The Micro-Techs Read online

  10 minutes later Bell got up and quietly left the cabin. He began to get bored and there were other subjects that interested him much more. He decided to pay a little visit to Lt.-Col. Sikerman in the Command Center. The First Officer of the battleship Drusus had become his close friend which probably had a lot to do with the similarity of their characters.

  The burly, dark-haired Baldur Sikerman sat in his pilot seat in front of the control panel of the Drusus, a spacesphere with a diameter of 1½ kilometers. As First Officer he was next in command to Rhodan and Bell and in charge of a crew of 2,000 men that was required for the adequate operation of the gigantic ship.

  "Hello, Sikerman," Bell greeted as he entered the Command Center. He took one look around and was satisfied that everything was in perfect order. The observation screens reflected a multitude of unfamiliar stars as they moved through an unknown sector of their own Galaxy. "Bored?"

  Sikerman slowly turned around and studied Bell as if he had never seen him before. "Not yet," he said patiently.

  Bell glanced at Capt. Rodes Aurin, the greying chief gunner of the Drusus who was busy with his catalogs and didn't seem to have heard a word.

  "I promise you won't be bothered by boredom so soon, Sikerman," Bell prophesied. "Things might become a little more hectic during the next few hours. Did you oil the stardrive?"

  Sikerman winced. "Mangling the language again?" he retorted, turning around to his controls to switch on another rangefinder screen.

  "But seriously, I believe we'll soon see some action," Bell announced.

  "What kind of action?"

  "We're going to drop in on the Swoons, the cucumber men. You know—the micro-technicians!"

  "I don't understand a word."

  "Man, don't be a bonehead! Kulman is making his report right now. We're going to fly to Swoofon and look up the natives. They're building a compensator-detector that can register hypertransitions even when the compensators in operation."

  "Holy mackerel!" Sikerman exclaimed.

  Bell grinned. "Don't worry, we'll throw a monkey wrench into their project. But the cucumber men are supposed to be the nicest creatures and we're not allowed to harm them... "

  "What do you mean by cucumber men?" Bell explained it to him and added: "I'm really curious to meet them. Kulman assures us they're charming in their own way. They've got eyes that let them remove the warts from a flea.

  "The warts... ?" Sikerman was flabbergasted. "Are they crazy?"

  "The warts? Crazy?" Bell inquired.

  Sikerman gave no reply. He tried to ignore Bell's presence and observed intently the radar screens where nothing was to be seen. "Warts! Cucumbers!" he muttered under his breath, shaking his head. You ought to see Rosita Peres."

  Rosita Peres was the cosmo-psychologist of the Drusus. Bell grinned and ambled to the door leading to the radio room. He opened it with a push on the button. David Stern was on duty and turned around when he heard Bell enter. "Everything normal, sir," Stern reported. "Nothing has been registered and we've intercepted no radio calls."

  "Thank you," Bell said and leaned against a console. "You might as well take it easy now. Pretty soon

  you'll be a very busy man." David Stern was a lieutenant and one of the best radio officers of the Drusus. He was born in Israel, of medium height, dark-haired and moved with the supple grace of a lion. "A new mission?" he asked hesitantly.

  "Squash the cucumbers, Stern!"

  "Huh?!" David Stern gasped for air. "What did you say?"

  "I said: 'Squash the cucumbers!' Don't you know that the inhabitants of Swoofon are cucumbers? We've to go in and get something from them."

  "Oh," Stern nodded without understanding a word. "We're going to take something from them. Very interesting. When and where?"

  "You don't believe in cucumbers, do you?" Bell questioned him in a menacing tone. "Our agent Kulman never lies. He knows better than that."

  "But Kulman brought Muzzel aboard," Stern reminded him.

  Bell began to chuckle. "Haw-haw! Muzzel! You're giving me an idea. So long, Stern I've got to take care of something. There's somebody aboard this ship who was real chummy with that robot dog. They were scratching each other's necks for hours and I didn't even exist for him."

  "Are you talking of Pucky?" Stern called to Bell who was already on his way out of the radio-room. "The little mouse-beaver... "

  "That's the one I mean and I'm going to tease him a little."

  And so Bell was forced to take his involuntary flying lesson after all. To the delight of the officers and men in the hangar he circled under the ceiling, performed flips and loops, alternately cursing like a trooper and begging for help. All his wails and threats didn't keep him from enjoying the utter amazement of the spectators.

  But Pucky, who steered Bell around and around with his flow of telekinetic power, was relentless and he kept him flying and gyrating for a whole hour without mercy.

  • • •

  The Drusus performed two transitions in the direction of the Swaft system under the still-effective protection of the structure-compensators. Then the compensators were switched off and the next two transitions took place without concealment. The Arkonides were thus in a position to monitor the last two leaps with their own structure-sensors but they were prevented from learning where the Drusus started from.

  The sun Swaft had about the size and brightness of the sun of the Earth and it radiated about the same amount of heat. However it was inexplicable why the planet Swoofon had developed so little vegetation despite the presence of water and rocks which had crumbled into soil. There was plenty of sand but hardly any flora.

  About half of Swoofon's population lived in small cities on the face of the planet whereas the other half had preferred to retreat underneath the surface.

  Kulman had already found out that there were some Swoons who cooperated with the Springers and were willing to build the compensator-detectors for them. These Swoons lived mostly below the surface.

  The arrival of spaceships was taken in stride by the Swoons although they were awed by their staggering dimensions which seemed almost incredible to them. Most of the people who visited Swoofon were Springers and Galactic traders bringing them needed material and food and exchanging them for finished products. They were welcome as business partners but were not considered as friends. In this regard Swoofon was a member of the Arkonide Imperium and Rhodan had based his plan on this fact.

  As Swoofon appeared on the observation screens and the Drusus entered the Swaft system at the velocity of light, Rhodan assigned the roles to his officers. "Lt. Rous, you take over the K-13 and fly to Earth, using your compensator. Bring back the Titan and Gen. Pounder with full complements. I can't take the risk of sending a radio call from here. As soon as the two spaceships arrive we'll make a grand entrance on Swoofon by orders of the Regent of Arkon."

  "Hm," Khrest objected sceptically. "Aren't you overdoing it?"

  "No, not at all. I'll act officially within the stipulations of my agreement with Arkon so that no suspicions should arise. I'll notify the Regent upon his request that Swoofon is threatened by an invasion of the Invisibles and it's none of his business how we found out about it. We know it and that'll have to do. And now we're going to do something about it. Who is going to stop us?"

  Nobody answered except Atlan who cleared his throat in the background. "I think it would be wrong if we did anything to hurt the Swoons," he remarked thoughtfully. "In my capacity as a former colonial psychologist of the Imperium, I advise against taking any violent measures and I recommend... "

  "I've no intention of hurting the Swoons," Rhodan interrupted him amiably. "We only want to bluff them a little. The real purpose of our show of force is to mask the mission of our agents. This is our plan: we're going to send Kulman with some handpicked mutants to those Swoons who want to build the detector. In the commotion we'll be causing with our appearance, the entire action can proceed unnoticed."

  "I guess you're righ
t," Atlan the immortal responded.

  Lt. Marcel Rous stepped forward and asked: "When shall I start, sir?"

  Rhodan looked at his watch. "It's 13 hours, Terra time. You can be back in two hours if you make a transition-jump. Leave at once and take only half the crew. Are you ready?"

  "Yes, sir," Rous replied and left the Command Center.

  Rhodan followed him with his eyes and then called over John Marshall, the Chief of the Mutant Corps. "I'll see you in 10 minutes in my cabin where we can hammer out the details of the mission. Thank you."

  Next he turned to Bell. "Have a look in my wardrobe. There must be a uniform in there which I once used to play the role of an Arkonide inspector. It should come in handy again."

  "That remains to be seen," Bell murmured and took off.

  Baldur Sikerman, who sat in his pilot chair and didn't take his eyes off his controls, asked: "Are you really going to land the Drusus on that planet, sir?"

  "We'll land all three ships," Rhodan replied firmly. "It ought to be a very impressive sight for the midgets of Swoofon to watch the arrival of three spacespheres, each measuring 1½ kilometers in diameter, on their world. The bigger the hubbub, the better it'll be for us. Any other questions, gentlemen?"

  Rhodan broke off the briefing after he had answered all questions.

  • • •

  At precisely 15 hours Terra time the two tremendous spaceships Titan and Gen. Pounder materialized in the vicinity of the Drusus. Rhodan was aware that his action could be misinterpreted and even considered ridiculous if he occupied a planet like Swoofon with three such gigantic, battleships. The Springers and the Arkonides might call him insane or a hopeless coward but Rhodan didn't care what they thought. He knew exactly what he was doing.

  The Drusus continued on its course to Swoofon with the speed of light and Rhodan began to send a radio message to the planet, repeating it continuously: "ATTENTION! TO THE POPULATION OF THE PLANET SWOOFON! IN THE NAME OF THE IMPERIUM, THE SWAFT SYSTEM WILL BE COMPLETELY CORDONED OFF. NO SHIP WILL BE ALLOWED TO LEAVE SWOOFON WITHOUT SPECIAL PERMISSION. ALL SHIPS STATIONED ON SWOOFON ARE FORBIDDEN TO START OR TO LAND, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY. ALL PERSONS ARE ADVISED TO MAINTAIN PEACE AND CALM!"

  Rhodan omitted mentioning his name. The Regent of Arkon would learn it soon enough and begin to wonder what the actual intentions of his ally were. Let him, Rhodan smiled grimly, as Sikerman slowed down the Drusus to keep the ship from entering the atmosphere too quickly. The Titan and the Gen. Pounder followed his example.

  Kulman stood next to Rhodan and watched the landing manoeuvre. He knew Swoofon well enough to be able to orient himself. "The capital is called Swatran," he explained while he studied the observation screen, which reflected all the features of the ground. "It is built for the greater part on the surface, especially near the spaceport. The manufacturing plants are located underground. They are accessible only through small doors. I'm afraid none of us will be able to get in."

  "We'll see about that," Rhodan smiled mysteriously. "Just wait."

  Kulman looked at a blurred spot about 200 kilometers east of the capital. "That was the place where I stayed. Nobody knows me in Swatran."

  "They must have heard something about you and your activities," Rhodan replied. "I guess you won't have to introduce yourself. But they'll be surprised to see you on my ship and will wonder why you returned with me. However, since the Swoons aren't very kindly disposed toward the Springers, I expect to find no enemies among them."

  "Let's wait and see," Kulman answered dryly. Rhodan gave no reply.

  The spaceport had been built by the Springers who carried on a profitable trade with the microtechnicians of the Galaxy. Although the buildings the Springers had to construct for themselves and the local Arkonide Administration were relatively low and flat, they must have looked like gigantic skyscrapers to the diminutive Swoons. Kulman had lived in a large warehouse during his sojourn on Swoofon but the warehouse was not much bigger than an ordinary shed and he felt like Gulliver among the Lilliputians.

  The tiny size of the houses made the distances look deceptive. With the naked eye Rhodan estimated that his ship was still 100 kilometers above Swatran but the altimeter indicated only a height of 10 kilometers.

  The three huge ships landed and almost a 100 Guppies—spacespheres 60 meters in diameter—immediately poured out of the hangars of the Drusus ,Titan and Gen. Pounder and took to the air to seal off the planet from the outside world.

  As soon as this was done Rhodan began to breathe easier. He strode to the radio-room and asked David Stern, "Did we get any calls?"

  "Only a few bewildered inquiries, full of confusion, sir. The Springers are protesting and claim that they know of no complaints against them."

  "They always say that, no matter how bad a conscience they have. I bet they're racking their brains right now which of their rackets we're after. If the Springers have cooked up this deal with the compensator-detector by themselves, they must be beginning to sweat blood."

  Bell, who had followed Rhodan, questioned it. "But they don't know that we're on to this shady deal."

  "Uncertainty is not a very pleasant predicament for them to be in," Rhodan pointed out and turned again to Stern. "I'd like to get in touch with the Administrator of Swoofon. Can you get him?"

  "I'll try," Stern promised and went to work, "but I don't know how long it'll take me."

  "Call me as soon as you get hold of him," Rhodan instructed and walked to the door. "In the meantime I'll change to an official representative of the Arkonide Imperium."

  Bell followed him with his eyes and then returned to the Command Center. He paused at the door and was struck by the eerie silence. All men gaped as if transfixed at the panoramic picture screens which mirrored the surroundings of the ship as clearly as if it had no walls.

  Bell too was enthralled by the scene. The landing field was no longer deserted. The ground between the towering Springer ships was crowded with little creatures who looked like ripe cucumbers and walked in a very dignified manner. They were barely 30 centimeters high, had short legs, four arms, no neck and a caricature of a face with flat noses and small mouths. Their bulging eyes didn't make the Swoons look prettier either.

  Bell knew from Kulman's report that these peculiar creatures had an almost pathetic sense of honor and an extreme desire to be treated politely and with great respect. Anyone who failed to meet their standards had nothing but trouble with them and this was the last thing Rhodan wanted.

  "By all the planets!" Bell gasped as he eyed the marching cucumber men, whose yellow color astonished him. Although they wore some kind of clothing, their figures were not covered up so much that they couldn't be clearly seen. "They really do look like cucumbers. Can they talk?"

  Kulman, who stood next to him, assured him they could. "Their voices arc very high-pitched and shrill but they have rather sensitive ears. If you yell at them, they double up in pain. However it's easy to communicate with them with the aid of our translation instruments. Fortunately we've got enough of these sets."

  "I can perceive their thoughts," Pucky chirped. His eyes were wide in awe. "They're very peaceful and curious but they don't like to admit it. They want to pretend to be very firm and to protest against the occupation of Swoofon. Here comes some sort of a government delegation, if I'm not mistaken."

  "That's wonderful," a voice boomed from the door.

  They spun around and were startled to see the colorful uniform of an Arkonide Inspector General but they quickly realized that Rhodan had changed his clothes and was ready to play his role.

  "You look like a peacock," Bell murmured enviously. "Next to you I feel like a drab sparrow."

  "And you are nothing more than that," Pucky exclaimed with a merry grin.

  Bell wasn't to be sidetracked. "Are you going to leave the ship to talk to the Swoons? Who'll accompany you?"

  Rhodan looked around. "Kulman better remain inside the ship at first. They don't have to know that he's with
us—at least not yet. You'll come with me, Reggie. Pucky, too, so that we can find out something about the thoughts of the Swoons. Sikerman and Khrest will take over the radio center and see to it that our orders are complied with. The other Guppies will land on the spaceports of all continents and guard the ships of the Springers. All trading will cease immediately. By orders of Arkon!"

  He smiled grimly when he added the last words. Bell chortled while Khrest and Atlan looked concerned and Sikerman had a determined expression. Only Pucky did nothing for a change.

  Meanwhile the three ships, which had left a good distance between them when they touched down, were completely surrounded by the masses of Swoons streaming in. It was a weird spectacle for the Terrans. The smooth surface of the spaceport swarmed with the diminutive cosmic beings who moved so dignified and majestically as if they were the rulers of the universe. If they had nothing else, they had a good conscience and imperturbable calm and serenity.

  "Let's go, Rhodan said. Bell and Pucky followed him. Instead of weapons they took along an electronic translator without which they could not have talked to the Swoons. Bell carried it with the solemnity of a royal chamberlain while Pucky stared with due deference at the colorful pants of Rhodan, who walked in front of him. Nobody knew what memories it recalled for him. It was not the first time that Rhodan wore pants like these.

  The exit hatch opened and a walking ramp slid out on which Rhodan and his companions descended to meet the waiting Swoons.

  "They're not a bit afraid of us," Pucky whispered. "They're only curious."

  "Inquisitiveness is a driving force of the universe," Rhodan replied just as softly.

  There must have been tens of thousands of Swoons who had assembled here to greet the pretentious Arkonide. Now Rhodan, who was a much weaker telepath than Pucky, was also able to read the thoughts of the Swoons closest to him, although it was difficult to distinguish them in the confusion of the manifold impulses. He was, indeed, confronted only by curiosity mixed with a little pleasure and satisfaction.

  This was quite amazing and even consternating to Rhodan, who decided to solve the puzzle. He kept walking till he was in the midst of the Swoons. Then he bent down and sat on his haunches. Bell followed his example, which was not as easy for him since he weighed quite a few pounds more than Rhodan. However Pucky had no trouble at all because he was only one meter tall.