The Ambassadors from Aurigel Read online

  Above the streets there were bridges suspended between the towers on which many curious Whistlers had gathered to catch a glimpse of the passing column. Chellish noted that the uniformed men who accompanied the column in open cars at both sides and both ends paid special attention to these bridges. Were they afraid of an assassination?

  There were few pedestrians in the streets and hardly any vehicles. Presumably the route traveled by the column had been cleared of all other traffic. Chellish guessed that the city must have about four million inhabitants and he couldn't believe that the almost total absence of traffic in the center of the city was a normal condition.

  After a drive of about one hour the column turned into a broad highway-lined on both sides by tall trees resembling poplars-which led out of the city. The highway ended after about five kilometers at the foot of an especially high tower. The tower formed the point of a wedge whose flanks also consisted of towers. The structures were connected by numerous bridges of all sizes and shapes which made a unified complex of the nine towers. Chellish had no doubt that it was the residence of the man sitting beside him.

  A wide gateway opened at the base of the first tower through which the aircushion car floated into a brightly-lit hall. The other vehicles followed as Chellish reassured himself with a quick backward glance. Servants in splendid uniforms rushed forward from all sides and took their places at the doors of the vehicles.

  Their initial goal had been reached: Chellish and his companions were inside the 'palace' of the President-King of Peep, or rather Heeninniy, although they didn't know it at the moment.

  3/ THE SECRET DOCUMENTS

  "I've got a job for you," Admiral Wee-Nii said three days later to his aide Fij-Gul, "and I don't know if you're going to like it."

  Fij-Gul listened attentively.

  "At the court of His Excellency," Wee-Nii continued, "they have meanwhile found out that the spaceship of the aliens is empty and was left unguarded. I want you to take a few men and have a look if there is any important information in which we would be interested."

  "Is there any reason to distrust the aliens?" Fij-Gul asked suspiciously.

  Wee-Nii waved his hand. "First of all there are always reasons to mistrust strangers and, secondly, it's none of your business nor is it mine. Orders are orders and this one comes from the Presidential Chambers. So pick a few men and take some micro-cameras along. The sooner you finish the job, the better."

  "But I don't have any idea how airlocks can be opened," Fij-Gul grumbled. "The strangers have locked them."

  "This problem has already been solved," Wee-Nii said. "Our technicians weren't asleep all this time either. Just let me know when you're ready to enter the ship and you'll find the airlock open."

  Fij-Gul turned around but before he left through the curtain which served as a door, he thought of another question. "What will happen if the strangers surprise me in the act?"

  Wee-Nii made a vague gesture. "Then the court will hold you in disgrace as long as the aliens remain on Heeninniy," he answered. "Of course the Presidential Chambers will deny all knowledge. If you get caught you'll have to assume all responsibility yourself. You'll have to make this clear to your men too."

  Fij-Gul saluted and left. He walked along the high and long corridor outside, which was uneven and packed down by footsteps. He mulled over the assignment he had drawn and felt that it was utterly distasteful to him.

  • • •

  "No," Sheldrake assured with emphasis, "I've never had a more interesting job in my life and time has never seemed so short as aboard the Fair Lady."

  A buzzing, disturbing noise suddenly filled the little room. Sheldrake looked up and glanced with dismay at the little warning box which hung on the wall behind him. "Visitors!" he said tersely. "Take your places, boys."

  Loewy and Krahl got up and left the room. Sheldrake followed and locked the hatch to the small room. The hatch was designed to look exactly like the adjacent wall. It fitted in without showing a crack and only by measuring the adjoining rooms would anyone else have been able to detect that there was a third room between the other two.

  Loewy and Krahl slipped down the dark corridor toward the right and Sheldrake turned left. He tried to analyze his emotions and concluded that he didn't feel any fear. He was excited but not afraid. To discover this seemed to calm him somehow. He touched his weapon, which he carried in his hip pocket, and turned into a narrow corridor leading to the radio room. He checked the observation screen, which gave him a view of the Command Center, and found that it was properly switched on as it flickered once in awhile. The screen was dark since it was also dark in the Command Center at the present time.

  Sheldrake closed his eyes and listened. He didn't know who had opened the airlock. But Chellish himself had installed the warning instrument and advised the entire crew of it. Therefore it was extremely unbelievable that one of their own men had done it.

  Whistlers, Sheldrake thought. They must have become curious, wanting to snoop around. Although he strained his ears, he was unable to hear anything. Whoever the intruder was, he moved quietly and cautiously as one would expect a burglar to do. Sheldrake opened his eyes again and looked at the picture screen. He waited for the light in the Command Center to go on but he knew that he would be startled when it happened.

  • • •

  Wee-Nii had kept his promise: the airlock of the alien ship was open.

  Still, Fij-Gul felt not a bit more comfortable than before. What if the strangers had failed to tell the truth and left guards aboard the vessel in order to protect it against any unauthorized trespassing?

  Then he, Fij-Gul, would have to take the blame for the mess. There would be nobody to back him up. Even Wee-Nii would feign astonishment and pretend that he didn't have the faintest notion how his adjutant got the crazy idea to sneak into the ship of the strangers with a handful of men and violate the laws of hospitality in such a flagrant manner.

  He would be demoted and sent to the farthest and most boring corner of Heeninniy. If they would ever call him back and restore his honor after the strangers had departed, as Wee-Nii had promised, was something that could not be predicted with certainty. Iiy-Juur-Eelie's verdicts were sometimes inscrutable.

  With a whistling sound of disgust he pulled himself up through the airlock. The lamp in his hand lit up and the beam searched along the wall. Fij-Gul had learned before he started out with his five men how to operate the hatches of the unfamiliar ship. He quickly located the button which opened and closed the inner hatch doors.

  He waited till his men had caught up with him and then shut the outer hatch. At the moment it closed with a sucking noise, the airlock chamber was flooded with light. Fij-Gul was stunned at first since nobody had told him that the illumination worked automatically. They probably didn't know it either. Fij-Gul waited awhile and listened. Only after a few minutes had passed without a stir did he feel sure that no danger threatened.

  He opened the inner hatch and was no longer surprised that the corridor behind it was also bathed in light. In the center of the corridor was a conveyor belt which was not running. Fij-Gul motioned his men and they cautiously went ahead through the corridor.

  In time he became bolder. At first he stopped and listened at each corridor crossing. Since everything was perfectly quiet, he became more confident as he went along.

  It began to look as if the aliens had told the truth: the ship was empty.

  Fij-Gul thought it most likely that the desired information-if there was any to be found at all-could be dug up in the Command Center from where the ship was steered. Following his sense of symmetry, he guessed that the Command Center was located at the center of the ship and he was not mistaken in this case. After searching for half an hour during which time his head-and those of his men even more-began to drone under the unaccustomed high air pressure inside the ship, they reached a circular room which was much too low for his standards. The room had so many switch panels, consoles, observati
on screens, dials, loudspeakers and other instruments on its walls that its function was unmistakable.

  Fij-Gul had only the vaguest idea what to look for. He saw several cabinets, which were filled with files. The files contained papers with the peculiar letters of the strangers. Fij-Gul didn't know the writing and had therefore no possibility of recognizing what was or wasn't important. Thus he thought it best to photograph everything he could lay his hands on. While he was busy taking pictures his men examined the other cabinets which were all empty with one exception. Fij-Gul felt relief. The sooner he could leave the ship the better it would be.

  He had the files spread out on one of the tables and photographed each sheet with a small camera which he had slipped over a finger through a metallic ring.

  • • •

  Sheldrake indeed flinched a little when the light went on. He saw the six Whistlers enter the Command Center and hoped that they would fail to detect the little electronic eye above the entrance door which surveyed the entire room.

  He could also hear one of the Whistlers, who was a little taller than the others, utter some squeaky noises while pointing in various directions. He knew that a recording instrument monitored the conversation and that they would later be able to translate it into English by using the transmitter they had obtained from the Whistlers on Grautier. He regretted that he didn't have such a set because he was extremely anxious to learn what the Whistlers were after in particular.

  He watched the tallest of the men, apparently the leader of the group, take file after file out of the cabinet, spread them out on the table and photograph them with a miniature camera. He knew that these files had been purposely put into the cabinet by Chellish in order to mislead the Whistlers and he was pleased to see that they swallowed the bait. If the Whistlers succeeded in translating the documents they would be taught to exercise extreme caution in their treatment of the envoys of Aurigel.

  About 40 minutes later all papers had been photographed. The officer-if he was one-took a last look around and Sheldrake had the impression that he was glad not to discover any more documents. With a quick, nervous gesture he motioned his men to leave and closed the hatch behind himself. The observation screen turned dark as the light in the Command Center was switched off.

  After five minutes the intercom buzzed. Sheldrake answered and heard Krahl's Voice: "All clear, Fred! They're outside again."

  Sheldrake nodded happily. "Come back!" he said.

  Soon they were back in the little room. Loewy looked at his watch and asked: "How about sending them a radio message?"

  "Be patient," Sheldrake counseled. "Not so fast, or they might guess that it has something to do with their break-in."

  Krahl answered with a disappointed expression: "I'm not so sure about that. Maybe the Whistlers don't know the first thing about codes. Our message wouldn't make any sense to them."

  Sheldrake dismissed it with a gesture of his hand. "You're indulging in a fantasy, Walter. A highly civilized race that knows nothing about codes? That is like saying that they haven't learned how to build automobiles in the United States. Besides, leave it to Chellish; he knows how to handle it!"

  • • •

  The Secret Service of His Excellency the President-King worked at top speed. The documents which had been secured by a certain officer of the Airfleet comprised a total of 223 sheets of uniform size and the notes had to be deciphered and interpreted.

  His Excellency had personally given orders to complete the translation of the material before the next morning. No protest was permissible against the order since it came from the highest source although the Director of the Secret Service was of the opinion that he had never before received such a foolish demand.

  Their knowledge of the script used by the aliens was far from complete. It was based on a totally different principle than the writing of the people of Heeninniy. Each sound had a special character whereas the writing of the Whistlers represented a highly developed form of hieroglyphics which usually had only one sign for an entire word.

  Gii-Yeep, the Director of the Secret Service, canceled all leaves which he had given the day before and made it clear to his employees that they would lose their jobs unless they literally complied with the order of His Excellency. Gii-Yeep himself buckled down and worked all night.

  They finally accomplished the impossible. The task was completed shortly after sunrise. The stenographic transcript covered 70 sheets of the same size as the original text.

  What Gii-Yeep held in his hands when he left his subterranean office to go up to the residential tower of His Excellency amounted to an extensive description of the world of Aurigel from which the aliens had come. It dealt with their political relations to other inhabited stars that seemed to exist to Gii-Yeep's amazement in great numbers in the near and far surrounding space, with their expansionary plans and their technology and military powers. After thoroughly studying the detailed account a person would be as well informed as if the President of Aurigel himself had told him all his secrets in hour-long talks.

  Gii-Yeep was overwhelmed by the mass of information and looked forward to the highest praise for his accomplishment. However it was much less pleasant to read the report concerning the military might of the planet Aurigel. Gii-Yeep was no politician but if he had been one, he would have to admit that Heeninniy could not afford for the next 500 years to adopt an attitude other than friendly and servile toward the race of Aurigel.

  His Excellency was already waiting for Gii-Yeep. "Finished?" Iiy-Juur-Eelie asked tersely.

  "Yes, Your Excellency," Gii-Yeep answered humbly.

  "Good work. What do the papers contain? Read them to me!"

  Gii-Yeep obeyed. As he read, Iiy-Juur-Eelie sat in a comfortable chair, stretching out his endless legs. Gii-Yeep noticed however that he was far less calm than he pretended. His eyes fluttered and his claw-like fingers were in constant motion.

  "What do you think of it?" Iiy-Juur-Eelie asked tensely after Gii-Yeep had finished reading.

  "First of all, Your Excellency, the aliens are obviously far superior to us," Gii-Yeep replied.

  "In technological respect, yes," His Excellency agreed. "But they apparently have so far no aggressive plans against Heeninniy."

  "Nothing of the sort was mentioned in the report," Gii-Yeep admitted. "It would be fair to assume that they have no hostile intentions."

  "Good. So that will give us some time."

  Gii-Yeep was surprised. Time? Time for what?

  "If we could find out for instance," Iiy-Juur-Eelie reflected, "how their ship is equipped, if we could learn on what principle their propulsion engine and their weapons function, wouldn't that help us to improve our methods, Gii-Yeep?"

  Gii-Yeep hastened to agree. "It certainly would, Your Excellency."

  "Our technicians are clever people, Gii-Yeep," Iiy-Juur-Eelie continued. "If they were given a few days or a few weeks time they could easily ascertain what we need to know. Nothing is simpler than closing a technological gap if one has a model to work with."

  He got up-quicker and with more spring than his age would seem to allow. "Of course the aliens won't let us willingly pry around their ship," he said, lowering his voice. "We must... oh, I've got it, Gii-Yeep! How long would it take the passengers of an airplane which crashes in the middle of the Eenee Desert with its radio demolished to get back to civilization?"

  Gii-Yeep's eyes widened. "At least 10 days," he uttered with a whistle. "If they manage to survive, that is."

  "Oh we'll certainly see to that. We won't have anything serious happen to the envoys of another world. But they can't hold us responsible for the crash of an airplane. After all, our technology has not yet reached such a state of perfection as theirs. Right?"

  Gii-Yeep pondered the plan and the more he thought about it the more childish it appeared to him. He had brooded a whole night over the story of the aliens and he couldn't believe that it would be that simple to outwit them. What if they got wind of the
plot and called their armed fleet to Heeninniy?

  Gii-Yeep dared to express his doubts although this was sometimes dangerous. However Iiy-Juur-Eelie was in an excellent mood and didn't resent it. On the other hand he didn't take his objections seriously either.

  Gii-Yeep was dismissed with a compliment for his fast work. However he was given a hint that he would soon receive further instructions about the scheme which had already been outlined by His Excellency.

  This spoiled some of his good mood. The rest was dampened when he returned to his office and learned from the monitoring officer that a radio message had been intercepted half an hour ago which apparently originated from the ship of the strangers. The message had been transmitted with enormous power and it consisted merely of a few signals. Gii-Yeep's technicians had succeeded in deciphering its meaning. It said: EXPECT EASY HARVEST.

  Gii-Yeep believed he knew what harvest was meant. He was also vexed by the fact that a radio call had been sent from the ship although the strangers were all in the palace. He called the Presidential Chamberlain and learned that the strangers had full freedom of movement and that several of them constantly roamed around without escorts. This eased his concern. As Director of the Secret Service he had been informed of Fij-Gul's nocturnal adventure and he would have regretted if the young officer had fallen victim to some trick of the aliens-such as leaving a secret board-watch in the ship.

  Finally it occurred to him to inquire whether they had determined the direction in which the call had been beamed. The result was significant in Gii-Yeep's opinion. The message had been aimed where Feejnee, Heeninniy's gigantic uninhabited neighbor planet with its eight moons, was at this time when the distance between the two stars measured 900 million kilometers.

  4/ SECRET MESSAGE

  "It must have worked," O'Bannon said. "I was near the ship when Sheldrake transmitted the call. They'll think I did it."

  Chellish was pleased. "They probably have already figured it out. The code is very simple and I hope it wasn't too hard for them to guess what the easy harvest implied."