#19 - The Immortal Unknown

by K. H. Scheer

Rhodan. paused for a moment.

  "It is obvious that we could not have entered this artificial world through the energy dome against his will. That he has admitted us proves that we’ve passed all tests to his satisfaction. Now we’ve reached his private realm. Remember the mad laughter which greeted us by telepathy. Compared to his knowledge the Arkonides are helpless dilettantes just as men from the stone age appear to us today. Keep that in mind and trust his good will. Don’t take it for granted that we’ve persevered through all our tribulations by our initiative alone. He has always exerted restraint as soon as he found that we managed to parry his attacks temporarily. A candidate should never be tested beyond his endurance. One can take him to the brink, but that’s where it has to stop. This is what has happened to us. Therefore, the situation looks very favourable in principle. This is the place whose inhabitants know the secret of biological cell conservation according to ancient traditions. If you have any doubt about it, think of the incredible events which have brought us here. Whoever can perform such momentous deeds must know a great deal about the mysteries of organic life. The old tales proved to be true even though reality shows differences in important respects. Here is somebody who is willing to recognize us from now on. Major Deringhouse…!"

  Deringhouse snapped to attention.

  "Your request for a reconnaissance flight in fighter crafts is denied. Only on board the Stardust can we stay reasonably secure. The crew remains at battle stations. I’m afraid that we’ll get a few more surprises. That’s all. Thank you!

  Rhodan signed off. He preferred not to take part in the lively discussions between his men.

  Minutes later the super-battleship started to move again. Proceeding at the slow speed of 900 miles per hour the Stardust travelled under the strange "sky" where a yellow-white sun burned, guided by unseen forces.

  Although they flew at an altitude of only five miles, they had an almost perfect panoramic view. Due to the lack of curvature the flat surface did not have a horizon in the customary sense. The view was only restricted by large objects in the line of sight.

  Khrest was busy preparing a simple 2-D map. The geographical recording instrument operated continuously. The light-reflexes of the sensor-impulses scanning the landscape recorded all topographical features instantaneously.

  The impulses bounced back from the faraway walls of the energy dome rising precipitously into the "sky". The resulting measurements were highly accurate.

  Rhodan sat in his pilot seat and leaned forward. The large observation screens depicted fascinating details all around the ship.

  The Mutant Corps clustered around Rhodan’s seat. Since the spaceship had penetrated the wall of energy Tanaka Seiko had stopped raving and fallen asleep from exhaustion.

  "Do you notice anything?" Rhodan asked without turning his head. John Marshall, Betty Toufry and Ishy Matsu were uncertain and answered in the negative until the little girl timidly said:

  "Perhaps a teeny whispering, sir, but I can’t make it out. How many people are supposed to be present here? Do they think clearly?"

  Rhodan smiled. "My child, I wish I could tell you that; but whoever is out there, he is thinking more than clearly."

  "He?" Betty repeated softly with a distant look in her big dark eyes. "Couldn’t there be more than one or is that a silly question?"

  "Of course not. You may be on to something. Do you mean that there are many persons out there?"

  "It does sound like it. The whispering is so curious. It is as if millions of people were talking to each other."

  Reginald Bell became disturbed. Unsure of himself, he looked around at the mutants.

  "I’m getting a creepy feeling," he confessed with an embarrassed grin. "What the devil is going on here? Nothing seems to be tangible and real. The landscaped park down there looks like something out of Old England. John, can’t you recognize any thought impulses at all?"

  Marshall’s thin face twitched under the mental strain. Breathing heavily, he gave lip his efforts.

  "It’s useless, there are no identifiable impulses coming through. If there is anybody, he must be immune to telepathic influence. All I can hear is a faint meaningless whispering."

  The dainty Japanese girl Ishy Matsu nodded eagerly.

  "He’s right," she agreed, "I can’t make any contact either."

  Rhodan refrained from commenting. His uneasy feeling grew by the second.

  High mountains rose up in the distance.

  "For heaven’s sake—it’s snow!" Nyssen, who was busy at the sensor, announced after the analysis. "Snow, imagine that! The highest peak reaches 23,000 feet. How did he do it?"

  "And no people around anywhere. A world of splendour, completely abandoned," Bell mused.

  They flew over the snowcapped mountains. Deep down in the valleys, primeval tropical forests grew luxuriantly. Close by, sheer mountains of rocks rose high up into the air. The gorgeous scenery showed the flair of having been created in an inspired frenzy. In any case, the technical effort required boggled the mind.

  A superior intelligence had skilfully used all natural forces. The flora from every part of the Galaxy had been collected. There were so many different species on display that they must have originated on numerous celestial bodies with highly diversified climactic conditions.

  Wanderer seemed to house a conglomeration of all varieties. When they encountered the first flying creatures, they proved to have as many contrasting features profusely sprouting vegetation.

  Prehistoric giants weaved through the air with slowly flapping wings and huge opened beaks ready to fight. They must have come from a planet in the early stage of development such as Venus where similar flying giant lizards roamed.

  Nearby, fine-feathered birds were seen on the magnifying screen. They were unlike anything they had seen before. The birds were chased by snakelike animals with four wings.

  Their eyes feasted on an endless variety of animals. It was a truly magnificent zoo where the most beautiful and interesting selections from the animal kingdom had been carefully gathered from the other planets; a presentation of wildlife in a multitude of forms.

  The mountains came to an unexpected end when an ocean appeared. Rhodan did not trust his eyes when the Stardust suddenly flew over a dense bank of clouds. The sensor observation revealed far below a storm-tossed sea which was whipped into foam by the gales of a hurricane.

  "I’m going to flip my mind!" Bell said tonelessly. "Just look at that ahead of us! We’re approaching an antediluvian forest the likes of which doesn’t even exist on Venus. This is a real jungle, man!"

  Rhodan stifled an expression of awe. It had become very quiet on board the spaceship. The men sat enchanted before the picture screens.

  The hurricane raged only over the ocean and ceased where the jungle began as abruptly as it had started. Now the telesensors registered steamy hothouse temperatures. Wide swamps came into view where multicoloured flowers in all hues were struggling for the light of the artificial sun.

  "Beautiful, breathtakingly beautiful!" Anne Sloane whispered. "Whoever has planned this must have been a botanist, zoologist, engineer and many other things all rolled into one. How much imagination and time must have been expended to bring all these plants and animals together! It’s impossible that it could have developed completely naturally."

  "That’s out of the question," Rhodan agreed, overwhelmed by his feelings and thoughts. "It couldn’t have been done, Anne. First the extensive ground-plate was established. Then countless planets were searched by ultrafast spaceships and everything which struck his fancy was imported. This must have been created by the whim of one individual, a truly cosmic master builder. Come to think of it, it has not been created, it has been built. There’s a difference, I believe…"

  At this point, Anne screamed hysterically as something shook the ship and maddened cries pierced the telecom simultaneously.

  Rhodan swivelled around in his chair. A gargantuan monster had appeared without warning in t
he range-finder section behind the adjacent transparent partition. Deringhouse was fleeing frantically. The radar technicians jumped from their seats to escape the flailing tentacles of the abominable beast.

  The monster was a slimy steaming mass with a round body exceeding 30 feet. It was goggle-eyed and its sharp birdlike beak was snapped wide open. Its tentacles swing wildly around in all directions and when they touched an object it was roughly torn from its mountings and pressed into the jelly-like mass of its body, where it disappeared.

  With the screaming of the men in his ears, Rhodan rushed toward the open hatch of the range-finder section.

  "Matter-transmitter," someone shouted. "He put the rotten beast right in our laps!"

  As Deringhouse pulled his weapon from the holster, the atrocious monster became airborne. Rhodan smelled the all-pervading stench while the animal ascended and smacked against the domed ceiling with a loud splash; there it remained.

  "Good work, Pucky!" Rhodan muttered, raising his impulse-beamer. He sprayed the hissing thermo-beam all over the writhing body, ravaging it severely.

  Bell appeared on the scene with a heavy disintegrator, vaporized the ugly mass and finished it off, but not without dissolving part of the ceiling.

  It took only a few moments, then the last remnants of the repulsive creature fell down and cracked some more good equipment.

  Coughing strenuously, all men retreated from behind the transparent wall and Betty Toufry let the hatch slam shut. The automatic climate control began to suck out the corrosive gasses and vapours. The ceiling still glowed dark red; Rhodan’s blast had hit not only the beast.

  Deringhouse coughed spasmodically and doubled up with pain. He looked pale and glanced at his seat where he had been on duty a little while ago.

  "Silence on board!" Rhodan bellowed into the telecom. "It’s all over. I’ve told you that we must expect surprises. I’m sure that the beast was transported into the ship by a matter-transmitter. Klein, take the robot work detail and have the department cleaned up."

  One of the radar technicians groaned and collapsed. Under the torn sleeve of his uniform the flesh of his arm was blistered. Rhodan rushed to his aid and called Haggard who waded through the group of men with their weapons ready to shoot.

  "He got too close to the beak of the beast," another man said hastily. "I saw it happen. I wonder whether it was poisonous?"

  Dr. Haggard examined the wound quickly and thoroughly. His face showed an expression of deep concern.

  "Help me. I’ve got to take him to the sickbay at once." I don’t know yet what’s wrong with him.

  Two men carried the casualty to the main elevator. In the room next door fast-working robots removed the remains of the monster under the direction of the positronic brain.

  Rhodan went to get a drink from the dispenser. He silently listened to the excited discussions going on among the crew. They had been sorely tried. The fun and games are getting a little too rough, he thought.

  "What’s the matter?" Bell inquired.

  "Nothing. How does it look on the land?"

  Before Bell could answer, a report came from the upper pole cupola. They had discovered the towering buildings of a big city which was still about 1800 miles away.

  Rhodan inspected the navigation control room. The corrosive fumes had been sucked out; clean air was circulated by the blowers. The men cautiously returned to their posts and surveyed the destruction wrought by the monster.

  Deringhouse fussed and cussed horribly. Finally he turned to Khrest and grumbled:

  "I’d like to know where the thing came from. Khrest, have you ever seen such an animal? It was a veritable mountain of jelly."

  The Arkonide scientist shook his head. Ever since they had penetrated the energy cover, he had been very quiet. Only his reddish eyes were shining.

  This was the world he had set out to find many years ago. He had finally arrived at the goal of his fondest desire. He had high hopes that his body, and hence his brain, could be perpetuated here forever. Because of the general decline in the Great Imperium a clear and active mind was bitterly needed to have among the leading members of the High Council. Khrest watched the observation screen attentively. He was the representative of a race in an irreversible process of degeneration after 20,000 years of conquest in space and building a glorious empire of stars.

  He, Khrest, was entitled to receive the benefit of the coveted biological cell conservation!

  500 ADVENTURES FROM NOW

  You’ll discover

  The Secret Empire

  8/ INTER-CENTURY SHOOT-OUT

  The city seen below was situated on a wide plateau on the banks of a broad river which rushed down over a rocky precipice into a deep blue ocean not far from the outskirts of the city, making Niagara Falls looks like a fine trickle by comparison. The rugged craggy rocks had been washed out by the tumbling torrents of water. The worn and polished stones were obviously a result of the water’s action and gave no appearance of artificial arrangement.

  Nothing could have demonstrated more conclusively that this artificial planet must have dated back to very ancient times, probably older than mankind and Earth itself.

  The masses of water spilled down 2500 feet. At the other shore of the 600-mile-wide sea they detected another settlement. The magniscreen had disclosed wooden sailing ships with horny-skinned two-legged beings on board.

  When Rhodan descended with the Stardust to take a closer look at the dazzling city, nobody there paid any attention to the gigantic spacesphere. The unfamiliar inhabitants seemed to pursue their normal activities.

  Then Rhodan moved to the south of the wide-spread city where prairies stretched out. The events they were about to witness stirred the visitors very deeply.

  It was undeniable that the landscape exhibited the same contours as the Black Hills of South Dakota. Even more remarkable was the sight of red Indians fighting a bloody skirmish with bearded white-skins. The deafening noise of shots from big calibre guns was picked up by the sensitive microphones.

  It was simply too much. Rhodan landed near the scene the wild battle. An officer in a dark blue cavalry uniform came galloping toward the Stardust swinging his sabre. He rode a magnificent stallion and Rhodan was surprised to find himself looking into the barrel of an 1867 Colt.

  A sudden blast from Bell, who lost his nerves, made the apparition vanish. It had been an illusion. The magic was so lifelike and impressive that the men of the landing commando turned pale and remained shaken for some time.

  They were about to leave again, thoroughly convinced that the people aboard the sailing ship were nothing but hallucinations either, when Lt. Everson decided to walk over to the place where the cavalry officer had ridden through the prairie. Lt. Everson suddenly screamed like a madman. He had found something in the high grass which was very real indeed.

  Rhodan and the Stardust took off again in considerable haste.

  Now he was contemplating—in a little room close to the command centre—the object found by Everson in the grass. It was lying in front of him on a little table beside his cup of steaming coffee.

  It was a genuine Colt revolver, called Peace Maker, from the year 1867. The perfectly preserved, spotless weapon was loaded with six .45 calibre bullets. The ammunition with blunt points of soft lead was notched crosswise to cause severe damage to the victim. The barrel was six inches long. An examination of the material indicated that it had been manufactured during the latter half of the 19th century with the fabrication methods of that time.

  Everson sat at the opposite end of the table. With a wan face he looked as if spellbound at the weapon.

  "My dad had one of these," he mumbled. "For heaven’s sake, where did this old gun come from? It’s sheer madness; I’m going to lose my mind. If it was only a vision, why was this authentic gun lying in the grass? I know the model very well, sir. I’ve used it myself many times. This is the real thing, not an imitation. Just look at the ejector."

  Rhodan rela
xed a little. It was obvious that Everson’s nerves were shot. The commander thought for a moment. Then he removed the bullets from the six-shooter.

  "Winchester ammunition," Everson hastily pointed out. "Believe me, sir, it’s the original thing!"

  "Very well," Rhodan finally said, "But not very important." He looked slowly around at the men standing circle around them.

  "You must have realized by now that we’re undergoing a final test. This," he pointed to the Colt, "is part of a war of nerves. You can see for yourselves what it did to Everson whose nerves could never be ruffled before. The origin of the weapon doesn’t matter. Klein, have you asked the men whether anyone carried such a gun as a hobby?"

  "Nobody, sir," Klein assured him.

  "Okay, so he has exercised another one of the incredible means at his disposal. He has replayed Custer’s Last Stand before our eyes just as it must have really happened. Who knows, maybe those fighters locked in battle were transposed for a few short seconds to another plane in time? I’m afraid the historians will never be able to verify it. In any case, the Colt is here and it was recently fired. Don’t let it throw you! We’re now playing for keeps and we must have steady nerves."

  "But the gun was lying in the grass," Everson repeated softly.

  "Of course it was there. You know very well that he can travel in time, too. We’ve experienced it ourselves previously. Somehow he got that six-shooter out of the past from Earth. Don’t let it worry you. I don’t get it either how he did it. All I can tell you is that he knows everything about us on Earth. How else could he be so sure that our emotions would be so deeply affected by Custer’s infamous struggle with the Sioux? His intention is to provoke us. Doesn’t it dawn on you yet, Everson?"

  The husky officer had a pensive expression in his eyes.

  "I’ll wring his neck," he growled. "He nearly drove me crazy."

  Rhodan smiled and stuck the weapon under the belt of his uniform.

  "You don’t mind, Everson? There are only six bullets but you can have some made, if you like."