Duel Under the Double Sun Page 4

  This was an example of inadequate training and mental sluggishness. No attack mission could be flown with such people. By the time I went into the next transition with the robotships the three manned cruisers had set a course for their home planet. No doubt such a small malfunction would have been discovered in minutes by Terran engineers.

  Twenty-four hours after the arrival of my lighter groups I finally appeared with my heavier forces at the mobilization and rendezvous point which was code-named 'Destination'. Rhodan had brought 8,000 ships into the action, including every major warship available, and I began to fear for the Imperium when I saw this armada. I was finally getting an idea of what his lunar shipyards could produce. It wasn't the number of warships that disturbed me for I still held the advantage over him there. But when I thought of the men who were performing their duties on board those 8,000 ships, I saw my actual disadvantage. They were the best fighting men in the galaxy, each a doer and self-starter. Although each was a specialist in his own field, he was so well-rounded out in his training that he could have been switched to three or four different positions in an emergency.

  These were men who did not wait around too long for orders in a difficult situation. They always knew what they had to do. If I were to say that I felt no envy for Perry Rhodan, nevertheless I'd have been very happy to have such fighting men as these behind me.

  I had not yet come out of the painful effects of rematerialization before Rhodan started calling me. And of course he was rough and crude in his complaints over my tardiness.

  But before he could make any more threats I had cut him off short. So that was the end of that.

  • • •

  The green indicator lamp lit up over the inner door of the airlock chamber. I waited a few moments until the hiss of escaping air had subsided. Then I pressed a button which caused the outer steel door to open. The Terran destroyer had been hauled in on tractor beams and now lay inside the Teparo's Hangar 27. Rhodan had not wasted a second. The fact that the destroyer was here already meant that he must have launched it from the Ironduke immediately after my emergence from hyperspace.

  Once more I was alone. I had sent back the robots of the airlock guard detail. From now on my hypercom command transceiver would be my only link with the relay stations.

  A sleek, silvery shape with a sharply pointed bow rested on the wide guide-rails of the mag-buffer field. The built-in impulse cannon in the nose of the ship was very impressive. I had witnessed how dangerous this weapon could be, even for heavy-class ships.

  As I approached the craft I was aware of heatwaves still radiating from its stern section. Behind the transparent canopy a narrow hatch slid to one side. I was not surprised when the suited figure in the opening turned out to be that of Reginald Bell.

  "Welcome to mobilization sector 'Destination', Atlan. Are you ready?"

  I pressed myself against the highly polished hull and sprang forward. His powerful hand drew me into the narrow airlock.

  "Our jet ring is pretty hot-we had to retro-brake like crazy. Don't you have any luggage?"

  "I never brought any before on a mission with Rhodan. Who is your pilot?"

  "Lt. Brazo Alkher. You know him."

  I had heard that Alkher and another young officer had played a decisive role in the procurement of the cell activators from Wanderer. Saying nothing, I pressed my way past Bell, who closed the lock behind us. Just beyond the converter chamber housing the breech end of the energy cannon, a tall young man got up from the pilot seat. Brazo Alkher had not changed. He made a precise salute but it seemed an effort for him to look me in the eye. When I followed the Terran custom of shaking hands with him he became embarrassed.

  "How-how are you, sir?" he asked quickly.

  I laughed. "As well as can be expected, Alkher, considering the circumstances. So you are to bring me to the Ironduke?"

  "Yes sir, but one thing I refuse to do-if you'll permit the expression. I'm not going to fly this ship as crazily as I was forced to coming over."

  I raised a brow at him curiously. Bell silently pointed out my seat behind the tracking console. It was cramped in the little cabin.

  "How do you mean that?" I asked. "Was there some kind of risk?"

  "A risk that was forced upon us," Bell corrected me peevishly. "Things weren't going fast enough for Perry. I hadn't even secured the inner hatch before we were launched. He shot us out of the tube with at least 100 gravs. The inertial absorber hadn't come up to full power yet. We were hit with at least 20 gravs and I was caught short at the hatch. My backbone feels like it's been through a wringer. But let's forget it-don't worry about it."

  I suspected that this wasn't quite the whole story. Brazo Alkher was a very reliable officer of the Solar Fleet but even he appeared to be angry or indignant. Of course the attitude here wasn't exactly mutinous but when men like this started to weigh the right or wrong of certain orders the situation was becoming critical. It was high time to seriously bring Rhodan into line. He could not give me orders and moreover I was still depending upon our old friendly relationship.

  As I watched Alkher's deft manipulation of the controls I noticed that the boyish youthfulness in him seemed to harden proportionately with the sharp alertness of his eyes. The acceleration shocks and the reactor screen began to function.

  "Clear for launching manoeuvre, sir."

  I lifted my arm and spoke into my command transceiver, giving the necessary orders to the central control station on the flagship. The stationary main robot confirmed. We listened to the whistling of the turbo pumps. Seconds later the green indicators came on. The launch tube's hermetic hatch swung back in the outer armored bulkhead, revealing a glittering patch of the cosmos.

  Here close to the center of the galaxy the stars were even more concentrated than in star cluster M-13. They formed a maze of varicolored light points which seemed to coalesce in spite of their relative proximity to us.

  "Commander to His Eminence-Terran flagship is closing in at high velocity. Instructions..."

  Bell snapped his jaws together so tightly that I heard the gnashing of his teeth. I frowned in puzzlement when I saw that Alkher was struggling to conceal his nervousness.

  "That's idiotic!" Bell exclaimed harshly. His hands gripped the arms of his flight seat. "He can't lay off but wait till you hear him! Atlan, this is just some friendly advice: stay here-don't go on board the Ironduke. I know you so let's not kid each other. No matter how much you try to be tolerant and considerate, after about the fifth insult you're going to lose your self-control."

  I sensed that he meant every word he said. However, my mind was made up. I had to see this man who had turned into a despot in the space of just a few months. I couldn't quite say why I insisted on it. Perhaps it was a matter of sentiment.

  "Thanks but I'm going along," I answered.

  Bell tried again to dissuade me. "You're taking a bigger risk than you think. It's our guess that you're about to throw your whole rulership status into the gamble. Or maybe you think you can put pressure on Perry. Don't overlook the fact that he now knows where to find the Anti planet, Trakarat. You shouldn't have given out that galactic position so soon. You gave away your one ace in the hole."

  "That's right," I admitted calmly. "But I did it as a favor to you, old friend. I was hoping to pacify Perry and divert him from his disastrous state of mind. And perhaps I succeeded."

  "At a very high price, sir," said Alkher in a low tone. "May I take off?"

  I nodded to him and leaned back in the seat. The inertial absorber developed a high-pitched howl. Moments later the robot commander activated the launch release. The mag-fields swept the sleek craft along the guide-rails. As the autopilot switched high power to the propulsion system we sensed very little acceleration pressure. Yet the grav-indicator cycled off the scale as the destroyer hurtled at high speed into the starry void.

  The wave spikes on the mass-detector scope flared into a crazy dance in response to the presence of thousands of s
hips in the area. There would have been no way at the moment of evaluating the readings. Alkher was flying the flagship's guide-beam and three minutes later the destroyer was taken over by remote control. We were pulled a 10th of a degree off the vertical red indicator that marked our course.

  I heard Bell muttering as the engine thundered wildly. Sharply angling nav-jets turned us abruptly and we were snapped up with such force by the tractor beam of the flagship that the inertials could barely take up the shock. We were being handled in a very irresponsible manner. I quickly activated the emergency closure of my Arkonide spacesuit and simultaneously turned on my individual defense screen. And so we flew toward the flagship at a forbidden range of velocity and its 3-D image grew quickly on the screen. The Ironduke, the largest and most modern linear-drive warship in the Solar Fleet, stood off at some four million-km from the Teparo.

  The braking manoeuvre resembled the first solo flight of an astronaut beginner. The destroyer was whirled about on its short axis, its stern was roughly whipped to one side and then it was jerked into line again just as roughly. Just before we reached the collision screen, about 15 gravs of pressure broke through the absorbers. It threw our bodies painfully against our safety belts. The elasticity of the belt material wasn't too great and under such an inertial thrust the jolt was very considerable. This was followed by our being thrown back almost just as hard into our seats again.

  Bell was swearing a blue streak. I remained as calm as I could but I could not understand why the crewmen at the remote controls could let such a thing happen. Even if they had received orders to bring us on board as fast as possible, such a wild manoeuvre would not have been necessary. I only learned later that Rhodan had personally handled the controls. It seemed that his madness knew no bounds. The wild flight ended in a launch chamber of the battleship. When I got out of the destroyer I ached in every limb.

  My friends were there already and waiting for me. Jefe Claudrin, the commander of the Ironduke, had accompanied them. His mighty figure was hardly to be overlooked. Next to him Allan D. Mercant seemed almost childlike by comparison. I greeted them swiftly with very few words because they seemed to know everything that had happened. John Marshall simply waved at me. But over in a corner was the melancholy little figure of an unearthly intelligence whose amazing paranormal faculties had brought him galactic fame. The wide and innocent-mischievous eyes which had earned for the mouse-beaver the nickname of 'Lt. Puck'-or just plain Pucky-were noticeably devoid of their lively sparkle now.

  I walked over to him and squatted down in front of him. That way I could look directly into his sharp-snouted mouse face. "How is it going, little one?" I asked gently.

  He touched my face with his delicate paw-like hand. He heaved a deep, audible sigh. "Don't ask-it's bad," he chirped. "Can you imagine that Perry doesn't like me anymore?"

  "What?!"

  Pucky nodded vigorously. A certain glitter returned to his eyes. "That's what I'm telling you-he doesn't care about me anymore! It's been weeks now since he's scratched or petted me. And he knows how much I like that! Here everybody's gone crazy. Can you do something for us?"

  I grasped him under the arms and picked him up. He was only three feet in height and weighed very little. The poor fellow was in a state of despair. "We'll try, Pucky. How do you see the situation?"

  "I'm afraid," he admitted frankly. "Not for myself but for Perry. I can't get into his mind anymore. He has a terribly strong mono-block. If he'd only open it just once! Maybe then we might be able to help him. The doctors think his personal frequencies have shifted a little and that's why his cell activator isn't working the way it was programmed, which is obvious. Can you talk Perry into letting down his screen so I can work on him? I won't steal any of his thoughts!"

  I looked around me. The top-ranking officers were silent. Pucky had already said about everything that could be mentioned in this regard.

  "The Chief is waiting for you, sir," boomed Claudrin's thunderous voice. As usual he was wearing his small grav-generator, which provided him with the natural gravitational conditions of his homeworld of Epsal. Jefe was accustomed to 2.1 gravities.

  I set Pucky down on the deck and scratched his silky neck fur. It made him laugh at last. I knew that things really must be bad to have brought the normally cheerful mouse-beaver to such an apathetic state. What was going on in Rhodan's brain? I took off my spacesuit and accepted the Imperator's shoulder cape from Brazo Alkher. The Terrans saluted when I went to the central lift-shaft.

  Mercant came to my side and whispered rapidly: "Sir, please try not to show your reactions when you see him. He's grown to a frightening extent. At the moment he measures seven feet eight inches in height and his shoulder width has increased proportionately. Yet by comparison his weight increase has been minimal. The explosive cell division process has caused his tissue structure to swell but at the same time to lose its tone and firmness. The more it expands the lighter it becomes. He's been informed about his condition but in his psychopathic imagination he seems to think that his enormous size must mean that he has a giant's strength. He keeps on trying to prove how strong he is. Do us the favor of failing to your knees in an act of pain when you shake hands with him. Actually Rhodan is weaker than he ever was. But he will be waiting for your reaction-almost paranoically. There's hardly any other way to describe his suspicious manner of watching people these days."

  "I see you're still a top psychologist, Mercant."

  "It's a good thing I know something about it," replied the shrewd little man bitterly. "But you know humans better than I by now. Whatever Rhodan says or does, just put yourself in the place of a psychotherapist. I found that's about the easiest way to tolerate his actions."

  I was firmly resolved not to regard Perry's actions from the standpoint of a statesman but to look upon him as a friend. As the Imperator I would have had to take a position in regard to all this but as a friend I could even deceive myself if need be, convincing myself that this or that might not be meant the way it appeared to be.

  We were gliding upward in the antigravitor when Rhodan's bellowing voice was heard over the ship's P.A. system. He announced that we "traitorous lame brains" had better get to him on the double and he added that this was especially meant "for that degenerate Arkonide admiral!"

  He was starting his massive abuse already. It was only then I realized how difficult it was going to be for me to maintain the role of an all-forgiving friend and understanding psychotherapist.

  4/ THE IMPERATOR PLAYS DETECTIVE

  He was waiting for me in the Control Central of the battleship. His manner was like that of a tyrant ruler who held the power of life and death in his hands. The last thing one could have detected in his wolfish eyes was human warmth. There was a lurking predatory intentness to them and they were filled with sharp suspicion. Was this still the great man of Earth?

  His stature was that of a Colossus. They had made him a uniform out of highly elastic synthetic fabric. Although the material could stretch to the limit of its tensile strength it was already tight across his shoulders.

  A giant over seven and a half feet tall staggered toward me. The old athletic gait had been lost through his illness. His hands had become distended paws. He didn't seem to have any sense of feeling in them. A few minutes earlier Mercant had told me that Rhodan had handled the launch retrieval himself. After one look at those hands I could understand why the control manipulations had been such a threat to our lives. So I was ready to forgive him immediately. Perhaps he had not purposely given us such a bad time. But in his stubborn fixation he seemed unwilling to admit that from here on he was incapable of handling such matters effectively. Why didn't he limit himself to giving orders? Why didn't he pull himself together and put all his hopes in the forthcoming mission, which had a strong possibility of being able to solve his problem?

  I had meanwhile taken the view that the Antis on Trakarat would be forced to consider the matter if they were given a choice of either goi
ng down in flames of atomic destruction or doing everything in their power to save the Terran they had so gravely injured.

  Perry came closer, almost groping his way. His terrible eyes filled me with horror. The distorted face hardly held a trace of the old familiar features. When he stopped in front of me I had to lean my head back to look up at him. His voice had not changed. Perhaps it had become a bit husky or hoarse but his vocal cords did not seem to have been very badly affected by the cell division as yet.

  I smiled at him, putting everything into it that I had ever felt for him.

  He responded by flaring up at me. "I'll have you understand, Arkonide, that there is discipline on board my fleet flagship."

  "I beg your pardon?"

  "I said there is discipline here!" he repeated, this time more sharply. There was a gleam of insane anger in his eyes again. Evidently he could lose his composure very quickly.

  "I don't quite understand you, my friend."

  "Grinning is not permitted!" he shouted at me.

  My smile disappeared. I look about me helplessly. The men of the Control Central stood at stiff attention before their assigned stations. Even the commander and Bell and Mercant did not budge. I was horrified. Rhodan must have gone mad. In spite of my resolve I glanced at him ironically. My instinctive reactions were upsetting my good intentions faster than I had anticipated.

  "That wasn't a grin-it was a happy smile. Or can't you imagine anymore that I could be happy to see you again after such a long time?"

  He paled as a terrible rage twisted his features still more. But in spite of this he reacted differently than expected. In the expression of his feelings he seemed to be unpredictable. "Ha-glad to see me after such a long time? You mean like this?" He turned all the way around while holding his arms out and he laughed irritably.