4/ PIRATICAL POSITRONICON

 

Perry Rhodan was somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Naral System!

As specified in Order 22 for the Tigris, Maj. Clyde Ostal had half an hour at his disposal in which to make the decisive ‘misspring’.

In Terrania, capital city of the Solar Imperium and site of the largest spaceport in the solar system, time ran inevitably towards the hour given in Order 22.

The engines of the Lotus, a light cruiser in the Solar Spacefleet, ran at 10% capacity. The hatches of the spacesphere were still open and all the ramps had been extended out from between the massive telescopic legs. The thundering roar emanating from the equatorial rim was a familiar sound to the men who worked at the spaceport day in and day out and hardly anyone even looked up when such a ship took off. Only the liftoff of a superbattleship of 1500 meters diameter, an incredible sight, attracted any attention. When a Titan-class starship blasted into the sky, that was an unforgettable experience for anyone.

But who was interested if the Lotus were ready for taking off? Only a few knew that Perry Rhodan had made it his flagship. Another factor that made the Lotus even more unique among the ships of the Terran spacefleet was known only to Perry Rhodan and a few hundred Swoons whose trustworthiness and silence was already proverbial. It had been those ‘Pickle-people’ who had irritated Reginald Bell because he, like all other men, was simply not able to see their microscopic handiwork which they had installed in the Lotus.

Yet the crew of the Lotus was beginning to wonder about the coming mission for they had discovered that members of the secret Mutant Corps were aboard.

Tako Kakuta had not taken the normal way to his cabin: the Japanese had chosen to leave his quarters in Terrania by teleportation and materialized in Cabin 7 on C-Deck. He had returned to existence in a shimmering aura of light, carrying with him his pack of personal belongings and items necessary for the mission to come. He immediately began to unpack and stow his gear away.

His movements made the small, slender Oriental seem as harmless as a child. His boyish face only emphasized the impression and nothing about him hinted that this man was a first-class teleporter able to transport himself over almost any distance by nothing more than the strength of his will, no matter whether he could actually see his goal or merely pictured it in his mind.

Like any other mortals Fellmer Lloyd and Kitai Ishibashi had to enter the ship by way of the hatch. Shortly after these 2 mutants came on board, Perry Rhodan himself arrived.

In the control room the commander wordlessly handed Rhodan the text of a hypercom message that had just been received. It came from the Tigris and announced its transition with landing to follow on Goszul’s Planet in the Tatlira System.

"Thank you," said Perry Rhodan and shoved the message in his pocket. He sat down in the reserve seat next to the pilot. "We can take off now," he told the ship’s commander. Then he turned his head, for his 3 mutants had made their appearance and were reporting in. Once again Perry Rhodan said "Thank you" and with that his 3 special agents were dismissed.

The officers in the control room were not surprised about anything anymore. Too often they had flown similar missions and again and again experienced the almost unbelievable precision with which all preparations were made.

The light cruiser Lotus took off. Powerful antigravity fields raised its weight ever higher into the sky and the engines roaring at 10% capacity in the equatorial rim increased their thrust.

However, the pull of gravity inside the spacesphere remained unchanged and not even inertia exerted any perceptible influence. Precisely calculated absorbers took up the pressure before the men aboard had a chance to feel it.

The Lotus had gone into action.

The 2nd part of a commando operation whose outcome no one could foresee began.

But Perry Rhodan did not let himself be concerned, or at least outwardly. His calm influenced everyone in the control room.

The Lotus reached the orbit of Pluto on schedule. A short message to the relay station on Pluto, a brief reply and at the same time clearance for the voyage into interstellar space, were the last contacts with the home solar system.

The Lotus approached the speed of light with ever-increasing speed and with that the moment of transition came closer.

At X minus 2 minutes, the commander of the Lotus looked at Rhodan. "Sir," he began, "is it true what the rumours say that the Arkonides have some new kind of sensing device that can detect hypersprings despite our structocomps?"

Rhodan smiled slightly. "The rumour is true, alright, and if you’re astounded by my answer, I’m just as astounded that you’ve heard about this matter."

That was a clear request from Rhodan to explain the source of his knowledge. "I heard it somewhere, sir… and on my honour I don’t know who told me."

Perry Rhodan’s gaze became stern. "I believe you," he said after a short pause, "but I think that when we get back you ought to go see Allan D. Mercant and tell him about this."

10 seconds later the Lotus went into transition, crossing 4,535 light-years in a single spring, re-emerging into normal space about 1 light-year from the Naral System.

In the next 18 minutes nothing happened except that the Lotus had braked almost completely and was virtually standing still in space.

Suddenly the structure sensor showed a continuum disturbance at a distance of 1 light-year: shortly thereafter 3 further disturbances followed at the same distance and in the same direction as the first.

The intercom sounded and the Corn Centre reported: "Hypercom message from the Tigris received under encoder and scrambler. Text of the message: Ship spotted!"

Perry Rhodan turned his head to the commander. "Order B/3!"

Almost in the same breath the commander called out: "Carry out prepared transition!"

The short transition brought the Tigris some 20 light-days closer to the Naral System. When all the other crewmembers were still shaking off the effects of the transition shock, Perry Rhodan sat almost unaffected in the reserve seat and looked almost impassively in the direction of the structure-sensor. Inwardly he fought to hold down his excitement.

He was the only one aboard who knew what the next few minutes meant for the Solar Imperium.

When the 5th minute went by, Rhodan told himself that he had spent long enough waiting for something that was not going to happen.

The inhuman, grinding tension fell away from him. He felt like he was coming back to life and the 2 officers at the structure-sensor discreetly wiped the sweat from their foreheads.

"The Lotus hasn’t been spotted…!"

And Perry Rhodan smiled, amused at being stared at from all sides. Some faces were questioning, others were completely at a loss.

He was only human and he needed to unwind from tension, to relax like any other human. The questioning faces and the uncomprehending expressions were his relaxation, and that relaxation gave him fresh strength to replace that lost in answering the question "Is there a means to render the Arkonide sensing device inoperable?"

And there was a means!

It had just passed its final test: the Lotus had not been detected!

The new device, the Frequency Damper, a counter-development to the Arkonide Compensator Detector, was the product of the Swoon technicians who earlier had voluntarily left their world to go with Perry Rhodan and begin a new life on Terra.

He had them and their skills to thank for the damper that neutralized the vibrations given off by the structocomp and thus effectively put a crimp in Arkonide plans to learn the position of the Earth with the help of their Compensator Detector.

"Yes, gentlemen," said Perry Rhodan, laughing heartily, "it is indeed a miracle that this ship was not detected after its 2 transitions. The Tigris was spotted in spite of its structocomp. Don’t look at me with such disbelief. Perhaps Arkon does have a device that can detect and measure each and every hyperspring… but the Lotus is now out of its range, so to speak. This is the only Terran spaceship equipped with a frequency damper but I hope that in a month all Terran spacers will have such equipment. That’s assuming, of course, that the Swoons can build so many auxiliary devices for the structocomps in so short a time."

"The pickle people?!" exclaimed the commander, using the expression that had been applied to the little technicians the first time man and Swoon had encountered one another.

"That’s correct," said Perry Rhodan and his eyes were radiant with joy. "This swift development is something we owe entirely to our little friends."

Then a call from the Com Centre brought Perry Rhodan back to cold reality.

"Sir!" exclaimed the Com Officer, gasping out his alarming news. "At this time an Arkonide ship is transmitting over hypercom on the Robot Brain’s frequency!"

"Are they using a scrambler and encoder system?" Rhodan demanded.

"Yes sir," the Com Officer answered. "We know how to unscramble the message and we can slow it down from its speeded-up version-which is how they’re transmitting it-but the code is unknown to us!"

After considering for a moment, Rhodan ordered: "Feed the coded text to the positronicon and see what it can make of it!"

"They’re still transmitting on the Regent frequency but we’re giving the text we have already to the positronicon now, sir!"

Then, after 14 minutes, the hypercom exchange between an Arkonide ship and the Robot Regent was over. The large positronicon aboard the Lotus continued its attempt to find the key to the code but after 20 minutes the otherwise all but omnicompetent machine gave up. A small strip of tape fell into the receptacle—a request for more additional information.

"There’s no point in it now," Rhodan decided and left the reserve seat. Bidding his men farewell, he went to the hatchway that separated the Com Centre and the control room from the rest of the spacer and walked across the broad A-Deck to his cabin.

The 14-minute exchange between an Arkonide spacer and the Robot Brain had given Rhodan more to think about than he had let on in the control room. Once more his suspicion, that the giant positronicon on Arkon 3, absolute ruler of the Great Imperium, had no scruples in its soulless logic against treason and deception, had almost become a certainty.

Rhodan thought of the mysterious Druufs, those powerful beings from the 2nd time-plane, who continually penetrated this dimension during overlappings of the 2 universes to abduct millions and billions of living creatures.

The Robot Brain had allied itself with him to combat this uncanny enemy and Rhodan had been named Commander-in-Chief over Arkon’s gigantic spacefleet. However, he could exercise his authority only for the fight against the Druufs and not for matters involving other interests.

Perry Rhodan smiled grimly. Once again he had been reminded that the friendship alliance between him and Arkon was nothing more than a temporary arrangement made necessary by a common enemy. Meanwhile, the mammoth positronicon was attempting unceasingly by any means no matter how foul to learn Earth’s galactic position. Evidently it did not even hesitate to act like a pirate and capture a Terran ship that had erred in making a transition just to loot its memory banks for the Sol System’s coördinates.

Shortly before the Tigris had taken off, Rhodan had given Maj. Clyde Ostal the order to contact the Terran trading outpost on Goszul’s Planet, 3 hours after making the transition into the Naral System.

Now Perry Rhodan had to let those 3 hours tick by. When all but 20 minutes of the time period had elapsed, Rhodan called the control room over the intercom and told the commander: "Prepare for Order B/7, Commander. Carry out only when I specifically tell you to!"

Order B/7 concerned a new transition which would bring the Lotus into the welter of stars in the centre of the Milky Way.

Rhodan’s choice of a new destination had been carefully thought out: it was far from all travelled routes and, moreover, it would be avoided by even the bravest Arkonides like the plague.

The region was 100 light-years in diameter, dominated by 4 monstrous, invisible and energy-rich radio stars which possessed magnetic fields of unimaginable intensity as well—making navigation in this sector almost impossible and paralysing hypercom traffic.

Perry Rhodan knew precisely which of the rumours about this place were correct and which were only legends old spacemen might swap. The first time he had been in the area had been with the Titan and on the other 2 occasions he had taken the Drusus. He had encountered improbable conditions that could be explained only by the magnetic fields of the radio stars which reached deep into space. However, this place in the universe lost all its terrors for someone who learned how to conduct himself there.

Rhodan’s well-developed sense of time led him to glance at the chronometer. The 3rd hour was just coming to an end.

Order B/7 was to be carried out!

The universe seemed to explode in front of the Lotus and the ship disappeared, rematerialising in the same instant in the centre of the galaxy.

5 minutes later Rhodan was in the Com Centre. "Call the Mab 1, code word Arkon. You’ll find the hypercom frequency listed in the printed wavelength guide. Bring the reply to my cabin."

Then he instructed that the mutants be sent to him. Even Tako Kakuta, the teleporter, arrived by the normal way.

Fellmer Lloyd, the muscular and dark-haired locator and telepath who could not only perceive brainwaves and analyse them but also sense other people’s moods and feel oncoming danger far in advance, had a clumsy, ponderous look to him.

Quite the opposite was Kitai Ishibashi who had been a doctor and psychologist before joining Rhodan’s mutant corps. He was tall, slender and perhaps fit the mould of an intellectual. As a suggestor he was all but an indispensable member of the corps.

"Just a few minutes ago," said Rhodan, "I informed the galactic trader Mabdan that I’m waiting for him at the agreed-upon place. We will board his ship, the Mab 1, fly with it to the Naral System and land at the Ent-Than spaceport." Rhodan smiled a little as he looked at the suggestor and continued, "Ishibashi, you had better go talk to the commander of the Lotus right now and let him know how you plan to work. I’d rather not run any unnecessary risks on this mission, especially with the Lotus and its new frequency damper involved. You’re the only one who can contact the ship and its commander from Ekhas—even though in only a suggestive fashion. Fill him in so that no one has to be unpleasantly surprised.

"The Mab 1 will be alongside in an hour at most. We’ll cross over in Springer spacesuits and we won’t be taking any Terran equipment with us. Please check even your clothing over carefully with that in mind.

"The Ekhonides are Arkonides! If we never forget that, we’ll never underestimate them."

Rhodan looked at his men thoughtfully. A vague disquiet was bothering him and several times his thoughts centred around Mabdan. That galactic trader was an agent for Earth like many others of his race.

Mabdan belonged to the agents who had worked longest for Rhodan but under one thin pretense or another he had managed to avoid the last 3 thought-probes by Terran telepaths. It was a matter of bad luck that Allan D. Mercant had to call on Mabdan, no one else being available, for the flight to Ekhas

The press of time which had affected the whole mission from the beginning had simply not allowed the Terrans to find a more trustworthy Springer than Mabdan.

Rhodan spoke to Fellmer Lloyd. "Check the Springer Mabdan’s mind as soon as we step aboard. I have my suspicions, Lloyd!"

Soon the Mab 1 was alongside the Lotus; Perry Rhodan and his 3 mutants floated in Springer spacesuits over to it. The make-up artist aboard the Lotus had produced his masterpiece: even Perry Rhodan would not have recognized himself in the mirror and he entered the hatch of the Mab 1 as Alf Renning.

A young Springer received them with a broad smile. His Intercosmo, sprinkled liberally with slang, he invited them to come with him to his ‘Master’.

Unsuspecting, the 4 Terrans entered the expansive cabin. Then Fellmer Lloyd telepathed his chief, This isn’t him! It’s Mabdan 3!

The number following the clan name indicated the rank of the Springer bearing it, and numbers up to 50 were not uncommon.

Mabdan 3 came towards them with a friendly expression on his face. He radiated calmness and trust. His invitation to sit down seemed hearty enough and Fellmer Lloyd could find nothing dangerous in the Springer’s thoughts after examining them with the greatest concentration.

While the discussion turned around risk, danger and payments, and Perry Rhodan silently pushed a large sum of money to the Springer, Fellmer Lloyd perceived another set of thought emanations. They came from somewhere aboard the ship but they could not be clearly made out or identified.

Lloyd glanced innocently over at Kitai Ishibashi, who was just then relating some amusing space anecdote. It brought Mabdan 3 to laughing but suddenly the Springer’s laugh died away.

"What did you just say, Terran?" he demanded quickly and his face grew pale.

The tall, thin Oriental smiled his unfathomable smile. "Mabdan 3, I said…"

And then, grinning, the Springer had an impulse beamer in his hand.

Fellmer Lloyd desperately wondered why he hadn’t sensed this coming while sitting directly across from the compactly built Springer with the carefully trimmed beard.

Lloyd felt no fear. The galactic trader had already passed up his only chance to kill anyone with the beamer by waiting too long. Kitai Ishibashi was already ‘treating’ him. Ever more strongly the slender Oriental forced Mabdan 3 under his will. He was confident of his success and overlooked the fact he had already ordered the Springer twice to lay the impulse beamer on the table.

But Mabdan 3 had no such intentions.

The malicious grin was still spread across his face. He opened his mouth to speak. Then an inexplicable flickering in the air frightened him and his fright became panic when the shortest of the Terrans materialized next to him. The Terran’s hand shot out and knocked the beamer out of the Springer’s grasp and then Mabdan 3 found himself at the mercy of a thermobeamer trained directly at him.

Tako Kakuta had reversed the situation with 1 short teleportation spring.

Fellmer Lloyd, who looked so clumsy, acted astonishingly fast. He swiftly disarmed the completely confused Mabdan 3 and threw a psychobeamer of the latest Arkonide model and a paralyser on the table.

In his panic Mabdan 3 did not notice Alf Renning giving his slim companion a brief but sharp glance. Concentrating with unusual strength, Ishibashi attempted to force his will on the Springer but to no avail. It was almost as if Mabdan 3 did not exist at all, for all the effect Ishibashi’s efforts had.

"I’m not getting anywhere with him either," said Fellmer Lloyd in English. "I can’t get a clear picture of his brainwave pattern and his emotional patterns have completely changed—I can’t get a clear picture of them, either."

These words were directed to Perry Rhodan, who had not moved since the appearance of the impulse beamer. Only his eyes were moving, glancing from here to there. Now he fixed his gaze on the Springer once more. The galactic trader’s eyes presented a riddle for him.

However, Rhodan did not have a chance to solve the riddle.

"There’s danger coming from the deck!" Fellmer Lloyd warned, stepping behind Mabdan 3 and forcing the Springer’s hands behind his back.

A moment later the commandeered weapons had been divided among the Terrans. Only Lloyd had not taken part: he had to concern himself with Mabdan 3 and continue his attempt to probe the Springer’s thoughts.

"The danger is coming closer!" he signalled Rhodan and his comrades. "2 men. They’re coming for us!"

Fellmer Lloyd was not able to penetrate the Springer’s thoughts. Something was protecting them from his probing mind.

The door opened slowly and the faces of the 2 entering Springers went white when they saw the 3 weapons aimed at them. Without waiting to be told they dropped their psychobeamers.

"Ishibashi…" Rhodan only pronounced his name as he ordered with an imperious movement of his head for the Springers to enter the cabin completely. The suggestor was already active at this time and Mabdan 3 thought he was dreaming when he saw the inexplicable change in attitude of his 2 shipmates who suddenly smiled at the Terrans, spoke in a friendly manner to them and without being asked sat down and made themselves comfortable.

"Mabdan 3 has been blocked, men!" Rhodan said without further commentary.

Kitai Ishibashi, the most intelligent of the 3 mutants, understood at once what Rhodan meant.

That part of Operation Naral System involving the active participation of Springer Agent Mabdan 1 had been betrayed. And in that case the Robot Brain’s defensive section must have reacted instantly.

In the place of Mabdan 1, Terran agent, and ignoring the order of Springer ranking, Mabdan 3 had been prepared.

A hypnotic block lay upon the Springer’s mind and Kitai Ishibashi was unable to remove it. The Oriental’s suggestive power was psychic in origin whereas Mabdan 3’s blockade was the work of an Arkonide hypno-machine which, in its soulless fulfilment of its assigned task, did not hesitate to mercilessly distort the Springer’s brainwave pattern.

Mabdan 3 did not understand that he would soon go insane unless Rhodan’s mutants soon found a way to remove the artificial hypnoblock.

Fellmer Lloyd, still trying to understand what Rhodan had said, was startled. Once again he had sensed a strange brainwave pattern, and again only vaguely.

He began to search.

There it was again. In a sort of trance, he described to Tako Kakuta the layout of the cabin from which the strange brainwave pattern came.

Perry Rhodan had no objection to Kakuta’s teleportational spring.

The 2 Springers were still under the power of Ishibashi and he gave them the order not to look at what happened in the cabin.

The slender teleporter disappeared in a flickering light in the air from Mabdan 3’s cabin. Mabdan 3 himself thought of ghosts and devils while his 2 men sat harmlessly in a corner and chatted, taking no apparent notice of the odd goings on.

Now Lloyd entered into telepathic contact with Kakuta.

Kakuta had materialized in a small cabin at the end of the spacious deck and found an unconscious man who had a surprising resemblance to Mabdan 3.

Fellmer Lloyd did not have to say anything. Perry Rhodan had tuned in himself. By way of their telepathic contact with Kakuta they witnessed along with him what was to be found in the small cabin, for under these favourable circumstances—Rhodan stood right next to Lloyd—Rhodan was able to receive Lloyd’s thoughts.

I know about this poison, don’t I? The Aras brew it, right? It’s a time-stopping drug that reduces all bodily functions down to an absolute minimum. 4 breaths in 1 minute…

Then the telepathic contact between Fellmer Lloyd and Tako Kakuta broke off temporarily.

"Kakuta is to come back here and spring to the Com Centre with Ishibashi, Lloyd!" Rhodan ordered in English.

In the next instant the air behind Mabdan 3 flickered and the small, slender teleporter had returned.

Kitai Ishibashi stood next to Kakuta and waited for Rhodan’s final instructions. "Transmit an emergency call to the Lotus using the equipment in the Mab 1’s Com Centre. The Lotus is to get as fast as possible, Alarm Level #1! They are to send over a commando team 10 men strong with a dozen battle robots!"

While Rhodan was still speaking, Kitai Ishibashi rested his hand on the slender teleporter’s shoulder. He neither felt nor saw anything as the small man dematerialised with him and rematerialised at the same moment in the Com Centre of the cylinder ship.

Before the 3 Springers on duty in the Com Centre could turn around upon hearing the slight noise of the 2 Terrans materializing, Ishibashi employed his strongest suggestive powers on them.

"Let me sit down here for a minute, old friend!" Kakuta told the Springer at the hypercom transmitter.

Without a word, the young galactic trader stood up and gave his seat to the Terran. His 2 comrades saw nothing peculiar about it—and as Tako Kakuta sent his message, they sat off by themselves, deep in conversation and laughing over some joke.

Shortly thereafter, the Springers were back on communications duty. They had no memory of any visitors to the Com Centre. However, instead of leaving gaping holes in their minds, Ishibashi had filled the gaps with his suggestive power, and his implanted memories had become reality for the Springers.

Mabdan 3, still sitting defenceless in his seat, no longer followed the comings and goings behind his back. Whatever the Terrans were discussing in their own language remained a mystery to him.

Kakuta teleported into the cabin of the unconscious Springer for the 2nd time. He was to attempt to find out more about the man.

"Where is Mabdan 2?" Rhodan demanded sharply of Mabdan 3. "We’ve found the clan chieftain unconscious in a small cabin… your clan is going to wonder in a few days why you are playing the role of your patriarch. And then, my friend, I think you’ll have some very unpleasant minutes ahead of you. Now, where is Mabdan 2, Springer?"

Perry Rhodan’s warning made no impression on the defenceless man. Kitai Ishibashi told his chief as much. "It’s not getting through to him at all, sir. I have—"

"Ah, Perry Rhodan!" exclaimed the Springer, his face distorted.

Kitai Ishibashi had made the inexcusable error of addressing Rhodan with the word ‘sir’. He telepathed Kakuta, hoping that setting the teleporter into immediate action would at least halfway make up for his mistake. Kakuta, spring at once into the Com Centre! Look to see if there isn’t a 2nd hypercom unit that’s transmitting the conversation here in the cabin. Hurry Kakuta!

In that moment, Perry Rhodan, the Administrator of the Solar Imperium, became conscious when Mabdan 3 cried out his name that the giant positronic brain on Arkon 3 knew only one goal: learning Earth’s galactic position at any cost and by any means, and then eliminating the threat of Perry Rhodan and his Solar Imperium by making it into an Arkonide colony.

The Robot Regent had assembled all data that could possibly lead to tile identification of Perry Rhodan and the English title ‘sir’ was one such identifying datum!

Rhodan’s thoughts raced farther. It surprised him that Mabdan 3 had betrayed his discovery in such a stupid manner. At that point Fellmer Lloyd interrupted his consideration of the problem. "Sir, Mabdan 3’s brainwave pattern… I’ve never seen anything like it, not even with insane persons…"

And then Fellmer Lloyd was interrupted, as well.

Kakuta appeared in a shimmering of air. His face was bruised and he was bleeding from the left temple. But he paid no attention to that. His report was more important to him now than his own life. "Every word, everything that was said here, was transmitted by a 2nd hypercom, transmitted on the Robot Regent frequency… up to 2 minutes ago. But not any more…" And the slender Oriental showed his thermobeamer to Perry Rhodan with an apologetic gesture. "I used this on the hypercom. But the damage has been done, there’s nothing we can do about it now. I’m just surprised that Arkon hasn’t sent a few dozen superbattleships out here already with a friendly invitation for us to come aboard…"

"I’m not at all surprised," said Perry Rhodan and there seemed to be laughter in his grey eyes. After all, he knew this part of the universe and its 4 invisible radio stars.