The Rebels of Tuglan Read online

  Could it be that the two men did not speak the truth?

  That was easy to determine. RN1 made a sign to RN3. "Watch the thought image screen," he said. "I will ask them something in their own language. Tell me if they are lying." And he turned to the first Tuglanian: "The Lord of Tuglan has sent you?"

  The colored pattern of the abstract figures remained unchanged as the man hastily gave an affirmative answer. That was odd.

  "And an attack on this station is being planned:"

  "Yes," was again the Tuglanian's reply.

  Two minutes had passed.

  On the thought image screen the figures began to intertwine and coalesce, finally assuming new shapes. The abstract configuration changed constantly. RN3 threw questioning glances in the direction of RN2 and nodded his head imperceptibly.

  The two Tuglanians became very nervous. "We came to warn you. Be on the lookout. The conspirators will come tonight, we were told. We have to leave now."

  "Stop!" RN1 shook his head. "Why such a hurry?"

  The Tuglanian with the bomb looked around desperately. It was high time to depart if they did not want to go up in the air with the station. And the bomb was still in his pocket; he had not yet had a chance to plant it. Why should he risk his life?

  He was standing next to a switch panel with a confusing array of levers and buttons. On a narrow bench beside it lay tools and spare parts. In between stood small boxes with screws, nuts and bolts needed for the repair of technical installations. Furtively, the Tuglanian pulled the small bomb out of his pocket and placed it among the boxes, where it would be quite inconspicuous.

  RN3 observed a colorful whirl on the thought screen but he could not determine which of the two visitors caused it. He motioned to RN1.

  Three minutes had gone by.

  "We don't want to run into the conspirators here," said the first Tuglanian. "We've risked our lives by warning you. So let us go now."

  The patterns became quieter again. Indeed, they had risked their lives. Again no lie. RN1 could not make sense of this situation. Should he let the two leave? A feeling of uneasiness made him reluctant to let them leave.

  The fourth minute came, and all of a sudden the tiny alarm bells of the hyperwave receiver began to light up. An Arkonide message sender announced himself. That was a most unusual and rare event, for the Arkonides maintained only very loose contact with Tuglan.

  RN1 manipulated several levers with his right hand and concentrated his attention on a square screen next to the row of little lights. The loudspeaker below the row began to give off high buzzing sounds. On the screen appeared an image of the universe. In the midst of infinity floated a giant sphere like a planet.

  "A battleship of the Arkonides!" muttered RN3. "Distance - it is already inside the system of Laton. The ship's impending arrival was not announced at all via hyperwave radio signal. Why do they announce themselves so late?"

  RN1 did not answer. He tried to regulate the volume control but could not establish a connection. And while he was still working at the controls the screen went dark and the loudspeaker grew silent. The Arkonide sender had ceased to function. There was no explanation for this.

  Four minutes and thirty seconds.

  The two Tuglanians suddenly whirled around and ran out of the room. They quickly reached the still open entrance door and made a dash for the bushes.

  RN2 reacted instantaneously. His brain released the barring mechanism and changed his left arm into a ray gun. Awkwardly the robot set itself in motion and followed the fleeing men.

  RN3 simultaneously arrived at the same conclusion that the two Tuglanians constituted a clear and present danger. Ten seconds later, the two robots searched the silvery darkness of the starry night with their crystal eye lenses and discovered the fugitives on top of the garden wall. A violet energy finger flashed and ended the lives of the two Tuglanians before they could jump to safety on the other side. The high Lord of Tuglan had lost two of his most faithful servants.

  RN2 and RN3 turned around in order to return to the geodesic dome. This was the instant when the five minutes had passed since the timer of the bomb had been activated.

  RN1 had given up his attempts to reach the Arkonide vessel. There must be special reasons why the craft decided to interrupt its broadcast. Anyway, now it was the station's duty to inform the high commissioner of the latest happenings. The sudden appearance of an Arkonide spaceship must not necessarily mean good news. Inspections were never pleasant. In addition, there was the warning of an impending bombing attack. This was sufficient cause to awaken the commissioner in the middle of the night.

  The moment RN1 established connection with Rathon's residence, the catastrophe happened.

  The primitive bomb detonated to the right of RN1, hardly two yards away. The explosion ripped the thin Arkonite wall of the broadcast station and damaged the most delicate, irreplaceable parts of the actual transmitter. At the same time, the detonation started an accelerated energy conversion in the small reactor of the station's power plant, which in turn caused all the condensers and transistors to burn out as the current simply jumped across the burnt-out fuses.

  A metal fragment hit the head of RN1. He lost consciousness in the true sense of the word, and stopped motionlessly in his tracks.

  The next morning a conference took place behind locked doors between Lord Alban and the high commissioner Rathon.

  The Arkonide looked haggard. No wonder, since he and three robots faced an entire dominion with eight planets. And the news that RN3 had reported during the night was all but reassuring.

  "This night a bombing attack was carried out against our hyperwave radio station. The installations were destroyed. Communication with Arkon has been disrupted. How can you explain all that?"

  Rathon had uttered these sentences in clipped tones with an undercurrent of panic in his voice. Alban, the sly Lord of Tuglan, felt at once that Rathon had no idea who was behind this act of sabotage.

  "I've already heard of it," he said cautiously. "Yesterday. I sent two men to warn you. It seems they came too late."

  "No, they went to the radio station and warned my robots. Five minutes after their arrival a bomb exploded. My robots mistook your messengers for the culprits and killed them. I'm very sorry. But their logisma-circuits had identified the men as enemies."

  "They're dead?" Alban said slowly. What a stroke of luck. More than he had hoped for. This meant that nobody knew that he had arranged for the destruction of the hyperwave transmitter. "They were faithful servants of the galactic empire. They were only doing their duty."

  "One of the robots suffered damages, which can be repaired, though. The hyperwave station can never be used again. One of the generators is emitting harmful radiation which makes life impossible for any length of time within a radius of two hundred yards. Therefore, I've decided to transfer the robots to my own residence. I might need some personal protection in the near future."

  Alban did not respond to the account of Rathon's personal troubles. He was far more interested in something else.

  "Communication with Arkon and the rest of the empire is cut, you say? Is there any possibility of informing Arkon of the incident?"

  "Unfortunately no," Rathon replied. "Most regrettably. But I have another bit of news that will cheer you up, I hope. Shortly before the bomb went off and destroyed our installations, my robots received a radio signal on the hyperwave. An Arkonide battleship announced itself. Its picture even appeared on the videoscreen. Too bad the explosion occurred before proper contact could be established."

  "A battleship?" Alban shouted in fear. But he quickly collected his wits as he remembered that the hyperwaves had a practically unlimited range and need no time whatsoever to propagate throughout the cosmos. The battleship need not be in the vicinity of the Laton system; it might just as well be at the other end of the universe.

  "Yes, it was just about to send us a message, when suddenly we were cut off. At the same time the bomb also e
xploded."

  "What a strange coincidence," Lord Alban remarked thoughtfully. But his reprieve did not last long.

  Commissioner Rathon continued: "Our direction finder and range indicator showed that the battleship must already be within our system here. Actually I expect the spaceship to land on Tuglan at any moment now. We must prepare for this in any case. I wouldn't like to see you encounter any difficulties because of this bombing attack. Let's hope we'll find a plausible explanation for this incident. I'd like to suggest, however, that you proceed more energetically against the underground movement."

  "The Arkonide battleship - already here?"

  Alban stared dumbfoundedly at the high commissioner. The whole world seemed to collapse around him.

  3/ THE 'IMPOSSIBLE' STOWAWAY

  Perry Rhodan regained his sight; he saw an infinity filled with stars.

  The leap through hyperspace had gone wrong!

  Khrest approached. Silently he stared at the semi-circle of videoscreens which rendered a lifelike picture of everything outside the ship. The closely placed screens created the illusion of a transparent wall. Nothing seemed to separate the two men in the Command Center from the emptiness of space.

  Behind them a door slid aside. A stocky man with red, bristly hair entered the room, his pale-blue eyes staring in wonderment at the screens. He muttered sceptically:

  "Somebody seems to have stuck the sky full of holes! Where do they come from?"

  "That's a good question!" Rhodan countered sharply. He took his eyes off the starry sky image on the screens. Then he remembered something. Something that had happened during the transition. Hadn't he realized then that something had gone wrong?

  Of course, the coordinates! The distance!

  Now he saw the disastrous figures: 33,560.

  Also the direction of the hyperjump was different than they had originally calculated.

  Someone must have shifted the coordinates at the very moment of the transition.

  The new arrival, none other than Reginald Bell, Rhodan's best friend and companion, seemed to intuit that something had apparently gone wrong. Khrest, his eyes half closed and his body rigid, was standing silently on the other side of the control panels. Rhodan's forehead was marked by a deep furrow between his eyebrows - always a sign that forebode no good. And besides - the final proof that all was not well - the sky was covered with entirely unknown constellations.

  For an instant, Bell thought to recognize in this another fantastic mirage of the Great Unknown, whose trail they were pursuing; but he rejected this thought almost immediately. The immortal could not be so simpleminded as to pull the same trick twice. A being capable of manipulating space and time would never leave himself wide open like that.

  Then must the unknown space out there be for real?

  "Damn it, what's happened?" he grumbled, and stepped over to Rhodan. "I'd appreciate some explanation!"

  "Where are our telekineticists?" came Rhodan's counter question in place of an answer.

  Although Khrest kept his eyes half closed, he was still listening in to the conversation. Bell's reaction to Rhodan's question was a feeling of irritation; he was not too pleased by his friend's apparent attempt to avoid the issue.

  "What about our telekineticists? Do you want them to put the sky back in order, move the stars to where they belong?"

  "Stop that nonsense now, Reg! I have a very good reason for wanting to know where they are. The controls were shifted right during the transition. Since only Khrest and I were in the Command Center during that time, it can only have happened by telekinesis. That's why I'm asking you where they are."

  There were three telekineticists in Rhodan's mutant corps - Betty Toufry, just nine years old; Anne Sloane, the young American girl; and Tama Yokida, the Japanese. Bell stared straight into his friend's eyes, just for a moment, before he turned on his heels without uttering a word. He left the room, finally convinced that the situation was too serious to permit any further fooling around.

  Khrest moved. Rhodan had almost forgotten his presence. "Do you really consider our mutants might have tampered with the coordinates, Perry?"

  Rhodan shook his head. "I hardly think so, but I wanted to make absolutely sure. No, they wouldn't be that fool-hardy and risk their lives. If we weren't so far away already from the planet Vagabond, I'd be inclined to believe that those crazy mouse-beavers had played another of their tricks. But it's most unlikely; the distance is too great."

  Bell returned a couple of minutes later, his big round eyes filled with misgivings. "The mutants had definitely nothing to do with this calamity. Who else could it be? The mouse-beavers, maybe? But we were already too far away. Where are we now?"

  Rhodan did not know which question to answer first. Neither could he decide which for the time being was more important. Khrest solved the problem in his own way.

  "If I'm not mistaken, I know this sun over there," he said, pointing to a giant blue star positioned at an angle to their flight direction. The star's light was so bright that Rhodan had to shield his eyes. "I shall check up on it in the map room to make sure I'm right in my assumption. But I think it would be wise to double-check, Perry. Would you please, meanwhile, find the exact angle of deviation from our intended course? Also the distance we've jumped across."

  Khrest left the room without waiting for a reply.

  "How could that have happened?" groaned Bell. "To miss our destination so badly!"

  "We were exactly two-thousand light-years distant from Vega when we started the transition. However we jumped not two thousand four hundred but over thirty thousand light-years. In addition to that, we changed our direction - as far as I've been able to determine - by about sixty degrees. This means we're now thirty-six thousand light-years removed from Vega. What a mess!"

  "You said it," grumbled Bell, beside himself with aggravation. "And you're quite sure the navigational brain made no mistake?"

  "Absolutely!"

  "I can't make any sense of this whole situation!" They fell silent for a while until Khrest returned to the Control Center. In his hand he held a small replica of a map, a paper-thin plastic card with innumerable dots and crosshatched lines.

  "I've had them make a copy of this map, Rhodan. Look here!"

  He pointed to a pale giant star. "That's Laton, a huge sun with thirty-eight planets. It's registered in our index here on the Stardust; it's a part of our empire. We were lucky after all. We should be able to obtain the necessary data there for the transition to Vega."

  Rhodan did not seem especially thrilled. 'Do you think we'll encounter any Arkonides on this planet?"

  "At least one Administrator, the high commissioner from Arkon. Our colonial races have kept their independence, and we leave in their hands how they wish to govern their own systems. According to the index, Laton has eight inhabited planets. One of which is called Tuglan, the eleventh planet, the main seat of our administration. We can land there without any fear."

  Rhodan noticed the secret joy Khrest experienced. It had been over four years that the Arkonide scientist had been cut off from any contact with his home planet Arkon. Ever since he had to crash land on Earth's moon, where he had been rescued by Rhodan. So far Rhodan had cleverly prevented Khrest from re-establishing communication with Arkon. He did not want the mighty lords of the empire to learn of Earth's existence, for fear they would incorporate it into their realm.

  Not until Terra was sufficiently strong and united would it be advisable to take up contact with Arkon.

  On the other hand, if Rhodan were to refuse now to land on one of Arkon's colonies, he would certainly incur Khrest's displeasure. Quite apart from Thora's reaction.

  Thora, the female commander of that Arkonide space cruiser on which Khrest had held the position of leading scientist, hated Rhodan because he was a human being. And she loved him because he was a man. But she longed with all her heart for her home planet, Arkon. She would cause a great deal of trouble if he were to refuse landing
on Tuglan.

  Rhodan quickly arrived at a decision: "We'll establish contact with Laton, Khrest, under one condition don't reveal the location of Earth to your commissioner there. I don't believe this is the right moment for it. You know the reason why, no doubt."

  "I do," Khrest reassured him. "And you know that I share your feelings in this respect. During the past four years I had ample opportunity to get acquainted with the human race and to appreciate their special talents. We're agreed, Perry, that Arkon's might is nearing its end. If there should ever be any successor to our galactic empire, it could be only the human race, the Terrans. But what about Thora? Will she also agree?"

  Rhodan could not answer that question for an alarm bell began to ring loudly. Rhodan rushed over to the ship's intercom at the back wall and found out that the alarm originated from the galley. For a moment Rhodan was confused, for nothing was more improbable now than that something unusual should have happened there of all places.

  He depressed a lever. A tiny videoscreen lit up. The face of an agitated chef filled the screen.

  "Commander Rhodan!" he burst out before Rhodan could ask him a question. "We have a stowaway on board! Could you come to the galley at once, sir?"

  Rhodan was thunderstruck. He could not even inquire who the stowaway might be. By the time he caught hold of himself, the cook's face had already disappeared from the darkened screen.

  "A stowaway?" asked Khrest. "Who could that be?"

  Rhodan shut his eyes for an instant. Then he said: "I'm going to the galley. Why don't you come with me, Khrest and Reg?"

  The three men left the Command Center. On the way, Bell was busy with his thoughts.

  A stowaway? Nobody could have gotten on their spacecraft in the middle of deep space. And there were no human beings, besides the ship's crew, on the planet Vagabond, the last place they had touched down.