The Immortal Unknown

  Perry Rhodan

  The Third Power #13

  The Immortal Unknown

  The tyrant of Tuglan, betrayer of his planet's people, has been destroyed. Pucky, the perpetually playful mouse-beaver, born on the world called Vagabond, is now himself a wanderer of the void as he has become an honorary (or is it ornery?) member of Perry Rhodan's crew.

  A peaceful return to Ferrol was anticipated by the Peacelord–but such was not to be. Emerging from hyperspace in the mightyStardust II , Rhodan encounters chaos of cosmic proportions: Vega, a stable sun, is unaccountably turning into a nova!

  If the Ferrons, threatened with fiery extinction, are to be saved, there is only one course open to Rhodan; he must fulfill the destiny demanded of him by...

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  THE IMMORTAL UNKNOWN

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  1/ STARDUST TO... STAR DUST?

  Aboard the giant Arkonide spaceship Stardust II a whisper materialized in the control room. It reached the sense organs and was transmitted to the reacting brain. It seemed to emanate from Manuel Garand, the engineer, who was on the telecom. His chubby cherubic face shone in amiable content.

  Perry Rhodan smiled involuntarily. Garand's appearance seemed beyond reproach. He was the living personification of cool containment, soothing the frayed nerves of the crew.

  But his voice—Something about it seemed... Unnatural... peculiar. Rhodan listened to the soothing whisper until a severe shock suddenly convulsed his body.

  A man writhed and groaned in pain in the high-backed pilot's seat. Two hands tried to clutch throbbing lungs. It was senseless, as senseless as the sounds of torment dictated by the unconscious.

  "Wherever I look, I see nothing that isn't perfect," Garand said solemnly.A rotating mass of light blotted out his face. Only a grey-white spot remained.

  Perry Rhodan, Chief of the New Power and Commander of the Stardust II , finally freed himself from the chaotic frenzy which gripped his senses during the great transition through hyperspace.Suddenly everything sobered. He clearly realized where he was—the functional surroundings were not exactly cozy—and what had happened.

  As he came out of his daze and opened his eyes, he observed a twisting image. It took a few moments for him to recognize his own face reflected in the instrument panel. The huge command center of the immense space ship was real enough.

  Reginald Bell, Capt. Klein and Khrest seemed to be still unconscious.

  Rhodan's voice returned hoarsely. "Hello, Garand, are you there? Garand—what were you saying just now?"

  The telecom screen remained blank. Manuel Garand, chief engineer of the Stardust , had not spoken.

  Perry Rhodan managed to shed the last shred of hallucination and once again his mind was completely lucid. His lean face tautened. He murmured under his breath and slowly eased himself out of the pilot's seat.

  On the large frontal panel of the circular observation screen a giant sun was shining. It was a flaming blue star of incredible brightness. Even the automatic ray-filter couldn't screen out a considerable amount of hard ultra violet. Rhodan's eyes began to ache.

  Was this Vega? Could this bloated ball of fire be the sun whose planetary system they had left a short time ago?

  Panic surged up in Perry and his face grew pale. Without moving his head he called out for reassurance. "Reg!"

  But Reginald Bell, his closest companion, did not move. Only his broad face twitched under the impulse of his stimulated nerves.

  Perry Rhodan—noted from his years in the U.S. Space Force for his remarkable ability of instantaneous decision in response to emergencies—reacted with the mechanical exactitude of a machine.

  His hand hit the bright-red alarm button. Even though he couldn't understand the full extent of what had happened, he grasped the situation with sudden clarity.

  Something had gone awry despite his careful planning. The hypertransition, a faster-than-light jump through the fifth dimension, appeared to have been successful. The state of the unconscious men in the command center was not unexpected and could be considered normal under the circumstances. It was quite possible with hyperjumps across 35,000 light-years that the reactivating of completely dematerialised organisms would cause some complications. Rhodan, too, seemed to have been unconscious, but he had recovered somewhat quicker.

  Stardust II had been strained to the limit of its capacity. It would have been unreasonable to expect humans to withstand more than that.

  Rhodan could wait calmly for the crew to wake up. What seemed to be out of kilter was this shining blue, strongly pulsating giant star which bore a faint resemblance to Vega.

  Rhodan's alarm signal had warned of a catastrophic danger. Although his men were still incapacitated, the positronically programmed robots on board the super-battleship sprang immediately into action.

  "Determine our position according to transition coordinate ground values. Calculate relativity factor of transition time. Survey star in sight. Transmit data. Carry out mass probings, search for possible planets.

  Stop. Evaluate immediately."

  The ship's robot brain acknowledged receipt of the rapid acoustic programming. The verbal concepts were converted into mathematical symbols in the innards of the giant ship. Thus the positronic brain was fed the correct basic information for its calculations.

  Rhodan glanced in passing at the control dials of the super robot. The machine was humming and functioning normally. It would determine faster than an entire team of scientists whether the transition had been indeed successful and investigate the reasons that the strange occurrence had taken place.Rhodan sank back into the massive pilot seat. The engines of the spaceship—a sphere with a half-mile diameter—rumbled at zero output. Only the power station in sector II was running at full capacity. It had to furnish the electric current for the numerous auxiliary motors and the enormous amounts of energy required for the defense screens of the supergiant. It indicated that the reentrance manoeuvre into the normal continuum of four-dimensional space had succeeded without a flaw.

  Stardust II raced, approaching the speed of light, toward the still distant sun.

  It was suspended on the front screen of the circular observation system in a splendour of unreal radiance. Apparently, mighty explosions were occurring on the star. Ultra-high protuberances seemed to shoot far out into space.

  "If this ball of fire doesn't soon turn into a gigantic atom bomb, I'll swallow the whole Stardust like a headache pill," somebody said with a hoarse and scratchy voice.

  Rhodan turned around. Bell had quietly awakened. His wide freckled face resembled a faded blotch of color. His rusty bristles of hair rose even higher than usual from his terribly pale forehead.

  Bell coughed and the corners of his mouth twitched."Any pain?" Rhodan inquired solicitously. "If so, where at?"

  "None," Bell replied laconically. "I feel like a tender little rooster who jumped out of the cook's frying pan at the last moment; with plucked feathers, of course Do you follow me?"

  Rhodan grinned fleetingly. That was just like Bell.

  "Everybody's asleep in the neighbourhood, huh?" the squat man growled."Give me your energy blaster, Chief. I left mine in the gun locker."

  Rhodan's eyes narrowed. Bell displayed a peculiar smile. It was too frozen to look genuine.

  "What for?"

  Bell creakily got up from the seat of the second astronaut. He gazed at the screen, studied the image of the flaming sun and answered quietly:

  "I'm sorry, but I'll have to shoot Pucky. I hope you realize that mouse-beaver's played one of his practical jokes again. At our last transition, which was meant to take us across a relatively small dis
tance of 2400 light-years to Vega, that creature manipulated the operation with his enormous telekinetic powers so that we jumped 35,000 light-years and were confronted by an intelligent race we didn't have the slightest desire to meet. We lost time, you know, precious, sorely needed time because of an absurd incident on a world which doesn't concern us humans. I maintain that the mouse-beaver has fooled around again just before we made our leap. He simply can't leave it alone; just as I can't forget about eating. It's in his nature."

  "Oh?"

  Bell got red in the face and clenched his powerful fists. "You're taking chances," he warned. "You took a fancy to that creature and you don't want to accept the fact that this beast can cause a disaster with his innate passion for playing. I'm going to shoot the rat!"

  "He'll make you look down the barrel of your own gun," Rhodan scoffed. "Pucky is an intelligent being and don't you forget it. Nobody will be shot on board my ship."

  "Would you condone a mass murderer? This mouse-beaver can destroy the entire vessel. We've got 500 men on board!"

  "I'd court-martial a murderer. Pucky isn't responsible for our predicament."

  Rhodan slashed his hand through the air in the direction of the observation screen. The sun slowly grew. The evaluation of the positronic brain had not yet come through.

  Over to the right sat Khrest, the chief Arkonide scientist. His tall lean body stooped forward. His face was slightly distorted. Khrest's white hair, a mark of his race, fluoresced in the light from the multicoloured control lamps.

  "These Arkonides don't have much resistance," Rhodan murmured thoughtfully. "They've passed the climax of their positive development. Their stellar empire falls apart under the hammer blows of the rebellious population of their colonies."

  "We've acquired the knowledge of the Arkonides and that's all that matters," Bell scowled. "Khrest set out to find eternal life in our space sector. He was forced to crashland on the moon where we found him. Then we established the New Power with the aid of his awe inspiring knowledge. We were able to prevent an atomic war and almost unite all mankind. We've built a super-city in the middle of the Chinese Gobi Desert and have created an ultra-modern industry in the wilderness, applying Arkonide technology. Alright, Chief, I know all that. You're avoiding the subject. We've accomplished all sorts of possible and impossible things, but you can't render a stupid mouse-beaver harmless. Can you?"

  Rhodan winced. Capt. Klein regained consciousness. With a moan he straightened up in his seat. His eyes looked glazed.

  "Oh..." he uttered, still disturbed. That was all.

  The ship returned to life. Somebody yelled, loud and shrill, into the telecom that the Stardust was racing into a sun. Moments later the air next to Rhodan's pilot-seat began to stir.

  Tako Kakuta, the positive mutant with the astounding capability of tele-transportation, materialized out of nowhere. Smiling sweetly, he nodded to the Second Astronaut, who flinched and gasped for air until he became red in the face.

  "I'll murder you!" Bell gnashed his teeth. "One of these days this guy is going to land in my stomach. Has

  everybody gone crazy around here?"

  Rhodan listened to the reports coming in quick succession from all departments as they were ready to function again.

  This time Chief Engineer Garand was indeed on the intercom. Very condescendingly he stated his opinion.

  "Everything is under control, sir," he beamed. His high voice sounded jubilant. "Has any mischief been committed?"

  "You see!" Bell exclaimed. "He has the same suspicion. Maybe that beast can also make that blue giant sun move out of our way!"

  Rhodan cut off the telecom connection with the engine control room. Nothing on board the super-battleship seemed to have changed.Dr. Haggard had quietly and unobtrusively entered the command center. He gave Khrest a high-pressure injection in the arm.

  "Very unstable," Haggard said softly. "Thora hasn't snapped out of it yet. What happened? I've never experienced such a transition."

  "The limit of the hyper-field converter is at about 35,000 light-years. We've taken a risk by doing it in one jump. I won't try it again."

  Haggard—the physician who with his newly developed anti-serum cured the leukemia from which the Arkonide suffered—silently shrugged his shoulders. The commander ought to know best; he had learned everything by hypno-training that the once active and wise Arkonides had created and developed.

  "If I only knew where we are," rasped Klein, who still had trouble speaking. "Is this Vega?"

  As Rhodan was about to call the astronomical section, the alarm sounded. The positronic computer controlling the range-finder automatically set off the warning signal without human assistance.

  All heads were suddenly raised and the conversation stopped abruptly. The relaxed atmosphere changed and every muscle in their bodies tensed up.

  The co-ordinated team of 500 men quickly sprang into action. Seconds after the first howling of the sirens, the heavily armored hatches were sealed hermetically. The spacious sphere was subdivided into thousands of units leaving no doubt as to its mechanical efficiency. The gigantic Arkonide vessel of the renowned Imperium class could not be destroyed by any single hit

  Far below the command station, which was located at the geometrical center of the sphere, the atomic fusion-reactors of Arkonide origin began to rumble and all power stations rose to peak output.

  In the empty, immeasurably large space between the stars the dimensions of a ship were only significant insofar as they could contain in its innards the necessary installations to produce the energy for its engines, weapons and auxiliary machines.

  Rhodan, observed the bright points of light flashing on his control screen. The gun-turrets of the Stardust automatically swung out. On the range-finder screen of Klein's fire control section the first peaked echo-lines became visible.

  The calculating machines whirred. It was a seeming chaos of technology in which man played only a minor role.

  "Object located in green sector, 86A degrees horizontal, 22.8 degrees vertical," the mechanical voice of the calculator rattled. Klein pushed the button of the automatic sensor to pinpoint the detected foreign object.

  "Fire Control ready!" he calmly reported. Suddenly he had become very alert.

  A strange calm settled over all departments. The automatic control devices had done their part, now it was the duty of the Commander to make the final decisions.Rhodan looked impassively at the front panel of the observation screen. The foreign object located by the sensor, working at a speed faster than light, should be situated ahead to the right and on a plane a little above.

  Seconds later the next message came through. The robot-brain had completed its computations.

  "Evaluation as requested at 13:52 hours pursuant to programming by Commander. Ship position in Vega system. Transition accomplished. Pulsating star identical with known Vega. Determined with 100% probability that Vega sun is in process of transformation into Nova. Advise against continuing on course of re-emergence. Growth of star proceeds with abnormal speed incompatible with astronomical laws. Stop.

  Bell's eyes popped. He looked across at Rhodan, whose face betrayed deep concern.

  "Nova? Vega is supposed to have become a nova in a few weeks? Ridiculous! It can't be. Such a process takes eons."

  Bell looked around as if pleading for help. He barely registered the awakening of the Arkonide scientist. Khrest understood such phenomenons better. His constitution, which differed from terrestrial humans, had presently overcome his frailty.

  "Great Imperium!" he whispered, "I suspected it." His reddish eyes sought Rhodan's attention."How's that?" the commander asked. The sharp lines around his mouth deepened.

  "The last riddle of the Unknown threatens to destroy an entire solar System. Vega is an essential reference point for navigating our positions. If this star goes, we'll never locate the planet we want to find. And Vega has been set to explode!"

  "And what about the Ferrons living here?" Bell g
asped. The poor devils will be boiled to death on their molten planets. Their spaceships are no faster than the velocity of light. They'll never be able to escape from the exploding sun. Did the Unknown go mad?"

  "We came a little too late," Rhodan said in a choked voice. "Much too late. Our wrong transition has cost us weeks. Meanwhile things have happened here. Khrest, will you please work out the course for the eighth planet. Change of course in three minutes. Thank you."

  The 500 men of the ship's crew looked at each other. The triggers of their weapons remained untouched. The previously spotted objects turned out to be Ferronian spaceships. The egg-shaped outlines were unmistakable as was the fact that it was an enormous fleet consisting of 600 units.

  "They're fleeing to the outer planets," Bell moaned. "What's going on here?"Rhodan gave no answer. He seemed to know, or at least surmise, what had occurred on great Vega.

  Exactly three minutes later the engines of the super-battleship began to roar. The computed change of course required a curve correction of 18 million miles at a velocity close to the speed of light.

  Flaming Vega slowly moved out of the front observation screen. Instead, the infinite darkness of inter-galactic space with its multitude of stars took its place. The eighth planet of Vega, Ferrol, was still 4 billion miles distant

  After the course adjustment Rhodan decided to go into a quick transition. Even at close to the speed of light they would have needed 7 hours to reach the eighth planet of the immense stellar system.

  Space shook as the battleship disappeared in a brilliant burst of light. It was as if there had never been a Stardust II.

  2/ OPERATION: DESPERATION

  It was the nature of the Arkonide space-structure sensor to register any changes detected in the rigid structure of four-dimensional space with instantaneous impact.

  In hyperspace, where totally different laws reigned-which did not include the concept of time—the impact of a forced entry by a body was transmitted without any delay whatsoever.