The pilot slumped as he was hit by the shockwaves of the narcosis gun. He knocked his head against the padded edge of his instrument console. He raised his hands as if he sought something. Then they went limp and dangled lamely beside the pilot chair.
But the Ironduke held a steady course. The automatic pilot had taken over and the ship raced undeterred toward the master station. With the same unfailing accuracy the energy beam tore a straight and deadly line on the surface of the planet, coinciding with the course of the ship and pointing directly at the master station.
The men of the Ironduke fell to the floor wherever they were. However they didn’t lose consciousness, either because they were already too far away from the gun in the mountain or the gun did not operate with full energy. The human nervous system was paralyzed with the exception of certain areas of the brain which still were able to function to a limited extent. And the danger lessened with each second.
Claudrin had to use all his remaining strength and power of concentration to make his decisions. They were not yet out of danger and if more guns were triggered they would be finished.
The Ironduke was – shorn of human control – on its way to destroy the technical miracle of an extinct race. An ironic fate destined that the gigantic chapek complex of Mechanica was to be annihilated by an automaton. The eternal cycle of evolution and dissolution would be completed not by man but by his most ingenious creation – the robots.
Claudrin noticed that his paralysis diminished and that he was able to move again. He must have reached the limit of the range where the gun could exert its insidious effect.
He tried to get up but failed. Fortunately he was in a position to watch the front and rear screen without turning his head. The glowing glassy track ran straight as an arrow thru the desert ending near the mountain behind him. In the opposite direction were only a few kilometers separating him from the master station. The Ironduke would reach it in 5 seconds.
1… 2 seconds. Then 5.
The energy beam consumed the protective metal of the first dome and burned the vital inner center. It incinerated switches, generators and memory banks and continued on its relentless way to finish the work of destruction for which it was deployed.
It would have been possible that a part of the installations escaped total destruction and remained operable if the explosion that followed had not occurred. As a result an intricate bank of servomechanisms toppled into the pool of fire of a generator. The tremendous power of the detonation tore the master station apart.
The Ironduke was caught by the shockwaves of the blast at the moment when Claudrin hit the automatic pilot with his fist in order to turn it off and slow down the speed of the ship. The pilot was still crumpled and immobilized in his seat. His eyes stared with an expression of immense astonishment at the control panel before him.
Claudrin had no illusions about the stroke of luck from which he had benefitted. He had merely grazed the effective field of the narcosis gun. Had it been different, the Ironduke would have automatically circled the planet for hours on end spewing a blistering ring of fire which would have left a glazed track to baffle later visitors.
He made another effort and stopped the energy flow to the gun in the prow. The lethal beam of fire was extinguished as abruptly as it had flared up 30 seconds earlier.
Claudrin completed his run around the planet. Then he had recovered sufficiently to raise himself. The pilot had regained consciousness. A quick investigation showed that only one man had taken a bad fall and injured himself. It was a small price to pay for the huge redhot crater – which marked the spot where the inventive race of lizards had erected its formidable monument.
The narcosis guns failed to respond to their second approach. They had been knocked out together with the master station – and simultaneously with all the other armament for the defense of Mechanica which still had remained till then on the surface of the planet or hidden under it.
“Go into orbit around the stellar system!” Claudrin directed the pilot, awkwardly stretching his body. Then he called the radio room and asked the officer to get in touch with the Sirius by hyper-radio as intended.
He looked at the clock and smiled happily. Since the beginning of his attack on Mechanica exactly 3 hours and 15 minutes had passed.
“… there is only one explanation for the inadequate performance of the narcosis gun, sir. We flew over it when we reached the mountain and triggered the alarm. Then we passed a second time on the way back over the gun which was now out in the open. Since it was outside it reacted faster and was able to shoot at us. However it was still a few seconds too late. The Ironduke must have skirted the boundary of its field of influence and caught only a weak shock-ray.”
“Sounds plausible,” Rhodan agreed, looking thoughtfully at the picture of Claudrin. “What’s your position now?”
“System Outside, sir. I’m waiting for your orders.” “Proceed to Arkon, Colonel. We’ll probably meet there and return together to Terra as soon as we’ve finished cleaning up the mess. Anything else?”
Claudrin hesitated a moment before he reported to Rhodan his encounter at the rim of the Milky Way with the mysterious spaceship which had the unusual oblong shape. He concluded: “I’ve recorded the course of the spaceship in the data bank of the Ironduke. If it didn’t change its course since I spotted it we should be able to determine the destination of its flight.”
Rhodan had listened attentively with a furrowed brow. Bell’s red hair bristled, a sure sign that he was excited. “Cylindrical shape?” Rhodan finally said. “None of
the races we know except the Fantan people, who no longer engage in space travel, have built spaceships of this form. Strange, very strange. One could almost believe…”
He fell silent.
Bell interjected. “One could almost believe that Col. Claudrin has come across a messenger of an alien civilization. What if the lizards survived after all?”
“Hard to believe,” Rhodan said, shaking his head. “And if they still exist we have nothing to fear from them. They were a peaceful and harmless race. The only weapon they used was the narcosis gun, which was not lethal. No, I think you were right in the first place that Claudrin saw the ship of a race unknown to us.”
“Are we going to…?”
“No, we’ll wait,” Rhodan squelched his question and turned back to Claudrin. “I’ll see you on Arkon, Colonel. I want to take a close look at the computer data of the course of that ship.”
Rhodan left the radio room and returned to the Command Center of the Sirius. Bell followed him.
“We better forget about that ship for the time being, my friend. We haven’t solved all of our problem at hand yet.” Rhodan reminded Bell.
“Arkon is out of danger. The harvestship can receive no orders except ours,” Bell insisted.
“That remains to be seen. Let’s go,” Rhodan cautioned.
A few minutes later they stepped into the room where the technicians had set up the special transmitter. A picture screen which was connected to the observation panel in the Command Center framed the planet Arkon 2 and the ship of the lizards above it which still circled the globe after the harvest.
Rhodan gave the technicians a sign. The prepared data were inserted in the robot transmitter. They contained among others the coordinates of the 2 inhabited worlds where the moss also grew. Three separate commands were to be transmitted to Rabotax. The harvestship was instructed to reap the spores from the 2 planets before proceeding to a certain position in space at the rim of the Galaxy where it was to wait for further orders.
“When will the teleporters come back?”
Rhodan glanced at Bell and chuckled. “You can hardly wait to see your friend Pucky again, can you?”
Bell grinned unabashedly. “You guessed it, Perry. For days I’ve tried to picture what he must look like. It’s simply frustrating. I hope he doesn’t get sore if I can’t keep a straight face when I see him.”
“Pucky has a sense of humor but he’ll have some fun with you too,” Rhodan warned in amusement. “I’d advise you to refrain from any outbursts of laughter. If you must guffaw, he’ll play one of his cute telekinetic games with you. I can already see you floating thru the corridors of the Sirius.”
“Phew!” Bell exclaimed in consternation and stroked his stiff hair. ,
Rhodan became serious again and turned to the technician, asking: “Are you ready?”