Quest Through Space And Time Read online

  On Ferrol, the eighth planet in the Vega system, everything else went according to plan. Deringhouse was in charge of the patrol flights of his fighter planes. He sent daily reports of their findings to Perry Rhodan. Except for Rhodan's forces and the native Ferrons, there was no sign of any intelligent life in this system. There was nothing to indicate that alien outsiders from other systems had become aware of their existence. The spacefighters carried out their routine patrols among empty and uninhabited worlds.

  Meanwhile the Ferronian industry was working at full speed in order to produce exchange goods intended for Earth. Rhodan planned to take them along on his next flight to Terra and exchange them for Terrestrial products. Good trade relations had always been the prerequisite for friendly relations among the various races and nations. How much more important would such relationships become between the races of two worlds that existed twenty-seven light-years apart.

  Still, Rhodan was secretly worried about Earth. The Ferrons had a uniform government. They were ruled by one man, the Thort. Earth, on the other hand—

  Rhodan sighed. It was true that fear of the technological superiority of the Arkonides, and consequently fear of Rhodan's own power, had united all the governments of the world and thus prevented the outbreak of an atomic war. But this union was only partial. It had not yet brought about one-world government. Below the peaceful surface hatred, distrust and national jealousy were still smoldering.

  Perhaps the desired development toward the United States of the world would be speeded up when mankind could see the example of such a political arrangement on Ferrol. And if necessary, thought Rhodan grimly, some prodding from him might help. In any case, Earth must be strong and united, against the day when the Arkonides would discover its position. This he must prevent at all costs, for there was the acute danger that the decadent Arkonides would regard Earth and its inhabitants as a new colony of their star realm.

  Rhodan smiled. He knew that things would turn out just the opposite way: Mankind was destined to fall heir to the Arkonide Galactic Empire!

  He was sitting all alone in the control center where the positronic brain was housed.

  Another thirteen hours, then the time would be up. This could stretch out into an eternity, if you were just sitting and had to wait patiently for the final result from the robot brain. On the other band, considering that already twenty-four days had gone by without bringing to a successful conclusion the final deciphering of the all-decisive message—then thirteen hours seemed a ridiculously short period.

  Rhodan listened to the never-ending hum behind the mighty Arkonide walls. The brain was working at maximum speed, unceasing in its efforts to figure out the text that had been composed ten thousand years ago.

  Reginald Bell visited briefly toward noon, making some quite unnecessary remarks. He quickly departed. Khrest and Thora put in a brief appearance, urging Rhodan to inform them immediately about any results coming from the positronic brain. Rhodan was glad to make that promise.

  Another eight hours to go!

  It was late in the afternoon. Rhodan had quickly eaten a bite but could not be persuaded to interrupt his vigil. Two members of the mutant corps kept him company, the African teleporter Ras Tschubai, and Ralf Marten, the son of a German father and a Japanese mother. Both men belonged to the generation that was born after the first atom bomb explosions on Earth. The parents' genes had been altered as a result of atomic radiation. In many cases this had a positive effect on their descendants: dormant brain functions came to life in these children. They possessed talents that seemed like magic to other men.

  Ralf Marten was the so-called teleoptician of the corps. He was capable of separating his mind from his body, letting his mind take over the sense organs of other creatures. He could see with their eyes, hear with their ears and even speak with their mouths. During all this time his own body remained in a cataleptic state, from which he did not recover until he let his own mind return into his own body.

  Ras Tschubai was capable of transporting himself over great distances by sheer willpower. His body would dematerialize and then rematerialize at any place he wanted to. He was an excellent teleporter.

  The corps comprised many other mutants: telepaths, telekineticists, listeners, direction finders, scouts and frequency-seers. The mutant corps was Rhodan's most reliable troop and most valuable help whenever the necessity arose to represent mankind in an encounter with those extraterrestrial races that possessed super-human qualities.

  Ralf Marten and Ras Tschubai tried to help Rhodan while away the time during this most trying period. "In case the robot brain should fail," said the African, with a disdainful wave of his large hand, "not all will be lost. There are other tracks we can follow up. Just remember the pyramid on the outer moon of the thirteenth planet. The Ferronian scientist Lossosher discovered it. You said yourself that the inscription found on this pyramid represented a further step, even if it was only a detour that eventually would lead you nearer to your goal. Okay, so let's take this detour, if the direct route proves to be too difficult."

  "The direct route is the fastest way, Ras—we can't afford to waste any time. The Arkonides are getting impatient. They want to return to their home planet. We've been putting them off for years now. Only their desire to find the planet of eternal life—a wish we share with them—has so far kept them from insisting more rigorously on their very justified demands."

  "We shouldn't give up hope yet," said Ralf Marten. "Let's hope the brain will come through in time, even if twenty-four days have passed without much result."

  "That's what's bothering me," admitted Rhodan. "If twenty-four days were not enough time to find the solution, what can it still accomplish in barely eight hours? It doesn't look too good, I'm afraid."

  Ras Tschubai was just about to say something when he suddenly changed his mind. He listened. The hum behind the walls sounded different now. It grew stronger and more irregular. Several control lamps lit up. Whole rows of lamps flashed in regular intervals, as if they were trying to give some signal.

  It was a signal indeed. A sharp dick came from the loudspeaker. Then followed the expressionless voice of the robot brain, revealing neither passion nor triumph:

  FINISHED DECODING THE MESSAGE. TEXT WILL BE GIVEN IN WRITING.

  Rhodan lost not a second to inform Khrest and Thora as promised. He also called Bell over the intercom to come to the control center.

  While the three were on their way, and hurriedly entering the room, the slip with the text was expelled from a narrow slot in the console. The typed text could be clearly read the very instant the paper emerged from the positronic brain.

  IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT OUR LIGHT, YOU MUST SEEK OUT THE ONE FROM WHOM YOU OBTAINED THIS KNOWLEDGE. ONLY ONE PERSON WAS AMAZED BY THE MACHINES OF KNOWLEDGE - THIS WAS IN RECENT TIMES, JUST A FEW SECONDS AGO ACCORDING TO MY CHRONOLOGY. SEEK HIM OUT AND ASK HIM! IF YOU WANT TO FIND HIM, THEN YOU MUST COME TO THE CRYPT OF THE LIGHT, BUT DO NOT COME WITHOUT SOME INFORMATION ABOUT HIS PERSON. YOU WILL BE ASKED WHAT HIS NAME IS.

  Rhodan took the piece of paper and stared at the dearly printed letters that formed comprehensible words—yet their meaning was vague and mysterious. He read the text three lines before he passed it on to Khrest, who in turn read it swiftly. Something akin to disappointment swept across his features as he gave Thora the printed message. She apparently could not make any sense out of the report either. Bell did not really give her much chance to do so; he did not even take the trouble to ask her permission. He simply grabbed the paper from her hands and devoured the few lines as if his life depended on it. His disillusionment was all the greater. He looked rather puzzled as he returned the paper to Rhodan.

  "I can't figure it out. Who is this person that you're supposed to find, Perry?"

  "Right now I'm at a loss, the same as you. But I'm confident that we'll soon know what the immortals have in mind with these words. Let's try to examine them from a logical point of view. The positroni
c brain could probably be of help here. But with some effort we can arrive at the meaning by ourselves. We're supposed to find someone who recently expressed amazement at the machines of great knowledge. Question: what are these machines? And: what do the immortals understand by 'in recent times, just a few seconds ago according to my chronology'? First we'll have to clear up these two questions, if we count on learning whose name they wish to hear from us."

  "The machines of knowledge," remarked Khrest softly, "'could very well be the matter transmitters which are in the Ferrons' possession."

  Rhodan realized immediately that Khrest had found the answer to the first part of the question. The matter transmitters had been given to the Ferrons some ten thousand years ago by an unknown space-traveling race. At that time the Ferrons were still a rather primitive people who had done some favor for the strangers whose spaceship had become stranded on the planet Ferrol. As a token of gratitude the strangers had presented them with one of the marvels of their superior technology. These matter transmitters were still in excellent working order, although the Ferrons could not understand how they functioned. Their construction was based on five-dimensional mathematics; they transported matter through hyperspace.

  Who had expressed astonishment about these instruments? Or better: who had been amazed by them and when had this taken place?

  "We must proceed logically and draw our conclusions," Rhodan said. "There is one clue here: I must seek out the person who first told me about the light. The light, of course, represents immortality. You Khrest, originally spoke of this to me. Your expedition had started out several years ago to find the planet of eternal life. Therefore you're the first key person to this puzzle. Now all we need do is to ascertain your source of information."

  "That's quite simple, Perry," replied Khrest. "I learned about this from the central master file back on Arkon. Our scientific council entrusted us with the mission to locate the planet of immortality. Therefore, some records must exist about this planet. They should go back to that era in our history when our ancestors were busy exploring the universe. That is probably when they encountered the race of immortals, but our index files contain the names of many thousands of expeditions. How can we be sure to pick the right one?"

  "This shouldn't present too many difficulties, Khrest. We should concentrate our efforts on those Arkonides that explored the immediate vicinity of Earth some ten thousand years ago. They most likely met up somewhere along the way with the immortals—or found their trace. That particular expedition, or maybe several groups, must be the same that built your base on the planet Venus, where they constructed the mightiest of all existing positronic brains. We know that these Arkonides then settled on Earth, where they merged and became part of the bloodstream of humanity. Who knows what catastrophes helped along this process—perhaps Atlantis. We can assume with certainty that some report must have reached your home planet—otherwise no such records would have been registered in your central file. And you, Khrest, and Thora, would never have been sent to Earth."

  Thora nodded her head eagerly. "Of course, you're quite right! Now we must find the name of that commander who sent this report about his research expedition. We have no choice now, we must fly at once to Arkon and look for this information in our central registry."

  Thora's voice was triumphant. Bell looked at the beautiful Arkonide woman with alarm. He could not make up his mind whether he liked or hated her. He was suspicious of her motives. Yes, she was beautiful indeed. Her white hair contrasted very effectively with her lovely tanned skin. Her reddish albino eyes revealed wisdom but also arrogance. Was she driven by the same emotions as Terrestrials? Bell doubted it—but he might be quite mistaken.

  Rhodan smiled. "You're wrong, Thora. I'm sorry to have to tell you this. We don't need to fly to Arkon in order to find out the name of that man who sent this particular report to the central file on Arkon those many years ago. That expedition must no doubt also have been here in the Vega system. But if they did not return home, and still informed Arkon about their encounter with the immortals, then this news must have been sent from the base on Venus. And everything that happened there has been registered by the positronic brain. You see, Thora, the solution to our problem is quite simple: we fly to Venus and ask the positronic brain there."

  Thora had to agree, even though it did not make her too happy. "Yes, very simple, Perry. And what will be the next step once you learn that name?"

  Rhodan pointed to the slip of paper that was lying on the little table in front of the console. "The message here tells me what to do. I'll memorize the name and then descend once more into the underground vault of the light on Thorta. The rest will follow all by itself."

  Bell could no longer restrain himself. He had kept his mouth shut while Rhodan was arguing with Khrest and Thora. But now he burst out full of excitement. "We'll fly back to home sweet home then before we have to go down again into the crypt under the Red Palace on Thorta. Does that mean we'll have to return also to that horrible machine hall that nearly finished us off last time we followed the trail of the immortals?"

  "I would rather doubt that, Reggie. We'll just descend into the underground vault ... then we'll wait and see. I think this time the unknown race might have some other riddle in store for us to solve. Who knows?"

  Little did he know how right he was in his assumption.

  2/ THE STORY OF KERLON

  They were ready for takeoff. Destination: Earth. Rhodan had decided to leave behind on Ferrol a squadron of space-fighter planes under the command of Major Rod Nyssen, together with fifty-four pilots. This move offered a twofold advantage. The first extraterrestrial combined trading post and military base of the New Power—as the alliance between Arkonides and Perry Rhodan's group was known—was thus adequately protected. Besides, space was vacated in the giant hangars aboard the Stardust, which could now be used to store huge quantities of Ferronian goods. These unique and technologically superior products, so far unknown on Earth, would be in great demand. Rhodan was certain to make a tremendous profit on the first merchandise to be imported to Terra from a far distant solar system. And money was always needed for further development and expansion of the New power.

  The Stardust first went into orbit around Ferrol, the eighth planet of the Vega system, and then took off into the vastness of space. The Arkonide spaceship cut across the various orbital paths of the Vegan planets. It traveled at simple speed of light. Only several hours later it reached the depth of interstellar space, where the transition could take place. Otherwise the ensuing shock to the space-time structure might have endangered the orbits of the Vegan planets around the Sun.

  The co-ordinates were set.

  As usual, the crew was seized by a familiar sensation of excitement that preceded the transition. There was no actual danger but a jump through hyperspace was still an awe-inspiring event for the sober mind. Ship and crew would simply cease to exist—at least in the third dimension. Time affected the event in two ways: while accelerating and retarding, they would be transported through a distance of twenty-seven light-years within just a few hours and without noticing anything.

  The hyperjump, however, would cause a wrench in the structure of the entire universe, which would be transmitted simultaneously everywhere without any loss of time. Certain intelligent races existed somewhere in the depths of space. They had constructed instruments capable of registering and locating the origin of the warp rupture. These warp-sensors constituted a threat for those who wished to remain undetected. For the time being Rhodan preferred that no one would learn of mankind's existence.

  Therefore each hyperjump represented a risk.

  Everything went off smoothly, as far as they could determine. They had no way of knowing, of course, whether this warp rupture had been registered by someone somewhere out in space, perhaps a hundred or even ten thousand light-years away. All Rhodan could do now was hope for the best.

  The Stardust materialized again far outside the
crew's native solar system. Sol appeared as a very bright yellow-white star straight ahead in direct line of flight. Rhodan sat up on his contour couch in order to see the sun on the viewscreen in the Command Center.

  Bell entered. He had preferred to stay in his own cabin during the transition. "Is that Sol?" he inquired, pointing to the image on the visiscreen.

  Rhodan simply nodded without speaking. He was busy typing navigational inquiries into the computer's keyboard. The answers came almost instantaneously on perforated strips of paper that flowed forth in a steady stream from the output slot. Rhodan inserted the beginning of this paper strip in the input of another computer, which in turn evaluated the results. The Stardust automatically was set on the correct course.

  Venus was on the other side of the sun.

  Three hours later they passed Pluto. They established contact via radio with the observation base on Pluto, which was on constant lookout for the appearance of unidentified alien spaceships in order to report such occurrences at once to the center in Galacto-City on Terra. In case of such an event Colonel Freyt had been instructed to inform Rhodan by way of hyperwave radio.

  In another ten hours Venus was visible as a bright crescent that grew constantly larger. Sol's second planet had turned out to be inhabitable for human beings. It was home to antediluvian giant reptiles and a species of semi-intelligent seals who lived in the numerous oceans. The climate was tropical and humid. The oxygen content of the air in the lowlands was sufficient for human beings, while the lighter hydrogen made the upper strata of the Venusian atmosphere unfit for man. A heavy cloud cover shrouded the planet's surface. There was frequent and heavy rain.

  The atmosphere's carbon dioxide content presented an additional difficulty. It was higher than on Earth but not in critical concentrations. One Venusian day lasted two hundred forty Earth hours. The gravity near the planet's equator was less than on Earth, just 0.85 G's.

  Ten thousand years ago the Arkonides had established a giant base on Venus. They had hollowed out a huge mountain and then built their base inside. The Arkonides had long since vanished from their Venusian stronghold but their technical installations and robots had remained and now obeyed the commands of Rhodan and his friends.