The Fleet of the Springers Read online

  Preposterous, Rhodan thought angrily; he doesn't even know what a gravity time-bomb looks like.

  "Look out..." he began again, "for a tube... three feet long... one foot... diameter. Be careful!"

  He heard Nyssen breathe heavily. "Cylindrical? Three feet long and one foot in diameter?" There was a pause. Then Nyssen's cracked voice shouted: "Commander! We've just loaded this thing onto our platform!"

  Rhodan fainted for a few moments. When he recovered consciousness, he heard Nyssen still talking: "Why don't you answer me? Hello, Commander!"

  Rhodan muttered something. His vocal chords were no longer able to form articulate sounds. But Nyssen seemed to understand. "We just had enough time to push the thing off the platform at the last moment, sir!" he explained. "It went off when it was about 40 feet away and it pulled the platform behind it. Our engines managed to break away. Now it's drifting out in free space."

  Rhodan's brain struggled against the paralysis in which his body was confined. He called out as loud as he could: "Don't let the bomb get away!"

  Then he lost consciousness again.

  He didn't know how much time had elapsed till his mind became clear again. However, he could hear Nyssen's urgent voice: "Where are you, sir? I can't hear you! We've harnessed the bomb with ropes. It's floating about 75 feet away from us."

  Rhodan could have hugged him. "Great!" he whispered.

  He felt his strength ebbing away. The gravity emanating from the bomb already exceeded 20 G. He had only a few minutes left to explain to Nyssen what he wanted him to do. "Come over... to our wreck!" he panted. "We're in the forward end... of the ship. Place your bomb... so that..."

  "I get it!" Nyssen shouted in sudden inspiration. "You don't have to explain any more. Save your strength!"

  Nevertheless Rhodan said one more word—so weakly that Nyssen had trouble understanding him:

  "Hurry...!"

  • • •

  Even the chronometer finally ceased to work. It stopped at a time when the destroyer had nine hours left to find a landing place. Since that failure Tiff tried to guess the passing of time although he had nothing to go by.

  A little later the destroyer traversed the line between the two suns. The far more preponderant gravitation of the blue dwarf exercised its dominant influence and forced the craft into a new course. Yet there was no danger at any time that the little destroyer would be drawn into the sun.

  Klaus Eberhardt had indeed fallen asleep. Tiff had only managed to doze a few minutes at a time. This was not enough for his body to regain its strength. Tiff felt the point creeping up on him when nervousness and disappointment would make him bawl—just as Felicita had. He tried to divert himself by imagining the kind of planet on which the destroyer would land and to picture what they could do there.

  It was merely a mental experiment. If they really were to find a planet, it would be one nobody had seen before. None of them could know what it looked like. But musing about it was a welcome distraction. Tiff also remembered that he had a robot on board as did all destroyers. He lay deactivated in the small storage room in back of the craft. The robot was equipped with its own generator and Tiff racked his brains to find a way of using the generator as an energy source for his engine. However he was aware of the fact that a robot generator produced only 1/100th of the power required by the ship's engine and was, therefore, useless for this purpose.

  If they ever found a place to set down they would be lucky if the robot still functioned. After all it was not the most unlikely possibility that the robot had been damaged in the earlier encounter. Time and again Tiff checked the wide optical screen showing the space in the flight direction. The black background was strewn with myriads of silently shining colored points of light. Tiff had no hope whatsoever of finding there what he was looking for. He thought it ridiculous that a traveler in space could find a planet in a sector unknown to him by staring at the picture screen. Even if he had his rangefinder still available, such a body would have made its presence felt by the influence of gravitation on the course of the ship rather than being detected by its luminosity and size surpassing those of billions of other stars.

  Indeed in 99 out of 100 cases Tiff would have been right. Notwithstanding these odds the observation screen depicted a bright constellation which appeared to form, when Tiff first saw it clearly, a Y shaped by seven stars. Now the left side of the Y seemed to have broken off and the point of light which had a few minutes earlier had been at the tip had wandered into the center of the fork. Tiff turned around in his seat. With narrowed eyes he stared at the picture screen.

  Fixed stars don't change their positions for an observer, not even if he moves at a velocity of 12,000 miles per second. Planets, on the other hand, show movements. At the time they became visible they were already close enough to the observer approaching them. From a distance of a few thousand miles and viewed in motion they appeared to shift their positions.

  Tiff kept the discovery to himself because he still believed that he could be mistaken. However 10 minutes later the spot of light had shifted to the other side of the Y and stood within a hair of the uppermost star. Without breaking his silence, Tiff determined the position of the unknown body. The calculation was not very exact as Tiff didn't know how much the gravitation of the blue sun had changed his course. He had to make a guess by using the generally established values for stars of this type.

  The calculation kept him busy for about 15 minutes.

  Once he had obtained the result, Tiff acted accordingly. As the neutralizer was still working, due to the emergency reserve power, nobody noticed it when he changed his course again. The stars on the observation screens executed a short, barely discernible turn. The shifting point of light, however, had moved to the center of the screen and Tiff made sure that it remained right there.

  After the course correction he computed the speed of the destroyer. The propulsion from his engines had ceased for some time and if he assumed that the planet exerted the slightest amount of gravity on his ship he should be able to notice the effect.

  Half an hour later Tiff was convinced that he had been right. The velocity of the destroyer relative to the spot of light had increased by 30 feet per second. Tiff looked around. "We've found what we've been looking for," he announced via the helmet radio. His voice sounded raspy from the effort to hide his triumph.

  4/ Of Time & Bombs & Planetfall

  Perry Rhodan fell unconscious again soon after he had whispered his urgent plea to Nyssen. Nyssen knew what had to be done. He knew little about the mechanism of the time-bomb except that it produced gravity in the same way as the common gravity generators. He understood that Rhodan desperately needed help. He had no idea whom Rhodan had meant by 'we,' but the fact alone that Rhodan was in distress would have spurred him on to the most impetuous feats anyway.

  Nyssen began with the premise that the bomb in the wreck Rhodan had searched was planted in the same room where he had found it himself. This assumption was confirmed after two men from Nyssen's team had probed the gravitation in the neighborhood of the wreck in which Rhodan was imprisoned. Nyssen instructed the men from Rhodan's team to leave the hulk and return to the Stardust. He dragged the radiating gravity-bomb behind his platform and the manoeuvre was difficult enough without having to take precautions for others also.

  Nyssen, with plastic ropes, kept the bomb at a distance of one and a half miles. Even at this distance the artificially produced gravitation was still effective. However, since gravity is a physical quantity acting according to the 1/r2 factor of the law, the bomb no longer constituted a direct danger for Nyssen and his men. He instructed three of his soldiers to open an access to the command center of the wreck with thermo-beamers. The men burned large metal plates out of the hull to make way for the bomb.

  The other men had continued their measurements and determined the location of the bomb near Rhodan within a couple of feet. Nyssen got in touch with the Stardust to obtain a few calculations fro
m the positronic computer based on his figures. When he got the result he knew that success would be his if he managed to manoeuvre precisely the dangerous contraption he had in tow.

  Nyssen called the men back after they had located the bomb and completed an access. He took a couple of minutes to brief his men about the job at hand, telling them with great emphasis: "Rhodan's life is at stake as well as a few others' caught with him. We don't have time to lose but can't afford to do anything rash. We're dealing with the most perilous object we've ever layed hands on."

  He waited for suggestions but nobody spoke up.

  "Then let's go!"

  • • •

  Rhodan was awakened by a violent shock through his body. For a few seconds he was astounded by the rapid activity of his lungs. He panted as if he had been running for miles. Finally he realized that his body was compensating for its recent loss. Rhodan jerked up his right arm, His hand was flung against the hard wall above his hand. The bomb had ceased radiating!

  Rhodan instantly got back on his feet. But he felt a peculiar pull caused by a dissimilar gravity-field: weightlessness in his legs and more than 1 G at the height of his head.

  Wrong, Rhodan thought. The bomb is still active! But Nyssen had manipulated it properly. He picked up his searchlight and pointed it in the direction of the counteracting influence. He followed the light-cone past a ragged wall reaching into emptiness. Or almost into emptiness. Behind the hole in the wall hovered—held by ropes—a cylinder three feet long.

  The second bomb!

  Rhodan looked around and estimated the distance. The bomb floating there and the one that caused him to faint before were about 15 feet apart and he was almost exactly to the inch in the middle between the two deadly devices. Rhodan's foremost concern now was how to save Khrest and the soldier. Unfortunately he lacked the means for reaching the bomb in order to bring it close enough to them to ease their situation.

  He could hear Nyssen's excited voice shouting in the helmet radio as he directed his men. Rhodan had trouble making himself heard. "Silence!" he finally screamed at the top of his voice. "This is Rhodan! I need a pole with a book or something to get hold of the bomb!"

  Nyssen cheered happily. "Are you alright, sir?" he called back.

  "Yes, but Khrest and the soldier are in bad shape. I've got to bring the bomb a little closer."

  Nyssen gave it some thought. Then he replied: "I don't believe we can slide in a pole, sir! It can't be pushed past the bomb. The gravity would tear it to bits."

  "I didn't tell you to get it in that way. Can you measure the border between the two fields?"

  "Yes, sir!"

  "Then use a flame-cutter to open the wreck from above and have a man go down directly on the center-line between the bombs. He should be able to shove a pole through to me."

  Nyssen agreed: "We'll start at once!"

  Rhodan was deeply worried about Khrest. The Arkonide had lain much closer to the first bomb than Rhodan. Nyssen's bomb was still too far to bring him much relief.

  Rhodan's idea had worked. The effect of the two opposing bombs was eradicated over a small range between them. Each bomb created a field of gravitation with field-lines vertical to the surface on which the bomb rested, in this case the floor of the command center. At a height of about three feet the lines curved around describing a semi-circle and leading again vertically into the shell of the bomb. The field vectors of the first bomb were directed toward the floor. Nyssen had examined the field and placed his bomb in such a position that its vectors were pointing from the floor up. Therefore, the effects of the spheres nullified each other wherever they were equidistant from the source of origin.

  The problem was now to guide Nyssen's bomb so close to Khrest and the soldier, who were lying next to each other, that they were midway between the two contrivances. Then it would be a fairly simple matter to rescue the two victims. The question remained whether Nyssen's man with the pole would arrive in time.

  More precious minutes passed till Rhodan felt the floor under his feet vibrate, a sign that the hoped for assistance was on the way. A little later a plate was taken out of the ceiling. The soldier had done an admirable job, always keeping right on the border between the danger zones.

  A long pole came into view and was carefully lowered.

  "Is this what you want, sir?"

  "Yes, thank you. Now get back as quickly as possible. It'll get very critical around here."

  The soldier crawled back. Rhodan waited a little until he thought that the man had reached safety again. Then he didn't lose another second. Inch by inch he pulled the floating bomb in. There was a sudden jerk when the end of the pole protruded into the strongest section of the gravitational field. Then the pole stuck firmly to the bomb like a nail to a strong magnet.

  Rhodan proceeded cautiously. Whenever he pulled the bomb two inches closer, he moved one inch back to remain in the neutral zone. This way it took a long, agonizing time till he had manipulated the lethal body into the desired position.

  Rhodan carefully put the pole down on the floor. The other end remained fastened to the bomb. Rhodan saw that the tremendous gravity had deformed the round extremely hard material of the pole into a flat ellipse at the point of contact.

  Now Rhodan gently touched Khrest with his foot. He had to repeat his attempt a few more times before Khrest began to move. "Be careful!" Rhodan admonished him. "Don't move, just listen to me!"

  "I'm listening," Khrest answered weakly.

  Rhodan explained the situation slowly and in detail. In conclusion he said: "Now you must get up and always remain in the center. You know what will happen if you get a step out of the way. The hatch is located right on the line. You can pass through it and wait outside."

  The imperiled soldier had also waked up in the meantime and had heard most of the instructions. Rhodan told him to follow Khrest. Then he picked up the free end of the pole and touched the first bomb with it. It remained stuck and the two bombs formed a unit. By holding the connecting link in the center he was able to turn the contraption.

  Then he advised Khrest: "Proceed at normal walking speed along the corridor. I'll turn the bombs so that the area where you walk will always be safe. Ready? Go!"

  His hope was that Khrest and the soldier would be able to maintain a 'normal walking speed.' On the center-line between the two bombs weightlessness had been restored and for a person who had to advance half flowing and half rowing it was difficult to judge what 'normal walking speed' was.

  After awhile, however, Khrest reported that they had reached the end of the undestroyed fuselage. As the ship had been shot apart approximately in the middle, this meant that they had now moved about 500 feet away from the bombs.

  Rhodan asked Nyssen to approach the two men with his platform in the direction of the central corridor and to pick them up. The operation was performed without difficulty. Five minutes later Khrest and the soldier had been rescued. From a distance of 500 feet the engines of the platform easily compensated for whatever change in symmetry was accidentally made by Rhodan.

  "And what are you going to do, sir?"

  Rhodan laughed. "I'll follow in a minute. Stay where you are!"

  He lifted the two bombs precisely at the middle of the pole and moved to the side until he stood dead center below the bole through which the pole had been handed to him earlier. He carefully set down his load, took a deep breath and bounced upward. He flew a few feet past the hole, high enough to grab the opening in the ceiling of the room above with both hands. From then on it was fairly easy. The cut out ceiling plates were all strictly lined up in the safe direction. Before long Rhodan stood up on top of the hull, 'up on top' being, of course, a rather arbitrarily chosen definition.

  "Attention, Nyssen! I'm coming!" he called on the helmet radio.

  Nyssen was unable to see him as his view from the platform was obstructed by the wreck. Rhodan kept straight on the line from the hole through which he had climbed. As a mark of reference
on this line he chose a grotesquely torn spot of the wall since it was almost impossible to keep straight under the conditions of weightlessness without such a fixed point.

  With each step he faced the hazard of deviating from his way. He stopped frequently to orient himself by sighting along the mark. In this cumbersome manner 40 minutes elapsed until he reached the ragged rim of the wreck and saw the platform with Nyssen and his crew.

  He crawled over the edge and propelled himself toward the platform. Nyssen had expected him to emerge from the corridor. He registered loud surprise when he saw Rhodan come through the sphere of the neutralized field and gently touch down on the platform.

  "It's all over, Nyssen! Let's go back!"

  • • •

  Tiff used up 99% of his energy reserve to decelerate the destroyer and guide it into orbit around the strange planet. It was quite apparent that the world below him had an atmosphere. Whether it was fit for breathing remained to be seen, as his instruments had failed to function. Tiff had already found out that the planet was almost 600 million miles away from the blue dwarf and about 800 million miles from the orange sun.

  He didn't mention this because he didn't want to scare his companions unless it was absolutely necessary. The blue dwarf was, as far as its radiated energy was concerned, more like a giant. It was, therefore, still conceivable that livable conditions prevailed on the planet although the distance from its sun was almost seven times as far as the Earth from Sol.

  When Tiff started to brake on an elliptical track he noticed that the surface was covered with ice and snow. He had been unable to determine the direction of its axis but he assumed that the equator was located where the ice-masses were colored a little darker,

  Mildred began to moan. "Gosh, this looks worse than Greenland!" It was the first time she had spoken since the destroyer had been bit.