Unleashed Powers Read online

  McIntosh ventured to make a suggestion. "Captain, shouldn't we stay in orbit until we've gotten a full cartographic picture of the planet's surface?"

  Hodkin glared angrily at his Com officer. "Who sent us that order? Certainly not the Chief?"

  "No, Captain. At least it wasn't signed by Perry Rhodan."

  "Then I wonder if you would be so kind as to let me in on the secret, Mr. McIntosh!" Hodkin exclaimed unpleasantly. "Who signed the order?"

  "Grimpel in energy tracking, Captain. The name doesn't ring a bell."

  "Nor with me either! OK, then we're going into course for Terra! So this world that has nothing to even sink your teeth into is the place where our mouse-beaver Pucky came from? Hard to believe. But anyway, McIntosh, what the devil was it you detected? Did that energy blast really come from here?"

  "Precisely from Vagabond's position, sir," replied McIntosh. His voice betrayed uneasiness. He had not forgotten how brusque the Terranian energy-tracking operator had been with him on the telecom.

  Eighteen hours later the Potomac landed at the gigantic spaceport in Terrania. The telescopic landing struts had hardly come into position before the merchant vessel's ship-to-ground intercom rang out:

  "Communications Officer McIntosh, contact Mr. Grimpel, Chief of Energy-Sensor Section! McIntosh, report to Mr. Grimpel with all reconnaissance data! Communications Officer McIntosh...!"

  The summons was repeated three times. It so happened that Hodkin and McIntosh were together when the call came through "You'd think they didn't know who's in charge around here!" grumbled Hodkin. "But now... McIntosh... if you tell Grimpel you made that suggestion about a complete cartographic survey and blab to him that I canceled it, then... well, you know who'll be on the intercom! You catch?"

  This time, however, McIntosh was quicker with the repartee, having momentarily forgotten that it was characteristic of him to always take a back seat. He nodded to his captain with a beaming smile. "Thanks very much, Capt. Hodkin, for giving me back my 3-day leave!"

  The latter looked at him uncomprehendingly for a moment but then his grim expression was relieved by a smirk. He made a conciliatory gesture. "Oh sure, sure... You know, McIntosh, we're both getting to the age when we're likely to forget one thing or another. I'm glad you reminded me about your leave!"

  • • •

  From their inception a certain amount of rivalry had always existed between Perry Rhodan's Solar Spacefleet and the merchant ships. Such vectors of tension were not easy to eliminate but the psychologists had given up searching for causes after Reginald Bell had expressed himself on the matter.

  "Gentlemen, why try to stop a healthy feud? You known rivalry even existed between Cain and Abel and if Old Man Adam wasn't able to handle his two sons do you think you could get the troops in the Solar Fleet to be friends with those merchant spacers?"

  With the sense of facing a rival, McIntosh greeted the leader of the Energy-Sensor Center in Terrania, Mr. Walter Grimpel. However, he was astonished when Grimpel spoke to him enthusiastically and thanked him several times for the interesting report that McIntosh had sent in during his approach flight to Abel's Planet.

  McIntosh had to keep revising his attitude toward the Solar Fleet, and even though this Walter Grimpel couldn't have been more than 30 years old he was getting to like him more and more.

  "Very fine now, Mr. McIntosh, if you'd just show me your data. You can't imagine how many sleepless hours this energy emanation from Vagabond has cost me. First of all I have a question: have you been able to figure out in the meantime what all those spaghetti wave patterns were trying to indicate? So far I've been at a loss. And you?"

  This open frankness touched McIntosh more deeply than he cared to admit and a degree of cordiality developed between the two men.

  McIntosh laughed. "I'm certainly happy to know that the waveforms as well as the pattern graphs are a riddle to you, too, Mr. Grimpel. But you must have deduced something by now. After all, here in Terrania you have all the instrumentation at hand and..."

  "That's easy for you to say. Even the giant positronicon on Venus doesn't know what to make of that scramble of waveforms or the pattern graphs, and as to the magnitude of the forces we reported, all the robot brain could say was: 'There are no such adverse magnitudes of force possible.' Nice, eh? But now have a seat, please, Mr. McIntosh!"

  Two hours later when McIntosh made his way back to the Potomac, intending to use his short ground leave for a quick flight to England, Perry Rhodan found Grimpel's report on his desk.

  "Vagabond?" he muttered thoughtfully. And immediately Pucky came to mind, since the mouse-beaver had originated from that sparsely covered Mars-sized planet. "Energies which the Venus brain says cannot exist? And Grimpel can't make anything out of his sensor indications either...?"

  Could it be that still more technical secrets lay slumbering in the depths of Vagabond than men yet suspected?

  Rhodan pondered over this report much longer than he had intended to. Later in the evening when he returned to his office after a strenuous political meeting he reached for the same notes again. Something bothered him. He gave his full concentration to the written data before him.

  "Hm-m..." He was about to signature the report when his eye was caught by a phrase: cartography data from merchant ship Potomac...

  He made a video telecom contact with Grimpel.

  "This is Rhodan. I have your report. Why haven't you included the photographic data, Grimpel?"

  On the viewscreen Rhodan saw Grimpel regretfully shrug his shoulders. "Unfortunately we can't do much with that, sir. Capt. Hodkin of the Potomac has not completed a 100% photographic survey of Vagabond. About 16% of the surface area has not been covered... so the whole input is worthless."

  "But haven't you evaluated the mapping material you did receive, Grimpel?"

  "I put it through everything I've got here but how can that help, sir, when the very location is missing that we determined here to be the point of origin of the energy eruption?" Grimpel's voice sounded exasperated and his face expressed great dissatisfaction.

  "Grimpel," admonished Rhodan humorously, "kindly don't assassinate that freighter captain with your thoughts..."

  Walter Grimpel started visibly as he felt himself unmasked. But now he gave full vent to his anger. "Sir, here I was on the trail of a tremendous phenomenon and suddenly I find that the tools have been taken out of my hands by somebody who doesn't understand what he's dealing with!"

  Rhodan was startled by the other's burst of temperament. "Grimpel, will you vouch for the fact that this energy eruption actually came from Vagabond? Just think of how many bogey sources there can be over a stretch of many light-years which could falsify the sensor results."

  But Walter Grimpel was sure of himself. "Sir, when this energy outbreak happened on Vagabond the Potomac was only 68 light-years away from it. Com Officer McIntosh only had an M-17 sensor at his disposal. Although that's an antiquated model it's completely precise at distances under 100 light-years. I have compared his results with ours. Sir, that blast occurred on Vagabond and I'm in a position to narrow down the source-point of this mysterious energy within five km!"

  "I'll take you up on that, Grimpel, but I have a question: have you taken the trouble to compare the values of this energy trace with our energy data from the Druuf universe?"

  "That's been done, too, sir! The greatest computer brain we have in Terrania refused to give an answer but the positronicon on Venus has determined within a certainty factor of 97.53% that this strange energy has nothing to do with the Druuf universe, and it also went on to say..."

  Rhodan interrupted him. The grey eyes gazed thoughtfully at Grimpel's image on the screen. "I know. The Brain refuses to grant the possibility that this kind of energy exists. I'll come back to this matter and then I'll give you my decision as to whether or not I'll send you, yourself, to Vagabond."

  Grimpel looked up in surprise. Before he could say anything, Rhodan added: "Three days f
rom now at the latest, Grimpel. I'm taking off in an hour for Venus. Send over all available input on this that you have and deliver it to the boarding lock of the Drusus —including the material from the Communications officer. I'll question the positronic brain myself. Day after tomorrow I'll be back and I'll get in touch with you. Thank you very much, Mr. Grimpel."

  Rhodan cut off. Just once he thought fleetingly of Pucky the mouse-beaver before he turned to other problems. He had an instinctive urge to discuss this mysterious happening on Vagabond with him but Pucky was presently with John Marshall on a special mission to Arkon's Crystal World where they were helping Atlan with a mysterious political situation.

  Later when Rhodan stepped into the boarding lock of the Drusus, which stood ready for takeoff, the lock officer handed him the package from the Chief of the Terranian Energy-Sensor Station.

  In three days at most, thought Rhodan, we will know more. He failed to suspect that he had forfeited a onetime opportunity.

  3/ THE BLACK WALL OF DEATH

  Four great double-hulled teardrop ships dropped downward toward Vagabond. After landing close to the cold blue fluorescent surface of the crystallized energy pool, the ships' outer locks opened up. In each of the four alien vessels an orgh appeared to be active again with the task of unloading the cavernous holds because one set of machinery after another floated outward on invisible beams and the various assemblies came methodically together in a staging process as though being constructed by magical hands. Here was a technology that overshadowed anything that had ever been seen in this part of the galaxy.

  Only a few dozen monsters moved about in their strange hopping motions near the edge of the glazed-over area and now they demonstrated that they were equipped with more than the transceiver organisms at the tapered ends of their teardrop heads. Hidden in their four arms were certain work tools which they now made use of. In these organic instruments alone was a monstrous alienness apparent. Out of tiny openings between their hook-like claws came beams of energy which cut into the crystallized surface of the glazed area and carved out ellipsoid one-foot chunks of the fluorescent material. These beams were so powerful that they performed the carving—with effortless ease.

  Then the independently operating orgh of the nearest ship must have taken over because the ellipsoid chunks of crystallized substance floated upwards onto the invisible beams and approached the vessel, finally to disappear into its open lock.

  Meanwhile the machine parts had been assembled into a monstrous mechanism of some sort, which was standing at the edge of the solidified energy lake. From the highest hill in the distance a single mouse-beaver witnessed the scene. Finally it drew in its broad beaver tail, took one more look at the hideous machine, assembly and hopped away in terror down the farther slope, finally taking refuge in its underground abode.

  Measuring more than 200 meters in length, the elongated string of machinery suddenly raised up from the ground and hovered at a height of only 20 centimeters or so. Then it moved out over the two square kilometers of the glazed lake and went to work. Between the sweeping front edge of the assemblage and the crystallized surface below, the air shimmered strangely with a pale orange light. The peripheral zone of the fluorescent plane quickly broke up like an ice floe being carried away and melted down by a warm flood of water. But this process went further. Under the massive cleanup operation, this part of the once molten lake disappeared entirely without leaving the slightest trace of its crystal formation.

  The decomposition and dissolving process seemed to accelerate almost by itself. The serpentine linkage of machines moved soundlessly forward, faster and faster, and in less than 10 minutes it reached the opposite edge of the glazed area. Then it whipped about and with even greater speed approached the landing place of the four tandem-hulled teardrop ships.

  Two hours later, no crystallized lake of fluorescent energy was to be seen on Vagabond. The monsters had eliminated all traces of their presence here, yet they were still not satisfied with the results.

  With a ghostly absence of sound, the long string of machinery was disassembled in the same invisible manner in which it had been put together and the individual components swiftly disappeared into the holds of the alien spaceships. In front of the vessels there were no more of the two-faced monstrosities to be seen. The elliptical hatches of the star ships closed. The vessels seemed to be ready to leave but no takeoff occurred.

  Instead, a tornado broke out at a distance of some 100-km from the landing area and rose angrily above the rust-red deserts of Vagabond. At first it swirled in one spot and sucked up great masses of sand with its titanic forces. The longer the cyclone raged, the more it swelled in diameter, yet it did not move from the location of its origin. It also grew in height so that within half an hour the viciously spinning tower of dust reached an altitude of 20 km.

  The roaring and howling of the whirlwind exceeded anything that Vagabond had ever experienced. In their deep and extensive burrows the mouse-beavers huddled together and trembled, frightened by this natural catastrophe whose horrible song thundered in. their ears. Even the most venturesome and curious of the comical creatures did not dare to go out and have a look around.

  Finally the giant black pillar, measuring more than 15 km in diameter, began to set itself in motion. The super storm swept toward the former location of the crystallized lake at a tremendous speed. En route the cyclone tore up further masses of sand and took them with it. With deep rumblings and thundering it swept onward, darkening the skies and bringing with it the shadows of night. The four double-hulled teardrop ships lay on the landing field as though forgotten. The monsters inside appeared not to fear this titanic maelstrom of forces.

  The storm mass reached the former area of the glassy lake and came to a hovering stop, at the same time lessening its whirling motion. Mountainous torrents of reddish sand poured downward over this portion of the chill planet. Within a few minutes the entire area was buried under a 20-meter layer of sand and even the four spaceships were not spared. The nearest crests of the hills hardly protruded from the drift-like surface. Within a short period of time the appearance of this stretch of land had been completely changed.

  The cyclone moved onward but did not regain its raving rate of rotation. Although its forward movement was still in the range of 100 km per hour, the giant pillar slowly collapsed into a broad storm area much closer to the ground. Where it raced over the surface of Vagabond it left the earth buried under drifts and dunes of sand which finally covered an area 500 km long and 100 km wide.

  As suddenly as they had mysteriously come into being, the catastrophic forces subsided, which was an indication that the entire storm had been generated by artificial means. And once more the dreary planet of Vagabond was dominated by silence, coldness and desolation.

  Inside the second spaceship was agal to whom the four shaftgals were subordinate. Nothing in his physical appearance differentiated him from the others but in the manner in which he sat before his strange-looking observation consoles he expressed his power unmistakably. After observing the collapse of the cyclonic storm, he swung about in his oddly shaped seat and beamed a message through his sending organ to the shaftgal underlings.

  "We take off in five units of time. The depressions left behind by our ships are to be camouflaged!"

  The teardrop ships were in 20 meters of rust-colored sand. They protruded some 80 meters above it. Now as one ship after the other rose soundlessly upward they all came to a hovering stop in the air. Beneath them were eight long troughs in the sand, which had been made by their four double hulls. Then suddenly a vast invisible hand appeared to sweep over the sandy surface and fill in every hole, leaving no brace behind.

  After that the ships picked up speed on a vertical course into the sky, where they disappeared in a frightening burst of acceleration. Nine hours after their landing there was no clue left on Vagabond to reveal the temporary presence of the aliens.

  At this same time, Perry Rhodan contacted
the chief of the Energy-Sensor Station in Terrania and assigned him the task of flying to Vagabond in a State-class cruiser, where he was to make a thorough investigation.

  • • •

  Five days later, Walter Grimpel was back with his team again in Terrania. He sat in front of Perry Rhodan and gave his report.

  "...so in the final analysis, all that can be said about our investigation is that we found nothing, sir. There wasn't the slightest suggestion anywhere to indicate that a super magnitude eruption of energy occurred on Vagabond. That's why the only thing we could keep going back to was that tremendous strip of sand. It's about 600 km long and it happens to cover the geographic location which we had previously determined to be the source-point of the energy outbreak."

  So we tried to remove some of the sand over the area in question so we could take a look at the surface and after a few failures we even managed to do that. But there again, nothing was to be found. Still, I didn't want to just simply admit that I'd made a mistake in this whole thing. The ship was all set for takeoff again when I went outside for the last time... and that, sir, is when I found this." Grimpel produced a pea-sized lump of material which appeared to be surrounded by a cold blue fluorescence. He shoved it ever to Rhodan.

  With renewed interest, Rhodan picked it up with his fingers and then dropped it into his palm and weighed it. "Surprisingly heavy, Grimpel. What is it?"

  Grimpel sighed in frustration. "Sir, I have to say we don't know!"

  Rhodan looked at him in astonishment. Then, as was his habit in most moments of excitement, he calmed himself and spoke quietly. "Grimpel, on a research flight like that, didn't you have the right kind of technical assistants with you?"

  The Energy-Sensor Chief raised up his hands defensively. "I had Dr. Innogow..."

  "Innogow?" said Rhodan wonderingly. "And Innogow wasn't able to analyze this? That's amazing!"