Duel Under the Double Sun Read online

  I at first sought to make a logical assessment of what Bell was inferring but finally I didn't dare to contemplate the conclusions. Instead I reported my fruitless flight to the artificial planet, Wanderer, where Homunk the bio-robot advised me by radio that It was not available for consultation.

  Mercant studied me for some moments before he spoke. "Sir, we had expected you to make a move of this sort. We're grateful to you but I could have told you at once that it would be useless to try it. We've run our own evaluations using computerized logic and the indications are that It is not interested in helping Rhodan. The cell activator, which he obtained under mysterious circumstances, appears to be a form of punishment for him. What transgression he may be charged with is beyond our knowledge."

  This statement alerted me. Mercant's tone of voice was strange. When I looked at him searchingly he dropped his gaze. What was he getting at? What did he suspect? If he had something definite in mind, why didn't he come right out with it?

  "Alright, Mercant," said Bell gruffly, "get off the cloak and dagger bit! Why should a composite entity like that be interested in punishing somebody who's probably the most important puzzle piece in his whole galactic game? What do you mean by 'punishment' anyway? We've been studying this thing for weeks. The smartest brains in human civilization have been working on this question and the most modern computer equipment has been put to use. The whole thing has to be a technical failure of some kind." He turned abruptly and came up to me. "Or have you ever experienced a similar malfunction with your own device, Atlan?"

  It felt good to be addressed by my own name once more. It sounded much better than 'Your Eminence'. It was astonishing how much rapport I seemed to have with these men. Each of them was a personality who was interesting or even fascinating in his own right. I belonged with them-I could sense it intuitively.

  I touched my chest. Under the thin material of my uniform I could feel the egg-shaped rejuvenation device which had never failed me in 10,000 years of time by Earthly reckoning. "No, Bell," I answered.

  "So that settles it!" he exclaimed. "It has to be a chance coincidence-a fluke!" He slammed a fist emphatically against the palm of his hand. With his head thrust stubbornly between his shoulders he paced the length of the wardroom.

  "Take it easy," warned Prof. Manoli. "Your nerves are on edge."

  Bell made a hefty gesture with his hand. His rusty red shock of hair was standing out almost rigidly from his angular skull. I had never seen him so worked up before. He came back to me then and placed both hands on my shoulders, gently shaking me in the process. I held my position rigidly.

  "Atlan, I've asked for this conference because we need your help. Do you understand? We need your help!"

  Something began to stir in me that I could not define. The men of Earth needed me! It was a wonderful feeling. "Tell me about it, Bell."

  He laughed but with an irony of lament. "I won't hold anything back, Atlan, not anymore. Perry has turned into a tyrant. Certain members of the Solar Government have been arrested for very flimsy reasons. He's making a very tricky use of the emergency powers act. Officers and crewmembers are punished without cause and non-human intelligences are insulted and challenged. We're at the brink of disaster. The result is that trouble is starting to brew in the Fleet officers' corps. Even some of the mutants, our most important people, are beginning to sulk and bristle. A revolt is taking shape. If there's to be any hope of saving the Solar Imperium, we have to place Rhodan in protective custody immediately. Solar Marshal Freyt, Deringhouse and other top Chiefs of Staff send you their best compliments through me. Mercant, Marshall and Manoli have come here personally. Atlan, you're an old friend of humanity-you have to help us!"

  Bell seemed to be at the edge of a nervous crisis. Manoli gave me a warning signal and the telepath had his eyes closed. Apparently Marshall was probing Bell's consciousness. I was shaken. Groping for a solution I looked across imploringly at Mercant. He was the pivotal point of stabilization in this circle of Terrans. A plan could only be put together with Mercant and Marshall. Behind them, were Solar Intelligence and the powerful Mutant Corps.

  "How can you speak of protective custody?" I asked. "There must be a million troops who are blindly committed to Rhodan. His human greatness in the past has not been forgotten by these men. Probably they will never fully understand how much the Administrator has changed. Or have you generally let it be known what his condition is?"

  "We've avoided that," said Mercant dryly. "Sir, we are anxious to have Perry safeguarded and in security. The Galactic Medicos and our own specialists are working day and night to find a cure for the explosive cell division. Rhodan himself is of the opinion that he can only get help from the Antis. He knows that 20 cell activators with automatic individual adjustments fell into their hands. He seems to overlook the fact that a number of Antis have met with disaster because of an operative failure of even those devices. The only thing he's interested in is to find Trakarat. It's useless to try to advise him that there can be no help for him there. I'm convinced the Baalol priests are powerless. They are also in the dark as to why those supposedly life-prolonging activators have such fatal side effects."

  I decided to play my trump card although I didn't have the calculation results as yet. I knew the Regent would be reporting shortly. "It's probable that within a few minutes I can tell you where the red binary star Aptut is located."

  Mercant looked startled. Bell sprang to his feet and Marshall's eyes widened in astonishment. I raised a hand defensively.

  "Calm down. I'm expecting a hypercom message. We should not discard any means that might be of possible help to Perry. I think the protective custody idea is preposterous. Let him carry on as is but watch every step he takes. You still have time before you remove him from office. You can't risk a revolution just because a few leading officers are getting restless. You are no longer living in the Middle Ages of your planet's history."

  Bell sat down again. Mercant leaned his back against a viewscreen cabinet. After awhile, Marshall spoke up with his characteristic self-composure. "Why do you think, sir, that you have found the planet Trakarat?"

  I breathed a secret sigh of relief. With this question the conference became more objective. It was also high time to tone down the emotional tensions here. These four men were not usurpers-quite the contrary! Rhodan could not have found more trustworthy friends than they were. But if they were already playing with the idea of a preventive arrest of their leader, then the Earth must really be in trouble.

  Mercant gave me a challenging look. "Why, sir?"

  "Because a Terran commando group was able to capture two Springers. They were present in the Anti stronghold by some previous arrangement. High Priest Kutlos did not reveal anything more concerning the galactic position of Trakarat but it seems the two Springers testified that they had heard the Antis discussing it. And so the Terran specialists picked up a bit of information. Trakarat is said to be an unusually beautiful world with two rings formed of cosmic dust material. Moreover, this celestial body orbits around an equally unusual double red binary sun which possesses altogether 16 planets. You will recall that you transmitted these data to me about 50 Terran days ago. I promised you that I would check out this information."

  Mercant remembered this very clearly. It was only now that I realized he had not come here merely to discuss Perry Rhodan's arrest. There was still more involved. I chuckled in some vexation. It had taken me a long time to see through the shrewd fellow. Being a semi-mutant with a slight telepathic faculty, he was even trying to break through my monoscreen.

  "Stop that, Mercant!" I snapped at him angrily. "You'll probably never get over the habit of mistrusting people."

  "It won't happen again. Please, what have you been able to determine? Have you found the name of the planet in your computer memory banks?"

  "No, it is unknown to the Regent as well as to the Akons."

  Bell cursed aloud but immediately apologized. I walked past him t
oward the gallery of viewing screens but as I did so I clapped him on the shoulder. "That's all right, old friend, just let it all out," I told him, and then I returned to the subject. "When the Regent wasn't able to find any point of reference in his memory registers, I turned to the Akons. You know that Rhodan's attack against them resulted in the destruction of their blue energy screen. They weren't too cooperative. But after I agreed to supply them with 1,000 spaceships they said they would open the Akon archives. In those records they even had the names of the men and women who founded the Arkonide Imperium about 20,000 years ago. I approached the research with the assumption that the Antis weren't necessarily descendants of Arkonide emigrants but might have originated directly from the common mother world. And this assumption proved to be correct."

  Mercant took a deep breath. "My compliments! No one but you thought of that."

  I gave him a mock bow. It was surprising that he himself had not thought of it. "The precise historical records of the Akons might make it possible to find the name of the planet Trakarat, I thought. This did not develop although they came across data concerning a strange red binary star. Both of the suns are almost equal in mass-which you'll admit is an unusual phenomenon. Moreover, the double sun turned out to have 16 planets! That was enough for me. I have turned over the Akon figures to the robot Regent for astronautical calculation. As I mentioned, the results should be coming in now any minute."

  Nobody said a word. Only Bell's heavy breathing could be heard. Mercant cracked his knuckles again. It was a habit I had not noticed before. So even he was on edge.

  "How is it," he asked, "that the name of the red sun is known but not the name of the planet?"

  "There can be many reasons for it," I said. "In the course of thousands of years its original identity could have been changed. At the time of its colonization perhaps there was little contact anymore with the Akons themselves. On the other hand we know now that the Antis are not descendants of my race. They have originated directly from the mother race of the Akons. I am convinced that the Baalols only acquired their strange faculties many thousands of years after their first emigration. From then on their expansion began throughout the worlds of the known galaxy. We have seen how dangerous these intelligences can be. Their paramental development is anti-mutant-they have powers which counteract the forces of the mutants of Terra, Mercant. Don't think it's such an easy matter to attack Trakarat."

  "We've developed a few special weapons, sir," he told me casually. When I stared at him with a sudden new intentness he smiled again. "I shall take the liberty of letting you have one of our combination double-barreled 'persuaders'. These weapons were used for the first time a few weeks ago. We haven't been asleep, sir!"

  I could believe that unconditionally. The Terrans had never fallen asleep yet, ever since they took their first step into space. They were an admirable people and I knew I had more empathy for humans than I did for Arkonides.

  But I was impatient now as I looked at the clock. My time was very limited. On Arkon 1, the Crystal World of the realm, an Akon delegation was waiting for me. My flight to Saos had already upset the protocol. Bell followed my gaze. A machine began to hum somewhere in the cruiser's Control Central which was adjacent to the officers' wardroom. On the viewscreen connected with the outside cameras I could see my robotship. Now that the sun was higher in the sky its light glittered among the mountainous ruins. The last shadows disappeared. The contours of the only partially crumpled temple pyramid stood out sharply against the barren cliff walls.

  I pointed to the viewscreen. "You really worked this place over," I said, "but to what purpose? Did it get you any help for Rhodan?"

  "Perhaps," said Marshall. "At least we picked up some information about Trakarat."

  "Alright, I'll grant you that. But if we can determine the galactic position of this world-what do you expect to gain from an attack?"

  "Diplomatic relations have been broken between the Solar Imperium and the race of the Antis, sir. The ultimatum we gave them terminates within five hours."

  "So it's war?"

  "Yes sir. A terrible war, I might add. Up till now these intelligences have been able to camouflage their actual goals. The Baalol cult is an underground organization in disguise. Their object is to gain political influence over all the known races of the galaxy and they've already succeeded on many worlds. It's time to clear up these relationships."

  "But that still doesn't explain what you hope to achieve through the discovery of the Antis' home world. Do you really suspect that they have a possibility of curing Rhodan's explosive cell division?"

  "He's firmly convinced of it, sir," Mercant explained. "Let's give it a try."

  I looked at him dubiously. This man was too smart to even seriously consider a mere stab in the dark.

  "We believe we can come to an agreement with the Antis, sir," said Bell quickly. "Atlan, you know yourself what potentialities these entities have. Our own telepaths can't penetrate into Rhodan's consciousness but maybe the Antis can. A few doctors have asserted that the harmful activity of the cell activator could be attributed to a mental short-circuit which might have caused an undetectably small distortion of Perry's individual frequencies. You ought to know how dangerous such small inaccuracies can be since you yourself carry an activator."

  Logical-reported my extra-brain. I nodded thoughtfully. "That's a reasonable consideration, Bell. Are you saying that the paramechanical brainwashing the Antis put him through could have changed Rhodan's brainwave frequencies?"

  "That's right, sir," confirmed Marshall. "The Chief was captured by his son. We found out how he was processed during their hearings. After his escape he acquired the activator but he didn't seem to suspect that he had come away from there with a personality alteration. This is the only explanation we've come up with so far, and there's nothing to disprove it. Help us to discover Trakarat. The Antis will be able to tell us what equipment they used on Perry. Meanwhile he seems to have realized what was done to him at that brainwash hearing. So that's why we understand why he wants to find Trakarat and attack it-which must be done. If you look at the basic facts, a leading statesman has been injured or impaired through the unlawful use of force. Since this impairment also threatens the survival of the Solar Imperium, Marshall Freyt will issue a declaration of war. Although we are ready to negotiate we want the full cooperation of the Baalol scientists. Please understand that Rhodan is the Earth!"

  Yes, I could definitely understand this. If Rhodan were to die the existence of the Solar Imperium would be questionable, which was sufficient cause for the humans to take serious steps.

  A few seconds later my robot cruiser's Control Central signaled me and the Com Room of the Atlantis channeled the call into the wardroom. The Regent was on the hypercom. I asked for direct transmission to us and the receiver screen brightened to reveal the line symbol announcing the Regent.

  The message was short. It made little difference to this greatest robot Brain of the galaxy what the purpose of its data might be. It performed its duty in accordance with its previous instructions.

  "This is the Regent speaking," the brain announced, bringing a metallic ring to the speaker. "Subject: program IP-60-157. Conversion of Akon data in relation to cosmonautic factors: Terra and Greater Imperium. Result: binary star Aptut is 38,439 light-years from Terra. It has 16 planets. Hypertransition coordinates will be sent separately. It was possible to establish the galactic position with 100% certainty. The double sun Aptut belongs to the so-called pincushion sector of the 14th central galactic arm, per Arkonide catalog notation. On the basis of furnished inputs it may be assumed with 99% certainty that the planet Trakarat is the sixth world of the Aptut System. That is all."

  I returned a coded impulse from my command sender in order to confirm the perfect reception of the rough data. It was only then that the Regent started sending the detail data. It wouldn't have done us much good to merely have a reference to the pincushion sector in the 14th central gala
ctic arm. It would have left us with the task of hunting through probably about 300,000 stars.

  We waited until the robotship had deciphered the coded data and relayed the figures through the Terran cruiser's digital indicators. It took more than an hour, however, before we had the computer readouts of the coordinates on plastic strips in our hands. Mercant appeared to be inwardly very excited. Reginald Bell who was the only cosmonaut among the top officers immediately requested the corresponding microtapes from the catalog racks. I could see that he was no longer available for conversation.

  The officer of the watch helped me into my spacesuit. There wasn't much more to say. I had to get back. But as I said goodbye, Prof. Manoli made a special request. His tone of voice was urgent.

  "Sir, please keep this meeting between us a top secret. Perry knows nothing about it. In his present frame of mind he'd interpret our discussion as a treasonable contact with the enemy."

  The doctor said nothing more but his words impressed upon me how tyrannical Rhodan had become. Minutes later I floated down to the ground from the polar airlock. Marshall and three of the cruiser's crew accompanied me to my ship.

  When I regained my quarters on board I switched on the outside observation screen. I saw John Marshall's tall, familiar figure and his congenial smile as he waved to me. He seemed to know that at the moment I was staring anxiously at the screen. Then the four men were gone and I was alone once more with all my miseries and worries.

  "Imperator, you're a sad old hound dog!" That's what Rhodan had said to me the last time we had met in person. It seemed that ever since his experiences with Thomas Cardif he had avoided confronting me. Our telecom communications had been insignificant and in recent times actually unpleasant.

  As these thoughts forced themselves upon me it was with a great effort that I kept myself from falling into a serious state of depression. Yes, I was a mighty man but also a lonely one. In a few minutes now my friends would blast off. At home the Akon delegation was waiting. Political complications were looming on the horizon. I could only keep on hoping that the Terrans would succeed in normalizing Rhodan's condition. To attack the Earth was to me an unimaginable thing. No one is fond of shooting at something that's grown close to one's heart and which one clutches to him in his silent moments. I had many silent hours in which my memories haunted me. They were the only things of beauty that was left to me.