This was necessary because the aliens were visible only on the viewscreens of the giant ship, which was flying at speol. The smaller battleships continued to be blind—and had to rely on orders from the main ship, which was guiding their attack.
The Druuf leaned over the screens. Down there on the almost overpopulated world was a great activity of life and movement. A planet of the other time-plane had just been swept over and millions of alien creatures had been taken over. The caterpillars would take it upon themselves to give them food and house them in their shelters. Communication would not be an obstacle because now the aliens lived at no faster a pace than they, having adjusted their time ratios accordingly.
Except for those who had penetrated this time-plane by means of a technical apparatus which enabled them to retain their own time rate. These latter moved so swiftly that they remained invisible. They represented a danger because it was a goal of the Druufs to make the 2, time-plane ratios compatible or self-compensating
A spherical ship was to be seen on the viewscreen. It had been swept through the barrier a few minutes before. But then the new aliens had come and had taken back some of the others into their own time. These must die.
The picture-relay station went into operation.
“Weapons in fire readiness?” inquired the Druuf.
“Ready and standing by!” came the answer from the flagship.
“Increase your speed—about ½ speol. That’s even too fast for the aliens to dodge the attack. I will guide you.”
But before the battlefleet could carry out the order, something unusual happened: Down below, close to the place where the 6 aliens had penetrated a few minutes before, a strange luminescence came into being. It was a ring of light with tremendous dimensions. The Druuf recognized the phenomenon. It originated from the apparatus which enabled the other people to penetrate into this time-plane.
Were they getting reinforcements now?
The flaming ring became complete. Almost simultaneously a dark spherical shape appeared in its centre. It plunged out of emptiness into the Druuf world and soon slowed its hurtling pace. Calmly and methodically it headed toward the mountains where the somewhat smaller ship waited.
There was a distorted garble of impulses in the radio receiver. The Druuf gave a command to his fleet. “Wait!”
The black ships of the Druufs waited.
After a full half-second came the order: “Attack! I will guide you!”
For the Druuf himself perhaps 10 minutes had passed. In his viewscreen the strangers moved at a natural-seeming rate of speed. Time went faster for the Druuf than for the ones on the ships of the fighting fleet, who were not travelling at the speed of fight.
“Move in at ½ speol!”
The controls of the ships responded to the remote guidance signals. At half the speed of light the 20 sleek cruisers hurtled toward the surface of the planet and opened fire.
To be followed immediately by new commands…
* * * *
Lt. Rous shrugged helplessly. “I’m sorry, sir, that I can’t come up with an explanation for it. Even Steiner can’t figure it out. If all our calculations are correct, then no more than 10 seconds can have passed for the Druufs since our arrival here a week or so ago. It’s impossible for them to have developed a new method of seeing us within those 10 seconds.”
“Nevertheless, they have!” said Rhodan severely. And he added gravely: “Also their responses are within 1000th of a second. It seems impossible but the proof is before us. We have to get to the bottom of this or we’re finished.”
While he spoke, he did not take his eyes from the viewscreen.
The alien ships—unusually long and slender shapes of black metal, equally pointed both fore and aft—had approached the light window and blanketed it with a sustained fire from their energy guns. They lay in a full-scale barrage ring which was a blockade against either exit or entry, so that the arrival of any possible reinforcements into this time-plane was an impossibility.
“Can’t we attack the black ships?”
Rhodan nodded. “Naturally we could do that but I’m just not certain as to how our defence screens would react to energy beams that only travel at 2.5 miles per second. Do you have any idea?”
Rous shook his head.
Steiner was slightly in the rear of the control room but he said: “I can see what you’re driving at, sir. Their energy beams are subject to the laws of the other time-sphere. So their power of destruction should be correspondingly greater. Hm-m-m.” He hesitated “But can’t it just as easily be less?”
“Would you like to test it out?” suggested Rhodan.
Steiner didn’t answer.
Rhodan sighed. “It’s a fact that the Druufs can see us and not 5 minutes later, mind you, but at least 5 seconds later. They’ve made some advances. It beats me for the moment. Sikerman, please ask Khrest and Atlan to come into the Command Central.”
The Sherbourne was about 12 miles away from the light window. Sikerman’s hands were on the controls. At present the enemy fire was blocking them from making a retreat but in the instant that any finger of energy should swing their way he could hurl the ship into the sky. There would be perhaps 10 seconds for such an action.
Khrest was the first to enter the Command Central. His tall, commanding figure with the white hair, red albino eyes and well-shaped sensitive hands made him stand out as an Arkonide. He smiled reservedly at Rhodan and the others present, after which he sat down in one of the seats.
Atlan the Immortal did not look like an Arkonide. He had lived incognito for 10,000 years on Earth among humans and had acquired some of their customs and mannerisms. His long-standing habit of disguise had left its mark on him and had erased a number of former Arkonide characteristics. He also smiled but it was a somewhat derisive and superior smile that would have irritated Rhodan under other circumstances.
Not today, however. As calmly as possible, he said: “It was not my intention to take you along on this expedition but you asked to take part in it. Now however I’m glad you did because we’re faced with a situation that doesn’t seem to have a way out.” In a few words he depicted to them what had happened in the meantime. Khrest and Atlan listened without interrupting. Their faces reflected anxiety and even Atlan’s smile was gone.
“So now what you’re saying is that even you can go no further, Barbarian?” inquired the latter, still sarcastic in spite of the story. “And we the decadent Arkonides are supposed to help you? That’s a bit absurd, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely not, Arkonide,” retorted Rhodan. “I have never asserted that you or Khrest were decadent. On the contrary, I regard you as being the most capable representatives of your race. But what’s the point of arguing among ourselves? It’s better for us to put our heads together to find a way of returning to our own sphere of time. Where we are now is neither the past, present nor future. It’s—something else again.”
Atlan nodded. “I agree with you, Perry. This is something else. But we came here, which means that we should be able to succeed in going back.”
“Not through that blockade around the light window!”
Atlan nodded again. “Let’s find an explanation first as to why the Druufs are suddenly capable of such a fast reaction, even though they are alleged to live and move at a rate that is 72000 times slower than our own rate. What, therefore, has happened?”
“If we knew that…” began Lt. Rous but he was silenced by a wave of the hand from Atlan.
“We shall know it, if we reflect on it logically. And the first thing that comes to mind is the caterpillar creatures we have on board. They have lost their own relative time-rate and have adjusted themselves to ours. Why shouldn’t it also be possible for the Druufs to do the same?”
“That’s exactly my line of thinking,” murmured Rhodan, disregarding Atlan’s grin. “So continue!”
“It’s quite simple. Today we still don’t know exactly what would happen if we were to reach the speed of light because we haven’t had an occasion yet to try it. At our so-called relative light velocity we simply go into a transition, which means an automatic takeover by the time-compensator. No one has yet attempted to reach the natural speed of light without using this apparatus. That is, aside from Lt. Rous and his crew. And even that transpired in a certain relative sense. Anyway you must admit that in this there may be an answer.”
Rhodan nodded but refrained from answering the Immortal. He waited quietly to see whether or not Atlan would confirm his own hunch.
“So what probably happened when the Druufs also got the idea to fly at the speed of light? Did their time concepts also shift? Did they also start living as fast as we do? And if so, with what consequences? Will they also have to die sooner because they are living out their lives at a faster rate? These are speculations that we can get into later. The important thing is for us to shed some light on these phenomena—and I think we just did.”