A Touch of Eternity Read online

  "I see..." Rhodan brooded over this a moment, then looked up again. "And you believe that it's possible to build the kind of generator that will do the job?"

  "Yes, I believe so, sir. It's merely a matter of making certain changes in the intersecting magnetic fields which generate the time window. Basically it's all quite simple but if you asked me to explain it to you I'd have to admit defeat. You understand, of course, how I mean that..."

  "Quite!" Rhodan smiled and leaned back. "How long will you need to build the new generator—or can you make use of the present equipment?"

  "I don't consider that to be practicable, sir. The alterations may appear to be simple in their nature but actually they're not. That is, a redesign of the existing generator would be more complicated than to make a complete new model. So if there's just one request I might make..."

  "Don't worry about your needs, Erb. They're granted already. You have full authority and a blank check for finances. Just remember that we're not only concerned here with the lives of the six men who went into the other time-plane but also with the goal of finding a weapon against this uncanny menace. Overlappings of the two planes of existence are happening throughout the universe. What would happen if by chance the Earth were also to be trapped in such a danger zone?"

  Erb paled at the thought. Then he stood up and said firmly: "You may depend on me, sir. By tomorrow I'll be able to present you with the plans. The actual construction, of course, will require a few months yet but it will be successful."

  "A few months?" echoed Rhodan. "That's a pretty long time."

  The physicist held firm to the time schedule but gave the reasons why the work could not be accelerated. It was in that moment that the idea came to Rhodan that was to affect the destiny of the Milky Way.

  "Erb, there's just one last question: does the size of the ring-field generator have anything to do with its safety of operation? What I mean is: a larger generator creates a larger energy-ring—we're agreed on that—but what I want to know is, will its functional safety be influenced or can you guarantee that safety for a larger generator?"

  "Sir, the size has no bearing on its proper operation."

  "Excellent! Then see to it that the circular aperture in the time-wall has a diameter in excess of 300 feet."

  Erb stared at Rhodan, thunderstruck. "300 feet—! But that's enormous, sir! Up till now there's been no energy-ring larger than a few yards at the most

  "Is it technically possible or isn't it?"

  "Oh it's possible, certainly. It's just a matter of increasing and strengthening the design proportionately. But I'm afraid that the weight of the new machine would be so great that its transportation and installation on Tats-Tor—"

  "Hold on!" interrupted Rhodan; then he smiled suddenly again. "Just so that we won't misunderstand each other: the new generator doesn't have to be built up entirely from scratch. I want it to be a permanent part of the Drusus itself—as a new integral part of the ship, always to be ready for action at any place or time and thus perpetually portable. Is it possible under such circumstances?"

  "It is possible, sir, that in such case I would only need two or three months. You will get such a generator that it can project an energy-ring from the Drusus big enough for a cruiser to go through it into the other dimension, at any time desired."

  "That," said Rhodan calmly, "is exactly what I have in mind."

  • • •

  Rhodan was still looking at the planets in the middle of the viewscreen. His thoughts returned to the present. Dead ahead lay Tats-Tor, the world that had been depopulated by the aliens from another time. If there were any relationship between space and time, then Lt. Rous and his crew should still be there.

  In the heart of the Drusus lay the giant mass of the new energy-ring generator. Its controls had been extended into the observation cupola. From that position one would be able to look directly into the circular aperture to be generated, which would measure 600 feet in diameter. Below in the hangar lay the light cruiser Sherbourne , ready for launching. Since its diameter was 300 feet, there would thus be a 150-foot safety factor between the hull and the edge of the forcefield window.

  Erb had been backed by the research staff in Terrania when he had guaranteed that the new generator would make it possible to break through into the other time-plane.

  The Drusus continued to decelerate and landed an hour later on Tats-Tor next to the still-waiting Gazelle. The retractable struts extended outward and sank deeply into the sandy ground of the desert before encountering bedrock strong enough to support the ship. But the antigrav fields still had to be kept in operation because the tremendous weight of the ship would otherwise have even penetrated the rocks toward the very crust of the planet.

  Rhodan left the Control Central and went to the observation dome. Erb, Bell, Marshall and Baldur Sikerman, first officer of the Drusus , were waiting for him there. Pucky sat quietly and discreetly in a corner, so unobtrusive for the moment that he might as well have not even been there. John Marshall, head of the Mutant Corps, interrupted his conversation with Sikerman and turned to Rhodan expectantly.

  "Everything is set," announced Rhodan with a hint of tension in his voice. For months he had looked forward to this moment and had pushed every doubt aside concerning the achievement of his purpose; but now, a few minutes before the start of the expedition, submerged apprehensions returned to him.

  This was not a mere thrust into space, which had long since lost its terrors for man; it was instead a thrust into time. And even Rhodan had to admit that time was a relatively unknown factor in his experience. Not only unknown but also dangerous.

  Lt.-Col. Sikerman sprang to attention. "The Sherbourne is ready for launching, sir," he announced. "The crew is already on board, all men accounted for."

  "Including all available mutants," added Marshall. "Except for myself and Pucky."

  Rhodan nodded. "Bell will take over command of the Drusus and keep the radio receivers open at all times. That includes hypercom! Of course I don't think that a radio communication will be possible through the time-wall but we won't pass up any chances of making contact. And one thing more..." Rhodan turned directly to Bell and looked him in the eye. "Nobody knows how much time may pass in our own dimension of time while we are with the Sherbourne in the other plane. So it is very essential that the Drusus remain here—no matter if it takes weeks or even months. Is that perfectly clear, Bell?"

  "It's clear enough, Perry," Bell answered in an unusually subdued tone. "We'll wait, whatever happens. The energy-ring generator will remain in continuous operation."

  "Practically speaking," interjected Erb, "what you have now is more of a warp-field generator because the light and energy spectra are curved quite sharply. Moreover, you know that a penetration into the other time-plane isn't possible if an interface with our own continuum doesn't happen to be present. That's just a fine distinction but I thought it was important enough to mention it to you."

  Rhodan smiled at Erb. "Dr. Erb, if you are as precise and knowledgeable in everything else concerning this operation, we'll have no further apprehensions about entrusting ourselves to your creation."

  "That's not what I'd be worried about," returned the physicist calmly. "You can rely on the new WF generator completely, sir. But the time ratio between our side and the alien plane—that is my total concern! Up until now we've held the time factor to the only constant that we had. But now we know that even time itself isn't constant."

  "I concur with you," replied Rhodan seriously. "And we all know that I can't afford any time slippage. But we have to take these risks if we don't want to be swept away one day by the other time dimension." He looked at his watch. "I think we'll begin the experiment in five minutes." He looked outside at the dead surface of the planet. To the right stood the deserted Gazelle in which Lt. Rous had come here more than seven months before. The projectors of the warp-field generator were aimed at a spot that lay ahead to the left of it. It was so situated
that one could also see it from the Sherbourne , which stood ready for flight in the hangar. The outer lock doors were already wide open so that the light cruiser could leave the gigantic mothership at any time. "Let's go."

  "Best of luck, Perry," muttered Bell in a rather husky tone. "You can depend on us."

  "You will come back," said Erb simply and then turned to the controls of his equipment, upon which the fate of everyone depended.

  "Thank you," replied Rhodan and signaled to Sikerman, Marshall and Pucky. Then he left the observation room with a firm step and went out into the corridor. Marshall followed him, then Sikerman.

  Pucky slipped slowly off the couch where he had been sitting, waddled quietly over to Bell and took hold of his hand. "Let's hope it won't be long before we see each other again," he said with some emotion, at the same time nodding to Erb. "I don't know if the carrots in the other time-world are as good as they are on the Drusus but you can take it from me that carrots aren't the only good things that will make the return trip worth striving for. You're also included."

  For once Bell took him seriously and refrained from ribbing him. "Watch over the Chief, Pucky!" he advised and he gently patted his little friend's furry shoulder. "Always stick with him and protect him. I've never seen him as reluctant to go on a mission, as he seems to be this time. Actually nobody should pay any attention to spooky hunches..."

  "Then don't!" said the mouse-beaver while shaking hands with Erb. "Here's hoping your warp-box does its job, pop!"

  Pucky was freely informal regardless of name or rank but nobody ever took offense because after all the mouse-beaver enjoyed very special privileges.

  "It'll soon be rattling," replied Erb in the same spirit and he placed a hand on the control console of the WFG. "I'd advise you to get yourself on board the Sherbourne . I'm turning on the field coils in exactly two minutes."

  "I'll be there before Rhodan," Pucky assured him. He concentrated a moment—and made his jump. In other words, he suddenly became invisible and materialized in the same moment down in the hangar, where he almost scared the wits out of a young cadet who was just on his way to the launch lock.

  At this same time, Rhodan and Sikerman stepped into the hangar. Marshall, the telepath, followed behind them.

  The hangar was a tremendous room because it always housed a spherical cruiser that was 300 feet in diameter. Actually no regulation launch lock was used here, through which a ship could leave the Drusus in a matter of minutes. Instead, the opening was created by simply folding back whole bulkhead sections, which caused a portion of the hull itself to disappear. Outside lay the shimmering desert of the dead planet.

  Simultaneously there existed out there in the desert another world which was invisible, concealed behind a barrier of time. It was a world in which all life proceeded at a rate that was some 72000 times slower than normal. This much was known about it but not much more.

  Without wasting words, Rhodan entered the Sherbourne and took over the co-pilot's seat. Directly in front of him on the viewscreen lay the desert of Tats-Tor and the sky above it. There the circular window of light would have to appear, through which they were to penetrate into the other dimension...

  Sikerman sat down next to Rhodan. His seemingly clumsy hands went possessively to the controls before him. His bullish face was without expression but Rhodan could sense the keyed-up state of his pilot's thoughts.

  Pucky did not go to the quarters which had been reserved for the mutants. Instead he also walked into the Command Central, where he got up onto a couch and sat there with his back to the wall while his intelligent eyes took in everything that Rhodan and Sikerman were doing. All his nerves and senses were at a high pitch of alertness and his forces of concentration had switched over to 'emergency' status. So if it became necessary he could make use of his incredible psi faculties at any second.

  The preliminary starting signal sounded throughout the Sherbourne . The outer hatches closed automatically and bolted the airlocks hermetically, thus sealing everyone inside from the outer world. Now the crew was protected from the vacuum of outer space but was this also a protection against time itself...?

  The second signal sounded. Rhodan watched Sikerman's veined, sinewy hands at the console board; then his gaze wandered to the viewscreen. Out there nothing had changed. The deserted Gazelle lay motionlessly in the desert. The sky was bright and cloudless. With his right hand, Rhodan switched on both the telecom and the radio receiver, connecting himself with the Control Center of the Drusus. By this means his own crew on board the Sherbourne could also hear what was going on. No one was to be left in uncertainty if something unforeseen should occur.

  "Bell, we're ready for takeoff. How does it look to you there?"

  Bell's face appeared on the viewscreen. "Just 60 seconds more, Perry! Wait until you see the circle of light."

  "Of course! But what do you think?"

  Bell grimaced uncomfortably. "Don't ask me that."

  "What can happen to us if we come back quickly?" countered Rhodan.

  "As long as Erb keeps the generator running, we can come back any time we want. As soon as we've located Rous..."

  "And how long might that be...?"

  As he looked at his watch, Bell said: "10 seconds to go yet. We'll soon see if this thing works!"

  "It will!" came Erb's determined voice from the background. He was not visible on the viewscreen.

  The 10 seconds seemed to be endless. "Now Erb is turning it on!" announced Bell.

  Rhodan moved his eyes from the smaller screen to the larger one. The sky over the desert was still bright and cloudless but already in certain areas a weak shimmering effect was noticeable, as though the magic of an unseen sorceress were beginning to materialize a myriad of dancing mirrors in the air. After more of these apparitions appeared, they began to take on the pattern of a circle—a circle of light that measured slightly more than 600 feet in diameter.

  The final starting signal shrilled through the confines of the Sherbourne . It failed to divert Rhodan's attention. The light-circle increased in brightness and became more definable. Within another 20 seconds it was complete, without any gaps. Perfectly visible and gleaming brightly it towered against the clear sky. But the sky inside of the circle had changed.

  Rhodan noticed it just now. The sky within the energy-ring had become reddish. Dark clouds hung motionlessly in this red-tinged sky—clouds that had not been there before. They were the clouds of the other time-plane!

  "Ready!" Rhodan nodded to Sikerman. "Take off at top atmospheric acceleration—in 10 seconds!"

  Sikerman responded in a completely automatic manner and everybody on board the Sherbourne knew what he had to do. The lower rim of the light apparition was 60 feet above the desert of Tats-Tor. Without an air vehicle it could not be reached.

  10 seconds after Rhodan's command, the Sherbourne shot forth from the gigantic body of the Drusus and hurtled through the atmosphere of Tats-Tor. The ship increased its velocity as it glided low over the sandy ground and raced toward the glimmering warp-field that separated one universe from another.

  Bell and Erb watched while the Sherbourne plunged into the window of light—and then disappeared abruptly.

  In the same second the radio signals from the light cruiser were silenced. Rhodan's face disappeared from the viewscreen as though struck from it by an invisible blow. In this world there no longer existed a Perry Rhodan... nor a Mutant Corps... nor a Sherbourne.

  And in the other world...?

  Bell stared at the empty screen with his jaws locked tightly together.

  The long wait began...

  2/ ONE POSSIBILITY!

  They were still living on the high rocky plateau by the caves of the Druuf. During the past eight days the sun's motion had hardly been noticeable but the bolt of lightning that had been frozen in the sky by the slowness of time had finally faded out. It had hung there unchanged for more than 40 hours between the clouds and the ground.

  Lt. R
ous and his five companions kept waiting impatiently for the small light window to appear again down below on the plain, which would make possible their return into the normal universe. But they had waited in vain.

  The discovery of the K-7 and its crew, which had been lost for months, was a ray of hope. Of course it was no ray of hope that only a few minutes had passed for the commander of the auxiliary craft during what had been a period of a quarter of a year in the normal universe for Rous before coming here.

  The 180-foot sphere still stood on the plateau in the shadow of the cliffs. Up above hung a cloud of vapor over the mountaintop which heralded the imminent outbreak of volcanic action but by their reckoning the eruption couldn't occur for several normal years yet. Other than themselves, nothing lived on this world, which Rous had named the Crystal World. At least there was no visible life because everything here moved 72000 times slower than normal. Everything was subject to the laws of this other time-plane. Everything!

  The only thing that distinguished them from this seeming lifelessness was their own time ratio. It had only been with the help of antigravity fields and by passing the relative light-speed of the local time dimension, which was about 2.5 miles per second, that they had been able to bring objects or life forms here into their own ratio of time.

  The physicist Fritz Steiner and the biologist Ivan Ragov stood off a little to one side on the edge of the plateau. Hypnotist André Noir was with them. On the stony ground between them crouched a curious creature whose movements were normal from their own standpoint. It was one of the Druufs which had been brought up to the human time-ratio in order to be studied. With Noir's help a kind of communication had been established. Noir would generate in the alien creature's brain a thought picture or mental image which would then indicate to the creature what the men wanted to know. The conversation was a bit one-sided but the accomplishment in itself was surprising enough.