Death Waits in Semispace Read online

After long and grating seconds of panic, Ras Tschubai's cool rationality had returned. He began to take an interest in his surroundings and look for a way to get out of what could be his tomb. For the first time he realized that there must be an opening in the small chamber, at about the level of his head, for there was a slight bit of light coming through there. Up until now he had not wondered how he could see at all. The weak light was enough for him to see that the walls of the 'coffin' were made of metal-plastic. Moreover, it was that blue type of metal-plastic whose molecular structure contained so many metallic atoms that the material became an excellent conductor. Ras Tschubai then tried to bring to mind all devices that for whatever reason made use of blue metal-plastic. While he was occupied with that, it occurred to him that Ferroplastite, as it was named, was an Earthly product manufactured with the help of Arkonide knowledge. He asked himself how probable it would be that Earthly ferroplastite would be in use on Wanderer and the conclusion came to him rather quickly that he was not on Wanderer at all but that after the explosion of the yellow light he had been thrown back on board the Drusus again.

  That eased his mind for the moment. Relieved, he began to sort through his memories, trying to find out where on board the Drusus a device such as the one he was in would be found. Now that his eyes had completely adjusted to the darkness, he saw the grooves running across the top at regular intervals and when he turned his head as far as he could, he could follow the grooves down the walls, as well. The pattern of the grooves awakened a dim memory within him—a memory of something he had been shown a long time before because every mutant was to have some knowledge of the technical aspects of the spaceships in which he would be living. The grooves, he realized, fulfilled a very definite purpose: they divided the space into small chambers called vacuum-resonators, which served to absorb the shockwaves of a collapsing hyperfield and then allowed them to exhaust their energy by continuously reflecting them back and forth among the borders of the individual resonators.

  The realization struck Ras Tschubai like a heavy blow: he had materialized inside a structural compensator—that device built to absorb the energy shock accompanying a transition and thus prevent any detection by hostile forces of the hypertransiting ship. He lay in one of the resonator chambers—in which thousands of kilowatt-hours worth of energy spent themselves when the Drusus prepared for transition or returned into normal space.

  All it would take for Ras Tschubai's life to become worth less than the life of a man hit by lightning 100 times in rapid succession—would be for someone to get the idea of setting the Drusus into transition.

  He cringed, and groaned with pain. He all but lost his reason in the face of fear. He knew he could do nothing to save himself. A residual 5th dimensional force field enveloped the compensator even when it was inactive and for Ras Tschubai's paramechanical talents 5th dimensional fields were impenetrable barriers.

  • • •

  Perry Rhodan pursued an idea. He knew one of the few theorems governing paramechanics that were beyond question: teleportation leaps and telekinetic movements could not reach any goals that lay in a higher dimension than the one from which the attempts were being made. Or in other words; a teleporter in normal space could not reach a destination in 5th dimensional space. Ras Tschubai himself had found that out decades before on Ferrol when he had attempted to spring into the time vault. He had been knocked back.

  Did the theorem of the unattainability of higher dimensional space contain the answer to the riddle connected with Ras Tschubai's disappearance? Had Wanderer slipped back into hyperspace and the Afrikaner could not reach it?

  The question could be laid to rest immediately. If Wanderer were to be found in hyperspace, Ras Tschubai would have instantly returned to the place from which he had sprung. Besides, the emanations from Wanderer in such a case would not resemble the ones currently being continuously registered by the structural sensor station. So the solution to the problem was not all that simple.

  On the other hand, if Wanderer were in normal space, then Ras Tschubai would have reached it without difficulty and returned a long time ago. Not to mention the fact that the sensor equipment would have long since detected the artificial planet.

  What then? Perry Rhodan remembered Sgt. Sullivan's description: '...Only it looks like there is something in the area that would like to enter hyperspace but can't decide one way or the other...' Could any ideas be gleaned from that? Was there a continuum between normal space and hyperspace that would account for the peculiar reaction of the warp sensors and for Ras Tschubai's disappearance?

  The thought seemed fantastic. Imagining 4½ or 4.3 dimensions was impossible and it was almost ridiculous to believe that the order of dimensions ran in anything but whole numbers with which the dimensionality of a given universe could be labeled. But fantastic and ridiculous or not, Rhodan decided, there were people on board this ship who could rack their brains with the help of a positronicon over the problem. He then gave the appropriate instructions and watched as the expression of the mathematician with whom he spoke became a grimace. The idea of a fourth-and-a-half dimension seemed to give the scholar a headache yet it also seemed to inspire him to nevertheless bring all his mathematical knowledge to bear on the question and work out a rational answer.

  Afterwards, Rhodan felt relieved. The idea no longer seemed as unthinkable or offbeat as before. He considered the matter of what else could be done to solve the riddle of Wanderer. If Wanderer existed in an in-between dimension, what would happen if the Drusus went through it during a transition? The question could not be unequivocally answered. Evident was only that the ship would pass through Wanderer's present location safely if the artificial world lay either fully in normal space or in hyperspace. And Rhodan suspected that even something between two undangerous poles would not be dangerous. In any event, he decided not to run any risks and ordered the energy stations to supply the defense fields with as much power as possible. In addition, the control room was made aware of the fact that the possibility of being spotted, due to the disturbance in the structure of space during a transition, was just as great in this sector as anywhere else.

  Then the structural compensators were readied to capture the energy shock of transition and to absorb it.

  • • •

  Ras Tschubai worked while in a kind of trance. The fear was still present but it no longer confused his reason. It gave him the strength to do things he never could have accomplished under normal circumstances. He expected every second the deadly flood of energy which he knew would gush down the same tube which allowed the weak light to enter.

  There was only one small hope for Ras Tschubai to make his presence known and to save his life: he had to move either his right or his left arm far enough that he could activate the emergency switch on his helmet radio located just above his left ear.

  When Ras Tschubai had come to after his ill-fated jump, he had lain in the chamber like a corpse in a coffin: on his back with his arms pressed to his sides. Without exerting himself, he could raise his arms only 10 centimeters: then his hand touched the upper surface of the chamber. However, it was impossible to bring his hand up to his helmet. He had tried to turn over but had not succeeded. His body was twice as wide as the vertical space in the chamber. He had drawn his right hand carefully over his body and had reached as far as his belt buckle. He was not able to move it any farther because then his right elbow was cramped by the sidewall.

  Nevertheless it seemed to be the only move he could make at all. He let out his breath and waited until the air conditioner had absorbed it and his suit had adjusted to the now flatter form of his body. He clutched the upper edge of the hard plastic belt buckle with his hand. Sweat ran down into his eyes before it could be absorbed, as pain stabbed through his elbow. Even so, he left the hand where it was as he took another breath. The pain in his elbow increased and his lungs did not have the room they needed for breathing.

  A thought came to Ras Tschubai: if he broke his
elbow or the bones in his upper arm, would he still be able to move his hand? He held his breath as long as he could, letting his lungs soak up oxygen, then breathed out and waited impatiently until his spacesuit had reacted and shrunk to fit his body. Then he pushed his hand farther. He was now completely drenched in sweat and the high-pitched humming of the air conditioner, which could not handle such an abnormal quantity of fluid all at once, irritated him like the noise of a swarm of wasps. Not everyone would be able to consciously and deliberately break his own arm but Ras Tschubai knew that he had no other choice.

  The pain in his joint made him almost unconscious but he blacked out only when the elbow gave with a light crack and a wave of unbearable pain seared its way up his arm.

  The knowledge of the desperate situation he was in called his senses back quickly. He opened his eyes and found himself in a world whose contours constantly shimmered through a thick red cloud. It almost made him sick but he saw that he could still move his right hand even though he could feel nothing but a gnawing pain in his whole arm. His fingers could no longer feel what they grasped.

  He pushed his hand along his body by centimeters. Now it touched the magnetic seal of his breast pocket... reached his left shoulder... finally came to his neck. It was amazing in what abnormal directions a hand could move when the arm was broken.

  Ras felt triumphant when he heard the scratching noise that meant his fingers had reached his helmet. That helped him keep from getting sick. He pushed his hand farther, giving himself a little more time now that the worst was over. He did not want to run the risk of some too quick and uncareful movement making him unconscious again.

  Then he heard a noise above him. It began with a deep humming, grew higher and finally faded out of hearing range with a shrill whistling tone. Blackness closed in on Ras Tschubai again.

  Someone had turned on the Compensator.

  The African had not come back yet. It was 08:30 hours on the morning of April 24, 2042. Atlan the Arkonide had joined the team of mathematicians and was helping with the search for the solution to the riddle.

  The Drusus was ready to spring. The data for a short leap across a few light-minutes had been received in the control room and programmed into the automatic guidance system. The protective screens had been so increased in power that as far as anyone could tell not even a collision with Wanderer itself in that space-between-space would cause any damage. The structural compensators were running and ready to absorb the double shock and prevent the spreading of shockwaves.

  Rhodan prepared to give the order for starting.

  The transition alert had been sounded. The crewmen sat at their posts, in front of their instruments, and at the defense stations, waiting for the brief shock of dematerialization.

  Nothing more was needed to trigger the jump than for Perry Rhodan to press the red-lit release button. That would set the complicated mechanism of the electronic regulation system into motion and transmit thousands of swift impulses to the different guidance systems.

  Rhodan had already laid his hand on the switch when a shrill and overwrought voice screamed out of the loudspeaker: "No! Don't spring! Don't spring! Shut off the compensators—I'm trapped in one of them! Help!"

  Rhodan pulled his hand back as though he had touched a piece of red-hot iron. He looked up at the loudspeaker in disbelief. The person who had cried for help had not given his name and his voice had been so distorted that it could not be recognized. But there was only one individual unaccounted for at the moment: Ras Tschubai.

  Ras Tschubai was trapped in a structural compensator! Rhodan rescinded the order for hytrans and from his seat shut down the compensator installation.

  2/ A PHANTOM FOREVER?

  The compensator had been taken apart and the unconscious African had been found inside. His arm had been oddly twisted and was apparently broken. It was clear why he had not been able to use his paramechanical ability to escape from his unusual prison: the residual fields had prevented it with their 5th dimensional structure.

  According to the doctors, Ras Tschubai had also suffered a nervous shock. It was not surprising, considering what he had gone through, but unfortunately he could not be questioned because of it. Dr. Sköldson, head of the Medical Department, refused to allow questioning for a period of at least four days. "The man needs rest, more rest and still more rest," Sköldson, maintained.

  Perry Rhodan acquiesced. The team of mathematicians was informed of the new development and although Rhodan had at first assumed that Ras Tschubai's strange adventure certainly had nothing to do with the calculations, Atlan's first surprised and then joyous expression showed Rhodan that the mutant had provided an important clue.

  "This is fantastic in the truest sense of the word, Administrator," Atlan exclaimed with eyes aglow. "A man in the structural compensator will help our mathematics on its way!"

  Perry Rhodan looked at him earnestly. "I just wish, Admiral, you would finally tell me where your math is going! Have you at least found out something by now?"

  The Arkonide smiled. "Of course, my friend. But I'd rather not raise your hopes unnecessarily. I'll come back at 11:30 hours and let you know about our initial results. You'll be surprised: we've run up against a very strange phenomenon."

  The expansion of the range of physics from 3 dimensions to the 4 dimensional space-time continuum had set off a revolution in natural science. The next expansion, the glimpse of 5th dimensional hyperspace, had been bestowed on man by the lucky chance of encountering the Arkonides. The discovery of a no-man's land between the dimensions, however, which had been brought about by Wanderer's disappearance, was a sensation because of the mere fact that no one had even suspected a 'semispace,' as Atlan called it, could exist between the dimensions.

  "You're enough of a scientist yourself, Administrator," said Atlan in commencing his explanation, "to understand that I am unable to give you any graphic description. The Einstein Continuum is unimaginable to begin with and hyperspace is even less easy to visualize. So how could the intersection of the two, semispace, be anything else?"

  "Let's make a model. Imagine hyperspace as something mounted on a 5th dimensional system of coordinates. We rotate this model and we see that ½ of the 5th dimensional sphere created by this movement has demonstrated a very peculiar property: it distorts the axes within it. It shortens them, and of course the amount of shortening is determined by the speed of rotation. Going into the distorting hemisphere the axes still have their original length but then, they begin to shorten. By the time they reach the halfway point, they have completely disappeared. Then they begin to grow again and in the moment they leave the distorting hemisphere, they have attained their original length once again. Since a hemisphere is involved and the framework of hyperspace consists of five axes, two or three of the axes are involved in the distortion at any given moment: never fewer and never more. The important thing now is to find out in which direction the rotation of the coordinate framework occurs, which unfortunately is something we have no idea how to accomplish!

  "At the moment, we know one thing for sure, since Wanderer is at no time visible but on the other hand is not completely within hyperspace, judging from the signals which the structural sensor continually receives, the 5th axis and the j-axis must be in a state of constant distortion without ever reaching its full length and yet without ever disappearing entirely. If it were ever to reach full length, Wanderer would be entirely in hyperspace and the sensor would pick up no more signals. If the axis disappeared completely, Wanderer would instantly appear on the vidscreens, for disappearance of the j-axis means return to the Einstein universe.

  "That, then, is the situation in which Wanderer finds itself. Naturally, the state is relatively unstable. A tiny bit more one way or the other would be enough to make the semispace effect disappear. Whether Wanderer would then sink into hyperspace or reemerge into Einstein Space we can't say yet. That would probably depend on the sort of push given to it."

  Perry Rhodan
and a number of his officers had listened to the explanation attentively. Rhodan looked up and saw on the men's faces how much discomfort the description had caused. He tried to identify the feeling, which he felt himself, and could explain it in no other way than the reaction of a man who had expected a revelation and had gotten something less.

  The picture was too blurry. Even the model was inconceivable for the most part. No one could tell what he should do with it. It was like an assignment to add meters and kilowatt-hours—impossible to do, useless and confusing.

  Atlan the Arkonide seemed to understand his thoughts. He was quite earnest as he said: "I'm sorry that I disappointed you. But what can you expect from mathematicians? They give you a collection of formulas but no ideas of what to do. What can be done with the formulas is no longer our problem: the technicians can worry about them. All we can do is give you further and more complete information. Everything else is up to you."

  The officers had turned and gone back to their places as they realized the discussion was becoming a private one.

  Atlan stood up and offered Rhodan his hand. "I'd like you to be aware of one thing," he said quietly. "I'll work as fast as I can. I'm even ready to have an injection given to me so that I can, go for a few days without sleep. I want to help you, no matter what the circumstances. Because I'm your friend."

  Perry Rhodan took Atlan's hand without a word and shook it. Atlan turned and went out, Rhodan watching him go. He knew what worries troubled the Arkonide. Atlan had acquired a cell-activator from It , the lord of Wanderer, 10,000 years before and was independent of having to make regular visits to the Physiotron. So Atlan did not have to have a cell-renewal by May 1st. But he had recognized how natural it would be for someone to harbor a very definite suspicion against him: that he deliberately delayed the solution of the riddle in order to take Rhodan's place once time ran out and reduced the Administrator to a tottering old man.