"h.e.l.lo, Perry. Glad to see you. Nice that you find a little time to visit me again."
"The pleasure is all mine. How are you feeling? According to Haggard you seem to undergo a period of rejuvenation."
"Yes, indeed. I feel born again. This man has worked miracles with me."
"He is our most outstanding physician," agreed Rhodan.
Khrest, too, had very light, almost white hair and reddish eyes. His unusually high caused his forehead to extend to more than half the size of his whole head. All other characteristics that distinguished the alien from human race were of on organic nature. Instead of a rib cage enclosing and protecting the vital organs of heart and lungs, Khrest had a solid, bony thorax. This certainly afforded better protection against injury but would make it more difficult to gain access in case of a needed operation.
Compared with human beings, Khrest was a genius. His photographic memory was similar to the workings of an electronic brain. He was a living computer of the highest capacity.
"Unfortunately, we do not have anyone to compare to Dr. Haggard," continued Khrest. "Maybe this is the reason our race fell ill. We are in possession of the means for prolonging life, and this made us careless. We began to degenerate, for our boundless conceit did not permit us to mix with other races. We are a highly inbred race - all of us are somehow related."
"I have mentioned already that your people are in need of new blood."
"How do you imagine that to come about practically?" asked Khrest, smiling feebly. "I admit that your physical and mental capacities are young and strong. Combined with our superior knowledge, this might result in a race of giant intellects-of course, only from a theoretical point of view, to begin with, for it would take many generations for the results of such a fantastic experiment to become evident. No, I believe that we are past any help; we have waited too long. And besides, can you really seriously imagine that Thora would ever consider mingling her blood with that of a human being who is only a primitive in her eyes?"
"Definitely not," Rhodan shook his head.
Khrest pushed a b.u.t.ton. The concave wall next to his bed slid aside, and an oval shaped window appeared. Rhodan noticed that they were about 120 feet above the ground. A magnificent view of the surrounding desert spread out in front of them. The sun was high in the sky behind the ship. Far to the north there was a chain of low lying hills.
"This landscape reminds me in some ways of my own home planet, at least the way it must have looked a long time ago," said Khrest softly. "But then we became the focal point of a galactic empire, and we could no longer permit ourselves the luxury of a genuinely natural environment."
"I would like to be able to visit Arkon someday, Khrest."
The white haired scientist smiled indulgently. "You might be disappointed, Perry. Our world, as big as your own, is nothing but one huge city. One immense, hollowed out honeycomb. Nevertheless, someday you will see Arkon."
Perry leaned forward, surprised. "I? Able to see Arkon? How?"
Khrest lay down again He looked up at the low ceiling of the cabin; then he fixed his glance on Rhodan. "Yes, you will visit Arkon, Perry Rhodan. Perhaps I did not make myself clear when I spoke of regenerating our own blood. There can never be a mingling of our races, for yours would be the loser in this process. But there is a possibility that once mankind is united-but definitely not before that point-the human race, guided by the Arkonides, might take over the heritage of the galactic empire. What do you think of such a dream for the future?"
Rhodan breathed deeply. "Too fantastic a dream to be considered seriously, Khrest. You are masters of a galaxy wide realm, and you would never abdicate your power voluntarily. On the other hand, man is too immature yet even to dare dream of such an empire."
"I am afraid that you, too, underestimate man"s potential," Khrest said. "I had many an occasion to discuss these matters with Dr. Haggard. He shares my view in this respect."
"Even if I should believe in man"s dormant capabilities, I could not deceive myself that the Arkonides would be capable of such a display of unselfishness."
"Don"t judge us by Thora!" admonished Khrest gently. "She is the commanding officer of an expedition and has been specially trained for this task. Her sharp and logical mind is the result of intensive indoctrination."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Indoctrination is a hypnotic method of teaching that activates the parts of the brain that lie fallow, while the parts that are already functioning become intensified."
"Training by hypnosis then, isn"t it?"
"Yes, if you prefer to call it that. With this method you can transform a primitive creature into an intelligent being, provided, of course, that it has a brain to begin with. I intend to use this approach to transmit some of our own knowledge to you."
Rhodan stepped back instinctively. "What? you want toa?" he was gasping for air. "Why?"
Khrest was still smiling. "You are so full of distrust, my friend. You a.s.sume I could not do anything unselfish. You are right to some extent. I am thinking far ahead, of times to come. With bold strokes I am painting a picture of the future, but this is not solely the future of the Arkonides. They will no longer be alone. Two related races will rule the galaxy, the Arkonides together with the Terrans. Please Perry, note the expression *Terrans." You are probably aware of the tremendous difference between a human being and a Terran. You, Perry, went out into s.p.a.ce, and this automatically made you a Terran. Everybody changes into Terran, once he experiences the feeling of being able to close his hands around the globe. The others, though, especially those who are attacking us, are nothing but human beings who are completely unaware that their home planet, Earth, represents only a starting base for the future. All intelligent life has originated from the ocean, for this is where the archetypal cell was born. But the ocean belongs to the same category of environment as the universe. Thus, man returns to his original home when he moves out into s.p.a.ce. And someday in the future, once the Terrans and the Arkonides have solidified their star realm, Earth will have become nothing but a legend. This world will be lost amidst the millions of tiny specks of light in the infinity of a borderlines ocean."
Khrest fell silent for a few minutes. This gave Rhodan the opportunity to absorb this colossal vision of the future.
Then Khrest continued, "In a few centuries the Arkonides will no longer be able to hold together their empire. Already now and then some planets are trying to regain their independence. Needless to say, this independence would not do them much good, since they would only use it to tear each other to pieces. Therefore, to maintain general peace within the galaxy, we must make sure that a strong hand holds the reins. Unfortunately, though, the Arkonides become increasingly incapable of fulfilling this task. But rather than permitting the collapse of this cosmic empire and witnessing its conquest by some stronger and perhaps more cruel ruler, we prefer to share our power with an ally who owes his position of strength to us. We want friends that feel obligated and grateful to us for the help we gave them. We have never before encountered a race who would be more suitable for this purpose than your own, the inhabitants of the planet Earth near the edge of the galaxy. Do you understand, now, that I am acting selfishly by making you strong?"
Perry Rhodan nodded slowly in agreement. He understood.
"These are the reasons that decided me to entrust you to our indoctrinator, even if this goes against Thora"s wishes. But I feel the need to have two human beings on my side. Will you please tell me the name of your best friend. I want him to obtain the same schooling via the indoctrinator that you will get. Am I wrong in a.s.suming that you will suggest Reginald Bell"s name to me?"
Rhodan nodded a.s.sent. "What does tills hypnotic schooling process entail?"
"Don"t worry that we will waste any time," smiled the Arkonide scientist. "If we can start right away, today, then already by tomorrow you and your friend Bell will possess more knowledge than is shared by all the world collectively. In addition to that, certain areas of your brain will become activated that would remain dormant for many thousands of years if you let events follow their natural course of normal development or mutationally induced progress. As I have already mentioned, to a certain extent you will receive some telepathic powers; that much I know for sure. But I cannot predict what other dormant characteristics will be awakened. Quite possibly they will become activated, although not, fully developed."
"That sounds really incredible."
"You will comprehend this process better once you share our knowledge. We have brought such an indoctrinator with us in order to educate less intelligent races. This enables those whom we have treated to become mental giants who can then transmit to their own race advanced ideas that will lead them along the path of progress. It is nothing but an artificial acceleration of a process that would take too long under normal circ.u.mstances. As far as you are concerned, I am proceeding much more radically. There will be no intermediate steps. I will have you jump across the gap of many millennia. You will turn into a type of man that will perhaps become the norm in another 10,000 years, when the galactic empire will be firmly entrenched on the basis the Arkonides have built before."
Again Khrest was silent, leaving Rhodan time to ponder these new facts.
Now Perry began to comprehend the apparently magnanimous att.i.tude of the alien scientist. By helping man, he served foremost his own interest and that of his own race.
Perry pondered this thought. A logical solution for particular situation.
"I am willing to go along with your plans," he said calmly, despite his inner excitement. "But what will Thora have to say to this?"
Khrest shrugged. "She will have to come to terms with the idea. After all, I am the scientific leader of this expedition and must make the decisions."
"But she is the commander!" objected Rhodan.
"True enough. That means that she is responsible for the s.p.a.ceship and the flight but not for scientific measures. These are solely my responsibility. You can rest a.s.sured that I know exactly what I am doing."
Rhodan did not doubt this for an instant.
Two hours later Khrest took Rhodan and Bell to a part of the s.p.a.ce sphere that had been inaccessible to them up to this point. In the midst of complicated machinery connected by an apparent confusion of cables, were two isolated chairs with electronic helmets. These helmets were provided with several metal clamps that led into the machines. Somewhere an ominous hum could be heard, and an array of lights blinked constantly on and off.
The white haired scientist pointed to the two chairs. "The indoctrinator. Have a seat, please. You will lose consciousness and will not be aware of what is going on around you. The installation functions automatically. You see here a scale where I will set the exact amount of knowledge to be transferred to you. As you have probably noticed already, I have selected the highest possible degree for both of you. This will bring you up to the mental level of the Arkonides. As far as your inborn character is concerned, it will remain unchanged."
Reginald Bell regarded the helmets with obvious distrust. "This reminds me too much of the hot seats in Sing-Sing."
"What do you mean by Sing-Sing?" inquired Khrest.
"That is an inst.i.tution for locking up criminals," Rhodan enlightened him sarcastically. "Reg is afraid to share their fate of getting electrocuted on these seats, which resemble electric chairs where criminals are executed for their crimes against society."
"Just sit down. You won"t feel a thing," Khrest rea.s.sured the hesitant Bell.
Rhodan felt a light p.r.i.c.kling sensation on his skin after Khrest had attached the clamps to the machinery. The hum grew stronger. Khrest placed his hand on a yellow lever and looked at them.
"You will fall asleep in a few seconds and wake up again at once. At least, this is the way it will seem to you. In reality, twenty-four hours will have pa.s.sed by then. Let"s hope though that nothing will happen in the meantime, for an interruption might endanger the result of this lightning quick training. If necessary, Haggard or Manoli will have to decide what needs to be done. All right we are readya"
"Stop!" shouted an angry voice from the opened door. Thora was standing there, her gold red eyes ablaze with fury and hatred, her fists clenched in anger.
"I forbid you to proceed with this indoctrination, Khrest! Nothing can take place on this vessel without my previous consent! The human race is not fit to be advanced to a higher level of knowledge. They are a martial race, too fond of war. They would const.i.tute a threat to us if they were suddenly endowed with superior intelligence."
Khrest kept his hand on the lever, unmoving. "You are mistaken, Thora. They will help us to save our empire I have tried to explain to you the reasons for this action but you simply refuse to understand. I am sorry about that. We need Perry Rhodan and the human race if we don"t wish to perish. Our elite is dying out-"
"We won"t die out if we find the planet of eternal life."
Khrest smiled gently. "Thora, have you ever considered that the old story of the planet of eternal life might have been meant symbolically? Might it not be in a figurative sense that this world is the planet of eternal life that we are seeking? But enough of this now," he added in a firmer tone. "Don"t disturb me here. I must finish this work. We will talk more about it later."
Thora"s voice grew more threatening. "If you insist on proceeding with this indoctrination I will use the gravitractor and cause this planet to fall into the sun!"
Khrest turned pale. "You wouldn"t dare, Thora! It would be a crime against our basic laws. Wait for me in my cabin! We will discuss the whole matter again, while the indoctrinator is doing its work here."
Before Thora had a chance to reply, Khrest pushed the lever forward.
The humming became unbearable. Perry Rhodan felt his blood pounding in his throbbing temples. He could hear Bell"s groaning next to him. Gradually everything turned dark in front of his eyes, and he felt himself sinking down into a bottomless pit.
A few seconds later he was completely unconsciousa
CHAPTER FOUR.
Strange events took place during the week long suspension of open hostilities.
Lively activity unfolded in the hills to the north of the Gobi Desert base. Some troops were withdrawn, and others arrived. Matching and tractors were brought in from the north and parked in specially prepared depressions in the ground. They were soon hidden by camouflage nets. An army of experts began their work. Surveyors determined the location of the entrance to the shaft. Lieutenant General Tai-tiang supplied his guns with ammunition. Everyone awaited the green signal to go ahead.
In the meantime, across the hills to the south, inside the Arkonide s.p.a.ce sphere, time was racing by for Perry Rhodan and Reginald Bell and leaving its trace on their brains in the form of concentrated knowledge. Dormant cells were awakened to sudden life and began to grow.
Khrest had used force to prevent Thora from carrying out her threat to annihilate mankind. She finally agreed to await the result of the experiment. Somehow, Khrest thought, her threat had not been meant seriously, when she had declared her intention to let the Earth fall into the sun.
Four additional events took place in various parts of the world, events that accelerated the development that began to take shape. These events seemed to occur independently of each other, but actually they were linked quite closely. They had a common origin, which dated back more than a quarter of a century.
At that time there had been visible for the first time in human history a mushroom cloud whose shape was destined to become the symbol of a new era.
It had been a crazy idea right from the beginning. Fred Hangler had known this from the very first moment. But the decision was not up to him. This was the boss"s job. Trying to rob the Central Bank of Brisbane, in the middle of the day! It simply could not work!
Everything had been planned to the smallest detail. Outside in front of the entrance, the black limousine was waiting. The boss was sitting in the back seat, cradling machine gun on his knees. The car door was slightly ajar. Next to the driver stood Jules Arnold, one hand hidden in his trouser pocket. He kept continuous watch on the road ahead, especially the traffic cop on the next corner. The policeman had no idea what was brewing just a block away. He stood under a big umbrella, waving his arms as if he were conducting an orchestra, rather than regulating the traffic in Brisbane, on the east coast of Australia.
Fred had been given the most difficult job to do. He was to enter the bank and force the two tellers to hand over the money reposing inside the vault safes. It would not occur to anybody that anything of the sort could take place just before lunch time; they would be taken complete by surprise. Furthermore, it was general knowledge that around this time of the day all the police forces were feverishly waiting for their well deserved siesta, and thus their vigilance was at low ebb.
Fred Hangler knew that everything had to go very fast. It was impossible to avoid an alarm"s being given. Hangler was not in the least interested in killing an employee of the bank. He was perhaps willing to sacrifice a few years of his life behind bars but not to make the supreme sacrifice and finish his life at the end of a rope.
As soon as he had the money, he would run to the car waiting outside. Just a short, fast trip and they would disappear in Jeremy"s garage. A couple of minutes later the car would have another colour and new license plates. The traffic cop at the corner would make his sworn statements quite in vain. The vehicle he had seen drive off at a crazy speed would have disappeared without a trace.
The boss had thought of everything. He always did. The only thing he failed to remember was the atom bomb that had been exploded over Hiroshima more that twenty five years ago. But in all fairness, no one could be expected to a.s.sociate that long ago event with this robbery in Brisbane one generation later. Nevertheless, that bomb led to the failure of this well hatched plot.
Fred Hangler entered the bank, carrying a big brief case in one hand, while the other firmly gripped a revolver inside his coat pocket, of course. He was angry to note that several customers were present. The boss had counted on n.o.body wanting to transact any business at noontime, either depositing money or, worse still, taking out any sums. Well, there was nothing Fred Hangler could do about it now!
He walked to the end of the line of waiting customers. Only one window was still open for business. The teller behind the other, closed window was yawning. He glanced in a most disapproving manner at the new customer and then proceeded to unwrap his sandwich. A bottle of milk completed his frugal lunch.
In the meantime, his colleague was busy helping the four customers waiting for his services. He paid out one small sum to the first customer, gave some information to the second and then turned to the third man. Fred Hangler noticed with pleasure that his hypothetical fortune was just about to be increased by this obliging gentleman, who intended to deposit the tidy sum of several hundred pounds.
Fred"s palm grew moist. He held on tightly to the gun in his pocket. The man in front of him began to count out the pound notes in a most laborious way. just as slowly and mutinously were the same bills rechecked by the teller behind the window.
Suddenly the teller with the sandwich and the milk bottle stopped eating his lunch and sat very still, as if listening to some voice that no one else could hear. A strange glimmer lit up his eyes. His glance wandered slowly around the room and, as if by accident, began to rest on Fred Hangler. A deep furrow formed between his eyebrows. Then he put his foot on the hidden alarm b.u.t.ton.
Nothing happened in the bank. But just a short mile away, inside the nearest police station, sirens began to howl, startling the inspector from his midday snooze, which he had started prematurely. The hands of the wall clock were not yet pointing to 12. The inspector jumped up and stared at the alarm panel. Number 4 was lit up on it. That meant the Central Bank. Alarm. Robbery!
Bank robbery? Now, at siesta time? Unheard of gall of these criminals.
The inspector was seized by righteous indignation. He tore the receiver off the hook and began to bark some furious commands into the phone. Then he fastened his holster, made sure of the gun and ran out of the room. Out side in the corridor he met his alerted officers.
"Robbery in the Central Bank! Get a move on!"
Any thought of siesta time had vanished. A few seconds later a police car manned by five policemen were racing out of the police garage, siren whining, toward the Central Bank.
In the meantime, John Marshall had removed his foot from the silent burglar alarm b.u.t.ton. He knew that it would be at most five minutes before the police would appear, unless they were fast asleep. One always had to reckon with such a possibility during the midday heat in this peaceful town. He did not take his eyes off the customer, who was now waiting quite patiently, until the man ahead of him had made his deposit and departed. Then the customer stepped close to the window, The police inspector was smart enough to throttle the siren as he approached his destination. Without drawing any undue attention, the police car drove up close to the bank building and stopped on the other side of the road.
The same moment that the uniformed men jumped out of the police car, the big black limousine, which until now had been parked right in front of the bank entrance, drove off. There was nothing conspicuous about this, and n.o.body paid any particular attention to the departing limousine.
Fred Hangler placed the big briefcase on the counter ledge in front of him and said in a quiet voice, "Young man, I would like to make a withdrawal of all the money you have there in your safe. Here is my authorization to do so." With this he pulled the gun out of his pocket and amid at the teller. He risked one quick glance over at the teller at the next window. John Marshall sat calmly munching his sandwich and waiting for the next development, the arrival of the police.
"Don"t touch the burglar alarm," the gangster warned Marshall. "You"d be a dead man before the cops had a chance to, get here."
"I wouldn"t be so sure of that," answered Marshall, chewing and taking another sip of milk. "Just turn around and see for yourself. The police are here already."
Hangler stared at him, completely beside himself. The first teller disarmed him deftly, before Hangler could offer any resistance. Hangler turned around. He saw five policemen quickly cross the road and enter the bank building.
The inspector was the first to storm into the bank. "What happened to the robbery?" he asked, nonplussed, and stopped in his tracks. He was confronted by a truly perplexing scene. Behind one of the tellers" windows somebody was sitting calmly eating a sandwich and drinking milk. The inspector hated milk pa.s.sionately. In front of the other window he saw a harmless looking man who was being threatened by a gun held in the teller"s hand. Just then, from a door in the background marked Manager, stepped a portly gentleman, hat in hand, ready to leave for lunch. He, too, stopped in his tracks, regarding the odd scene with disbelieving eyes.
"What"s going on here, Myers?" he asked.
The bank teller, who kept pointing his pistol at Hangler, whispered excitedly, "What a coincidence! Good heavens, what a coincidence!"
"What coincidence?" inquired the inspector.
The bank manager came closer.
"He wanted to rob the bank," declared Myers. "Mr. Marshall tried to bluff him and pretended that the police were coming. The guy grew so nervous that I managed to disarm him. And then, what do you think? the police did come. I don"t understand how it all happened."
"The burglar alarm was triggered," snorted the inspector. "Have you already forgotten about that b.u.t.ton next to your feet?"
"I didn"t give any alarm," insisted Myers. "And even if I had stepped on the burglar alarm, wouldn"t it have been too late? This guy had hardly finished saying that he was holding me up, when you walked in here."