Accordingly, he went carefully about his work but did not discover anything new. The various machines and installations remained a riddle to him because in spite of his hypno-schooling he was no accomplished scientist.
He was inspecting a room where the walls were covered with turning tape reels and was trying to figure out their purpose when he heard footsteps approaching. One of the now familiar spherical robots came into the chamber. It manipulated a number of control switches and spent awhile checking various connections, then turned about and went out again without having noticed Ras.
As he penetrated more deeply into the inside of the ship, the rumbling of the propulsion and power machinery became heavier and more intense. Then, after a short teleport jump, he stood in the midst of the vibrating machinery in the engine room.
He leaped quickly behind a tremendous, silvery-gleaming metal structure and looked carefully about. At first he thought that the great room was deserted and operated by remote controls but then he realized his error. Gliding almost soundlessly on some kind of rollers, huge shadows moved among the generators and the giant switch panels, adjusting levers here and there and hurrying onward.
Ras recognized them at first glance as being work robots. Their hands were multiple and varied in shape and application, enabling them to service and operate the machines. They possessed such a wide assortment of grasping equipment that it was not necessary for them to pull their arms into their body structure before shoving another arm out, as was the case with the smaller robots. There was, however, not the slightest trace of any of the actual Druufs—whoever and whatever they might be.
Ras continued to crouch in his hiding place. Before proceeding with his destructive work he wanted to observe as much as possible. Any and all information was vital and could possibly be a matter of life or death.
It occurred to him that his video-transmitter equipment would work here, now that the matching of the 2 time-planes had been completed. He turned it on with the touch of a button switch and spoke into it softly: “This is Ras Tschubai. Come in, please!”
The answer came only seconds later. It was Rhodan himself. “This is the Sherbourne. What’s going on?”
“I’m presently located in the Druuf ship’s engine room. Just robots around, not a single living creature here. I’ll hold my pickup camera in a position so that you can see everything.”
“Wait just 10 seconds,” ordered Rhodan. “Let me cut in the photographic pickup so that we’ll have a record of this later. Our technicians will need time for studying the alien machines.”
Ras waited; then he turned on his camera. It was located under the tiny apparatus that he carried on a bracelet-like armband and wasn’t any larger than a pocket watch. Very slowly, he swung his arm around for the camera to cover the scene.
While so doing, he gave a short, running commentary: “These are still another kind of robots. It almost seems as though the Druufs have separately designed work machines for every purpose. The spherical ones are the officers because they seem to be very versatile. Also they carry weapons. I don’t yet know, sir, what the Druufs look like. There’s not the slightest clue here. Maybe Pucky is having more luck.”
“We don’t have communication with Pucky. He does not answer our calls. Even telepathic contacts have failed, so far.”
Ras didn’t answer. He raised up a bit in an attempt to aim the micro-camera into the most distant corner of the room. In so doing he made a small noise which was almost inaudible because of the machinery.
Or was it?
The normal movements of the nearest robot suddenly ceased. Its arm sank downward slowly. Then it rolled toward the African’s hiding place.
“They’ve spotted me!” Ras whispered urgently. “I’d better start blasting…”
“No, wait!” Rhodan commanded sharply. “Teleport into some other room and return to the machine room later. We still need some more photographs. Leave your transmitter running. It won’t be necessary to run a trace on it.”
Ras didn’t have time to answer. The robot had rolled very close to his position and was reaching out with 4 of its arms as though to grasp an invisible enemy.
And it did grasp—but only emptiness…
Ras materialized inside a hall that was 2 levels up. The ceiling of the room was curiously dome-shaped. It was composed of some sort of milky white material across which a number of blurry streaks of colour darted back and forth. Even while Ras watched them, the lines and streaks began to take on form.
They evolved into a clearly discernible picture.
In his brain he sensed a gentle pressure, to which he yielded involuntarily. Although he wasn’t a telepath, he seemed suddenly to be able to read thoughts, because he was aware of a voice in his consciousness which spoke clearly and understandably to him:
What you see before you, stranger, was reality.
Almost simultaneously, Rhodan asked: “What’s happening, Ras? Where are you now? Our picture here is blurred. Focus your camera…”
Ras whispered: “Someone has spoken to me, sir. Inside my brain—telepathically. What shall I do?”
Rhodan did not answer immediately. Then his instructions came through: “Be careful! It may be a trap. I’m not going to bother you now because I don’t want to distract you. Keep on transmitting.”
The transmitting did not divert his attention. It was as though he had nothing more to do with the whole procedure. The voice inside his mind repeated its first and only sentence. Above him the picture became plainer. A planet whirled swiftly on its axis and orbited visibly around a yellow white sun. The whole thing gave Ras the impression that he was floating light-hours away from the planet, out in space, and as though he were watching pictures in fast motion.
Then the image on the ceiling became larger and clearer. The point of view rushed toward the planet, which appeared to turn on its axis once every second. It required perhaps 5 or 6 minutes to complete an orbit about the sun.
The planet became larger. Ras could make out continents and seas. Their shape was strangely familiar.
Then the African experienced a sudden shock of recognition.
The planet was the Earth!
Ras Tschubai stared in horror. The Druufs knew of the Earth! They knew where Rhodan came from!
The Earth’s motions were accelerated 72,000 times. He, Ras Tschubai, was looking at it from the point of view of the Druufs. As to the time ratio, he himself had virtually become a Druuf. He as well as all the others who had come with Rhodan.
And then he noticed something.
At first he thought it might be an optical illusion but then—with each second of the Earth’s rotation—he became aware that he was seeing correctly. While following the planetary movements, his eyes could clearly make out the continents—Africa, America, with the Atlantic Ocean between them.
And there in the middle of the Atlantic was a smaller continent which no longer existed on the face of the Earth.
Atlantis!
Simultaneously he heard the alien voice again in his brain.
That which you see, stranger, was a reality. It existed long ago but by your own reckoning you would call it but the fraction of a year.
Atlantis—only a few months ago…?
Tensely, Ras stared at the whirling planet and the flitting image of Atlantis which was visible each time around for only the fraction of a second.
Each second was a day!
But each day signified 200 orbits of the sun—more than 6 generations.
Ras felt an attack of giddiness coming on.
When—in their own time—had the Druufs taken these pictures? 10,000 years ago when the 2 time-planes intersected for the first time.
Suddenly he realized what the fate of the expedition would be unless a miracle happened. If they only stayed a week in the time-sphere of the Druufs, more than 1000 years would pass in their own universe! There would be no more Solar Empire, no mighty realm of the Arkonides—and no Perry Rhodan.
All would be gone and forgotten.
In a sudden wave of despair, Ras Tschubai aimed his raygun upward and sent the destroying finger of energy directly into the centre of the image of the swiftly circling Earth. The picture dimmed and died.
In the circular hall, anywhere from 10 to 20 doors must have opened simultaneously. Colossal rectangular figures stepped forth, which would have been quite familiar to Pucky. Their antennas aimed at Ras and the gold spheres on their ends began to brighten with a bluish fire…
But Ras was quick enough.
Just before the paralysing shockwaves reached him, he teleported back into the machine room. He stood squarely in the centre of the room and opened fire on the switchboards, the rows of instruments and all the maintenance robots present there.
Molten metal dropped to the deck. As insulators broke down into a smear of wreckage, blinding streaks of lightning jumped from one machine to the other. From somewhere came the sound of a detonation. Ras lost his balance and would have fallen if he had not supported himself against the shell of a generator.