The Fleet of the Springers Read online

  Breathing easier again, Tiff turned on the light, looked around and went to work.

  • • •

  Rhodan held the microphone close to himself. "You've got the toughest assignment, Nyssen," he said seriously. "I'll give you the word as soon as the telepaths have located Tifflor. You may presume that Beta-Albireo has also a planetary system—most double stars do.

  "We know nothing about the armament of the alien ship. It may be more powerful than your cruiser. Don't do anything rash. Your sole task is to distract the aliens to enable the crew of the K-7 to gain their freedom somehow.

  "The rest will be handled by McClears and myself. Please confirm!"

  Major Nyssen, Commander of the Solar System, confirmed the order by repeating it almost word for word.

  "Right," Rhodan concluded. "We'll go through transition in exactly 14 minutes. According to my calculations the transition will end about two light-years from Beta-Albireo.

  "Attention, everybody! First stage alert effective immediately for all battle stations and observation posts!"

  • • •

  Ornafer laughed.

  Ornafer always laughed when he faced an unusual situation. He was taken by surprise and a little scared. The structure-sensor registered a new transition—stronger than the previous one because it was closer. Only about two light-years away. Orlgans was not in the Command Center. Ornafer called him up and reported to him.

  "Alert the warships!" Orlgans ordered. "At once! And send additional guards over to the enemy ship. They must secure all important corridors. I wouldn't like the aliens to get away in the confusion."

  Ornafer acknowledged the orders and proceeded to comply with them. The Springers were a peculiar lot. They had no homes but lived on their ships, traveling through the Galaxy. They considered it their life's purpose to trade and to prevent anyone who also wanted to from doing so. They claimed a monopoly on intergalactic trade. As worldly and open-minded as they were, they believed with religious fervor that a mythical deity had bestowed the intergalactic trade monopoly on them at the beginning of their history.

  In a sense the situation of the Springers in the Galactic Imperium—whose center was the world of Arkon—was unique. The Arkonides had always considered it below their dignity to engage in trade with anyone. The Springers, who actually were distant relatives, filled the gap and made themselves so indispensable that all those who wished to conduct any business across long distances required their services.

  The Springers were always primarily concerned about their own profits. They were the ones who always incited rivalries within the Imperium because they hoped to gain more markets for their business by the creation of splinter groups.

  They were tolerant toward all since they had no reason to quarrel with anybody. However there was something they would never permit, namely any infringement on their monopoly. Their formidable fleet of battleships gave them great power and helped them to gain a decisive edge over the Arkonides. The Springers being usually individualists by conviction and having great fun snatching their profits from each other, realized in good time that even individualists had to practice some forethought to protect their common interests. They had built a battlefleet that cruised watchfully in space and waited for the moment it was called to come to the aid of a commercial ship.

  In times of danger the Springers, who were normally dispersed throughout the whole Galaxy and competed among themselves, became united, bound by an oath. Live separately and unite for defense—a motto that much resembled one on Earth—had become a basic doctrine of Springer policy.

  Ornafer, broadcasting his call for help into space by hyperwave, could be sure that assistance would be on the way in the shortest time possible. Then he took care of the second part of Orlgans' order by sending five additional guards over to the captured enemy ship.

  • • •

  It took Tiff 20 minutes to activate the machinery of the K-7 in the planned manner. It would now require about one more hour till the K-7 would apply the total power of its engines to free itself from the magnetic grip of Orla XI and to flee from the foe. Tiff was resolved to leave the enemy unhurt again just as Deringhouse had done before. He left the command center unseen. He began to whistle the song that was the agreed signal and Eberhardt, Hifield and the three other cadets came forward from their niches in the storeroom where they had kept themselves hidden. The giggling of the girls was still audible up from the right.

  "How did it go?" Hifield asked Tiff.

  "Without a hitch. The K-7 will cut loose from our opponents in an hour. Until then well have to watch out for the guards." Then Tiff ordered: "Back to the messhall! We've got to give the word to the others."

  He had hardly taken two steps when the alarm sirens began to wail. Tiff stopped and listened to the rhythm. The sound was interrupted at irregular intervals. Tiff was unable to recognize the signal. He heard the two guards stomp through the side corridor. "Let's get out of here," Tiff whispered. "Don't let 'em catch us here!"

  They ran a few steps and changed to a slower, less obvious pace when they noticed the two Springers appearing behind them.

  "Stak!" one of them shouted. "Stop or I'll shoot!"

  He used Intercosmo, an artificial language which every cadet learned in the Space Academy. Tiff talked to his friends and kept walking as if he had heard nothing. A shot from the long-barreled thermo-weapon the Springers used whistled over the heads of the cadets and drew a molten hairline crack in the metal of the ceiling. Tiff stopped and turned around. He distorted his face as if he were frightened. "What's the matter?" he called.

  One of the guards came closer. "I told you to stop!" he growled. "Can't you hear?"

  Tiff shook his head. I didn't hear a thing. What's going on?"

  "Alarm," the guard said brusquely. "Where were you?"

  "Just walking. We can't sit in the mess hall all the time."

  The guard looked back over his shoulder. "Ferla, look into the command center and see what they were up to!"

  Ferla let the hatch slide open and entered the command center. The light came on and Ferla looked around. "Nothing!" he reported. "Everything's in order."

  Tiff took a deep breath. It hadn't been such a bad idea to make the light switches of the engine control panel inoperable. Somebody came up the elevator shaft, a broad-shouldered towering Springer with a thermo-weapon under his arm. Four others followed him.

  "Hoho!" laughed the guard. "What are you looking for?"

  "Alarm," one of the Springers laughed back. "There have been transitions in the vicinity." Then he pointed to the cadets. "Well have to lock these guys up somewhere and watch them closely so they won't give us any trouble."

  Tiff and his friends were shrewd enough not to raise any objections. They knew that time was on their side and that there was nothing else for them to do for the present but to wait.

  One hour to wait.

  They were taken back to the mess hall—the two girls as well—and the door was locked. Tiff raised both arms to let Deringhouse and the cadets know that he had carried out his plan. Then he added: "We've got five new guards on board and they're taking no more chances because transitions have been registered in the vicinity."

  2/ Confrontation In Beta-Albireo

  "Marshall claims he's made contact with Tiff!" Bell reported excitedly.

  Rhodan looked up fleetingly from the picture he was studying on the little screen segment in front of him. It was the pickup of the sensor station converted into optical signals.

  The Beta-Albireo system consisted of a sun-like, orange colored central star with a smaller blue companion, even richer in energy, and probably four planets.

  There was no doubt in Rhodan's mind after the conclusion of the transition that the adversary could be found in this system. Bell's report came merely as a confirmation.

  "Of course Marshall can't exactly pinpoint to the dot where Tifflor is located," Bell added.

  Rhodan looked up again and reached fo
r the microphone. A touch of the button brought the commander of the Solar System to the picture screen. Major Nyssen stood squarely in front of the receiver.

  "We hit it right, Nyssen," Rhodan said. "Tifflor is close by. You can take off now."

  Nyssen nodded in assent. His picture faded and seconds later the Solar System veered away from the formation of the three ships with rapidly increasing velocity. Direction Beta-Albireo.

  Rhodan watched the ship suddenly disappear at a distance of three light-seconds as it went into transition. Then he ordered acceleration. Within a few moments Stardust and Terra reached half the speed of light.

  "Be prepared for instant transition!" Rhodan directed.

  • • •

  Orlgans had long ago returned to the command center.

  "Nothing new," Ornafer stated from time to time. "Apparently they're floating somewhere in space and don't know where to look." He had meanwhile regained his optimism.

  Orlgans was still as skeptical as before. "I'm not so sure that you're right," he replied. "I wouldn't be surprised if the next few minutes..."

  The alarm cut off his words. The whistling was shriller than Orlgans and Ornafer had ever heard before. The enemy must have emerged in close proximity. The structure-sensor reacted at. the same time but Orlgans paid no attention. He listened to the hysterical voice of the observer coming over the loudspeaker.

  "By the lord of all stars, its an Arkonide ship!"

  Half a second later Orlgans saw it burst onto the picture screen. It was a spherical ship, as built by Arkonides, and was no more than 6000 miles away.

  Orlgans was aware that he was outclassed by the alien. "Full speed ahead," he shouted into the intercom to the engine control room. "Hurry!"

  The machinery worked precisely. The tremendous power of the engines tore Orla XI out of its circular track and forced the ship into open space. Orlgans watched the movement from the command center. He realized that he had underestimated the velocity of his opponent. The spherical ship had emerged from the transition almost with the speed of light and ruined the Orla's effort with a mad run.

  Orlgans was an experienced captain who had already performed more than 10,000 transitions. He knew what risk was involved in reentering at such high velocity—close to the critical limit—from a transition. He never had dared it himself and knew full well that an Arkonide captain would be even less inclined to risk it.

  Who was this daredevil?

  So far Orlgans had merely been skeptical but now he was scared. An Arkonide ship with a strange captain at the helm!

  The spherical ship easily caught up with Orla XI and raced past. At the position of least distance a pale light grey beam flashed from the mighty body of the hostile ship, shot above the Orla and lost itself in the depth of space.

  "We're lucky their aim is poor," Orlgans muttered and warned his few gunners to beware.

  • • •

  The fact that the Orla started to move away with the prisoners in tow went unnoticed in the mess-hall. The neutralizers of the K-7 continued to operate perfectly and would have compensated for far greater acceleration than the ship presently experienced.

  Tiff kept glancing at his watch from time to time.

  Still 10 minutes till zero.

  Major Deringhouse grinned in spite of his pain. It was now rather quiet in the mess hall. One could easily bear him as he said from his cot: "I'd give a year's pay to see their faces."

  At first Tiff was shocked. On second thought he realized that Deringhouse was not really pressing their luck. Even assuming that the Springers would submit each of their remarks to the positronic translator, it would take more than 10 minutes before they could see the translation of the English sentence and a little more than that to grasp its true meaning.

  About three minutes before zero, one of the cadets began to hammer against the door as planned. In less than a minute the door slid open and the faces of two guards appeared in the frame. "What do you want?" one of them asked.

  "We're starving," Tiff answered quickly.

  "Make yourselves something to eat!"

  "We don't have a thing."

  The guard laughed and turned around. "Honnap, get something to eat!"

  Honnap's loud voice answered from the main corridor: "I can't go across. It's much too dangerous at this acceleration."

  The guard turned again to Tiff. "Right," he chortled. "We've been moving for a few minutes. You'll have to wait till we stop accelerating."

  Tiff was greatly surprised but he knew that he couldn't afford to let this moment pass without acting. A second time the guards were not likely to be so careless.

  Tiff looked around. He could read the same surprise in the faces of the others. One of them inquired: "Acceleration? Why does the Orla accelerate?"

  Tiff started to whistle the song again. He saw from the look in their eyes that they began to understand. The Orla racing away with the K-7 and nobody knew why. Now was the time to strike! Tiff leaped forward and clamped both arms around the big neck of the guard. The force of his rush carried him out into the corridor but Tiff braced his feet firmly and quickly pulled the husky Springer through the open door back into the messhall.

  The guard went limp and Tiff let him drop.

  "Watch him!" Tiff shouted.

  And the five cadets who were assigned to guard the defeated Springers took the motionless guard into their custody. Hifield and two other cadets overwhelmed the second guard.

  Meanwhile Honnap had become suspicious. He approached with clacking boots. Tiff and Eberhardt lunged toward him together. Honnap's thermo-gun was useless. He was unable to raise the long barrel fast enough. A wild shot hissed through the wide corridor but a moment later Honnap lay unconscious on the floor.

  "Four to go!" Tiff panted. "Let's make a dash for the command center!"

  None of the four other guards were in sight. A throng of cadets stormed down the main corridor.

  • • •

  "The ship!" Ornafer shouted in desperation. "It got loose!"

  At first Orlgans didn't get what he meant. The ship? The ship got loose? Then he glanced to the side at the observation screen.

  The little sphere of the captured enemy ship had disappeared, not completely disappeared in as much as it was still visible as a little speck in space. Yet it was separated from the Orla.

  Orlgans started to swear. He felt the urge to pursue the escaping spaceship and to capture it again. However there was still the faintly shimmering spot on the front screen showing the large hostile ship whose disintegrator shot had missed the Orla by only a few hundred feet.

  There was the greater danger, Orlgans decided.

  He didn't know how his captives had succeeded in gaining their freedom but this was at the moment of secondary importance. The faint point of light made by the Arkonide cruiser had reached its minimum and was now approaching the Orla anew.

  "What's taking our warships so long?" Orlgans groaned. "The second time around they're bound to improve their aim."

  • • •

  Major Nyssen hadn't the slightest intention of hitting the Orla. Now that the K-7 had detached itself from the tubular Springer vehicle he was only concerned with keeping the Springers off balance till he had corralled them in a gravitation field in the same manner as the Springers had fettered the K-7 previously.

  Nyssen was convinced that the strange ship was far weaker than the Solar System. It had failed to return their fire when the Solar System passed by. Need there be further proof?

  Nyssen gave orders to switch all energy reserves to the gravitation generator. All observers on the Solar System were on the lookout for any other adversaries, but none were found. The Solar System, the alien ship and the K-7 were alone in this sector of space.

  Nyssen buzzed his opponent a second time from a distance of a couple of hundred miles and let go a salvo of shots that were deliberately off the mark. It gave him satisfaction that the other ship began to make evasive manoeuvres as a re
sult. It curved widely and increased its acceleration.

  Nyssen turned the Solar System around for a third attack on the foe. And as both ships were approaching each other he gave the instructions: "Grav ready for capture!"

  • • •

  "We got away!" Tiff shouted happily.

  The K-7 was equipped with acceleration absorbers which not only neutralized the thrust applied for the hasty flight from the Orla but also compensated for the effect of tearing away from the grip of the huge ship.

  Nobody inside the K-7 who didn't watch an observation screen and the sensors was able to notice the manoeuvres performed by the ship. However it was clearly visible on the receivers in the command center that the Orla, a thin glowing line, was already left more than 500 miles behind them.

  They had knocked out two more guards posted in front of the command center. The two remaining ones seemed to roam around somewhere in the ship. Tiff had distributed his men in such a way that they would run into them sooner or later.

  Nothing could go wrong.

  Cadet Eberhardt had taken over the observer station. He studied the view for awhile in the careful manner that was characteristic of him, suddenly became amazed and finally shouted with a cracked voice: "There's a third ship!"

  Tiff spun around. "Already? Where?"

  Eberhardt pointed with a silent gesture to the green light of the sensor screen. Tiff ran over and recognized two fast-moving spots of light. One was oblong and slim—the Orla undoubtedly—and the other a point which grew rapidly to a circular disk.

  "The Stardust!" Eberhardt murmured, trembling with excitement.

  Tiff read the position co-ordinates. The spherical ship was approximately 12,000 miles away at the moment Tiff took the reading. If it were the Stardust it should have appeared much larger on the screen.

  "Hand me the Hycom!" Tiff shouted without taking his eyes off the screen.

  "Here it is!" somebody replied.