Fortress Atlantis Page 7

  The roar ceased. The Tosoma gained high speed so quickly in the experienced hands of Tarth that the air of Larsa began to glow again. The battlecruisers were a few kilometers north and south of the flagship. We had been unable to stop the advance of the shimmering relativity field with our bombardment.

  We didn't know whether we had maimed or perhaps killed the living beings inside the region. We had blindly shot at an energy form which could not be simply 5-dimensional. We had been familiar with such effects since our invention of ultra-light-speed spaceships.

  The wall continued its sweep across the planet. When our roaring engines slowed down over Amonaris, we had barely 30 minutes left. Capt. Cerbus, who now was Chief of the cruiser formation, reported troubling news: the entire space surrounding the yellow sun and its planets had gradually come under the influence of the intruding powers. Planets, which were in opposition to #2, were undoubtedly haunted by the same menace, the difference being that no intelligent life existed there.

  To my greatest relief the third world stood exactly on the opposite side of the sun so that my people on Atlantis were, for the time being at least, not exposed to an immediate danger.

  There were only three spaceships left on the spaceport of Amonaris. The other ships had already taken off in desperate flight. Those who had failed to follow our orders to evacuate had probably perished in the primordial forests.

  The last freighters zoomed up through the tempestuous air when the radiation of the approaching wavefront was already visible to the naked eye. Inkar picked up a few more people who were still running around in panic on the abandoned spaceport, waving frantically up at his ship.

  Then we were ready for the next operation. I summoned Grun and his assistants to the Command Center and asked them to observe the results of the impending confrontation on the huge screens.

  The cruisers Titsina and Volop, painstakingly converted to remote-controlled drones, still hovered above the broad landing field. All but one of their engines had been reconstructed to serve as weapons. Now it was of prime importance to find the weak spot of the adversary.

  The remote-control engineers sat in the adjacent rangefinder section where they could watch the measurement transmissions of the cruisers' instruments.

  I waited for the front to come within 40 kilometers before I gave orders to intercept it with a barrage.

  Grun had leaned his contour chair back in order to follow the entire proceedings on the gigantic observation panels.

  The modified engines of the empty ships launched the barely visible, spatially superimposed impulse-waves which derived a higher form of energy from the total transformation in the powerful converters. They shot out with the absolute speed of light but affected normal matter only when a ship was about to land or to start with engines running at full speed.

  I noticed a flash when the impulse-waves collided with the relativity field. Grun shouted excitedly and I rose up from my seat to watch the weird phenomenon closer.

  "They're breaking through!" Tarth bellowed and kept repeating: "They're breaking through!" Suddenly a whoop and a holler emanated from the intercom of the battleships as if pandemonium had broken out in an insane asylum. I joined the noisy jubilation. A load had been taken off our minds. We felt freed from a curse.

  The titanic energy-shield collapsed where the highly concentrated impulse-waves struck against it. They ripped gaping holes with ragged edges, suddenly creating a dark abyss behind the wall. The structure began to waver around the point of impact and it seemed that it veered somewhat from its steady course.

  Nothing could be recognized in the pitch-dark void. An eerie violet fire danced around the edges of the hole and caused our warp-sensors to swing wildly. The effect we had produced with our impulse-shot definitely resembled that of a transition.

  The next moment we spurted away. The torn wavefront had lost no speed. Only at the point where our fire had converged did it look as if it had been brought to a standstill. The frazzled holes were propagated along with the wall.

  Just before the Tosoma pulled away with whining machines, I took a last look at the two clearly visible cruisers. The power of their remaining engine was sufficient to drive them out of the danger zone with case.

  As soon as we had put a distance of 50 kilometers between ourselves and the danger zone, I demanded silence. "Squadron Chief to remote-control station! Make the tail of the cruisers swing back and forth and sweep the wavefront with a bombardment. Determine where the maximum effect is obtained and adjust movement accordingly."

  The remote-control officer skilfully made the Titsina oscillate in a slow motion. Gradually the old ship turned around its transverse axis as it performed the directed manoeuvre. It had been built before the spherical shape of the modern ships had been adopted and we could clearly see the action as it spewed its rays. Soon the Volop followed the manoeuvre.

  Seconds later the legendary past of my ancestors came alive again. An awesome energy-hurricane was touched off by the devastating force of the sprayed-out impulse-bundles. Black craters, ringed by flashes, were formed, then overlapped by still intact formations until these wave-planes were also smashed.

  The surging wall was halted in front of us as far as I could see. However it still moved on left and right. We stared into a dark chasm but nothing else happened. I continued our operation against the wall, covering half the planet, to the point where it no longer made sense to riddle the energy structure with dark tunnels no matter how much we enjoyed seeing it punctured and lighting up the rims.

  We zoomed up through the atmosphere swirling in a tremendous storm and reached the space above the second planet where we found that the heretofore-yellow sun now was shining red as blood.

  Soon we discovered that the starry void was no longer as empty as before but contained gigantic, luminous reddish energy-agglomerations in the shape of funnels. Wherever these phenomena appeared, the light of the distant stars was blotted out, which enabled us to take accurate measurements of the transfigurations. They tapered down and ended in the lightning-streaked atmosphere of Larsa. We had created something we could not have anticipated since it was beyond imagination.

  I stared uncomprehendingly at the observation screens till I became aware that a radio officer was urgently calling me, which shook me out of my stupefaction.

  It was truly incredible what our bombardment had accomplished. I toyed with the idea of converting the propulsion engines of the modern cruiser's as well as some of the heavy impulse-converters of my battleship. If we were to meet the invisible spaceship again in the future, the scales would be decidedly tipped in our favor.

  Tarth began to shout. His eyes were filled with horror.

  "What's the matter?" I cried.

  At the same moment the expressionless mechanical voice of the sensor-robot began to intone: "Cruiser formation no longer answers. Energy-echo negative. Capt. Cerbus remains silent. No metal registered in a radius of three light-years. Formation must be considered lost as of 6-6-5 standard time. End of message."

  The rasping robot voice shut off. I stared dumbfounded about the room. Tarth collapsed in his commander seat and buried his face in his hands. Grun moaned pitifully.

  I was unable to utter a sound. My dazed mind refused to accept the impassive report of the robot as fact. My entire formation of cruisers was supposed to be missing? All the ships I had commanded in the most valiant battles of our history and had brought home virtually undamaged?

  I heard a loud scream but it was I who had yelled. The radio officer on duty rushed into the Command Center and I stared blankly at him till I realized that he was the one who had called me so urgently. He had already done what I wanted him to do. He must have been the first to notice that the Chief Commander of my cruisers failed to respond.

  My throat felt as if it were choked by invisible hands. No one in the Great Command Center of the speeding Tosoma uttered a word. The screens of the energy-detector showed only four green points, the two battles
hips and the two converted warships, a total of five units left out of the former 45 vessels.

  "Call again!" I whispered with a choked voice. "Hurry up! Tarth, this can't be true. Cerbus has told us in his last message that they kept a respectful distance from the clearly recognizable wavefront. How can they disappear all of a sudden?"

  I paid little attention to the medical officers whose robots carried out Grun. The physicist had fainted, the shock had been too much for the old man.

  "This message came shortly before the warships commenced firing," the commander said, depressed. "Atlan, the whole fleet perished. One of these funnels spread out at the place where the fleet was ordered to wait in a wedge formation. The funnel has a diameter of about 20 million kilometers and Cerbus landed in the middle of it with his cruisers. It's simple terrible. We won't hear anything further from Cerbus."

  One of Grun's physicists verified the facts on the basis of the first results of their observations.

  I gave orders to brake our high speed and sent the heavy units on a search mission. After scouring interplanetary space for a full three hours to locate drifting wrecks and broadcasting uninterrupted radio signals, we realized that it was all in vain.

  I felt burned out and I had lost my voice. My brain seemed to suffer from a debilitating pressure. The catastrophe which had befallen us was too gruesome to contemplate.

  Tarth and a physician led me to my cabin and helped me to recover. Now I knew what we had done with our impulse-fire. It probably was only by blind accident that, of all places, the formation of cruisers happened to be at the exact spot where the wavefront was torn asunder in a virtual explosion.

  I clung to a last hope that my men were still alive. But the fact that not one of the ships could be found spoke against it. It was the first time that the relativity field had also absorbed non-organic matter.

  Almost entirely bereft of my senses, I gave orders to fly to the third planet and to land at our base on Atlantis. Now I was glad that I had permitted this beautiful world to be settled by us two years ago. The second planet of Larsa's system had become completely useless to us. The supra-dimensional zone continued to encroach on it. In any event, we had left our big robot brain and its formidable defenses behind. Perhaps we could use them again later on.

  I sent everybody out of my cabin and laid down to rest. I needed all my willpower to regain my self-control. The faces of my cruisers' officers passed before my eyes. They had been the cream of the crop, all excellent men who were direly needed in our desperate war against the methane-breathers.

  Four hours later we touched down on the greatly expanded spaceport of Atlantis. My planning officer Capt. Feltif received me in silence. I put my hand on his shoulder without a word and greeted the men of his small defense troop he had lined up for me. Then I looked around. Atlopolis, the new center of the colonial planet, had already grown into a regular city, It was amazing what Feltif's men and the 50,000 Zakrebian emigrants had made of the little continent in the comparatively short time.

  A few of the natives were standing in the background. They wore colorful garments adorned with shells and had put bright feathers in their hair. They came closer, sliding on their knees, raised their hands and spread out some gifts before me.

  I was delighted to see their sincere faces and their bright eyes which showed considerable intelligence. These savages were capable of giving birth to a great race.

  Capt. Feltif acted as military governor. He put his residence at my disposal and later presented documentary films of his achievements.

  He had only two more transport ships available. They were stationed on the bottom of the ocean and could be brought to the surface any time by a simple radio signal.

  The following morning I conducted a detailed briefing on the latest episodes for the benefit of the anxious colonists.

  Then Feltif took me on a tour of the improved fortifications and asked me cryptically to go on a little trip with him. His secretive smile made me very curious. I was still baffled when he took me down to the harbor where a special landing ship of the Imperial Fleet was anchored next to primitive vessels powered by oar and sail. These landing ships were designed to facilitate operations on planets with many waters. They could travel through air and under water but were not equipped to fly in outer space.

  We went aboard and began to dive under the surface. A luminous energy-field held the masses of water back from the flat elliptical hull. At a depth of about 100 meters a wide undersea plateau came into view below our bright searchlights. A bluish cupola of Arkon steel rested on the plateau. It was big enough to admit a vast number of colonists.

  "This is our emergency shelter, Your Highness," the engineer explained matter-of-factly. "The diameter is 120 meters and it is built to withstand extremely high water pressure. It is equipped with all the machines and instruments which could be spared on land in addition to those which we were able to retrieve from Larsa. The shelter is served by a crew of robots and is stocked with abundant supplies of food in concentrated form. There are large flood chambers in the dome. The rock underneath the refuge has been excavated and sprayed with Arkon steel by a thermal high-pressure process. Finally it was welded to the periphery of the hull so that the entire structure consists of a solid unit which exposes only a hemispheric cupola. Our static calculations have proved that the construction can withstand any predictable stresses and is capable of absorbing unforeseen shifts that might occur in the ocean floor. If necessary we can accommodate 10,000 refugees in the sphere."

  "But you'll have to take care of 50,000 colonists and your soldiers," I pointed out. "Where are you going to put all those families?"

  "I've already organized a program for them, Your Highness. 30,000 will be sent to the two southern continents. There are already some native civilizations flourishing in the eastern desert and in the mountains of the west coast. I've provided for the erection of stone fortresses and pyramid-shaped silos by robot commandos. In the event that a wavefront should arrive, it is unlikely to encompass the entire planet. Furthermore arrangements have been made for a warning system. By determining the propagating speed of the lethal zone we've found that it's feasible to escape in time by using simple airplanes. In this respect we're well equipped. Our emissaries will establish new settlements in the East and in the West.

  However what we lack here most of all is the protection of a few warships."

  Our submersible craft entered the undersea shelter through a huge flood-chamber. As I listened to the hum of the big pumps, I considered Feltif's wily suggestion. Naturally he would have liked to see us remain with him.

  I was overcome by a burning hatred for the unknown enemy who was responsible for the irreplaceable loss of my best men. At this moment I decided to exercise my authority and to station the remnants of my once-powerful squadron on Atlantis. Here we had an opportunity for the further developments of our weapons. Perhaps I would even have a chance to crack the secret of the wavefront and gain the knowledge that would empower us to make short shrift of the methane-breathers.

  To be honest with myself, I had to admit that the self-reproach and scruples that plagued me were the main motivations impelling me to stay away. The order issued by the Imperator was a convenient rationalization. After all, I did have instructions to get to the bottom of the problem.

  After my thorough inspection of the excellently equipped undersea station the positronic brain was keyed to my Individual wave frequency. From then on I was in a position to gain admittance to the steel enclosure whenever the need arose. Beside myself only Feltif and two other officers were given the right to open the deadly energy barrier.

  When we emerged again from our dive, I enjoyed the warm sunshine. The sun radiated once more a yellow-white light. The discoloration had lasted only two days.

  My radio report to the Great Council didn't even elicit a mention of regret. The cruisers had been destroyed; that was it. I realized that the Imperium was in even worse shape than I had thoug
ht when the loss of 40 ships was accepted without a murmur.

  This was so far the most obvious sign that we had entered the phase of total war where only cold figures mattered. The loss could be replaced by the Arkonide spaceship industry in half a day. On the third planet of Arkon the biggest vessels were put together by robots on an extremely intricate assembly line. I had witnessed myself how a battleship of the Imperium class was finished in a mere 12 hours.

  Now it was left to the individual commanders to pick a name for his new spaceship. Frequently they came up with identical names so that the ships were also designated by additional numbers. That way one knew which of the numerous Arkons or Posono's one was dealing with.

  I was determined to undertake a methodical project of creating a new weapon. The converter-cannon Grun had originally mentioned fascinated me. If it were possible to generate a focalized warp-field at a target, it should bring about the total dematerialization of the attacked object.

  On Atlantis we had more incentive to tackle such a project, considering that we had experienced the effectiveness of such a weapon at the peril of our lives.

  10 days after my arrival on Atlantis I transmitted a personal message concerning my intentions to the Imperator. I signed off with 'Crystal Prince' to make sure that my uncle received my communication.

  Only a few hours elapsed before the hyperradio antenna of the Tosoma picked up the affirmative reply whose content was roughly: "Loss of cruisers is negligible. The new weapon is considered extremely important. You are to remain on Atlantis and spare no effort to solve the underlying causes of the unknown field's function."

  This was all he needed to tell me. My scientists and technicians went to work together with those living in the colony. Grun had recovered again and he became the head of a research team that collaborated on a task for the ultimate benefit of the Imperium of Arkon 34,000 light-years away.