Venus in Danger Read online

  He took over the Stardust by manual steering, descended with the ship almost to the surface of the ocean and continued racing with high speed toward the coast of the northern continent.

  Rhodan watched the surface of the water flit by and the bluish mantle of light enveloping the protective screen of the ship. This latter effect was the result of the swift movement of the vessel and the impact of the air molecules on the screen causing them to be ionized and to radiate.

  Under the dark sky of the Venus afternoon the ship approached the far-stretched line of the unbroken coast behind which the jungle began.

  2/ DISCOVERY ON VENUS

  Tomisenkov cursed.

  "Fire another salvo!" he yelled at the battery officer. "No matter what kind of a defense screen they have, it's bound to collapse if we keep up our bombardment."

  He was right in principle. The defense screen was not completely immune to penetration if it was over-loaded. However, Tomisenkov had no idea when the load for the Stardust's protective screen became excessive. His hundreds of nuclear rockets were insufficient and if he had had thousands of the same type he would not have had enough.

  The battery officer proceeded to comply with his orders. He issued short and precise commands through his little transmitter to the servicemen at the rocket positions. Just then the radar technicians reported another surprise.

  "The enemy ship is coming toward us, General! Velocity about nine miles per second. It's as big as...!"

  The fiery sphere grew bigger and bigger and when Tomisenkov thought it was about to pass over his camp, he realized how he had misjudged its size.

  The sphere kept growing second by second, reached the camp looking like a fire-spitting mountain and shot past—

  And pandemonium followed. Tomisenkov's eardrums failed to function after the first shockwave crashed over him. He could no longer see because his eyes were blinded. But he "unmistakably felt the irresistible force which swept him from his feet, carried him aloft and tossed him away. He suffered a violent whiplash across his face as he was pushed across a wire and down onto the ground, hitting a sharp edge with a painful blow. The impact took his breath away. He made a desperate attempt to get up on his knees. Then he lost consciousness. He had no idea how much time had passed when he woke up again. His wristwatch was gone.

  He got up in spite of the jabbing pain in his chest, cautiously took a deep breath and looked around. What he saw surpassed his worst fears.

  The camp had ceased to exist.

  The jungle had changed. A mile-wide swatch stretched across the jungle from the south, crossed the camp, the rocket emplacements and the landing field of the spacefleet, continuing toward the north.

  A straight line, as if drawn by an oversize steam-roller. He controlled his emotions, realizing that the situation was too dangerous to permit delving into his own feelings. He slowly began to move his bulky figure and set out to look for the people who had been with him in the small clearing before the disaster struck.

  The battery officer was dead. But the aide showed signs of life after Tomisenkov shook him thoroughly. Finally he opened his eyes and stared utterly confused at the general.

  "Get up!" Tomisenkov shouted.

  Although Tomisenkov understood his own words, the aide shook his head questioningly and put both hands on his ears. Tomisenkov had a remedy. He pressed his forehead against that of the aide and repeated: "I told you to get up!"

  It worked. The vibrating skulls transmitted the sound. The aide understood and jumped to his feet. Tomisenkov made a sweeping gesture with his arms across the camp and strode away. His aide walked in the opposite direction.

  The search for survivors commenced. The track of the storm was six miles wide. Down the middle extended a mile-wide fire-scarred stretch like an open wound. The soil was a molten mass and radiated an unbearable heat. For the time being it was impossible for Tomisenkov to cross over to the other side of the burned swath in his search for his men.

  What had happened? This was the question uppermost in everybody's mind.

  The only one who had a clear idea about it was Tomisenkov. But he had other problems to tackle than to enlighten his men how badly he had under-estimated Rhodan. The camp—or rather what was left of it—had to be transported to some other place. Tomisenkov was afraid that Rhodan would return and he was not yet convinced that he was forced to capitulate.

  The jungles on Venus were vast. They offered hiding places for hundreds of divisions, impossible to detect by the adversary.

  Tomisenkov proved his talent for organization. Although 6000 of his men were so badly hurt that they could not move by themselves and despite the fact that it took three times as long as usual to explain his commands to the men with deaf ears, the transfer was on the way two hours after the catastrophe. Those who were most seriously wounded were loaded into the ships which were still intact. The other casualties were carried on make-shift stretchers through the jungle.

  Instructions were left for the soldiers who were still on the other side of the scorched red hot strip to let them know where to follow.

  Tomisenkov's goal was a chain of mountains situated in the northwest. The distance was no more than 120 miles but Tomisenkov estimated that they would require at least a week of Terrestrial time to reach it, due to their encumbered mode of traveling.

  He was the last to leave the abandoned camp with his aide and a few other high officers. The departure had proceeded smoothly and had taken only 10 hours. In the meantime their hearing had been partially restored and they were able to converse again, albeit by shouting very loudly.

  When Tomisenkov noticed that curiosity and anxiety were gaining the upper hand among his men, he decided to break his silence and tried to dispel their fears by explaining the true circumstances to the officers.

  "I suppose you have all noticed the sphere," he yelled. "There can be no doubt about it that it was the spaceship which Perry Rhodan uses for his famed expeditions throughout the universe."

  "But it must have been half a mile big!" somebody interjected.

  Tomisenkov cocked his head. "Just about, yes. What we've experienced was not a special weapon. Our radar station reported at the last moment that the ship was approaching us at nine miles per second. This is about three miles per second faster than a meteor streaking into the Earth's atmosphere from outer space. There is not enough time for the air to circumvent such a fast body. The air becomes compressed to such a degree that its molecules are made to radiate or even become ionized. As a result of the high compression of the air the temperature also rises momentarily to a formidable heat."

  He pointed in the general direction of the scorched lane and continued to shout: "There you can see the effect! We might ask," he went on, "how does Rhodan make the air glow without setting his own ship on fire? We don't know the exact answer to this question. All we know is that his ship is protected by a high-energy screen which presumably is also capable of absorbing the destructive side effects of such a manoeuvre."

  He paused to wait for questions which did not come. "I want to stress that we must advance as fast as possible," Tomisenkov exhorted his officers. "Rhodan won't keep us waiting very long. He knows very well what is at stake on Venus. We intend to give him a warm reception!"

  • • •

  Nine miles per second is too fast for the human eye to perceive details and to record differentiations.

  Rhodan was unable to tell when and where the Stardust had swooped across his opponent's camp. However, the automatic cameras had recorded the flight and it was thus made easy to ascertain the pertinent observations.

  There was still a lot of guesswork on board the vessel about the identity of the invader who had succeeded in landing on Venus and getting so perilously dose to the vital Venus base.

  The only one among them who could have provided the information remained silent. Rhodan gradually slowed down the speed of his mighty ship and headed in a gentle curve toward the rocky slopes of the mountain w
here the base was situated.

  However at a distance of 300 miles from the base the Stardust was suddenly stopped. Although the

  effect was very strong it did not damage the vessel. The gravity neutralizers absorbed the shock of braking and the sphere came to rest above the steaming jungle within a few seconds.

  Feeling a little tired, Rhodan leaned back in his chair. Apprehension was growing around him. Reginald Bell ran from one instrument to the other. The radio operator tried frantically to transmit the hyperwave code signal to the positronic brain inside the fortress, and the Third Officer queried the Technical Control Center whether any of the machinery was out of commission. None of these measures brought any results.

  Finally Rhodan issued the command: "Prepare for landing!"

  Bell stared at him incredulously.

  "What's wrong? why can't we get in?"

  "Because we've been too cautious," Rhodan answered quietly.

  He let it go at that without further elaborating his answer. Rhodan watched attentively as the Stardust descended toward the ground. The dense, 40-yard-high tree cover caved in like parched grass under the 800-yard-diameter sphere. The hydraulic landing supports were extended and sank deep into the soft ground of the jungle. A red lamp lit up on the control panel and a reassuring voice announced:

  "We've touched down!"

  Rhodan got up and directed his officers by intercom: "Will all officers please come to the command center. I have a statement to make."

  His order was followed immediately. The command center was filled within a minute. The Stardust had a crew of 500 men, 40 of them officers. In addition there were a number of mutants with the rank of officer in accordance with the regulations of the New Power.

  Rhodan's disclosure that the Stardust had been absent for four and a half years elicited considerable amazement. He refrained from offering any explanations and merely announced the bare fact.

  He went on to convey the information he had received from Col. Freyt about the political developments on Earth.

  "When we return to Earth," he said, "we'll find that the situation there is very different from what we remember. The interval of four and a half years sufficed for some self-seeking persons to usurp power and to contravene our plans for mankind. We'll have to see to it that no harm will come to Earth through these misadventures.

  "But first of all we've another problem to deal with. All our plans for improving mankind's condition and for Earth taking its place in the Galaxy are virtually dependent on our ability to maintain access to the planet Wanderer anytime in a period up to 10,000 years. We know a fragment of its orbit and have thus enough data for the super-positronic brain in the Venus fortress to compute the trajectory in the distant future."

  "In any case it is one of our most essential tasks to feed the available information as soon as possible into the positronic brain since the passage of time makes all calculations much more difficult."

  "This necessity has become even more urgent now that an ambitious foe has landed on Venus with the intention of taking over our base."

  He paused and closed his eyes as if he had to consider his next words carefully.

  "The positronic has been programmed in such a manner that it will commit no harm to humans. I've chosen my instructions with the thought in mind that some accident might happen to one of us on our flight to Venus which could prevent us from transmitting the agreed code signal. The previous procedure was such that the brain would have unfailingly repulsed and destroyed us on the spot. This had to be avoided.

  "I admit frankly that it never occurred to me that people from Earth would attempt to invade Venus against our will."

  "Yet this is exactly what has happened. The numerous slow-moving objects, which our range finder registered during our flight in the vicinity of Venus' path, are no doubt nuclear spaceships built on Earth by someone other than the New Power. The attack rockets which have greeted us also point to the fact that the incursion originated on Earth. And finally, the fact that the positronic has permitted the landing is the best proof for my assumptions."

  "Judging from Col. Freyt's report, there can't be the slightest doubt that a huge fleet of spaceships was dispatched from the Eastern Bloc to take possession of Venus."

  "The positronic brain has taken one more action. The bombardment of the Stardust by the nuclear missiles was an occurrence which was classified in the memory banks as 'unusual and threatening'. The positronic brain had my strict instructions to seal off the entire area hermetically in such a case and to prevent anybody from entering the base.

  "I'm now aware that it was a case of unwanted prudence on my part. However, I submit that there was no one among us with fanciful enough imagination to predict such a possibility.

  "The unfortunate fact remains that we too can't penetrate the protective field of the base. We must now endeavor to summarily eliminate the threat of the encroaching army and to demonstrate thereby for the positronic brain that the hazard has ceased to exist."

  Rhodan looked sternly at his officers. "I repeat that we have to act swiftly. It is a simple conclusion that we've only three weeks of Terrestrial time left before it becomes impossible for the positronic brain to calculate the entire trajectory from the known segment.

  "Please advise the men under your command of the new situation and stand by for my instructions. Thank you, gentlemen!"

  The Stardust faced an arduous task which was, however, by no means beyond solution.

  Everybody had left the command center except Rhodan, Bell and two other officers who supervised operations and communications.

  Bell shook his head.

  "To be honest," he said in a vexed tone, "I can't understand you. Do you think it's wise to admit in front of the men that you've made a mistake?"

  They sat in front of the pilots console. The two other officers were far enough in the background so that they could talk freely.

  Rhodan laughed. "Why not? I did make an error, didn't I?"

  "I wouldn't call it an error. They would all have considered you a fool if you had taken precautions at that time against such an unlikely eventuality as the Eastern Bloc making an assault on Venus with an armada."

  Rhodan shrugged his shoulders. They did it anyway. No, it was my fault. I should have taken all contingencies into consideration, no matter how far-fetched."

  Bell stretched out his upturned hands. "Well, if that's how you feel about it; but there's something else I fail to understand."

  "What's that?"

  "Freyt must've been well aware of the detrimental developments on Earth. why didn't he do anything about it?"

  Rhodan looked dismayed. "I must take the blame for that too," he replied. "Freyt was under the influence of a hypnotic block. He was not in a position to interfere with the political events on Earth. I imposed this hypnotic block on his mind because I couldn't be absolutely sure that he wouldn't fall victim to political ambitions during my absence. The enormous technical means of the New Power which were at his disposal might have tempted him too much. That's why I had to impose some restrictions. Therefore, he was unable to take any steps to contain the Eastern Bloc when the government was overthrown and inimical policies were instituted there."

  Reginald Bell nodded quietly in agreement.

  "Well," he said after a while, "who would have thought that we would be out of the picture for four and a half years? I'm sure you'd done it differently."

  Rhodan traced the pattern of the floor with the tip of his boot. "Don't try to find excuses for me," he told Bell. "It was a mistake that I made all decisions in my own head with my limited logical powers. In future I'll have to consult more frequently with the positronic brain. It's more reliable and rejects any preconceived ideas."

  Bell looked at him with a serious expression. "And what are you going to do about the invasion fleet? why don't we simply rub it out?"

  Rhodan answered hesitantly: "In the first place I'm reluctant to rub people out and, secondly, it
's too late to accomplish it. If the commander of the fleet is worth his salt, he must have evacuated his last position immediately and we're going to have trouble to locate him again in these jungles."

  Bell listened attentively.

  "Besides, he'll have dispersed his soldiers so far apart that a concentrated bombardment would be useless. Is that what you mean?"

  Rhodan nodded in assent. "Exactly." Bell thought for a moment. "So we'll have to fight a little in the jungle?" Rhodan smiled.

  "I'll be happy if it turns out to be a little fight," he said pensively.