The Atom Hell of Grautier

by Perry Rhodan

  Atlan floated slowly across the gleaming hull of the ship towards the equatorial rim, where the blue flames of the corpuscular engines stabbed into the darkness of space.

  The shrill noise of the alarm sirens engulfed corridors and rooms throughout the ship. Rhodan stopped shouting at the two guards in English, and Olthaur and his comrade looked around in confusion.

  Rhodan made an effort to conceal his triumph. Atlan had succeeded in escaping. Now if only the rest of the plan would unfold as well.

  The sirens died away. The silence that followed was ghostly. Olthaur glanced uncertainly at the prisoners, then retreated to the intercom post. Rhodan remained standing in the doorway, eyeball to eyeball with the third guard and the threatening muzzle of a shockbeamer.

  Olthaur's conversation was brief and excited. Then he put the receiver down and announced in a nervous voice: "The prisoners are to be brought up to the control room!"

  If he had known how much effort it took for Rhodan to conceal his relief, he would have been suspicious. However, he heard only Rhodan's formal protest: "We can't move the sick one!"

  Olthaur seemed to grow angry chiefly because of his own uncertainty. "Yes you can move him!" he cried in rage. "Now get going and no more objections!"

  Rhodan went back into the cabin. Unseen by the guards outside, he glanced encouragingly at Bell.

  Fellmer Lloyd had meanwhile recovered consciousness. He was feeling better; the medication had begun to work. He claimed he could go to the control room on his own two legs but, ignoring his protests, Rhodan and Bell supported him between them and dragged him out.

  The two guards stood watchfully and ready to shoot. "This way!" Olthaur declared energetically, indicating with the barrel of his weapon down the corridor.

  • • •

  Atlan knew the ship like the back of his hand. He had commanded the same type millenniums before when he erected an Arkonide colony in the Larsa system. He knew how the cross section of the jets and the engine were coupled. He knew that on the ship's hull, near the jets, there were small mechanisms which could be operated by hand to cause changes in the jet lumens.

  It sometimes happened that the control mechanisms operated from the control room broke down. A ship that could not regulate the jet tubes and thus the engine was incapable of manoeuvring and so there were manually controlled devices which allowed bypassing of the automatic control system when it broke down.

  It was rather like the old Terran automobiles: they had both an electric ignition and a handcrank in case the ignition failed. Atlan remembered such vehicles out of his own experience and was reminded of them as he was working his way towards the equatorial rim where the corpuscular streams flamed out into space, hardly more than 20 meters away. Only a few steps separated him from the first regulating mechanism.

  He pulled on the rope. When he had pulled enough of it in, he felt the resistance of the rope pulling on the ring. That was good. He would need the help of the rope as soon as he began to work. The help of the reaction devices, the rope and the antigrav.

  The manual control mechanisms were not connected with the ship's acceleration absorber. When he altered the jet lumen the Keenial would begin to buck like a young horse.

  • • •

  Chollar was angry beyond all bounds but he had no time to vent his anger on the prisoners.

  Rhodan sensed the disquiet filling the control room. One of the prisoners had disappeared by an unusual, seldom utilized way. He had left the ship. At that moment he was floating somewhere outside in free space.

  Why? For what purpose?

  Chollar had set his men on the search. The main corridors of the Keenial were closely watched. Perhaps the prisoner would attempt to reenter the ship through one of the main airlocks. The other half of the crew prepared to leave the ship. Collar could not imagine at that point what damage a single, unarmed prisioner might be able to cause from outside the ship but he had to take everything into account, even things he might not at the moment be able to foresee. The three prisoners stood in the background of the large room, closely watched by their two guards. Rhodan had counted the occupants of the control room. Counting the two guards, there were 17 men here. That was an unhappily large advantage. Only time would tell how they would react to the surprise. Rhodan raised his arm carefully. Olthaur gave a start and bent his finger around the trigger of his weapon. But Rhodan smiled cheerfully and pointed to his watch. He only wanted to know what time it was. 1853 hours. It was evening in Terrania. But that was not the most important thing. The important thing was that Atlan would begin to act at 1855 hours.

  • • •

  Atlan glanced at his watch: 40 more seconds.

  In his right hand he held the small control mechanism's switch. He had tried to move it a millimeter this way and that. The switch obeyed freely.

  It would not cost him any effort to so alter the first three jet lumens with a single pull that the engine power would drop by 40%.

  He looked up—or rather, in the direction his sensations told him was up at that moment. The large freight hatch had not opened yet. So far no one seemed to have got the idea of searching for the escaped prisoner on the ship's outer hull.

  Ten more seconds!

  • • •

  There it was!

  First a violent jolt that sent the stomach hurtling into one's throat, then a bursting crack as the unsymmetrically functioning engines drove the ship into a curve.

  It came as a complete surprise to Chollar's men. They were thrown out of their seats, rolled helpless across the floor and knocked against the walls, banging their heads, shoulders and legs. They cried out in terror.

  It was bad enough for the two Terrans who had been expecting it. The first jolt knocked Fellmer Lloyd to the floor and he lost consciousness. With one leap Rhodan and Bell ploughed into the middle of the chaos of falling and yelling men and began without any hesitation to do what they had planned.

  As Rhodan commandeered his first weapon, a shock beamer, and used it on a man lying in front of him, the Keenial was still rolling and swaying. It seemed ridiculous to him that the business would be so simple but as he uncertainly got up again and attempted to make up for the pitching of the ship by keeping his knees loose and yielding, he had already put seven of the 17 men out of action.

  As though possessed, Bell worked in the background firing two schockbeamers simultaneously at the fallen men, hitting them with paralyzing bursts of energy before they had a chance to understand what was happening.

  Nonetheless, a part of the crew had already been eliminated from the contest by falling too heavily. At no later than 1902 hours, Bell and Rhodan were the sole masters of the Keenial's control room. They collected the weapons of the unconscious men and bolted the hatches leading outside. The control room became a fortress.

  For Atlan, the extinction of the white glowing engine beams was the signal that the attempt to gain control of the ship had succeeded.

  • • •

  Absolute silence reigned over the ship. Officers had called the control room and learned from Perry Rhodan himself what had happened. They were warned against making an attack on the control room. Rhodan did not conceal the fact that the control room's unconscious crew were considered hostages.

  Atlan returned through an airshaft that led directly from the emergency exit to the control room. Rhodan had simply pressed his hand, not saying anything. It was no time for words but they all knew what a great feat the Arkonide had accomplished.

  Rhodan set to computing the data for a transition to a sector patrolled by Terran spaceships. The Ekhonide positronicon caused him some difficulty.

  His progress was slow, making him impatient. The longer the Keenial floated free in space, the better ideas would occur to the Ekhonides out in the ship's corridors waiting for the enemy to betray some weak point.

  For some time Rhodan had been expecting one very definite move on the Ekhonides' part, something which would be simple to accomplish
and endanger no one. It would only prevent Rhodan from setting the ship in motion again and making a long hytrans to bring himself to safety. Rhodan was surprised that none of the Ekhonides had so far thought of it: they could disrupt the power supply to the control room. All they had to do was pull a switch. From that moment on the control room would be a dead space: no light, no heat, no air supply. Only one small device would continue to function, for it possessed its own generator: the emergency transmitter. And then...

  Rhodan and Bell felt their way through the darkness. The stiff bodies of the Ekhonides did not give them much trouble. They laid them against the way between two bolted hatches.

  "Keep your ears open, Admiral!" Rhodan admonished. "And don't shoot at Lloyd when he comes to. He's lying in the other direction!

  Then he returned to the pilot's seat. The small control panel of the emergency transmitter was just to the left of the pilot's switchboard. Rhodan felt for the main switch, found it and pulled it down. Five small lights came on, emitting so much luminosity he could make out the control panel.

  While he put the transmitter into operation, he considered what kind of message he ought to send. It had to be composed so that it would not attract the attention of Arkonide ships at all but excite that of Terran ships to a high degree.

  The message had to take the form of a routine transmission and yet make it clear to the Terran fleet that Terrans were in trouble.

  After some hesitation Rhodan reached a decision. LAMIRA 11 CALLING YNLISS. POSITION GOSHUN.

  The next was transmitted in Arkonese. Only the name 'Goshun' could not be translated into Arkonese; Rhodan hoped that the Arkonides who overheard the message would assume Goshun was the name of some planet and pay no further attention. Certainly none of them knew that Goshun was the name of the lake on whose shore stood the Terran capital city Terrania.

  Rhodan picked up the microphone and repeated the text three times in rapid succession. It was his intention to repeat the call every 10 minutes until help came.

  • • •

  The constellation Terra-Grautier-Arkon constituted an irregular triangle with a very wide angle at the Terran corner and a very narrow one of only a few degrees at the Arkonide. From Grautier the Keenial had set out along the long side of the triangle towards Arkon. That meant that after two transitions, covering a total distance of about 12,000 light-years, they were still not much further from Terra than they were when they had started out. Rhodan was calculating that Earth ships coming from the Terra Sector would need five to six hours to find the Keenial, assuming that they started into space as soon as the message had been received. The air supply of the isolated control room would last at least through those five or six hours. And if all hope had truly been in vain, then there was still the possibility of sending out a genuine distress call that would bring ships racing in from all directions. Those ships would in all probability be Arkonide. For the time being the crew of the Keenial was quiet. The waiting went on.

  • • •

  Suddenly there was movement in the ship. Shouts rang out; the singing of energy beams were heard through the walls. The Keenial began to tremble.

  In the control room the three Terrans were on their feet at once. Shots and yells—that could only mean the Ekhonides regarded those trying to board the ship as enemies.

  Enemies of the Ekhonides—those could only be Terrans!

  The hostages were still unconscious. Since Rhodan had transmitted the first message, three and a half hours had gone by. The Terran ship must have been far from the Earth when it received the message; otherwise it could not have come to the rescue so quickly.

  Outside the noise came closer. Bell strode impatiently through the darkness toward one of the hatches and stopped next to it. He pressed his ear against the wall and attempted to hear what was going on outside.

  The sounds were indistinct. In any event a murderous drama was being enacted on the decks and in the corridors of the ship. Whoever the newcomers were, the Ekhonides seemed to be offering the utmost resistance.

  "We should open the hatch," Bell suggested, "and make the Ekhonide boys fight on two fronts!"

  Rhodan refused. The idea was too risky. "We'll wait!" he decided.

  • • •

  The noise of battle increased. The ship shook.

  The resistance of the Ekhonide crew seemed to be collapsing. The noise came closer. When Bell put his ear to the wall, he could indistinctly make out the rumble of running feet hastening over the corridor floors outside.

  Minutes passed. Rhodan looked at the luminous numbers in his watch. The battle for the Keenial had lasted more than an hour.

  Then there was a sudden banging at one of the hatches.

  Atlan and Rhodan slid into cover on the other side of the hatch. The hostages were forgotten.

  "Don't open it!" Rhodan ordered. "This is a trap if I've ever seen one!"

  The banging stopped. Rhodan used the time to beat signals against the hatch in rhythmic order, three to a group. However those on the other side did not seem willing to learn the rhythm. After awhile the banging began again, this time so loudly and angrily that the three Terrans drew back a few steps.

  The situation was unreal. They found themselves on board an enemy ship and in a single room cut off from all others. They had transmitted a distress call and there—after waited for a Terran ship to come pick them up. So they had expected that someone outside would bang on the hatch and cry out: "Open up!"

  Instead, whoever was outside said nothing and the blows shaking the hatch were much too powerful for even 10 human fists.

  A terrible suspicion began to form in Rhodan's mind.

  "Open up!" Rhodan ordered tersely. "And keep your weapons down!"

  The hatchbolts came loose with a clanging and metallic ringing. The heavy metal rings slid to the side. Glaring light fell in from outside and outlined the shape of a figure whose form froze the Terrans' blood.

  A lump—a cube-shaped lump standing on two powerful pillar-like legs. From atop the lump grew the hairless sphere of the head. The faceted eyes shone even in the half-light and the pointed opening of the triangular mouth was wide open as though to swallow the Terrans. The arms hung to the side of the lump, thick and powerful, ending in hands with ridiculously delicate fingers.

  The being was a Druuf.

  • • •

  After the first moments of shock they realized that the Druuf was armed and in addition carried a small speaking device of the sort which the Druufs used to imitate the sounds of human speech and to perceive them.

  The three-cornered mouth suddenly moved. It had nothing to do with speaking. The Druufs used other bodily organs for propagating the ultrasonic vibrations of their unintelligible language. However the small speech device came to life in the same moment and, with an impersonal, mechanical voice, explained: "We have heard your call. We came believing that you were in trouble and we wanted to help you. Our ship stands at your disposal."

  Rhodan had not needed long to regain his self-control.

  A Druuf ship had been in the vicinity when he had sent the call for help. Whether or not they had understood the word Goshun, they had come to look the matter over. They had shown the crew of the Keenial no mercy. They had shoved out of the way anyone opposing them.

  A thought raced through Rhodan's head like a bolt of lightning: the Druufs would insist that he, Atlan, Bell and Fellmer Lloyd come aboard their ship. Due to the odd relationship that divided Terran and Druuf more than it united them, it was to be expected that the Druufs would regard them as prisoners.

  That was not as bad as it might have at first seemed. Nevertheless, Rhodan tried an experiment. "We are very grateful to you," he assured them, "but while we appreciate your kind offer, we must reluctantly turn it down. Our own ship will be here in a few hours."

  The translating unit needed some time to convert the words into the Druufs inaudible language. While that was going on, five more Druufs appeared that were visible fro
m the control room.

  "I don't think this refusal would please our commander," said the first Druuf bluntly. "We insist that you consider yourselves as our guests."

  How can you keep a straight face when you lie like that? Rhodan thought grimly to himself. He knew that there was no other way out. The Druufs outnumbered them. They would have to go with them.

  On Grautier they had gone from the frying pan into the fire—and now it had happened again. From the hands of one enemy they wound up in the hands of the other. Terra's progress seemed to have turned off into a dead end—a galactic dead-end.

  Rhodan raised his hand, making an agreeable gesture. "Alright," he said, "we'll go with you."

  The Druuf waited until the device had translated the words, then turned and walked out.

  • • •

  The ship was one of those giant cylinders the Druufs seemed to consider the last word in spacecraft design. The prisoners were treated politely but coolly. They were shown a series of cabins and some Druufs were posted as guards in front of the doors.

  The ship, whose name consisted of a group of unpronounceable, whispering sounds, resumed its course shortly after taking on the prisoners, a fact which was evident from many different signs. Rhodan did not doubt that the Druufs would return to their own time-plane as fast as possible through the overlapping zone near the Myrtha system.

  Mildly amused, Perry observed the depression of his companions, who had hardly exchanged a single word with one another or with him since the appearance of the Druufs. Rhodan did not share their despair. True, he could not deny that they found themselves in a substantially less pleasant situation then they had anticipated while making plans to gain their freedom aboard the Keenial. But even so, they were still better off with the Druufs than when they were on the way to Arkon.