The ship nosed downward and raced toward the surface of the planet.
“Don’t lose any time!” shouted Rhodan. “You’re going to crash!”
Ras nodded grimly. “I know,” he answered. He took one last look at the surrounding chaos and then concentrated for a jump.
He caught a glimpse of an oval door opening in the background and 2 or 3 rectangular robots pressing through. He just caught a trace of the first shockwaves from their unknown weapons but the counter-attack came too late. They could no longer break his concentration.
He jumped.
The black ship hurtled irresistibly toward the rocky ground, where its sharp bow bored deep into the mountain, only to be torn to pieces a second later by a flaming explosion.
Ras Tschubai materialized close to Rhodan in the Command Central of the Sherbourne.
He was about to heave a sigh of relief but held it when he saw Rhodan’s face. “Returned from assignment, sir,” he announced matteroffactly and he sought to determine by Khrest’s and Sikerman’s expressions what had happened.
Rhodan nodded to him. “Pucky’s ship has veered from its course. It’s increasing speed and heading for a point that’s outside the local solar system. Pucky has not answered us.” He looked at Ras. “What could have happened?”
Ras thought instinctively of the rectangular robots with their paralysing shockwaves. Maybe the mouse-beaver had allowed himself to be taken by surprise. It wasn’t like him to do that but perhaps he had underestimated the danger and relied too heavily on his amazing faculties.
“The Druufs have fighting robots that don’t use conventional weapons, sir. They produce shockwaves of some unknown force. Perhaps…”
“Highly probable!” interrupted Rhodan swiftly, as he surmised what Ras was about to say. “They’ve caught Pucky.” He turned to Sikerman. “Follow that ship. We have to find out where they intend to take Pucky.”
Ras fought against his fears. “Don’t think I should try…”
“No!” retorted Rhodan, refusing to let him go. “If Pucky is dead, your trip would be too late anyway. If he’s still alive then he’ll know how to help himself. In any case we’ll remain in the vessel’s vicinity so that he can make a jump—as soon as he’s able to. And besides, this may finally put us onto the trail of the actual Druufs.”
John Marshall stood off a bit to one side, close to Atlan. Until now he had remained silent. But suddenly he cried out, straining to listen to something inside his mind. Then he announced: “That was Pucky—just a short impulse. It was as if he had awakened out of a sleep and then lost consciousness again. It wasn’t a clear thought message. It was simply—fear! Horrible fear!” Marshall looked worriedly at Rhodan. “I wouldn’t want to be in Pucky’s skin just now!”
“Nor I,” admitted Rhodan.
His gaze wavered uncertainly for a moment, then steadied. He looked at the viewscreen. The black ship of the Druufs had become smaller but the Sherbourne was already picking up speed. The Crystal World dropped away beneath them and also became smaller. “Nothing is going to happen to our little friend out there. If the Druufs are actually capable of reading our thoughts, they are going to think twice before laying a hand on him or seriously harming him—because then they will also have to realize that I’ll not rest or cease until I’ve swept their entire time-plane out of the universe—even if I go out with it!”
Ras remained silent. Everyone was speechless.
They sensed how deadly serious Rhodan was in his threat.
5/ CHRONO-CATASTROPHE
The Druuf in the giant ship said: “Repeat that report!”
“We have caught one of the aliens, Master. He looks different than the others. Perhaps he is a servant. We don’t know how he was able to get into our ship.”
The Druuf waited a few long moments before he gave his command: “Bring the prisoner to my ship. Quickly!”
He switched off the connection, then remained unmoving in his seat for several minutes. After which he proceeded to make all necessary preparations for receiving the prisoner.
* * * *
Pucky did not lose consciousness.
He could see and hear and he could sense the crippling effect of the shock weapon as he felt the pain shoot through his nervous system. He could not defend himself.
He was unable to move as he saw the robot come nearer. The golden spheres on its antennas still spewed out their blue flames, which rushed toward him and held him fast. Even though Pucky could not concentrate enough to make a teleport jump he was still fully aware of his situation and was able to analyse it.
He had fallen into the hands of the Druufs, those unknown beings who had absorbed them all into their time-plane. Perhaps he would soon be facing the first Druuf that anybody in the universe had ever looked upon but he would have to pay a high price for it. Maybe even his life.
Most of all, Pucky was angry at himself for his carelessness. Like all high intelligences he was of course conceited. That this should happen to him of all people—or mouse-beavers, anyway—was a bitter blow to his pride. Now he was in the trap and all his miraculous faculties were useless to him. That part of his brain which he had used for teleporting seemed to be numb and it was impossible for him to activate it. In the psychokinetic department he was now as helpless as a newborn baby. And where telepathy was concerned he lacked the opportunity to try it out on anybody because robots just weren’t cut out for that sort of thing.
The rectangular monster stood directly in front of him now. All its arms and tentacles hung loosely down its metal body and only the antennas were still busy spewing out their bluish sparks of energy. They were sufficient to keep Pucky incapacitated.
And yet he fancied that he jerked slightly in reaction when a giant shadow loomed in the doorway and a 2nd robot came into the room. It was an exact copy of the first colossus. They both raised an arm and placed their ‘bands’ together.
Was this a kind of contact connection and communication system?
It must be so. Pucky’s secret hope of freeing himself from the spell he was under was not fulfilled. He tried in vain to overcome the nerve paralysis and to activate his mutant brain. But the pains increased immediately to such an extent that he quickly desisted in his efforts.
He at least tried to turn his eyes enough to see the portholes. To his amazement the Sherbourne had disappeared. At one side he could see the yellow-white sun in the midst of space. Before the sun had been red because of the Doppler effect but now even that had normalized itself.
The ship must have altered its course. As far as Pucky could determine, it was hurtling out into space toward an unknown destination. From moment to moment, a blind teleport jump was becoming more dangerous. A jump into the outer vacuum of the void would be risky because if he didn’t dematerialise instantly he would be lost. Circumstances permitting, maybe only a second would be enough to orient himself—but it might also be just enough to kill him.
The surface of the Crystal World turned briefly past his field of vision in one of the portholes. There he saw a mushroom-shaped cloud rising which could only have been caused by an atomic explosion.
Pucky breathed a sigh of relief. At least he could still breathe—which was a good thing, because neither he nor Ras were wearing a spacesuit.
In fact it just now came to his attention that there was a breathable atmosphere in the Druuf ships, even though there were only robots on board. And what kind of sense did that make, after all?
But why waste brainpower on things that couldn’t be answered?
So Ras had been successful. There below on the Crystal Planet the 2nd ship had detonated. The mushroom cloud couldn’t have been caused by anything else.
If Pucky had been able to he might have heaved a sigh of envy. But his relief was greater than any such egotistical emotion at the moment. The Druufs had lost another ship and by now Rhodan must already know that his little friend Pucky had fallen into the hands of the enemy.
The void of space beyond the ports was not entirely black. A veil of thousands of stars lay across the absolute darkness of Infinity and imparted a silvery shimmer of seeming timelessness to it.
But the silvery shimmer was suddenly interrupted. Pucky saw it out of the corner of an eye: a black shadow appeared among the stars, revealing an oval outline. It approached swiftly. It was impossible for Pucky to estimate the length of the shadow but he guessed that it must be at least more than half a mile from end to end.