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  Teluf's eyes narrowed. "They've sent out a three-man destroyer but that's insane!

  One shot will blow it to atoms." The men in the Control Central of the Frisco gathered close behind the major.

  "Maybe it's supposed to be a trap," suggested Galahad.

  Almost breathlessly, Major Teluf followed the flight of the destroyer. With a boldness bordering on impudence the tiny interceptor shot toward its Gargantuan foe. Teluf could only hope that it was unmanned and under automatic guidance. It almost seemed as if the fragment ship had failed to detect its insignificant attacker because the destroyer was making a dangerously close approach.

  The picture became blurred and Ikaze leapt to the dials, scolding under his breath. "These instruments are awfully sensitive, sir," he explained. "The beating we took must have shaken them up." Then the scanners and opticals both went out entirely, and only the mass sensors revealed a slight reading. But that was due to the presence of the fragment ship and the Hat-Lete, whose much superior mass blanked out any possible detection of the tinier ship.

  "Of all times for that to happen!" complained Galahad nervously.

  Even Teluf had a hard time to suppress an urge to shove Ikaze out of the way and handle the controls himself. But the Japanese operator was a top expert and if he couldn't manage the problem any other attempts would be useless.

  Suddenly the two larger ships became visible again but the destroyer had disappeared.

  "It's gone, sir!" said Ikaze, perplexed.

  At that moment the energy sensors reacted sharply and at once everybody knew what had happened. A single shot had vaporized the Terran fighter. The sudden energy burst had taken a few seconds to be registered by the Frisco's instruments because the light cruiser had moved still farther away from the other vessels.

  "That was a useless sacrifice," commented Teluf bitterly. He turned and silently sat down in his flight seat.

  Twelve hours later the Frisco received a radio call from the heavy cruiser, Malaya. The latter vessel's commander advised that he would be starting rescue operations within a few minutes. It was during those 12 hours in which Teluf and his men had been holding out that the battle against the fragment ship entered its decisive phase.

  • • •

  It was no use trying to convince himself that this mission was no more difficult than all the others he had come through successfully. It didn't help to relieve his tension. Ras Tschubai's dark hands clutched the destroyer's flight-control column tightly. On the viewscreen all he could see was the dark surface of the closed hangar door.

  "Rhodan to destroyer," said the Administrator over the panel speaker. "All clear on board?" Ras glanced at Kakuta and Pucky as he answered: "All clear, sir,"

  "We'll just dip into normal space for a few moments," Rhodan advised. "As soon as the lock opens you have to launch at once." Tschubai's lips parted to reveal gleaming white teeth. His swarthy face widened into a smile. "Right on, sir!"

  "Good luck!" returned Rhodan as he broke the contact.

  From the rear seat, Pucky craned his neck to look past Kakuta. "I feel unusual forces building up inside of me," he announced.

  "Just keep them under control till we get into that fragment ship," ordered Tschubai sarcastically.

  "This is Nolinov!" came a new voice. "I'm directing this launch."

  "We're ready, Captain," said Tschubai evenly while he strove to conceal his inner uneasiness.

  The lock door opened. Stana Nolinov intoned the short countdown calmly and then the three-man destroyer was catapulted into outer space where Tschubai instantly cut in the full power of his own propulsion. The small ship raced away from the Theodorich. Behind the destroyer the flagship immediately sought coverage within the libration zone.

  Kakuta seemed to be brooding over what lay ahead of them. "So far that fragment ship has cost the Solar Fleet a space station, one light cruiser, and now a three-man destroyer." He spoke as if he were certain they would be attacked.

  "But not a single mouse-beaver," boasted Pucky.

  "Considering present company no wonder!" retorted Tschubai mockingly.

  "Class speaks for itself," said Pucky philosophically.

  Kakuta spoke imploringly. "Come on—we have to shape up before we make our jumps! I wouldn't want an explosion to do it for us!"

  "Let's just sneak up a little bit closer," suggested Pucky. "We're doing alright." Tschubai watched his indicators. Then he cut in the auto-pilot and stood up. "Now!"

  "Just don't get pushy," Pucky cautioned the African. Almost in the same breath he said to Kakuta: "OK, let's go!" He dematerialized and the two Terrans glanced at each other knowingly. Pucky always had to be the first, no matter what the danger. Tschubai and his Japanese companion jumped almost simultaneously.

  For a few more moments the destroyer darted forward without its crew, and then the ray weapons of the gunners wiped it out of existence.

  4/ THE SHIP OF NIGHTMARES

  Ras Tschubai materialized on the side of a pyramid-shaped object whose angular edges were about five meters high. Sliding down the steep surface he reached the floor and found himself standing on a silvery band of metal. The bright strip wound its way through a low passage where the pyramid shapes were spaced out at even intervals. It gave Tschubai the impression of being in a surrealistic forest of some kind. There was no sign of Pucky or Kakuta. He felt it best to remain under cover of the angular cone until he had oriented himself.

  About 10 steps farther on the ceiling of the passage was interrupted by what appeared to be a shaft that led upward.

  The mutant was surrounded by a ghostly silence. Pulling out his short-barreled disintegrator, he went around the pyramid. The silvery band shimmered as if a thousand eyes were looking up at him. He avoided looking down at it and instead concentrated his attention on the passage before him. Suddenly his foot struck against an obstacle and it startled him. He had almost tripped on the metallic strip, which was raised a few centimeters off the deck. Under the strange illumination here it appeared to form a parallel plane above the floor.

  The African didn't bother to investigate the silvery strip any closer. With his weapon held in front of him, he went to the next angle cone. By now he had almost reached the place where the shaft intersected the ceiling. The opening was dark and he couldn't see where it led.

  Tschubai concentrated to see if he could pick up any telepathic impulses from Pucky but the mouse-beaver made no contact with him. It was not possible for him to call Pucky mentally because he had no telepathic gifts to speak of.

  A buzzing sound caused Ras to whirl around. The shimmering of the metal strip seemed to increase and he thought he could detect a movement of some kind farther back in the passage. The coldness of the metal he was leaning against penetrated his uniform. His hand was steady as he raised his weapon in readiness. He risked casting a glance behind him. The nearest pyramid was not far away and he might be able to reach it without being seen. At any rate he would be farther away from the shaft, from which he could easily be attacked.

  He drew back slowly but just when he was beneath the shaft he felt a sudden absence of gravity and he was drawn upward irresistibly. He suppressed a temptation to make a short teleport jump. While he floated upward he saw something approaching beneath him on the metal strip. Before he could look closer he was swept up into the shaft itself and it was lost to view. Within a few seconds it was completely dark around him.

  He could have turned on his helmet lamp but thought it would be too dangerous.

  Thus he drifted in emptiness and listened. If need be the teleporter was capable of an iron like self-command. He was not concerned that the gravity might suddenly return and plunge him downward again because he knew he could save himself quickly enough by teleporting. He had no reason to believe yet that he had been discovered. It was probable that he had just chanced to wander into the field of an antigrav shaft.

  He heard a noise. It came from below and sounded like two hollow metal bodies stri
king together. His thoughts raced wildly. He had to exert all his will power in order not to turn on his helmet lamp. Then the same sound came again but nearer to him. He felt a prickly sensation run down his back. He didn't dare to move because he was afraid the slightest sound would betray his position.

  Something was floating with him in the shaft.

  He tensed suddenly when the bell sound occurred again because he sensed that it was right next to him. Otherwise nothing could be heard although the mutant strained his senses to the limit. Thus a period of time passed which could have been seconds or minutes but Tschubai had no way of knowing. He presumed that his upward motion was extremely slow because even considering the fragment ship's huge dimensions the shaft couldn't be endless. When nothing more seemed to be stirring around him he reasoned that the unseen party must have passed him, although there was no good explanation of why he should have done so.

  Tschubai had almost decided to switch on his lamp when something grasped him out of the darkness and began to tear at his suit with brutal strength. His first reaction was purely instinctive and without deliberation. He struck about him with the disintegrator and hit something hard. The grip of his unknown assailant increased to the point where it almost cut off the African's breath.

  Under these conditions a shot from the disintegrator would have been tantamount to suicide. Tschubai swiftly shoved the weapon into his belt and reached out his arms. His right hand was sprained when it collided with hard metal.

  Apparently the entity he was struggling with was wearing armor plate covering. The mutant struggled for breath and expanded his chest. The worst part of this contest was that he didn't have the slightest idea of who or what his opponent was. Tschubai was knocked against the shaft wall and the impact served to loosen the merciless grip of his assailant slightly. He swung his fists again and almost broke his hand. Was this enemy completely invulnerable? Then he was pressed against the wall and was helpless in the other's powerful embrace. He fought desperately for more room but it was useless. He realized now that it had been a mistake to holster his disintegrator because in spite of the danger he should have risked a shot. Now it was too late because his arms couldn't move against the massive body that held him.

  For the first time it dawned on Tschubai that his antagonist might be a robot. The pressure on him increased until he feared all his ribs would be broken. He moaned in pain, scarcely able to breathe, still resisting in his benumbed confusion. Yet the more he strained the more ruthlessly he was pressed against the wall.

  Ras tried one last strategy. He suddenly went limp and hung there motionlessly. The robot or whatever it was let loose of him and disappeared in the darkness. Tschubai was just about to heave a sigh of relief when something hooked into his collar, snapped on and quickly tugged at him.

  They were hoisting him some where, he thought.

  He might have escaped in a single transporter jump but he had to find out what they wanted with him, so he did not resist. There was a humming sound and Tschubai could feel that he was gliding upward at an increased speed. Soon the darkness yielded to a pale gray light and for the first time he could see the thing he'd been fighting with. Its outline was triangular-shaped except at the apex where a beak-like arrangement protruded and from which metallic fibers extended. Out of the thing's body protruded countless spiral arms which were constantly twisting and moving.

  A robot, he thought—but the strangest he had ever seen.

  The mutant was attached to the robot by means of a movable rod and clamp. The flexible extension held him presently at a distance of about 10 feet, which made the robot about as tall as a medium sized phone booth and at least half as wide.

  Theoretically the African was a prisoner of the strange contraption and was being toughly handled accordingly. The robot reached the upper end of the shaft and settled down on its edge. Tschubai felt that he was being sharply observed although he could see nothing on the robot that looked like eyes or which could be recognized as optical equipment. As he came up to the thing in a horizontal position, two spiral arms gripped him and jerked him out of the antigrav field.

  Tschubai landed on his back on the deck and looked up at the robot, still somewhat dazed. When he moved as if to sit up he received a shove that made him lie down again.

  He tried to reach unobtrusively for his disintegrator but the robot seemed to anticipate the move and immediately knocked the weapon out of his hand.

  Ruefully, Tschubai watched the gun slide away over the smooth surface of the deck.

  The robot detached the flexible tow-cord from Tschubai's collar and collapsed it, stowing it in a receptacle in his body. The mutant felt himself lifted up and the machine started moving away with him. Tschubai submitted without resistance because he knew that this was the quickest way to get to the leaders on board this ship.

  He failed to realize that he was already among them.

  • • •

  Tako Kakuta landed in a huge hall that stretched out before him like a deserted ballroom. The Japanese mutant looked about him but saw no traces of living creatures or even any technical equipment. What could be the purpose of such a gigantic chamber?

  As he started walking his footsteps echoed hollowly from the distant walls.

  Neither Pucky nor Ras were anywhere in the vicinity. Kakuta was just about to teleport elsewhere when something came rolling into the hall that was as big as a large writing desk. The mutant hesitated. The intruder was obviously made of metal and it moved forward on many individually extended wheels. The practicality of the arrangement was demonstrated in the celerity with which it changed its direction suddenly and shot toward Kakuta.

  The Terran drew his weapon and cautiously observed this mysterious approach.

  The contraption was squarely built and covered with inexplicable appendages of some kind. It came to a stop within about 10 paces of him.

  "Brrrks! Brrrks!" the thing said.

  "I don't understand any part of that," replied Kakuta suspiciously.

  A small door opened on the side of the "writing desk" and spewed out a countless number of small objects which spread out and came swirling across the floor toward Kakuta. Tako involuntarily stepped back. The ball-shaped things rolled after him. Meanwhile the "desk" had snapped open another compartment from which more of the small spheres poured and at once charged in his direction.

  The mutant aimed carefully at the nearest of the balls and fired a light charge from his weapon. The thing exploded with a green flash and emitted a nauseous odor. Unimpressed, the other spheres continued their approach. Tako realized that it would be impossible to pick off the things one by one, since the "desk" creature was spewing out more of them tirelessly, and now a whole army of the small white spheres was advancing toward him.

  He made a short teleport jump and materialized about 20 meters away. The spheres moved about in sudden confusion, appearing to be a living metal mosaic.

  Unexpectedly they turned on a secret command from the robot box and returned to disappear in its interior. As if nothing had happened, the crate-shaped thing set off in the direction Kakuta had taken. To make things worse, two other machines entered the hall, appearing to be considerably larger than the "writing desk." One of them made a terrific uproar, clattering and rumbling, whistling and hammering as if any moment it were going to fall apart. Its lower extremity was fairly broad but it narrowed upward to a point that waved back and forth.

  The other newcomer could not be heard at all but this was probably because whatever sounds it made were drowned out in the bedlam. Kakuta made out a flat-looking shape that struggled forward in a hopping movement while flooding its surroundings in a purplish light.

  Meanwhile the traveling desk had again approached Tako to the point where it must have been time to unload its mysterious crew. Within seconds the little spheres were swarming across the floor. The machine that was making the indescribable noises had suddenly extended three or more fiber-like objects which shot out toward
Kakuta like oversized chameleon tongues. The purple-lighted robot illuminated the scene so that the white spheres suddenly seemed to be red like rolling drops of blood. Never in his life had the Japanese mutant seen anything so fantastic, and the whole scene held him momentarily spellbound in fascination.

  For a human it was impossible. to make any sense out of these infernal goings on, yet Kakuta had a presentiment that everything he saw was linked to some fixed principle of operation and served some definitely outlined plan.

  One of the outflung metallic fiber tongues caught Kakuta's sleeve and with a jolt he was thrown to the floor. As though riding on a feather he slipped across the smooth surface of the deck. This dragged him straight through the army of little spheres, and every time he contacted one of them he received a painful electric shock. When a second flying tongue whipped around his legs he fired off a wild shot with his weapon but only hit the flat-shaped apparatus. With a horrible crackling sound it hopped away in retreat while its weird illumination grew dimmer. The third tongue gripped the teleporter around his chest and jerked him closer to the conical robot. The "writing desk" gathered in its spheroids and seemed to consider its task accomplished. With a satisfied-sounding "Brrrks!

  Brrrks!" it rolled away.

  The metallic cone lifted Tako Kakuta from the floor. It grasped him tightly and rumbled away with him out of the hall.

  • • •

  Double-O disconnected his roller feet from the guide strip and lifted up into the magnetic shaft. He asked himself if the present situation would have developed if the upper level commander had not rejected his consultation so rigorously. Now it was too late. Something monstrous had occurred. Life forms of an organic nature had penetrated the ship by an unknown means.

  The lower level commander had shown his lack of deliberation by immediately alerting the gunners and ordering them to kill the three aliens. This had only been prevented by Double-O's Swift intervention. The adviser had gone immediately to the nearest information station and spoken to the upper level commander. He had warned him against a heedless killing of the repulsive creatures because the only way they could find out the method they had used to get on board was to catch them alive. Double-O had argued impressively and the commander had agreed with him. He had pulled back the gunners who were already on their way and assigned other units in their place. According to Double-O's information, the aliens were now being pursued by two fliers, one beamer, the three controllers, one shock spawner and one alien expert.