Invasion From Space Read online

  "When the lever goes up to the seventh notch," replied Lehmann via telepathy. But the words he spoke out loud to Ellert were, "Advance the lever another notch!"

  Ellert comprehended the devilish plan the M.S. had batched out. Lehmann would ask him gradually to increase the amount of energy until the seventh notch was reached, at which point the process would become irreversible and a chain reaction would set in. But all this would proceed at a very slow rate. Thus the two M.S. could leave the reactor room in all leisure, return to their rooms, and proceed to transfer their minds back to their own bodies, while in the meantime, here inside the reactor, the unleashed forces would begin their disastrous work. Anne Sloane realized that the time had come for her to act. Under no circumstances must Ellert be disturbed now. Like John Marshall, he must be able to concentrate fully on the two M.S. in order to follow them on their headlong flight. Ellert would leave his own body, yet remain in the present time. John would recognize the exact instant when the M.S. decided to flee. He would signal to the man who so far bad kept inconspicuously in a faraway corner behind one of the huge generators. Tako Kakuta, the teleporter, would dematerialize his body and follow the M.S., the same as Ellert.

  Nothing could go wrong now, unless they had overlooked something. This did not seem likely, thought Ellert, who had stepped back from the switchboard. Lehmann observed the rising temperature gauge. A fanatic gleam was in his eye. He no longer tried to keep up the pretense. Li, on the other hand, remained calm.

  "Move the lever up to seven!" commanded Lehmann unexpectedly. The moment had come!

  Anne Sloane approached. Her eyes were fixed on the lever on Ellert's instrument panel. The lever began to move slowly, going beyond the seventh notch, advancing further and further. At the same time the total reserve current from the generators passed through the reactor, transformed into radiation that penetrated the metal block of the new element. Then it was caught again, ready to start the whole process over again. Anne knew that this could go on for twenty seconds before serious damage could result. For then a chain reaction would set in that could not be stopped. No one would be able to escape the inferno that would break loose inside the reactor room, if the only door could not be opened. She turned around and directed her glance toward the heavy lead door. The invisible energies of her mind penetrated the metal and bolted the exit from the outside. Now the door could no longer be pushed open from the inside. They were an prisoners in a burning hell that was about to turn everything into incandescent gas.

  Twenty seconds were left, not an instant more.

  Professor Lehmann spun around. For a moment he lost his composure when he saw the lever approach the maximum point The lever seemed to be moved by some invisible hand. Lehmann was so startled by this sight that he let precious seconds elapse before he could search his memory banks for the necessary information for such an emergency. Now he knew! It would take twenty seconds before the catastrophe set in. But before he managed to reach the lever and push it back into a safe position, the electric circuit blew out under the overload. Sparks were flying and lightning flashes jumped across the burst fuses. Lehmann shrank back when he saw the lever melt and assume a distorted shape due to the tremendous heat. The stench of burned rubber and melting metal filled his nostrils. There was a smell of ozone in the air.

  Li stood rooted to the spot. Hastily he tried to confer with Lehmann, who did not pay any attention to him. He was still preoccupied trying to solve the riddle of the mysteriously moving lever. He could not arrive at an explanation. Then it dawned on him that only immediate flight could save him. He was so terrified that he forgot the five seconds that still remained, which would have given him all the time he needed for an orderly retreat.

  The heavy lead door would not budge. Fifteen seconds had passed. The catastrophe was imminent.

  Sixteen seconds. Now it was too late to open the way into another dimension. The two M.S. understood that no way out existed but to abandon the human bodies on the spot unless they wished to perish together with them. Without the necessary preparation they withdrew and forced their way into a world that is exclusively reserved for disembodied intellects. They left behind the lifeless, rigid bodies of the two men who were awaiting the return of their original spirits. That would happen only at the twenty-first second ... and that would be too late!

  John Marshall gave the arranged signal to Tako Kakuta, waiting in the background. The Japanese dematerialized and disappeared. He connected himself to the matterless stream of the fleeing M.S. and let himself be carried toward an unknown destination. The pursuit was much simpler than he had imagined. Seventeen seconds.

  Anne Sloane concentrated on the white hot lever and tried to apply all her reserves to push it back to point zero. But she failed. A few drops of the molten metal had dripped down and congealed. Her strength was not enough to overcome this obstacle. She could not understand why. She knew that she was capable of lifting weights of several tons by the sheer power of her mind. But now she had to capitulate before that ridiculous lever. The strain had been too much for her. She was now completely exhausted.

  Eighteen seconds.

  "Ellert ... the lever! I can't move it!"

  Nineteen seconds. One more second to eternity!

  Ellert did not hesitate. He leaped over to the panel and pushed with all his force against the deformed lever. A hissing sound could he heard; then with a sudden jolt the powerful pressure wrenched loose the molten metal drops that had glued the lever in the twentieth notch. Smoothly the lever slid back to point zero. At the same time the current found a more direct path than the wide leap across the interrupted wires. A bluish white flash jumped from the machine and disappeared in Ellert's body.

  The teletemporarian collapsed. His burned arm gave off a terrible stench. But the catastrophe had been averted.

  Before the twentieth second had come, the lever rested on zero. In the twenty-first second, Lehmann and Li began to stir. Life returned to their bodies. At first they looked in consternation at everything around them, especially Li, who had never before in all his life been inside such a scientific research laboratory. He recognized John Marshall and Anne Sloane. Then he saw the lifeless form of Ellert sprawled on the floor near him. He had no idea what was going on in this room.

  It was a different story with the professor. Although he could not figure out how he had come so suddenly from his chess hoard to this switchboard, he naturally recognized the familiar surroundings of his usual place of work. He remembered the experiment he had been so long preparing. And finally he noticed Marshall.

  "What has happened?" he asked quietly. "I can't remember..."

  Later, Professor," interrupted John. "A lot has happened, and you will understand everything. But right now there are more urgent matters. Is there still any danger here, Lehmann? The metal bar inside the lead chamber was exposed to the most intense radiation for nineteen seconds. Will that cause a chain reaction?"

  Lehmann stared at Marshall.

  "Nineteen seconds? On notch twenty? Who ordered that?"

  "Never mind that, just answer my question, now, Professor!"

  Lehmann shook his head. "The limit of stabilization lies at about twenty seconds."

  "Okay. Then we have time to look after Ellert. Miss Sloane, get a doctor, quick!"

  Dr. Fleeps seemed to have a six sense, for hardly had Anne pushed back the outside bolt on the heavy lead door, using again her telekinetic powers, than the specialist for space medicine stormed into the reactor room.

  "I was told that our instruments recorded unusual fluctuations in the electric current here...."

  "One of our men was careless and was electrocuted," explained John Marshall. Ellert had remained motionless on the floor. He was stretched out, a limp, lifeless corpse. Now it was possible to see that his arm had been totally burned up to his elbow. Nothing but a stump remained.

  Still, this injury could not be fatal, unless the electric shock...

  Dr. Fleeps bent over
Ellert and began to examine him. In the meantime John Marshall explained everything that had occurred to the perplexed professor. Li listened with amazement. This was beyond all plausibility, as far as he was concerned.

  Anne waited next to Dr. Fleeps. She felt responsible for what had happened to Ellert. If she hadn't failed in her efforts, all would have been different. She was at a loss why her telekinetic energy had not been sufficient to move the lever. Had the excitement proved to he too much of a distraction for her?

  Dr. Fleeps straightened out. "That's odd," he mumbled. "That man is alive."

  John Marshall,turned around slowly.

  Anne Sloane asked, "He is alive? Thank heavens! What should there be so odd about that!"

  "Ten thousand volts!" he marveled. He gazed at the motionless body of Ellert.

  "Strange that he could survive that."

  Dr. Fleeps shook his head. "You did not quite understand me. He is alive, But only from a biological point of view. But at the same time he is also a dead man, biologically."

  All stared at the doctor. No one spoke. The temperature gauge of the lead chamber had slowly returned to normal.

  "How can a human being he alive and dead at the same time!" asked Professor Lehmann, whose scientific curiosity had been aroused. "That would be a paradox."

  "You are right according to the laws of logic," admitted the physician. It was plainly to be seen how confused he was and how he tried in vain to hide it "But where does logic come into all these strange phenomena we have been witnessing lately? Can these alien invaders he reconciled with our concepts of logic and reality? Haven't these strange creatures come to us from a universe where our scientific laws have no application? I am therefore not at all surprised to see in this man a living dead person."

  "What makes you think so!"

  Dr. Fleeps pointed to the floor where Ellert was lying without movement. "He is no longer breathing; no pulse, no heartbeat no circulation; How long since this accident happened!"

  John looked at his watch. "About ten minutes ago."

  "A certain drop in body temperature should already have taken place. But I can't detect a trace of it I wouldn't he surprised if his temperature remains at around ninety-seven degrees Fahrenheit."

  "But how can that be!"

  "Sorry. I can't explain this myself. I can just register a fact, that's all. Ellert is neither dead nor alive. It is as if his soul had left his body."

  John Marshall looked at Anne. There was no one here besides themselves and Li who knew of Ellert's special abilities. Perhaps the teletemporarian had executed a leap through time in order to save his life. Who could know the truth?

  Only then when he came back again...

  "I think Perry Rhodan should be the judge of all this. Let him make any decisions that need to be done," interjected Anne Sloane. "I will inform him at once of what has occurred here."

  Professor Lehmann took his eyes off Ellert. "And what happened-what happened to the M.S. that had fled from out bodies?"

  "We might find out soon," answered John Marshall, and left the reactor room in the company of Li and Anne Sloane. Only Dr. Fleeps and a very perplexed Professor Lehmann stayed behind.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Tako Kakuta felt himself swept up by a giant whirlpool that dragged him down with irresistible force.

  For the first time he became consciously aware of the current in which he was traveling. Normally this state lasted but a fraction of a second, during which his dematerialized body was transported from one place to another. He neither saw nor heard anything, but he could feel with every particle of his body. Maybe he was traveling through darkness that did not permit him to see. But before he had time to figure out this strange phenomenon, he had materialized again.

  As far as he could guess, just five seconds had elapsed. It was still dark around him, but now his body had taken on shape again. Gradually the darkness began to lift, and he saw a faint glow coming from the surrounding walls. He had the impression of being in a big hall. It was quite cool. Something on the floor near his feet began to stir. Now his eyes had become adjusted to the dim light and he recognized the other on the hard, rocky ground. It took several more seconds before the realization dawned on him of what these shapes were. The sudden insight made him wince in fear. There they were stretched out in long rows, the bodies of the Mind Snatchers, immobilized in a cataleptic state, serving as a prison for the human spirits while the invaders' minds had taken over their human frames. Two of the rigid shapes started to move. These must be the ones that belonged to the two M.S. that shortly before had dwelt in Professor Lehmann's and Li's bodies.

  Tako knew he could not waste another second. He dematerialized again and stood almost immediately on a wide, stony plain. In the distance loomed the white peaks of the Himalaya Mountains. He estimated the direction and distance of his jump. The hall where the M.S. bodies were lying was three miles to the south. He could make out a mountain there, not too high but rather massive. That hall he had been in was a natural cave. Of course; that was to be expected!

  Tako Kakuta manipulated the bracelet around his left wrist. Seconds later he could hear Perry Rhodan's voice. "We guessed correctly, Tako. Tibet! Where exactly are you? I am six miles above the Himalayas."

  "I don't know for sure. Couldn't you get a fix on me?"

  "Just a moment. Reg is at the direction finder. It will take a couple of seconds for us to locate you. Have you found the M.S. base?"

  "Everything went in perfect order, according to plan, the way Ellert predicted. By the way, why didn't Ellert accompany me?"

  Brief silence. Then Rhodan said, "An unfortunate incident occurred we had not foreseen. Ellert was electrocuted. His body is on its way to the Gobi Desert base."

  Tako was unable to reply. He just waited until finally Rhodan continued. "Who knows, something else might have happened to him, and he wasn't dead after all. We aren't sure yet... Here we are, Reg has located you. We are one hundred twenty miles to the east from where you are. We'll join you shortly."

  Tako walked over to a large rock and sat down. The sun was setting in the west, and soon darkness would fall. He did not know Rhodan's plans, but warding off the invasion had become a worldwide enterprise where one factor encroached upon the other until no one knew any longer what his role was in the overall picture. Only one man had the total overview of the strategy. That man was Perry Rhodan.

  Silently the huge space sphere landed on the plateau. The antigrav beam seized Take and lifted him up before he had a chance to teleport himself from the interior of the ship. Good naturedly, he tolerated Bell's transporting him in such a conservative method into the center where Rhodan was already waiting for him. Thanks for your efforts, Tako, now we have found the enemy's base here on Earth. Now it is up to us to put him out of action completely. Thora has promised to assist us in that unconditionally. She is deathly afraid of the Mind Snatchers, which I fully understand. Khrest is with her at the battle station. I have taken over the command for navigation and general coordination of all efforts. Where is the cave, Tako?"

  The Japanese pointed to the screen. "Over there, that low mountain. Inside, about sixty feet below the surface."

  "A natural cave in the Himalayas," said Rhodan with a bitter smile. "That's like them, just what I thought they would do."

  The Good Hope lifted off vertically without any apparent effort and slid over to the hill Tako had pointed out. The spacecraft hovered above it while Perry Rhodan gave some orders to Thora. Then he turned to Take and ~Bell, who had remained standing just inside the door.

  "The attack will take place in thirty seconds. Thora is going to evaporate that part of the mountain directly above the cave. Let's hope that we can find an entrance to the cave; otherwise, we risk burning the bodies of the M.S. I am very interested in catching some of them alive."

  Tako seemed skeptical. "Is that advisable? Wouldn't they take over our own bodies at once?"

  "Don't worry," Rhodan reassured h
im. "I shall apply the psycho-radiator."

  The psycho-radiator was one of the harmless weapons of the Arkonides. whoever used it was capable of imposing his own will on the target personality. Even posthypnotic commands could be given, and they had to be obeyed unconditionally. Rhodan hoped that the psycho-radiator would have the usual effect even if applied to the insect type aliens.

  Suddenly a strong wind sprang up over the flat mountain peek. Cold air masses rushed in from all sides into the heated airspace above it. The whole mountain top began to evaporate. The rocks turned into invisible gases that rose up. So tremendous was the effect of the energy rays that the transition of matter from solid to gaseous state followed almost immediately without first passing through the liquid phase.

  At a depth of sixty feet a dark opening became visible.

  "The entrance!" shouted Rhodan, and stopped the attack. The space sphere descended and touched the ground. Seconds later the airlock opened and Perry, Reg, Khrest, and Thora rushed out into the open. Tako was already waiting for them outside. He had preferred to use the much more convenient teleportation. I've already been inside again," he announced. "The opening here leads into the cave, just a few feet from here. Hurry! Two of the nasty creatures are moving. They look horrid!"

  Perry Rhodan hurried ahead of the others, the silvery rod of the psycho-radiator glistening in his hand. He had to bend over on entering the low passageway leading to the cave. The others followed at a slower pace, especially Reg, who had a lot of trouble avoiding constant collision of his broad shoulders with the rocky walls of the narrow path. Khrest and Thora kept in the background. Unexpectedly the narrow passage widened into a wide hall. Perry's eyes had to accommodate to the darkness. The walls sent out a slight phosphorescence. A draft came from a corner; there must be another exit to the cave. Reg kept close behind Rhodan. The illuminating rod in his hand lit up, throwing a bright light across the whole extent of the underground cave. The first thing they noticed was the long row of lifeless bodies resting on the ground. They were slightly taller than human beings but looked quite different. They closely resembled insects.