A Touch of Eternity Page 4

  Everywhere he came upon the motionless caterpillar creatures who in contrast to the prisoners were still in their original time-ratio and naturally did not move. That is, although they were moving they did so at a rate that was 72,000 times slower than Pucky's movements. To the unaided eye they were as lifeless as granite because the inertial factor of skin and flesh had been magnified 72,000 times and made them practically indestructible.

  And there was also something else behind the curious natural laws in this particular place where the two time-planes intersected.

  Pucky was soon to find this out.

  The mouse-beaver stood thoughtfully in front of a group of the relatively motionless caterpillars and listened to the long drawn-out "d-r-u-u-u-f" of their time-elapsed cries. Here the speed of sound was only about 0.2 inch per second—at least all sound that originated in the other continuum. It was evident that such a time-delay would also have its acoustical effects.

  Pucky reasoned that even the time-frozen caterpillars must think. So why not find out what was going on in their small, primitive brains? They were not in captivity here. Perhaps they would reveal something that the others had not...

  Pucky opened his 'receptors' and suddenly staggered. He almost lost his balance. By all the sun systems of the Coal Sack!—what was this?

  Instead of intercepting an orderly and comprehensible series of thoughts, inside his brain Pucky 'heard' a weird and unrecognizable jumble of long drawn-out impulses that sounded like distorted electronic music. In a more acoustical sense, it was as though he had put his ear to a beehive. It was impossible for him to differentiate the individual thought trains and sort them out.

  He screened himself off, thus isolating the telepathic portion of his mutant brain. He glanced around for quick orientation and then teleported himself to the place where Rhodan was located. He materialized close beside him.

  "Well?" asked Rhodan calmly. He was used to the mouse-beaver's precipitate appearances out of nowhere. "You ought to be thinking about getting yourself on board. We're taking off in just a few minutes."

  Pucky excitedly told him about his experience with the caterpillars. It was one of those rare times when he could find no explanation for a phenomenon. "After all, I was able to read the thoughts of the other Druufs—uh—caterpillars, I mean. Why not this time? They also have to think, don't they?"

  Rhodan failed to suppress a faint smile. "Naturally they think, Pucky, just like all the others. But they think on another time-plane. Their thoughts are slower. What you picked up was their thought impulses, alright—but slowed down 72000 times."

  The mouse-beaver made no answer. The full impact of Rhodan's words struck him suddenly: there could never be any communication between humans and Druufs! Unless one were converted to their own ratio of time...

  Pucky hopped away toward the Sherbourne.

  Rhodan pushed for a quick departure. He alone could perceive the consequences of a further delay. If he were not deceived by his deductions, then hours and perhaps even days must have already passed for Bell outside in the Drusus.

  Rhodan was the last to go up the slanting gangway to the entrance lock. He took one last look at the K-7. The ship would have to remain here because it was practically impossible to bring it back now into their own time sphere.

  Sikerman was already hunched over the flight controls and was nervously awaiting the command to take off. Pucky had gone to the area where Ragov and Noir were taking care of the captured caterpillars. The creatures from the other dimension were beginning to fill him with a consuming interest. With Noir's help there was no more problem in establishing a definite communication with them.

  The conversation could begin.

  Rhodan nodded to Sikerman as the green light flashed, signifying that all outer locks were closed and the ship was in readiness to start.

  "Take it slow this time. No high-speed acceleration. You have your course. We'll make a short stop at the halfway mark to pick up Josua the meteorologist who's been flying to meet us. Then—on to the light window!"

  The ensuing 20 minutes passed with unusual swiftness. Josua was taken on board and the flight continued. In the control room Rhodan stared incessantly at the wide forward viewscreen and did not miss a detail of the passing landscape below. Behind him stood Lt. Rous, correcting the course whenever it was necessary. For after all there was no one who knew the stretch between the volcano and the light window better than he.

  On the distant horizon behind them, perhaps 60 miles away, was a dark, opaque wall. It rose upward into the sky but became notably weaker there and more translucent. Rous explained to Rhodan that this wall consisted of pure energy—or actually time converted to matter as the result of some unknown side effect of the warp-field generator.

  Time converted to matter! Rhodan shuddered as the meaning of these words sank in. Time that had turned into matter. Incredible! And yet it must be so!

  The Sherbourne passed over the place where the smaller time wall had been before and where Rous and his crew had stood helplessly until both the light window and the obstacle had disappeared.

  Finally the ship came out over the broad plain. In its center was a glassy spot that was still glowing with heat.

  "That's where the Druufs hit the surface with one of their deadly energy beams," explained Rous gravely. "About a week ago. The rock down there is still molten."

  But Rhodan paid attention neither to Rous' words nor to the glowing spot below. His searching eyes and ever-alert senses had detected a fleeting movement in the direction of their flight. There, where the flaming energy-ring marked the intersecting point of the two dimensions. The light window was still there. The return path into their own time-world was not barred from them, so they could leave this alien universe behind them.

  And yet they could not!

  Emerging from the void, about 20 long torpedo-shaped giant ships came racing toward the light-ring and opened up with a raging salvo of energy guns against the glowing apparition. The alien ships were moving at a rate of 1.3 miles per second, which in their own time sphere corresponded to about half the speed of light.

  The curtain of fire before and around the hole in the time wall became heavier. At a glance Rhodan realized that it was completely impossible to break through the blockade. Their own defense screens would unquestionably collapse under the bombardment.

  There was only one possibility: no Earthly law was applicable here...

  3/ "ENTIRELY IMPOSSIBLE!"

  "Ready!" said the Druuf. "Switch on!"

  Shadows glided through the corridors and rooms of the giant ship which orbited the sun system at a great distance. It hurtled along at the speed of light, without connecting the time compensator. The effect that the Druuf had been waiting for quickly materialized. The aliens who had penetrated their dimension were now visible.

  "The system is turned on!" came the answer across many light-hours from the flagship of the battlefleet which was lying in wait for the enemy within the atmosphere of the planet. "Guide us!"

  This was necessary because the aliens were visible only on the viewscreens of the giant ship, which was flying at speol. The smaller battleships continued to be blind—and had to rely on orders from the main ship, which was guiding their attack.

  The Druuf leaned over the screens. Down there on the almost overpopulated world was a great activity of life and movement. A planet of the other time-plane had just been swept over and millions of alien creatures had been taken over. The caterpillars would take it upon themselves to give them food and house them in their shelters. Communication would not be an obstacle because now the aliens lived at no faster a pace than they, having adjusted their time ratios accordingly.

  Except for those who had penetrated this time-plane by means of a technical apparatus which enabled them to retain their own time rate. These latter moved so swiftly that they remained invisible. They represented a danger because it was a goal of the Druufs to make the 2, time-plane ratios compatible o
r self-compensating

  A spherical ship was to be seen on the viewscreen. It had been swept through the barrier a few minutes before. But then the new aliens had come and had taken back some of the others into their own time. These must die.

  The picture-relay station went into operation.

  "Weapons in fire readiness?" inquired the Druuf.

  "Ready and standing by!" came the answer from the flagship.

  "Increase your speed—about 1/2 speol. That's even too fast for the aliens to dodge the attack. I will guide you."

  But before the battlefleet could carry out the order, something unusual happened: Down below, close to the place where the six aliens had penetrated a few minutes before, a strange luminescence came into being. It was a ring of light with tremendous dimensions. The Druuf recognized the phenomenon. It originated from the apparatus which enabled the other people to penetrate into this time-plane.

  Were they getting reinforcements now?

  The flaming ring became complete. Almost simultaneously a dark spherical shape appeared in its center. It plunged out of emptiness into the Druuf world and soon slowed its hurtling pace. Calmly and methodically it headed toward the mountains where the somewhat smaller ship waited.

  There was a distorted garble of impulses in the radio receiver. The Druuf gave a command to his fleet. "Wait!"

  The black ships of the Druufs waited.

  After a full half-second came the order: "Attack! I will guide you!"

  For the Druuf himself perhaps 10 minutes had passed. In his viewscreen the strangers moved at a natural-seeming rate of speed. Time went faster for the Druuf than for the ones on the ships of the fighting fleet, who were not traveling at the speed of fight.

  "Move in at 1/2 speol!"

  The controls of the ships responded to the remote guidance signals. At half the speed of light the 20 sleek cruisers hurtled toward the surface of the planet and opened fire.

  To be followed immediately by new commands...

  • • •

  Lt. Rous shrugged helplessly. "I'm sorry, sir, that I can't come up with an explanation for it. Even Steiner can't figure it out. If all our calculations are correct, then no more than 10 seconds can have passed for the Druufs since our arrival here a week or so ago. It's impossible for them to have developed a new method of seeing us within those 10 seconds."

  "Nevertheless, they have!" said Rhodan severely. And he added gravely: "Also their responses are within 1000th of a second. It seems impossible but the proof is before us. We have to get to the bottom of this or we're finished."

  While he spoke, he did not take his eyes from the viewscreen.

  The alien ships—unusually long and slender shapes of black metal, equally pointed both fore and aft—had approached the light window and blanketed it with a sustained fire from their energy guns. They lay in a full-scale barrage ring which was a blockade against either exit or entry, so that the arrival of any possible reinforcements into this time-plane was an impossibility.

  "Can't we attack the black ships?"

  Rhodan nodded. "Naturally we could do that but I'm just not certain as to how our defense screens would react to energy beams that only travel at 2.5 miles per second. Do you have any idea?"

  Rous shook his head.

  Steiner was slightly in the rear of the control room but he said: "I can see what you're driving at, sir. Their energy beams are subject to the laws of the other time-sphere. So their power of destruction should be correspondingly greater. Hm-m-m." He hesitated "But can't it just as easily be less?"

  "Would you like to test it out?" suggested Rhodan.

  Steiner didn't answer.

  Rhodan sighed. "It's a fact that the Druufs can see us and not five minutes later, mind you, but at least five seconds later. They've made some advances. It beats me for the moment. Sikerman, please ask Khrest and Atlan to come into the Command Central."

  The Sherbourne was about 12 miles away from the light window. Sikerman's hands were on the controls. At present the enemy fire was blocking them from making a retreat but in the instant that any finger of energy should swing their way he could hurl the ship into the sky. There would be perhaps 10 seconds for such an action.

  Khrest was the first to enter the Command Central. His tall, commanding figure with the white hair, red albino eyes and well-shaped sensitive hands made him stand out as an Arkonide. He smiled reservedly at Rhodan and the others present, after which he sat down in one of the seats.

  Atlan the Immortal did not look like an Arkonide. He had lived incognito for 10,000 years on Earth among humans and had acquired some of their customs and mannerisms. His long-standing habit of disguise had left its mark on him and had erased a number of former Arkonide characteristics. He also smiled but it was a somewhat derisive and superior smile that would have irritated Rhodan under other circumstances.

  Not today, however. As calmly as possible, he said: "It was not my intention to take you along on this expedition but you asked to take part in it. Now however I'm glad you did because we're faced with a situation that doesn't seem to have a way out." In a few words he depicted to them what had happened in the meantime. Khrest and Atlan listened without interrupting. Their faces reflected anxiety and even Atlan's smile was gone.

  "So now what you're saying is that even you can go no further, Barbarian?" inquired the latter, still sarcastic in spite of the story. "And we the decadent Arkonides are supposed to help you? That's a bit absurd, isn't it?"

  "Absolutely not, Arkonide," retorted Rhodan. "I have never asserted that you or Khrest were decadent. On the contrary, I regard you as being the most capable representatives of your race. But what's the point of arguing among ourselves? It's better for us to put our heads together to find a way of returning to our own sphere of time. Where we are now is neither the past, present nor future. It's—something else again."

  Atlan nodded. "I agree with you, Perry. This is something else. But we came here, which means that we should be able to succeed in going back."

  "Not through that blockade around the light window!"

  Atlan nodded again. "Let's find an explanation first as to why the Druufs are suddenly capable of such a fast reaction, even though they are alleged to live and move at a rate that is 72000 times slower than our own rate. What, therefore, has happened?"

  "If we knew that..." began Lt. Rous but he was silenced by a wave of the hand from Atlan.

  "We shall know it, if we reflect on it logically. And the first thing that comes to mind is the caterpillar creatures we have on board. They have lost their own relative time-rate and have adjusted themselves to ours. Why shouldn't it also be possible for the Druufs to do the same?"

  "That's exactly my line of thinking," murmured Rhodan, disregarding Atlan's grin. "So continue!"

  "It's quite simple. Today we still don't know exactly what would happen if we were to reach the speed of light because we haven't had an occasion yet to try it. At our so-called relative light velocity we simply go into a transition, which means an automatic takeover by the time-compensator. No one has yet attempted to reach the natural speed of light without using this apparatus. That is, aside from Lt. Rous and his crew. And even that transpired in a certain relative sense. Anyway you must admit that in this there may be an answer."

  Rhodan nodded but refrained from answering the Immortal. He waited quietly to see whether or not Atlan would confirm his own hunch.

  "So what probably happened when the Druufs also got the idea to fly at the speed of light? Did their time concepts also shift? Did they also start living as fast as we do? And if so, with what consequences? Will they also have to die sooner because they are living out their lives at a faster rate? These are speculations that we can get into later. The important thing is for us to shed some light on these phenomena—and I think we just did."

  "That's it!" exclaimed Steiner, amazed, and he stared at Atlan perplexedly as the latter glanced at him with a grin. Rous and Sikerman also nodded their confirmatio
n.

  Khrest remained calm and collected but in his unblinking eyes gleamed pride in his Arkonide origin. No, the Arkonides were not yet damned to ultimate extinction. They could still think logically and arrive at effective decisions.

  At least Atlan!

  Finally, Rhodan spoke. "It's reassuring to have discovered such a relatively simple explanation, even though it was only necessary to demonstrate its correctness." He glanced at the viewscreen. "Three of the black ships have ceased firing. They are climbing at a relatively slow speed and are turning their bows in our direction. I believe we are to be presented with an opportunity to determine the time differential between us and the Druufs—that is, to see how closely they have approached our ratio. At the same time it will also represent their reaction time."

  Atlan had sat down beside Khrest. The two Arkonides engaged in a low-voiced conversation. Rhodan could tell they were discussing the possibilities of getting around the Druufs.

  "Hold the Sherbourne ready for takeoff," ordered Rhodan as he watched the viewscreen again. The three alien ships had risen to a considerable altitude, with their bows aimed at the Sherbourne . It was now quite evident that they planned an attack. "Follow my commands closely, Colonel. We have to know how much time they need for reacting to a changed situation."

  After all, this would be a unique opportunity to determine their reaction time. During the first attack against Lt. Rous they had still required five minutes. In the meantime they could have shortened this decidedly.

  Up above, the three ships suddenly revealed their lightnings. Rhodan detected the exact second in which the beams hit the defense screens of the Sherbourne . Before he had not even been able to see them.

  The meters soared. The deep-throated humming in the heart of the powerful ship increased suddenly.

  "Off!" shouted Rhodan.

  Sikerman reacted with a lightning swiftness. With an actual leap, the Sherbourne shot upward and raced above into the stratosphere of the Crystal World. They soon exceeded the 1.25 mile-per-second range and left the pursuing energy beams behind them. But the three ships did not give up. They followed swiftly.