by Perry Rhodan
By accident he had landed in the vicinity of the LEV XIV. He edged a little closer and saw traders come and go through the big hatch of the ship. This activity aroused his curiosity.
The next moment the place where Tako Kakuta had just stood was empty and he materialized inside the LEV XIV in a little room which was frequented only for a private purpose. The door to the toilet stood open and two traders were talking outside. Kakuta was pleased to hear that they complained about the patriarch Goszul using the most derogatory language and that Levtan was accorded no less abusive terms. He learned with amusement that they were still trying to find some kind of written proof of Levtan's contentions.
He had heard enough and began to concentrate his thoughts on the large building at the edge of the spaceport which he had seen when the Springers transported him to the prison. And then he jumped. He appeared again in the shadow of the large building. There was no need for him to hide. He didn't differ from the Springers in appearance and clothing.
Leisurely he walked around a corner and approached a group of men who were standing and talking at the entrance. Tako Kakuta saw too late that a guard was among the group. The guard had already noticed him and seemed to be suspicious when he walked into the light out of the shadows. With a forceful movement of his left arm the guard cleared his line of fire and aimed his gun at Kakuta. The little Japanese in the guise of a Springer kept his cool.
"Come here!" he growled but instead of waiting for him to come, the guard went forward. Who are you? And why did you loiter near the bombs?"
All Kakuta could hear was 'bombs'. Instantaneously he absorbed everything around him: the location of the building in relation to the spaceport, the brightly lit facade, the factory hall opposing it, the wide street and the house to the right where apparently the bombs were stored.
"Can't you talk?" the guard roared.
The cluster of men who had carried on a lively conversation now became curious. Two of them approached slowly.
Tako Kakuta weighed the danger of the situation. It obviously was nearing a most awkward dilemma and he didn't dare perform his teleportation. To show his trick would have meant to give away Rhodan's plan and to ruin their mission.
"My name is Brom and I belong to the Gaxtek clan," he stated briskly and hoped secretly that nobody from Gaxtek's clan was present.
When the guard grinned broadly, showing his rotten teeth, Tako sensed trouble but he was far from realizing the full extent of the impending catastrophe.
"Then you must be from the near ship GAX XXII ," the guard queried him warily. "I know all the others but I've never seen you.
"GAX XXII!" a loud voice came from the background. "That's my ship. What's the matter?"
"Stop shouting and come here!" the guard called to him, turning halfway around. "This man claims to be from your ship. Do you know him? Take a look at him..." He had turned his head back again, not wanting to let the suspect out of his eyes for too long and the words stuck in his throat when he failed to see his quarry.
Tako Kakuta couldn't think of another way out except teleporting. The trader from the GAX XXII who had spoken up had presented him with a desperate opportunity of which he took quick advantage. As the entire audience paid attention to the Springer, Kakuta performed a little jump to the corner of the building.
He swiftly considered all possibilities in utmost coolness. The Springers couldn't be allowed to recognize that he was a mutant and should be convinced that his disappearance was nothing else but a normal flight. Tako's heart was beating fast. One of the onlookers had seen him turn around the corner, which greatly helped to improve the situation for him.
Now he dashed away. He kept in mind that the gun brandished by the guard was not a lethal weapon but a paralyzing gun with a limited range giving him a chance for his flight. He ran like a regular fugitive under the cover of darkness but he came closer to the store of bombs and where bombs are kept there are guards.
It's the same everywhere, he thought, as he heard them shouting in the dark: "Halt!" The Springers were close on his heels and one of them screamed at the guards: "Don't let him get away!"
Kakuta jumped and teleported himself in midair, descending breathlessly next to a revetment of heavy rockets. Two soldiers were discussing something and the mutant listened to each word. They talked about the alarm and wondered why Goszul had sent messengers to the patriarchs instead of using regular channels of radio communication to broadcast his instructions.
"Did you notice something?" Tako heard one of the soldiers ask, feeling uneasy when he came closer.
Rather than wait to be bumped into by him, Tako disappeared and materialized again in the cell. His first question was: "Did I stay away longer than 15 minutes?"
• • •
Patriarch Goszul arose with pride when the entrance of the last participant in the Great Conclave was announced. Till a few minutes before he had been under a cloud of ominous misgivings. Now he felt relieved of these crushing forebodings and sunned himself in the respect rendered to him by all his peers as the discoverer and conqueror of this planet. He had been unanimously elected to preside over the Great Conclave.
Goszul opened the conference of the Galactic traders with a short speech. He greeted all the attending notables personally without mentioning a single name. While he spoke the introductory words his sharp eyes searched for one particular patriarch among the more than 1200: Etztak.
He was unable to find him even after he sat down again and neither could he discover Etztak's sons. He wanted to give instructions to an aide to find out in which row Etztak had taken his seat when the name of Perry Rhodan was mentioned for the first time by a speaker and Goszul instantly forgot all about his friend.
"...the sovereignty of the Galactic traders has been threatened in our sphere of influence. Topthor the Mounder has paid with his ship and his life for Etztak's call for help. Perry Rhodan, the inhabitant of a planet called Earth by the human race, has wielded the powerful armaments of the Arkonides to defy us. Arkon's Imperium is in a state of stagnation. We're the rightful heirs. Nothing prevents us from asking the Mounders to join us in a common effort to eliminate the planet Earth from the Galaxy by total annihilation. We're a hundred times stronger than Rhodan but we have come to an understanding about our goal. However before we start our discussion we have to grant a hearing to the traitor Levtan.
"We ourselves have created the laws of our clans. In accordance we mete out punishment but we also adhere to them in making amends. Though we must never forget, my Patriarchs, when listening to the testimony of Levtan that he has been in the world of Perry Rhodan. Levtan's statements and alleged proof will have to be thoroughly scrutinized. Examine him with great care before you forgive him, following the code of our clans and removing the stigma of the pariah from him.
"Examine him prudently, even if you believe he's lying! Examine him as if your life depends on this investigation! Examine him because it is a matter of life or death for us! Perry Rhodan means death!"
Stunned silence followed the speech. The exhortation had been performed with suggestive force. The silence still prevailed when Levtan was brought in, escorted by six robots, and led down the wide center aisle. He was placed in a chair from where he could see the presidium on the dais as well as all participants in the Great Conclave.
Levtan held his gaze, which reflected naked fear, fixed on Goszul. The patriarch rose up again and looked at him sternly, his arms folded over his chest, before he addressed his first question to him: "Pariah Levtan, where are the documents to prove your claims about Perry Rhodan?"
There was an echo reverberating in. the hall.
Rhodan! It called back hauntingly.
Goszul saw several patriarchs shudder and turn around to the main entrance. He himself was hardly able to suppress, with great effort, a terrifying shock.
"I've got the proof on my ship," Levtan replied in a whisper.
"Where?" Goszul asked sharply, adding with his next bre
ath: "Don't expect to prolong your life by such tactics!"
With a gesture of utmost despair Levtan pleaded vehemently: "Didn't I return voluntarily?" he cried out, the slits of his eyes narrowing. "Didn't I return for the sole purpose of showing you The way to destroy Perry Rhodan? Who among you knows Rhodan?"
And the echo jeered: Rhodan!
Again Goszul noticed that some of the patriarchs were startled and whirled around to look at the entrance as if they expected to see Perry Rhodan. Goszul thought quickly. The echo which had already come back twice to haunt them had to be reduced to a minimum by a careful formulation of his words.
"Where are the documents?" Goszul asked the pariah in an imperative tone.
"In the command center of my ship. In the guidance system compartment," Levtan answered submissively.
Goszul's old eyes flashed like those of a youthful hunter to the members of his clan standing at the main entrance and he called to them in a loud commanding voice: "Get it out of there! I want to have it here at once!" And then he said to Levtan in a calmer tone: "Tell us about Rhodan!"
He couldn't take the word back. The echo brought it back: Rhodan!
Goszul felt the first drops of sweat on his furrowed brow. "Start talking!" Goszul bellowed uncontrollably at Levtan. He was slowly losing his composure under the influence of the many patriarchs who succumbed to the sinister echo and sat whispering low, putting their heads together.
Finally Levtan began his report.
• • •
The situation for Perry Rhodan and his fleet had eased up. The Springer ships still kept circling around Goszul's Planet but they didn't patrol beyond a distance of three million miles from it. More important was the fact that measurements on the Stardust II had determined that the traders exclusively used structure sensors which worked on the principle of hyper-gravitation. It barely permitted them to make a rough measurement within the range of one astronomical unit but it became extremely effective beyond the 90-million-mile limit.
Perry Rhodan's ships were standing 20 million miles away from Goszul's Planet waiting for a message or an attack. They waited for something to evolve but nothing happened. There was a noise in the receiver. The built-in descrambler decoded the radio call which, to the human ear, was only audible as a short beep.
Rhodan read the text and hid his disappointment. The message came from Terrania. It had been sent by Col. Freyt to the administrator Perry Rhodan. He handed it silently to Bell who suspected what it contained. Disgustedly he asked: "Paper war from down there?"
Down there—was the Earth, finally united under Perry Rhodan without power blocs outshouting each other that they were the strongest. There still remained three interest groups on good old Earth but their main task was reduced to accomplishing the withering away of their separate states.
"Read it!" Perry urged his friend.
Bell read reluctantly. "There are still a few ambitious men left who are trying to make politics. Well, Freyt will rap their knuckles. Shall I answer it, Perry?"
"No!" Rhodan said tersely; pulled the note from Bell's fingers and handed it to Julian Tifflor, who stood next to him. "Throw it into the shredder, Tifflor!"
Without looking Julian Tifflor threw the note into a grill. The paper simply dissolved without a trace.
Rhodan quickly glanced at the young man. His soft face, where tough missions under difficult conditions already had left their mark, was deceiving like his dreamy brown eyes. Julian Tifflor was anything but soft and pliable. He was the most dependable and successful astronaut of the young generation that had dedicated its life to Perry Rhodan.
"You seem to yearn to be with John Marshall, Tifflor?"
There was a fire in Tifflor's brown eyes. The spark had shown the stuff Julian Tifflor was made of. For a fraction of a second he had revealed his thoughts but his voice sounded calm when he answered his chief: "Sir, one can't always be in the front lines!"
The nerve-wracking waiting in the command center of the Stardust II was interrupted by a sudden call from the observation officer: "Strong sudden radioactive disturbance on Goszul's Planet! Locally limited... Evaluation follows in a moment!"
Rhodan had to wait in spite of his impatience. He began to guess something. In apprehension he looked at his watch and then asked curtly: "Please give me the local time of the second planet!"
"45:71," someone at the chronometer panel answered. This was about noon Terra time. The day on Goszul's Planet had about reached the zenith and there was still no message from the team of mutants, contrary to what had been arranged with them.
"Evaluation!" the rangefinder officer reported again. "Radiation inside the capital city! Locally limited to diameter of 300 to 500 feet!"
Marshall, Yokida, Ishibashi and Kakuta were uppermost in the thoughts of all those in the command center. The mutants had failed to give a sign of life on the agreed channel.
8/ THE CEREBRAL INQUISITOR
John Marshall picked up the time telepathically. Locally it was 23:104. The four men in the prison cell converted it to Terrestrial time. It was about 9 in the morning on Earth.
"The food and board in this establishment leaves something to be desired," the telekinetic Tama Yokida stated. "I suggest that we scrounge up some chow ourselves." He ogled the massive cell door and toyed again with the idea of lifting it off its hinges with his t.k. powers.
"No, no!" said Marshall who had intercepted his thoughts again. "It won't be necessary. They're coming to pick us up to attend the Great Conclave!"
His friends looked at him suspiciously. There was something in his voice that didn't sound right.
"Yes," the telepath added to his announcement, "but not as guests, as witnesses for Levtan. The wretched fellow must have acted like a madman and insisted on his demand that his clan be heard too."
"A fine chief of clan he is!" the usually reserved Tako Kakuta said. "My father would have behaved differently! When will they come to get us, Marshall?"
"The guards are already on the way. They all talk about Levtan. They now know where he kept the documents hidden. Goszul is said to have rushed some men from his clan to the LEV XIV to dig them out of the guidance system compartment.
Kitai Ishibashi interrupted Marshall. "I got interested in that myself one time. I would never have suspected they could be hidden there. For heaven's sake, did they discover our cache of arms?"
"The guards aren't thinking about that," Marshall replied and listened. "Don't you hear them coming?"
Steps were audible in the corridor. The firm stamping of the robots was unmistakable. The prison door was pushed open. Three paralysis guns and two impulse beamers were pointed at them.
"Get out!" one of the Springers barked. Judging from his uniform he was an officer.
Rhodan's task force silently left the inhospitable dungeon. They were transported to the Great Conclave in a large armored vehicle. Tako Kakuta believed that he had been in such a vehicle yesterday when the unlucky guard was taken to the brain analyzer. When they arrived and climbed out they were surrounded by a platoon of fighter robots.
"If these toy soldiers accompany us into the hall and keep us in their rays they can make life rough for us," Tama Yokida thought and tried a test to find out how heavy one of the robots was. He selected the metallic automaton who stood farthest behind and could not be observed by his soulless mates nor by the Springers.
Tama Yokida only 'played' a little with him. His effort to lift the robot two feet off the ground was no greater than bending his little finger. The experiment had taken less than a second and Tama Yokida was satisfied with the result. He followed his friends calmly into the vast assembly hall. Yet he held his breath when he saw more than 1000 patriarchs seated in rows. There were more chiefs of clans than he had expected to see and he was awed by the presence of such a spectacular crowd.
Marshall soon discovered the fact that there was not a single patriarch in the hall who believed one word Levtan had told them about Perry Rhodan. The
y gave no credence to the alleged proof of the pariah. The little group was completely surrounded by robots and followed by heavily armed Springers. They were led down the wide center aisle of the arched hall to the chairman of the Great Conclave.
Levtan was at his stand, sweating profusely and looking toward his clan like a drowning man. He was at the end of his rope. Nobody trusted his proof—the documents, the reports, the three-dimensional photos and movies.
"Cheap phony tricks!" a patriarch heckled soon after the film had started to run showing the take-off of 22 battleships all bearing the name of Stardust and numbered consecutively.
Levtan had shouted back. He knew that his film was no forgery. He had taken these pictures himself on Venus at the risk of his life and had almost fallen into the hands of Rhodan's counter-espionage service. He remembered each detail but here he encountered only the most stupid and agonizing disbelief despite his best intentions of bringing help to the Springers. He was the only one who could show them the way to escape from the perilous plight engendered by Perry Rhodan.
Perry Rhodan—the most formidable power that had ever appeared among the stars and whose strength exceeded many times the Arkonide Imperium at its height!
His voice cracked as he pleaded with them: "...and every five days they complete a heavy cruiser. Perry Rhodan seems to make his spaceships spring up from the ground on Venus. I've seen it with my own eyes, brothers! Remember that I'm one of you! I've been treated like a dog by Perry Rhodan. He hates us and will destroy all of us if we attack him. He'll hunt down our clans one by one..."
Levtan was jolted by a ray which caused him to break off in the middle of his sentence and the film continued to the end without being interrupted by his diatribe.
Etztak, the patriarch of the Orlgans clan, watched the crew of the LEV XIV being marched in. Couched deeply in his armchair and half hidden behind the hulking patriarch Slurd, he had observed the proceedings with complete concentration, remaining unimpressed by the developments: The film had not caused him to change his mind either. He was suspicious of the pictures and doubted the existence of 22 battleships, not to mention Levtan's ridiculous claim that Perry Rhodan constructed a heavy cruiser on Venus every five days. Etztak could not be shaken in his opinion that even in this day and age it took considerable time to create such miracles.