The Target Star Read online

  The duty engineer appeared on the intercom screen.

  "We're landing right away," Rhodan explained very calmly. "Use your energy and mass sensors to see if you can locate any spaceships they may have stowed away. Make the basic assumption that the Akonide ships are also equipped with linear drive. If you pick up any responses, start a cross-triangulation to locate them. Is that clear?"

  "Right, sir—we'll do our best."

  "What was that?" Kalup's voice rattled in the speakers. He had overheard the order. "Are you by any chance thinking that the local intelligences have also developed a jump-free system of hyper-linear space-drive?"

  "As a matter of fact I'm sure of it. Of course it can't be a direct copy of our compensator converter, but I'm sure their system operates on the same basis."

  "I demand a convincing explanation of that!" shouted Kalup in his usual irascible manner.

  "You'll make no demands, sonny, but I will explain it to you."

  "What insolence!"

  "Think so? Listen—the only way we got through that giant defense screen of theirs was because we were flying with the Kalup in full operation. If the Arkonides can also fly though this system-wide screen they must be using some kind of similar compensating field—otherwise they'd have themselves locked in. You can bet the installation generating that screen is vast and complex, so it's inconceivable that they'd shut it on and off for every ship passage. That's why we can figure that the Arkonides have gone beyond transition travel and that they use linear drive and a para-optical target system for guidance. Does that satisfy you!"

  "Only after I've worked out the mathematical variables of such a possibility."

  "Why don't you do that, Professor? I'll be interested in the results."

  A few moments later Krefenbac operated the release for the landing struts. The Martian Chief Engineer, Slide Nacro, shut down the power pile, only to turn it back on full after they had set down.

  Like some menacing, belligerent monster, the Fantasy had landed on a vast level plain which could be nothing other than a spaceport.

  9/ THE MAIDEN AT DOOM'S EDGE

  The commando team under Mahaut Sikhra came back to the ship. By means of a micro-transceiver arrangement Rhodan had been able to keep track of the small reconnaissance detail and thus he knew that they had failed again to make any contact with the natives.

  Apparently nobody had concerned themselves about their landing here but 20 minutes after touching the ground the ship's tracking and sensor stations began to give the first results of their activity. There were spaceships here at the spaceport. Impulses from their propulsion units could be detected.

  After a mathematical analysis of the data under Kalup's personal supervision, what had already been suspected was confirmed: the Arkonides were also using the linear-propulsion method. Although their compensator fields were very similar to what the Kalup converter could produce, the equipment in general was much more advanced.

  Arno Kalup was beside himself. There were unlimited possibilities here for the further development of the Terranian linear system and yet there was apparently no way of getting the Arkonides to divulge their secrets voluntarily.

  Mahaut Sikhra's mission on the outside involved more than merely making attempts to contact the aliens. His men carried special sensors and analyzers with which they were to determine whether the ships they'd detected had been "mothballed" into some kind of space museum or if they were readily operable vehicles still in use.

  Pucky had vanished somewhere and it was assumed he'd been able to penetrate through security screens into one of the concealed space hangars.

  Barely discernible in the haze of distance were the towering shapes of typical Arkonide conical buildings silhouetted against the pale blue sky. Just this exclusive architectural characteristic alone was proof enough that the Arkonides must have originated from this place. Although they had retained their forefathers' customs and usages in this regard, nevertheless turn the course of millenniums they had developed a variant culture which was becoming increasingly alien to that of the original civilization.

  Rhodan had not dared fly over the major metropolis. As it was, he had a feeling that he had just about pushed events to the limit here. Moreover, it appeared that the present moment of respite was merely like the calm that precedes a storm. All native vehicles or ships had been withdrawn from the broad spaceport. Far and wide there was not an Akonide to be seen. Their disdain for the uninvited strangers could not have been expressed more strongly.

  "It won't be long now," said Bell uneasily. "Either they'll convert us into a gas cloud or they'll try something maybe a little more unexpected."

  Mahaut Sikhra entered, wearing only his uniform. Rhodan had issued instructions to refrain from wearing the Arkonide combat suits since they might seem a bit too challenging. Of course it was rather a moot point as to which was more challenging: their uninvited landing here, or wearing apparently hostile equipment. All in all, the Terranian comportment so far had been sheer insolence; Rhodan harbored no illusions about that.

  Sikhra delivered an appropriate salute. His face gleamed with sweat. The seat from the blue sun of Akon was somewhat unpleasant here.

  "What have you found out?"

  Mahaut removed his service cap. His face expressed his exasperation. "Not much, sir. The ship hangars are all secured by built-up energy fields. We couldn't get through. Anyway it's been determined that those space propulsion units are 'hot'. Those are no museum pieces in there. They're spacers on standby—they can roar loose from here any moment. We didn't run into a single Akonide. Two aliens retreated suddenly when they saw us coming across the landing field. They not only don't want to talk to us—they seemed to shun our very presence. But that's about it, sir."

  "It's enough!" answered Rhodan with a humorless laugh. "Gentlemen, ready for takeoff. All we're waiting for is Pucky."

  The mouse-beaver materialized in the middle of the Control Central three minutes later. Again he was exhausted. Marshall carried him over to the nearest couch and bedded him down on the soft cushions and it was from that vantage point that the little native of Vagabond reported.

  "Those screens are rugged. It just about drained my batteries to get through them. I've seen the spaceships. They're also surrounded by energy screens.

  "What do they look like? Are they spherical?" asked Rhodan in such a relaxed tone that he almost sounded sleepy. It added to Bell's uneasiness because he knew his friend only too well. His exaggerated lassitude was a sure sign of seething tensions within.

  "Naturally they're spherical! It's just that they're flattened off a little at both poles. Those ships look as if somebody had taken a knife and snipped off both ends. But they have ring-bulges although none of them's very big. The biggest one I saw probably had a diameter of 150 meters."

  "Those are the transports for setting up receiving stations," commented Claudrin. "Alright, so what are we waiting for? We should know enough about these people now.

  "This is the Tracking Center. Two vehicles have suddenly appeared in front of the ship!" came an excited voice over the speaker.

  Rhodan stiffened visibly and went to the controls where he switched on the ground observation system. Two large hovercraft became visible on the screen, elegantly shaped and with transparent cupolas. They came to a stop within only a few meters of the ground lock.

  "How did they get under the ship?" asked Rhodan. "Did anybody see them approaching?"

  "No sir—at first there was no tracking pickup and then suddenly they were there!"

  "Com Central," came another officer's voice. "We're being hailed by the aliens—in old Arkonide, sir.

  They're asking you to come out of the ship for a conference."

  "They're asking me?"

  "Yes sir! Shall I channel this to your speaker?"

  "It's not necessary—I've been expecting this. Just tell them I'm on my way. Over and out!" Rhodan reached for his uniform cap. Claudrin stood up slowly. There was a
silence in the Control

  Central until Bell spoke up. "How did they get under the ship? The hull is 200 meters. They would have had to come 100 meters under us to get to the ground lock at all."

  There was another interruption from the tracking sector. "We are picking up some undefinable echoes which apparently are coming from inside the Fantasy. They sound like very short wave sensor pulses."

  "Do you think it's some kind of radio propagation?"

  "By no means, sir. It's more like number groups and patterns. I don't know what to make of them."

  Rhodan cut off the connection. "Bell, Claudrin, Marshall and Lt. Nolinow—you will accompany me. Let's go."

  "It's rattle-brained!" said Bell. "You're donked out of your dome! Did you notice that the same woman is waiting for us—the one we tore away from on that transmitter moon?"

  Rhodan smiled enigmatically. "How you talk! Did you really think I could have missed seeing her?" He shook his head reproachfully. Two levels below, a panting Stant Nolinow ran to the central grav-lift. Even while he was gliding downward in the antigrav field he sought to straighten the collar of his uniform. He was the first man in the ground lock. Rhodan and the ship's commanding officers followed a few minutes later.

  • • •

  She stood tall and straight as a ramrod in front of her vehicle. The light from the open airlock was reflected in her metallically-gleaming hair, seeming to conjure up fascinating fires and scintillations.

  Auris of Las-Toor knew that for some minutes now the circuit sensor-analyzer in the second aircar had been functioning perfectly. After the strangers had made their surprising landing here she had been given orders to find out, once and for all, where they had come from. The Akonide circuit sensor was a wireless device which was capable of penetrating the ship's positronic memory banks and performing a readout of the data stored there. No one on board the Fantasy suspected that the carefully-secured position coordinates of the planet Earth had now been revealed. Auris had beamed the navigation data onward to the Ruling Council.

  Thus by the time the first crewmember appeared in the airlock hatch fully automatic calculators were already at work in the distant city. Scientists and specialists of the Akonide Energy Command were obtaining readouts from their own storage banks which had been registered 20,000 years before concerning colonizations of alien worlds. They were ready to make comparisons with the position data which Auris had furnished them.

  Marshall, Claudrin and Nolinow came to attention before the tall young woman. Stant's heart was thumping wildly. He had to make an effort not to stare at her too obviously.

  Rhodan was the last man to appear. Standing in the open hatchway he glanced briefly below and merely touched a finger to his cap in salute. Then he turned very calmly toward the interior of the ship and called out a few entirely superfluous instructions. Marshall knew this familiar ruse of the Solar Imperium's Administrator. It had always been his habit to make it very clear to other intelligences that he had no sense whatsoever of inferiority in their presence.

  Auris had been determined not to be affected again by this stranger's unique charisma but as she looked upward and strained to see his features she caught herself succumbing to the same reaction as before.

  Rhodan floated downward in the antigrav lift and touched the ground with a lithe spring in his limber legs, after which he walked slowly toward the girl.

  Their eyes met for the first time. She looked into a pair of cool grey eyes that seemed to be dissecting her. In instinctive defense she drew herself up still more haughtily.

  Col. Jefe Claudrin played his assigned role. With a thunderous voice he introduced Rhodan to her. The girl was startled but quickly controlled herself. It was in that moment that Auris realized for the first time that these unusual men could not be descendants of earlier Akonide emigrants. Suddenly troubled and concerned with the difficulties of this new situation, she studied them more closely. Especially the Epsalian.

  "Your Excellency," said Rhodan in his best archaic Arkonide, "may I ask your name?"

  Auris' face seemed to turn to stone. Indignantly she stared at this stranger from head to foot. "I am the one to ask the questions here," she admonished Rhodan irritably.

  For a moment Perry was reminded of his dead wife. It brought a faint, thoughtful smile to his lips. How familiar these overbearing tones sounded to him now! "Please assume that you have the word here," he replied. "Did you wish to offer me your hospitality? Or was there another reason for your second visit?"

  She sensed that she had been offended. This debased creature appeared to have lost all sense of propriety. She decided to act accordingly. "You have landed here uninvited and without permission. I must request that you leave the planet immediately. I am authorized to express to you the regrets of the Ruling Council that this demand must be made at all but it's apparent that you have no respect for the rules of etiquette and protocol which were once observed by your early forefathers."

  Rhodan nodded in some deliberation. He had expected this much. These people were a bit too formal for his way of thinking. "For my part I also regret that we have been received with such reserve. Has it become customary in the Akon System to treat the representatives of their own race as poor relatives and beggars? The accounts left us by our forefathers spoke of the noble attitude of the Arkonides."

  Auris lowered her gaze. Rhodan had touched upon something that had even been discussed in the Ruling Council. She replied with restraint, "You may be assured that your unexpected visit has been discussed. You don't seem to be aware of how much our two races have been estranged as a result of former colonial wars. Are there no extant records of this in your historical archives?"

  "They must have been lost," answered Rhodan without expression.

  John Marshall almost forgot to breathe. Here then was the answer to the mystery! There had been heavy dissension and strife between the emigrating colonists of the early days, the present Arkonides and the Arkonides of the home system.

  "We thought as much," said Auris in a somewhat friendlier tone. "Go back, Rhodan of Arkon! Or is there another title I should address you by?"

  Marshall telepathed a warning which Rhodan understood at once. The girl was beginning to be vaguely suspicious. The innuendo had been her first thrust.

  "How do you mean that?"

  "It was just a question."

  Once more their eyes met. She sensed the aura emanating from the immortal and it made her all the more uncertain. Rhodan decided to break up the conversation, which was becoming dangerous.

  "I shall follow your advice. But won't you tell me your name?"

  "Auris of Las-Toor."

  "Thank you very much. I am really called Rhodan. I had hoped sincerely to have friendly relations with your people. My home worlds are rich. We have no interest in subjugating other races.

  "That's quite a distinction from your forefathers," she remarked indifferently.

  "Mistakes have been made in the past," said Perry evasively.

  Marshall's warnings became more insistent. He could not explain why Auris had an increasing presentiment that she was not dealing with Arkonides. It might have been an emotional reaction.

  Seconds later something happened that no one had anticipated. On the curved roof of the leading aircar a lamp began to glow. When Auris noticed it she turned without excusing herself and went over to the vehicle in which two silent and statuesque Arkonides were sitting. Rhodan noted a grimace of shocked surprise on the girl's slender face but in a matter of moments she recomposed herself. When she turned slowly toward them, Marshall telepathed in a virtual panic.

  Watch out! Her thought screen is open and she's very agitated. Now she's blocking her mind again. They've given her a report. I think they've succeeded in tapping our ship's positronicon and they've compared the Earth's position with that of the Arkon System. It doesn't match. They know that we are aliens!

  Rhodan waited a few more moments. Marshall's mental message had reached Puc
ky, who relayed it to the First Officer. Until now the engines had only been humming at idling speed but now they began to rumble. The ground-side gun turrets swung about. Somewhere in the ship a certain young officer was ready to press all 10 fingers down on the keys of the firing console.

  Auris came to a stop directly in front of Rhodan. Her full lips trembled in her excitement "Who are you?" she asked in low, swift tones. "Go from here—quickly! I'm sorry for you. You must never come back and you must forget that you have found my native world. You reckless fool! How could you even dare to deceive the Ruling Council!"

  "Just curiosity, nothing more," explained Rhodan in equally low tones. "Auris, one day I shall see you again."

  "Never!"

  She ran back a few meters from him until her slender figure began to attenuate. The two aircars also disappeared in an iridescent mist of light. All that was left behind was a small, portable transmitter device, which revealed to Rhodan how the vehicles had been able to appear unnoticed beneath the ship. The transmitter started to move and then it swept away over the ground at high speed.

  At the same time the outside loudspeakers began to roar. Major Hunts Krefenbac was doing the shouting. "Sir, back to the ship! But take care! We're being surrounded by a greenish glow of flickering light and were turning stiff! Someone's aiming an unknown weapon at us, sir—I can hardly speak anymore. Sir, already my hands are stiff as ice.

  From a standing position, Claudrin made an incredible leap up to the airlock. Bell, Marshall, Nolinow and Rhodan followed him. The inner and outer hatches glided shut behind them but the heavy sound of the engines had not changed.

  One of the airlock guards shouted excitedly. "Sir, take a look at this. They attacked the crew in the Control Central first and now they're already paralyzed down in the machine and power controls!"

  Rhodan pushed the man to one side and stared into the small inspection screen. Krefenbac, Slide Nacro and all the leading scientists of the Fantasy were sitting or standing at their stations like stone statues. Only a few men were still trying to crawl slowly and laboriously out of the danger zone.