Not so fast, little chum! The four Barkonides believe that we're asleep. They won't be aware of your absence yet. Sengu can stay here to keep watch. You and I are going on a little tour."

  "Up above?" squeaked Pucky excitedly.

  Rhodan nodded. "Sengu, now and then go in and check the Control Central. If the Barkonides ask about us you can tell them where we've gone. Is that clear?"

  The Japanese nodded.

  Pucky took hold of Rhodan's hand.

  The spirals of mental energy were hardly noticeable in the air as the two vanished before Sengu's eyes.

  6/ FAREWELL TO BARKON

  Three days later the aspect of the surface world had changed considerably. In contrast to their private excursion then, Rhodan and Pucky were not alone now. They were accompanied by a group of Barkonide specialists who were equipped with highly sensitive energy detectors and other instruments. With no particular attempt at furtiveness the personnel vehicle had glided up the long ramp to the exit gate and arrived at the surface. Rhodan had deliberately chosen the location where the first attack by the invisibles had occurred and now the sight of the glittering lake of ice reminded him of it.

  All of them were wearing extra-warm clothing. The air they breathed into their lungs was cold but no longer as thin as it had been when Rhodan had come up here with Pucky alone. Now he looked up at the blackness of the starless firmament. It was the same as before except that now Barkon possessed an atmosphere again. It was only a few hundred meters thick but it was held in by an energy screen that surrounded the planet. The special forcefield also radiated warmth. On the mountaintops the glacial masses of frozen atmosphere were already melting and thus added further breathable air to the environment. Other oxygen chemically combined with the ground snow was being released gradually in the rising temperature. If one looked closely at the heavens for a while, it was possible to detect the faint shimmering of the energy field.

  Nex, who was in charge of the specialists, looked about him and finally commented: "It's getting there. Within another week the major portion of the atmosphere will be gaseous again. Then we can start setting up the stations."

  Pucky had been standing at some distance from them but now he came up to them with an announcement. "More impulses out there! Still a ways off but they're slowly coming toward us."

  Rhodan gave the other men a signal. Half of them placed various instrumental apparatuses in the snow and drew their weapons. Everyone was deployed according to plan. There was a rustle of safety catches clicking to open position.

  "Well?" asked Rhodan of the mouse-beaver. He had also begun to detect weak impulses but they seemed not to be getting any stronger. "What's happening?"

  Pucky shrugged. "They came to a halt. Probably afraid of us."

  The other half of the specialist crew was busy with their equipment. Nex was calmly issuing instructions to them. He had complete confidence in Rhodan and his two assistants. He had especially taken to the mouse-beaver. During the past three days the two dissimilar beings had had some long conversations in private and Rhodan had noticed that the mouse-beaver had become quite pensive since then. He had resolved to determine later what the subject of those conversations happened to be.

  "Ready!" said Nex finally.

  Rhodan detected a further attenuation of the alien thought impulses. They were like a cautious probing which finally withdrew entirely.

  Pucky looked at him in astonishment. "Gone! It seems they've just turned off their thinking. Mighty strange!"

  Two small viewscreens lighted up on the equipment panels. As on oscilloscope screens, greenish wave spikes were flickering. The two Barkonide operators were sweeping the lens of some kind of camera across the landscape. As the waveforms altered their shape, Nex revealed a certain excitement.

  Rhodan remained calm. "What do you make out, Nex?"

  "Directly ahead of us, only about two kilometers away, we have an obstacle in some form of energy. It's reflecting our beams. There are three more of them at seven kilometers. Same kind of reflection."

  "Any shape to them?"

  "One moment!"

  A brief consultation with the technicians ensued, after which Nex turned to Rhodan again.

  "The form is elongated—torpedo-like. Maybe 20 meters diameter by 100 in length. Do you think...?"

  Rhodan nodded. "Yes—they're spaceships. The ships of the invisibles, and also invisible. Only detectable by instruments."

  "What should we do?"

  "Wait," Rhodan advised.

  He had a hunch but wanted to see it confirmed. He looked at Pucky, who was gazing off in the direction of the ship in question.

  Then the mouse-beaver received his silent inquiry and he mumbled an answer. "No more impulses. The ship's hull must be screening them off."

  The greenish waveforms on the viewscreens began to agitate wildly. Nex leaned down to one of the technicians and spoke to him in low tones.

  Then he straightened up and raised his voice slightly. "The nearest ship has taken off. It's hurtling through the def
ense screen and making a thrust into the outer void." He paused a few moments without taking his eyes from the screen. "Now it's vanished. Out of range. According to your terms of measurement, that's about 10 light-seconds of distance."

  Ten light-seconds in 10 seconds! Rhodan let out a low whistle. A considerable feat when considering that this was just during takeoff. What kind of velocity could these spaceships develop out in open space?

  "The other three ships have also taken off!" announced Nex. "They tore open our shield but its reforming. Very little of the atmosphere escaped." He came over to Rhodan. "What's the meaning of all that? Do you think they've made a retreat and left us?"

  "It looks that way," replied Rhodan, though he had some doubts. "They must have realized that their plan has failed here. Like any creatures with intelligence they've extrapolated the consequences. I believe that you may now continue your journey and you can wake up the rest of the inhabitants."

  "And you mean that there were only these four ships?"

  "I think so. It was probably just an exploring expedition. They landed here at the spot where the strongest radiations are. The reactor is directly beneath us. In the future you'll be safe from them if your surface stations keep a constant lookout and are able to detect any object that approaches your planet—invisible or otherwise."

  "Objects?" asked Nex dubiously. "Those four ships weren't objects—they were nothing but energy."

  "You know what I mean," smiled Rhodan as he turned to leave. As far as he was concerned he had accomplished the task that the Immortal on the planet Wanderer had assigned to him.

  • • •

  They waited another two days until the Barkonides had been awakened. The revivifying gases had been added to the air supply and conducted into the sleeping chambers. The Barkonides woke up, their memories returned to them and their interrupted lives continued again as though nothing had happened in the meantime. New orders and safety measures were established and Rhodan was certain that the invisibles would have little success with a second attack.

  He suddenly detected a searching and probing of distant thought in his mind. A question formed there.

  "Perry Rhodan...? The Barkonides. Are they alive?"

  The Immortal!It was probably picking up the thought impulses of the awakened race although they were too attenuated as yet for It to make out any specific meanings. The fact had never been impressed upon Rhodan more than at this moment that distances seemed to make no difference to telepaths. For real telepaths! Not even Pucky would have been able to bridge this gap of 100,000 light-years. Perhaps nobody could—except the Immortal on Wanderer.

  "They have been awakened," said Rhodan aloud. He stood alone on a small elevation. He had come again to the surface to satisfy himself that the construction of the observation stations was in progress. The wide entrance gate in the valley was standing wide open. Not far from it, several technicians were at work. Under a small plastic-metal dome they were installing their observation instruments. "Barkon was attacked by unknown aliens and almost conquered. The Barkonides went into a state of deep-sleep in order to avoid asphyxiation and starvation. Their brains were also quiescent."

  "That explains the cessation of their thought-waves," came the soundless reply. "Who were the aliens?"

  A good question! Rhodan would have given much to know this and to be able to give the Immortal a useful answer.

  "They came from the deeper void and were invisible. It could only have been an expedition of exploration because with special instruments we could only detect four ships when they left Barkon. And yet they almost succeeded in capturing Barkon. Their state of technology..."

  "Invisible entities...?" The Immortal's question interrupted him. There was a slight pause. Then the question: "Do they have no bodies at all? No substance to them? Did you notice if they only became visible and materialized when under the influence of a powerful energy field?"

  Rhodan suppressed his astonishment. Did the Immortal actually know of these aliens...?

  "Those are the characteristics exactly! They only materialize at the focal point of concentrated energy beams but they attenuate again when the energy subsides—or when they die."

  There was no answer for some minutes.

  Rhodan stood alone under the unchanging blackness of the outer firmament that was the sky of Barkon. He gazed at the pale fleck of light that was his home galaxy, now partially obscured by the horizon. The snow and ice on the mountain peaks had disappeared by now. It was also melting on the plains. Gushing rivers were finding their courses to lower lying terrain. Lakes began to form. The surface of Barkon was in the process of being transformed.

  Then the soundless voice of the Immortal returned and it was as though It spoke to Itself instead of to Rhodan. "Barkon will become a guide to them, making a trail that leads to our galaxy and they will follow this trail..."

  "They?" asked Rhodan, attempting to remain calm. "Who are they? "

  But he was disappointed. The Immortal did not respond to the question. "Your mission has been accomplished, Perry Rhodan. In the future I shall watch over the Barkonides. Soon I'll again be strong enough to see that justice is done—in case any recurrences should make it necessary. Come back now—I am waiting for you."

  Rhodan knew that any objection would be useless. The Immortal was mightier than he and he was compelled to follow Its orders and wishes. In fact, unconditionally.

  "I shall return," he promised. "Today..."

  "Your ship will land in two hours at the place where you are standing now. Don't forget that if you do not wish to remain on Barkon! You have little time to spare."

  "I know," replied Rhodan, aware that each second was allotted according to schedule and plan. Already the mysterious ship's pilot device would have received its instructions and the swift vessel would be responding accordingly. Neither takeoff time, velocity or course could be changed. No one other than the Immortal had any influence over it. "You can expect me."

  Rhodan looked down into the plain. The station there would soon be ready. They would be able to detect the approach of even invisible and immaterial ships so that the information could be relayed to the watchers below. Meanwhile the energy screen over Barkon had strengthened itself to the point where such ships could be made visible. The automatic energy weapons would aim at them and fire automatically.

  Barkon was prepared.

  Rhodan looked at his watch. He still had one hour and 50 minutes. It was very little time. Without Pucky he'd hardly be able to make it. Even as he thought of the mouse-beaver, he called to him mentally.

  Pucky materialized close to him. "You've been talking to the Immortal—I was tuned in on it." He confessed to his telepathic espionage without embarrassment. "So It won't come across with who the invisibles are, even though It seems to remember them very well. That's what I call unfair."

  "It no doubt has Its reasons," said Rhodan in the Immortal's defense. "Now take me down below. It's time to say goodbye."

  They located Sengu in the Control Central together with Nex and Regoon. They had taken a strong liking to him and all three were in a lengthy discussion of the advantages of nexialism.

  "So it's quite obvious," Nex was just saying, "that specialization leads to an impersonalized approach and actually suppresses the individuality. It's only possible to achieve effective results when you have specialists work together. Yet if the input of even one of them fails, the work of the others becomes useless. It's like a highly sensitive instrument: if one part fails you can throw the whole thing away—in case there is no replacement for the part that broke down."

  "I can see that," agreed Sengu. "But a nexialist could never entirely replace a team of specialists because even he wouldn't have all the knowledge that the specialists represent as a whole."

  "However, the risk would be much less," countered Nex with conviction. "Besides—in every circumstance a nexialist would know where to be of assistance. The specialist wouldn't. At least not unless the pr
oblem lay within his own field of knowledge. And even that is a rare occurrence."

  "Isn't it an impossibility to study every special area of science and to be competent in each of them, merely to have an overview of all of them?"

  "It's easier to obtain a general comprehension of sciences than to know every detail in any particular specialization. I'd find it too boring."

  Rhodan and Pucky made themselves noticeable. They joined the two men.

  "Nexialism is certainly an interesting theory," admitted Rhodan. "Every spaceship traveling the space routes and dependent upon its own resources should have a nexialist on board so that in case of difficulties he could coordinate the work of the specialists." He smiled. "Perhaps we can discuss it later, Nex, but unfortunately there's no time, for it now. We have to say goodbye."

  "You're going to leave us?" Nex was startled.

  Regoon had only been a silent listener to the conversation until now but now he stepped forward. On his face was an expression of dismay. "So soon? We still don't know if the invisibles..."

  "They won't come back—or if they do you're armed for it this time. You know the weapons you have to use on them. Keep the reactor locked into operation. Continue your observations at the surface. Pursue your journey. You are never alone—don't forget that."

  Regoon nodded slowly. He realized that he could not change Rhodan's mind. Perhaps he also guessed that Rhodan was not the master of his own decisions in this matter but had to answer to a higher authority.

  "Then it is time to thank you and your friends. What might have happened if you had not come here?"

  "Nobody knows, Regoon. Not even we."

  "Because nobody knows what the attackers intended," interjected Nex. "And because nobody knows where they come from or where they go. We've never run across them before—and our history is a million years old!"

  Regoon had stepped out but now he returned with Gorat and Laar. Rhodan knew that these four men represented the people of Barkon. Whenever he thought of Barkonides he would also have to associate these men with them.