by Perry Rhodan
Ralv stood up. "I still have some things to take care of. If anything new turns up, I'll have a message sent to you." He went to the railing on the middle deck and climbed down a rope ladder to his boat, which floated alongside the ship. With quiet strokes of the oars, the boat made for the quay. Ralv waved back to those on the ship and then was lost between the warehouses.
Kitai sighed. "Ralv isn't a bad fellow. He must really trust us or otherwise he'd never do all this for us. When all is said and done, he's the one who'll be responsible to his people."
"Without us," John said, "the Goszuls would be repressed and exploited by the Springers for the rest of eternity. Ralv is fully aware of that."
"You're right, John, but I don't admire the fellow's sheer courage any less. His influence is enormous. In these last few days I haven't had to force anybody under my will."
John was about to answer but suddenly raised his hand and asked the Japanese to say nothing more. Pucky too sat up straight and listened with closed eyes. The three Japanese sat quietly, knowing that the two telepaths were in the process of receiving a mental message. It could only be coming from Enzally, for as far as they knew there were no other telepaths on Goszul's planet.
It was a strange, even an uncanny scene.
The man and the mouse-beaver sat unmoving on the wooden deck in the brilliant sunlight, listening to a silent voice. John's face was intent, crossed once by a brief shadow, which gave way to an amused smile, Pucky's reactions were astonishingly similar. His incisor tooth showed that the boredom of the past few weeks appeared to have passed. He stroked his neck fur now and then, indicating that the change of pace would not be without difficulty. Otherwise, it was not possible to determine from either his or John's reactions just what the change of pace involved.
Enzally must have had a great deal to report, for the unnatural silence lasted for more than 15 minutes. Finally, John straightened up from his cramped position and took a deep breath.
"That was Enzally," he said after glancing at Pucky. "He'll be coming to see us towards evening when he's learned more details. Apparently something's going on over by the spaceport. You ought to take a look into that, Tako. The Springers are landing. We thought they'd disappear instantly when they found out about the plague. They're in contact with the Governors so they know what's happening on Goszul's Planet. I don't exactly understand this."
"So what happened, then?" Kitai wanted to know.
John looked musingly at the sky as though he could find the answer there. But Rhodan was too far away. "The Springers are landing," he repeated. "We knew that about 30 of them were orbiting the planet and we hoped that they would flee. But our expectations didn't pan out. They're doing just the opposite of what we'd anticipated—they're landing on this world, which must seem disease-ridden to them."
"This I don't understand," the Suggestor admitted. "No one is going to willingly expose himself to the danger of losing his memory. They must have a good reason to be landing."
"And they do!" John confirmed grimly. "Enzally was able to overhear some of them—telepathically, of course. They've long since written off the planet and its ruling Governors but not the technical installations or the robots. Those are their major concerns."
Kitai's perplexity was evident from his expression. "Frankly, I don't get it. Surely they know that the plague germs have spread everywhere, even to the point of being found on metal. They're not going to risk being infected, are they?"
"They underestimate the danger," John explained. "Their greed is greater than their caution. A battle-robot is worth almost as much as a small spaceship. Goszul's Planet is at the moment like a city during an army's retreat, wide-open for plundering. Everyone is going to try to enrich himself as much as possible. The Springers are businessmen."
"They're also fighters, unfortunately," Tamara murmured with some melancholy.
"That we know only too well," John agreed. "And so I don't believe Enzally was able to find out everything. I'll bet anything they have something more in mind than stealing robots and machinery from themselves."
"But what?"
"Let's wait till Enzally comes. Maybe we'll learn more then. He'll be here in a few hours."
Because he was too lazy to retract his incisor tooth, Pucky, who had been silent up to then, lisped when he asked: "Would anybody mind if I took a look around?"
Rather perplexed, John asked a counter-question: "Take a look around where?"
"Where do you think? Around the spaceport, of course. It's only a mouse-hop away."
"For teleporters, maybe," John answered, and thought for a few seconds about it. "Four eyes will see more than two and two telepathic minds will learn more than one. Alright, then, but don't let the Springers see you. Some of them would recognize you as the little guy who played hob with their robots. That would throw a wrench in our plans."
"Nobody will see me," Pucky promised, in no way concealing his pleasure in looking forward to the adventure. "I'll be back soon and tell you what the Springers are up to–besides swiping robots."
So saying, he disappeared.
John stared at the place where Pucky had been sitting. "I'm quite happy being a human, but still, I often wish I were a mouse-beaver. Those little fellows have it good."
"But Pucky is an unusual exception for his species," Kitai reminded him. "Mouse-beavers are normally unintelligent and unnoteworthy creatures. Pucky is to them as a telepath is to a normal man."
"Okay, point conceded," John said. "Often, then, I'd be happy to be Pucky. Is that correct, at least?"
Kitai grinned. "Except that you can hardly speak of a 'correct wish', I can understand your feeling. Myself, I'd like to be able to read thoughts as well as suggest. It's in human nature to want more than you have, no matter how much you already have."
"And you might call that perpetual dissatisfaction with what you have the main spring of human progress," Tako philosophized and stared reflectively at his bare toes. "I'm hungry."
They all laughed at his sudden shift of mental gears and then looked to John, who nodded and stood up. "Let's go below," he suggested. "It's cooler there and anyway, I'm hungry, too. I hope Pucky will be back shortly."
That was a hope sadly not to be fulfilled...
It wasn't that Pucky was careless but his curiosity was more powerful than all his caution.
His first teleportation brought him to the edge of the vast spaceship landing field. He hid himself among factory buildings which had little in common with the sprawling administration buildings in which the robot plants were housed. A sentry-robot patrolled unsuspectingly back and forth in the immediate vicinity. Pucky knew that there was a wireless communication link between it and the nearest battle-robot and so took care not to be spotted.
What struck him first was the large number of Springer spaceships which had landed on the field and even now stood on their bulky tails. Each one was more than 200 yards long and there were at least 20 such ships—their silver hulls gleaming in the sunlight and impressively embodying the Springer power. Each ship had the power to blast Goszul's Planet into a molten hell-world on which no life was possible.
The plague and Springer greed would prevent that, Pucky suddenly realized. This world would not be annihilated as long as an operable robot remained on it.
Pucky ducked deeper in the shadows of the foundry and into a hollow in the ground. It was better to operate from here because although the actual edge of the landing field was 150 feet away, there was no cover available.
The mouse-beaver determined that the sentry-robot was making its usual rounds and getting farther and farther away from the foundry. Pucky's task now was searching out the right ship and hoping that with a certain amount of luck he would not materialize right before the eyes of Etztak, who knew him.
For safety's sake, Pucky decided to do a bit of telepathic scouting to sound out the area. He worked for almost two minutes at trying to pick Enzally's thoughts out of the confusion of mental impulses
streaming at him, then gave it up. The Goszul probably shielded his mind automatically and instinctively when he was 'at work'. Pucky did the same himself, finally. The only thing left was to take a look at the landed Springers.
The Springers were luckily not robots and it was not difficult for Pucky to locate their thoughts and read them. The job was not a simple matter either for while at least 20 persons were aboard each Springer ship, Pucky was interested only in the captain and the current patriarch of the clan. The mouse-beaver had to spring blind with his thoughts into the first ship, so to speak, and scout around until he found the patriarch.
Meanwhile, his body remained behind with lessened reaction capability, a situation which Pucky was not entirely pleased with. But there was nothing he could do about it. Besides, he felt he was relatively safe here.
As he isolated the thoughts coming at him and worked down to only a single source, he realized he was witness to a conversation for he was receiving two thought patterns 'speaking' on the same 'frequency'.
So I think there's been a lot of exaggeration again. They won't let us go on leave outside but they're going to leave the ship themselves tonight.
But after all, there's a conference...
So what if there is! The point is, this alleged plague is dangerous for us, they say, while it doesn't seem to bother them. I'd like to make myself independent.
You know the punishment they give for that, Holflersy. I don't think you ought to run the risk.
Pucky grinned and changed the frequency. He did it with the same ease the man of the 20th Century changed stations on a radio.
Anyway, he had learned that the ship captains had a meeting planned for that evening. It would now be quite advantageous to be able to read the thoughts of one of those captains and thus avoid any surprises later. Even Enzally had not known what the Springers planned this time.
Now here was another soundless voice. Someone was thinking hard but no one was answering. He must be alone. Pucky listened and found he had been indeed fortunate. It was pure chance that he had turned in on the great Ralgor.
Ralgor sat in his private cabin and turned over in his mind what he wanted to say at the first conference of Springer patriarchs. He was working out his speech silently in his bead, which did not at all prevent him from being overheard by somebody.
Often he muttered something to himself. "If I can only convince Enzally," he growled discontentedly, and thought further: I have to train all his attention on Terra and make sure Goszul's Planet falls more into the background. The Governors alone hardly have the energy to call on the bases for help and in a few weeks the plague will have gotten them too. The plague is really a blessing for those who know how to cash in on it.
"I can call both my other ships here by hypercom," he continued aloud, as though mere thinking were no longer enough. "Their holds will accommodate at least 200 battle- and sentry-robots. I'll make the biggest haul of my career, not even counting what I can get in the way of equipment from the spaceship works when I..."
To Pucky's sorrow, the honest businessman's train of thought was suddenly interrupted. Someone must have entered the cabin.
"Sir, here is the star-chart you asked for," Aha, that must be the navigator, Pucky suspected. "The spring co-ordinates have been calculated. Do you believe we can do it?"
"Certainly!" Ralgor answered, although not thinking about what was to be done or what it was that had to do with a jump through hyperspace. "Give this paper to the radio-man. He's to immediately send a coded message to our clan's other two ships. Let me know as soon as we get an answer."
Then he was alone again but Pucky's hopes were not fulfilled: Ralgor did not return to his secret plans. One thing was clear to Pucky: Ralgor's intended looting of Goszul's Planet had a close connection with his plans for Terra and the just delivered star-chart. And the summoning of Springer ships from his own clan was a part of his plan. Just what the plan was, Pucky did not know. He had to find out.
Hm, this Ralgor did not know him and had never seen him before. If he saw him, that would not be dangerous at all. Besides, Ralgor would have to be cautious not to let his fellows learn of his secret plans. If he suspected that Pucky had something to do with Perry Rhodan and Terra, he still would not dare say anything about it.
Pucky took a deep breath and teleported. He landed precisely in Ralgor's control room but was lucky: the Springer had his back to him and was studying the star-chart the navigator had just brought him. He sat on a stool, not knowing that not three feet away a small, inconspicuous something materialized out of nothing and quickly crawled behind the open door of a wall cabinet.
Pucky had a good view from there as well as being well hidden. He now had to find out what section of the galaxy Ralgor was showing such a great interest in.
Suddenly Pucky sensed the approach of other thoughts. Someone stopped outside the door and stepped in after a perfunctory knock. It must be the navigator who had appeared earlier.
"The radio message was transmitted as ordered and the answer has just been received, sir. The RAL III and RAL V will arrive later this evening. As ordered, they will orbit Goszul's System at a distance of two light-days."
Ralgor looked up and grinned spitefully. "It's been Goszul's System for a long time," he said, revealing a part of his secret plan. "Perhaps one day they'll call it Ralgor's System."
The navigator grinned back. "A good piece of business?"
"Of course! Would I bother with it otherwise?"
The fare of the navigator grew serious. "What can our clan do with a disease-ridden planet?"
Ralgor's reaction was unexpectedly curt. "I'm happy that even you can't figure out the answer to that question. That convinces me that the other Patriarchs themselves won't be able to see my true intentions. You can go, Gromsk. I'll want to leave the ship at sundown. You win take care of the necessary relieving of the watch detail. I'd like the RAL II to stand ready for lift-off until I return."
The navigator left the cabin without answering.
Ralgor bent over the table and checked over the star-chart and the spring-co-ordinates drawn there on for 10 minutes more. Then he stood up, glanced at the chronometer built into the wall, and left the cabin. He did not shut the door but simply left it ajar.
Pucky waited a moment, then hurriedly slipped out of his hiding place and rushed to the table. He was so small that he had to climb up on the stool before he could take a look at the star-chart!
Star-charts are difficult documents to read. One must study them thoroughly to get anything out of them especially when the notations are incomprehensible.
Pucky looked at the confusion of tiny points connected with each other by dotted lines. On the lines were numbers, under which were names that had no meaning for him.
A second chart showed an enlarged section. The few star systems were no longer mere points but composed of stars and the planets that belonged to them. It was not a problem any longer to identify one of these systems, especially since it had been marked by a red 'X'.
Pucky realized that Ralgor was interested in the planet Earth and its sun.
There was a noise behind Pucky. He knew before he could turn around that he had not been careful enough. Ralgor had come back.
The Springer let out an astonished cry when he saw the strange creature bent over his charts. At least two seconds went by before he could master his surprise. His right hand went to his belt and pulled out his beamer. The barrel was aimed at the mouse-beaver.
Pucky could have teleported but it would have struck him as a cowardly retreat. Anyway, dematerializing took at least a second. The Springer would have had sufficient time to shoot him dead.
But there was another and better way.
"Good day," said Pucky in perfect Pankosmo, unsheathing his incisor tooth in a friendly way. "How do you do, Ralgor?"
The Springer was so surprised his jaw dropped. "You can... speak? Who are you?"
"You can talk, too, right?" inquired Pucky c
onciliatingly. He concentrated his whole attention on the gun. His telekinetic power took hold of the pistol carefully and the barrel suddenly pointed towards the ceiling. The Springer was so surprised to see an inanimate object suddenly show an urge to become independent that he was no longer capable of any action. Astounded, he watched as the beamer slipped out of his clenched fingers and floated to the ceiling as though it had become a balloon. At the ceiling the beamer stopped and took aim at Ralgor's head.
"Are you going to be polite now?" asked Pucky, twittering like an Earth bird. "Close the door!"
Ralgor was of no mind to obey the order. Uttering a second but this time enraged cry, he threw himself at the invader. Pucky remembered John Marshall's earnest admonitions and decided to forgo any further experiments. He dematerialized and passed up the really amusing part of the adventure.
Ralgor was thrown forward by the force of the sudden spring as his powerful hands grasped empty air. He banged his head against the board communicator and ended up with a colorful bruise, whose presence he could never explain adequately to the other members of his clan when they sympathetically inquired about it.
Uncomprehendingly he stared at the charts.
Involuntarily his hand swept them from the table. His skull was pounding.
Then he sank heavily into the stool where Pucky had just been standing three seconds before.
Damn! There were such things as ghosts!
6/ PLOT AGAINST TERRA
"They're cooking up something about Terra!"
John looked incredulous. "I thought they had discarded that idea long ago, Pucky. I can't imagine they'd try again. The first lesson should've taught them better."
"That fellow had maps with Earth marked very distinctly. I bet it'll be on their agenda tonight. We should make it a point to have our observer present at the conference."
"Enzally is going to give us an account."