Under the Stars of Druufon Read online

  And then the time had finally come.

  Capt. Marcel Rous announced that the California was ready for takeoff.

  Ten minutes later, the spacesphere shot out of a hidden opening in the Hope Mountains and raced at an insane velocity into the twilight sky of Hades.

  They did not go into transition; instead, they reached simple speol after just five minutes. Harno served as a universal vidscreen, warning them in time of ships of either warring party. The unusually high acceleration of the California insured their escape from all attackers without being drawn into a battle.

  Druufon drew swiftly nearer. With it increased the danger of being discovered.

  “Can you pick up Onot's impulses yet?” asked Rhodan.

  Pucky responded mutely, in the negative. He sat on his bunk, hunched up and eyes shut. Up to now he had attempted in vain to make contact with the unknown friend. Pucky was not even able to locate the real Onot, Chief Physicist of the Druufs. It was quite probable that he was in the middle of an experiment that blocked off telepathic impulses again.

  Nevertheless, Pucky knew that that would not prevent teleportation jumps.

  Rhodan did not give up. “When we're close enough, perhaps you can spring.”

  Now Pucky did open his eyes. He met Rhodan's questioning gaze. Bell sat off to the side and watched him a little fearfully. It was easy to tell he would not have gladly traded places with Pucky.

  “I'll try it,” said the mouse-beaver, unusually softly and, in contrast to other occasions, with little enthusiasm. “The spring is the least thing to worry about because I can always teleport to safety. But what happens if you have to flee from here in the meantime? What'll I do then?”

  Rhodan stood up, went to Pucky and stroked his rumpled fur. Warmth filled his voice as he reassured the mouse-beaver. “No matter what happens, we won't go past your teleportation limit before you come back. You can depend on us.”

  Pucky slid down from the couch. “Great! When do I start?”

  Rhodan smiled and stepped back. “In about 5 minutes—in the event you don't make contact with Onot before-hand.”

  The hope was not fulfilled. Nothing was heard from Onot.

  It was as though he had never existed.

  Three, four minutes went by. Not even Harno could help them. It was as though bewitched. As if Onot had simply disappeared. More than once Harno showed the image of the Chief Physician's laboratory but nothing was to be seen of the Druuf himself.

  “The best thing is for you to go to the laboratory,” said Rhodan.

  Pucky nodded, looked at the clock and concentrated on his jump.

  Then he was gone.

  7/ THE TIME PARALYZER

  He reappeared immediately—at least on the milky curve of Harno's outer surface. Telepathicontact between the sphere-being and the mouse-beaver remained in effect, so locating Pucky was no problem. As long as the contact went uninterrupted, there was no acute danger of losing Pucky from view.

  Pucky knew that he was under observation thanks to Harno, who kept him informed of the situation at that end.

  Confident of his goal, Pucky landed in the laboratory he was already well-acquainted with. The control board and the entire technical installation in the underground experimental station were deserted. There was not the slightest sign of Onot. To have found him among the thousands of excited and agitated thought-impulses flooding the air would have required unbelievable luck; Pucky was certain the original Onot would not be thinking of him.

  Don't try to understand the nature of the time-paralyzer! Harno warned silently but urgently.

  Pucky did not stir from the spot. Instead, he stared with all his senses alert at the glistening metal box on a table right next to the main control panel. It was studded with glassy knobs and colored switches in between small, unlit light bulbs and dials. A number of cables led to the generators and other machinery.

  Time-paralyzer? asked Pucky in surprise.

  Harno explained. The invention on which Onot is working when he is no longer identical with our friend. It is probable that without our friend he never would have been able to do it. Can you sense him yet?

  Pucky told him no, then made a few steps forward until he stood before the table.

  Time-paralyzer?

  Once it was ready, it would be the Druufs' most powerful weapon. With it they could knock entire worlds out of action and perhaps conquer the universe. They simply turned time off for their enemy. They put him in a state where he was entirely at their mercy.

  A devilish invention!

  And more! An unimaginably effective weapon against which there could never be any defense.

  Should I destroy it, Harno?

  There was a pause while Harno discussed the matter with Rhodan. Finally he replied, Onot isn't far enough along yet. Who knows if he can get anything out of his invention once the spirit of our friend leaves? It would not be good to destroy the invention because it is not only a weapon: it is also a means with which the phenomenon of time may be deciphered. Perhaps one day we shall need Onot's invention for our own purposes.

  Pucky answered that he would act accordingly. He did not understand much about technical thing—or anyway, not enough to comprehend how the time-paralyzer operated. When he stood up, the control box was on a level with his face. He looked attentively at the many switches and levers.

  Did he dare make an attempt to experiment?

  Harno had been listening in. Careful, little friend!

  Let me have my fun, Harno!

  Pucky laid his paw on the nearest lever and saw a number of lights come on. A light humming and vibration suddenly filled the room. In any event, the box was now hooked up to the power.

  Only now did Pucky take the trouble to follow the cables and wiring which led from the box. Some of them ended in a round object on the ceiling that resembled a spotlight. The concave mirrored surface seemed to have been assembled from small, silvery-shining individual parts.

  The mouse-beaver moved other levers determinedly. Then he was warned by a strong thought-impulse that increased by the second. Someone was approaching the laboratory. He must be coming from the direction opposite Pucky. However, between him and the door lay that area 'covered' by the 'spotlight', perfectly circular and large enough to accommodate any incomer for irradiation.

  Was it Onot returning to his laboratory?

  Whoever it was, Pucky had decided to test for himself the effects of the time-field he had so confidently activated.

  The door across from him opened.

  In came a Druuf who could have been Onot.

  The Druuf did not notice the mouse-beaver immediately. He shut the door behind him and stood for a moment right at the probable edge of the time-field. Pucky tried to read his thoughts and the mouse-beaver’s suspicions were confirmed.

  It was Onot! But he was not thinking of Rhodan or how he could help him, he was thinking more of how he could help his race defeat its enemies once and for all. His invention had been tested and was ready. Now all that remained was building an amplifier and some way to transport the device, then the invention could be placed in action anywhere. Besides, there was only this one field generator here in the laboratory. If it were damaged, it would take years before a substitute would be ready.

  Can you hear me? thought Pucky intensively. It must be possible, after all, to make contact with the mind of his friend who occupied Onot's body. Or was it so strongly overpowered by the Druuf's own mental impulses that contact was impossible?

  Evidently, for there was no answer.

  Pucky held his breath when Onot started to move again, for the Druuf was heading straight towards him. Only a few more meters and the Druuf could not help but discover him.

  To be safe he readied himself for an instant teleportation spring.

  Onot spotted him the same instant he stepped into the area of the time-field. The edges were not sharply delineated and the effects did not show up at once, only after a second passed and h
is body had had the opportunity to come completely within the circle and receive the full brunt of the radiation.

  Even while his eyes opened in astonishment, Onot froze.

  In that moment he resembled one of those creatures Lt. Rous had once found on the Crystal Planet. However, there life had been only slowed down 72,000 times; by careful examination one could see that the apparently motionless statues actually did move, if only interminably slowly.

  Here and now it was quite different.

  Pucky did not move from the spot, keeping his eye on Onot. He had no desire to fall under the influence of the time-paralyzing field himself. Certainly he could then exchange small talk with the Druuf but thousands of years would have gone by before they could even get around to shaking hands.

  Nothing moved. The Druuf's eyelids—which looked like leathery folds—did not move, even in the bright lights. The monstrous creature did not seem to be breathing anymore. The arms and legs, frozen in the middle of a movement, resembled pieces of a statue.

  It works! Pucky triumphed, as though he had created the technical wonder himself. But if I wanted to do something to the Druuf now, I couldn't without becoming a Sleeping Beauty myself. So what's the point?

  We have already determined that the creation of a time-field was still in the experimental level, Harno told him. Turn the field off and try to bring Onot here.

  Pucky nodded, knowing that Rhodan could see him by way of Harno. Alright, then—but I'm positive that...

  Just at that moment, it happened!

  • • •

  Pucky's impulses broke off so abruptly in his mind that Rhodan gave a start. It could not be because of the time-field for Harno's image showed that Pucky had not moved from his place.

  The Druuf, too, stood motionless and seemingly frozen.

  Now Pucky moved. It was an almost mechanical and automatic seeming motion as he bent over and pushed the levers on the control device back into their original position. Then he turned and looked at the Druuf.

  Onot finished the movement he had begun and walked towards Pucky.

  Disappear! Rhodan exclaimed mentally, shocked. How could you be so crazy as to let him go? Bring him here if you can!

  But again Pucky did not answer.

  The mouse-beaver, as they could plainly see, was waiting for the Druuf.

  Suddenly there were alien mental impulses in Rhodan's mind.

  When Onot was seized by the time-field, I was freed and could take his body over. However, it will not long endure for his spirit will soon become the more powerful. In the time-field I could even leave his body and take over Pucky's. While in his body I turned off the time-field because now I know what I had wanted to find out! Perhaps I will find my original body this way—if it still exists.

  Pucky moved once more and drew back a little. His thoughts took up again immediately. And his first reaction, a question, proved only too clearly that Onot's spiritual parasite had spoken the truth.

  Who turned off the time-field?

  Onot himself answered. I did! And now get yourself to safety because the robotships are attacking our world. You must leave me some time yet because there is something I have discovered. I have you to thank, Pucky! You have shown me the way, even if I still cannot remember who I am and how it is that I know you, Perry Rhodan...

  I'm beginning to have a suspicion, Rhodan replied. But it would be too fantastic...

  Onot's thought-impulses suddenly broke off.

  The real Druuf Onot came on towards Pucky, massive arms outstretched to capture the mouse-beaver.

  Pucky did not spend too much time in reflection.

  He teleported back to the California.

  • • •

  The ship raced at the speed of light through a glowing blockade—through the midst of the surprised Druufs and past the attacking robot-ships of the Regent.

  Soon Druufon was just a star in space.

  Rhodan looked at the videcreen. “I fear we haven't seen Druufon for the last time. Our mission is only now beginning.” He sighed and gave Capt. Rous his instructions. “Back to Hades. We'll stay there for awhile and go back to Myrtha later. I'd like to watch the progress of the battle from here.”

  “And what about Onot?” asked Bell.

  Rhodan shrugged his shoulders. “You've heard that he made a discovery.

  Perhaps thanks to Pucky he now knows how he can master the spirit of his host body. Why he didn't come with us is certainly a riddle to me. It could have been out of consideration, I suppose, because he would have had to have taken over a Terran's body.”

  Bell's eyes narrowed to slits. “They say I have a good memory, Perry, and if that's so, then I'm not mistaken in thinking you made a certain remark awhile back.”

  “What was that?” Rhodan asked, smiling expectantly. “You hinted that you had a suspicion who Onot might be.”

  Rhodan quickly shielded his thoughts before Harno or Pucky had a chance to find out his secret, a secret which might not really be a secret at all. “Oh, that...?” he answered, still smiling. His true thoughts remained hidden. “Forget it, Reggie. It's just a crazy idea I had which has nothing to do with the present. It's better to let sleeping dogs lie—at least until they get up again and wag their tails.”

  Bell shook his head. “You speak in riddles, O Great Master. Who may thus become wise?”

  “You, maybe!” Rhodan answered with a laugh. “But you lack the imagination to draw your own conclusions. I have it!”

  He looked up at the vidscreen.

  Capt. Rous skilfully avoided a Druuf squadron and then led to a short transition which brought them near Hades. The system's 13th planet had so far escaped the Druufs' attention. No one suspected. that Rhodan had built a base there which could very well serve one day as the starting point for a great invasion.

  The California radioed Hades and learned that everything was ready for their landing.

  Rhodan did not protest when Pucky teleported to the nearby planet with Harno.

  Capt. Rous startled him out of his thoughts. “Hypercom contact with Grautier, sir! A message!”

  “Give it here!”

  Rous gave Rhodan the strip of plastic tape on which the message had been embossed.

  Rhodan read out loud. Lt. Stern, DRUSUS, to Perry Rhodan! The Robot Brain on Arkon is sending incessant calls for help. As ordered, we have not answered. It seems that Arkon is in serious trouble. We are awaiting instructions in this matter. End of message.

  Rhodan laid the tape slowly on the control panel. He met Bell's expectant gaze. “Hm,” he said, meaningfully.

  Bell moved restlessly on the couch. “What do you mean, 'Hm', if I may ask? Aren't we going to answer? It would seem high time we did.”

  Rhodan shook his head. “No, we're going to let the Regent stew in his own juices for the next 14 days. That's how long I intend to stay on Hades, by the way. By then, some matters here may have been decided one way or the other. The battle between Arkon and Druufon could go on for days, even weeks. We have time, Reggie, because time is working in our favor.”

  “Time... ?” said Bell, staring up at the ceiling. “Perry, what really is time?”

  Rhodan smiled ironically. “We'll ask Onot one of these days... I think he may be able to tell us.” He looked at the vidscreen again and, after awhile, thoughtfully added: “Perhaps...”

  UNDER THE STARS OF DRUUFON

  Copyright © Ace Books 1975

  Ace Publishing Corporation

  All Rights Reserved

  THE SHIP OF THINGS TO COME

  ARKON STAR REALM, Alert! The Cosmic Chessboard is set for a conflict of Galactic Giants. And Perry plays a perilous part between them! But Rhodan is not alone-mysteriously, the gross body' of a creature from the stars hosts the ghost (?) of an Earthman and comes to the aid of Earthman #1. It's Arkon pitted against Druufon, the Robot Regent vs. the Druufs, as titanic interstellar powers clash in—

  THE BONDS OF ETERNITY

  by Clark Dar
lton