Tiff had come fully alive by now. He had forgotten the meaning of boredom and disappointment. During the briefing session that preceded the attack, Rhodan had a.s.serted that the area around the mutant master"s farmhouse was totally uninhabited. And now Tiff discovered a good mile away from the destroyed ranch a newly raised waste dump.
Pete had stepped over to Tiff and peered over his shoulder. "Looks like someone was digging for ore there," he stated.
"And brought all the dirt up to the surface?" asked Tiff.
"Sure. I suppose it"s a side shaft of the old mine that used to be somewhere around here."
"When was that?"
"Last time they were working this mine was some 20 years ago." Pete recalled what he had been told during their briefing course in Terrania before they left for this mission. "But they gave it up, it didn"t yield enough."
"That"s most interesting," exclaimed Tiff with a note of triumph in his voice. This seemed to further confirm his suspicions. "And how can you explain that nothing but a bit of gra.s.s, no other vegetation like bushes or shrub has grown on this hill?"
Pete was dumbfounded; he didn"t say a thing. He examined the observation screen closer, then remarked: "You"re right, it"s real peculiar, Tiff!"
"I"m glad you agree that there"s something fishy going on down there. I"d bet that only recently a new..."
He stopped abruptly in mid-sentence. While talking with Pete, he had not taken his eyes off the strange slag heap. Quite by accident his glance had wandered over to the adjoining plateau and he became aware of a sudden change.
"Look! Over there! At the inner side of the mountain!" Right next to the suspicious-looking slag heap they saw the rocky ground start to move. A round disk of 90 feet diameter began to shift to one side. Below they could make out a dark opening which was weakly illuminated by a light coming from down below.
A s.p.a.ceship! A destroyer of the same type as their own identical to the one that had attacked him near the planet Mars while he was on a training mission.
The s.p.a.ceship below took off with such tremendous speed that it reached the same alt.i.tude as Tiff"s and Pete"s ship within a few seconds. And in no had disappeared in the dark-violet sky.
Something seemed to snap in Tiff; his doubts and hesitant att.i.tude gave way to instant action now. "Ray, contact the Stardust and inform Reginald Bell. We"re pursuing the unknown ship." He swung the drive stick all the way forward for utmost acceleration. The gravity fields were, automatically switched on in order to neutralize the sudden jump in G"s. "Pete, man the neutron cannon. Ray is to take up position at the rear guns as soon as he"s sent his bulletin to Bell."
The fugitive ship was lost among the stars and Tiff had to search for minutes before he could locate it again. But since it was the same type of s.p.a.ceship as his own, he could hardly make up for wasted time and hope to overtake it. Its headstart was too great. All he could hope to do now was to follow on its trail, to keep the same distance at least as soon as both ships would reach maximum speed.
Rapidly the Earth sank away below them, shrinking to the size of a blue globe. Ray emerged from the radio cabin and came to the command centre. He sat next to Tiff in the second pilot"s seat. "That was quite some surprise," he said quickly. "You should have heard Reginald Bell! He ordered us to find out the eventual destination of the unidentified ship. Could be the destroyer stolen by the supermutant with him in it, trying to escape. As soon as Bell gets a confirmation from Rhodan whether his a.s.sumptions are justified, he"ll follow behind us. He"ll get in touch with us, he promised, "in order to let us know."
Tiff kept his eyes glued to his radar screen. The blip didn"t change size now. He read the range indicator which showed that the fugitive was about 1200 miles ahead of Tiff"s craft, his ship constantly accelerating and would soon reach one-fourth the speed of light.
Tiff looked out of the tiny window. Before him stretched the infinity of the universe with all its marvels and dangers. And up ahead, hidden among the myriads of stars, a pinpoint of light was speeding toward its unknown distant destination.
It hit him like a ton of hot bricks when he once again looked at his observation screen.
The spot had grown in size.
The other ship was now only 300 miles away.
It had reduced its speed.
Ras Tschubai materialized less than three feet away from the mutant stranger, who whirled around in fright and stared at the sudden apparition as if it were a ghost.
He was a j.a.panese, a stocky, rather young man whose right forefinger was crooked around the trigger of an automatic pistol. But he held his weapon pointing to the ground and made no attempt to use it.
Ras suspected that the young j.a.panese was waiting for new instructions but apparently none were coming. However he was still subjected to a hypnotic spell which robbed him of his individual freedom of movement and decision.
Two yards farther on there was a door, locked by a magnetic mechanism. Behind it, Ras knew, were the living quarters of the imprisoned scientists.
Swiftly he leapt over to the j.a.panese and relieved him of his weapon. His rapid action took the young fellow so completely by surprise that he couldn"t offer any resistance.
Ras seized the automatic and shoved it between his belt and uniform. "Open the door to the quarters of the scientists!" he ordered the j.a.panese.
At this moment a noise came up from behind. He could hear approaching steps. He turned around and by the light of a dim little ceiling lamp he recognized Rhodan and Tatjana. They obviously must meanwhile have found the elevator and have come down with it.
Ras breathed a sigh of relief. He raised his arm and waved to both Rhodan and Tatjana. At this very instant Monterny"s post-hypnotic suggestion grabbed hold again of the young j.a.panese mutant. Ras saw Rhodan and Tatjana simultaneously raise their psychobeamers and point them in his direction. He received the absolutely nonsensical command not to attack Ras Tschubai-to refrain from attacking himself.
This command was, of course, intended for the j.a.panese mutant who was just about to hurl himself against the huge African. However, he stopped midway and, totally perplexed, put his hands to his forehead-and then sank like a sack slowly to the ground. The excessive strain on his tortured brain had rendered him unconscious.
The pressure in Ras Tschubai"s head ceased; he turned around and saw the j.a.panese lying limp as a rag on the floor. Rhodan and Tatjana hurried over to him. "Two psycho-rayguns at a time is a bit too much for anybody," explained Rhodan. "Maybe if that idea had occurred to us sooner we might not have lost the Supermutant. Where are the prisoners?"
Ras motioned toward the heavy iron gate. "Over there."
And-then he vanished. It took hardly 10 seconds until he reappeared. He smiled and seemed a bit confused.
Rhodan scrutinized his face and asked, quite worried by Tschubai"s peculiar expression. "What"s the matter, Ras? Are the prisoners...?"
"They are in there alright," the African rea.s.sured him, still shaking his head in disbelief. "But these scientists are some mighty peculiar creatures. I materialized inside the lab of one of the physicists. Do you think that fellow was in the least frightened when I suddenly appeared there like a ghost from nowhere? Not a bit. He hardly looked up when I suddenly stood beside him and watched him as he studied some of his plans. He simply gestured with his hand as if he wanted to shoo me away like a bothersome insect and mumbled something like "Come back again in 10 minutes, will you?"
Rhodan grinned and turned to Tatjana. "I bet anything that was the world-famous professor Glenner; sounds just like him." But then Rhodan grew serious again and said to Ras: "Open that gate. We can"t afford the time to wait for Glenner to be willing to see us. He can continue his work in Terrania."
Ras walked over to the door.
Destroyer Z-82 closed in on the fleeing s.p.a.ceship. They were already eight million miles away from Earth and the distance increased steadily. Their speed was constant. A radio message from Bell informed them that the Stardust had been ordered to take up pursuit. At least they were supposed to find out where the Supermutant planned to escape to.
Pete"s face had a pensive expression. "If we want to finish off that monster we"ll have to be quick about it. Otherwise Bell will beat us to it and grab all the credits too. I know him very well."
Tiff bestowed a reprimanding glance on the Mexican. "I"d be ashamed if I were you even to entertain such thoughts. The mutant master is the enemy of the entire world and it doesn"t matter a bit who finishes him off-the main thing is he"ll be rendered harmless. Ray, try to make radio contact with the ship ahead."
"You know, there"s a direct line to the radio cabin. You can talk to that ship from right where you are this way."
Tiff made the necessary connections, switched various levers, called the Supermutant in the fleeing ship ahead on the usual telecom wave, then waited at intensive-reception. Hardly 10 seconds pa.s.sed before the face of the world enemy appeared on the glowing picture screen. His bald head was shining like a polished billiard ball. He wore a smug expression. His small eyes, deeply imbedded in cushions of fat, were glowering threateningly. He was obviously highly interested as he studied intensely his pursuers. He took his time, looking them over calmly one after the other as if he planned to engrave their images on his brain forever.
Tiff felt an icy shower running down his spine while he was under the scrutiny of the monster. He was sure his friends must have the same reaction.
"What do you want from me?" asked the Supermutant with uncanny composure. He didn"t give away, not even with the slightest bat of an eyelash, that in reality he felt defeated.
Tiff collected his wits. "Give up the fight, Monterny," he said. "Your fortress in Utah has fallen and your mutants are in the custody of Perry Rhodan. You haven"t the ghost of a chance. The battleship of the New Power will arrive here any minute now."
The icy-cold eyes smiled threateningly. "You are a fool, young man. Do you really believe I let you approach this close to my ship in order to listen to a lecture from you? Are you seriously considering I would ever dream of surrendering? You underestimate me and my intentions, my friend. Maybe you don"t know it yet but I"ll let you in on a little secret. I am quite capable-thanks to this television contact-to ascertain your brain-wave pattern. Your name is Julian Tifflor, right? And your two companions are Pete Maros and Ray Gall. I"m sure you already have guessed what"s going to happen from now on: You"ll do exactly what I order you to do. All I need is a slight headstart. So in the meantime you"ll delay Rhodan"s battleship a little. That should be enough to find a hiding place for me somewhere in this solar system. But please tell Rhodan for me that I"ll return some day. And not alone!"
Tiff"s hand shot forward. The videoscreen grew suddenly dark.
Then Tiff stared at the pale faces of his companions.
The same instant a mighty fist seemed to smash out his conscious awareness.
Bell and Major Nyssen, commander of the interceptors stationed aboard the Stardust, sat in the command centre of the giant s.p.a.cesphere, watching intently the magnifying frontal observation screen.
"Strange guy, that Tifflor," remarked Nyssen. "Why is he slowing down?"
Bell didn"t take his eyes off the screen on which truly odd events began to take shape. The s.p.a.ceship of the fleeing mutant master started to accelerate again and raced out into deep s.p.a.ce. Its nose pointed in the direction of the asteroid belt and ignored the planet Mars over to the right.
Destroyer Z-82 on the other hand kept braking its course and swung around in a wide turn to resume its flight exactly in the opposite direction from before. Its nose was pointing now directly at the Stardust, which had taken off from Earth in pursuit of the two s.p.a.ceships.
"Tifflor has given up?" murmured Bell, surprised, and narrowed his eyes. "That doesn"t fit in at all with the picture I have of this promising young cadet. And Monterny can"t be behind Tiff"s sudden odd behaviour. He knows neither Tiff nor the other two men aboard the Z-82."
It would have been an easy thing for the Stardust to execute a small s.p.a.ce jump in order to overtake the fugitive Monterny in his stolen ship but it was not feasible in the case of relatively short stretches to carry out absolutely correctly this jump across the intended distance. And in normal s.p.a.ce even the mighty battleship of the Arkonides could not surpa.s.s the speed of light. Bell, however, thought he knew where the Supermutant was fleeing to and that rea.s.sured him somewhat. His foremost concern was therefore concentrated on the Z-82 and its crew.
The destroyer was rushing at incredible speed straight toward the Stardust. When the two s.p.a.ceships were separated by only 30 miles the Z-82 began to blast away, its pulse-ray cannon aiming at the giant s.p.a.cesphere. In the meantime Bell had reduced the speed of his ship to facilitate manoeuvring the craft. An energy screen had been erected around the Stardust to protect it against the on-coming a.s.sault.
The pulse-rays of the destroyer hit against this protective screen, gliding off its sides, only later to glance off into s.p.a.ce, having totally failed to cause any damage to the Stardust as intended.
Shortly before the Z-82 would have reached the s.p.a.cesphere, the smaller ship pulled steeply upward, then looped the loop and returned to renew its senseless manoeuvre!
Bell, shaking his head, said to Nyssen: "We have to put him out of action otherwise he won"t give up attacking us. How the Supermutant managed to bring Tiff under his control is an absolute mystery to me. But there"s no doubt he somehow got to him. And as long as Tifflor isn"t shocked out of his hypnotic spell, he"ll represent a constant danger to our safety. He"ll fly back to Earth and attack any of our ships. Some might not be forewarned and fall victim to his a.s.sault or perhaps destroy him. And that"s exactly what Monterny has been counting on. He knows we won"t leave Tiff in a lurch-and abandon him to his fate. This will get us off his back for enough time to make good his escape. I only wonder how we can get some sense back into Tifflor?"
"Hypno-rod," muttered Nyssen. "You should give it a try."
"Pretty hopeless, Nyssen. Even if there are no obstacles between the rod and the target, and if you apply it over a very short distance only, it is quite difficult to wrench someone but of a hypn.o.block. But in this case the rays would have to pa.s.s twice through the heavy walls of the two s.p.a.ceships and besides they would have to go through two energy fields. No, not a ghost of a chance, believe me."
"What do you think of the idea if we"d shoot his ship"s rear section to pieces? As long as he remains inside the command centre no harm will come to him. But this way he won"t have the energy source to continue his attacks on us."
"Not a bad idea if everything else fails," Bell admitted while trying feverishly to come up with a better suggestion. True, the total loss of a destroyer was easier to bear than three people losing their lives. But it would be better if this alternative could be avoided altogether.
Bell scratched his head.
"When will you finally think of asking me for help?" came an almost pitiful sounding, squeaky little voice. The mouse-beaver sat on his hind legs, using his broad tail for additional support. The guileless eyes of the little animal displayed such expectancy and willingness to help that Bell would have loved to bend down and pet the little guy. But he controlled his urge.
Instead he put on officious airs and asked, "What kind of help for instance?"
Pucky shook his little head, regretfully it seemed, and grinned. "I"d like to play a few games. It"s been such a long time, you know."
Bell knew only too well what Pucky meant by playing." The mouse-beaver was a telekin and whenever he made use of his supranormal abilities he called that "playing". In the early days of their acquaintance this had led to many a calamity and one time, Bell recalled now in a flash, even the steering controls of the Stardust had fallen victim to Pucky"s pa.s.sion for "playing", with the unpleasant result that the ship had been hurtled through hypers.p.a.ce over a distance of many light-years from their intended destination.
"Playing games?" grunted Bell pensively. A vague plan was already taking shape in his brain. "If you stick absolutely to the rules I might consider it. You know that Rhodan has expressly forbidden you to play without his special authorization..."
"I know!" Pucky raised his furry little paws with a dramatic gesture. "But seeing as I"m now the only mutant on board this ship-and both a telekin and a teleporter-that means I"m the only one who can put the destroyer out of action without annihilating it."
Nyssen intervened. "Pucky"s right, he should put the reactor out of commission."
"Okay, then," said Bell. "Pucky, have major Nyssen explain to you how to disconnect a reactor."
"It"s really quite simple when all is said and done," the commandant of the interceptor began eagerly. "You must push the separating isolation wall between the two drive elements. It"s possible to do that by remote control from the command centre. The process can be guided and regulated as needed. So it won"t help us very much to only interrupt the connection between the reactor and the command centre. Tifflor is intelligent enough to quickly fix this faculty functioning. But if we induce some change inside the reactor itself which can"t be affected by any manipulation from the control room, then Tiff"s hands will be tied, he"ll be helpless. The destroyer won"t receive the necessary energy supply and the ship can no longer be manoeuvred."
"How about the emergency batteries?" inquired Bell.
"They"ll just do for the lights throughout the destroyer and running its communication system. There"s not much else he can do with them, definitely not as a power supply for the whole craft."
Pucky waddled over to the little cabin window and peered through it in order to observe the approaching destroyer which was once again shooting off deadly pulse-rays. He shook his dainty head with an almost human gesture. "I"ll need the exact location of the reactor," he piped.
Nyssen took a piece of paper and made a sketch. It showed the position of the reactor in the last third of the destroyer. On another sheet of paper the major explained the reactor and its construction.
"Look here, Pucky, here"s a chamber containing both elements. There"s the separating wall. It"s held in place by small but very intensive magnetic fields. If your strength is sufficient you can push the wall down between the two elements. All that"s needed then would be for you to bend one of the poles or break it off. No force in the universe could lift the dividing barrier up again and restore the reactor to its proper working order."
Pucky bared his single, big incisor tooth. "Except for me, of course," he chirped triumphantly. Then he added, "don"t worry, I"ll make it alright. Just give me enough time now to concentrate properly. Make sure n.o.body disturbs me."
Bell swallowed hard. He held back a fittingly sarcastic remark, knowing better than to antagonize the little fellow. He stared in fascination at the picture screen where the Z-82 was visible.
Tiff was about to start another onslaught and came closer with unbelievable acceleration.
A message kept hammering inside Tiff"s brain: this gigantic s.p.a.cesphere is your enemy. You must attack it over and over again. You must delay in until the mutant master has safely escaped!
Tiff could think clearly and from time to time he would brood over the puzzling question why suddenly Rhodan should be his enemy and why the Supermutant had become his ally. But he couldn"t arrive at an answer-he just kept attacking the Stardust.
Like obedient automatons Pete and Ray handed the weapons which belonged to the destroyer"s equipment. They hurtled dis-rays and pulse-rays ceaselessly against their target, the huge Stardust, hovering motionless in s.p.a.ce. The two cadets didn"t realize that a single energy thrust from the giant sphere would suffice to shatter their own energy screen and also could easily annihilate them together with their Z-82.
They were setting out on the twentieth attack!
Z-82 had turned around once more and was racing with constant speed toward its target. Upstairs in the tower Pete was pushing the firing b.u.t.tons of the cannons. Ray was sitting at the rear raygun waiting until the Z-82 would swing around for its return flight.
But this time nothing happened.