The Ghosts of Gol Page 5

  "What did it say?"

  "'Even though you have perceived this, you must follow the way to the mountain. Only there is the light hidden. Do not wait long. The mighty ones of'—here follows a name, sir. As you know, I can't receive names but I know it meant the planet on which we are, namely—'the mighty ones of Gol will overpower you if you hesitate too long. Do not come without the higher knowledge!'"

  "Is that all?"

  "Yes, sir, that was all."

  "Thank you, Tanaka; you may leave."

  4/ THE VALLEY OF THE PHANTOMS

  "IF ONE considers that this message was being beamed for quite a number of days already, one is left to believe that we should hurry up," said Rhodan gravely.

  Khrest shook his head.

  "Speaking frankly, it makes me feel very uncomfortable. What, for instance, does it mean: 'The mighty ones of Gol will overpower you if you hesitate too long.'"

  Rhodan shrugged his shoulders.

  "I have no idea. We'll find out, though."

  "And what is the higher knowledge?" asked Thora.

  "We tried to guess this once before, didn't we? It could be that he's referring to parapsychological powers, as we call it."

  Rhodan had three of the caterpillars at his disposal such as he had used on his first trip. He did not hesitate to employ all three of them simultaneously.

  He chose not to install any additional protective screen generators since they would have taken up even more room than the gravitation neutralizers. Instead he insisted that each vehicle be armed. Therefore, each vehicle was provided with a medium-heavy disintegrator, a neutron beamer and the usual thermo-impulse weapons. Furthermore, a movable catapult was mounted in each of the vehicles. At first nobody knew what purpose they were to serve.

  Twenty containers with heavy-gauge metal walls were loaded into each vehicle, apparently to be used with the catapults. The technician stated that they contained liquid oxygen and ignition fuses and from then on everybody was aware of the application.

  Oxygen and methane mixed in the right proportions formed an explosive combination. Anybody forced to defend himself against a foe on a methane planet could not do anything cheaper than inject an adequate portion of oxygen into the atmosphere and ignite the mixture at the right moment.

  Composition of the crew presented a problem. Rhodan decided, contrary to his previous objections, to give the command of the second carrier to Bell. As far as the third one was concerned, he had a very definite notion. Although he was commander of the Stardust he preferred in this case not to give an order but to express his wish.

  He addressed Khrest: "I'd like to ask you if you could overcome your reluctance to take part in this expedition and assume command of the third vehicle."

  Khrest looked astonished. He twisted his face into a sad smile.

  "Thank you for your tactfulness, Rhodan," he answered. "You meant to say fear instead of reluctance, didn't you? Well, I'll come along."

  Khrest clapped his hands in human fashion and exclaimed: "Of all people you had to pick the most harmless Arkonide to prove to your men that Arkonides are not completely worthless."

  They both laughed.

  "Each vehicle will be occupied by two mutants and one officer," declared Rhodan. "I'll give you Tama Yokida, the telekinetic mutant; Ishy Matsu, the telepath; and Captain Klein."

  Bell drove with Betty Toufry, Ralf Marten and Major Nyssen. Rhodan had his old crew and, in addition, the telekinetic Anne Sloane. Thora took over command of the Stardust.

  After Rhodan's antiparticle experiment Stardust II had been raised again and returned to its normal position. The three vehicles left the bottom lock without any trouble and made their way through the now somewhat shallower methane lake toward the southern shore.

  The communication between the three vehicles, and with the vessel as well, functioned perfectly. At least the start of the expedition was under a good omen and Rhodan thanked his lucky star.

  The troubles began in front of the mountain wall where the infrared searchlight had given up its ghost on Rhodan's first trip.

  Rhodan's vehicle was first in line. Rhodan had no intention of circumventing the barrier in a great detour. The terrain was treacherous and each additional yard meant more danger.

  Deringhouse was stationed at the catapult.

  "Bomb ready for ejection!"

  Rhodan warned the other vehicles.

  "Ready! Fire!"

  The canister was visible in the cone of the searchlight, wobbling awkwardly as it was hurled from the catapult. It was still inside the gravity neutralization field and followed the same trajectory as it would have done on Earth.

  Rhodan had increased the energy of the field and extended it close to the mountain barrier. The canister descended in free flight toward the ground and passed through the rim of the field.

  It looked as if somebody had stopped it in midflight It dropped to the ground too quickly for the eyes to follow and burst under the tremendous force of the impact. Tiny droplets of oxygen mixed with the methane of the atmosphere and as Rhodan ignited it the observation screen was filled by a single, painfully bright stroke of lightning.

  There was a powerful pressure wave which shook up the vehicle.

  The bomb had torn a gap in the wall; there was no doubt about it. A deep crack ran from the ground to the ridge of the massive mountain wall.

  But, on the other hand, there was also no doubt that the crack was too narrow for the vehicles.

  "Second bomb!" ordered Rhodan.

  Deringhouse shoved the second canister into the catapult.

  Rhodan took the mike.

  "Attention! We're going to blast it a second time!"

  Deringhouse signaled with a nod.

  "Fire!"

  The canister took off shakily, rose to the apex and descended again to the outer limits of the field.

  "Look there, sir!" shouted Deringhouse.

  Rhodan saw it, too.

  A small, glowing sphere floated at the bottom of the mountain wall, just above where the canister was going to hit after leaving the field.

  Rhodan watched the canister pass the border of the field and drop suddenly. He narrowed his eyes in expectation of the glaring explosion which had to follow. But nothing happened!

  There was some kind of will-o'-the-wisp, not the slightest trace of destruction in the mountain.

  Flickering, a white light spread out—a slowly burning fire!

  It did not go out. It formed a sphere with about a fifteen foot diameter which glittered and floated in front of the wall.

  "The small sphere is gone, sir," reported Deringhouse breathlessly.

  The diameter of the small sphere had measured no more than twenty inches.

  Rhodan shook his head. "No," he replied. "Where it is!"

  He pointed to the fifteen foot sphere.

  Deringhouse stared at him, unbelieving.

  "But that's impossible, sir!"

  "No time for discussions. Get the disintegrator!"

  Deringhouse turned the heavy weapon around.

  "Fire at the wall!" ordered Rhodan. "But shoot to miss the sphere!"

  Deringhouse obeyed.

  After ten seconds of shooting the crack in the wall was wide enough to let at least two cars go through side by side. Deringhouse, moving mechanically, turned back the disintegrator to its rest position. He stared with big frightened eyes at the glittering ball which performed some kind of a dance in front of the wall about thirty feet to the right of the opening.

  "Forward at top speed!" barked Rhodan into the telecom. "Khrest, come alongside. The gap is big enough for two cars. Bell, watch the sphere but don't try any experiments!"

  Khrest reacted with satisfactory speed. Side by side the two vehicles spurted forward, reached the gap and disappeared inside. Bell followed closely.

  Rhodan breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the disintegrator had penetrated the full depth of the wall. The sight beyond the mountain barrier was encour
aging. A fairly smooth plain stretched before the caterpillar as far as the searchlight reached. There were hills to the left and right and steep mountain peaks rose high up into the sky in the background. But the high valley in between was so wide that an entire company of vehicles could drive abreast through it in comfort.

  Bell's car was the last to leave the gap, and in a hurry. Rhodan swept the terrain with the searchlight. There was nothing to be seen except the other two vehicles and the rocky desolation of Gol. No hint of any danger whatsoever.

  "All right," growled Rhodan with satisfaction. "Let's go!"

  According to the reports from the range finder the mountain for which they searched was at a distance of one hundred thirty miles from the ship. Considering that this was measured in a straight line and that the vehicles were not always able to proceed directly, they could assume with sufficient accuracy that it would take at least eight hours to reach the mountain. Eight hours in the neighborhood of glowing balls which loved, so to speak, powerful methane-oxygen explosions like dessert and used the energy of these explosions to increase their volume.

  Khrest seemed to ponder the same thought. "Did you observe the sphere?" he inquired from his vehicle.

  "Of course,"answered Rhodan.

  "What do you think of it?"

  "Very simple. The first explosion had hired it. When it came, it had a diameter of perhaps twenty inches and, evidently, a ravenous appetite."

  "An appetite?"

  Yes. It put itself exactly in the flight curve of the second oxygen canister anddevoured the energy of the explosion. It seemed to veritably thrive on the diet since it grew suddenly to a tenfold diameter.

  "Do you really believe that this is what happened?" asked Khrest sceptically.

  "I don't believe it," Rhodan replied. "I've seen it!"

  tapped Rhodan on the shoulder. "I don't know if I should bother you with it, sir," said Deringhouse cautiously and pointed to the observation screen, "but the ball is here again." From then on, it never left them. It jumped up and down behind the vehicles and lost about twenty percent of its volume within three hours.

  It was a weird and mysterious apparition.

  "I can't help it," remarked Bell as the three vehicles rounded a curve on the steep slope of the mountain. "This thing makes me nervous. Can't we do something about it?

  "What would you suggest?" asked Rhodan.

  "Shoot at it, for example."

  To the surprise of everybody who listened in on the conversation, Rhodan said quietly: "Okay. Column halt. Commander Bell will try his luck."

  The vehicles stopped with motors running, and they all watched the movement on top of the last car as Bell swung his weapon around. Bell's voice could be heard. "Ready, Nyssen?

  "Ready."

  The mighty beam from the powerful weapon could be clearly seen from Rhodan's vehicle. Nyssen's shot hit the sphere dead center. Even on the infrared observation screen, which normally showed only black and white, it was obvious that the sphere changed colors. Bell took this to mean success of his action and shouted triumphantly.

  But then he gulped. The ball, far from being impressed by the disintegrator's impact, began to swell. It had regained its original color and grew rapidly. The eyes of the people in the carriers were riveted to the visiscreens. Bell's groaning came distinctly over the telecom. Everybody seemed to be speechless.

  Rhodan was the only one who had foreseen this result. "Forward!" ordered Rhodan curtly. "Nobody will pay any more attention to that thing. It's not hurting us and there is, therefore, no reason to let it worry us."

  His command made them all snap out of their brooding. Tanaka Seiko complained about a headache. "Since when?" inquired Rhodan.

  "Since the shot," answered Tanaka, moaning. Rhodan nodded. The sphere emitted hyper-radiation which either partially or in all its phases affected Tanaka's brain. Since the sphere had soaked up the total energy of the disintegrator shot its radiation evidently had become strong enough to cause the Japanese a headache. This was obvious and in no sense puzzling.

  What Rhodan found interesting, however, was that Tanaka on his first trip had almost fainted under the effect of the radiation from a much smaller ball. There seemed to be, therefore, at least two types of such balls and they differed from each other in their energy—or the dimension—of their radiation emission.

  The vehicles started their advance again and neared the end of the upper valley which had allowed them so unexpectedly to proceed quickly and without obstacles.

  At the end of the valley the big effort began which diverted their attention from the glowing sphere for hours. Rhodan had to make a choice between a detour which would take them far afield and cost them at least twenty additional hours or climb up extremely steep slopes which the vehicles might not be able to manage. He had no way of knowing this beforehand.

  In spite of this uncertainty he decided to do the latter, largely also because he had, just before making his decision, received Thora's message from the Stardust :

  "Five of our protective screen generators failed for almost ten minutes. At the moment we are observing numerous bodies of light moving around in the vicinity of the ship."

  Her concern about the ship could be heard in her voice. Rhodan had requested her to keep him informed about any change in the situation. He had no doubt anymore that it was possible for these energy bodies to soak up the energy of the protective screen and thereby to exhaust the generators.

  He kept his three vehicles close together and started to climb. The wall which towered before them was too high, and the searchlight could not reach up to the ridge. Rhodan believed, however, that—judging from the angle formed between two adjacent mountain slopes—it was safe to conclude that the obstacle did not exceed a height of forty-five hundred feet.

  The crew aboard the carriers had mixed feelings. Tanaka Seiko was still suffering from a splitting headache because the huge sphere kept following the vehicle doggedly. Rhodan had retreated into the cold and determined toughness which was at the core of his personality in such critical situations. Reginald Bell and Major Deringhouse vied with him in this toughness but embellished it with a certain show of flippancy and a devil-may-care attitude. Khrest had not uttered a word in the last few hours. He seemed convinced that they were on a straight path to hell and so apparently was Anne Sloane, who was squatting apathetically on the floor of Rhodan's car with a vacant look and showing little interest.

  Major Nyssen was a strange man. Rhodan had never known this aspect of his qualities. Nyssen, who outwardly so much resembled Reginald Bell, had developed during the last few hours a certain fanatical urge—without losing his sense of reality or overestimating the limiting circumstances of this expedition—to subdue the energy bodies which seemed to constitute the greatest danger to the Stardust, not expecting those threatening from the adverse atmospherical and gravitational conditions on Gol.

  Nyssen was conducting regular discussions with Rhodan over the telecom and his résumé was as follows:

  "We won't be able to control them with our heavy weapons, sir. They eat energy as people eat cake. We'll have to invent something entirely new or find a form of energy which is detrimental to them."

  Rhodan agreed with him.

  "A pass, sir!" shouted Deringhouse enthusiastically all of a sudden. "A pass!"

  During the last two hours the vehicles had climbed about twenty-four hundred feet. The crossing had been very difficult. There was nothing one could call a road by any stretch of the imagination.

  But here, at a height of twenty-four hundred feet, a pass appeared in the form of a narrow crevice which penetrated the mountain wall almost exactly in a southern direction. It was heaven sent, they thought. Rhodan rushed in with his vehicle. Khrest followed him endeavoring anxiously not to fall behind more than fifty or seventy-five feet—with Bell at the tail end, remarking:

  "Now I'd like to see whether that one hundred fifty foot monster will squeeze through behind us!"

&
nbsp; He was referring to the energy sphere and if he believed that the bottleneck would prevent the sphere from pursuing them, he was very quickly disillusioned.

  The sphere stretched out into a form which could not yet even be described in geometric terms. In any case, it was more than five hundred feet high and very thin and slender. In this fashion the former sphere danced through the pass like a will-o'-the-wisp.

  After a few hundred yards in a straight course the pass began to wind. Rhodan reduced his speed and followed the sharp curves, worrying all the time that the pass might become so narrow as to make it impossible for them to go on. In that case they would have to return backward since the crevice left no room for turning around.

  However, nothing of the sort happened. The fissure continued at a constant width through the mountain.

  Then it ended unexpectedly out in the open at the south wall on an almost vertical precipice.

  Rhodan stopped the vehicle. He rotated the searchlight and studied the picture on the observation screen.

  "Nothing!" grumbled Deringhouse, who was looking over Rhodan's shoulder. "But we can move another

  six feet forward, sir."

  Rhodan nodded. He cautiously pulled the car up and the front end moved out of the gap's opening.

  The field of sight was immediately widened.

  The first thing Rhodan saw was a rocky ledge which was leading from the exit of the pass, descending slightly along the mountain wall from east to west. If he steered carefully he would be able to turn the vehicle onto the ledge and drive down.

  Down? Where to?

  Rhodan pointed the searchlight toward the south. He painted a white beam of light in the darkness as far as the powerful searchlight could reach without revealing any details of the terrain.

  "A valley basin," said Rhodan, "too deep to recognize anything from up here."

  "Would you mind switching off the searchlight for a minute, sir? asked Deringhouse."