Part 5 (1/2)
Marshall only had to look at his chronometer to know that it was a race against time.
His agent s.p.a.cesuit was equipped with the same perfection as the suits of his active teleporters. Instantly John Marshall clapped his helmet shut, switched on the high output telecom of Swoon design and called his teleporters to immediately return with all bombs to the Drusus.
The order was just crossing his lips as a squeaky voice, sounding quite irritated, asked: ”And what am I to do with my bomb, since the fuse is already lit, John?”
”Do what you can, Pucky!” Marshall sharply replied to the mousebeaver and, sensing trouble, asked: ”Where are you?”
”On the flags.h.i.+p of the Druufs! Where else?”
”Pucky, for heaven's sake, nothing must happen, there of all places...” Thereafter he could spare his words. A soft crackling sound informed him that Pucky could no longer be reached by telecom.
Slowly Marshall opened his helmet. He could feel that his forehead was covered with perspiration.
Meanwhile a lively conversation had developed between Rhodan and the Druuf chief. Complicated adapters on both sides were required to enable this exchange, for the Druufs did not have organs of speech in the human sense; they communicated with each other by means of ultra-high frequency which was outside the human range, employing bodily organic receivers and transmitters.
The Druuf repeatedly inquired about Rhodan's fleet. It must have appeared suspicious to him that they had only discovered the one, gigantic s.h.i.+p. It was obvious that he was thinking about the gigantic robot fleet which had compelled him to abandon the attempt to conquer the Solar System and flee to this inhospitable region of the Galaxy.
And Rhodan repeatedly replied: ”it is waiting for my orders! My fleet is tuned into our conversation!”
He was bluffing. Rhodan could not tell whether the Druuf was picking up on his bluff. Suddenly there was a glaring flash between their two fronts. Both Rhodan and the Druuf gasped: ”What was that?”
Pucky could have told them in detail. It was the bomb exploding that was actually meant to destroy the Druuf flags.h.i.+p which Pucky had grabbed when the time fuse was already lit and, after a teleportation jump, hastily dropped in s.p.a.ce.
Pucky's special s.p.a.cesuit, singed on the right side, testified to how close a call it had been. The mousebeaver was even more explicit in his expressions when he returned ”...and then I took off with the thing. There were three seconds left to the explosion! Out of the s.h.i.+p, into s.p.a.ce, drop the thing! And when I was about to teleport to the Drusus...” None of the mutants laughed at Pucky's wild streak of profanity. Everyone comprehended what risk Pucky had undergone and some were honest enough to ask themselves: would you have dared to do it? And to answer the question negatively with equal honesty.
”The explosion of the bomb and my teleporter jump must have been about a 1,000th of a second apart. OK, we lucked in once, but now I'm anxious to know how things will continue. Just take a look at how completely we've been surrounded by the Druufs!”
The Mutant Central was a smaller version of the huge Command Central of the Drusus. There was no lack of tracking devices and screens with sliding optical magnification. Pucky was not exaggerating. If the Druufs so desired, the Drusus would soon cease to exist. There were over 2,000 Druuf s.h.i.+ps partic.i.p.ating in the encirclement and this concentration turned a transition into a hopeless enterprise.
Perry Rhodan did not allow his feelings about the situation to show. ”Commander-in-chief,” he calmly addressed the stubborn Druuf, ”your strength is your, weakness. The existence of your s.h.i.+ps is only a matter of a few short days. You can flee wherever you want: we will not lose track of you. The chances of returning to your people in your Universe are nil.”
”Commander-in-chief, how many s.h.i.+ps did you dispatch to the front to determine at which point you could best penetrate the overlap zone? I don't want to know the number of reconnaissance vessels but I do know that not one of them returned. And every hour that pa.s.ses allows the discharge fissure to become more unstable and in proportion to its growing instability, the combat strength of the fleet is increased, thus preventing you from penetrating our Universe.”
”Words, nothing but words, Rhodan!” the Druuf interrupted. ”You wished to speak with me; you have spoken with me and that is the end of our conversation.”
”And the end of you and your crews as well, Druuf!” Rhodan had changed the tenor of his approach but not his inflection. The adapters did not transmit the nuances of voice into ultra-high frequencies.
Harno, the creature hovering exactly in Rhodan's line of vision, now showed him the awkward Druuf who was intertwining his fingers, so disproportionately delicate in relation to his ma.s.sive body. The Druuf appeared to be thinking.
”Rhodan, what do you have to offer?” The question came like a stroke of lightning from clear skies. A few officers in Com Central suppressed a startled cry.
”Druuf, what are you prepared to give?” That was Rhodan's ma.s.sive counter-question and it did make an impression on the head of the Druuf fleet, even though he could not show any human emotion. He did wave to his staff, a.s.sembled behind him, to keep silent.
”What security do we have to guarantee that you will really provide the possibility for our return to our Universe?”
That was the question Rhodan had been waiting for; the question that had to come!
I will provide you with double security, Druuf,” Rhodan declared unemotionally. ”Give one of your s.h.i.+ps the a.s.signment to approach within 100 kilometres of my vessel. I will direct the s.h.i.+p into position.”
”That s.h.i.+p, but that one only, will be able to fly into your Universe. Its commander is to convince himself that he is really in his own continuum and on orders from you he is then to return to this Universe as quickly as possible.”
”I will make that possible, Druuf, and that is my first guarantee!”
The 120-man team at the great lens field projector in the largest hangar of the Drusus was listening. 120 men waiting for the command to switch on the lens field projector, which by virtue of its power could open the portal to the Druuf Universe at all points that had once before been within an overlap zone.
The time and locality schedule of the overlapping areas had been calculated in an inconceivably difficult communal effort in Terrania including astronomers, physicists and mathematicians.
The bullet head of the Druuf suddenly seemed to be rigidly fixed onto his quadratic rump. Rhodan could antic.i.p.ate what was now going on in this clever insect brain.
”Druuf, an attack on my s.h.i.+p is pointless! With the first rays, the device that would enable the return to your Universe self-destructs.”
The commander of the 3,000 s.h.i.+ps ignored the warning. ”And what is your second guarantee, Rhodan?”
”I will send five of my men as collateral on your s.h.i.+p!”
By Druuf standards, this offer was no additional guarantee. But this clever Druuf had meanwhile realized that in this world of little bipeds there was a totally different ethical code which placed a high value on the security and life of the individual.
”And what am I supposed to do, Rhodan?” the Druuf asked, revealing neither acceptance nor rejection of the offer.
”You don't have to do more than make a flash appearance over a certain planet with your fleet. You will have the right to convince yourself with your own scouts.h.i.+ps that I am not luring you and the fleet into a trap. Two of the five men I will place in your command will guide your reconnaissance vehicles directly to the target star and avoid all danger.”
”And what is the purpose of that, Rhodan?”
”Nothing more than an intimidation attempt with which I hope to avert the outbreak of a revolution in a bloodless fas.h.i.+on...”
The Druuf interrupted. ”Rhodan, we have determined that there is not a great difference between our intelligence and yours but do you really expect me to believe this?”
This compelled Rhodan to play a dangerous trump. ”Druuf, to us you are monsters, a nightmare! The common man is terrified of you. Your s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps engender horror. And that world, a powder keg with their revolution, will barely dare to breathe for fear that, after my warning an enormous fleet of Druuf s.p.a.cecraft will appear above it.”
”Druuf, fly us a demonstration of might and intimidation and as surely as my name is Rhodan and by all that is holy to me... I swear that I will allow your fleet to return to your Universe by way of the portal.”
”Show me the portal, Rhodan. Let one of my s.h.i.+ps fly through it and it will receive my command to return as soon as it is convinced it has indeed arrived in its own continuum. We will discuss the rest upon the return of my s.h.i.+p!”
”Agreed!” Rhodan replied. ”Have your s.h.i.+p approach within 100 kilometres. The exact position will be forthcoming.” He covered the microphone with his hand and looked over at Bell. ”Has Atlan's courier arrived yet?”
”He reported in. He's waiting for the prescribed position, Perry. But do you really trust this Druuf?”
”We'll discuss that later! Marshall, who let the bomb between the s.h.i.+ps go off prematurely?”
”Pucky! And he barely came out alive, sir!” Marshall said, trying to protect the mousebeaver with his last remark. But there was no deceiving Rhodan's amazing sense of time.