Part 4 (1/2)
Within the exact minute the Drusus took off from Terrania. It was a superbattles.h.i.+p with a diameter of 1500 meters, with Perry Rhodan, Mercant, Freyt and the great majority of the Mutant Corps on board. An additional 200 specialists of various scientific fields were included in the special mission which bore the peculiar name of Fly Swatter.
Far from Pluto's...o...b..t the Drusus warned the measuring stations of the structure shock and simultaneously reported the time of their impending transition.
Only emergencies permitted a transition within the System; Perry Rhodan laughed bitterly as he thought of it. Again it was all or nothing!
300,000 kilometres from the California the Drusus returned out of hypers.p.a.ce back to the normal cosmos. Five minutes later Reginald Bell, a few companions and a work robot swung over to the Drusus cruising alongside them.
The work robot was carrying the new special tracking device. Bell had not even dared carry it himself. It weighed only a few kilos, was light and easy to transport but it was the only device as yet in existence and Bell considered it his duty to entrust it to a robot.
It took his group 10 minutes to get from the airlock of the Drusus to the gigantic Command Central. There was no particular reason for haste. While still in the airlock he contacted Rhodan via microphone, stating: ”16 25/F 13/S 27, Arkonide sidereal catalogue.”
The positronic computer on board registered this information, depositing the perforated strip in the input slot one second later.
The triple group of letters and numbers was the Arkonide designation for a tiny, dark red sun, 8136 light-years from Earth, which had two equally tiny, uninhabited planets. In this system, which lay in the direction of the so-called 'corkscrew', one arm of the galactic spiral resembling a corkscrew, Reginald Bell had located something. Using the newly developed special tracking device for structure change by application of Druuf linear hyper-propulsion, he had positioned those 3000 Druuf s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps which had disappeared into the depths of the Milky Way after their flight from the Solar System.
The tape that Perry Rhodan thoughtfully held in his hand furnished all the data necessary to fly to this small, dark-red glowing sun that was only 1/8th the size of the terrestrial sun.
At that moment the Drusus and the California were four light-years from Earth. That, too, had been considered in the calculations of the computer.
Military perfection began to unfold in the large s.h.i.+p Central. Rhodan issued succinct, clear-cut orders, received confirmations from all sides and retained his composure through all questioning.
When Bell and his group, including the robot carrying the special device, reached Central Command, the California, a s.h.i.+p of the state cla.s.s measuring 100 meters in diameter, was already on the return flight to Earth. The Drusus, however, was preparing for transition which was to bring it across 8,100 light-years into the vicinity of the insignificant, but for Rhodan now doubly-important, little sun system.
The superbattles.h.i.+p began to accelerate. The computer had set the jump through hypers.p.a.ce for the 31st minute.
Perry Rhodan left the Central accompanied by Bell, Mercant and John Marshall. He had delegated command of the spherical giant to Deringhouse.
Conferences in Rhodan's cabin were always a signal that significant missions were imminent.
Thus far only Allan D. Mercant had been fully initiated into the plan of Fly Swatter. The Administrator never held long introductions. ”At midnight the California will land in Terrania. At that time we in the Drusus will have approached within. 10 to 15 light-years of the system to which, the remainder of the Druuf fleet retreated. A courier s.h.i.+p is waiting in Terrania for the confirmation that we have approached the two planets on which the Druufs landed. Upon receiving our message the courier will take off for Arkon 3. The courier does not know what message he is delivering to the Admiral. The s.h.i.+p computer will not receive any word of it, either. But I hope that Atlan will recall something I once designated as the Ring of the Nibelungs while he and I were in a spherical s.h.i.+p's command central. That key word is all the courier is delivering.” Rhodan noticed that Bell was breathing heavily. ”Are you short of breath, Reggie?”
”You couldn't have made it any more complicated, could you, Perry?” he inquired in an equally friendly manner, shaking his head.
”Complicated?” Rhodan slowly repeated. ”Not a bit. I'm simply not willing to incur the slightest risk on this mission. Atlan will have the Ring of the Nibelungs brought from the courier s.h.i.+p. He will immediately know what I have sent him. Then the courier does not return to Earth but will follow us and wait for notification of a coordinate point. Meanwhile we will have contacted the Druufs...”
Bell and Marshall wanted to get up but they resisted. Bell pensively contemplated his thumb.
Rhodan's grey eyes blazed momentarily but then he overlooked Bell's insinuation. ”We shall arrive at an agreement with the Druuf commander!” Rhodan's voice had suddenly taken on a different tone. His a.s.sertion, which sounded implausible, lost its unbelievable character by virtue of his positive a.s.surance.
Bell remembered the many favours from the Druufs he had experienced first-hand and would never forget. He had no fond memories of them and he was not the man to keep this under wraps. ”Perry, we will only reach an agreement with the Druuf boss when he sees no chance of living another second otherwise.”
”How well you have comprehended the situation of the Druufs,” Rhodan gently chided, ”for the Druufs don't have a chance of ever reaching their own universe.”
”The overlap zone between their universe and the Einstein Universe has become so unstable that a simple changeover from continuum to continuum is becoming more difficult every day. We know that and Atlan knows that but no other person in the Arkon Empire knows it and a certain Thomas Cardif does not know that!”
”Our trump card is the fact that the captains of the 3,000 Druuf s.h.i.+ps know it. They must have discovered by now that their fantastic hyper-propulsion units do not help at all because speed offers no path from our s.p.a.ce into their universe and they do not have our lenticular field projectors.”
”That plus the second, equally unfavourable fact that since they brought along their own time, they are only half as fast as we and only reach 50% of the speed of light in normal s.p.a.ce flight.”
”The Druufs one day will have computed where the stable discharge fissure is to be found between our two universes, gliding past one another. But I am willing to bet you, Reggie, that they know as well as we do how distant the day is when they'll find the point that will take them home!”
”When that day arrives, even the longest-living Druuf will have been rotting for decades.”
”Perry,” Bell asked in his typical manner, ”have you ever heard of the desperate man driven by panic and despair into acting like a madman and doing just the opposite of what everyone had expected?”
Perry Rhodan nodded affirmatively, then asked: ”And have you ever heard of a straw, Reggie?”
”If we weren't dealing with Druufs, I would have to say-you are right. But the Druufs and their incomprehensible mentality...”
”If dying is involved... when fear of dying enters, then all creatures are the same, Reggie. That is my basic a.s.sumption when I contemplate negotiations with the Druufs.”
The hypercom was activated by Communications Central; the flickering screen demanded Rhodan's attention.
”Sir, news from the Admiral!” the officer on duty in the large Com Central of the Drusus reported.
Atlan's grim face regarded the men in Rhodan's cabin. ”Perry, I congratulate you on your son. You would be proud of him if he were on our side!”
That was the prologue. Rhodan's face flushed slightly.
”Barbarian, the largest bank in the Arkonide Empire, the Bank of the Galactic Traders in t.i.ton on Archetz, has been coerced by a certain Thomas Cardif into creating inflation!
”You know we have an inst.i.tution similar to your stock market: for the past three hours it has been the meeting place of men gone crazy because I have not been able to stabilize the dropping exchange rates with the means of the State Bank. My robot computer has given me the advice to undertake nothing against it.
”Our dear friends the Aras have temporarily discontinued delivery of any medications under very transparent pretenses. I have learned that Thomas Cardif and c.o.kaze negotiated with the Council of 10 for several hours on Arkon, the main world of the Galactic Traders.
”Dispatches are arriving from all sectors of the Empire that not one Springer s.h.i.+p is landing or delivering goods. There are only unflightworthy cylindrical s.h.i.+ps docked at the s.p.a.ce harbours in the various worlds.
”Three cruiser task forces flown by Galactic Traders have attempted to land on M-13. When I found out about it, the automatic robot defence had already intervened, destroying the three task forces down to the last s.h.i.+p... 362 units!”
”An absolutely reliable source reports that the Mounders are flying security guard around Archetz.”
”The only worlds where revolution is not yet brewing are Arkon 1, 2 and 3.”
”The reliability of the combat s.h.i.+p commanders at the Druuf front was evaluated by the computer at 47.3%.
”Now it is rebounding on us like a boomerang that the giant computer largely replaced the robot crews at the Druuf front with people. If the situation continues to degenerate as rapidly as it has for the next 10 hours, then I will give final warning and blast the planet Archetz into the skies. And if that doesn't deter them, then they will get just what they have...”
Rhodan interrupted him. ”Atlan, I would like to advise you not to do anything before hearing from me.”
”Don't underestimate your son, Perry! I could really admire him! Alright, I'll wait, a.s.suming that Cardif allows me the time for it!”
Rhodan was not able to explain later how he arrived at his response: ”Admiral, he will allow you the time!”
And Atlan on Arkon 3, alone in the gigantic dome of the mammoth computer, suddenly widened his eyes, smiled weakly, then nodded and replied: ”Rhodan against Rhodan, friend! Does he know you as well as you know him? And do I know you well enough to place the Empire of my fathers and my descendants into your hands for hours? Haven't you realized that our friends.h.i.+p is being subjected to an unbelievable strain as a result of your doing?”
”What did you tell me? Admiral, Cardif will allow you the time!”