The Shadows Attack Read online

  Perry Rhodan

  Posbis #118

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  THE SHADOWS ATTACK

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  1/ THE ROBOT HUNTERS

  "BOGIES!"

  "Sir, we have bogies in sector K1-8-DX. Range 2.3 lisex. Standing by for instructions..."

  Col. Kermak, commander of Solar class battlecruiserAlderamin, did not so much as turn his head. He stared intently at the main viewscreen of the Control Central, which gave him a very natural reproduction of a section of the outer void. With a swift movement of his hand he brought in the magnification. The 2.3 light-seconds of distance seemed to telescope and the tracked objects became visible.

  "Increase retropulsion," he said without taking his eyes from the screen. "Approach manoeuvre. Boarding crews stand by! Man the battle stations!"

  The 1st Officer saluted and left the room in order to transmit the orders and see that they were carried out.

  Col. Kermak was looking at 3 ships on the viewscreen. They were apparently drifting along through space without guidance and it was obvious that they were unmanned. They were robot units of the Arkonide Imperium's fleet which had virtually "died" when the robot Regent was destroyed. The Terrans had already succeeded in securing about 90,000 out of a total of 100,000 of them but out there in the unfathomable reaches of space there were still 10,000 heavily armed ships. In the hands of any potential enemy this could represent a force not to be underestimated.

  Col. Kermak was among those who had been chosen to prevent this. With his heavy battlecruiser Alderamin, a spherical vessel 500 meters in diameter and carrying a normal crew of 800 men, he had been assigned to the task of tracking down the pilotless robotships of Arkon and taking them over with special prize crews.

  This was no simple operation because when the robot Regent of Arkon was destroyed the units of the Arkonide Fleet were scattered all over the galaxy. Without a special circuit alteration these ships had responded exclusively to the command signals of the giant positronicon. Thus from one moment to the next they had suddenly become pilotless and they were subject to being confiscated by anyone who knew the secret of how to switch them over to manual control. Within the Milky way there were numerous races who desired to increase their military power so it was natural for them to seize the opportunity by attempting to capture Arkon's inactivated ships.

  But Perry Rhodan sought to prevent this at all costs.

  As Col. Kermak continued to observe the 3 drifting vessels he noted that one of them was a super battleship of the Imperium class, a tremendous sphere measuring almost a mile in diameter whereas the 2 other smaller ships were obviously cruisers. They still flew in their original formation, which was loosely triangular, with the battleship leading and the 2 cruisers following.

  The First Officer returned to the Control Central. "Ship ready for combat sir."

  This time Kermak turned toward him. "Probably as superfluous as in all the other cases," he said with a reassuring smile. "Let's secure the battleship first. Who's leading the boarding team?"

  "A Lt. Vitali, sir. This is his third ship capture."

  "Then he knows what he has to do. Let me know as soon as all three ships are secured for manual flight."

  "Very good, sir," answered the First Officer, who again exited the room.

  Col. Kermak turned back to the viewscreen in order to follow the forthcoming procedures in every detail. But before the locks of the Alderamin could be opened for Lt. Vitali and his men, something unexpected occurred: a message came through from the duty officer in the tracking section. At least 20 ships ranging from large to small had materialized at a distance of just five lisex and were now approaching at top speed. They deployed themselves swiftly so that they quickly surrounded the Alderamin and the robotships.

  "Energy screen!" roared Col. Kermak. This placed him in a security mode which would protect his spacesphere from eventual raybeam bombardments. And of course Vitali could no longer leave the Alderamin.

  "Stand by!" he ordered, while watching his screen.

  The alien ships were cylindrical in shape. Springers! But after all, what else? Wherever there was trouble the Springers, otherwise known as the Galactic Traders, were never far away. These merchant-pirate offshoots of the Arkonide race were as shrewd and clever as the Terrans. There could be little doubt that their technicians knew how to make the manual override connections on the robotships. The stellar traders had shown up with the intention of grabbing the spoils and dividing the heritage of Arkon between themselves.

  "Radio message, sir!" announced the com officer over intercom. "An urgent warning!"

  Almost imperceptibly, Kermak composed himself. With outward calm he answered: "Alright, let's have it!"

  The Springers' challenge was brief and unmistakable: "Get out of here, Terrans! The 3 ships belong to us because we sighted them first. We'll give you 10 minutes, your time."

  Kermak studied the viewscreen thoughtfully. The 20 longships of the fighting nomads had meanwhile firmed up their positions around the Alderamin. Within that circle were the 3 robot vessels which were the objective of both sides. He knew that for the moment their granted period of "grace" but on the other hand he was not in a position to drive them off. Under these circumstances he could not order Lt. Vitali to try taking the Arkon vessels. It would be a useless sacrifice. But for the same reason the Springers couldn't send out any boarding crews either, without exposing them to danger. It was a completely messed up situation.

  He had the option of beaming out a call for Terran reinforcements, he thought bitterly, but they couldn't arrive before the 10 minutes were up. Probably by then the Springers would open fire in an attempt to break down the Alderamin 's defense screens. The gamble could turn out to be fatal. Turning the picture around, it seemed out of the question for the Alderamin to knock out 20 opponents simultaneously. This was aside from the fact that Kermak was not intending to be the first to fire a shot. there could be no doubt that the Springers were in superior force here. It wouldn't be easy for them to knock out the heavy battlecruiser but with a streak of luck it was possible.

  "Only eight minutes left," said the First Officer, who had returned. "That's damnably short..."

  "Long enough to make a decision," replied Kermak calmly, although he was shaking inwardly. "There's no way they can take those ships in the meantime. On the other hand we're under orders to avoid armed conflict with other races wherever possible. We are to defend ourselves if attacked—and that hasn't happened yet."

  He scanned the viewscreen again. Although the 3 robotships were hurtling through space at a considerable velocity, they appeared to be standing still. The Alderamin and the Springer formation also seemed to hover there motionlessly. It would be quite simple to take deadly aim with all the cruiser's heavy armaments. Anyway, only 3 minutes of the allowed time had been used up.

  "The 3 Arkon ships don't have their screens up," muttered Kermak as if to himself. "They could be wiped out with our first broadside."

  "But sir... !"

  "Do you have a better idea for keeping them out of the Springers' hands? You'll have to do better than a shrug of your shoulders. If we can't get control of those robotships, then the Springers shouldn't be allowed to either. That would be the best solution where Terra is concerned."

  The First Officer stared at his commander. "If we had a teleporter on board I'd know of another way!"

  "Me too," confessed the colonel bitterly. He glanced at the chronometer. "Still 3 minutes left. Get a move on! In the meantime I'll try talking to the Springers."

  Which was no particular problem. The Springers spoke Interkosmo as well as the Terrans. It didn't take the com
operator more than 30 seconds to establish contact. On Kermak's screen the bearded face of a typical Galactic Trader appeared. He must have been one of the patriarchs because he was certainly more than 100 years of age by Earthly reckoning. The full, thick beard was tinted red and curiously squared, which was obviously a clan identification.

  "What do you want, Terran? You have 2 minutes left."

  Kermak controlled himself and kept his voice as even as possible. "These 3 Arkon ships belong to us. We have permission from Gonozal VIII... "

  "Permission, he says!" The Springer began to laugh thunderously. "Who is this Gonozal VIII, anyway? Or are you talking about that pseudo-imperator of Arkon who merely fronted for the robot? If so, then the ships don't belong to you any more than they do to us. They are ownerless—free booty for the first to find them. And we were first in this case. So?"

  Kermak knew that he only had another minute to go. "Gonozal-Atlan was the rightful ruler of Arkon. Perry Rhodan is his rightful successor. Therefore the ships belong to him. If you take them it will be an act of theft. Do you want to tangle with Terra?"

  "Terra!" echoed the Springer, starting to laugh again. He seemed to be genuinely amused. "What is Terra without the protection of Arkon? And the Imperium doesn't exist anymore."

  The bearded swindler was in for a surprise, thought Col. Kermak heatedly while noting with a quick glance that only 40 seconds were left. His hope of convincing the Springer was fading away. The First Officer had just returned and gave him the nod. This meant that Kermak only had to depress the red firing button to bring the robotships under concentrated fire. Since they were without defense screens they would be destroyed in a matter of seconds.

  "So what you are saying is that you are willing to perform an act of piracy and risk open conflict with Terra?" he asked quietly.

  That's right!" nodded the Springer, still chuckling. "What have we got to lose?"

  10 seconds to go.

  "Very well," said Kermak, suddenly returning a very sarcastic smile. "I might have let myself be talked into letting you have at least one of those cruisers but since you're so greedy you won't have even one of them. Do you understand?"

  "Not a word," replied the Springer, fingering his beard. "You Terrans are fond of speaking in riddles. Besides, your time is up. Get out of here or I'll open fire."

  "I'll do it for you," retorted Kermak grimly. He shoved in the red button which activated all the guns that had been carefully aimed in the meantime.

  "You're welcome to the scrap!"

  From 3 turret positions the concentrated energy beams of the Alderamin shot out and found their targets. They penetrated the hulls of the robotships with ease and bored their way into the vessels' central cores—to the Arkon power piles. The resulting nuclear explosions ripped the ships asunder.

  Although there were actually 3 explosions their effect was that of one gigantic detonation. One of the Springer ships had been too close to the robot super giant and was hurled away into the void by the fury of the blast. Before the remaining 19 longships could take their revenge on the Alderamin, Col. Kermak shoved his flight lever forward into full thrust. Immediately the warship started toward a distant nebula and accelerated wildly. It soon reached light velocity and vanished into semispace.

  All they could do was attempt to rescue the smaller longship that was plunging out of control into emptiness. They paid no further attention to the glowing nuclear clouds which had been 3 proud Arkon ships. They also knew that it was useless to try pursuing the Terran cruiser with its new linear-drive propulsion.

  The Alderamin switched course, however, and made a direct flight to the distant Earth, prepared to submit a report to the First Administrator. It was to inaugurate a new phase of the search for Arkon's missing robotships

  • • •

  The Caesar was a super battleship of the Imperium class, also equipped with linear space-drive and also on the hunt for the valuable Arkon robotships.

  4 days had passed since the return of the Alderamin. Tactics had been changed. In a conference convened by Perry Rhodan it had been decided to distribute the members of the Mutant Corps among a number of the search ships so that even superior forces of Springers, Aras or Ekhonides could be outsmarted. Moreover, all had agreed that no compromise was to be countenanced and that it was preferable to risk combat, if necessary, and to destroy the robotships rather than have them be taken. From now on the search units were going to offer stiffer resistance. In the past few days the Springers especially had demonstrated a ruthless determination to challenge the men of Earth for possession of Arkon's heritage.

  Col. Sukril, commander of the Caesar had also been present at the conference. Outwardly he looked very much like Rhodan's second-in-command, Reginald Bell, nor was it to be denied that certain elements of his character reminded people of Bell. This is why it was perhaps not a pure coincidence that Col. Sukril had the distinction of acquiring the mutant services of Pucky the mouse-beaver.

  Their first meeting had not been without a certain flavor of drama.

  It had been Pucky's own fault that he had not been present at the briefing. He had just come back from a strenuous mission and had decided to pass the few hours of his leave at his weekend place at Lake Goshun. Rhodan had told him that his presence at the meeting wasn't mandatory. He said that it only entailed some routine matters that concerned the Fleet commanders.

  So it was that Pucky came on board the Caesar at the last moment, after Rhodan had given the mutants their assignments. He was of course familiar with the name of Col. Sukril but he had not yet met him personally. The Caesar was like any other ship and, like every one of them engaged in the search activity, it was to have a mutant on board. This was in addition to a special load of 20,000 experienced spacemen, other than regular crews, which the search ships were carrying for the purpose of taking over the robot battleships and bringing them to Earth.

  A young, dark-haired officer was waiting for him in the airlock. "You're flying with us, Lt. Puck," he said. "May I welcome you most heartily on board the Caesar?"

  "That you may," replied Pucky patronizingly, saluting rather indifferently. He wore his custom-made uniform with the heated case for his beaver tail. Being a telepath, he already knew the officer's name. "By the way, does it happen that I've been assigned to your task unit?"

  "You're quite correct, Lt. Puck!"

  The mouse-beaver stretched out his paw and smiled. "Then you can drop the title of rank. We're buddies in this together."

  "Hm-m... ah—very well, Puck."

  "Pucky!"

  "What...?"

  "Pucky! that's what I'm called." He looked around. "Where is the commander? A Colonel Sukril, if I understand correctly."

  "In the Control Central. We take off in five minutes."

  "Then I've arrived at just the right time," Pucky grinned. "So up, up and away—to happy hunting!"

  "Hm-m," grumbled Germa doubtfully, shrugging vaguely. "I'm not so sure it's going to be all that happy. The Springers are keeping our search commandos pretty busy."

  "Pah!" Pucky watched while the heavy main lock closed and slid in place with a dull thud. "So far we've

  always been able to handle those whisker-faces. We just have to be faster than they are—and smarter."

  Lt. Germa smiled to himself. He seemed to be pleased with Pucky's answer. "Come on, I'll show you to your cabin. It's right next to mine."

  The mouse-beaver waddled after him although he would have preferred teleportation. But in the young officer's mind he had detected some very important indications. First of all he discovered that Germa liked him very much. It wasn't the usual respect for his outstanding parafaculties but a genuine feeling of fondness and friendship. And secondly Germa had thought of their forthcoming interim landing—on Mars.

  Mars? What did the Caesar want on Mars?

  Pucky realized that Germa didn't know. If anybody knew the reason for the Mars touchdown it would most likely be the commander. So he'd hav
e to ask him, provided the thought didn't come into his head first.

  The cabin reflected Pucky's extraterrestrial preferences and was provided with everything the mouse-beaver would have wanted for a lengthy journey. Even the fridge with a supply of fresh vegetables had not been forgotten. And even a full-grown man would have been comfortable in the wide bed.

  "Neat!" chirped Pucky appreciatively, and he reached up to pat his much larger companion on the back. "Very neat. You people must have really put yourselves out. So you live in the cabin to the left of me? Who's in the other one?"

  Germa shrugged. "No idea. As far as I know, it's empty."

  "That suites me." Pucky lowered his little dufflebag in which he had collected the things most important to him. "At any rate I guess I was too pessimistic. I sneaked in my own crop when I didn't have to."

  He picked up the bag and shook out its contents onto the floor. Nothing but fresh carrots. Lieutenant Germa laughed until it brought tears to his eyes.

  At the same time the Caesar took off and accelerated at a modest rate into space. Inside the ship the effects were barely noticeable since the gravity fields and inertial absorbers took up the shock. Thus the effects of small course changes were also neutralized.

  "You still have to report to the Commander," said Germa somewhat concernedly. "Col. Sukril is a stickler for the rules. It's a wonder he took off without making sure you were present and accounted for."

  Pucky made a wry face. "I hate regulations and formalities, Germa. I always get in trouble with people like that. But how is he otherwise?"

  "A good officer, pretty daring at times, and he flares up once in awhile—otherwise he's straight and very fair. But I think in your case you'd better not—hm-m... "

  "I'd better not what...?"

  "I mean, maybe you'd better not try a first name basis right away. If you forget rank and title he might blow up at you."

  Pucky grinned, revealing his famous incisor tooth. It was a sure sign that the situation was turning into a "fun game" for him. "Alright, you know him better than I do. Why should I make things tough on myself? But watch out if our good friend Sukril plays a one-sided game! If he drops his formality with me, he could be in for a surprise! Fine—let's go. Or aren't you coming along?"