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  Inside the spacecraft nothing could be felt, but the viewscreen suddenly blazed with the outside glare of light. Their acceleration was such that the collision of air molecules excited the exterior defense screen, causing ionization, and the Gazelle shot upward through the thick atmosphere of the planet, leaving a glowing, fiery contrail behind it. Chellish kept a sharp eye on his instruments. He noted the rapid drop of atmospheric pressure outside and saw that the illuminated velocity indicator had overshot its maximum range. But in that moment the meter switched automatically to a higher scale. Now a new range of speed was involved and the moving indicator started anew from the left but more slowly. Adjacent to the space speedometer, on the right, a small chronometer was ticking off the minus countdown since takeoff. There was also a more complex apparatus that integrated time, speed and acceleration by means of positronicomputation to arrive at the distance covered since takeoff. At the end of 40 seconds the stretch they had put behind them amounted to about 250,000 miles, or slightly more than the distance from Earth to the Moon.

  The time had come for the hytrans. Chellish didn't have time to calculate any exact coordinates for the jump. He merely programmed the propulsion units for a transition of 200 light-years. For the present he didn't have any idea where they'd come out at but he knew he'd be able to orient himself readily once the ship had returned to normal space.

  He announced to Suttney: "I'm going into the jump now."

  Then he depressed a control button with a swift motion of his hand and threw them into transition. He sensed the short tug of pain that accompanied dematerialization and for the fraction of a second he had the impression that someone was holding a hand over his eyes.

  When he could see again, the view on the telescopic screens had changed. The soft-glowing nebulous cloud of distant stars remained the same but the constellations formed by the nearer stars, like great pearls on the shimmering background-these had changed. The hyperjump was a success and from now on nobody on Grautier or anywhere else would know where the stolen Gazelle had disappeared to.

  Chellish began to relax but at the same moment he heard Suttney's obvious question: "Where are we?"

  "200 light-years from Grautier," Chellish answered. "That's all I know."

  But soon, he thought, he would find out. And maybe 200 light-years wasn't far enough for Suttney? Here he might not yet feel safe enough. They would no doubt make a second jump—a longer one—over 6000 light-years for example. And he'd just like to see how these two would be able to tell from his calculations where they would come out at.

  Galacto-math is a head-breaker, Suttney, he thought to himself. You don't understand it, do you? All I have to do is tell you the jump will bring us into the center of the galaxy and you'll believe me. But your eyes are going to pop when you see that the sun that's going to emerge in front of us is our own: Sol!

  Suddenly he no longer felt the pains caused by Roane's blows and the burning of his fingers. He felt strong and ready for action. He wanted to put Suttney where he belonged: A Security jail cell—and the sooner the better.

  Then he heard Suttney say: "I think 200 light-years are shaving it a bit too thin. So we're going to make another jump just to be on the safe side. But before that I want to show you something, just in case you're playing with any smart ideas."

  Chellish looked up in some surprise as Suttney indicated the entrance hatchway to the control room. The door panel was just opening as he looked. He stared, wide-eyed, at the man who appeared there. For a second or two the shock of recognition blanked him out. mentally and when he finally collected himself his mouth was as dry as if he had just spent a day hiking in the desert.

  The man who had entered the control room was Ronson Lauer, the one who knew his way around, somewhat, in the field of galactonautics.

  • • •

  The history of the planet Grautier had been short but eventful. In the annals of Terranian space travel this world had appeared for the first time only slightly more than two years before. The transport ship Adventurous had been commissioned to bring the 8000 exiled revolutionaries to Rigel 3 but a mutiny had broken out among the settlers which had resulted in severe damage to the engines, making it necessary to land on the unknown world instead. After the emergency landing the ship itself was nothing but a useless wreck. The crew had been forced to join the settler community on Grautier.

  At first the settlers had fallen into conflict with each other. They separated into two rival groups: the True Democrats under Horace O. Mullon and the Nature Philosophers under Walter S. Hollander. It soon became evident that Hollander was striving for sole totalitarian power over the others. In his first attempt he succeeded in driving Mullon and his people against the wall but in his retaliation Mullon was able to retake the town of Greenwich—the only one that had been built to that date—and capture Hollander and his associates. In accordance with the law administered by the People's Assembly of Greenwich, Hollander was sentenced to death. His companions were sentenced to forced labor but events were soon to intrude which interrupted a full application of the punishment and finally made it impossible.

  Mullon and a few companions who had a scientific interest in the planet had discovered meanwhile that Grautier was populated by two remarkable types of organic life: the Mungos, half-intelligent apes who lived high up in the mountains; and the Blue Dwarfs. These latter were wholly non-humanoid creatures that appeared to be bluish blobs of matter but when they occurred in considerable masses they seemed to possess a very significant parapsychic and telekinetic capability. However, Mullon's effective statesmanship had succeeded in winning the indigenous intelligences over as friends of the settlers.

  Finally, calamity descended from an exterior source. In the Myrtha System there were altogether 49 planets of all types and sizes, and among these was a second world that supported intelligent life. This was Myrtha 12, a small, Mars-like planet on which lived humanoid creatures that were strange in form and characteristics. The Whistlers, as the settlers were to call them later, were about six feet tall on the average although frightfully thin, and their language was made up of a series of whistles, twitterings and hissings. For this reason they were dubbed Whistlers.

  There were about three billion Whistlers living on their world, and since living space had become a problem and they possessed the requisite technology to do something about it, they had taken a look around in their immediate environment and had come to Grautier. The 8000 settlers were subjugated. They were not sufficiently equipped to defend themselves against the Whistlers. They were forced to till the soil with the help of machines the conquerors had brought with them, and they had to plant and harvest prescribed quotas of various types of grain. The Whistler ship departed from Grautier, leaving behind them a guard force of 200 in order to supervise the progress of the work. One of Hollander's former followers, a man named Pashen, had aligned himself with the usurpers for the purpose of personal advantage.

  Gunther Chellish was a crew member of a Gazelle that had been sent to Grautier by Perry Rhodan for the purpose of secret observation, and his party had hidden Out in the mountains. But even before the death of Hollander he had allied himself with the regular settlers, of course without revealing his true identity for the time being. So it was that he had discovered that the Whistlers' agricultural machines were powered by small nuclear reactors. He dissembled several of the reactors and reconstructed an atomic bomb with the fissionable material. The 200 alien sentinels were overpowered and four months later when the Whistler ship returned it perished in the fireball of the ignited bomb.

  Meanwhile, Chellish had finally revealed his identity, and he told the settlers he had no doubt that sooner or later a whole Whistler fighting force would visit Grautier and take over if the settlers did not take action to prevent it. The Adventurous was equipped with an auxiliary spacecraft that had scraped through the crash-landing without too much damage. Since it was fully capable of a 500 light-year range, it was made flightworthy aga
in. A commando group of 13 men took off for Myrtha 12, where they played the role of a legation from a distant planet named Aurigel. Chellish, who was a part of this expedition, managed to drop certain ominous hints which quickly led the Whistlers to believe that the Aurigel people were planning to attack Myrtha 12 and overthrow them. So the Whistlers' attention was attracted to this alleged new danger and for the moment Grautier was forgotten. Chellish's plan seemed to be succeeding but at the last moment a series of unfortunate incidents enabled the enemy to see through their subterfuge. He and his companions were arrested and would have been executed had it not been for a last minute miracle.

  The miracle appeared in the form of three cruisers of the Terranian spacefleet under command of Lt.-Col. Sikerman. Terranian scientists had discovered the fact that in the course of the next 10 months there would be another one of the strange overlaps of two time planes, this time in the Myrtha area. Such phenomena had occurred initially in the year 2040 in the Mirsal System and had posed a very serious problem for Perry Rhodan. The situation called for turning Grautier into a fleet base where preparations would have to be made for making a large-scale penetration into the alien time plane.

  Sikerman had arrived well-informed concerning the political situation in the Myrtha System. He knew that he could not proceed with his base construction in an orderly fashion until he had first pumped some sense into the Whistlers. He accomplished this through an impressive demonstration of Terranian power, which resulted in the release of Chellish and his companions and their return to Grautier again. Thus a local threat was eliminated but now Grautier was no longer an independent colony. Terra had taken it over.

  During the following weeks, Grautier was a scene of unprecedented activity. Entire transport fleets brought in the material necessary for building the military base. A legal commission appeared also, through whose auspices the settlers were offered a chance to build a new home on Venus, which was much closer to Earth. Those people who were judged to have taken a direct part in the various criminal activities of Hollander—among whom was Pashen in particular—were recaptured and brought to trial. The evacuation of the remaining settlers was taken care of in a matter of a few days. Those people who had been mere 'fellow travelers' with the Hollander factions were allowed to go unpunished.

  About 1000 people who had once called themselves the Free Settlers Anti-Socialist Party had remained behind on Grautier. A plan developed whereby those among them who had special training or ability would be taken over into the fleet. The settlers were in agreement with this and the rest was a mere matter of formal processing. In this manner the new fleet base had been able to provide itself with operating personnel.

  Ultimately Perry Rhodan himself put in an appearance on Grautier in order to satisfy himself that the work was progressing properly. Almost over night Grautier had become one of the most important bases in the galaxy. From here the decisive blow against the Druufs was to be launched. The Druufs were the alien race from the other time plane who had taken advantage of the creeping dimensional overlap in order to carry out their depredations throughout the reaches of the galaxy. Whatever had happened previously on Grautier was forgotten. The Whistlers, who had feared the 8000 settlers more than the plague or the giant grey beasts from whom the planet had gotten its name, faded into relative obscurity.

  Under the pressure of events, no one had taken special pains to reexamine the present political convictions of the new fleet recruits. It had been all of two years now since they had been sentenced to exile because of their revolutionary agitations, underground conspiracies and similar crimes, back on the Earth. Of course most of them had perceived the error of their ways, above all, Horace O. Mullon. But there were some who still clung to the old ideas, in particular the former followers of Walter S. Hollander.

  Their transfer into the fleet had been as smooth and uneventful as that of any of the others. But once they found themselves wearing their official uniforms they were. convinced the time had finally come to put their plans into operation.

  • • •

  The takeoff of the Gazelle triggered a major alert. Capt. Blailey's semi-squadron and all available space cruisers announced themselves ready for action within a few minutes of the alarm. However their flight readiness was of little use as long as nobody knew where the surprise fugitive had gone.

  Perry Rhodan appeared in the provisional Ground Control Central at the spaceport. The C.O. on duty was a young captain who saluted and began to launch into a long-winded explanation. Rhodan waved him off gently, telling him that he was already informed of the situation.

  "I take it you haven't mustered out all hands for roll call?" he asked, finally.

  "No sir," replied the captain. "I haven't gotten to that yet."

  "Good. Then do it now. We have to know who has absconded with the Gazelle. By the way: who had duty on board the scoutship?"

  "First Lt. Chellish, sir."

  "I presume there's been no signal from the Gazelle so far?"

  "No sir."

  Rhodan frowned pensively. First Lt. Chellish... He had a clear recollection of the reports from his immediate superior, Capt. Blailey, which had been submitted concerning him during the original mission on Grautier. Chellish was a go-getter and somewhat of a daredevil although still a practical and rational type. He was one of those in whom there were unsuspected reserves of mental and physical strength—which had gone so long unnoticed that he had developed the habit of depending solely on himself. As former exile Horace O. Mullon had expressed it, Chellish had 'saved Grautier from the Whistlers single-handedly.' Chellish was 31 years old. A man of his capability should have become a captain by now or even a staff officer.

  Rhodan had considered the case to be curious and important enough to look personally into his personnel dossier. There he had found a series of complaints from his former commanding officers, which referred to a 'pronounced' over confidence if not conceit. This meant that he had consistently failed to suppress his own ideas if he thought they were better than those of his superiors. Rhodan was familiar with many such cases. The 'pronounced over-confidence' was not always the villain in such situations. In Chellish's case it was to be noted that Capt. Blailey had not shown the slightest indication to register any complaints concerning him in any sense of the word. Obviously Blailey and Chellish were of a mutually harmonious temperament.

  No, Chellish was not the type of man who would hijack a Gazelle. He must have been forced to do it, or else he was dead!

  Still deep in thought, Perry Rhodan left Ground Control and returned to the low, rambling building that was Sikerman's residence and where a few rooms had been allotted to himself. Sikerman was in his office with Reginald Bell. The great viewscreen over the tremendous desk revealed a shimmering bright grey raster, which meant that it was ready at any moment to go into action and establish a visual connection between Sikerman's office and any other important point in the galaxy.

  Bell jumped to his feet as Rhodan entered the room. Sikerman was about to get up also but Rhodan signaled him to remain seated.

  "Still nothing new," he said calmly. "So far all we know is that the Gazelle has disappeared. Other than that, nothing: not where, why or who. In regard to the who, though, we'll soon find out. Ground Central is making a full roll call."

  As though this were a cue, the viewscreen brightened to reveal the head and shoulders of a young lieutenant. He raised a hand in greeting. "Lt. Radcliffe. A general roll call has been ordered by Top Command. I must ask you to identify yourselves."

  Sikerman answered with a sarcastic smile: "Lt.-Col. Sikerman, Commander-in-Chief of the base."

  Reginald Bell snapped, "Vice-Administrator Bell."

  Rhodan remained silent.

  "And you, sir?" asked the lieutenant, turning to him.

  "Rhodan," returned Perry with a smile.

  Radcliffe gave them his greeting signal a second time, expressed his thanks and disappeared from the screen.

  Rhodan
started to chuckle. On the other hand, Sikerman was obviously disconcerted. The incident had not been at all amusing for him. "That young scamp is going to hear from me," he growled angrily. "As far as I personally am concerned he could get by with merely being stupid and not knowing what two plus two equals—but you, sir—for him to ask you to give your name, that's going a bit too—"

  Rhodan was still chuckling. "Relax, Sikerman. If I were in his place it would have been just as amusing. Besides, you know, he's right. He has to hear each name. After all, somebody could have replaced me with a robot and he wouldn't be able to tell it by looking at me. He has to analyze the sound of my voice as a part of a positive I.D."

  "Well, anyway..." mumbled Sikerman, apparently running out of rebuttals.

  No one said anything as the minutes passed. Perry Rhodan attempted to analyze how the situation might have been changed by the theft of the Gazelle but he failed to even come up with a reasonable assumption. A half hour went by. Then the viewscreen lighted up again, this time revealing the captain in charge of Ground Central.

  "We have the results, sir," he announced, addressing Rhodan after a brief greeting. "In addition to first Lt. Chellish, who had night duty on board the ship, three others have also disappeared: Oliver Roane, Walter Suttney and Ronson Lauer. All three of these men were among the settlers who were recently taken into the Fleet."

  "What data do you have on those three?" asked Rhodan.

  "Nothing, sir, other than the fact that they were former followers of Hollander."

  Perry Rhodan pondered over this for a moment. Then he thanked the officer and indicated that he had no further instructions for the moment. The viewscreen darkened to its former grey raster of shimmering half-light.

  Rhodan stood up and walked a few steps to the window. He stopped there, appearing to gaze silently at the floor. "That puts us in a bind," he said gloomily. "In fact, right into the ringers!"