Nothing much could be made out.
Probably it was only some kind of airlock which allowed entry and exit to and from the ship.
Were the Druufs about to…?
A dark shadow became visible. It was not much higher than about 3 feet, perhaps half as broad and thick. Sikerman instantly switched on the magnification and they saw that it was some creature or entity enclosed in a spacesuit. Exhibiting both arms and legs, it now stepped to the outer edge of the lock. There it remained and waited. The men on board the Sherbourne had the feeling that they were being watched.
“What is it, anyway?” asked Rhodan, not expecting an answer.
Almost simultaneously, Pucky and John Marshall said: “It’s thinking!”
Both telepaths were able to detect the initially weak impulses quite plainly, even though they didn’t know how to make sense out of them. The sentient being must be thinking in completely alien and unknown thought channels.
“Do you think it’s a Druuf?”
Marshall shrugged. “I don’t know—but actually I would have imagined the Druufs to be different.”
“It’s wrong to even try to conceptualize in that sense,” said Rhodan in a slight tone of rebuke. “Now everybody on your toes! That defence screen over there is gone now. It means that we’ll be receiving a visitor. Sikerman, shut our screen off too.”
The Colonel looked at him in startled amazement. “But—if a sudden attack follows, sir…? Any energy weapon can wipe us out then.”
“Do what I tell you, Sikerman! At the moment we are in no danger. We’re receiving a visitor. Look for yourself. That fellow’s already left his ship and is floating across to us.”
They all saw it.
The figure in the spacesuit had deftly pushed itself from the threshold of the airlock and was slowly approaching the Sherbourne. Almost at the same time the energy screen of the Terranian ship snapped off. The distance between the 2 opposed vessels was at the most 1500 feet.
“He’s measured the distance well,” said Atlan, breaking into the waiting silence. “He’ll make it even without any further corrections. Aren’t you going to greet him at the airlock, Barbarian?”
Without taking his eyes from the screen, Rhodan said, “I’ll stay in the Command Central. Pucky will go.”
“Pucky?”
“Yes, Pucky. If I’m not mistaken, this alien ambassador may have something in common with him. Certainly the smaller stature and the telepathic capability, in any event. Well, Pucky? Are you going?”
The mouse-beaver waddled to the door. “Naturally I’m going. Where do you want me to bring the visitor?”
“Bring him here. But be careful! We don’t know who he is or what intentions have brought him to us. Try to learn more from his thoughts. And at the slightest sign of a betrayal…”
“I understand,” growled Pucky and he disappeared outside in the corridor.
Marshall looked at the door after it had closed. “I should have gone with him, Chief.”
Rhodan shook his head. “Whoever the visitor may be, we should not frighten him. Pucky is small and looks relatively harmless—that is, from our point of view. We are about twice as big as the alien, which is a handicap for him. He’ll be in for a surprise soon enough when he confronts us here.”
“Well then I can at least try to keep a thought contact with Pucky,” suggested Marshall. He did not intend to ignore his bad premonitions.
Rhodan had no objections.
Now the alien was seen more clearly on the viewscreen, or at least his spacesuit. Then he glided laterally from the field of vision and was lost to the sight of the viewers.
Meanwhile, Pucky had teleported to the lock. There he slipped into his own custom-made spacesuit and closed the inner door of the airlock. Then he evacuated the air from the chamber and opened the outer lock.
The visitor was still 50 yards away and was approaching the lock with a remarkable accuracy, just as though he had previous knowledge of its location. Naturally this could have been coincidence but Pucky didn’t believe much in coincidences.
I come in peace. The thought came clearly into his alerted brain. If you are able to receive thoughts, then you will know that I seek peace. Can you understand me?
Before Pucky made up his mind to answer, he thought it over. He still had enough time for cautious cogitation. He probed for Marshall and found mental contact. With lightning swiftness the questions and answers went back and forth while Pucky kept his screens up in the direction of the alien so that the latter would not be able to eavesdrop on the telepathic conversation.
Finally he dropped the screen and asked: Who are you?—thereby revealing that he was a telepath. During his telepathic contact with Marshall, the latter had conferred with Rhodan and Rhodan had suggested that Pucky might as well reveal the secret. What was the use of hiding it when a whole corps of gifted mutants was at their disposal?
I am Kruukh
, returned the clearly detectable answer. The Masters have sent me to you. So this wasn’t a Druuf either, observed Pucky with relief. They had sent somebody else. The mouse-beaver didn’t know why but he feared the actual Druufs, whoever they were. It was an instinctive timidity that he could not explain.
We are waiting for you, Kruukh.
The alien landed with a light jolt on the hull of the Sherbourne and then stepped into the airlock. He seemed a stranger to fear or misgivings of any kind.
You are the Commander of this ship?
No, just one of his servants,
returned Pucky cautiously. Now he had an opportunity to study the visitor while he closed the outer hatch and let the air stream in. He wanted to get out of the heavy suit as soon as possible—and maybe this would induce the alien to unmask himself in a similar manner. There was not much to be seen through the dully-shimmering faceplate. Nevertheless Pucky thought he recognized a face behind it.
Is our air breathable to you? he asked.
Yes, on our home world we have the same kind of atmosphere.
Pucky peeled out of the suit and hung it on its proper hook. At the same time he allowed the inner door to swing open.
The visitor followed his example.
It was a strange creature that stood before the mouse-beaver a few minutes later but his appearance was not likely to inspire fear or alarm.
At first glance Pucky wasn’t sure what he could compare the Kruukh to, because there was no direct parallel with any inhabitant of the Earth. The upper portion resembled a giant lobster. On a pair of long, movable stalks sat the black periscope eyes, which now regarded the mouse-beaver curiously. Apparently the thing didn’t have a nose or a mouth, or else they were in another place that wasn’t visible yet. 4 delicately prehensile arms with 3-fingered hands were evenly arranged on all sides. The remarkable creature could thus reach in any direction without having to change his position.
His lower body was heavily armoured with an exoskeletal shell which was rounded off in the back. 2 rather short and awkwardly functioning limbs below must have been his feet, on which he moved ahead slowly. The visitor was as devoid of clothing as was Pucky. No weapon was to be seen.
I am Kruukh,
came the mental introduction again. I am to speak with the commander. He did not think the words, ‘to speak’ but the meaning of his thought impulse was clear. He wanted to bring a message to Perry Rhodan from his ruler.
Follow me, replied Pucky and led the way. In secret he wished that he had eyes on the back of his head.
John Marshall had covered the arrival meanwhile. He had been able to follow the ‘conversation’ between Pucky and the alien with ease and so was informed in advance.
Sikerman’s hand still rested on the activating switch of the energy screen. At the slightest sign of danger he would connect it. Then the Sherbourne would be isolated.
The door opened. Pucky moved into the Command Central and made way for the alien intermediary as he announced in his squeaky voice: “May I present—Kruukh, the envoy of the Druufs.”
The bumble-crab—as Pucky had secretly dubbed him pattered into the room on his short legs. He looked over the persons who were present, one after another with his stalky eyes, before he finally came to a halt in front of Rhodan and made a slight bow. His thought impulses now became amplified and so intense that even the non-telepaths could detect them and understand them. In this regard, Kruukh must have been unusually gifted.
You are the commander of this ship and the master of the aliens from the other time-plane? he asked but actually it was a confirmation. My lord whom you call the ‘Druuf’ sends you the message that any resistance is senseless. You have lost your own real time-rate like all other beings in your universe who were swept by our dimension. There is no way back any more. You must surrender.