3/ PROSPECT: BRAINLASH
Even as the crew of the Tigris was still on the way to the prison, which like the hotel in the same building bore the name Star of Arkon, the planetary security service of Ekhas had taken 2 dozen of its best specialists off their jobs and brought them to the Terran spaceship.
There, these men met 3 communications scientists.
The specialists assigned to the hypercom equipment of the Tigris were instructed to carry out their investigations with all possible care and accuracy for they were to determine whether or not the Tigris had been able to transmit a call for help to its home solar system which eluded Ekhonide surveillance of the hypercom frequencies.
In the control room, 8 specialists busied themselves with the ship’s positronicon while others examined the controls of the structural compensator. The latter group then proceeded to that part of the ship where the actual structocomp machinery itself stood, that huge device which up to now had prevented springs through hyperspace from being detected and measured.
Even the radar was not ignored: the remaining 2 Ekhonides of the 2 dozen, however, went through the paperwork. They studied the shipping manifests and the waybills and went carefully over the flight orders. The English language and its specialized terms were no problem to them: hypno-training had allowed them to learn this language as well as their mother tongue.
The 3 Ekhonides detailed to inspect the Terran ship’s engines quickly finished their work and reported back to Egg-Or, who was leading the operation himself.
"The engines operated without any trouble, Lord. There must be another reason for the misspring. We’ve also looked over the ship’s energy reservoirs: there’s enough energy on hand for 100 hytrans. That’s not even taking into consideration the potential of the generators, which by the way are superior to those of Arkonide construction—better, more powerful, yet fundamentally simpler. We—"
Egg-Or, the Ekhonide to whom Maj. Ostal had protested at the vast spaceport administration building about the undignified treatment accorded his men, gestured for silence. "Save your explanations and findings for the written report—and don’t forget to make it in octuplicate. Thank you."
Then his pocket communicator sounded. Planetary security headquarters for Ekhas was calling him to report that according to the department assigned to surveillance over all electronic communications in the Naral System, examination of the information stored in the memory banks of the Terran ship’s positronicon had revealed the Terrans had sent no distress call or any other messages since reemerging into the normal space-time continuum.
Egg-Or did not even bother to thank his informant for the report. It was not certain enough for him. He required 100% certainty—had the Tigris called for help or had its crew been too surprised by the events?—and that certainty could be supplied only by examination of the memory storage units in the Terran hypercom installation.
The memory centre was coupled with the hypercom just behind the microphone and the loudspeaker; beyond them were connected the encoder and the scrambler. The 3 Ekhonide specialists did not reach what should have been an obvious conclusion: that through a simple flick of a switch the encoder and scrambler could be turned on before the hypercom’s storage bank and microphone-loudspeaker systems. Nevertheless they discovered something.
It could not be perceived acoustically; and even with the help of their optical-positronic equipment they were unable to make visible the curve that is typical of a hypercom transmission. Only the Lar Detector, a device that functioned rather like a potentiometer, showed that a maximum use of energy, enduring for an improbably brief instant in time, had taken place in the recent past.
Again the Lar Detector registered the effect but the specialists looked at each other in silence. "Without importance," said the oldest at length.
"Perhaps this is the up-to-now inexplicable Echo Effect," ventured the youngest so doubtfully that Egg-Or noticed and entered into the discussion. He did not know what an Echo Effect was, at least as far as the hypercom was concerned.
The youngest of the 3 Ekhonide experts explained it briefly: "According to the theory, the Echo Effect should result when 2 hypercoms at different locations have their receivers tuned to the same wavelength. When one hypercom is transmitting, the 2nd will echo the 1st and rebroadcast fragments of the transmission at full power. However, this is only theory and has never been proven."
Egg-Or was not ready to take the slightest risk. "Alright then, take this hypercom unit apart and examine every component as minutely as possible…"
He was interrupted. The youngest specialist claimed to have found out now why the Lar Detector had indicated a maximum use of energy. "Excuse me, sir… Please take a look for yourself…" And then he launched into a long-winded explanation that concluded by saying that the Tigris had transmitted no hypercom message since emerging into normal space for the last time.
8 hours later, Egg-Or made his report to General Sutokk, commander of the Arkonide fleet stationed on Ekhas.
Sutokk, who to Clyde Ostal had been most arrogant during the boarding operation, nodded affably to Egg-Or. "So I can without hesitation report to the Robot Regent that we are running no danger of being disturbed by Perry Rhodan if we hold onto the ship and its crew?"
Egg-Or bowed to the General and with a confident voice assured him: "General, our specialists are even now working out the data that will give us the exact galactic position of the Earth. I can’t report unqualified success in that important matter yet, but in all other points I can safely say to you that your capture of the Tigris has not endangered us in the slightest."
"The cooperation between the Ekhonide planetary defence and the fleet of the Regent of Arkon has never been as good as it is now," Sutokk declared, then asked pressingly: "How long will it take your scientists to figure out the Earth’s galactic coördinates from the data in the Terran positronicon’s memory banks? Egg-Or, you know as well as I do that the Robot Regent wants that question answered as soon as possible. You remember my last hypercom conversation with the Regent, of course… so when can we have it, Egg-Or?"
"In 3 days at the earliest, General…"
"Have you gone mad? The Robot Regent would tear my commander’s stripes off personally if I sent a message to it like that. And it wouldn’t treat you any more kindly either, Ex-Security Chief Egg-Or!"
Now Egg-Or demonstrated that he had a backbone. "Our scientists aren’t magicians, General. A positronic computer is a little more complicated than an adding machine. At the moment our 3 largest positronicons are busy sorting out the data contained in the Terran memory banks and calculating from it. Don’t forget, General, that these calculations are extremely difficult since none of the 3 spatial coördinates nor the time constant are known to us…"
"What nonsense, Egg-Or!" the General interrupted. "The time constant is immutable and doesn’t change…"
"But it becomes subject to change with every transition into hyperspace," Egg-Or retorted in a self-assured voice. "Anyway, we have learned that the Tigris had tried to reach the Tatlira System directly from Terra in a single spring. Isn’t that already an important piece of information? But we haven’t found out yet why the Tigris made such a crucial error in springing… General?" Egg-Or had suddenly noticed that Sutokk was staring pensively at him.
"Egg-Or, I just had a terrible thought. What if this misspring of the Tigris was nothing more than a ruse Rhodan set up to deceive the Regent? And if Rhodan is even now lurking on the edges of our system somewhere…"
"General," Egg-Or interrupted, smiling, "have you forgotten your new structocomp-sensor on board your ship? That piece of equipment will register any transition, even one made under the cover of one of Rhodan’s structocomps. And may I inform you that our galactic surveillance operation had cracked the Terran merchant code again and that the freight run of the Tigris to Goszul’s Planet in the Tatlira System has been known to us for days? If you like, I can supply all the relevant information for your examination."
Gen. Sutokk was still not completely reassured. Pointedly he asked the head of Ekhonide defence: "Are you absolutely certain that the Tigris did not deliberately misspring and that this is not a decoy operation of Rhodan’s? You don’t have to give me an answer now, Egg-Or. Just give the freighter captain a brainwash and if it turns out all my fears were ungrounded, I’ll even be willing to call the Robot Regent and tell it that we’ll need 3 days to find out the galactic coördinates of Rhodan’s solar system."
Egg-Or shook his head. "No brainwashing, General. It violates our laws…"
"The 88 devils of the 8 stars can take those laws and—!"
"No, General, I would even refuse a direct order from the Regent on this point!"
The general smiled sarcastically at him. "As if you had any other scruples! Turn the crew of the Tigris over to me, Egg-Or."
"Not now, General! Not one man! Deport them, disperse them all over the Empire so that no one will ever find them again… all right, why not? But to make a man a mental cripple, which is always the result of a brainwash… No General! And that’s my last word on this subject!" Egg-Or no longer had a drop of blood in his face. He felt his knees tremble but he knew that it was the only answer he could give and still be able to live with himself.
"In a few minutes I will have a very interesting little talk with the Regent," Sutokk threatened and the look in his eyes showed that he meant to carry his threat out.
At the same moment Egg-Or had switched on his pockom (pocket communicator). "Egg-Or here," he announced. "Message to Star Of Arkon, top priority. Not one of the incarcerated Terrans is to be…"
He got no farther. A stammer of words from the small but loud receiver interrupted him. "Sir… all 33 Terrans have broken out! The alarm just came in from the Star Of Arkon…!"
Egg-Or turned the communicator off and he and Sutokk stared at each other.
The mental image of each was the same: they thought of the top 5th of the towering hotel skyscraper where the prison was located. Both asked themselves how anyone could escape from that prison? Up to this day not one escape attempt had ever succeeded!
"All 33…!" Egg-Or whispered.
Then he heard Sutokk’s hard laughter. "It’s all turning out for the best, after all," Sutokk said indolently. "Don’t let your conscience bother you, Egg-Or. The chances are that at least some of these escapees will be caught by Arkonide Fleet personnel. Then I’ll be able to have one or more of the Terrans brainwashed. Egg-Or, I thank you heartily for your visit to the headquarters of the Regent’s fleet stationed on Ekhas Good day…"
Egg-Or was anything but calm. Anger flashed in his eyes. "General," he said sharply, "this morning I insulted a Terran when we were bringing them to the prison. He did not meekly accept the insult without a word but in his reply he thanked whatever gods Terrans believe in that he was not born an Ekhonide. And General, you have just given me the proof that it is possible for some one not to be proud of being an Ekhonide… Brainwashing, General! Are we and the Arkonide Imperium so weak and feeble that we must resort to the foulest and most contemptible means of brute force available? Isn’t it enough already that the Regent thinks only in numbers and treats us like ciphers? We—"
"Egg-Or, the Regent has instructed us to find out once and for all where Rhodan’s home world is located and I intend to carry that mission out! How I do it is something you can leave to me and the fleet. What you and your organization do is a matter that does not interest me in the least. What does interest me is whether or not Rhodan is lying in wait near our solar system."
The tension between the 2 men had ebbed somewhat.
Egg-Or declared positively: "Rhodan is not anywhere in the neighbourhood of our solar system! The Tigris missprang and nothing else!"