A ship?
Did the Druufs have such large ships as this? They were probably the ruling intelligences of the alien time-plane and had no doubt known space travel for thousands of years already…
No, that wasn’t right. According to Earth time-reckoning it might be but from the Druuf point of view…
Pucky suddenly caught his breath. He became aware of the fact that the Druuf spaceships must have been shooting through the galaxy even a million years ago—without ever seeing anybody.
A fight jar ran through the ship as it bumped against the giant. A loud clanging sound pervaded the room as clamps went around the body of the torpedo-shaped ship and the 2 vessels joined together.
The robots terminated their soundless conversation. The new arrival turned and left the room again.
The portholes closed suddenly without any additional lighting being turned on in the room. In the semi-darkness Pucky could hardly make out any details. The robot’s dark silhouette loomed up against the dimly glowing wall but even if Pucky could not have seen it the darting blue lightning from the ball ends of its antennas could not be overlooked.
And then, very suddenly, the blue lightning were extinguished.
At first Pucky was oblivious to this because he was so relieved by the abrupt cessation of the pains in his nervous system, to which he had almost become accustomed. It was as though his brain had been enclosed by a steel kettle, the walls of which miraculously melted away and left him free.
It was only then that Pucky understood what had happened: The robot had released him from its power because it was confident of being able to handle its catch. Here, docked firmly together with the Druuf flagship, it was impossible for the prisoner to escape.
Pucky’s first impulse was to teleport away. But then he couldn’t resist one parting gesture. He would rather put himself in danger again than to leave the scene of his mortification without the satisfaction of revenge.
The robot did not know what was happening to it when all 12 of its tentacles and both antennas were bent backwards, gripped by an invisible force that came out of nowhere. In its interior, electronic equipment obeyed command impulses as it strove to resist the invisible enemy but its efforts achieved an opposite effect.
The first fuses burned out; then a spark hissed behind the metal skin and melted important connections. A 2nd short-circuit caused the colossus to tremble. From the bent antennas streamed bluish rays of energy but they wandered haphazardly to the ceiling and exploded there. Pucky felt no effect.
The monster made a final effort to defend itself against the attack, which it could only assume was being delivered by the small prisoner, but that was the end.
Pucky sprang back, startled, as the final fuse burned through with a loud report. The great robot swayed and then fell helplessly to the deck as though it had lost its sense of balance. Somewhere in its innards there was a rattling and tinkling as if someone were throwing a jar of screws and bolts around. On the thing’s breastplate or backplate appeared a glowing red spot and Pucky began to realize that it was high time to become scarce.
He concentrated on the rocky surface of the Crystal Planet, dematerialised and jumped.
But he didn’t get far.
His rematerialisation was a violent one and it did not occur in the place he had planned for it to happen.
Pucky felt pains shooting through him as he began to regain his vision. He seemed to be falling into a bottomless abyss but he could breathe. Before he got himself set for another jump, a thought suddenly came into his brain. It was not his own thought but rather an alien impulse that was impressed upon him. It must be the thought command of a Druuf.
You are in no danger, alien, if you surrender to me.
Pucky felt a wave of panic rising in him. He was afraid to encounter a Druuf. He had changed his mind. He didn’t want to see any Druuf. He wanted to go back to the Sherbourne—to Rhodan and his other friends.
He envisioned Rhodan’s face before him while desperately closing his eyes and activating the appropriate area of his brain for teleportation.
He jumped blindly into the unknown in order to get away from the Druuf.
The shaft or abyss he had been falling into disappeared.
There was light around him.
When he opened his eyes again, he stood in a green meadow under a blue sky. The grass came up to his haunches and the air was mild and fragrant as only the air of Earth could be.
2 yards away stood Perry Rhodan, who seemed to be looking upward at the drifting clouds with a dreamy expression on his face.
Pucky didn’t understand what it was all about but just the sight of Rhodan made him forget everything. He didn’t know how he had come here but there was Rhodan. It was impossible for him to mistake him for someone else.
“Perry!” exclaimed Pucky in a shrill voice and waddled over to his big friend. “Perry, I’m so happy that I was able to escape. Are you mad at me because I…?”
Rhodan did not move. He acted as though he had not perceived the mouse-beaver’s words. He continued to look into the sky as though he was searching there for something.
Pucky was astonished. However they had come here or whatever trick had been played on them by the other dimension, the main fact remained that they were out of danger.
“Perry!” The mouse-beaver instinctively toned down his shrill voice. “All I did was to make a jump and…”
While speaking, he had straightened up to reach out his hand to Rhodan. But Pucky’s hand went right through Rhodan. It found nothing—where the hand of a friend should have been…
* * * *
Without taking his eyes from the forward viewscreen, Col. Sikerman adjusted his controls. “The black ship is slowing down, sir. Shall I…?”
“Keep your distance, Sikerman. Before we attack we have to know whether or not it’s alone.”
They soon observed that it was not alone.
The silhouette of a tremendous elongated ship emerged into visibility on the viewscreen. It was a good 3,000 feet in length and seemed to be floating in space. The nature of its propulsion system was not apparent. There were no portholes in its black hull. Like a life, less but sinister shadow the giant waited there in the void for the smaller ship, which slowly approached it and was finally grasped by long magnetic clamps.
“The mothership of the Druufs!” Rhodan spoke softly as though he feared that those on board the black ship would hear him. “That’s what it has to be! I wonder if they’ve spotted us.”
Col. Sikerman shrugged. “Most likely they have, sir. But maybe they’re not worried about an attack since they have a hostage: Pucky.”
Rhodan turned to Marshall. “Still nothing, John? Don’t you get anything from Pucky at all?”
“Only now and then but they’re foggy and incomplete. Their intensity wavers considerably. Sometimes the impulses come through stronger, then they are weak again so that I can hardly pick them up. Unfortunately they still don’t make any sense.”
“At any rate Pucky is still alive and on board the smaller ship,” said Rhodan. He hesitated a moment and then spoke to Ras. “Tschubai, you’re going to have to make a jump pretty soon. I don’t see any other way of getting Pucky out of there.”
“We can attack,” suggested Sikerman. “With our weapons…”
“…we’d do a nice job of frying Pucky for good,” concluded Rhodan realistically. “No, this time there’s nothing much can be done with mere brute force. Only the mutants can give us an edge.”
Atlan approached and placed his hand on Rhodan’s shoulder. “When your little friend is back safe, we’d better make a serious attempt to get back into our own time-plane. I’m deeply concerned, Barbarian…”
“That, my friend, makes 2 of us,” admitted Rhodan but he stood there motionlessly as though he feared the Immortal would remove his hand. “We have stayed here far too long already. But I still don’t know how we can break through the energy curtain. The risk is too great.”
“The risk of staying here longer and losing all the time in the universe is considerably greater.” Atlan shook his head. “During just the few seconds it would take for a crash breakthrough it couldn’t possibly wreck the Sherbourne.”
“And the Druufs, Atlan? We wanted to know what they looked like and who they are. Are we never to find that out?”
“We’ll find it out—maybe very soon, when Pucky is back with us again.”
Rhodan turned his attention once more to the viewscreen and was about to say something when John Marshall cried out in astonishment. “Pucky! I’m getting him! His thoughts are coming through real strong now! He’s able to get away but he’s holding back. A rectangular robot and with antennas that terminate in golden spheres…”