Under the Stars of Druufon Page 4

  Sikerman made a doubtful face. Rhodan nodded silently to him.

  The commander understood immediately. He switched on the telecom and said, “Attention all hands! Battle stations remain ready! Attention Kublai Khan and California! Ready for battle!”

  Confirmations came back. The three ships converted themselves in seconds into invincible fortresses whose fire-power could shatter entire solar systems.

  Harno had long since returned to his place under the ceiling. He had been with Pucky for 20 minutes and no one knew what had been the content of their conversation. Bell had an uncomfortable feeling in the area of his stomach but ignored it with his usual vigor. After all, it had only been a prank...

  Several small isolated points sliding across the curved surface could now be seen on the large panorama vidscreen. Those had to be the ships of the Regent of Arkon blocking the entrance to the other time plane.

  There were no signs of a battle between the two sides. Everything seemed quiet and peaceful. The Druufs' breakout attempt must have been beaten back.

  “Everything would be completely different,” Rhodan said to Atlan, “if Arkon were not ruled by a treacherous robot brain but by the Arkonides themselves. The situation is all the more grotesque because we Terrans are forced to fight against both sides without either of them suspecting it. We're the 3d Power, if we want to be.”

  Atlan nodded. “From the standpoint of the Imperium, the Druufs are the greater danger. If I were Imperator of Arkon I would ally with Terra to destroy the Druufs.”

  “The Robot Regent came to an identical conclusion, only it won't maintain the alliance once the danger is removed. It would not hesitate to send its battle fleets to the Earth, as soon it knows where the Earth is.”

  “As long as a machine rules Arkon,” Atlan declared, “the Arkonides must not learn in what sector of the Milky Way Terra is to be found. No matter how dependable a machine is, it will not change its opinion—simply because it is dependable. It strives to rule and knows nothing of friendship, only of its goal. I believe we're doing the right thing, then.”

  Rhodan turned around and looked at Atlan. “Do you see everything from the standpoint of a Terran, Admiral...?”

  Atlan answered immediately. “What else can I do, barbarian? I'm as good as a Terran already, just like Khrest. Only when things are back to normal on Arkon and an authentic Arkonide rules will that change. But until then...”

  The rest remained unspoken but everyone knew what Atlan had meant to say.

  “Three ships ahead,” announced Sikerman. “They're flying at half speol and coming towards us. Should we change our course?”

  “Can you identify the ships?”

  The answer came from the Com Center. “Two Arkonide ships are attacking a smaller Druuf ship. They're going to destroy it.”

  Rhodan's decision came like lightning. “Go in closer, Sikerman!”

  The vidscreen revealed further details. There was no doubt now that the two Arkonide ships were manned by robots; the Terrans had often enough encountered ships of that type. They were spindle-shaped Arkonide torpedoes, 200 meters long, with fully automatically functioning engines.

  The Druuf ship was smaller and had the usual shape of a rod with rounded stern and bow. Its weapons fired constantly at its superior opponents, whose energy defense fields deflected the oncoming rays with no damage to the ships themselves.

  “Its chances are only slight,” murmured Atlan from his seat.

  “Excellent!” said Rhodan. His eyes were narrowed and his mouth was only a line. He noticed that the Druuf ship altered its course and sped in the direction of the nearby hole in space. The robots followed it. Headlong flight and a merciless pursuit seemed to be in the offing. “Stay close to them, now, Sikerman.”

  They flew a short distance behind the three ships. Presumably the commander of the spindle-cruiser took Rhodan's three spacespheres for Arkonide units for he did not pay them any attention. That was easy to understand: the Terran ships had been constructed according to Arkonide plans.

  A blinding energy beam shot out of the bow of a robot-cruiser and broke through the protective screen surrounding the Druuf ship. The shot had by chance been fired at the moment the weaponry aboard the enemy ship was being replenished with energy. Flames tongued from the stern of the Druuf ship.

  But the beings from the other time plane did not give up so easily. They shot back, racing onwards at high speed towards the sanctuary of the hole in the Einstein Universe and returned to their own plane.

  Rhodan's eyes opened again. “Sikerman!” he said. “Order the Kublai Khan to open fire immediately on the robotship on the left! We'll attack the one on the right ourselves. But—carefully! Don't destroy it all at once—do it in steps. The Druufs don't need to know just yet how good our weapons are.”

  Both battlespacers went into action less than 10 seconds later. They fire only their lighter weapons, which however were enough to break down the robotships' energy screens. Large holes were torn in the hulls at the same time.

  The calm and businesslike voice from the radar center announced: “Other robot units are flying towards us. We are being attacked by a flotilla.”

  Rhodan's decision came instantly. “Everson and Sikerman are ordered to destroy the two robotships. Immediately!”

  The damaged Druuf ship had not increased its speed. It sped at a constant velocity towards the hole in space, less than one light-hour away. Since it flew at only half speol, it would not reach safety for some time. But the commander of the Druufs must have realized he had found an unexpected ally. He ceased fire.

  At the same moment, it happened.

  The concentrated destructive fire of the Drusus and the Kublai Khan struck the two Arkonide spindleships. The immediately detonated atomic reactions converted the matter of the two ships into radiant suns, speeding off at a constant velocity and then merging into one. Soon only the gas cloud was left, slowly expanding and thinning out.

  Then it was gone.

  A cold smile played at Rhodan's lips as he said: “I wonder if the Druufs know anything about things like gratitude? In any case, it's already noteworthy that the fellow up ahead isn't shooting at us. Take us closer, Sikerman!”

  They slowly—or so it seemed—drew nearer to the rescued vessel, watchful and fire-ready. Only a few kilometers separated them from the other ship. Although the stern of the Druuf craft was for the most part destroyed, a number of jets—if that was what they were still functioned. The ship was no derelict by any means and would be able to return to its base without outside help.

  Again the announcement from the radar center: “Regent's ships coming toward us. Distance...”

  Rhodan nodded. “We'll probably have a chance to rescue the hard-pressed Druufs again. Excellent! We've already saved them once but a second time will make our intentions all the clearer. I've always been both a suspenders and a belt man, as the saying goes.”

  They did not have to wait long. Just an hour, perhaps.

  From out of the void came seven small units, attacking without warning. From their behavior it was easy to tell one of the ships was piloted not only by robots. At least the commander had to be an Arkonide—or more probably, a Springer.

  “They must know that we aren't Arkonides,” murmured Bell in the background. “Maybe they picked up a radio message from one of the robotships we just blew up.”

  Rhodan did not reply. He initiated the counterattack. The Druufs altered their course slightly and it looked as though they wanted to assist their unknown rescuers but then they returned to the old course and raced on-towards safety.

  The battle was only a short one.

  Six of the attackers vaporized in their collapsing defense fields. The seventh alone received an energy burst that only grazed it and it turned away. Rhodan had intentionally spared the ship with a man aboard. His action also had the advantage that the Regent would learn of the Druufs' new allies.

  Along with the Druuf ship they broke thr
ough a loose Arkonide cordon around the hole in space and plunged unhindered into the alien universe. Behind them glimmered the hole in space and the stars of the Einstein Universe disappeared.

  New stars came into view to replace them.

  The stars of the Druufs!

  3/ INVISIBLE ALLY

  The Druuf universe operated on a different rate of time than the Terran. Because of the now more slowly progressing adjustment, the difference had sharply lessened. Although at the beginning all life in the Druuf universe functioned at a rate 72,000 times slower, the relationship was today only 1:2. In other words, a Druuf lived and moved only half as fast as someone coming from the Einstein Universe.

  Shining in the center of the forward vidscreen was a strange double star. It scintillated reddishly, occasionally marked by a greenish tinge. This, Rhodan knew, was the home system of the Druufs.

  Before Rhodan attempted to make contact with the Druufs, he changed his original plan. The secret base on Siamed 13-the planet Hades—had to be strengthened.

  Hades was about half of Earth's diameter, enjoyed a gravitation only 35% of Earth's and revolved around its mother sun with the same face perpetually towards it. Because of an unusually high libration, the twilight zone between eternal night and day was 80 kilometers. While the temperature on the day side climbed as high as 168° Centigrade, unbearable cold ruled on the constantly dark side. The twilight zone was the only place where life was possible for any length of time. The terrible cold on one side and the terrible heat on the other often caused unimaginably violent storms in the twilight zone, one more reason for building the base underground.

  The cave in the Hope Mountains—as Rhodan had dubbed them—was a Terran bastion in the midst of the Druuf realm.

  Lt. Stepan Potkin reported to the control room of the Drusus. “You called me, sir?”

  “It's time now, Lieutenant,” said Rhodan. “Are your men prepared?”

  “Everything's ready to go, sir!”

  “Well,” smiled Rhodan indulgently, “I'm not sure if you can call this 'going' in the usual sense of the word. With the help of the matter transmitter you will transfer to Hades. The station in the Hope Mountains has been notified and is even now ready for your arrival. The transfer of supplies from the Kublai Khan and the California to the base is in progress and you and your men will teleport last. Good luck, Lieutenant.”

  For the first time Potkin smiled too. “Do you think we'll need it, sir?”

  “Most likely, Lt. Potkin. Without luck we would not be where we are today. We would have never done it with power and ability alone.”

  Lt. Potkin stood at attention, saluted and left the control room.

  Atlan watched him go. “Brave man,” he said thoughtfully. “Not everyone could so calmly step into a transmitter to be broken down into atoms. It could happen that not everything at the other end is running according to plan. When I think that I could step into the machine as Atlan and come out as Bell...”

  “You are irreplaceable,” said Rhodan with an odd emphasis, “but when I consider that I would then have two Bells at my side—the thought is genuinely tempting.”

  Atlan looked surprised. In the background, Bell rumbled contentedly: “You see?”

  “But don't worry,” Rhodan went on. “Such things might have happened at the beginning but today they are as good as impossible. I don't want to say that complete identity changes took place but I can well imagine that there might have been some cases of people coming out mangled or, shall we say, garbled. However, I don't know of any such incident. When we found the transmitters in the Vega system, they were already perfected.”

  “Fortunately!” said Atlan with a weak attempt to make up for his supposed defeat. “When I think of having to spend the rest of my days as Reggie...”

  “Hypercom ready for message transmission,” announced a flat voice over the intercom.

  Rhodan shrugged his shoulders and turned to face the vidscreen. “Send the following message, repeated at close intervals, in uncoded Arkonese: To the Druufs! We request an opportunity for negotiations! Your enemy is also ours! Why can we not defeat him together? If you can understand me, please reply on the same wavelength.”

  As the screen's image dissolved and the great game began, Rhodan felt something like a tinge of doubt. He had been convinced from the beginning that his plan would succeed but that did not eliminate the possibility the Druufs were more mistrustful than he assumed. What if they were growing suspicious now and luring him into a well-laid trap? Even the incident with the rescued Druuf ship might not have achieved its desired effect.

  What then?

  Another old saying occurred to him: cross that bridge when you come to it. Which is what he decided to do. But nonetheless he could keep his eyes open and see what he could find out beforehand.

  While the matter transmitters operated at full capacity and filled the meanwhile extended cave on Hades with men, weapons and food, the still manoeuvrable Druuf half-wreck was placed under radio surveillance. No transmissions could leave the ship without being picked up in the Com Center aboard the Drusus.

  One more thing worked in Rhodan's favor.

  Nature itself!

  The Druufs lived half as fast as Terrans. Even their ships flew half as fast when they remained below speol. And normal radio waves also traveled only half as fast.

  But the radio waves from the Drusus sped towards Siamed at the normal speed of light.

  Rhodan's message reached the Druufs' homeworld earlier.

  Perhaps that was no advantage at all. It depended on what the commander of the ship Rhodan saved reported to his headquarters.

  They would soon find out.

  The intercom hummed.

  Rhodan switched on the speaker. It was the communications officer.

  “Sir, the Druuf ship has radioed us! In Arkonese!” Rhodan was not surprised. “They learn fast,” he admitted. “What do they want?”

  “They thanked us, sir,” the com officer went on. His voice betrayed surprise and disbelief. “They thanked us very correctly and promised to give their headquarters a full report. That was followed by a longer transmission in an unknown code. We assume that was the message to headquarters they mentioned.”

  “Thank you,” said Rhodan and switched off. He looked at Atlan and Bell. “Well, what do you have to say to that?”

  Atlan shrugged. “It could be a trick to lull us into feeling safe. They assume of course that we're following them. Perhaps they are even clever enough to see through our ruse...”

  “Hardly,” said Rhodan, shaking his head. “No intelligent being could be so distrustful: We did them a favor...”

  “What of it?” Atlan was still skeptical. “They could still be careful enough to scrutinize us closely before they believe any selfless friendship of us...”

  “Who said anything about selfless?” asked Rhodan. “In my message to the Druufs I emphasized that their enemies are ours. From that the meaning is clear that we're acting out of necessity and not affection. That will convince even the Druufs.”

  “Hm, that's quite possible,” said Atlan, the eternally distrustful.

  Bell, who had been silent up to now, remarked: “And they're going to fall right in.”

  Rhodan glanced at him but said nothing more. He looked reflectively at the vidscreen. The Druuf ship flew rather close alongside the Drusus. The damage did not seem to be very serious, although half the stern was gone.

  Behind the Drusus came the California and then the powerful Kublai Khan. Outwardly nothing was happening that could be seen with the naked eye but in reality the transmitters were working constantly, sending the vital goods and weapons to Hades.

  “What should we call Siamed 16, the Druuf's homeworld?” Bell suddenly asked. “After all, haven't we already given Siamed 13 a name? How does Terraterra sound? On Siamed 16, everything is twice what it is at home. The diameter, the gravity. Even the inhabitants, the Druufs...”

  “But that's all
it has in common with our Earth. Of course, we saw it only from underground, but the surface won't be much better. That short visit caused by the overlapping of a foreign transmitter field was enough for me. I wonder who it was that came to our aid then?” Rhodan sank into his thoughts. The events flashed through his mind once more. They had stepped into the energy grating of a transmitter on Hades for a return to the Drusus but instead they came out in the Druufs' subterranean mathematics center on Siamed 16. An unknown individual had made telepathicontact with them and helped them escape. Who it had been, no one could guess. A prisoner of the Druufs? But who? It had to be a telepath—and Rhodan was not missing any of his mutants!

  “Don't like that name, huh?” said Bell less than politely when he realized his suggestion had not been approved.

  Rhodan awakened as though from a dream. “Why not something simpler? Let's call it Druufon.”

  “Druufon?” Bell repeated, then his face seemed to light up. “Yeah, that's a better name than mine,” he admitted frankly. “We'll dub it Druufon!”

  “I'm agreeable,” said Atlan, who did not seem to care one way or the other what they called it. The official appellation would remain in the catalog as Siamed 16. “As long as it seems simpler to you...”

  The double star had grown nearer. The two stars could not be perceived as separate by the naked eye. The red mother star was circled by a smaller green companion. Sixty-two planets attempted to come to terms with the complex gravitational relations in irregular orbits. Many of those planets, actually almost all of them, possessed moons which in turn were orbited by smaller satellites. It was a gigantic system, one that up to now had remained hidden behind an invisible wall of time.

  “A few hours more,” murmured Atlan, who now stood next to Rhodan and looked at the vidscreen, “and we'll know if the plan has succeeded.”

  “Maybe we'll know even sooner than that,” said Bell, giving expression to his hopes. He half lay in his comfortable seat and stretched his legs and arms. “Most of all I'd like to sleep a little.”

  Up on the ceiling, the sphere Harno slowly changed his volume.