Peril on Ice Planet
Perry Rhodan
The Third Power #23
Peril on Ice Planet
Perry Rhodan and his team of veterans face total destruction. The Springers have decided that if there is no other way of ridding themselves of this daring Earthman and his companions they will blow up Beta-Albireo, the ice world which Perry is using as his H.Q. But Perry has a new lieutenant in Pucky, a mutant animal of super-human cunning, which the Springers are already learning to fear. This is the stirring story of–
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PERIL ON ICE PLANET
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1/ Springers vs The Solar System
Space quaked as the structure sensors in Perry Rhodan's command center registered transition after transition. Each hyperjump caused a disturbance in the fabric of the space-time continuum sufficient that sensitive instruments could record the results. In this case, however, the distances were not especially great: the ships emerging from the transitions at moderate speeds were only between 7 and 21 light-years away.
But the continuum rendings had been continuing for half an hour and the situation was beginning to become acute for the three Earthships hovering motionless in space, 8 light-years from the center of gravity of the Beta-Albireo constellation. Three gigantic spherical ships—Terra and Solar System, each measuring 600 feet in diameter, and the 2500 foot Stardust. The only three large units of the Terranian Space Fleet, under the command of Perry Rhodan.
Rhodan himself had taken over as First Pilot of the Stardust and the battleship was fully manned and ready for action. Reginald Bell assisted him as Second Pilot and Fire Control officer. The operators of the most important communication equipment were doubled.
The very air of the command center seemed to pulsate with tension. There was actually little danger that the three Terranian ships could be detected for the usual rangefinders were reliable only up to a distance of two light-years at most; still, it was possible that one of the Springer ships might stray into their sector by accident and run into the nervous outnumbered Earthships.
One of the younger officers was busy checking the quantity of transitions as accurately as possible. Rhodan wanted to know how many opponents they would have to contend with if worst came to worst.
"Seventy-eight, sir!" the young officer replied nervously. "But there seems to be a letup at the moment."
Bell spun round. "I don't like it," he growled in a tone low enough so that only Rhodan was able to hear him.
Rhodan shrugged his shoulders. "Nobody asked us," he observed. "Besides, so far we run little risk. It's not likely that one of their ships will stumble on us."
The pause lasted surprisingly long. Rhodan began to think that the 78 units the adversary had brought in were all he planned to use for the imminent battle. Then the trans-turbulence started again. This time the Springers came from a different direction and the mean distance of the transitioning ships was around 38 light-years. There was no doubt that it was a second group of hostile ships but Rhodan didn't know what their connection with the first one was. The young officer counted 90 new transitions. Now they had to contend with 168 fighting ships!
Rhodan observed grimly, "They're not satisfied with halfway measures! They've mustered almost six times as many ships as on the first try."
Bell twisted his face into a broad grin. "They've got respect for us!" he asserted.
Rhodan gave no answer. For awhile he just stared silently. Suddenly he spun around and looked Bell in the eyes. "You've to get out there, Bell!" he said tersely.
Bell was not surprised. "I thought so," he replied. "Because of Tifflor, isn't it?" Then he smiled and boasted with obvious pride: "You couldn't have found a better man!"
"Because of Tifflor—and the approaching enemy," Rhodan added. "We must have information on the spot in order to find out what the intentions of the Springers are."
"Okay. And how do we proceed?"
Rhodan was ready with a plan. He answered without hesitation: "I'll give you Lieutenant Everson and the K-6. The K-6 will hytrans to reach the target area. As soon as the transition's completed you'll leave the ship in a destroyer. The robot storage room contains everything Tifflor and his men will need. Pucky will accompany you..."
"Pucky!" Bell groaned.
"...and transfer the provisions by teleportation to the surface of the planet. Pucky must be given strict instructions that the job from the time of leaving the K-6 to the moment he jumps off cannot take more than half a minute. All you have left to do is return on the shortest way.
"In the destroyer?" Bell snapped.
"Right! Everson and the K-6 will transback the minute you leave. We can't afford to risk any more Guppies."
"I get the impression," Bell said slowly with a sad smile, "you want to get rid of me. But I suppose there is no other way."
Rhodan made a wry face.
"I've racked my brains for the last half hour but I couldn't come up with anything better."
• • •
"A lot of movement, sir," Aubrey piped up.
His voice appeared to be full of concern but naturally this was not the case at all. Because Moses, whose official name was RB-013, was incapable of feeling apprehension or any other emotion for that matter. Aubrey was a fighter-robot of Arkonide origin and had acquired his nickname only a few hours earlier.
It had been given to him by the three cadets and two girls from the Space Academy with whom he had arrived in an incapacitated destroyer which had cracked up completely while landing on this planet. They had come but a short time ago to this world which circled the two suns of the Beta-Albireo system in an eccentric orbit and was at the present time more than seven astronomical units away from the light giving center of the system. Its surface was covered with an infinite expanse of ice and snow and its mean temperature had sunk to minus 170° F.
The three cadets were Julian Tifflor, Klaus Eberhardt and Humphrey Hifield. Mildred Orsons and Felicita Kergonen were the two girls. They had fled to this world in a destroyer because they escaped from the auxiliary ship K-7 when it was threatened by the enemy. During their flight the destroyer was shot up and lost its manoeuvrability. The icy world was the only place close enough to risk a landing.
The destroyer was smashed in the emergency landing. The crew of five and Aubrey, the robot, had suffered no damage. They marched a few hundred miles south to reach a warmer zone and managed to wrest from their pursuers a two-man patrol ship Which had been sent out to capture them.
As long as the enemy had only one ship available, the ORLA XI, the situation was not too dangerous. Tifflor—Tiff for short—and his people had sufficient provisions for two years. The cave into which they had retreated sheltered them from the icy cold of the alien environment. The conquered patrol ship was so well concealed in a nearby mountain cleft that it could only be detected by being directly on top of it.
Now, however, their situation appeared to be changed. Aubrey registered on his instruments the movements of several ships. As Aubrey's rangefinder had only a limited range, it meant that the ships were already fairly close. Doubtlessly, they were interested in this planet.
They were interested because they suspected that one of the five was a person of the highest importance.
Tiff, who had assumed leadership of the small group because he demonstrated the most competence, faced a difficult decision. The cave in which they were hiding out was not far enough away from the place where they had discovered the patrol ship and it was, therefore, liable to be detected in a search organized by his foes.
However, to change their position now would have meant exposing to the rangefinders of their opponents the considerable mass
of metal of which the robot consisted.
Tiff considered this to be the greater hazard and decided: "We'll stay right here for the time being."
Nobody raised objections, not even Humphrey Hifield who seldom passed up an opportunity to quarrel with Tiff.
• • •
"Ready to take off!" Lieutenant Everson bellowed.
The response was considerably calmer: "Ready! Clear out!"
Everson pressed the switch. The hatch doors of the large auxiliary ship hangar slid apart at maximum speed. The auxiliary ship K-7 departed slowly. The black sky with its multitude of stars appeared on the observation screen.
Everson spoke into the intercom mike: "We're outside, sir! We'll make the jump in two minutes."
Reginald Bell's voice sounded nonchalant. "Very good. Go ahead, Lieutenant!"
Bell was already at his post. He sat in the pilot seat of the little destroyer which the K-7 carried in its hangar.
In two minutes the K-7 would proceed with the transition and emerge at practically the same moment in the target area since the jump was performed without measurable time delay. Within a second the Z-13 was scheduled to leave the hangar and half a minute later the first part of the perilous job would be finished.
In the second seat of the three-man cockpit sat Pucky. Bell had to admit that he'd never got used to Pucky even though they'd been together more than a year—more than five years by Terrestrial time concept, taking into consideration the four years that had somehow been lost among the stars on a trip with Rhodan and his crew in the superspaceship.
Of course there were good reasons why it was difficult to get used to Pucky. Pucky looked like a cross between a beaver and a mouse. His body was about three feet long and covered with reddish brown fur. He had the pump hindpart of a beaver and big ears like a mouse. In spite of his appearance Pucky was an intelligent being. In addition to his own language he spoke English with a slight accent and a lisp. Furthermore, he possessed an amazing variety of parapsychological capabilities, including telepathy, teleportation and telekinesis.
"Have you made contact with Tiff?" Bell asked.
Pucky nodded in the most refined human manner. "Yes, I'm in constant touch with him," he replied.
Cadet Tifflor carried within his body—without being aware of it—a highly active cell transmitter which turned him into a sort of telepathic beacon. Efficient telepaths like Pucky were able to spot Tiff from a distance up to two light-years. Bell wanted to ask something else but didn't get a chance. Lieutenant Everson's loud voice droned from the loudspeaker: "Attention, transition! Ten... nine... eight..."
Bell concentrated and his hand grasped the drive lever on the instrument panel. The airlock was set to open automatically after the transition.
"... four... three... two... one... go!"
The peculiar pain of dematerialization, a feeling of having their limbs torn apart, set in, but this time it passed so quickly that their brains had barely time to perceive it. When Bell opened his eyes again the Z-13 was already out in space and had left the K-7 far behind.
His hand had pushed the lever forward with a trained reflex. The Z-13 accelerated at maximum and the faint speck of light that was the grey globe where Cadet Tifflor and his people had sought refuge, grew on the picture screen. All this seemed to mean nothing to Pucky. He showed no apparent interest as he sat in his seat. His usually big trusting eyes were narrowed to small slits.
Pucky focused in on the target. Thirty seconds was not much time to pinpoint the range. He failed to hear Bell's angry shout: "What in blazes is going on here? The sky is loaded with Springers!"
Near the light-grey curvature of the icy planet a swarm of glimmering points was visible.
Ships! An entire fleet of hostile ships!
Bell knew that there were only two facts in his favor: the element of surprise which the appearance of the little destroyer was bound to cause among his adversaries and his manoeuvrability which excelled that of the huge Springer ships. The sphere of the strange planet grew larger than the frame of the observation screen and the alien ships became dark spots against the light background as they gained in size and took on shape.
"Go, Pucky!" Bell growled. "Well soon be under fire! They really must have been caught by surprise since they haven't started shooting yet."
Pucky chirped in reply: "Now!"
When Bell turned his head half a second later to look at him, he had already vanished and with him several loads weighing three tons on Earthmade portable by an antigrav-generator. Bell took a deep breath and changed the course of his machine abruptly. A faint green ray of concentrated energy discharged from one of the dark spots made by the Springer ships against the snow-scape in the background. It shot into space and crossed the course the Z-13 had just left at the spot where it would have been if Bell hadn't taken evasive action. The turn had shifted the picture of the cold planet to the edge of the optical screen.
Z-13 headed—within one arc second—straight for the dwarf star which was one of the two suns of the dual system. Reginald Bell held his course for two minutes, then pulled his machine around again groaning under the pressure he suffered as the radial acceleration exceeded the value which could be compensated by the neutralizer in the destroyer. The turn amounted to a few degrees only but it took place at top speed in an extremely short time interval and it caused the enemy's second energy bundle to miss. The shot spent itself harmlessly far off in space. But Bell noticed on the panoramic observation screen that there was movement in the hostile fleet in his rear. Three of the ships picked up speed and began to pursue the Z-13. Bell scowled when he checked the rangefinder instruments. The three ships were of cylindrical shape with pointed ends built like all Springer ships and one of them was 2500 feet long.
A gigantic spaceship! Although smaller than the mighty Stardust, it outclassed the tiny Z-13 in every respect. Bell began to realize that he would need help to save his skin in the impending pandemonium. He aligned his hypercom antenna with the position of the three Terrestrial spaceships and sent out the message in a gruff voice: "Daisy is freezing!"
• • •
Alarm whistles shrilled through Etztak's colossal spaceship. Etztak, the patriarch of the Orlgans clan, was in the command center when the rangefinder sounded the alert. Etztak was very old—even old for a Springer. He was over six and a half feet tall, a giant stooped under the burden of his years. The white waves of his magnificent beard rolled down on his chest and his head of hair grew no less luxuriantly.
"What's the matter?" Etztak's voice boomed.
The rangefinder reported meekly: "A foreign object has appeared, Lord! Approaching our position at great velocity!"
"What kind of ship?" Etztak shouted.
"Not a ship, Lord! Too small for that. It's one of the craft the strangers carry on board their ships."
Etztak panted in rage. "Open fire at once!" And so that the other ships of his clan would receive instructions be hit the switch of the hypercom so hard that it almost broke. "Full firepower on the unknown target!"
Etztak's word was command. The reason his order was not immediately fully complied with was that at the moment it was given only two other ships besides Etztak own had spotted the enemy. Etztak's ship ETZ XXI was the first to fire. The shot missed its mark because the target had executed a daring turn a fraction of a second earlier.
Fifteen seconds later WENA LXIII, the neighbor ship of ETZ XXI, had its guns ready to fire. It discharged a disintegrator salvo on the tiny point which raced at incredible speed past the ice planet in the direction of the blue-white sun. But as if all the devils in the universe were helping the stranger, he changed his course again at the right moment and sped away without a scratch.
Etztak was informed about the developments as soon as they happened. Now he was in his element! The fight had broken out and at such a time his whole clan had to obey him alone. He directed his people to remain with most of the ships close to the surface of the ice planet and to
ok up the pursuit with the ETZ XXI ,WENA LXIII and HORL VII. Etztak's instructions were simple: "The alien craft must be destroyed under all circumstances!"
• • •
Eight light-hours away the hypercom antenna of the Stardust picked up the radio message: "Daisy is freezing!"
Perry Rhodan had expected the situation to become serious. It would have been incredible luck if Bell could have penetrated the ranks of the enemy without trouble. Rhodan advised the Solar System under Major Nyssen's command: "Get ready for a transition, Nyssen. Use your special antenna and watch for Bell's code signal... if it comes at all. Take your bearings with the antenna and proceed as quickly as possible. I depend on you to do a good job. Bell seems to be in a nasty fix."
Nyssen accepted the order and added in an angry tone: "We'll show 'em, sir!"
• • •
Bell's brain worked in high gear. The question was when it would be the most opportune time to notify Rhodan that Daisy was already half dead in the freeze. That moment was no longer very far off. The 2500 foot long spaceship proved its ability to beat the Z-13 with its acceleration powers. From a dead start and an unfavorable position, the enormous spaceship managed to gain in a few seconds almost the same speed as the little destroyer.
The two other vessels fell a little behind the giant ship but Bell little doubted that they too could become a very serious threat over a long stretch. Bell had already given up his plan to return to the Stardust by the shortest way. To do this he would have to fly in a 180° curve and this would have driven him directly into the arms of the enemy. But Bell was not a man to throw in the towel. He knew that the Z-13 had one critical advantage over the colossal ship menacing him: its superior manoeuvre ability. The crucial time for the Z-13 would arrive when the attacker approached within 3000 miles. However that moment would never come if his formidable pursuer were to decide to start shooting from a greater distance.