The Ghosts of Gol Read online

  "Anne, operate the generators!" Rhodan had to repeat his command in order to make her snap out of her brooding. "Don't be afraid, baby!" he smiled when he saw how pale her face was. Then it happened.

  There was a jerk and the vehicle stopped. Not because the vehicle was blocked by something but because the engine no longer had enough power to move the car.

  "Anne, give it more!" panted Rhodan.

  He had thought that the effect would be somewhat weaker. He knew that the light bodies had begun to satisfy their appetites with the neutralizing field of the vehicles.

  They did it with surprising voracity. From one second to the next the gravity inside the vehicle grew to dizzying values.

  Nine G's in his estimation.

  He thought of Khrest and his Arkonide body that was no longer able to cope with the strain.

  His hand, heavy as lead, reached for the microphone and he called: "Fire all guns!"

  Deringhouse pulled the levers. The mighty high energy beam of the disintegrator cannon made the body of the car vibrate for a few seconds. The neutron ray gun went off with a singing sound and the thermo-impulse weapon completed the concert with a deep, muffled droning.

  Rhodan saw on the observation screen that the other vehicles had reacted just as quickly. Glittering energy rays cut through the multitude of dancing lights and crossed at the target point in the distance.

  The effect which Rhodan had anticipated, however, did not take place for a while.

  It seemed an endless time that the pressure, which made breathing very difficult, held the occupants of the vehicle captive. Actually, it lasted only a few minutes as Rhodan watched the clock.

  Then the pressure began to diminish.

  At the same time the hitherto closed front of the luminous bodies before Rhodan's car began to break up. For the first time a gap opened up and Rhodan could be heard shouting in undisguised triumph:

  "Let's go on! Full speed ahead!"

  The vehicles rumbled on. They had not yet regained their original weight. As yet a few of the phantoms had not recognized that some place else—six hundred feet to the west—there was much richer fare for their hunger than the weak neutralizing fields could offer.

  But with every passing second the vehicle became lighter till it finally roared away at top speed. The light bodies concentrated at another spot. Even though the focal point of the combined weapons, the small expedition kept firing, moved as fast as the vehicles themselves, the lights—given the choice of two moving sources of energy—seemed to prefer to still their hunger with the stronger one.

  Forty-one minutes after the three vehicles had ventured between the phantoms they reached the line at the other end. Suddenly it was dark and grey again before their eyes and Rhodan had to turn the antenna of the observation screen almost 180° around to get a glimpse of the light bodies.

  "We got through!" Reginald Bell called jubilantly over the telecom.

  Rhodan grinned hearing the wild joy in Bell's cry. The successful experiment filled him with a great sense of relief.

  The luminous bodies were creations of a world of a higher order. Simply human beings—whose brains were so small that they were incapable of grasping fundamental four-dimensional problems and whose clumsy bodies emitted no other radiation than the infrared of their low body temperature—mere mortals had managed to outsmart these products of another world.

  The light bodies made no attempt to pursue the vehicles. Rhodan instructed the other cars to continue the fire for the time being, but to shift the focus of the beams farther north.

  The glowing shreds of veil gathered there, gorged themselves and kept growing. The weapons of the three vehicles expended a huge amount of energy, about ten thousand times more than the light bodies could have gained if they ravaged the neutralizing fields around the carriers.

  The result could be noticed in their size. The more energy they swallowed the higher grew the front and the more intensive became their light.

  The weapons kept shooting for fifteen more minutes. Then Rhodan ceased fire and waited.

  The growth of the light bodies stopped abruptly. It was followed by a swirling movement of their masses as if they were seeking the full bowls of energy which had been so suddenly snatched from their hungry mouths.

  But the vehicles were already too far away from them to detect the weak neutralizing fields. They continued dancing around for a few minutes and came to rest. They had had their feeding and had increased to twice their size.

  Now they were finished!

  Rhodan swung the antenna around.

  "What does it look like ahead of us?" he asked.

  The searchlight was switched on. As Rhodan was rotating it, the beam swept along a medium steep ledge rising up on the side of the mountain. The lower end of the ledge was no more than three hundred feet straight ahead.

  Rhodan took a deep breath and all who heard him expected another command to spur them on for the impending nervous strain.

  Instead Rhodan simply said: "We are standing atthe mountain! "

  He emphasized the words so that everybody knew which mountain he meant.

  6/ A MESSAGE FROM THE UNKNOWN

  AFTER HALF AN HOUR'S search with their three powerful light beams it became clear to all of them that whatever there was to be found on this mountain it was not at the foot of the northern slope.

  They agreed with Rhodan that the vehicles should drive up the mountain as far as they could go.

  Rhodan was convinced that he would find what he was looking for at a higher altitude. He still firmly believed that the unknown being would give him another clue to the location he concealed or that it was really not at all hidden but something they could find if they kept their eyes open.

  The north slope of the mighty mountain presented no difficulties for the vehicles.

  Moreover, not only did the nebulous bodies in the valley remain peaceful but the sphere of light which had followed them for hours had abandoned its pursuit.

  Approximately six thousand feet above the valley the mountain slope flattened out even more, until it eventually became a mesa of amazing proportions. Rhodan could rotate his searchlight wherever he wanted, reaching nothing but a void—proof that there was no solid object within a radius of over half a mile—no other solid matter except the level ground on which the vehicles stood.

  Rhodan decided to stop for a rest.

  He called the Stardust.

  Thora answered immediately.

  In the meantime the ship had, following his instructions, taken off from the ground and now hovered motionlessly at an altitude of twelve hundred miles.

  Rhodan informed Thora about the events of the past hour and a half.

  He concluded: "We've learned two very important things—one's been made plausible and the other's been proved:

  The energy bodies have only weakly developed capabilities to react to incidents taking place in three-dimensional space. They needed more than half an hour to notice that we were passing between them and that we had something to satisfy their hunger. Their sluggish reaction is what's been made plausible.

  "But we've proved that they feed on energy. In any case, they've evidently no scruples and probably no appreciation of the damage they cause by their gluttony. They swallow whatever comes their way.

  "I believe that—if one can apply this concept to such creatures—they really are unintelligent beings.

  "Thora, I'd like to make another experiment if you don't mind—"

  "What's that?" inquired Thora.

  "Do you remember when the attack on the Stardust came to an end at the moment the unknown began to send his message and our structure sensor responded?"

  "Yes, of course."

  "Okay. Connect the remodeled set to a powerful line. Raise the energy of the transmitter as high as it will go and bombard the light bodies with the radiation. I want to see how they react to it."

  The idea had never occurred to Thora, although it was really quite ob
vious.

  "To do this, I will have to come down?" she asked, sulking a little and annoyed by her failure to see things in front of her nose.

  "Certainly," replied Rhodan seriously. "If you charge the altered structure sensor to the limit it will have a range of at least three miles. You won't have to descend any lower than that And something else!"

  "Yes?"

  "Flood the terrain up here with infrared light! We've rather poor visibility up here and not much of a view."

  Will I ever understand him? Thora asked herself.

  What would she have done in Rhodan's place? She would have been glad to have escaped the light bodies at last and would have continued as quickly as possible on her way to her destination. The sooner it was reached the better for all those who shared in this undertaking.

  And what did he do? He took time for a pause as if he were taking a walk or a hike and conducted for the amusement of an audience an experiment with the light bodies, the deadly danger of which had been demonstrated only too convincingly.

  It was impossible to understand Rhodan—his restless energy, the austerity he displayed and expected from others, the lightning fast flexibility of his thoughts and his surprising gift to change the subject from a deadly serious topic to something almost foolish or even mischievous.

  Thora shook her head and set the Stardust in motion.

  Cautiously, as once before, the vessel descended into the swirling tempest of Gol's atmosphere and gradually lost altitude. Thora knew what to watch for. Below two hundred fifty miles altitude they faced the danger that the light bodies would begin to gobble up the rich energy of the ship's protective screen. Evidently they had no difficulty rising two hundred fifty miles high from the surface of the giant planet.

  The modified structure sensor had been installed in the meantime. They could apply a value of two megawatts for the transmission; that was all the sensitive oscillation cycles could absorb.

  Thora stared at the small box.

  Rhodan! He had dismantled an Arkonide structure sensor and rebuilt it in such a fashion that he achieved something which was not even known to Arkonide physics.

  Altitude two hundred fifty miles, ma'am!" announced the range finder officer.

  Thora was startled.

  The danger zone began—and her fears.

  "The Stardust! " murmured Deringhouse.

  A pale white image slid from above onto the observation screen. Rhodan had switched off the searchlight since it was useless anyway and watched the picture which became clearer as the Stardust sank lower.

  Thora had encountered no difficulties. Unimpeded, the ship had descended above the valley and was now drifting down with minimum velocity.

  Rhodan had instructed Thora to emit the infrared light in diffuse rays to illuminate the scene and it soon proved to have been very good advice.

  Diffuse light was only a very weak source of energy and was dispersed isotropically without preferring any one direction. The stimulation to ingest the diffuse radiation of the infrared lights was too slight for the light bodies to get moving.

  The scene was as clear as Rhodan could have wished. For the first time he was in a position to overlook the entire round basin and to see its impressive size. The diameter appeared to be close to twenty miles and everywhere—east, west and north—were almost vertical walls, some with mountains towering above them and others ascending to a ridge and forming glistening mesas covered with methane ice.

  The basin was inundated with the army of light bodies. The light was intense enough so that they stood out in the shine of the searchlights. They remained motionless.

  "That's enough, Thora!" said Rhodan when the Stardust had come down to about three miles. "Turn on the set!"

  "I'm pressing the switch!" responded Thora. The success was instantaneous and complete as everyone had hoped but nobody had seriously dared to believe.

  Momentarily the mass of lights started to move. In contrast to the protective screens and neutralizing fields of the ship and vehicles the oscillations of the transmitter were of a higher order which—they sensed immediately and to which they promptly reacted.

  For a few seconds the movement gave the appearance of being aimless. Then a big hole opened up in the middle of the field of light bodies and increased rapidly in all directions.

  "They're fleeing!" shouted Deringhouse triumphantly. "They really beat it!"

  There was no longer any doubt about it. Thora was sweeping indiscriminately across the energy creatures and caused panics at numerous spots simultaneously.

  The flanks of the army reached the walls of the valley basin—and vanished inside. Solid matter was no obstacle for the energy bodies. As they raced toward the mountain walls by the thousands with amazing speed and disappeared, the walls seemed to glow from the inside. The glow lasted a while after the last of the phantoms had fled, then gradually paled and was finally completely gone.

  The valley basin was empty.

  "It's all right, Thora!" said Rhodan quietly. "You may land in the valley."

  They watched the landing of the Stardust . Then Rhodan urged everybody to depart again.

  He was just about to give the order when Tanaka Seiko woke up. Rhodan heard him moan and turned around.

  Tanaka held his head and looked questioningly at Rhodan. "What's that?" Tanaka asked.

  "What's what?

  This humming and buzzing. Can't you hear it?"

  Rhodan shook his head. "What could it be?" he asked, listened closely and it was his turn to shake his head.

  "It sounds like a swarm of excited hornets. I could swear there's one in the neighborhood but that's nonsense, of course."

  Rhodan thought about it a moment. Doubtlessly Tanaka "heard" something thanks to his parapsychological capabilities. If that was the case there remained only two possible sources for the noise after Thora had switched off the transmitter: the unknown who concealed himself in the mountain or the escaped light bodies.

  "Can you understand anything?" Rhodan inquired further.

  "No, sir. It's just a noise."

  Rhodan thought it must be the light bodies. He considered them to be unintelligent and if they uttered any sounds which were commensurate with the energy structure of their bodies they were bound to be meaningless.

  Like a swarm of excited hornets— Rhodan kept mulling over the matter. He had to come to a decision and the sooner he did the better it would be for him and his men. He reached for the microphone. "Khrest and Bell! I want you both to return to the Stardust. I'm not very sure that we've put the light bodies to flight indefinitely and I'd like you to help Thora if another attack comes.

  Bell protested. "You're painting too black a picture," he called back, quite upset. "I think we've spoiled their appetite for good."

  "That's what you think!" answered Rhodan. "No more discussions. You'll drive back with Khrest. And now listen closely!

  "Yes?"

  "You both will have to get busy and build as quickly as possible a second transmitter of the same type as the modified structure sensor. At this time you'll have an opportunity to disconnect the protective screens and to produce a sufficient amount of antiparticles for the second oscillation cycle. This second transmitter will follow behind me in one of your two vehicles: I'll give you guide signals. The vehicle will be driven by Major Nyssen and only one other man will accompany him. Have I made myself clear?"

  Yes."

  "Okay. Get going!" Rhodan waited until the other two vehicles turned around and disappeared over the slightly rounded edge of the northern mountain slope. He called Thora and asked her to prepare all necessary materials for the construction of a second transmitter.

  Then he looked at his crew. "Tanaka, how's the humming now?

  "The same as before, sir."

  Rhodan nodded. "Anne, how about a little friendlier face. We've won a battle and should be glad about it.

  But...

  No buts. We're close to our goal and when we've reached it,
all our troubles will be over." That's said so easily, he thought. But there was no point in describing the difficulties of their situation to people who were afraid already. A good commander's foremost task was to instil courage and confidence in his crew. He saw that Deringhouse looked at him with anticipation. Rhodan's face broke into a grin. "We're shoving off!" he said sternly and made the engine whine at the same time.

  The next hour passed uneventfully—on board the Stardust as well as in Rhodan's caterpillar.

  Khrest and Bell had reached the vessel and gone to work right away. Since Thora had prepared everything that could be done ahead of time and Khrest had already once before performed the same work as Rhodan's assistant, they believed they could finish the job in two or three hours. The capacity of this transmitter would be somewhat less than the first one, since they did not dare draw on the energy of the protection and neutralization screens for more than forty seconds for the production of antiparticles. Even this time span almost drove Khrest into a panic.

  In the meantime Rhodan's vehicle had advanced at a brisk pace across the plateau. At the end of an hour they reached an embankment of sorts which formed an incline of fifteen feet and ran straight along the east-west direction as far as the eye could see.

  Rhodan wondered about it. There was nothing to indicate the origin of the precise shape set in the middle of the plateau or what natural event had created it.

  He drove the vehicle down the embankment and noticed that the ground below was a shade smoother than the one they traveled on heretofore.

  He revved up the engine with fall power and let the vehicle thunder across the level plain.

  One hour later Bell reported from the Stardust that the transmitter had been completed and that it soon would be under way with Major Nyssen.

  Rhodan felt somewhat relieved, although he had not seen any more light bodies in the meantime.

  The Stardust, too, had so far remained undisturbed. Major Nyssen regarded his mission as a lark. He had selected Captain Klein as companion, for which Klein was very grateful.