Peril on Ice Planet Read online

  The mousebeaver could see the whole spectrum of baffling and harrowing emotions flit by. "Hurry up!" he urged. "I'll shoot you before I'll let myself get caught because of you."

  The Springer got the point. But he was also aware of his duty to the security of his ship which forbade him to betray the whereabouts of his commander. However as this very thought passed through his mind, it contained the information Pucky wanted and the Springer received the irritating advice: "You can relax now, my boy! Etztak's command center is located in the midsector of the main corridor. The door is clearly marked. Thank you! And what you were trying to think up just now, you can tell somebody else sometime."

  Then Pucky jumped back through the wall again. The information the man had given him was much more detailed than Pucky had repeated. He now knew exactly within a few feet where he could find Etztak and since the distance from his hide–out was rather short he could leap there directly in one jump. However he required a moment of special concentration. It was possible that too many people were present in Etztak's command center at the time he appeared, which would force him to jump back instantly. Furthermore he had to take into account that the Springer he had accosted just now would need only a limited time to assure himself that his meeting a furry animal in a spacesuit with extrasensory perception was not a dream. Doubtlessly he would report the incident without further delay.

  Pucky knew very little about the customs of the Springers and could not guess how they would treat such sensational news. It was possible that they would simply ridicule and dismiss it or that Etztak would be notified at once. The mousebeaver decided to consider the latter case as the more likely and hence haste was advisable.

  He took a few seconds to concentrate and then took the jump.

  • • •

  "Let's go down!" Willagar said. They set the ships cautiously down in the snow.

  "Now what?" Horlgon asked.

  Willagar laughed provocatively. "One from each ship will have to get out and take a close look around."

  Horlgon was reluctant. "But Etztak forbade us to leave the ship!"

  "And how else does he suppose we can catch the escaped men?" Willagar challenged. Horlgon didn't know how to answer his question so Willagar assumed that he concurred. "How about the two of us, Horlgon?" he asked.

  "Alright," Horlgon consented hesitantly and the tone of his voice indicated how much he disliked acting against the patriarch's orders. "Let's go!" Willagar laughed.

  • • •

  "They landed after 12 minutes," Tiff observed calmly. "Can there be any doubt now that they've detected the ship?"

  "No," Eberhardt agreed. Hifield said nothing. Tiff could hear him breathe heavily in the helmet radio. "What are we going to do next?" Eberhardt wanted to know.

  "Make sure that your deflector is working!" Tiff said. "Let's first go and see what they're up to." They rose up from the snow and walked a few steps, leaving footprints in the whiteness as the only eerie sign of their presence. They could not see each other due to deflector screens.

  Tiff reminded the girls to remain quietly in the cave and he ordered Aubrey to stand by. The enemy was 1000 feet away. Tiff knew that Aubrey, despite his weight, could cover this distance in a few moments and come to their aid should the need arise.

  Then he instructed his two companions to actuate the antigrav. The generators began to work and a strong gravitational field lifted the cadets a few feet above the snow with the telltale footmarks. Then they drifted through the dusk toward the spot where, according to Aubrey, the patrol ships had landed.

  "Activate your impact screens to be on the safe side!" Tiff said quietly. "In case they should somehow notice us, they'll start shooting."

  • • •

  The snow was very soft and they sank in up to their knees with each step. They were lucky, Horlgon thought,that the gravity was so low here or it would take them all night to slog through the snow. Willagar seems to be too much in a hurry; he's very imprudent.

  After they had walked for 15 minutes and covered half the distance, Horlgon remarked: It's not wise to head straight for them like we're doing."

  Willagar stood still. "What do you mean by that?"

  Horlgon stretched out his gloved hands and turned the palms upward. "They've got Arkonide spaceships and by the same token they could have field generators and deflectors to make themselves invisible."

  Willagar laughed contemptuously. "They came in a tiny craft with no more than three seats and we've seen from their tracks that there are six persons. How much more equipment do you think they could've loaded in and dragged along?"

  Horlgon kept his hands outstretched. "I don't know. All I know is that it would be much smarter if we didn't head straight for them."

  Their conversation was audible via the helmet radio in both patrol ships. Psholgur sneered: "Don't listen to him, Willagar! He's seared stiff, that's all."

  Willagar laughed again: "Yeah! You hit it on the nose!"

  Horlgon reacted to the reproach by defiantly marching ahead past Willagar. He still considered the action as perilous and reckless but he would rather die because of Willagar's bravado than be called a coward.

  • • •

  The orange-colored sun provided just enough light to discern some of the features of the land as they drifted 20 feet above the ground. Tiff was able to make out two tall, powerful figures wading through the snow and sinking in deeply under their considerable weight as they were about 250 feet from the rim of the ravine and 150 feet from the entrance to the cave.

  "Watch out!" Tiff whispered.

  Eberhardt had already noticed them. Hifield tamed up his horizontal drive and zoomed forward. Tiff didn't see him but he felt the gentle jolt when Hifield couldn't brake in time. "Where?" Hifield panted.

  Tiff didn't have to answer his question since Hifield saw the men at the same moment. Later on it was impossible to find out what had motivated Hifield at this instant. Anyway, before Tiff or Eberhardt could prevent it, he pulled up his impulse-beamer and aimed it at the first of the two figures.

  Horlgon was beyond help. The concentrated energy of the brilliant beam hit him before he had time to evade it. Willagar broke out in a loud scream and flung himself down. But his foe was a well-trained shot. Willagar was only half-submerged in the snow when the glistening beam found its second mark.

  "Damn idiot!" Tiff yelled furiously. He threw a punch and struck somebody he thought was Hifield and kept pummeling. Hifield was shoved away and sailed topsy-turvy over the snow.

  "Hurry!" Tiff shouted. "Let's get the patrol ships before they make off!"

  Hifield didn't hear a thing. It was Tiff and Eberhardt alone who raced swiftly to the spot where the patrol crafts had touched down.

  • • •

  Enaret heard Willagar's anguished cry and realized how right Etztak had been when he forbade leaving the ship. "They got caught!" he called to Psholgur.

  Psholgur had failed to grasp the situation. Enaret heard him calling monotonously: "Willagar! Willagar! Horlgon! where are you?"

  "They're dead!" Enaret shouted, "Don't you understand that?

  He didn't wait for Psholgur's answer. Hastily he got ready to start and lifted his ship off the ground, expecting Psholgur to follow him. Enaret knew what he was up against. Two small patrol ships were no match against such an enemy. They needed more help.

  He got up to 1000 feet and began to transmit the message: "Patrol ships 31 and 32 made contact with enemy. Request assistance. Enemy is heavily armed. Position..."

  He repeated the message five times and felt sure that his emergency call had been heard everywhere. Then he turned his attention to Psholgur again and saw his ship rise from the snow and rapidly gain height.

  For a few seconds it seemed that Psholgur had regained his wits and scrambled to escape from the danger zone. Instead the blue point on the observation screen moved to the side. Psholgur's ship ceased climbing and flew in a westerly direction following Willagar's and
Horlgon's tracks.

  "Come back, Psholgur!" Enaret shouted. "Come back, you imbecile!"

  But Psholgur didn't listen and gave no answer. With increasing speed his ship rushed toward west.

  • • •

  "Ship lifts off!" Aubrey reported with a monotone voice. "Climbs rapidly."

  They must be scared, Tiff thought. They don't know what they're getting into.

  A few seconds later Aubrey continued: "Emergency call in Intercosmo!"

  Tiff swore under his breath. In a few minutes the entire Springer pack would be at their heels through Hifield's fault. Now the robot called out: "Caution, sir!" Second ship took off and is approaching you!"

  Tiff acted at once. "Move over to the right, Eberhardt!" he shouted.

  Eberhardt complied immediately and Tiff heard him whizz by.

  "Very good, sir," Aubrey commented. "The ship will pass you at a distance of 100 feet."

  "Let's get a little closer, Eberhardt!" Tiff said through his teeth.

  They turned back a few more feet and then the ship arrived. Tiff could hear its whoosh and saw a dark shadow looming up a few feet before him. It was a vague target but...

  • • •

  Psholgur threw all caution to the winds. He didn't even know why he flew in this direction. He had been so convinced that the people they looked for were such poor, half-starved specimens of humanity that Willagar's and Horlgon's death had shocked him beyond the threshold of sanity. He yet saw for a fraction of a second the bluish white energy rays shooting toward his ship as they were reflected on his observation screen. And then it was all over.

  • • •

  Enaret watched the death of Psholgur. On his screen, which depicted nothing in the blackness of space except the faint orange blotch of the central sun, a glaring bright moving point suddenly appeared. He saw it plunge down into the snow and spring up like a fountain.

  "Psholgur!"

  The blinding point was extinguished and the silence of death reigned.

  • • •

  It took a few seconds before Tiff and Eberhardt fathomed that they had indeed shot down the hostile ship with their small thermobeamers. It had been their intention to disable the ship and to force it down but the full energy discharge of both weapons was sufficient to destroy the craft completely.

  Tiff didn't waste his time in examining the exploded ship after it crashed. Time was of the essence. "Back to the cave, Eberhardt!" he bellowed. "Turn off your deflector!"

  Then Tiff increased the range of his transmitter and barked with undiminished fury: "Hifield, get back to the cave and be quick about it!"

  In a few minutes the Springers would be all over the place—hordes of them!

  4/ Pucky in Action

  Pucky's jump transported him into a small room of the navigation section. The room was only about 150 square feet. The walls were covered with maps of the stars and on a table, the only piece of furniture in the room, stood a mini-positronicomputer, probably for rough calculations of ship courses.

  Pucky listened. He perceived a chaotic mass of thoughts emanating from the adjacent room through the wall. He started to sort out the impulses. He determined that four people were present in the other room. The attitude of three of them was easily recognized as caution mixed with respect, and antipathy which a man always feels toward a superior. Pucky classified them as obvious subordinates. Therefore, be concluded, the fourth man had to be the boss. It took barely a minute till the name of the superior officer was mentioned in one of the thoughts: Etztak!

  The mousebeaver sat down under the table and proceeded to separate and coordinate the stream of thought-impulses from the various minds and to form an understanding of the conversation conducted on the other side of the wall. The gist of it was:

  "The reason," one of the subaltern brains explained, "was that Willagar and Horlgon left their vehicles against your orders, Sire."

  There were several other half-conscious and subconscious trains of thoughts such: "I'd done the same thing in their place. Fortunately I was spared their fate!" But Pucky was mainly interested in the more significant clear thoughts that were the basis for the spoken words.

  The answer came from the dominant mind: "It's irrelevant now why the two ships bungled their job. I'm only interested in whether or not the fugitives will be caught."

  A second subordinate officer spoke up: "We've expedited all ships to the critical area, Sire! They can't get away "Now!"

  "Is that so?" Etztak asked derisively. Isn't that what you said before? Instead of getting your man you've succeeded in letting three of ours be killed and one patrol ship be destroyed."

  There was a pause during which Pucky only perceived some extremely embarrassed thoughts. Then Etztak continued: "I don't mind telling you that these fugitives are very important to me but not so important as to let them lead me by the nose indefinitely. If this action doesn't bring results soon I'll turn this whole world into a blazing sun!"

  Pucky noted grave bewilderment. Etztak apparently dismissed his officers. There was some movement and the old man remained alone in the room. The mousebeaver received only his thoughts after the three others had moved far enough down the hallway.

  And the contents of Etztak's deliberations raised horrendous fears in the little mousebeaver. Etztak had not spoken empty threats when he warned about a demolition of the planet. He really mulled over this thought and Pucky was able to learn his motives.

  We can't afford, Etztak pondered,to spend too much time searching this planet. It'll draw the others' attention and if they become aroused they'll smell a profit and try to snatch it out of our hands. Whatever we can pry loose from Tifflor we should certainly be able to dig up on his home world. The HORL VII had enough Arkon bombs on board to change this planet into radiating energy. Then nobody will have an opportunity to lay his hands on Tifflor and get information out of him.

  • • •

  Pucky was alerted by the ominous signs of danger from two sides. First of all, there was apparently a concerted search effort under way for Tifflor and his people and it seemed to have met already with partial success. And secondly., Etztak was ready to exterminate Snowman if Tiff were to prevail over his hunters against all expectations and to thwart their initial advantages.

  The mousebeaver faced a dilemma and it was difficult for him to decide which action to take first. He could pay a visit to the HORL VII —which according to Etztak's information was standing by 250 miles out in space and deactivate its load of bombs. But meanwhile Tiff and his people were likely to be apprehended and to liberate, them again once they were brought back to the ship would be an incomparably more difficult task than to rush to their aid now.

  Thus be decided to abandon the ETZ XXI and to return to the cave. If he managed to join the fight quickly enough and to influence its outcome favorably, there would still be time to spoil Etztak's plan and to eliminate the danger threatening from the Arkon bombs of the HORL VII.

  Crouching under the table he focused on the mountain cave where the cadets and the girls were hiding.

  And jumped off.

  • • •

  Exhausted and sleepy, Reginald Bell returned on board the Stardust in the Z-13. Nothing he would have liked better than to hit the hay for the next 20 hours. Instead he took the tape he had dictated on the flight out of the recorder and put it in his pocket. After climbing out of his machine he went to the elevator and up to the command center. Perry Rhodan was already waiting for him. Bell gave a short report and referred to the tape for more explicit details.

  After Bell's audacious reconnaissance flight it was determined that the two fleets of Springer ships which had come to the Beta-Albireo sector were in fact two completely separate and independent outfits. The vessels with which Bell had tangled were merchant ships identifiable by their shape. They had taken up position on or near the surface of the planet serving as refuge for Tifflor. This group consisted of 78 ships and nobody knew who owned them.

&nb
sp; The second group numbering 90 ships had been evaded by Bell in his turning manoeuvre. Their shape marked them as warships. They were not quite as long as the merchant ships and a little plumper. They belonged to the same armada as the 30 warships which had 100 hours ago caught hell from the Stardust, the Terra and the Solar System. There was no visible connection between the two fleets. Unless they exchanged information among each other, they operated completely on their own.

  Bell had no doubt—and he was quite emphatic about it—that the 90 warships after the tumult caused by the Z-13 would soon endeavor to locate the opponent. He believed that they would fan out and comb the system in small groups.

  "If we get into a brush with them, we better look out," Bell prophesied. I don't believe we've much of a chance against them in open battle."

  • • •

  "They're coming!" Aubrey reported. "Twenty-four machines!"

  They had returned to their shelter and closed the partitions behind them. Hifield had come back before them. His triumphant euphoria had cooled and given way to a gloomy depression.

  "In the first hour," Tiff pointed out quietly, "they won't bother us. They'll stay in their ships and look for our hide–out which they're sure to find since the outer cover can be easily recognized if they come near enough. Even then, I'd think we won't have to fear very much. The deflector screens make us invisible and the impact screens protect us against shots from many diversified weapons. Moreover, the Springers are more anxious to capture us than to kill us."

  Tiff paused and looked around. "But I'm afraid," he continued, "they'll run out of patience and bombard us with weapons which cannot be repulsed by our impact screens. Therefore we'll have to get out of here and the sooner the better. The longer we lead the Springers astray the easier it'll be for us to reach safety."