Unleashed Powers

  Perry Rhodan

  Atlan And Arkon #90

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  Unleashed Powers

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  1/ THE MONSTERS & THE MOUSE-BEAVERS

  THEY NOT ONLY looked like monsters—they were!

  Their two-faced Janus heads were decidedly teardrop in shape and the pointed ends came up to elongated points—natural antennas some 20 mm long, which served the double purpose of sending and receiving their mental impulses. Nevertheless they were no more true telepaths than they were humanoids.

  Their teardrop heads were equipped with four visual organs evenly spaced around them. By means of double ball-socket vertebrae the heads were connected to their 6-foot scaly-brown waspish torsos, each of which possessed four arms attached to the upper portion and were supported by three telescopic legs.

  When the monstrosities set themselves in motion their unarticulated legs acted like telescoping shock absorbers, transporting their very thin bodies in a jumping motion, forward, backward or sideways.

  A few hours ago they had disembarked by the thousands from their space armada and taken possession of the planet. The native inhabitants were droll-looking mouse-beavers who averaged about three feet in height. Being quite naive intellectually they merely watched the proceedings curiously, never suspecting that death had come to them in the form of these monsters. With more than 200 spaceships the strangers had landed on this cold, bleak, Mars-like planet which was known to humans as Vagabond.

  Vagabond was the only planet of a dying sun, which it revolved around at a distance of 0.78 astronomical units. By Earth comparisons its radius was 0.6 and its gravity was 0.53 g. It possessed no oceans and not a single high mountain whereas 3-quarters of its surface was a ferrous rusty red wasteland.

  At the edge of the desert near Vagabond's equator the monsters had landed in their peculiar spaceships. Following the pattern of their own double faces, which were like the Roman god Janus, the droplet-formed monsters had also given this form to their star ships, and at times there were two such double-faced ships in tandem.

  With the calm assurance of conquerors accustomed to victory they soon began streaming out of their ships, none of which exceeded 200 meters in length. Each seemed to know what his assignment was. And what they proceeded to do was as incomprehensible as their appearance was shocking.

  Suddenly a number of huge pieces of grotesque-looking machinery floated out of the ships, apparently held and guided by invisible forces. As for the mouse-beavers who were observing all this from their distant hiding place, the events awakened in them their natural instinct for play, which was as much a part of their lives as eating and sleeping. Since they were fairly good at telekinesis they soon reached out with their paranormal forces and grasped the free-floating machinery parts in order to play with them.

  In the same moment a few dozen mouse-beavers emitted shrill cries and started rolling around on the ground. It was not long before they were dead.

  More than half of the watching creatures had witnessed the inexplicable death of their comrades, yet none of the survivors got the idea that this sudden dying had something to do with their attempts to play—to play with the machines of these aliens which floated soundlessly from the ships and landed where groups of the monsters had been busy preparing for them.

  The latter had paid little attention if any to this small drama of death among the native inhabitants. They regarded the mouse-beavers' telekinetic playfulness as an expression of curiosity. The machinery parts were under control of the independently thinking and acting Orgh, which had answered the interference with a deadly counterblow. Their organic head antennas had warned them of the Orgh's defensive action and for a second or so it had been impossible for them to communicate because the surging and waning howl of the Ziupzip had drowned out everything else.

  Now the monster called Oger-1 used his natural broadcasting system to make contact with Oger-214.

  Monster #214 was standing at the farthest distance from the others near the last of the hills in view. It was characteristic of the monsters' mentality that each individual had only a reference number instead of a name. #214 had to use the prefix Oger, whenever he wished to identify himself among the members of another shaft.

  Eachshaft never exceeded the number 317 but never contained less than 109 individual members. #1 was always the Shaftgal, an autocratic chief who was answerable only to the Gal. His powers of authority were established by law but this left him sufficient latitude to be a virtual lord over life and death.

  "214, why hasn't the earth-moving project started?"

  The sending and receiving organ of 214 functioned simultaneously in both directions. While his receiver was still conducting the question of Oger-1 into his brain and transforming the electrical impulses into thought, the answer was already going out over his antenna.

  "The orgh lost its supply sequence, Oger-1. I have already sent my control signal to Nebu-56."

  In one of the more than 200 spaceships, Nebu-56 had already determined the cause of the orgh's malfunction. He called to a shaftgal: "This is 56, Nebu-1. The attack of those animals has put an orgh out of timing. I will connect you with the orgh."

  The independently thinking orgh heard the sharp question from Nebu-1 and then its answer rang out in the brain convolutions of Nebu-1. "Failure of three cell membranes due to telekinetic attack. Takeover of the function by gal-portion was only possible by rechanneling. This caused hold seven to be unloaded before hold six. The difficulty can only be regulated after total unloading. I must insist that any further telekinetic attacks be prevented!"

  This was a death sentence for many mouse-beavers on Vagabond. Even an autocratic shaftgal had to accede to the demands of an orgh.

  Nebu-1 called over his organic radio to Cul-1 who was responsible for the security of all orghs. "This is Nebu-1! Our orgh requests the native animals be prevented from making any further telekinetic attacks!"

  The monsters had no concept of communication beyond themselves. Whatever they said to each other had only to do with their work. There was no such thing as personality among them. Only the shaft had identity. The monsters took on the characteristics of the task that each shaft was assigned to. Aside from the Druufs, the galaxy had not witnessed such an extreme form of monstrosities since the beginning of its existence.

  Cul-1 immediately made contact with the orgh who had failed to unload his ship according to program because of the mouse-beaver interference. Shaftgal Cul-1 found out what defensive means the orgh had employed at the moment of the attack, which revealed that the natives could evidently be destroyed without difficulty.

  At this same moment, on the edge of the western chain of hills a group of mouse-beavers also decided to have some fun with these machinery parts that were floating through the air. Five of the cute little animals were all in agreement as to which of the mechanisms they would take hold of with their telekinetic forces and at a high-pitched chirp from the oldest among them they reached out simultaneously toward the cube-shaped object.

  The thing suddenly rose 20 meters higher above its horizontal hover course but then began spinning as the pain-smitten animals cried out in agony, whereupon the mechanism shot vertically downward to the ground.

  The monsters closest to the impact point attempted to jump away on their triple telescopic legs. As the five mouse-beavers died, a menacing thunder emerged from the site of the machinery crash. Still more monsters started to move away. There was no sign of excitement or any other kind of human-like emotion on their ugly faces with their shriveled, onion-shaped noses. The only indication of their response to danger was their frantic attempt to get away.

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p; The remaining mouse-beavers looked at each other in puzzlement. They still had no thought that the death of their fellows was connected with their telekinetic activity. Suddenly a yellowish burst of radiation emerged out of nowhere and beamed them to death. A second energy burst fell upon the other group of mouse-beavers with the same result.

  But shaftgal Cul-1, who was responsible for the security of all orghs, was busy broadcasting special instructions on the general waveband for an immediate evacuation of the machinery-strewn terrain. The boiling and thundering sounds from the impact location increased from second to second.

  The yellowish rings of radiation which had destroyed the mouse-beavers vanished as swiftly and soundlessly as they had appeared. There was no indication of where they had come from. Also the strange energy beams which had enabled the orghs to unload the teardrop ships had ceased to operate. Where but moments before the machinery parts had been floating forward through the air in their programmed channels they had all simultaneously glided softly to the ground and now the monsters were hopping along between them in a hurried effort to reach their double-hulled ships.

  Then the thin atmosphere of the planet was shaken by a tremendously loud explosion whose thundering echoes spread outward in all directions. There where the playfulness of five mouse-beavers had caused a strange mechanism to bury itself in the earth, a volcano of energetic forces had broken out. Yellow gleaming waves of energy welled forth and flooded outward from the impact point with a deadly swiftness.

  It was a race of life and death between the hopping monsters and the on-rolling tidal wave of yellow energy which devoured everything in its path, and the tandem-linked teardrop ships were simultaneously the goal and the target. Meanwhile jets of flame fanned out several thousand kilometers above the planet Vagabond and out of the small crater swelled more and more of the yellow energy as the swiftness of its flow appeared to increase relentlessly.

  Everything that had been unloaded from the alien ships had by now ceased to exist and several hundred of the monstrous invaders had also fallen prey to the ravening forces. But now the yellow tide of energy seemed to sense the metallic masses of the tandem-hulled ships because the laterally propagating channels of destruction suddenly changed direction and moved toward the landing place.

  Everywhere the deadly flood altered its course abruptly, converging into a single onrushing channel. Flowing at a depth of a foot or so across the sterile surface of Vagabond, the strange flood of energy did not appear to radiate any kind of heat. But whereas the surface of the fluidic force had previously been smooth it now revealed the first twisting ripples and eddies of a highly accelerated movement. The other hopping monsters soon became victims of their own technology.

  The five mouse-beavers had only sought to play with some things that had been floating through the air. However innocent and naive their natural instinct for playfulness, they had not died in vain. Either chance or some higher power had led them to grasp the core mechanism of a gigantic installation whose harnessed energies were to have pumped life into a mammoth power distributing station.

  The monsters were helpless against this unleashed power. The released wave of energy hurled itself at the metallic masses of the spaceships and engulfed the first three of the teardrop vessels. Then as if this process of swallowing more worthy prey had been a signal for still swifter action the frightful yellow tide spread out over almost the entire area where the great armada had landed.

  The ships' destruction orabsorption proceeded soundlessly. When contacted by the yellowish flood, their metal hulls suddenly lost their form, collapsing into a sluggish liquid mass. Simultaneously these masses were covered over by the on-pressing energy wall. They briefly left a dark stain behind them and then existed no more.

  On Vagabond there were only three eyewitnesses to this soundless destruction of a mighty spacefleet. But these three mouse-beavers could not comprehend that the extermination of the alien ships had saved their race from complete annihilation.

  Eighteen of the teardrop ships managed to flee. They had taken off silently but the 19th ship had not risen far enough to escape a high-reaching tendril of the deadly force. Upon contact, this vessel lost its form in a flash like its predecessors and collapsed into a sluggish, dark-staining residue which quickly faded and was no more.

  The 18 star ships made a hasty departure from Vagabond, leaving turbulent air masses in their wake. There was no roaring or thundering of propulsion engines to be heard. The aliens disappeared in the direction of the small, feebly shining sun.

  For five planetary days the fanned-out plume of yellow energy hung over the cold and desolate world but on the 6th day it dissipated and faded away without a trace.

  Vagabond was Vagabond once more, Mars-like, chill and barren, and the mouse-beavers continued to play through their simple and harmless lives. They did not know that they had escaped extinction by the skin of their incisors.

  2/ MYSTERY OF THE IMPOSSIBLE

  McIntosh was a Communications Officer on board the Potomac. He was 53 years old and married.

  The Potomac was a merchant spaceship of the Solar Empire which happened to be within 68 light-years of Vagabond as it plied its course toward Abel's Planet in order to pick up a cargo of lysir.

  Lysir was a type of resinous gum which was only obtainable on Abel's Planet and was needed in great quantities on Earth. Through a refining process it was used to improve the material that Terran spacesuits were made of, which made them more impervious to cosmic rays than Arkonide spacesuits.

  But McIntosh sat in the Com Room of the ship and thought neither of lysir nor of the planet Vagabond where Pucky came from—nor was he even thinking of spaceflight. His two youngsters Charles and Ben were keeping him in a state of continuous anxiety and fretfulness. The one boy was 18 and the other was 17. The older boy was always getting into some kind of trouble and his younger brother never failed to help him in the process.

  What kind of jam might they have gotten into this time, McIntosh asked himself, and he dreaded his return to Earth. Whenever the Potomac was in port in Terrania he always had an automatic 3-day leave but McIntosh usually had to spend the whole three days agonizing over the further misdeeds of his sons and more than once he'd been forced to dig deep to pay for material damages they had caused.

  He was thinking that if they had gotten info further mischief this time and if he had to pay out still more money to cover the damages, then... But the unhappy thought was interrupted. The Potomac’s energy sensor had just come to life and in that instant McIntosh was transformed from worried father to a duty officer in the Com Room.

  He looked at the sensor's oscillograph. On the upper portion of the display was an ominous maze of wildly peaking amplitudes and in the lower portion a diagram appeared. McIntosh was a quiet, withdrawn little man who had permitted himself the one indulgence of wearing a small goatee and refused to shave it off regardless of the hazing he took because of it. At this moment, the little man's eyes widened in astonishment.

  He breathed excitedly. He sat frozen in his seat and stared at the oscillograph as though the apparatus had just confronted him with the master riddles of the universe. "Great galaxies!" he exclaimed to himself. "What the devil is that? I've never seen anything like that in my life!"

  Although he knew very well that the small computer here always stored each oscillograph tracking event in its registers he simply had to make sure that it had done so in this case. This tangled maze of sine waves and amplitude spikes and the incomprehensible diagram seemed to him so important that he got up against his better judgment to check the positronicon and see if the sensor data were actually going into the registers.

  Then he went back and sat down. More by instinct rather than circumspection, he turned on his space telecom and put in a hypercall to Terrania's main energy sensor station.

  "This is merchant ship Potomac calling, code 0-34, Communications Officer McIntosh. There's a strong energy burst I'm picking up from the directi
on of Vagabond, presumably from the planet itself. Our present position from Vagabond is 68 light-years. The waveforms and diagram patterns are so strange and indecipherable that I am requesting an energy-trace checkout!"

  The answer came back from the Terrania station on Earth: "Thanks very much for your report. Main sensors here have already picked up the blast trace, confirmed as Vagabond position. We'll contact you again if we need any further check-backs."

  But the scientists in Terrania did not call back to Com Officer McIntosh. At least not immediately.

  The Potomac landed on Abel's Planet which was the home of the half-intelligent Rikkers, a dwarfish humanoid race. There it took on its coveted cargo of lysir and was just taking off for its return trip when a telecom message was received from Terrania. Instead of flying directly to Earth the Potomac was ordered to first pay a visit to Vagabond and make a few turns around the Mars-like world in a reconnaissance orbit. Before McIntosh could ask any questions the great hypercom station on Terrania cut off the connection.

  Capt. Hodkin, who looked like a heavyweight boxer anyway, proceeded to blow his top when McIntosh transmitted this order to him over the intercom. "OK, you got us into this detour, McIntosh! So you can just brace yourself for no three-day leave when we get back to Terrania! Do you have to radio Earth for every minor detail that comes up?"

  A half-hour later the Potomac made a hypertransition and emerged into normal space between the dimly shining small sun and the planet Vagabond. It was the 7th day after McIntosh's energy reading.

  The freighter circled the desolate planet eight times but as fate would have it the orbital passage took it three times over the critical location at an altitude of 1000 km. Unseen below was an area of some two square, km which was completely glazed over and giving off a weak steel blue fluorescence. The Potomac’s energy sensor remained unresponsive. Even the previous day on Abel's Planet it had hardly revealed any more reactions. McIntosh was of the opinion that the major magnitude energy source had rapidly subsided.