Spybot!

by Perry Rhodan

  In his eyes had appeared a faint light of comprehension. Rhodan was certain that he would soon come to realize what he was dealing with here.

  As he stepped onto the conveyor strip and glided away in the direction of the Command Central, he heard Farrington give an assistant the order to go down to the tech section and procure at least five vacuum cleaners. But the man didn't seem to be the comprehending type like his chief, because Farrington had to repeat his order three times.

  When Rhodan got back to the Command Central he informed the analytical section of what lay before them and the analysts assured him that they would be able to fulfill the assignment since he had told them what to look for,

  An hour later Farrington called. He had made sure that his men performed their task with, extraordinary care and thoroughness. "We've vacuumed everything, sir."

  "Then send one of your men with the dirt to the analytical section."

  "Yes, sir, at once."

  The analysts had made preparations. They required only an hour to sift the dust and examine it. They found what they were looking for and called through to Rhodan at once.

  "A small plastic ball," reported the officer. "It has a diameter of zero-point-two millimeters. Synthetic, sir."

  "Wait till I get there!" called Rhodan. "We'll have a look at it together."

  Bell again took over command of the control center. Rhodan was suddenly in a hurry. Wherever he used a conveyor strip he didn't just stand on it but instead moved along it with distance-demolishing strides. He only required a few minutes to cover the distance of over 2000 feet to the analytical section.

  Maj. Hill, Chief of the section, had readied the found article for inspection.

  "How did you find it?" Rhodan asked.

  "Well, first of all it's bigger than normal dust particles." Hill answered. "And second, it has a radiation component."

  "Radiation?"

  "One of the forms of radiation-electrical energy. It must contain a small battery. The energy flow is clearly detectable."

  "Good. Open it up!"

  A microtome was used, since it was an automatic cutter that worked on objects too small for hand-guided equipment. The device cut the sphere flawlessly into two halves. Under the microscope it became evident that the plastic ball was only a thin shell that enclosed a tangled jumble of tiny coils, semiconductor elements, clockwork parts and similar components.

  At the first glance Rhodan knew what he had before him. For anyone who worked daily with such equipment, the construction of a hypercom transmitter was simple to understand. In addition to the transmitter itself, which was comparatively primitive and certainly could not have generated anything more than a single-frequency humming note, there were also some tiny little parts that formed a mechanical timer.

  Hill had also immediately recognized the nature of the object. But he was racking his brain to explain the timer device. "What could its purpose be?" he asked in astonishment.

  "Quite simple: the transmitter was controlled to send its signal at a prescribed time."

  Maj. Hill stared at him wide-eyed. "But that's still..." Without finishing his statement, he muttered to himself and took another look through the microscope. "It's quite a simple arrangement," he continued after awhile. "It can be set for any desired time by means of a voltage impulse from the battery. But actually only one setting is possible." He looked at Rhodan a bit uncertainly.

  "You are perfectly correct," Rhodan assured him. "If this thing has been responsible for both signal sequences that we picked up before, it means that somebody has to be on board who gave it the second setting. He had to adjust it so that it would start working again immediately after our hypertransit."

  "Yes, quite so," confirmed Maj. Hill, hardly breathing. "So that means that in addition to the micro-transmitter we have a spy on board who keeps on setting the device so that the ship's position can be reported at strategic times. Isn't that so?"

  Rhodan laughed. "That would be possible. However I can't accept the idea-it's too much trouble. The spy would have to place the micro-transmitter in some location, then wait until it had sent out its signal, after which he would have to keep under cover and carefully sneak through the corridors to the hiding place of the transmitter and reset it. This fellow has been too clever for us to suspect him of such a clumsy procedure."

  "But-" gasped Hill, "then how did he..."

  "He has a number of such transmitters with him," Rhodan interrupted.

  Hill stared perplexed, first at Rhodan and then at the tiny device that lay cut in half on the smooth dark tabletop. "Such an apparatus is worth at least 100,000 Solars!" he exclaimed. "For its micro-size alone. Do you seriously think, sir, that our spy is so lavishly supplied with funds?"

  Rhodan nodded. "Yes, I believe so. Don't forget that he got on board in the vicinity of Swoofon. For the Swoon, such micro-equipment isn't extraordinary. On Swoofon this micro-transmitter isn't any more expensive to come by than a full-scale device of the same quality would be on Earth."

  "Then we still are not clear of this danger?" asked Hill with concern. "If he has a number of these transmitters in his possession..."

  "I'm convinced that he'll send another signal after our next transition," admitted Rhodan. "If we can't find any other way to block him, we'll have to make as many transitions as may be necessary to make him run out of his supply of transmitters. The only thing I'm afraid of, though..."

  He didn't finish the sentence. For the time being, Maj. Hill was deprived of hearing what it was that Rhodan feared. It mattered little at the moment because he was too much occupied with his own worries. It was why he forgot to salute when Rhodan left the room.

  The discovery of the micro-transmitter had brought Rhodan himself to a troubled state of mind. It was now certain that the Swoon had had a finger in the situation. Undoubtedly they had gotten an assignment from the Springers or the Arkonides to manufacture the micro-devices. Whether or not they had any idea to what purpose the Springers intended to put them was doubtful and also immaterial. The only matter of importance here was the fact that in the struggle of the opposition to obtain data concerning the position of the Earth a new technology and technique had been brought into play. Its exotic, unusual nature and microscopic scale made it almost impossible to come up with an effective counter-measure against it. Certainly the process of maintaining a cautious vigil for further signals, together with precise triangulations applied to their source, would make it possible to find one micro-transmitter after another and render them useless. But no one knew how many of the devices the spy may have brought with him or how long it might take to find them all. The Drusus and her crew did not have an unlimited length of time at their disposal.

  Who was the spy?

  The only obvious answer to this question had to be: either Kulman or his dog. Since the departure of the Drusus from the Earth, Do one other than these two had come on board.

  However, Rhodan refused to believe that Kulman could have switched his loyalty so drastically. On the other hand, nothing was known concerning the character and make-up of the possonkal named Muzzel. But of course even a possonkal could not carefully hide a micro-transmitter in a selected spot or activate the trigger of the miniature timer. Rhodan toyed for awhile with the possibility of Muzzel being a robot but then discarded the thought. He recalled that in Kulman's account of the fight with the pirates or Springers, Muzzel had been wounded and had started to bleed. Robots didn't bleed. Moreover, Pucky was Muzzel's special playmate and Pucky possessed powerful telepathic faculties. It would not have escaped his attention if Muzzel were a robot.

  There still remained the possibility that somebody could have imposed the will of an alien on him. It was not known to Rhodan whether the Springers possessed the means or capability of hypnotizing a person to such an extent that the post-suggestive impressions would have a long-lasting effect but in any case he'd have to take it into account. Anyway, this idea came closest of all to his own personal suspicio
ns in the matter.

  He resolved to send Kulman at once to the paraphysics experts in psycho-phenomena and have him examined. Although a post-hypnotic state changed mental activity in a very small degree, nevertheless that degree could be detected. The para-psychoanalysts would be able to determine whether Kulman was in a normal state of mind.

  Rhodan was only a few yards from the bulkhead door of the Command Central when the alarm sirens suddenly began to howl. He increased his pace and arrived in the control room just at the moment when Bell picked up the microphone of the ship's P.A. system, preparatory to putting out a search call for him.

  He turned and saw Rhodan, then put down the microphone. Without preliminaries he said: "They've found Atlan in the computer room. He's unconscious, apparently from an electric shock!"

  • • •

  It required half an hour for the Arkonide to respond to the medical treatment sufficiently to be able to speak. There was no further doubt that he had been struck by the full force of a shock weapon. The charge of the shot must have been considerable. According to the doctors it might have taken Atlan six to eight hours to recover without the aid of the medicine. Atlan's information was scanty. He hadn't seen anything, but he had heard something. The sound he had sensed gave no clue to the perpetrator of the deed.

  Rhodan ascertained that at the time in question quite a number of crewmembers had been in the vicinity of the computer room. Yet no one had noted anything of a suspicious nature.

  Which didn't prove much. One of the men who had remained close to the room could have been the guilty one himself.

  For the time being at least, what was much more important than working on Atlan's vague information was to figure out what the unknown assailant was doing in the computer operations room. Certainly he had not come there merely to work the Arkonide over with his shock weapon. Had he been fooling with the positronicon?

  Rhodan ordered an inspection of the big machine. The responsible programmers and mathematicians were to determine whether or not the positronicon had been worked outside of its assigned machine times, what work had been done and what information the machine had furnished the enemy agent.

  During this investigation Rhodan did not forget the plan he had decided upon prior to the alarm: to have Kulman examined.

  Kulman was still sleeping. This was astonishing when one considered that a hypertransition had occurred in the meantime and that the pains of distortion could normally awaken even the soundest sleeper.

  Rhodan personally gave Kulman the order to go take the psychophysical examination. He wanted to be able to observe the man's reaction.

  Kulman didn't seem to be overly astonished when he heard what was wanted of him. He nodded somewhat wearily and said: "Of course, sir. I've been expecting as much. Obviously I should be the first one to be suspected."

  "It's a relief to see you take it like that," Rhodan confessed. "No one suspected you until now... but we have to maintain security. Trust and brotherhood alone aren't going to see us through this situation.

  Kulman smiled. "Naturally not, sir."

  A short while later it became known what the spy had been doing with the positronicon.

  At 10:32 ship time the machine had been turned on by an unknown operator, which was therefore about a quarter of an hour before Atlan's official machine time began. It was a regulation practice for the so-called 'clear' state of the machine to go into effect automatically two minutes prior to the official start of assigned machine times. The purpose of this was to erase all computational or logic operations that had not been completed by previous users and to leave the machine in unimpeded readiness for use. The automatic 'clear' function had apparently disturbed the unknown operator in his work but at the same time had warned him that someone was about to visit the computer room.

  He had concealed himself and then knocked out Atlan in order to complete his calculations without interference. And of course he couldn't have had a more favorable condition for doing it. Atlan's machine time had been committed, so that now no visitor was to be expected other than the Arkonide, whereas before he had had to watch out for an interruption at any moment.

  They had found out also how the lights had been extinguished. Working close to the deck and apparently with the help of a disintegrator, he had eliminated a short length of the main power line. It had not even caused a short circuit.

  The most alarming discovery was what he had been trying to get from the positronicon. The mathematicians proved that he was attempting to learn the Terranian hypercom code.

  With very few exceptions, hypercom transmissions were all coded. They were first encoded and then by special means pulse-grouped so that a message that might take half an hour to read could be beamed out in bursts of a thousandth of a second duration. This code system had been developed by Earth mathematicians and differed essentially in its features from the Arkonide system. Even should an unauthorized person succeed in decoding any message, it would contain special internal modifications that would present further difficulties and make a full decodification practically impossible.

  So the spy wanted to learn the Earth's hyper-communicator code. Undoubtedly it was for the purpose of sending the hard-won information by the quickest means possible to his principal-presumably the robot Regent of Arkon-so that from then on the latter would be in a position to decipher all Terranian hypercom messages.

  For the present, of course, there was still one question that had not been answered: why hadn't the spy performed his work in a less obvious manner? He must have known that everybody would become alerted after the attack on Atlan in the machine room and that they would try to find out what he was after. And even if he had only a meager knowledge of the operating method and system of a positronic computer he would have to realize that the experts would quickly ascertain the fact that he was interested in the Terranian hypercom code. Therefore the information obtained would be worthless for him and the robot Regent of Arkon because Terra would naturally develop another code at once.

  So what did he really have in mind?

  4/ BLOOD TEST

  The Drusus still waited in the empty void. Actually it wasn't 'waiting' in the sense of motion because it was moving at close to the speed of light toward the center of the galaxy. But in comparison to its velocity during a leap through hyperspace, it was practically standing still.

  Until now Rhodan had not dared to make the next hypertransit. He had an inner conviction that the attempt would immediately cause another microscopic bearing transmitter to go into action and betray their new position. Then the unknown receiver would be able to place another pin on his chart and on that basis start to get an idea as to the possible destination of the Drusus.

  Rhodan had to smile when he thought about it. There was no actual danger as long as he didn't decide to return to the Earth in one jump. Eventually, of course, that's what he'd have to do. But only after the spy had been found, whoever he might be.

  The buzz of the intercom startled him out of his reverie.

  He was lying in his cabin in order to take a rest after all the excitement. Meanwhile, Atlan may have gotten close to apprehending the unknown assailant. The thought came to him briefly that perhaps the agent had come on board the Drusus by way of Wroma's Gazelle. It was not impossible, yet it was highly improbable.

  Anyway...

  He turned a small switch. The face of a slender dark-haired girl appeared on the viewscreen.

  "Forgive me for disturbing you, sir. Mr. Bell told me where you were and I think this is important enough to..."

  "Go ahead, Ms. Perez."

  Rosita Perez was a Cosmopsychologist and a collaborator with the psycho team.

  "What's with Kulman?" he asked. "Have you completed your examination of him?"

  "That's what I wanted to talk to you about, sir. Unfortunately I can't give you any conclusive results. But we can't do anything more. Around Kulman's brain there is a block..."

  "A block? What do you mean
?" Rhodan felt his tension rise as he saw now that his original suspicion might be threatening to prove itself out. There had been something unexplained about Kulman from the beginning. "Don't keep me dangling in the air Ms. Perez."

  "Perhaps it would be better, sir, for you to come here. If we attempt to break the block with shock treatment there may be certain risks. You yourself know..."

  "I know," said Rhodan, reaching for his jacket. "Don't do anything more until I get there, in ten minutes."

  He switched off the intercom, pondered a few seconds, after which he depressed a button contact that connected him with John Marshall. "John, send André Noir to the parapsych department right away-and tell him to hurry. Thanks." Only then did he get under way.

  He had hardly finished greeting Rosita Perez then Noir also appeared on the scene.

  "Did you want to see me, sir?"

  "I don't know whether or not I'll need you but well soon find out. Ms. Perez, will you give us your report?"

  By now they had stepped into the white-tiled room and were being given a respectful nod of greeting by the scientists present. Jost Kulman was lying motionlessly on a type of operating table. He could not have moved even if he were conscious because he was held in position by thin leather straps. Hovering over his head was a curious contraption of metallic construction, which was vaguely similar to an ultra-violet lamp, but in its true nature it was considerably different. Electrical conductors connected it to a control apparatus which was humming softly.

  "He keeps repeating everything he told us before," began Ms. Perez, indicating the unconscious patient. "However we're certain that a hypnotic block has restricted his ability to remember. To put it simply, he's lost his memory or more to the point: it's been replaced by a false one. So you can see how it was possible for Kulman to lie to you and still speak the truth as he knew it. That's why John Marshall couldn't recognize the deception."

  Rhodan nodded. "I thought as much. But now why? Do you have an explanation?"

  "It's as simple as it is frightening," said a tall man in a white smock, joining the discussion. "Somebody erased Kulman's memory of the truth. He no longer knows anything about what actually happened on Swoofon. The only thing he can recall is what some unknown person has suggested to him. Whether or not this was done by mechanical means no one is able to say yet with certainty but we'll find out. The only question is: should we force Kulman's true memory to the surface or should we... ah... be more cautious?"