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  The bomb had exploded.

  Reginald Bell looked at Rhodan in some wonderment, not untinged with suspicion. "Looks like you're the head medicine man," he said after awhile. "Where do you keep your crystal ball?"

  Rhodan had shoved a concentrate tablet in his mouth and was struggling to swallow it. The burning sensation of thirst began to ebb away and finally his tongue was freed from his palate. "The K-238," he answered. "It's gone without a trace. Where?"

  Bell shrugged his shoulders. "Beats me!"

  "Even Tompetch couldn't find it on his scanner screen. It was simply not present. What would you make out of that?"

  Bell's eyes widened as he began to grasp the idea. "The Druufs have transferred us into their time-frame and... swapped places with us? In other words,they are now in our rate of time? Is that what you mean?"

  "Something like that. The K-238 didn't go anywhere. It stayed right where we left it but it also remained in our own time-reference. On the other hand, we were dumped into the alien time where everything happens slower. At the same time, a couple of the Druufs—or Druuf robots—changed over to our own time-rate. They would move 72000 times faster than we do—and would be invisible to us. So that's what happened. When they observed that we had gone down into the cave, they tried to set off the bomb in the normal fashion. They didn't succeed because I had broken the connection. Then they moved in to set off the bomb by using a more direct method. You can see it didn't pose any danger for them, can't you? No more than it did for us in the other cave, which we were able to leave in plenty of time."

  Bell shook his head in amazement. "But why? OK—so they went down into the cave, they patched up the wire and gave the generator a whirl. When the spark jumped across the gap, the explosion started to run its course in our present time-frame but that was so slow that the Druufs or the robots could still get out of the cave at their leisure, giving them time to get to safety. But why did they set it off at all? By their time reckoning we were already gone when they got there. So they couldn't do us any harm by their action."

  Rhodan nodded but before he could give a reply Atlan interceded: "Because they didn't want us to find out toward what point in the universe their micro-hypercom transmitter is pointing."

  Bell slapped his head. "Boy, what a blunker I am!" he groaned. "Naturally! And that was the same story for the other cave, too, wasn't it?"

  "I'm inclined to believe it now," admitted Rhodan. "There are no secrets concerning the Druufs that the Solitude creatures can reveal to us—as we had assumed—because they don't know, themselves. But the transmitter could have given us information as to where the Druuf world can be found."

  Nobody raised the question as to why no one had thought of locating the transmitter and taking it apart in order to determine in what direction it was facing. Even though the mechanisms and circuits of an electromagnetic beam transmitter were admittedly complicated, nevertheless such a device was essentially a hypercom transmitter, though more involved. They had not had time to think about it—even after they first realized that the bomb's true purpose was to keep the transmitter from being discovered.

  Bell looked around. "We aren't able to see them," he muttered suspiciously. "They could be standing here... or there... or over there." He pointed in three different directions. "And we don't see them. Why the devil don't they start shooting?"

  Rhodan smiled. "They've probably long since given up shooting at us. After having marveled sufficiently over the fact that we don't fall dead. Or maybe they were aware all along that they could have no effect on us as long as they were in the other rate of time."

  Bell stared at him. "Aware? what do you mean? How come they can't affect us here?"

  "Because they use rayguns that project energy faster than the light-speed admissible to this time-frame or to the particular temporal nature of this universe. Again it's a loss of causality, that's all. They press their trigger buttons at us and anything but the normal effect can happen. A causally conditioned course of events is impossible. Their ultra light-speed energy beams can't affect us."

  Reginald Bell began to laugh, at first hesitantly as though he were still uncertain as to what he should be laughing about but finally he was roaring with laughter. Gorlat joined him. Atlan grimaced at first but finally they were all laughing. They were laughing at their own mental image of the astonished Druuf face—if indeed they had faces at all—and at the crazy picture of invisible creatures running swiftly around them in circles while continuously hitting the release buttons on their weapons without being able to cause any damage.

  The laughter seemed to relieve them. The environment into which they had been delivered became somehow more bearable.

  Rhodan finally took up his trend of thought again after they had calmed down. "So the Druufs are working in two separate groups on Solitude. First group transferred over to our own time-rate level, stole the K-238 and exploded the bomb in the cave. The second group has probably landed in an alien ship somewhere near here in order to back up the first group—as for example the diversionary attack of the 40 robots which was aimed at keeping us from taking a closer look at the hypercom transmitter.

  "What I'd like to know is: why did the Druufs come to Solitude in the first place?" As he noticed that everybody seemed to be at a loss for an answer, he continued. "The first ships appeared the night after out landing which means about 10 hours after our arrival, at least. Now 10 hours for the Druufs would have been half a second in their own time and nobody can react to a situation that fast. At the time we landed, they must have been on their way here already and they probably picked up signals from the transmitter in the first cave which told them we were there. Naturally they worried about who or what we were and what we were intending. They could not tolerate an alien visitation to one of their advance base worlds. So they placed us into an alien time-frame and at least some of them came over into our own time level. They stole our ship and thereby succeeded in isolating us. Now they probably consider us to be fairly harmless and all they have to watch is that we don't find the secret of the hypercom transmitter. And when they finally realize that we can't do anything with the secret anyway, because we have no means of sending information to the outside, they'll probably leave us entirely alone.

  "Well, that may seem to be the picture but I don't think it's the whole story. Those eight ships originally came here for an entirely different reason and I'd like to know what it is."

  Reginald Bell rolled over onto his other side. "naturally you'd like to know," he moaned, "but nobody is in a position to tell you. Oh man—this lousy heat! Do you think maybe Tompetch could—"

  As though Tompetch had waited for his cue, Rhodan's micro-receiver buzzed in his pocket. He took it out and turned it on. Everyone could hear Tompetch's excited voice.

  "The sea cow is stirring again, sir. Its 'ghost' part has probably come back to it."

  "Good! Then unload that thing and come pick us up. We'll give you a trace signal."

  6/ CHRONO-CONTORTIONS

  The sea cow—or rather the part of it that could separate itself from the body of the creature—had made a discovery. A spindle-shaped Druuf ship was lying 50 miles away at the edge of the plain where the mountains began. About 200 robots were busy there making an excavation with a reinforced foundation. The activity seemed to indicate that they were planning to erect a building on top of it and by the looks of the reinforcements the structure was to be fairly big and massive.

  It was a new mystery for Rhodan and his men but to their relief it was one that didn't seem to have anything do with themselves. The Druuf robots could build houses or entire cities if they wanted to: it had nothing to do with the crew of the K-238.

  Rhodan alone had a hunch in regard to this report, which he discussed with Atlan. "There's one item we haven't thought about during our entire time here, Admiral," he began. "And that's the fact that Solitude has been disturbed in its orbit by the transit of Wanderer and is drawing away from its sun. It loo
ks very much as though the Druuf robots are preparing to set up some heavy equipment of some kind which will be designed to stabilize the planet in its orbit again."

  The Arkonide gazed away toward the mountains as though he could see the building site from where he was. "If they are able to do that," he muttered thoughtfully, "then they must be quite advanced technologically. It takes a lot of doing to move an entire planet."

  "Yes, but it isn't impossible. Anyway, that isn't what I'm getting at. If they are actually in the process of engineering an orbital stabilization, then they know everything that we know—concerning Wanderer."

  Atlan's white eyebrows went up. "You're a way out thinker, Barbarian!" he answered mockingly but nevertheless with concern. "Yes, you could be right. If they are preparing to move Solitude, then they must know why it was deflected from its orbit... What does your over-weight friend have to say about that? Does he know anything about Wanderer?"

  Rhodan nodded. "Wanderer was visible for three nights in succession as it passed Solitude—at a distance of 125,000 miles. We know the point in time of the start of the gravitational effect—that's down pat now—but we've only estimated the distance. When you consider that we don't have much time left for long-winded calculations, the best choice would be to capture a Druuf robot and take it along with us. In the meantime, the positronicon of the K-238 must have completed its calculations long since. This would give us three pieces of data to compare with one another."

  There was a look of unadulterated astonishment in Atlan's reddish eyes. "The K-238! Do you think we'll ever get our hands on it again?"

  Rhodan smiled. "We have to," he answered. "Otherwise, how would we ever get back to where we came from?"

  • • •

  "On the other hand," said Capt. Gorlat in a bored tone of voice, "The axial rotation of the planet isn't subject to this time-frame. At the time of our landing here, Solitude had a rotational period of 18 hours. Now that we are in the other plane ourselves, it should have been shortened by 72000 times, which would amount to something less than one second—right? If the subject of this time assimilation problem comes up again, remind me to mention it, OK?"

  Tompetch, who was at the controls of the flier, looked at him dumbfoundedly. "Did you maybe expect that to happen? An axial rotation in less than a second? Ha! It would be a real sight, that—getting ourselves shot off into space by sheer centrifugal force!"

  He laughed heartily at the idea. Gorlat gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder.

  "Don't get carried away, buddy—watch your course! If you climb too high the Druuf robots will see us. We can lose a lot of furloughs that way!"

  Tompetch slanted the air car downward until its underplating scraped noisily over the uppermost branches of the bushes. Gorlat peered ahead into the night. Somehow he had the impression that robots did not interrupt their work even in the dark. It was quite costly to design them all with infra-red vision, so the building site was probably lighted. If he were not mistaken, the place should be visible from a distance.

  He wasn't exactly overjoyed about his present assignment—to capture a Druuf robot and bring it back undamaged. How do you catch a 'live' robot? A robot of a completely alien design, that is, which could prevent one from knowing where the emergency cutoff switch was located?

  Just then Tompetch broke into his thoughts. "I see light ahead, Captain—there!"

  Shading his eyes from the reflections in the cabin interior, Gorlat stared through the windshield. Tompetch was right: on the horizon was a vague bowl of light, still pale and barely discernible. It was the building site!

  He attempted to estimate the distance: five miles? 10?

  Tompetch reduced his speed. The terrain began to be uneven as the nearness of the mountains began to become evident. He found a declivity which ran straight toward the building site and manoeuvred the craft down into it.

  "Good," said Gorlat approvingly. "If this valley holds out we'll be able to fly in close."

  Now that he was flying under the enemy's scanner beams—if there were any in the first place—Tompetch let the aircar develop a higher velocity. There was only a narrow strip of the light bowl to be seen from the valley but it brightened swiftly.

  Then an area was reached where the declivity began to rise toward the level of the plain. Without needing instruction, Tompetch slowed down the flier and set it down softly on the ground.

  "Captain," he said, "I think we'll have to go on foot from here on."

  They got out of the ship, drew their weapons and climbed up to the edge of the cleft. They had not expected to find themselves so close to the building site and Tompetch let out a low cry of astonishment as he saw that it was less than 100 yards away. A high mast towered upward from the area which supported a powerful floodlight. It shone downward upon an army of glistening and glittering robots.

  "You know it wouldn't do any harm if you flattened yourself on the ground," said Gorlat from a lower position behind him. "With your Hercules figure you probably make a beautiful target."

  Tompetch threw himself to the ground. In breathless amazement he observed the excavation which the strangely shaped robots had already completely. reinforced. With the help of a crane a group of about 100 of them were in the process of joining prefabricated sections along a base framework. The framework was rectangular like the foundation and was about 150 feet long.

  Meanwhile Gorlat turned his attention to the dully shining hull of a tremendous ship beyond the excavation. It towered upward like a giant cigar, pointed at both ends. It was difficult for him to suppress the idea that everybody would certainly be surprised if they brought the whole ship back instead of just a captive robot.

  You're a captain, old friend, he told himself—not a bandit chief.

  "Yup!" said Tompetch suddenly. "As far as I can see there's a group of robots sitting down on our side of the excavation. If we are going to have any luck at all, that's where we should try it."

  Gorlat's gaze followed the other's outstretched arm. Not far from the light mast, just at the edge of where the darkness began, six robots were huddled over something they had spread out on the ground, which looked like paper. Perhaps a building plan, thought Gorlat. Tompetch was right. These six were the only ones they could approach without being seen. And there was still another advantage of this small group over the milling hordes of robots who were down in the excavation. One of these was of larger stature, probably a special purpose robot. If any of them would know why, how or where Solitude was deviated from its orbit, it would be the larger automaton there.

  "That's the one we've got to have," growled Gorlat. "Let's go!"

  • • •

  Tompetch lay behind a bush and looked at his watch. Still 50 seconds to go before the coordinated moment of action.

  For the 10th time he took aim along the barrel of his thermo-automatic and confirmed that everything was set. His first shot would hit the opposite basement wall, burn through the concrete-like reinforcement and cause the robots to chase after the assailant in the direction from which the shot had come.

  That was all he had to do. That is—what he had to do here, he corrected himself. After that one strategic shot, if he saw that his plan had succeeded he was to run to the shuttlecraft and fly it so that he could come to Capt. Gorlat's aid. By that time Gorlat would have the large robot under his control.

  Still 15 seconds.

  Tompetch took aim for the 11th time and this time he held the weapon in position. Since he could no longer look at his watch, he made the balance of the countdown mentally. Then he pressed the release button.

  A hissing and whistling discharge of energy struck the opposite wall of the basement, started the reinforcement to melting and then vaporized it in a matter of seconds. In the twinkling of an eye a deep hole was produced, through which the earth tumbled into the ravening beam of the weapon, whereupon it also began to become molten.

  The robots down in the excavation were only confused for a few momen
ts. Then a portion of their number went back to their labors, while about 80 of them who were nearest to Tompetch reacted and came clambering up the basement wall. As Tompetch and Gorlat had already observed, their locomotion was based on a chain and pulley system, which was the most suitable for work robots.

  Tompetch was satisfied that the moment for retreat had arrived. He took his weapon and ran as fast as he could go. A quick glance over his shoulder gave him a sense of relief as he saw that, at least for the moment, these robots moved at a slower pace than he did. He glimpsed the lightnings of brilliant energy beams piercing the darkness, which revealed that the Druuf robots did not yet have any idea of where he was.

  After he had run for some distance under the weight of the thermo-automatic and bathed in sweat from the heat—which had not abated much during the night—he saw the deeper darkness of the declivity before him. He slid down it more than he was able to run or stumble toward the aircar and then with his last strength he swung up into the pilot seat. By the time the first robots appeared on the rim of the cleft he had already glided away and now he flew low above the bushes toward the rendezvous point with Gorlat.

  • • •

  Gorlat emitted a grunt of satisfaction when he saw that four of the group of six robots left the area, leaving only the large one and a single companion. The four were apparently robot foremen who now had to explain to their crews what was next to be done.

  Even among robots there was a system of rank and a line of authority. Evidently such things were no different among the Druufs than on Earth. Intelligence built robots in its own image, which endowed these mechanical beings with certain idiosyncrasies for which they might not have any use but nevertheless their creators had bestowed them upon them.