The Planet of the Dying Sun Read online

  "In this connection," he began, looking at Thora to beg her indulgence, "what I've found out in the meantime may be of interest."

  He handed Rhodan a few plastic strips. They came from the huge positronic computer on board the Stardust. This machine for calculating combinations ejected these strips which gave the evaluation of the mechanical brain either in Arkonide writing or in mathematical symbols in the case of pure calculating problems.

  "I had a lot of trouble," Khrest said with a smile, "to pose sensible questions and furnish adequate information to the computer. Here are the questions." He handed Rhodan a written piece of paper. "And you're holding the answers in your hand."

  Rhodan began to read:

  Is it reasonable to proceed step by step on the dangerous search for the civilization which knows the secret of cell conservation?

  The first question. The answer was:

  The unknown civilization will share its knowledge only with those who prove by selective rules to have superior culture. (85.179% probability.)

  Khrest pointed to the paper with his questions.

  "After I received the first answer, I asked the second question."

  Rhodan read:

  What is the nature of the selective rules?

  And the answer:

  The unknown civilization knows other selective rules besides scientific and technical topics. (100% probability.)

  "This is trivial, of course," said Khrest. "The positronic brain didn't know how to deal with this question."

  The last question asked:

  Which selective rules will we face on our search?

  The answer followed:

  All tests (selective rules) of scientific and technical nature have been concluded by the seekers. (52.112% probability.)

  Rhodan thoughtfully studied the answer strip for a while before he returned it to Khrest.

  "The last answer is almost useless, isn't it?" said Khrest.

  Rhodan shook his head.

  "It would be useless if it had been stated with only fifty percent probability. But the computer must have deducted from some information which we didn't entirely understand that the Unknown will in the future present enigmas which we have as yet not experienced. The period of the pulsator and time machines has passed. We don't know what will come next. Perhaps it begins out there.

  Thora broke in: "Do you think it would change the situation if we stopped wasting our time and started to act instead of waiting any longer?"

  "Wasting our time?" Rhodan smiled condescendingly. "You're on the way to eternal life! How can you speak of wasted time?"

  "I made a serious suggestion," Thora said bitterly, "and I expect a serious answer."

  "You'll get your answer," Rhodan replied. "Only this time you'd consider my tentative ideas to be absurd."

  Tanaka Seiko occupied a single cabin.

  Stardust II was basically a warship—a battleship built by Arkonide technology as the ultimate answer to the threat against the galactic empire by rebellious worlds. At full battle strength the Stardust carried a crew of a thousand men. The men were quartered together, the noncoms two to a cabin and each officer had a single cabin.

  Tanaka stayed in such a cabin which was, for special reasons, situated not too far from the Command Center.

  Tanaka in the last few weeks had become one of the most important aides to Rhodan. He, Tanaka, possessed by an innate mutation the capability to receive radio waves as other people hear sound waves. He was able to understand radio transmissions without the help of a receiving set.

  In addition to that, he was so far the only one of Rhodan's people who was able to receive the messages of the unknown stranger and to interpret them coherently. Rhodan had learned on Gol that the oscillations used by the unknown individual for his messages were the process of a higher order. If they wanted to find the secret of eternal life, which was in the possession of the Unknown, they had to be able to understand his messages. Tanaka was the only one who could boast of this faculty.

  Shortly after Stardust II had reappeared from hyperspace in a highly unusual transition, the Japanese had been assigned by Rhodan to wait for any further messages from the Unknown. Ever since that time Tanaka was sitting in his cabin and his easy temperament served him in good stead in his task which consisted of doing nothing but wait.

  At first he made himself comfortable in a soft contour chair. Then he found that too much comfort put him to sleep and he chose a hard stool to sit on. He planted his elbows on the table in front of him and put his head in his hands.

  Thus he sat for hours. Half a day had already passed.

  Tanaka's thoughts danced around in a disorderly fashion. They conjured pictures from his past life. He saw his little village Shibano and a few old houses in the neighborhood.

  He recognized them all except one which he had never seen before.

  Tanaka concentrated on the picture in his mind and tried to recognize the building. It was located in the middle of the village and looked like a skyscraper.

  A skyscraper in Shibano!

  There had never been a skyscraper in Shibano and it was not likely that they would have one in the future. Shibano was only a fishing village.

  It was more like a tower, about two hundred stories high. Was there really such a building on Earth?

  Tanaka narrowed his sight. The home of his parents, all other houses and fishing cottages faded from his field of vision and only the towering skyscraper remained in his thoughts.

  The tower had round windows, which added to its odd appearance. Tanaka sensed that something very strange had crept into his brain, playing tricks with his imagination. It made him visualize pictures which could not have come from his own thoughts.

  During a moment of panic he tried to resist the alien influence. He struggled against the mind which imposed a picture of a twenty-five hundred foot high tower with round windows on him.

  But he was overwhelmed by the impression. At the same time he realized that this could be the beginning of a new message from the Unknown. Never before had he made his presence felt in this fashion, but nobody knew how many different ways of transmitting messages were at his disposal.

  The tower was growing. It seemed to approach Tanaka with great speed—or Tanaka moved toward the skyscraper. Only one small segment remained, a round window. Now Tanaka could look through the window. He saw a small room which contained only one piece of furniture, like a desk. On the table was a piece of paper, or something similar, and a thin writing instrument.

  Tanaka picked up the pen and began to write.

  Did he really pick up the pen? Nonsense! He saw the entire picture as a figment of his imagination—or the thoughts of another, unknown mind.

  Be that as it may, he took the pen and proceeded to write. Somebody appeared to guide his hand, since he did not know what he wrote, being unable to read it.

  Then—

  When Tanaka failed to answer Rhodan's call, Reginald Bell went to the cabin of the Japanese to look for him.

  Tanaka lay unconscious in front of his table. Apparently he had fallen from his stool and knocked his head against the table.

  It all seemed very peculiar to Bell. Why had Tanaka fallen from his stool?

  There was a stack of papers lying on the table. Genuine paper, made on Earth, part of the Stardust's tons of supplies since it had landed on Earth.

  The sheet on top of the stack showed some writing. Bell glanced at it and was about to put it mindlessly aside. The stuff looked like meaningless doodles drawn in boredom.

  Then he looked again. The scribbling was carefully arranged in rows and some of the incomprehensible signs were repeated at irregular intervals.

  Bell put the paper into his pocket and called the sick bay to take care of Tanaka.

  Rhodan recognized the writing. He had already seen it twice before: on the transmitter in the Red Palace in Thorta and on the metal cartridge he recovered on his trip through time.

  The positronic co
mputer had deciphered both inscriptions. It had the data and was equipped to unscramble Tanaka's scribbling.

  Rhodan programmed a copy of the note and inserted it in the computer. The machine took one hour's time and delivered the following translation on a plastic strip:

  IF YOU, WHO DARES, ARE PATIENT AND DO NOT SUCCUMB TO TEMPTATION, WATCH FOR THE WORLD OF HIGHER ORDER. THE LIGHT IS NOT FAR AWAY. (Illegible letters, 91.998% probability for accuracy of translation.)

  At about the same time the positronic computer furnished the translation, Tanaka woke up from his fainting spell.

  He related what had happened to him. He remembered the events up to the time he had begun to write, but nothing else.

  It was left to Rhodan to find an explanation. Rhodan did not doubt for a second that the Unknown had taken possession of Tanaka's brain in an inexplicable manner, as happened so frequently in this enterprise, and caused the Japanese to write down his message on a piece of paper which was not lying on a desk on the hundred-eightieth floor of an ivory tower but on Tanaka's table in his cabin.

  This was what Tanaka had done and the message had been translated in the meantime. However, it did not seem to make much sense. At least nothing that Rhodan could understand right away.

  Rhodan went up to the sick bay to talk to Tanaka.

  "...Watch for the World of Higher Order," he muttered, staring at the plastic strip which he had brought along.

  World of Higher Order? Around which of the fifty-six suns observed on the screens did the World of Higher Order circulate?

  The telecom began to blare: "Second Pilot to Commander!"

  It was Reginald Bell's voice and he sounded rather excited.

  Rhodan picked up the nearest microphone.

  "Rhodan speaking. What's the matter?"

  He could hear Bell take a deep breath.

  "Please, come to the Command Center right away. The observation screens..."

  Rhodan did not listen to the rest. With two, three mighty leaps he was at the door which rolled open much too slowly for him as he squeezed through the narrow gap and ran with wide jumps along the walkbelt moving down the hallway. Hastily, and pushing himself away from the walls of the shaft, he rode down in the antigrav elevator and arrived so quickly at the Command Center that Bell stared at him dumbfoundedly.

  The observation screens!

  They showed what he had believed all along, because anything else did not make sense. He knew that some day he would see this view—and here it was!

  The deep black background of space, strewn with the myriads of lights of the firmament, long bright veils of distant constellations of stars and the dark holes of the voids and obscure nebulae.

  The view every space traveler was accustomed to see, as long as he remained in the galaxy. The picture that finally made sense after the long days of perplexed waiting.

  "How did it happen?" he asked with a hoarse voice.

  Bell shrugged his shoulders. The shock had not yet worn off.

  "I've no idea. I looked at the observation screen showing the old view and when I looked again, it was here...!"

  With a helpless gesture he pointed to the wide panel of the view screens.

  Rhodan moved quickly. He gave precise orders to the range finder section. The range finders were surprised. But when they switched on their instruments they noticed how completely the sight outside had changed.

  While they began their investigation, Rhodan studied the visiscreens in the Command Center very carefully.

  Something attracted his attention, unconsciously at first, then his eyes passed over it a few times before he focused on it.

  A red disk! About the size of the Terrestrial sun as it would appear from the plane of Pluto's trajectory. The disk was blood-red as if it were not shining but painted red and illuminated from outside.

  A sun!

  Rhodan called the attention of the range finders to it. The Stardust was moving—with respect to the red disk—no more than two hundred-fifty or three hundred miles per second relative to the perihelion of the ship's course. This was enough for the range finders to compute a triangle measurement. Rhodan received the result after two minutes:

  The red sun was approximately two astronomical units, i.e. a hundred-eighty million miles, away from the Stardust. Not as far distant as Pluto from the Sun. Therefore, this red disk was not as big as the Terrestrial sun.

  Two astronomical units were no more than a skip and a jump for a vessel like Stardust II. Rhodan began to set the new course.

  "Range finder to Commander. The sun has a planet, sir, probably only this one. Distance from the sun zero-point-seven-eight astronomical units, radius zero-point-six of Earth, distance from here one-point-two units. Resembles Mars, sir."

  The automatic pilot consulted the positronic memory bank, received the necessary navigation data and adjusted the course accordingly. The Stardust commenced a further stride in the quest for the "Fountain of Youth."

  2/ WORLD OF MYSTERY & MENACE

  "It was the only possible solution, wasn't it?" Rhodan said.

  Khrest looked a little mystified.

  "Obviously you know more than I do. What solution are you talking about? All I can see is that things have suddenly become even more complicated!"

  Rhodan laughed.

  "It was an illusion. I don't know how the Unknown managed to hypnotize the crew and the instruments and make them believe that they saw fifty-six fictitious stars in an unreal space and a splatter of matter in the background. Certainly not hypnosis in our terms. He's sure to have many possibilities for conjuring hallucinations.

  The fact is that we've been in the same position in space all the time. Whatever we and the instruments perceived was a very convincing deception."

  "And what was wrong with the telecom on board your pursuit ship? Where's the field of gravity and what illuminated the Stardust?"

  Rhodan raised his shoulders.

  "I don't know the answer—not at this time. If we choose to call the effect of an illusory space hypnosis, there could have been a hypnotic field surrounding the Stardust like a sphere. As long as the border of the field was between me and the vessel, I was unable to communicate with it. Maybe that's the way it was. Perhaps the hypnotic field exerted no influence on the reflected light and I saw the ship in the light of the sun which I couldn't see myself. These are mere assumptions. I have—for the time being—no explanation at all for the field of gravitation.

  "All right," Thora said a little derisively. "You knew it all the time. Now tell me, please, what harm it would have done if we'd started the search as I'd proposed!"

  "First of all, principally for general reasons," Rhodan replied. "If I find myself with my ship somewhere in unfamiliar space and also know that I really cannot see the space, I remain still. Granted, the probability that I fly away in an arbitrary direction was fairly scant because of the low density of matter; but why take such a risk if I can avoid it?"

  "And another thing: if the Stardust had moved, where would it have gone?"

  "Most likely toward the star which was the closest of the fifty-six," she answered.

  Rhodan nodded.

  "Naturally. We would have set the vessel in motion and taken the normal spurt for the transition. But we wouldn't have gone very far, because this red sun is exactly astride our starting stretch. We would have plunged into a flaming hot world to our untimely end."

  She looked at him, frightened and shaken.

  "Will you believe me now that I had very valid reasons?" he asked, smiling at her. "Although it was, of course, impossible for me to know anything about the red sun."

  The planet was a plainly visible, monotonous and rather cold world. Rhodan flew twice around, learning all worthwhile details about its topography, weather, temperatures and rotation period. He also verified the most important fact, the absence of any intelligent life, at least on the surface of the planet.

  In this he was disappointed. He had expected to find on this plan
et another clue to the galactic position of the World of Eternal Life. But who could give him such a hint, if there was no intelligent life present?

  The planet was named Vagabond for it was aimlessly wandering around in a space bereft of stars.

  It resembled Mars as much as if it had been created from the same mould. There were no oceans. The mean temperature on the surface was around 18° F. None of the peaks were higher than a few hundred feet and at least three quarters of the surface consisted of deserts containing iron oxide.

  Rhodan selected one of the deserts as a landing place for the Stardust. He remembered the prediction of the positronic computer that there were no more technical surprises in store for them and he ordered a state of constant alert for the mutants on board the ship.

  However, nothing happened. The Stardust landed perfectly without any difficulties. The ground on which it stood was firm and the gravity was no stronger than 0.53 G.

  Now the great guessing game began as to what the Unknown intended to do next.

  If you, who dares, will be patient and do not succumb to temptation... Rhodan reflected on the text of the trance message written by Tanaka Seiko.

  "Sounds like patience is considered by the Unknown as one of the virtues with which his successor should be endowed, doesn't it?"

  It was simply a rhetorical question.

  "Could be," answered Bell. "We'd have by no means gotten off so easy if we'd reacted to his crazy delusion. I resent that very much!"

  Khrest agreed.

  "Each time I ask myself anew," he said, "whether we're engaged in something too big for us to handle. What good will eternal life do us if we..."

  He made a vague gesture and did not finish his sentence. Rhodan did not respond. He wanted to say something else, when he was interrupted by the intercom.

  Lieutenant Tanner's face appeared on the visiscreen. He looked scared and rather baffled.