A World Gone Mad Page 5

  "You'll do nothing of the sort!" Pucky cut him short. "If we use the raygun even the dumbest robot will be tipped off. But if we vanish in the twilight by teleportation they might think we're ghosts or something and they won't know what to do about it. So take it easy! We'll see it through somehow."

  The few lamps shed only a scant light on the obscure terrain. The robots in their shimmering armor stood out much better than Pucky whose rust-brown fur was a natural camouflage.

  Anyway, the first of the robots gave no trouble. Pucky turned it into a useless suit of armor by giving it a short dose of radiation. And there it stood, waiting for new instructions which didn't come.

  The second and third fared no better and so it went with all the others that were distributed on the construction site watching for something to happen. And when finally something did happen they failed to notice it.

  After half an hour Pucky had put 50 battle-robots out of action, or half of them. This left 50 more plus the 30 work robots working on the ship at top speed to get it ready.

  Pucky returned to Tako. "Now we'll have to tackle the first line of defense which is blocking the entrance to the valley. They're standing only 15 feet apart and I'll have a tough job keeping them quiet."

  Then the mouse-beaver went to work again. He approached the chain of guards from the back and was careful not to be seen. This was not especially difficult as it was much darker here than in the vicinity of the hangar.

  Everything went smoothly until Pucky was halfway through. just when he started to take robot No.15 under treatment, No.16 slowly turned around and directed the beam of the light built into its forehead toward the origin of a noise it had heard.

  Pucky found himself bathed in light. The robot registered in a fraction of a second that it was the same harmless animal it had seen the day before but that it now held a small, faintly glowing box in its paws, with a lens which was pointed suspiciously at the robot's neighbor.

  The animal was undoubtedly intelligent and therefore an enemy. The robot reacted with lightning speed but its lethal energy-rays hit nothing but the parched ground and seared grass.

  Pucky materialized next to the frightened Tako. "This time I almost got burned," he whispered to the Japanese. "I hope they don't sound an alarm. Let's see first what they're going to do."

  The first 15 robots paid no attention to what followed. They stood motionless and utterly disinterested while the other 15 turned on their searchlights and swept the terrain. They found nothing of course but they were far from reassured. However none of them made a move to leave its place.

  "I can't let myself be seen there," Pucky murmured disappointedly, then gave out a low whistle. "Tako, I'm a telekin, you know!" he exclaimed, as if he had made an earthshaking statement.

  Tako reacted with slight amusement. "So what? What else is new?"

  "Don't you get it? I can send this impulse transmitter box out alone. These pesky robots only scrutinize the ground. Our little friend, however, can fly. I'm going to put them into a trance by remote control. Why didn't I think of it sooner?"

  "Necessity is the mother of invention," Tako commented, full of admiration for the way Pucky mastered his dilemma.

  Pucky didn't have to make elaborate efforts. He crouched in the shadow of the warehouse and focused his whole attention on the faintly glowing instrument which suddenly became weightless and floated toward the line of sentries at the height of a few feet.

  Robot No. 16 ceased its activities and froze stiff. His neighbor followed his example and five minutes later the whole chain of robots consisted of harmless metallic puppets with no life of their own. They would stand there in stoic passivity waiting for the moment when a new order would restore their life again if it took a thousand years.

  Pucky retrieved his set, told Tako not to leave his place and disappeared in the same second. When he returned a minute later the guards at the entrance to the valley had also been paralyzed.

  "Now we've only 19 more to take care of inside the plant. We can handle them too. The robot specialists will remain unscathed for the time being. Let them finish the ship first. Now we'll go into the last lap!"

  It was midnight by the time Pucky finished his job. He had rendered 99 robots ineffective but was unable to find the last one despite his intensive search. Thus one of the dangerous fighting machines was still at large somewhere in the area, for time was too valuable to waste on hours of pursuit.

  The work robots had not been distracted from their duties. Oblivious to the events, they stuck to their jobs and endeavored to comply with the schedule laid out by Borator as supervisor of the project.

  Pucky would be the last one to interfere in their task.

  Tama breathed easier again when Pucky and Tako returned. He had been forced to listen for an hour to the gibberish of Borator, who had come out of his unconscious state. At first the Springer had uttered wild threats and then proceeded to make tantalizing offers for his freedom. Tama had refrained from all answers to avoid giving away his identity. Let the Springer rack his brain over whose hands he had fallen into.

  When the Springer caught sight of Pucky he fell silent at once. Apparently he was worried because he had kicked him.

  "We're ready to take off," Pucky announced without mentioning his concern about the remaining robot who was still intent on fighting for his old bosses. "All further decisions will be made by Rhodan. Tako, take care of Tama. I'm glad we didn't need him, after all. I'll transport Borator. You know the co-ordinates for Rhodan's conference room in the administration building of the spaceport!"

  They got ready for the jump and suddenly the spot they had occupied was empty. Only the trampled grass betrayed that a few people had been present, although they seemed to have vanished in thin air.

  • • •

  Ralv and Enzally had no trouble bringing more than 5000 Goszuls together the same evening. They were all willing to play the part assigned to them. The preparations didn't take very long and after they had 'contracted' the disease, the natives were taken to the spaceport in special vehicles where they were put up in the spacious administration buildings to be coached for their performance.

  In the meantime Pucky, the two Japanese and their prisoner also had arrived. This changed Rhodan's plan a little. He sent John Marshall, Enzally and 200 'sick' people to the valley where the hangar was located, with orders to wait for the coming Springers in case they showed up there. They were treated by the suggestor Kitai who taught them how to behave. The two telepaths Marshall and Enzally were to insure that nothing went awry.

  There were still six hours till the expected arrival of the Springers.

  No report had as yet been received from Sgt. Harnahan according to Lt. Fisher on board the Stardust , as Rhodan learned in response to his inquiry. Otherwise everything was in good shape on board and it was fascinating to observe the variety of deep sea life. There were several interesting organisms whose forms, due to the water pressure...

  But Rhodan had no interest in the life of the deep sea. He instructed Fisher to let him know at once when Harnahan called in and cut off the connection.

  Where was Harnahan?

  • • •

  The little spaceship soared into space with tremendous acceleration, which was completely compensated for by the field of forces generated in the craft. Goszul's Planet receded at fantastic speed and virtually fell into the black depth. Uncounted stars shone all around the firmament and distant galaxies could be discerned by a weak light which had traveled millions of years.

  Harnahan once again experienced the exhilarating feeling of being absolutely alone in space. This didn't keep him from studying and recording all details of his surroundings, which was the purpose of his mission. Goszul's Planet had now become a bright star receiving the intense light of its sun. Harnahan changed his course a small amount to move into the shadow of the planet. This wouldn't help him much in an emergency but it made him feel better.

  The Springers were still
many light-hours away and it was useless to switch on his rangefinder instruments. He had to find the most favorable location for observing them from where he could not be easily detected. He pulled the special map Rhodan had given him from his pocket. It was a schematic representation of the entire planetary system at the given time.

  The fourth planet seen from the sun caught his attention. It seemed to have at least 50 smaller moons circling around it in various orbits. This small system looked at first sight very attractive to Harnahan. He adjusted his course once more and raced toward his new goal almost at the speed of light.

  After less than an hour he had to slow down in order to avoid a collision with the small moons. The whole system could be compared to a mixture resembling the rings of Saturn and an asteroid belt. The broken parts of an old twin planet—or perhaps those of a large moon—rotated around the fourth planet in many different paths. They didn't form a well-ordered ring like the debris of the former moon of Saturn and they didn't circle like asteroids around the sun but remained in the vicinity of the central star.

  He found it somewhat difficult to get his bearings among the satellites. According to his estimate the fleet of Springers was still 10 hours away so there was time enough to look around and find a suitable spot. Many of the fragments were no larger than a mile in diameter; others measured up to 30 miles. Cautiously he manoeuvred the little rocket through the maze of slowly moving rocks, enjoying to the fullest extent the sensation as the only living being in a wilderness.

  Here nothing and nobody could exist without aid for the bare necessities of life. Here he ruled alone. Rhodan and his friends were far away on a little point of light more than a light-hour distant.

  He had already retracted the metallic cover from his cockpit and had an unobstructed view from the canopy. Flying by sight he no longer relied on his instruments. The little craft reacted to the slightest pressure of his hand. While the cockpit was very narrow the excellent climate control made him quite comfortable.

  Harnahan took an energy tablet and a sip of water from his supplies. His air and food reserves were sufficient for three months but if this was merely a precautionary measure it also provided considerable reassurance.

  A fairly big moon came into view at his side. Its rugged and irregular surface showed long mountain chains and deep valleys where no light from the far sun or its dim reflection on the planet ever penetrated. Harnahan guessed its diameter to be about 50 miles, the size of a rather substantial asteroid.

  If anyone asked Harnahan later on why he had picked this particular moon as his observation post he received contradictory replies. He alternately stressed the fact that the topographic features of the surface provided an abundance of hiding places and at other times maintained stubbornly that an inexplicable feeling had attracted him to the place. Whatever it was, Harnahan couldn't have made a better choice.

  The sergeant twice circumnavigated the moon before he picked the most favorable of the mountain formations. Slowly and carefully he steered his rocket down to the surface and finally sat down on a plateau on top of one of the highest peaks which towered hundreds of feet above most of the others.

  From this base he could survey all directions and the view encompassed more than 70% of the sky due to the extreme curvature of the surface.

  There was a small depression at the middle of the plateau, just big enough to hold his pursuit ship. If he went to the trouble of covering the top of the rocket with some of the numerous loose rocks lying around, it would be impossible to detect the ship no matter how closely a pilot flew over it.

  Harnahan studied it with great care before he manoeuvred his craft into the hollow by means of a weak antigrav field surrounding him. It finally came to rest so that the canopy barely extruded from the shallow hole.

  The gravitation scale indicated only 0.01 G. This was extremely low, so low in fact that he would have to be very careful not to exceed the escape velocity by an inadvertent movement putting him in orbit around the moon as a satellite.

  Harnahan looked at his watch. It was time to settle down. He closed the helmet of his pressure suit and squeezed through the little hatch which served as a simple airlock. He didn't even bother to take a weapon. What for? There was nobody here to menace him and he also wanted to have his hands free to collect the rocks and heap them on the hull around the canopy although it really wasn't hard work to pick up the stones which were light as feathers.

  Harnahan had frequently been out in space and the lower gravity of the moon was no new experience for him. Nevertheless it was a little different here. As soon as he crawled out of the rocket and raised himself up, the mountain top receded below him as if he had pushed himself away with a kick. He ascended more than a hundred feet and slowly turned over. The sky revolved around him and he believed for a harrowing moment he was falling into the universe. With a few purposeful movements he slowed down his rotation. Eventually the surface of the moon appeared again below him and came gradually closer. He was falling.

  He came down about 500 feet away from the rocket and landed on the slope of the peak, where he instinctively tried to hold onto an outcropping. Then he broke out into laughter, the carefree laughter of a boy who got away with some well-planned mischief.

  He focused up the incline of the peak onto the plateau and pushed himself gently up. He was propelled like a projectile above the rim of the platform and floated down close to the rocket. Now he had gained confidence that he could move around in any direction on this world. It was simply a matter of adaptation and a little practice.

  There were more than enough stones strewn around. He gathered them one by one and put them on the rocket so that nothing but the canopy was exposed. He felt certain that the ship was invisible from outer space whereas he could monitor the entire planetary system because the slow rotation of the moon enabled him to look in all directions. Even a sudden start presented no difficulty since the almost weightless stones didn't amount to a significant load. They would simply slide off and glide down to the moon.

  Harnahan looked at his watch again. He had at least five hours before anything was likely to happen. Perhaps he ought to get in touch with the Stardust and let Fisher know where he stayed? But there was nothing urgent about it. He would rather use the time and the unique opportunity to take a look at the strange uninhabited world around him where locomotion was a pure pleasure.

  For a moment he considered taking a small raygun from the ship to use its recoil for controlling his speed and direction but decided against it. Even if he missed a jump he couldn't get hurt in the deepest fall, owing to the minimal gravity.

  After a last look at his well-camouflaged rocket Harnahan gave himself a shove and soared at a tangent into the black sky like another celestial body with almost no mass to tether him to another sphere. He aimed his leap to cross the valley separating his peak from a somewhat lower neighboring mountain top. He passed over steep cliffs and deep rugged gorges where he would have been reluctant to land. However a single push would be sufficient to disengage himself. His slight apprehension was unfounded. He had directed his flight so accurately that he safely set foot on the next peak.

  It didn't look much different from his own plateau. With two more leaps he was carried two miles forward and down into a plain. For the next 10 minutes he amused himself bouncing up vertically with ever bolder and higher leaps. He estimated he had reached a height of 500 feet before he slowly floated down again. Then he tried to break the world's record in broad jump. He succeeded easily with a spectacular parabola covering a distance of more than 1500 feet. It was a respectable feat which was sure to make his friends envy him when he bragged about it.

  His experiments carried him near a remarkably smooth mountain range which closed the valley like a wall. There were only a few peaks reaching a height of 6000 or 7000 feet. Harnahan discovered some ledges on the cliffs. after a closer inspection. As a climax to his adventure he desired to hurdle this obstacle and to undertake a long fligh
t from the ridge.

  However it proved a little more difficult than he thought. He went straight up in his first attempt but failed to get close enough to the wall to grab a hold. When the upsurge diminished he slowly dropped down along the wall, which was nearly in his reach.

  The second time he did better. He landed on a small ledge 300 feet above the plain. Had he been stranded in a similar situation on Earth he would have huddled on the mountain and waited till a rescue team came to Ids aid. Here it was entirely different and he was able to look down into the abyss without any feeling of dizziness.

  The wall above him was not as smooth as he had first assumed. There was another outcropping about 150 feet above him. He jumped up again and was able to grasp it and pull himself up.

  After a few more jumps he finally stood on the mountain ridge. it had taken less than half an hour. The view surpassed his imagination. There was no atmosphere to dim the distant horizon. The tips of the farthest mountains extending above the curvature looked as clear and near as if he could vault across in one leap. The wide plain stretched more than 6000 feet below him. Now he could fulfill his lifelong dream and jump off the mountain as he had so often wished after a hard climb to a crest where he could see lakes and valleys nestled at the bottom. Spread out his arms and fly! At last he could do what he had always hankered to do!

  At the opposite end of the valley he recognized his peak. A long way to walk but he would sail across.

  Harnahan had a sense of intoxication. With a cry of joy he bounded upward and glided along the ridge, which showed only a few crevasses and was not very wide. The precipice on the other side was not as steep but the bottom was full of cliffs and ravines.

  The mountain ended abruptly in a sheer wall. Harnahan cautiously approached the precipice and looked down into the depth. He had the impression that the basin which was almost completely surrounded by mountains was even lower than the plain from which he had ascended but this could have been an illusion created by the almost vertical slopes.