Peril on Ice Planet Read online

  Hifield and Eberhardt nodded. The girls stared with wide eyes and Aubrey stood rigidly, his head slightly leaning back as if he studied the ceiling.

  "But how," Eberhardt asked after awhile "can we steal away without being seen? If Aubrey is right they're already on top of us."

  Tiff smiled a little superciliously, intimating that he had a plan all figured out already. "We're going to exit through there and disappear," he said, pointing over his shoulder to the rear wall of the cave.

  Eberhardt looked around. "That way?" His eyes wandered back again and he stared at Tiffs smiling face.

  "How do you want to accomplish that?" Hump murmured in the background.

  Instead of replying Tiff turned to RB-013. "Aubrey, where are they?"

  "Exactly over the spot where you've shot down the machine, sir!" They've stopped and are staggered in clusters of four, one above the other. The lowest group is 80 feet and the highest 600 feet above the ground."

  "Alright, Aubrey! Go ahead!" Tiff ordered.

  Aubrey stirred from his rigid stance. With an agility nobody would have suspected in the tons of metal he wheeled around, he took a few crunching steps toward the rear wall of the cave and raised his left weapon arm.

  RB-013 had four arms—two on each side. The upper pair of arms served the same purpose as human arms. The lower arms were nothing but a pair of movable cannons, a disintegrator on one side and a thermobeamer on the other.

  Faintly glowing greenish energy rays shot from the muzzle of the arm. The rock of the wall melted like snow in the sun. Actually it did not really melt. The effect of the disintegrator stemmed from the fact that the crystallizing forces of solid matter were annulled in the field of the disintegrator. Atoms and molecules became separated and the exposed radiated matter turned into gas—or plasma when applying high—yield disintegrators.

  "Close your helmets!" Tiff ordered as the others watched with fascination the robot doing his work. Clouds of stone dust drifted through the cave, entered their noses and created a feeling of suffocation in their lungs. They locked their helmets when they noticed that breathing became dangerous and kept staring at the hole penetrating deeper and deeper into the rock under the powerful beam of the disintegrator.

  "Okay." Tiff smiled. "You've seen enough now. There are more disintegrators in Pucky's supplies. Take one each and help Aubrey with the work. We have to push through in a hurry."

  Under Tiffs direction the beams of the five disintegrators were distributed over an area six feet high and three wide. The weapons operating at peak efficiency ate into the rock at the rate of eight inches per second. The passage through which Tiff hoped to slip away from the Springers grew rapidly.

  Tiff didn't take part in the job of gouging out the passage. He rummaged through the store of equipment brought by Pucky and picked out a number of devices resembling hand grenades. They were indeed hand grenades but instead of a charge of powder they contained a highly efficient gravity generator. The generator had only an operating span of one-thousandth of a second. But in the course of this short interval it created a gravitational field of considerable magnitude. The strong field and its explosive nature made it an extremely effective weapon for close combat.

  It was Tiffs assumption that the Springers were bound to detect the cave sooner or later and to invade it. Furthermore they were certain to find the passage the disintegrators carved into the stone wall and they had only to follow them through the passage to be sure to stay on their heels and to overtake them again. Therefore, the cave and the entrance of the passage had to be erased. This was, of course, a very easy matter. The small grenades were equipped with simple but adequate time fuses serving Tiff's purpose perfectly. He only had to place the hand grenade in a crevice and run into the passage.

  If only Pucky were back already! When he returned from his reconnaissance trip he would select the cave as point of entry for his teleportation and Tiff didn't want to run the risk of letting him plunge into the middle of the exploding cave or fall into the hands of the advancing Springers. The time Pucky had set for his return had not yet expired. There was still half an hour left and Tiff was determined to wait for him, come what might.

  He didn't have to worry about Aubrey and his companions. With Aubrey leading the way they would have blasted out 1200 feet in another half an hour. That was far enough to be a safe distance.

  Tiff had been told by Pucky about the cell transmitter for telepaths implanted in his body without his knowledge. He now knew that Pucky could trace him anywhere within a radius of two light-years. If he followed the others into the shaft and thereby indicated to Pucky that he was no longer in the cave, there was a possibility that the mousebeaver would perhaps change the goal of his teleportation.

  Perhaps! Perhaps only sheer speculation! He had to wait and see how the situation developed...

  • • •

  Enaret reported for the fifth time what he had observed. "Yes, that's where Psholgur's ship plummeted down. You can tell where the sheet of ice is. No, not over there. That's where Willagar was shot. Yes. No, there's no trace of Horlgon."

  Etztak had put a man by the name of Wernal in charge of the 24 ships. Enaret considered him not too bright but he was careful to keep his opinion to himself.

  As long as Enaret didn't have to give explanations he kept his eyes on the sensor screen. In his judgment it was useless to waste time hovering over the scene of the disaster and to search for the tracks of Psholgur, Horlgon and Willagar. What they wanted to find was the strangers, not the dead!

  But Wernal was in command and he thought that his strategy was the only sound one. Until Enaret believed he had suddenly found what he was looking for.

  The sensor screen depicted a steeply rising wall of the mountain. Enaret clearly discerned a funnel-shaped outline of what seemed to be the entrance to a cave. And a few feet behind the rim of the funnel the sensor beam reflected some compact matter. A wall!

  Enaret was thinking fast. What kind of a cave could this be that formed a deep funnel in the mountain side and ended only a few feet behind the funnel's rim? He concluded that the wall behind the funnel was an artificial structure.

  He contacted Wernal and advised him of his findings. Wernal was not exactly overjoyed that one of his subordinates had apparently made an important discovery without him but he nonetheless paid careful attention and became convinced that Enaret was probably right. There must indeed be a cave in the mountain before them and the cave was shielded from the outside world by an artificial wall. Wernal pointed in the direction and ordered: "were moving in and well land in a semi–circle around the cave at a distance of 200 feet!"

  • • •

  Tiff heard Aubrey's announcement via helmet radio: "They're coming, sir!" They've landed in front of the cave!"

  Tiff answered tersely: "I get it! just keep going with your work!"

  So they've found us, he thought grimly. Another 15 minutes had elapsed. Unless he was able to hold out long enough, Pucky would...

  Tiff carefully checked the controls of his transport suit. At the end he left his deflector and impact screen in activated state. He cradled in his left arm the heavy thermobeamer taken from Pucky's armaments and pushed the cover plate of the inner partition out with his right hand. He could feel the floor quake as the heavy stone hit it. In the light of the last emergency lamp be could see the second partition wall which was only 10 feet away. At this distance an automatic thermo-beamer could rain dreadful destruction.

  Let them come!

  • • •

  All of a sudden Wernal was in a great hurry. "Send out one man from each ship!" he ordered. "Enaret, take the men to the cave. Exercise caution when breaking in and remember, we want to get the strangers alive if possible!"

  Enaret left his ship where it was and climbed out. He gathered all the men who had disembarked around him. While Wernal was running out of patience Enaret deemed it important to point out to the man that they faced a wily enemy. "Unquestionabl
y they've deflector screens, perhaps even antigrav generators and certainly very sophisticated weapons. Furthermore they're in such a desperate position that they can't afford to pull their punches. They'll shoot when they see the enemy. Keep that in mind and don't try to be heroic!"

  Then they advanced toward the entrance of the cave.

  • • •

  Tiff noticed it when they started to work at the outside of the cave. As soon as they had found the cover plate the ground ceased shaking. Perhaps it would take them longer than the remaining time set for Pucky's return!

  Where was Pucky?

  • • •

  The great number of walls disturbed Enaret since he had not yet figured out what purpose they served.

  Wernal kept urging from a safe place: "Make it snappy! Go on!"

  Enaret looked at his men. In the light of his little lamp he could see them grin behind the clear faceplates of their helmets. "Keep going!" he growled.

  The aliens had built the thin partitions from one wall to within three feet of the opposite one and covered the remaining space with molten stone plates. Enaret was amazed how well these pieces fitted into the grooves of the partitions and side walls. The inserts were so constructed that they could be put in place or be removed from either side. In order to save time, Enaret instructed his men to push the covers inward with a quick hard blow and to jump back to the side in case the enemy was lying in wait behind it.

  This method worked very well and they went from wall to wall without running into resistance when one of the men finally called out in surprise: "The cover plate in the next wall is missing and a light is burning behind it!"

  Even then the hidden foe didn't reveal himself and Enaret began to suspect a trap. Or did the cave have another exit?

  He squeezed past his men and leaned forward to look around the partition. He saw the next wall and the opening which had held the inserted plate before. Now the cover lay on the floor. Through the hole Enaret recognized a spacious, faintly lit room. A single lamp provided some sort of an emergency light. The shaft which had been cut into the rock by the disintegrators was concealed from his view by the partition.

  "Let's go on!" Enaret commanded.

  • • •

  Tiff heard the muffled rumbling when the piece in the next to last partition was knocked out. He drew his weapon closer so that the muzzle of the barrel was pulled back inside the deflector field and became totally invisible. He saw Enaret when he showed his head at the edge of the partition to survey the cave.

  There were still four minutes to go before the half hour was up. The hand grenades were set to detonate 10 minutes after the expiration of the deadline. If Pucky failed to return on time, the terror Tiff planned to strike into the Springers would have to last at least 10 minutes.

  And now they infiltrated. Cautiously they sneaked around the partition and quickly leaped away to the side.

  Tiff raised the barrel of his heavy weapon but he had no desire to kill them. He squeezed the trigger and fired a low energy shot against the rock. The effect was spectacular. From one moment to the next the ceiling began to glow, to melt and to evaporate. White hot rocks came tumbling down, sizzled and hissed when they bit the cold ground, raining a shower of sparks in all directions. Vapors filled the chamber and blurred all outlines. Tiff saw darting shadows fleeing in wild haste around the next partition to escape the rampant pyrotechnics.

  Laughingly he blasted another shot at the partition. Instantly it turned into a glowing liquid mass, buckled and collapsed, rendering the third wall behind it visible through green vapors released from the stone. The Springers were in hasty retreat. Tiff saw the last one of them scrambling through the opening and he also shot up the third partition close behind them.

  At this moment he heard in his speaker a whimsical voice: "Good work my boy!"

  He whirled around. In the middle of the cave under the last lamp sat Pucky. Tiff sighed with relief and switched off his deflector field so that Pucky could see him. He started to give some hasty explanations but Pucky waved his hand nonchalantly in a human gesture. "I know all about it. I can read your thoughts clearly. Leave this place at once! I'll take over your position and hold it for awhile."

  Tiff understood his reasons. It was crucial for Tiff to use his legs to put the greatest possible distance between himself and the cave before the time of the explosion. By contrast, Pucky would be able to leap across the distance in one jump and the cell transmitter Tiff carried in his body would guide him precisely.

  "The grenade is set to go off in 10 minutes," Tiff panted.

  Pucky nodded and hopped to the inner partition taking Tiffs place. "Now get lost!" he lisped.

  Tiff ran. The passage burned out by the disintegrators was spacious enough to allow him to skip out in a sprint. The real danger which Tiff had kept in mind all along was not from the explosion itself but from its secondary effects. The gravitation field produced by the hand grenades was very powerful but of limited range. For a person in the shaft more than 150 feet away from the explosion, the suction wave moving from the depth of the shaft toward the origin of the explosion constituted the greatest peril.

  Tiff stormed along the shaft. Aubrey reported to him that they had encountered less resistant rock and that they were now 2000 feet away from the cave. Tiff tried briefly to use the transport suit for his get away but it turned out that the passage was too narrow for the suit to serve as an efficient means of locomotion. Three minutes after he had left Pucky be reached the cadets and the girls. He had already brought them abreast during his run about the events taking place in the cave. Tiff quickly took over the disintegrator from Mildred. She was glad to hand him the weapon and be relieved of the work.

  "I'm happy you made it," she said softly. Tiff lifted his head in surprise and looked at her. He saw her big shining eyes behind her helmet's visor and replied a little awkwardly: "Yes, so am I."

  He squeezed the disintegrator firmly under his arm and started to blast away at the rock. One minute before the explosion Tiff stopped all work and made everybody lie down flat on the ground. Five seconds before zero Pucky materialized in midair and a few moments later the prostrate figures seemed gripped by a mighty fist as a thunderous tremor shook the mountain.

  Then it was all over and they rose again.

  "Everything appears to be alright," Pucky said. "The Springers never came back and now they can't find us any more.

  He related briefly what he had experienced on board the ETZ XXI and concluded his report: "None of them realize how well a good telepath can judge the character of an intelligent being. I am certain that the old man won't hesitate for a moment to blow this world to smithereens. If Etztak finds out that his latest foray has failed again he'll be burned up and furious enough to order the final demolition of this planet. We can't lose another minute. We must infiltrate the HORL VII and ETZ XXI without delay."

  Tiff had listened attentively. "Why do we have to get on board the ETZ XII, sir?" he asked.

  Pucky peeped a cry and explained: "To take Etztak as prisoner in case we don't succeed in preventing the HORL VII from launching its bombs. I suggest that we surface as fast as possible and get on our way. We know the layout of the Springer ships and you'll be able to orient yourselves on board with my specifications."

  • • •

  They surfaced one mile north of the cave at the northern slope of the mountain. Pucky had first made sure that the coast was clear by teleporting himself for short jumps out of the shaft. He also had made a short foray to the cave and returned with the news that the Springers were now busy poking through the remnants of the stone walls. He estimated that it would take at least another hour before Etztak would be informed of the failure of their mission. Pucky perceived from the minds of the Springers that they were reluctant to believe the version of the suicide of the doomed aliens. However somebody by the name of Wernal had given the order to search for the remains of the strangers.

  "That ought to kee
p them busy for quite awhile," Pucky piped. "In the meantime we'll make headway."

  The two girls were left behind with Aubrey. The robot received orders to widen the exit of the shaft so that it could be used as a temporary base. Pucky made it clear to Aubrey that it was preferable to surrender with the two girls than risk that the Springers would drop a bomb on the exit.

  Then Pucky and the three cadets started out on their trek. Pucky, clad in a simple spacesuit, teleported himself ahead of the others for some distance and waited for the cadets to catch up with him by flying rapidly and low above the snow. In this manner it took them a few hours to approach within 12 miles of the place where the two Springer ships had landed. The night would still last a few more hours so that they could at least begin their action under the protection of darkness.

  While the three cadets remained at a safe distance Pucky teleported himself with a well-aimed jump on board the ETZ XXI. Unabashed and without a slip-up he locked the hangar officer of the gigantic ship in his own office and forced him to release one of the patrol ships and to advise the HORL VII of the arrival of a ship so that the HORL VII would open its hangar in response to the code signal without making further inquiries. Then he took the patrol ship and returned to the waiting cadets.

  "One of you," Pucky said, "is coming with me. The other two will fly to the HORL VII. The Arkon bombs are kept in storeroom No.78 on the fifth deck from the hangar. You'll have no trouble finding your way. It is necessary that you get there in 10 minutes. The hangar officer of the ETZ XXI is unconscious and I've dragged him to some place where they won't find him so soon. But after awhile he's going to wake up and tell old Etztak what has happened. You'll have to be on board the HORL by that time. They'll sound the alarm on it as soon as the hangar officer is heard from. It won't be an easy job for you but you know what's at stake. Now please decide who'll accompany me and who's flying to the HORL."