by Perry Rhodan
Tiff had made his decision. "How do you want to lead us?" he asked. "Do you want to walk ahead of our vehicles?"
"Yes, unless you let me ride with you."
Tiff shook his head. "We can't do that. You've been in contact with the Nonues and you'd contaminate our men."
"Yes, I know."
"Then you're willing to show us the way on foot?"
"Yes."
"Do the Approved People have any villages around here?"
"They did but they're all abandoned now."
Tiff was puzzled. "Abandoned?"
"Yes. The Approved Ones have left their villages and moved into the mountains."
"Why did they do that?"
"I don't know. We didn't see them leave. They were suddenly gone."
Tiff was reasonably sure what caused the exodus of the natives—it must have been the will of the Gods. Their hidden enemy knew as well as Perry Rhodan that the men from the Titan only had to capture one of the natives and to question him with his effective methods to get too close for comfort. Tiff believed that the latest clue was very significant. He assured the Hono that his 4 vehicles would follow him and he returned to his carplane.
The first thing he saw when he got back in was Brian's worried face on the telecom screen. "Disconnect your obscreen," Brian ordered. "We're having serious trouble."
Tiff severed the connection to the outside picture so that Capt. Brian was able to see him. "Chaney, Crimson and Hathome have been forced down with their Gazelles," Brian blurted out. "We've lost contact with them after they crash-landed. The area where they crashed is about 100 miles north-northeast of the spot where you are. The Chief wants you to go and look for these Gazelles. It would be useless to send other machines after them because they'd suffer the same fate."
Tiff tossed his helmet back and scratched his head. In a few words he told Capt. Brian about his conversation with the Hono. Brian understood quickly what was on Tiff's mind and waved his hand in a rejecting gesture. "If you think the Chief is going to dispatch a third reconnaissance team you're badly mistaken, Lieutenant," he interrupted Tiff's report. "We need all our men on board. The only way you can do it is by dividing your group. One detachment can follow the Hono and the other can search for Chaney and his men."
Tiff looked disappointed. "Who the devil gave you such an idea, sir?" he exclaimed, forgetting all respect. "Four units is the absolute minimum for staying alive in this land."
Brian agreed. "I know. I leave it up to you. You can let the Hono go and take all your vehicles to rescue Chaney."
Tiff sighed. "Tell the Chief that his orders will be carried out," he said finally. Brian grinned. "OK. Keep in touch by telecom." Tiff assigned carplane #4 to take over the connection. Then he vacated the pilot seat for Sgt. O'Keefe and instructed him to follow the Hono.
O'Keefe looked dubiously at Tiff but Tiff knew what he wanted. "First let's get out of this valley and onto the plain. Then we can see from there. If the Hono happens to march north-northeast we won't have to fret about it. Right?"
O'Keefe's face lit up with a broad grin. "Right, sir!" he acknowledged.
The engines started to whir and O'Keefe carefully swung the carplane out of the mountain wall's shadow toward the waiting Hono. Tiff looked back to make sure the other vehicles followed in regular formation.
3/ GOD TREK
Maj. Chaney clearly realized that for the next few hours his survival depended solely on his own resources. He knew better than Rhodan that all other Gazelles would have become casualties like the three stranded in the wilderness due to the extraordinary power of the tractor beam.
Crimson and Hathome's groups had reached machine #020 in the meantime. Crimson had already recovered and he continued on the second half of the way under his own power.
Chaney had now been joined again by his full complement of 35 men, each of whom was well-armed. He was certain he could repulse any open attack unless, of course, his 35 men would face an entire army.
Furthermore his men wore protective spacesuits making them invulnerable from a horde of Nonues.
Hours went by and the murky dark-red of the morning began to tinge the mountain peaks in the southwest.
When the red sun rose over the wall of the valley, Chaney was convinced that further waiting would be a waste of time. If the enemy had failed to show up so far, it had to be assumed that he was satisfied with bringing the machines down and that he was not interested in knowing whom he had forced to crash. Or else he realized that he would be unable to confront them—with superior fighting strength.
Consequently Chaney ordered his troop to march back to the Titan. He knew that the ship was located about 200 miles in a south-southwesterly direction.
However marching straight into that direction from the place where the G-020 had come to rest was out of the question. The valley stretched almost exactly from west to east and the cliffs jutted up so steeply that Chaney couldn't ask his men to attempt the climb despite the low gravity. He hoped that they would soon come to the end of the valley or that it would somewhere branch off to the south.
On the western route they passed by the wrecks of the two machines G-021 and 022. Chaney ignored the whispered remarks of his men who scoffed they could have stayed right there if they had known better. More important was the inspection which established that the two machines were as badly damaged as Chaney's own and that the telecom sets were also unusable.
After marching a few hours, the sun crept over the ridge of the mountains and shone down into the deep
valley, raising the temperature so high that they had to switch on the climate control of their spacesuits.
Chaney looked for a suitable spot to take a rest. He discovered a cave in the northern wall and sent two men to examine it, who reported it to be safe and adequate.
When Chaney opened his mouth to tell his men to head for the cave, Sgt. Dee suddenly shouted: "Hey... look at that! Isn't it great?"
He had stopped and pointed with his outstretched arm into the valley. Chaney looked in the indicated direction but was unable to see anything out of the ordinary, let alone something great. "What are you looking at?" he asked Dee.
Dee raised his other arm too and clapped his gloved hands, making a loud noise in their helmet radios. "Wonderful!" he shouted in utter delight. "Magnificent! Simply precious!"
Chaney became angry. "What the hell is so magnificent and precious? Answer me, Sergeant, when I ask you a question!"
Dee was still clapping his hands. "Why be so rude, Chaney?" he laughed. "I'm only having fun!"
Chaney lost his composure. Before he got hold of himself Lt. Crimson broke in, guffawing. "He's right, Chaney. Why not let him have his fun?"
Chaney spun around and stared at Crimson. Suddenly it dawned on him. "Quick, to the cave!" he shouted with a cracking voice. "Hathome, Halligan! Help me get these 2 fools to the cave!"
Hathome and Halligan were already off. They returned and helped Maj. Chaney escort Dee and Crimson to the cave. The two offered no resistance. They laughed and poked fun at people who took life so awfully seriously.
Chaney, his helpers and the 2 who had blown their minds—as Sgt. Halligan expressed it—reached the entrance to the cave unmolested. The other 30 crouched along the walls and 5 of them took up positions at the entrance and covered Chaney's retreat with raised weapons.
Chaney put Dee and Crimson in a rear corner of the cave where they were well guarded. Then he took time out to examine himself for symptoms that he too would in a few more minutes regard the whole world as beautiful and life as one great lark.
No, all seemed normal.
Hathome, who stood next to him, had apparently noticed that Chaney was absorbed in himself and asked: "Are you alright, sir?"
Chaney looked at him—half-angry and half-amused. "Don't you start grinning! Or do you also feel that life is a ball?"
Hathome shook his head. "Not at all, sir!" he answered emphatically and Chaney was pleased.
&n
bsp; Then he stretched out on the floor behind the entrance of the cave and stared out into the valley. What possessed Dee and Crimson?
Mulling over this question lead him straight to the problem of what protection this cave offered if they got into more serious trouble. Hence it was essential to find out how Dee and Crimson had become infected and Chaney was thus again at the beginning of his train of thoughts.
He kept a sharp lookout on the valley and tried to detect where the danger lurked but he saw absolutely nothing.
Chaney was engrossed in his thoughts. The sun moved onto the northern edge of the valley. It passed beyond the crest of the cliffs and cast a shadow on the entrance to the cave. Chaney had the impression that he had dozed off for a little while when suddenly he was startled by the excited voice of one of his men: "Somebody is coming!"
Chaney raised himself up. The man next to him pointed his hand out of the cave toward the east. Chaney looked down the valley and discerned three tall spindly figures coming around a rock and walking toward the cave. Loose colorful capes were draped around their slim shoulders. Honos!
Chaney was wide-awake and he quickly ordered: "Be ready to shoot!"
Not that he was afraid of three Honos but there could be more of them hiding in the neighborhood and waiting for a chance to ambush them. The three the sentry had made out kept coming closer to the cave. They acted as if they knew somebody was hiding inside.
• • •
"Whose spacesuit is this?" Tiff inquired.
O'Keefe turned around and furrowed his brow. "It's yours, sir."
Tiff was taken aback and then began to laugh. "Oh! Where did I get this hole?"
O'Keefe relinquished the steering to another man and got up. The hole in the back of the heavy suit was tiny but clearly visible on the smooth surface.
Tiff took the suit off the bracket and turned it inside out. The hole had failed to penetrate completely through the plastic material. "Hm... something has pricked me but the pin wasn't strong enough," Tiff surmised.
O'Keefe looked dubious. "Isn't it possible, sir, that this flaw could've been overlooked aboard the Titan and...?"
"The inspection instruments would've detected a hole a hundred times smaller than this one," Tiff replied with a disparaging gesture. "No, the suit would've been rejected aboard if the hole had been made before."
O'Keefe took a deep breath. "That means..."
"That means," Tiff gravely finished his sentence, "that something has tried to sting me while I was talking
to the Hono."
O'Keefe scratched his head. "You ought to question him about this, sir!" he suggested.
"Why? So he'll play dumb if he had something to do with it or becomes insulted if it's not his fault? No. We'll simply keep following him and see what he's up to."
O'Keefe muttered under his breath and returned to his seat. He took over the steering of the carplane from the man who had relieved him and kept on the heels of the Hono marching with a long stride at the head of their vehicle column.
The sun had risen long ago. The Hono had turned northeast on the high plain and Tiff had decided against splitting his group since the direction in which the Hono was leading them was more or less the same where Chaney and his 3 Gazelles had made their emergency landing.
The high plain was even more desolate than the valley through which they had come on their way from the Titan. It was virtually flat and other than some huge boulder which the wind seemed to have blown down from the distant mountains nothing rose above three feet. The ground was almost solid except for some small fissures. No plants thrived anywhere. The only thing that moved was the wind howling monotonously across the wide plain.
Tiff took a reading of the outside temperature. It was 125° F. The rock seemed to be boiling hot and it would be just the opposite at night. He had to admire the Hono who proceeded on his way at a steady pace without being bothered by the oppressive heat.
O'Keefe was baffled when the lean man suddenly vanished as if the ground had swallowed him up. The sergeant skidded to a stop. "Confound it! Where did he go?"
The Hono was gone.
"Where did you see him last?" Tiff asked after checking the observation screen, which showed no trace of the Hono.
"Over there! About 50 feet to the right of... ah, he's back!"
The thin man shot out of the rock like a cork out of a champagne bottle. He stopped and waved, presenting a rather comical picture.
"See what he wants!" Tiff ordered.
O'Keefe started up again. As he got closer he noticed a dark crack which began behind the Hono and extended through the rocky ground to the horizon.
"He's not going to lure us into that crack," O'Keefe muttered. "Our cars couldn't even fit into it."
Tiff didn't listen to him. He tried to understand the gestures of the Hono. He pointed alternately to himself and to the ground, then to the carplane and finally toward northeast, while lowering his hand at the same time.
"If I understand him right," Tiff surmised, "he wants to climb down into the crack and we are supposed to continue on the plain and join him later on. The crack is probably wide enough farther ahead so that we can get inside."
O'Keefe steered the carplane past the Hono and alongside the cleft. Tiff saw that the Hono made an affirmative gesture and disappeared again in the crack. "It's correct," he told O'Keefe. "Keep going!"
To their surprise the insignificant fissure widened into a regular valley after a few miles. The floor of the valley lay 600 feet below the level of the plain and dipped down toward northeast.
O'Keefe stopped the carplane at the rim of the valley and used his tracking instruments to search for the Hono.
He finally detected him almost abreast of the vehicle column. "By golly," O'Keefe grunted, "that guy must have been running to beat the band!"
The picture screen clearly showed that the Hono was looking upward. When he saw the carplane edging over the rim he waved his arms, gesticulating more violently than the apathetic Approved People possibly could have done.
O'Keefe turned around. "Shall I?"
Tiff gave him a nod. "But slowly and carefully."
O'Keefe gingerly manipulated the carplane into the thin air over the gorge. He hovered for a while without moving and slowly descended into the gorge. The other carplanes followed quickly, keeping their customary distance in free flight.
A few minutes later, O'Keefe paused a couple of feet above the floor of the valley where the Hono waited and motioned him anew to follow his lead. O'Keefe set out again without waiting for Tiffs instructions.
Half an hour later the ravine took a sharp turn to the north. The Hono rounded the corner and continued in the northern direction for a few more hours.
Meanwhile the sun wandered across the zenith and the western wall of the ravine soon cast long dark shadows.
When they came to the next bend where the canyon turned east the Hono stopped at a corner and looked back at the vehicles. He pointed both hands to the ground and sat down.
O'Keefe advanced within 30 feet of the Hono. In doing so the right hand wall shifted to the side of the observation screen, opening up a wider view. O'Keefe was too busy steering the vehicle to see what was behind the corner.
But Tiff had kept his eyes wide open and he noticed the narrow split in the opposite wall and the little trickle of water flowing from it. The water quickly oozed away in the porous stony bottom. There was a little patch of sparse vegetation fed by the water and a few ramshackle houses close to the wall.
"Stop!" Tiff shouted, startling O'Keefe, who quickly turned off the engine. "What's the matter?"
Tiff pointed to the observation screen. "There!"
O'Keefe whistled low through his teeth when he saw the little village. "Oh!" he exclaimed. "The secret town in the mountains!"
"Appears to be empty," Tiff commented.
"Sure looks like it. But the Hono told us before that the Approved Ones have fled from here."
"I'm goin
g to take a look," Tiff announced and O'Keefe murmured: "You better take a suit without a hole this time!"
Tiff got out and walked to the Hono who sat motionlessly on a stone, his head bent down. Tiff stopped 10 feet from him and called, "Hey!"
The Hono shuddered and looked up as if he had fallen asleep.
"I know you're tired," Tiff said, "but I'd like to know why you've brought us here."
"Because I wanted to show you the trail of the Gods," the Hono replied.
"So?"
"It begins here."
"Where?"
"Over there at the huts."
"Show me where it is!"
The Hono made a declining gesture. "Not now. The light is almost gone and I'm too tired."
Tiff gave up. "Where are you going to sleep?" he asked.
"Right here."
"Why don't you sleep in one of the huts over there? You'd be much more comfortable."
The Hono stared at Tiff as if he doubted his sanity. "Over there? Where the Gods have driven out the Approved? I'd rather not sleep at all!"
Tiff shrugged his shoulders. "Suit yourself. I wish you a good night."
"Thank you, the same to you!" Tiff turned around to return to the car. At the same moment he felt a sharp sting in his shoulder. He spun quickly around but no matter how much he strained his eyes in the twilight of the early evening all he could see was the Hono, sitting quietly on his stone, the rocks scattered in the ravine and the row of houses against the opposite wall. Nonetheless he was sure he would find a tiny hole in the shoulder of his spacesuit when he inspected it after his return to the carplane and he rushed to get back inside.
• • •
The 3 Honos still stood 30 feet from the entrance to the cave. Chaney switched on his helmet radio so that his voice could be heard outside through the loudspeaker. "What do you want?" he asked in Arkonide: "Kovala?"
"We've heard that you've crashed here," one of the three replied, "and we thought you need help."