The Micro-Techs Read online

  "The difference is to be found down there in the hangars where the Swoons are already busy setting up their machinery under the guidance of Markas," Khrest said slowly and with emphasis.

  Rhodan looked at Khrest. Suddenly his face broke into a smile and the doubts vanished from his brow. "Not only did we outwit the Springers on Swoofon but also the robot Brain on Arkon. As long as they believe they'll have a detector with which to discover the position of Terra, we'll have gained a respite. We'll need this pause because we'll soon be forced to make another decision. You know who I'm talking about, Khrest."

  "Yes—the Invisible Ones from the other time plane. But we'll be able to defeat them, Perry. They may seem to be timeless and eternal and even invisible but in their own continuum they're just as mortal and visible as we are in ours."

  Rhodan agreed. "Our plans are based on these assumptions, Khrest."

  Sikerman called out his commands. The planet Swoofon receded and grew smaller as the Drusus began to accelerate, rushing to the point of transition. Terra was not far distant but distance didn't count, only time.

  Pucky took his eyes off the panoramic screen and slipped from Bell's lap. "You ought to eat a little more," he advised gruffly, rubbing his backside. "Your bones are beginning to stick out."

  Bell gave him a bemused look. "Bones?" he said in feigned astonishment. "You always accuse me of being too fat! Which is it?"

  "Take your choice," the mouse-beaver allowed magnanimously in an effort to get himself off the hook. As he waddled away toward the door he called back: "If anybody asks for me I'll be... "

  "I know," Bell growled indignantly. "With those cute cucumbers. Some peop—some animals don't know who their true friends are." He obviously resented that he no longer played the important role in Pucky's life he once had.

  The mouse-beaver turned round at the door. "I'm your pal, Reggie, and I want to give you a friendly warning. I've asked Markas to build a vibrator for me. It's an impulse receiver that's no bigger than a grain of sand. One of these days without knowing it you'll have swallowed it with one of your steaks and then each time you so much as think a nasty thought about one of the Swoons I'm going to push a little button and you're going to wish you'd never been born."

  "I already wish it without your stupid vibrator!" Bell flared. "With a friend like you, who needs a vibrator to be shook up?"

  THE MICRO-TECHS

  Copyright © Ace Books 1974

  by arrangement with Arthur Moewig Verlag

  All Rights Reserved

  THE SHIP OF THINGS TO COME

  TATS-TOR.

  A world in danger of engulfment and depopulation by the mystifying Time Front. But the inhabitants are going blithely about their business, blissfully unaware of their impending peril.

  Concerned for the population's safety, Perry Rhodan dispatches six Terranians to this second planet of the sun Morag in order to warn the colonials of this Arkonidean world, help them prepare for a defense against this eerie enemy—against whom there well may be no defense.

  In the course of their action to aid the people of Tats-Tor, the Good Samaritans sent by the Peacelord find themselves in an incredible world where time has slowed down 72000 times relative to time. And then, there are the Druufs. They say a clock only runs, but time flies. It will for you when you read next month—

  PRISONER OF TIME by Clark Darlton