Epidemic Center Aralon Read online

  "If the Aras keep their word, today Thora should be cured," said Rhodan, and took a swallow of hot coffee, which he preferred to other instant or concentrated beverages. "And then we'll know that they have the antidote. So there won't be an excuse for waiting any longer."

  "What do you mean?" Pucky mumbled while chewing, which was a difficult task in view of his solitary incisor tooth. "Are you going to attack?"

  "What else?"

  Khrest lowered his cup slowly. In his eyes was a spark of alarm. "Perry, as we now know, Aralon is the galactic hospital. We will automatically be making an error if we attack Aralon."

  "Yes, it's an old history that is very familiar—an armed camp under the sign of the red cross. Here it's the same deal. At least we have the proof at hand from Tiff that the Aras are misusing their ability and their knowledge."

  "Tiff is in their hands!" Khrest reminded him.

  Rhodan nodded. "But not for long, Khrest. Pucky knows where Tiff is at every moment and when we're close enough for Pucky to locate him, they won't be able to hide him from us very easily. I don't intend to handle the Aras with velvet gloves. They are more dangerous and unscrupulous than any enemy of the Empire."

  Khrest remained skeptical. "Nevertheless, in the eyes of other races of people you will be perpetrating an injustice if you attack the defenseless doctors and physicians. You have to consider that many come to Aralon in order to seek help against sickness and death. You would then be the one to hinder the healers from performing their work of salvation. And if on top of that you also kill them..."

  "By neither word nor deed have I so much as hinted that I would kill a single Ara," said Rhodan calmly.

  Khrest breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, then that's fine! Although I'm at a loss to figure out how you can force them to give in by mere threats."

  "We'll see," said Rhodan. "Frankly speaking, I'm not quite sure of the next step myself."

  Pucky looked up suddenly. The rest of the carrot fell from his paw and landed on the dish. There was a sparkle of excitement in his eyes.

  He whispered softly: "Tiff has been awakened. They are coming to start questioning him again."

  • • •

  The door was shoved open from the outside and two powerful Aras entered. Tiff and Sengu woke up instantly. Their normal thought processes began operating again. Twenty-four light-hours away Pucky was picking up the impulses.

  "Alright—on your feed Themos wants to talk to you!"

  Tiff slid sideways out of the bed and began to take his time. Also, Sengu washed himself thoroughly before he slipped on his uniform. Both of the Aras shifted impatiently from one foot to the other but they must have received strict orders not to torment the prisoners unnecessarily.

  Finally, the morning preparations were completed.

  "When is breakfast served?" asked Tiff. "Or isn't this a regular hospital?"

  "Themos is going to give you particulars concerning your questions, said one of the guards and opened the door. "Will you come willingly?"

  Neither Tiff nor Sengu considered it necessary to answer.

  Wearing his white smock, Themos again sat behind the familiar table with its broad crescent synthetic surface. Other Aras were with him. They glared ominously at the two as they entered. Their eyes promised nothing good.

  Tiff forgot the breakfast. He guessed what had happened. And his fears were confirmed by the first sentence uttered by Themos. "We have cured Thora, Terranian! She can't seem to recollect that she ever gave you any hopes concerning a marriage. Now, as before, her total sympathies lie with Perry Rhodan So—what do you say to that, Lt. Tifflor, or whatever your name may be...?"

  Tiff took his time to answer. He reviewed word for word the short speech of the Ara in his mind so that Pucky would be informed. Only then did he shrug his shoulders and make a rueful suggestion: "How unfortunate! The sickness must have erased a portion of her memory. She doesn't even recollect the last tender hours that we spent alone together! May I see her?"

  "What do you still want with her? Thora is an Arkonide. She will enter into no relations with either you or Rhodan and we will see to that. She has decided to remain forever on Aralon to apply her energies to the work here and to stand at the side of the sick and the needy. Don't you believe that is a more beautiful proposition?—a more noble objective, at any rate, than to marry a Terranian!"

  Tiff began to boil. He thought intensively and concentrated entirely on Pucky: Tell Rhodan it's time to move in! Attack! I will transmit uninterruptedly so that you can locate my position. They want Thora—

  "Why don't you answer?" Themos interrupted him. He wasn't the friendly old gentleman of yesterday any more.

  Tiff looked into his reddish eyes. "Because I'm wondering, Themos. Didn't I bring Thora to you because I wanted to get her away from Rhodan? Haven't I betrayed Rhodan? And what thanks do I get? Do you wish to deceive me?"

  "You brought Thora to Aralon in order to have her cured—because we are the ones who can do it. Only we possess the serum to fight the Nonues Plague and we will never give it to anyone. If your Rhodan still has sick crewmen on board his ship, he will have to come to us if he wants them to be well again. And perhaps we will then turn two traitors over to him."

  Tiff gave no answer. He had expected something of this nature. For the Aras, everything depended now on Thora. They must be considering the Arkonide woman as a powerful ace up their sleeves—no wonder, if she had indeed revealed her true sentiments regarding Rhodan!

  Themos motioned to the guards. "Take them down below into the experiment station for extra-imperial races. We must find out how Terranians are organically constructed. Perhaps we may even be able to determine whether they are descendants from earlier Arkonide emigrants or are a unique species."

  Tiff and Sengu could probably have resisted but it would have been a pointless struggle against superior odds. Why take an unnecessary risk? Rhodan had received the distress call already and would not hesitate to attack Aralon. The issue here was not only Tiff and Sengu but, above all, to set Thora free.

  And to acquire the hyper-euphoria serum...

  They were shoved into an elevator that dropped with increasing velocity into the depths of the planet. The two guards did not take part in the hurtling descent.

  It was a small square chamber which couldn't have been more than 200 cubic feet in volume. The walls resounded with an ever-increasing shriek of rushing wind. Tiff noticed that the weight of his body had been reduced by half. Aralon possessed the same gravity as the Earth so it appeared that they were now falling at about half of the natural speed of falling bodies on the planet.

  "Can you see anything?"

  As the Japanese looked about him on all sides, his eyes made him appear as though he were in a trance. We're dropping with increasing speed past countless stations hospital stations. The whole planet must be undermined. Beneath us I can see an endless shaft. There is nothing else I can make out."

  "How have they managed to bore so deeply into their world?"

  "They have been a highly advanced race for thousands of years but in spite of all their medical knowledge they can't tolerate the sun. Mat else could they do but go inside the planet and live there? According to my estimates, we must be a mile under the surface already."

  The seconds became minutes. Then Tiff sensed that he was becoming heavier—double his normal weight. The deceleration had set in at a rate of more than 30 feet per second squared.

  Then the elevator came to a jolting halt.

  It was almost 3 minutes before the narrow door opened. A glaring light came into the small cubicle. Tiff's eyes accustomed themselves quickly to the difference in light intensity. He looked into the determined faces of at least a dozen Aras who were waiting for them.

  "Well, what are you waiting for?" asked one of the alien albinos gruffly.

  Tiff nodded to Sengu and they got out of the elevator. The Aras fell back slightly as though they feared a contagious disease. They were not con
cerned about the possibility that the prisoners could escape. Here below, more than 6 miles under the surface, there was little likelihood of that.

  The walls of the great hall were no different than those higher above and closer to the surface. Here was the same clinical cleanliness, the same degree of bright illumination, the same hopelessness for those who dwelled here not of their own free will.

  "Follow us!" the two Terranians were commanded. The Aras went ahead. They seemed to have no question but that Tiff and Sengu would follow.

  Tiff urgently sent Pucky information and described their situation. According to his calculations, they must be a little over 6 miles directly beneath the edge of the landing field and across from the administration building that was decorated with all the flags.

  They walked the length of a corridor and arrived in a wide chamber in which white-smocked Ara scientists worked at tables and unfamiliar equipment. This must be one of the laboratories of which Themos had spoken and whose presence anyone on Aralon would suspect. With a faltering heartbeat, Tiff suddenly recognized motionless life forms floating in some preservative fluid in large containers. The labels on the containers established that these were samples of different races whose origin was exterior to the Empire.

  "A Terranian in alcohol," thought Tiff with loathing. And he could already see himself floating in a glass vessel so that coming generations of Ara scientists could lift him out and examine him. And once again his distress cry went out to Pucky: Hurry up, for Gods sake! They have something horrible planned for us!

  Tiff and Sengu failed to notice that the doors behind them always closed in complete silence. They were in the most complete trap that ever was. Only the way ahead remained free but in that direction lay anything but temptation.

  The Aras came to a halt. One of them opened a door at one side and invited them in. "Your room, Terranians. You will receive something to eat immediately. Do not be troubled by your surroundings. Nothing is going to happen to you—at least for the time being."

  Tiff passed him silently and entered when he saw that in fact it was a room and not a torture chamber. There were two beds, sanitation facilities and a table with 4 chairs, which made the place even almost livable, if one could forget the proximity of the lab.

  Sengu followed him. The door closed with a muffled click.

  It seemed to Tiff that it signified that the last possibility of a retreat had been cut off. He sighed and sat down on the bed, looking at Sengu. "Six miles under the surface! Can you give me any idea how we're going to come out of here again?"

  Sengu looked at the floor. He shook his head. "No, naturally not. But it will certainly interest you to know that another laboratory of some kind is beneath us. Actually it looks more like a packing and shipping department. Next to it there's a warehouse with thousands of cases and boxes and containers. Do you think maybe that's where the medicines are packed and stored?"

  "How far is it underneath us?"

  "Not more than about 18 or 20 feet." Wuriu's gaze moved sideways to the wall and then rose to the ceiling as though he was following a creeping fly. "I see Thora!" She is being taken back up above in an elevator." Tiff had to suppress the uncanny feeling that always came over him when he saw how easily Sengu could see through solid walls. "What is she doing down here?"

  "Perhaps," surmised Tiff, "they're showing her the supplies of the healing serum for the hyper-euphoria. Rhodan is naturally interested in that. They're going to use her as a decoy—or else "they're going to use her against Rhodan for blackmail. Good Lord, I'm afraid we've been thinking too much like human beings again! These Aras aren't doctors, as we know on Terra: They're devils!"

  Sengu kept looking at the ceiling. "Bell once told me that we can even cope with the Devil. I take him at his word, Tiff. Only a few feet underneath us is the material that we need. I can see it but of course that doesn't help us now. And yet I know that as early as tomorrow we will have it. Quite definitely, I know that we will!"

  "Wuriu, you're a 'seer'," retorted Tiff calmly. "You're not a prophet..."

  • • •

  Some hours before this, in the middle of the previous night, Thora had come to her senses. She opened her eyes as though awakening from a dream and stared, blinked, into the bright lamps that were flush with the ceiling above her bed. She did not know what had happened to her. As her eyes accustomed themselves to the bright illumination, she made out the face of an elderly man who stood near her bed and observed her searchingly. In his eyes—the red eyes of an albino—she perceived an unspoken question and a frigid interest.

  Her memory came back to her.

  An Ara!

  Where was she? What had happened to Rhodan?

  "Who are you?" She raised up high but sank back onto her pillow immediately. She felt terribly ill. "Where am I?"

  "You are safe and you are well," answered the stranger. His voice sounded reassuring but it emanated a certain chilling objectivity even as the sanitary room was cold and impersonal. "Do you know a Lt. Tifflor from the Sol System—home planet, Terra?"

  Thora nodded confusedly. "Yes—I recall.

  "Do you recall also that you were going to marry him?"

  "Are you crazy? What is it you want from me? Where am I? And how did I get here? What happened to Perry Rho—" She stopped suddenly.

  The Ara smiled knowingly. "Please continue speaking. You wish to know where Perry Rhodan is? You will learn that when you reveal to me why you don't wish to marry Tifflor."

  "Whatever gave you that insane idea? Tifflor is a good friend but I don't love him. If there is any man that I love, it is—" Again she interrupted herself.

  "Perhaps Rhodan?" asked the Ara,

  She gave no answer but the truth could be read in her face. The Ara nodded his satisfaction and bent down close to her.

  "So then, it is Rhodan. I am happy to learn that. And Rhodan returns the inclination of your heart. That is excellent. Then he will certainly be interested in seeing you alive again."

  Thora struggled upward. Hate flamed in her golden eyes. "Whoever you may be, the punishment of the Empire will fall on you, you horrible creature!"

  "Now is that the thanks we get for bringing you back to health? You were sick, Thora of Zoltral—very, very ill. You are on the planet Aralon in the galactic hospital of the Aras and you will be free just as soon as Rhodan is our prisoner. Don't try to delude yourself as to the gravity of the situation. And one thing more: you have just passed a sentence of death on a certain Tifflor. He has become worthless to us.

  What is your name?" asked the Arkonide woman with a very self-controlled voice.

  "My name is Themos. Why do you want to know?"

  Without the flicker of an eyelash Thora replied, "Because in this moment a second sentence of death has just been passed—on an Ara by the name of Themos. You may rest assured that within 24 hours the sentence will be carried out!"

  Themos became even paler than he was normally. He stared silently into the pitiless face of the Arkonide and suddenly realized how beautiful this woman was...and how dangerous...

  4/ PERRY & PUCKY PLUNGE TO DOOM

  The Control Central of the Titan was large but in comparison to the mile-thick spacesphere it could be designated as a mere trifle. But even in spite of this it would have been easy for anyone to overlook Pucky there, unless they took a very good look around.

  The mouse-beaver lay in his favorite place on a couch near the navigation computer, which Bell had usually serviced. Today that post was occupied by a younger officer, Lt. Bristal. He was fresh from the Space Academy of Terra. Colonel Freyt had included him in the reinforcements that he had brought from Earth.

  Rhodan sat tensely behind the main control console from which the giant battleship was directed. The door to the communications room was open. Khrest stood close beside it and waited with concern for the outcome of the pending decisions. It did not please him to think that no other means had been found than force in order to free Thora and her two
companions and to obtain the serum against the sickness that had afflicted the 700-crew members.

  Rhodan turned to Pucky. "Well, what have you got? No news about Thora...?"

  "She must be well again. Otherwise this Themos character couldn't have uncovered the trick. Tiffs death is a foregone conclusion."

  "But it hasn't been carried out yet," observed Rhodan grimly. "What does Tiff say?"

  "They're still in the room by the laboratory. He believes they're getting ready to dissect him."

  "Can you get any fix on his location?"

  "Yes," twittered Pucky confidently. "Tiff has described the appearance of the surface area. I believe that I will be able to find it. But of course it's still 6 miles underground. How will you manage that with the Titan ? Why don't you let me take a jump down there?"

  "Well, what do you think we have the Arkonide fighter robots for?" Rhodan reminded him. "They'll soon be able to clear the way down there from the surface. And the first minute I have that Themos in my hands, he'll be very happy not to have carried out his intentions!"

  Pucky did not answer. He had sat up on the couch and now he crouched there with his back against the wall. He seemed to listen keenly inside himself with his eyes closed. No one disturbed him. In the Control Central reigned absolute silence.

  The waiting lasted almost 3 minutes.

  "This is it!" whispered the mouse-beaver, finally. "They're taking Tiff first. He's struggling desperately but the odds are too great. He's describing a brightly-lighted chamber filled with weird equipment and gleaming instruments. Tiff thinks they're going to operate on him—although he says he's fit as a fiddle!"

  "In a situation like that—he still has time for humor!" Rhodan was astounded. "Quick, Pucky, I need the final location data!"

  "No change!" Pucky responded. "Let's get going!"