“I’m sure of it,” Rous confirmed.
Suddenly there was a distraction by a crowd and hubbub centring around the Druuf cages. Somebody shouted something but neither Rous nor Rhodan could make it out.
“See to it that we can take off in 10 minutes,” said Rhodan. “I don’t want to lose any more time than that.”
As Rous moved away, Rhodan turned his attention again to the cages which were also to go on board the Sherbourne. Actually he should have realized that Pucky would make good use of his remaining time in the alien dimension, even though he had not been given any specific order to do so.
The mouse-beaver had discovered the captive caterpillar creatures immediately and had established a telepathic contact with them. Of course it wasn’t possible for him to convey his actual thoughts and wishes to the Druufs but he could clearly and plainly read what the creatures were thinking.
And what they thought was very informative indeed.
Pucky crouched in front of the cage and listened—until the men came to take the cages into the Sherbourne.
“You shouldn’t lock them up,” said Pucky indignantly as he hopped about excitedly. “They are harmless and aren’t dangerous in any way. The rulers of this strange dimension have misused them. The rulers are not the ones you’re calling the Druufs.”
There was some astonished reaction to this. Ragov joined Pucky and was engaged in several minutes of whispered conversation with him. What he learned served to confirm his own suspicions. The caterpillars were merely a race of workers under the Druufs.
Pucky was pacified when Ragov assured him that the caterpillars would be treated properly. Until the Sherbourne took off there were still a good 5 minutes in which the mouse-beaver intended to make further good use of his time. He teleported himself to the nearby cliffs to investigate the caves there.
Everywhere he came upon the motionless caterpillar creatures who in contrast to the prisoners were still in their original time-ratio and naturally did not move. That is, although they were moving they did so at a rate that was 72,000 times slower than Pucky’s movements. To the unaided eye they were as lifeless as granite because the inertial factor of skin and flesh had been magnified 72,000 times and made them practically indestructible.
And there was also something else behind the curious natural laws in this particular place where the 2 time-planes intersected.
Pucky was soon to find this out.
The mouse-beaver stood thoughtfully in front of a group of the relatively motionless caterpillars and listened to the long drawn-out “d-r-u-u-u-f” of their time-elapsed cries. Here the speed of sound was only about 0.2 inch per second—at least all sound that originated in the other continuum. It was evident that such a time-delay would also have its acoustical effects.
Pucky reasoned that even the time-frozen caterpillars must think. So why not find out what was going on in their small, primitive brains? They were not in captivity here. Perhaps they would reveal something that the others had not…
Pucky opened his ‘receptors’ and suddenly staggered. He almost lost his balance. By all the sun systems of the Coal Sack!—what was this?
Instead of intercepting an orderly and comprehensible series of thoughts, inside his brain Pucky ‘heard’ a weird and unrecognizable jumble of long drawn-out impulses that sounded like distorted electronic music. In a more acoustical sense, it was as though he had put his ear to a beehive. It was impossible for him to differentiate the individual thought trains and sort them out.
He screened himself off, thus isolating the telepathic portion of his mutant brain. He glanced around for quick orientation and then teleported himself to the place where Rhodan was located. He materialized close beside him.
“Well?” asked Rhodan calmly. He was used to the mouse-beaver’s precipitate appearances out of nowhere. “You ought to be thinking about getting yourself on board. We’re taking off in just a few minutes.”
Pucky excitedly told him about his experience with the caterpillars. It was one of those rare times when he could find no explanation for a phenomenon. “After all, I was able to read the thoughts of the other Druufs—uh—caterpillars, I mean. Why not this time? They also have to think, don’t they?”
Rhodan failed to suppress a faint smile. “Naturally they think, Pucky, just like all the others. But they think on another time-plane. Their thoughts are slower. What you picked up was their thought impulses, alright—but slowed down 72000 times.”
The mouse-beaver made no answer. The full impact of Rhodan’s words struck him suddenly: there could never be any communication between humans and Druufs! Unless one were converted to their own ratio of time…
Pucky hopped away toward the Sherbourne.
Rhodan pushed for a quick departure. He alone could perceive the consequences of a further delay. If he were not deceived by his deductions, then hours and perhaps even days must have already passed for Bell outside in the Drusus.
Rhodan was the last to go up the slanting gangway to the entrance lock. He took one last look at the K-7. The ship would have to remain here because it was practically impossible to bring it back now into their own time sphere.
Sikerman was already hunched over the flight controls and was nervously awaiting the command to take off. Pucky had gone to the area where Ragov and Noir were taking care of the captured caterpillars. The creatures from the other dimension were beginning to fill him with a consuming interest. With Noir’s help there was no more problem in establishing a definite communication with them.
The conversation could begin.
Rhodan nodded to Sikerman as the green light flashed, signifying that all outer locks were closed and the ship was in readiness to start.
“Take it slow this time. No high-speed acceleration. You have your course. We’ll make a short stop at the halfway mark to pick up Josua the meteorologist who’s been flying to meet us. Then—on to the light window!”
The ensuing 20 minutes passed with unusual swiftness. Josua was taken on board and the flight continued. In the control room Rhodan stared incessantly at the wide forward viewscreen and did not miss a detail of the passing landscape below. Behind him stood Lt. Rous, correcting the course whenever it was necessary. For after all there was no one who knew the stretch between the volcano and the light window better than he.
On the distant horizon behind them, perhaps 60 miles away, was a dark, opaque wall. It rose upward into the sky but became notably weaker there and more translucent. Rous explained to Rhodan that this wall consisted of pure energy—or actually time converted to matter as the result of some unknown side effect of the warp-field generator.
Time converted to matter! Rhodan shuddered as the meaning of these words sank in. Time that had turned into matter. Incredible! And yet it must be so!
The Sherbourne passed over the place where the smaller time wall had been before and where Rous and his crew had stood helplessly until both the light window and the obstacle had disappeared.
Finally the ship came out over the broad plain. In its centre was a glassy spot that was still glowing with heat.
“That’s where the Druufs hit the surface with one of their deadly energy beams,” explained Rous gravely. “About a week ago. The rock down there is still molten.”
But Rhodan paid attention neither to Rous’ words nor to the glowing spot below. His searching eyes and ever-alert senses had detected a fleeting movement in the direction of their flight. There, where the flaming energy-ring marked the intersecting point of the 2 dimensions. The light window was still there. The return path into their own time-world was not barred from them, so they could leave this alien universe behind them.
And yet they could not!
Emerging from the void, about 20 long torpedo-shaped giant ships came racing toward the light-ring and opened up with a raging salvo of energy guns against the glowing apparition. The alien ships were moving at a rate of 1.3 miles per second, which in their own time sphere corresponded to about half the speed of light.
The curtain of fire before and around the hole in the time wall became heavier. At a glance Rhodan realized that it was completely impossible to break through the blockade. Their own defence screens would unquestionably collapse under the bombardment.
There was only one possibility: no Earthly law was applicable here…
3/ “ENTIRELY IMPOSSIBLE!”
“Ready!” said the Druuf. “Switch on!”
Shadows glided through the corridors and rooms of the giant ship which orbited the sun system at a great distance. It hurtled along at the speed of light, without connecting the time compensator. The effect that the Druuf had been waiting for quickly materialized. The aliens who had penetrated their dimension were now visible.
“The system is turned on!” came the answer across many light-hours from the flagship of the battlefleet which was lying in wait for the enemy within the atmosphere of the planet. “Guide us!”