The Stolen Spacefleet Page 6

  Jenner took a step back. "That's about it, Pucky. The first patch-mod is in!"

  The mouse-beaver chuckled contentedly. "Let's hope the rest of them are as easy. You'll probably want to go get some more of those gadgets if you get through ahead of schedule."

  "That was arranged for, little friend-but let's not lose any time. We should get on to the next job."

  By close to two a.m. Pucky and Jenner had already taken care of the 20 super warships and 30 other units of the fleet. By way of the mountain they teleported back to the base, only to learn that Kakuta and Dr. Ranault had already been there to replenish their supply of circuit elements. The Japanese mutant had expressed confidence that he and his partner could cover a total of 100 ships by sunrise.

  Jenner refilled his travel kit and as he was about to take off with Pucky again, Ras Tschubai and Dr. Sorowski put in an appearance. It seemed that by dawn perhaps a third of the fleet would have been activated. Everything was going better than had been anticipated.

  For three days and three nights, all went smoothly. It was on the fourth night that the fatal incident occurred.

  4/ THE IMPOSSIBLE INTRUDER

  It had been a strenuous day.

  Perry Rhodan had received permission to leave Akon in one of the freighters. Although he announced no destination he emphasized the fact that he would return that same night. No one asked any questions so he was able to proceed without hindrance to the outer rim of the system where he transferred on board the waiting Odin in order to make a secret hypercom contact with Atlan.

  Maj. Scott was happy to see Rhodan again and reported at once and succinctly, which was characteristic of him. "We have set up a permanent contact with Reginald Bell, sir. He is with the fleet task force in the assigned space sector, 10 light-years from here."

  "Excellent!" said Rhodan. "He is all cued in?"

  "We have only to beam out the prearranged signal, sir."

  Rhodan nodded and went into the Com Central, where Atlan's face could already be seen on the hypercom screen. The scrambler system was turned on so that no one would be able to understand a single word of their conversation in case of any chance interception. Nevertheless Rhodan made the contact as brief as possible.

  "Have you been filled in, Atlan?"

  "Everything is ready, Perry."

  "Our 'station' on Akon is ready for reception. So far everything has gone well but as soon as I send you the code word you'll know what you have to do. However, if nothing happens I'll contact you from the Odin again. Until then, keep your fingers crossed for me."

  They discussed their forthcoming action for another 15 minutes and then cut off their connection. Rhodan was certain that even the Akons couldn't be aware of this conversation because they did not have enough spaceships for setting up any permanent system of interception. And these hypercom frequencies could not have been picked up on the surface of the planet itself.

  Rhodan waited another five hours before returning to the Terran commercial base. Major Scott had received special instructions and continued as a vital communications link between Rhodan, Bell and Atlan. He knew exactly what he had to do even if he lost contact with Rhodan. Such would be the case if the Akons were to turn on their blue energy screen, which was impervious to both matter and normal radio waves.

  Pucky, Ras Tschubai, Jenner and Dr. Sorowski had returned long since to the house by the spaceport, since all of their microcircuit units had been installed. Only Tako Kakuta and Dr. Ranault were still out. In view of the fact that they had only taken 20 more capsules with them it was assumed that they would soon finish their work and come back.

  There could always be delays of some kind; this was to be expected. Perhaps a tension clamp had jammed in the activation sector of one of the robotic brains and Dr. Ranault might have had to make repairs. That could take anywhere from 10 minutes to even an hour.

  But when Tako Kakuta materialized alone, at close to midnight, among his anxiously waiting colleagues, it became obvious that something had gone wrong. Swiftly, the Japanese teleporter told them his story.

  • • •

  They had made a last run, taking 20 micro-mods with them. Ranault knew what he was doing, to the extent that it might not have been difficult for him to install the switching elements blindfolded. So it was not this part that had made Ranault feel uneasy. He was nervous because of the simple fact that he had already installed more than 300 capsules without any interference or hitches. It seemed to him that everything was going along too smoothly.

  His fingers were a bit unsteady when he came to install the 12th circuit capsule. It slipped from his hand and fell to the floor.

  Kakuta had jumped to catch it but missed. "Is it broken?" he asked anxiously.

  "Can't say for sure." Ranault picked it up and examined it. "And you can't tell by looking at it. We'll have to try it." He looked up suddenly as though listening. "Did you hear something, Kakuta?"

  The Japanese mutant went back a few steps and pressed his ear to the closed door. He thought he could hear a distant shuffling and scraping sound but it was hard to identify. "Somebody else must be in the ship besides ourselves, Ranault. Let's get out!"

  "Not before I've hooked in this patch-mod," the technician retorted, and he opened the activating panel.

  Kakuta remained by the door. He looked about him at the heavy generators and switching equipment, the maze of conduits and circuit panels of the robotic control section and the power banks of the positronic computers. It was all contained in a room that was almost 100 feet long and perhaps equally as wide.

  Then the sound outside was suddenly at the door. He only had time to step aside before the door was thrust open and two Akons in police uniforms came into the room.

  "It must be here," said one of them, pointing ahead.

  The man failed to see Kakuta as he had teleported out into the corridor. It had been too late for him to take Ranault with him. But he reasoned that the technician would hide behind the machinery until the two Akons went away.

  "Yes, the alarm signal came from here," confirmed the other police guard. He looked around at the gleaming metallic maze of equipment, which was totally unfamiliar to him. "This is station 310, isn't it?"

  Ranault had ducked down instinctively when the door opened. He still held the module in his hand because he had not yet had time to install it. The activating section panel was open. If the Akons happened to notice that-!

  Fortunately, however, these Akons were not technicians. Their sole task was to make sure that nobody entered the ship. And the only reason they had come here was because an alarm signal had been touched off somewhere. Kakuta vaguely remembered having seen sentinels patrolling the area outside between the ships. Since they had detected none of their activity until now, what had caused the sudden discovery?

  He didn't have a chance to find the answer because one of the Akons came into the corridor again. Kakuta had no choice but to vanish. It was less by intention than by instinct that he jumped to the hill and then to the Terran base, where he materialized without Ranault.

  His story worried Rhodan. "How could you come back without Ranault, Kakuta? Without you he's completely helpless."

  "It wasn't intentional, sir. I'll go back at once and..."

  "You don't know what may have happened in the meantime-you stay!" Rhodan was immediately sorry that he had snapped like that at his mutant. He could imagine the mental anguish this must be costing the Japanese. "There's nothing you can do, Kakuta. Just relax. Pucky is small and can conceal himself better. He'll go and pick up Ranault."

  Pucky came up and patted Kakuta good-naturedly on the back. "Don't worry, shorty, I'll get him out of there alright!" It was true that Pucky was smaller than Kakuta but the Oriental was in fact very short and slight of build. "It's something that could happen to any of us. To tell you the truth, a thing like that would have hit me just as hard. But all we have left is just eight ships. We'll still be able to finish them." And with that he vanished.


  Meanwhile, Ranault had drawn back deeper into the maze of equipment. He didn't let the one remaining Akon out of his sight. The other one had disappeared somewhere like Kakuta. This one guard was threat enough because he was standing right next to the activating section of the robot brain. The panel cover over the micro-mod slot was still wide open. If the Akon knew only the slightest bit about what he was looking at...

  In any case that panel cover would have to be closed and the 9 remaining patch-modules would have to be concealed. After that, as far as he was concerned, they could catch him. But perhaps he might still find a way of plugging in this one capsule.

  The second Akon came back. "I'd like to know what set off that alarm." Ranault had learned this archaic form of Arkonide through his hypno-schooling and so he understood every word. The two men weren't more than about 15 feet from him and their heavy hand-beamers were none too reassuring to him. "Did you see anything?"

  The other man said no. He was looking about and now his searching gaze was turned directly in Ranault's direction. The technician ducked down still more. He prayed they would not discover him because he was unarmed. On just this final run he had decided to leave his weapon at the base because everything had been going so well and the energy gun had been cumbersome to carry.

  "Somebody must have cut in front of the camera beam or the alarm wouldn't have gone off. The code panel points to this room!"

  "Where are we, anyway?"

  "Search me. Some kind of switching center, I guess, but it isn't the main Control Central." He thought a moment. "Let's take a good look around and maybe we'll find a clue."

  Cautiously, Ranault crept back farther to find better concealment. It was entirely possible that they might overlook him but if not he'd just have to handle the situation somehow. But where the devil was Kakuta? Had the teleporter lost his nerve and left him holding the bag? Maybe it couldn't be held against him because these past few nights had been rough on all of them.

  He found a small crawlway that he could creep into. After making one turn he lay still and listened. Although he could no longer see the two Akons he could hear every movement they made. He reasoned that the narrow tunnel he was in could not even be for maintenance but probably was just poorly used space between the circuit cabinets and other robot equipment. Then he remembered the micro-modules. They must not be found on him if he was caught.

  He shoved his little workbag into a niche until he could barely reach it. Even if the ship were to remain in the hands of the Akons it might take years or even decades before someone would happen to find it. And that would probably be only in case of a major overhaul of the ship.

  He had kept the one microelement in his pocket. If only for the sake of the hidden kit containing the eight others he had to try his best to install the one he had held out for that purpose so that the ship could be part of the planned secret manoeuvre. If he couldn't manage to do it, at least he would have done everything humanly possible to keep the plan from being discovered prematurely.

  He turned around and crept back a short distance. That was when he saw the feet of one of the Akon police guards. The man wasn't 6 feet away. He was standing directly in front of the crawl hole, bending down to have a look.

  • • •

  Pucky made a quite understandable mistake by landing in the robot control center of the wrong ship. Of course Kakuta had described the location of the light cruiser as well as he could but after all there were hundreds of them.

  When the mouse-beaver materialized he hid immediately behind a huge group of cabinets which housed some kind of machinery. He listened carefully but could hear nothing. He reasoned that if Ranault was still here he must be very well hidden. At any rate the Akons were certainly not around because they would have been making plenty of noise. At first Pucky did not suspect that he might be in the wrong ship.

  But when he was sure that he was alone in the switching center he had an idea. If he had understood Kakuta correctly there was a total of 9 cruisers in which the microelements had not yet been installed. And this ship he was in must belong to that group. Of course he wouldn't have dared to patch in one of the sensitive capsules himself but he had often stood by and watched Jenner do the job. So he knew where the micro-mod compartment was located.

  When he pattered over to the activation section he found that the panel cover was closed. Apparently the capsule had not yet been placed here. Nevertheless he opened the compartment and was shocked to see that the microcircuit was sitting properly in its slot. Could it be that Ranault had found a chance to install it before the Akons discovered him and took him away? He wouldn't have put it past the wily Frenchman.

  Or was there another possibility?

  It gradually dawned on him that something else could have happened and finally the solution came to him as highly probable. He had blundered into the wrong ship-maybe one he had visited himself on a previous foray.

  Pucky teleported to the polar dome of the light cruiser and looked about him carefully. Surrounded protectively by the larger fleet units the light cruisers stood there in a long row. Two patrolling Akon sentinels were traversing the broad space between the ships but the curved hulls almost obscured them. The two security men disappeared from sight and Pucky stood there in confusion, not realizing how precious every second was at the moment.

  Maybe the next ship was the one?

  He gazed along the row of light cruisers and discovered that this was the last section of them. It made sense because they had started working the fleet from the other end of the complex and had come this far. There was no possibility of error in that regard.

  Pucky counted. He found that he was standing on the 10th ship from the end.

  He scolded himself angrily: "I'm even dumber than Bell always said I was!" He decided not to tell anybody about his mix-up or he'd never hear the end of it-at least not from Bell.

  Right next to him was the ninth ship. He teleported directly inside the vessel and materialized in front of the door of the switching center. This time he knew he had made no mistake because he heard voices. When he came closer to the door, which was standing ajar, he could even hear every word.

  "I hear somebody breathing."

  "Where?"

  "Here-this gap between the cabinets. Somebody's in there!"

  Pucky pushed forward enough to be able to peer into the room. He spotted the two Akons off to one side where they were standing in an aisle. One of them was just bending down to have a closer look at something that Pucky couldn't quite see. At the same moment he was aware of a more definite impulse in the continuous blur of thought-waves he was receiving. Thus far he had paid too little attention to his telepathic faculty. Without concentration he would not have been able to specifically crystallize Ranault's individual thought-train. But now chance came to his aid.

  He suddenly knew that Ranault was looking directly in front of him at the Akon's feet. His mental reaction to this crisis produced a recognizable thought-burst which struck Pucky's sensitive 'receiver' with full force. The contact was made, even though one-sided.

  Now the mouse-beaver was faced with the problem of how to put the two Akons out of action without them seeing him. He would not and must not kill them. But if they remained alive they'd be able to report on him later and thus betray what was going on.

  "Let me have your flashlight," said one of the Akons.

  Now Pucky realized that Ranault was lying in the narrow crawlway and that he was aware of the danger that faced him. He was thinking that the Akons were bound to discover him and that he was helpless to prevent it.

  So Pucky sneaked in and concealed himself behind a gleaming, silvery cabinet. "Are you looking for me?" he chirped in a shrill voice, and then he instantly changed his location.

  The two Akons jerked out their weapons and forgot completely about the crawl-hole and Ranault.

  "He must be over there! You take that side and I'll go along here. Take him alive if possible!"

&nb
sp; The two men separated, which was precisely what Pucky had been waiting for. It would be easier to handle them one at a time. He remained in his hiding place until he saw one of the guards. Then he made use of his psychokinetic powers.

  Even in the previous century the parapsychological faculties of the human brain had belonged to the questionable field of the so-called borderland sciences. No one had the courage to recognize their existence and many a scientist had placed his reputation on the line when making experiments in this regard. Then had come the mutants, those who had been positively affected by radiation fallout and whose brains had suddenly developed these slumbering capabilities. Since they had thus made a quantum jump into the future of humanity, in this sense they were a species of 'freaks'.

  But Pucky wasn't human. His origin was a planet known as Vagabond. Among his own race telekinesis was naturally known from birth. In his youth his greatest delight had been to 'play' with distant objects at will, using nothing but his mental powers, moving things to other locations.

  The Akon suddenly became as stiff as a board when Pucky's mental currents reached him and held him fast. He couldn't even move his mouth. Then his feet left the floor. Pucky was at his favorite game again but this time the stakes were very serious. The Akon must not see him. Making sure that the other guard was not aware of this astounding phenomenon, he brought the helpless captive close to the ceiling. Then he sent him flying against the nearest wall, instantly knocking him unconscious. The mouse-beaver lowered him gently and moved him telekinetically to the farthest corner of the room. He was sure that it would be hours before the victim regained his senses and would be able to talk. And of course it was an open question as to whether or not anyone would believe what he, would have to say.