by Perry Rhodan
Eight hours later, Egg-Or made his report to General Sutokk, commander of the Arkonide fleet stationed on Ekhas.
Sutokk, who to Clyde Ostal had been most arrogant during the boarding operation, nodded affably to Egg-Or. "So I can without hesitation report to the Robot Regent that we are running no danger of being disturbed by Perry Rhodan if we hold onto the ship and its crew?"
Egg-Or bowed to the General and with a confident voice assured him: "General, our specialists are even now working out the data that will give us the exact galactic position of the Earth. I can't report unqualified success in that important matter yet, but in all other points I can safely say to you that your capture of the Tigris has not endangered us in the slightest."
"The cooperation between the Ekhonide planetary defense and the fleet of the Regent of Arkon has never been as good as it is now," Sutokk declared, then asked pressingly: "How long will it take your scientists to figure out the Earth's galactic coordinates from the data in the Terran positronicon's memory banks? Egg-Or, you know as well as I do that the Robot Regent wants that question answered as soon as possible. You remember my last hypercom conversation with the Regent, of course... so when can we have it, Egg-Or?"
"In three days at the earliest, General..."
"Have you gone mad? The Robot Regent would tear my commander's stripes off personally if I sent a message to it like that. And it wouldn't treat you any more kindly either,Ex -Security Chief Egg-Or!"
Now Egg-Or demonstrated that he had a backbone. "Our scientists aren't magicians, General. A positronic computer is a little more complicated than an adding machine. At the moment our three largest positronicons are busy sorting out the data contained in the Terran memory banks and calculating from it. Don't forget, General, that these calculations are extremely difficult since none of the three spatial coordinates nor the time constant are known to us..."
"What nonsense, Egg-Or!" the General interrupted. "The time constant is immutable and doesn't change..."
"But it becomes subject to change with every transition into hyperspace," Egg-Or retorted in a self-assured voice. "Anyway, we have learned that the Tigris had tried to reach the Tatlira System directly from Terra in a single spring. Isn't that already an important piece of information? But we haven't found out yet why the Tigris made such a crucial error in springing... General?" Egg-Or had suddenly noticed that Sutokk was staring pensively at him.
"Egg-Or, I just had a terrible thought. What if this misspring of the Tigris was nothing more than a ruse Rhodan set up to deceive the Regent? And if Rhodan is even now lurking on the edges of our system somewhere..."
"General," Egg-Or interrupted, smiling, "have you forgotten your new structocomp-sensor on board your ship? That piece of equipment will register any transition, even one made under the cover of one of Rhodan's structocomps. And may I inform you that our galactic surveillance operation had cracked the Terran merchant code again and that the freight run of the Tigris to Goszul's Planet in the Tatlira System has been known to us for days? If you like, I can supply all the relevant information for your examination."
Gen. Sutokk was still not completely reassured. Pointedly he asked the head of Ekhonide defense: "Are you absolutely certain that the Tigris did not deliberately misspring and that this is not a decoy operation of Rhodan's? You don't have to give me an answer now, Egg-Or. Just give the freighter captain a brainwash and if it turns out all my fears were ungrounded, I'll even be willing to call the Robot Regent and tell it that we'll need three days to find out the galactic coordinates of Rhodan's solar system."
Egg-Or shook his head. "No brainwashing, General. It violates our laws..."
"The 88 devils of the eight stars can take those laws and—!"
"No, General, I would even refuse a direct order from the Regent on this point!"
The general smiled sarcastically at him. "As if you had any other scruples! Turn the crew of the Tigris over to me, Egg-Or."
"Not now, General! Not one man! Deport them, disperse them all over the Empire so that no one will ever find them again... all right, why not? But to make a man a mental cripple, which is always the result of a brainwash... No General! And that's my last word on this subject!" Egg-Or no longer had a drop of blood in his face. He felt his knees tremble but he knew that it was the only answer he could give and still be able to live with himself.
"In a few minutes I will have a very interesting little talk with the Regent," Sutokk threatened and the look in his eyes showed that he meant to carry his threat out.
At the same moment Egg-Or had switched on his pockom (pocket communicator). "Egg-Or here," he announced. "Message to Star Of Arkon, top priority. Not one of the incarcerated Terrans is to be..."
He got no farther. A stammer of words from the small but loud receiver interrupted him. "Sir... all 33 Terrans have broken out! The alarm just came in from the Star Of Arkon...!"
Egg-Or turned the communicator off and he and Sutokk stared at each other.
The mental image of each was the same: they thought of the top fifth of the towering hotel skyscraper where the prison was located. Both asked themselves how anyone could escape from that prison? Up to this day not one escape attempt had ever succeeded!
"All 33...!" Egg-Or whispered.
Then he heard Sutokk's hard laughter. "It's all turning out for the best, after all," Sutokk said indolently. "Don't let your conscience bother you, Egg-Or. The chances are that at least some of these escapees will be caught by Arkonide Fleet personnel. Then I'll be able to have one or more of the Terrans brainwashed. Egg-Or, I thank you heartily for your visit to the headquarters of the Regent's fleet stationed on Ekhas Good day..."
Egg-Or was anything but calm. Anger flashed in his eyes. "General," he said sharply, "this morning I insulted a Terran when we were bringing them to the prison. He did not meekly accept the insult without a word but in his reply he thanked whatever gods Terrans believe in that he was not born an Ekhonide. And General, you have just given me the proof that it is possible for some one not to be proud of being an Ekhonide... Brainwashing, General! Are we and the Arkonide Imperium so weak and feeble that we must resort to the foulest and most contemptible means of brute force available? Isn't it enough already that the Regent thinks only in numbers and treats us like ciphers? We—"
"Egg-Or, the Regent has instructed us to find out once and for all where Rhodan's home world is located and I intend to carry that mission out! How I do it is something you can leave to me and the fleet. What you and your organization do is a matter that does not interest me in the least. What does interest me is whether or not Rhodan is lying in wait near our solar system."
The tension between the two men had ebbed somewhat.
Egg-Or declared positively: "Rhodan is not anywhere in the neighborhood of our solar system! The Tigris missprang and nothing else!"
4/ PIRATICAL POSITRONICON
Perry Rhodan was somewhere in the neighborhood of the Naral System!
As specified in Order 22 for the Tigris, Maj. Clyde Ostal had half an hour at his disposal in which to make the decisive 'misspring'.
In Terrania, capital city of the Solar Imperium and site of the largest spaceport in the solar system, time ran inevitably towards the hour given in Order 22.
The engines of the Lotus, a light cruiser in the Solar Spacefleet, ran at 10% capacity. The hatches of the spacesphere were still open and all the ramps had been extended out from between the massive telescopic legs. The thundering roar emanating from the equatorial rim was a familiar sound to the men who worked at the spaceport day in and day out and hardly anyone even looked up when such a ship took off. Only the liftoff of a super battleship of 1500 meters diameter, an incredible sight, attracted any attention. When a Titan -class starship blasted into the sky, that was an unforgettable experience for anyone.
But who was interested if the Lotus were ready for taking off? Only a few knew that Perry Rhodan had made it his flagship. Another factor that made the Lotus even mor
e unique among the ships of the Terran spacefleet was known only to Perry Rhodan and a few hundred Swoons whose trustworthiness and silence was already proverbial. It had been those 'Pickle-people' who had irritated Reginald Bell because he, like all other men, was simply not able to see their microscopic handiwork which they had installed in the Lotus.
Yet the crew of the Lotus was beginning to wonder about the coming mission for they had discovered that members of the secret Mutant Corps were aboard.
Tako Kakuta had not taken the normal way to his cabin: the Japanese had chosen to leave his quarters in Terrania by teleportation and materialized in Cabin 7 on C-Deck. He had returned to existence in a shimmering aura of light, carrying with him his pack of personal belongings and items necessary for the mission to come. He immediately began to unpack and stow his gear away.
His movements made the small, slender Oriental seem as harmless as a child. His boyish face only emphasized the impression and nothing about him hinted that this man was a first-class teleporter able to transport himself over almost any distance by nothing more than the strength of his will, no matter whether he could actually see his goal or merely pictured it in his mind.
Like any other mortals Fellmer Lloyd and Kitai Ishibashi had to enter the ship by way of the hatch. Shortly after these two mutants came on board, Perry Rhodan himself arrived.
In the control room the commander wordlessly handed Rhodan the text of a hypercom message that had just been received. It came from the Tigris and announced its transition with landing to follow on Goszul's Planet in the Tatlira System.
"Thank you," said Perry Rhodan and shoved the message in his pocket. He sat down in the reserve seat next to the pilot. "We can take off now," he told the ship's commander. Then he turned his head, for his three mutants had made their appearance and were reporting in. Once again Perry Rhodan said "Thank you" and with that his three special agents were dismissed.
The officers in the control room were not surprised about anything anymore. Too often they had flown similar missions and again and again experienced the almost unbelievable precision with which all preparations were made.
The light cruiser Lotus took off. Powerful antigravity fields raised its weight ever higher into the sky and the engines roaring at 10% capacity in the equatorial rim increased their thrust.
However, the pull of gravity inside the spacesphere remained unchanged and not even inertia exerted any perceptible influence. Precisely calculated absorbers took up the pressure before the men aboard had a chance to feel it.
The Lotus had gone into action.
The second part of a commando operation whose outcome no one could foresee began.
But Perry Rhodan did not let himself be concerned, or at least outwardly. His calm influenced everyone in the control room.
The Lotus reached the orbit of Pluto on schedule. A short message to the relay station on Pluto, a brief reply and at the same time clearance for the voyage into interstellar space, were the last contacts with the home solar system.
The Lotus approached the speed of light with ever-increasing speed and with that the moment of transition came closer.
At X minus two minutes, the commander of the Lotus looked at Rhodan. "Sir," he began, "is it true what the rumors say that the Arkonides have some new kind of sensing device that can detect hypersprings despite our structocomps?"
Rhodan smiled slightly. "The rumor is true, alright, and if you're astounded by my answer, I'm just as astounded that you've heard about this matter."
That was a clear request from Rhodan to explain the source of his knowledge. "I heard it somewhere, sir... and on my honor I don't know who told me."
Perry Rhodan's gaze became stern. "I believe you," he said after a short pause, "but I think that when we get back you ought to go see Allan D. Mercant and tell him about this."
Ten seconds later the Lotus went into transition, crossing 4,535 light-years in a single spring, re-emerging into normal space about one light-year from the Naral System.
In the next 18 minutes nothing happened except that the Lotus had braked almost completely and was virtually standing still in space.
Suddenly the structure sensor showed a continuum disturbance at a distance of one light-year: shortly thereafter three further disturbances followed at the same distance and in the same direction as the first.
The intercom sounded and the Corn Center reported: "Hypercom message from the Tigris received under encoder and scrambler. Text of the message: Ship spotted!"
Perry Rhodan turned his head to the commander. "Order B/3!"
Almost in the same breath the commander called out: "Carry out prepared transition!"
The short transition brought the Tigris some 20 light-days closer to the Naral System. When all the other crewmembers were still shaking off the effects of the transition shock, Perry Rhodan sat almost unaffected in the reserve seat and looked almost impassively in the direction of the structure-sensor. Inwardly he fought to hold down his excitement.
He was the only one aboard who knew what the next few minutes meant for the Solar Imperium.
When the fifth minute went by, Rhodan told himself that he had spent long enough waiting for something that was not going to happen.
The inhuman, grinding tension fell away from him. He felt like he was coming back to life and the two officers at the structure-sensor discreetly wiped the sweat from their foreheads.
"The Lotus hasn't been spotted...!"
And Perry Rhodan smiled, amused at being stared at from all sides. Some faces were questioning, others were completely at a loss.
He was only human and he needed to unwind from tension, to relax like any other human. The questioning faces and the uncomprehending expressions were his relaxation, and that relaxation gave him fresh strength to replace that lost in answering the question "Is there a means to render the Arkonide sensing device inoperable?"
And there was a means!
It had just passed its final test: the Lotus had not been detected!
The new device, the Frequency Damper, a counter-development to the Arkonide Compensator Detector, was the product of the Swoon technicians who earlier had voluntarily left their world to go with Perry Rhodan and begin a new life on Terra.
He had them and their skills to thank for the damper that neutralized the vibrations given off by the structocomp and thus effectively put a crimp in Arkonide plans to learn the position of the Earth with the help of their Compensator Detector.
"Yes, gentlemen," said Perry Rhodan, laughing heartily, "it is indeed a miracle that this ship was not detected after its two transitions. The Tigris was spotted in spite of its structocomp. Don't look at me with such disbelief. Perhaps Arkon does have a device that can detect and measure each and every hyperspring... but the Lotus is now out of its range, so to speak. This is the only Terran spaceship equipped with a frequency damper but I hope that in a month all Terran spacers will have such equipment. That's assuming, of course, that the Swoons can build so many auxiliary devices for the structocomps in so short a time."
"The pickle people?!" exclaimed the commander, using the expression that had been applied to the little technicians the first time man and Swoon had encountered one another.
"That's correct," said Perry Rhodan and his eyes were radiant with joy. "This swift development is something we owe entirely to our little friends."
Then a call from the Com Center brought Perry Rhodan back to cold reality.
"Sir!" exclaimed the Com Officer, gasping out his alarming news. "At this time an Arkonide ship is transmitting over hypercom on the Robot Brain's frequency!"
"Are they using a scrambler and encoder system?" Rhodan demanded.
"Yes sir," the Com Officer answered. "We know how to unscramble the message and we can slow it down from its speeded-up version-which is how they're transmitting it-but the code is unknown to us!"
After considering for a moment, Rhodan ordered: "Feed the coded text to the positronicon and see wha
t it can make of it!"
"They're still transmitting on the Regent frequency but we're giving the text we have already to the positronicon now, sir!"
Then, after 14 minutes, the hypercom exchange between an Arkonide ship and the Robot Regent was over. The large positronicon aboard the Lotus continued its attempt to find the key to the code but after 20 minutes the otherwise all but omnicompetent machine gave up. A small strip of tape fell into the receptacle—a request for more additional information.
"There's no point in it now," Rhodan decided and left the reserve seat. Bidding his men farewell, he went to the hatchway that separated the Com Center and the control room from the rest of the spacer and walked across the broad A-Deck to his cabin.
The 14-minute exchange between an Arkonide spacer and the Robot Brain had given Rhodan more to think about than he had let on in the control room. Once more his suspicion, that the giant positronicon on Arkon 3, absolute ruler of the Great Imperium, had no scruples in its soulless logic against treason and deception, had almost become a certainty.
Rhodan thought of the mysterious Druufs, those powerful beings from the second time-plane, who continually penetrated this dimension during overlappings of the two universes to abduct millions and billions of living creatures.
The Robot Brain had allied itself with him to combat this uncanny enemy and Rhodan had been named Commander-in-Chief over Arkon's gigantic spacefleet. However, he could exercise his authority only for the fight against the Druufs and not for matters involving other interests.
Perry Rhodan smiled grimly. Once again he had been reminded that the friendship alliance between him and Arkon was nothing more than a temporary arrangement made necessary by a common enemy. Meanwhile, the mammoth positronicon was attempting unceasingly by any means no matter how foul to learn Earth's galactic position. Evidently it did not even hesitate to act like a pirate and capture a Terran ship that had erred in making a transition just to loot its memory banks for the Sol System's coordinates.