The Shadows Attack - Clark Darlton, ebook, CALIBRE SFF 1970s, Temp 2
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1/ THE ROBOT HUNTERS
"BOGIES!"
"Sir, we have bogies in sector K1-8-DX. Range 2.3 lisex. Standing by for instructions …"
Col. Kermak, commander of Solar class battlecruiser
Alderamin
, did not so much as turn his head. He
stared intently at the main viewscreen of the Control Central, which gave him a very natural reproduction
of a section of the outer void. With a swift movement of his hand he brought in the magnification. The 2.3
light-seconds of distance seemed to telescope and the tracked objects became visible.
"Increase retropulsion," he said without taking his eyes from the screen. "Approach manoeuvre.
Boarding crews stand by! Man the battle stations!"
The 1st Officer saluted and left the room in order to transmit the orders and see that they were carried
out.
Col. Kermak was looking at 3 ships on the viewscreen. They were apparently drifting along through
space without guidance and it was obvious that they were unmanned. They were robot units of the
Arkonide Imperium’s fleet which had virtually "died" when the robot Regent was destroyed. The Terrans
had already succeeded in securing about 90,000 out of a total of 100,000 of them but out there in the
unfathomable reaches of space there were still 10,000 heavily armed ships. In the hands of any potential
enemy this could represent a force not to be underestimated.
Col. Kermak was among those who had been chosen to prevent this. With his heavy battlecruiser
Alderamin
, a spherical vessel 500 meters in diameter and carrying a normal crew of 800 men, he had
been assigned to the task of tracking down the pilotless robotships of Arkon and taking them over with
special prize crews.
This was no simple operation because when the robot Regent of Arkon was destroyed the units of the
Arkonide Fleet were scattered all over the galaxy. Without a special circuit alteration these ships had
responded exclusively to the command signals of the giant positronicon. Thus from one moment to the
next they had suddenly become pilotless and they were subject to being confiscated by anyone who
knew the secret of how to switch them over to manual control. Within the Milky way there were
numerous races who desired to increase their military power so it was natural for them to seize the
opportunity by attempting to capture Arkon’s inactivated ships.
But Perry Rhodan sought to prevent this at all costs.
As Col. Kermak continued to observe the 3 drifting vessels he noted that one of them was a
superbattleship of the Imperium class, a tremendous sphere measuring almost a mile in diameter whereas
the 2 other smaller ships were obviously cruisers. They still flew in their original formation, which was
loosely triangular, with the battleship leading and the 2 cruisers following.
The First Officer returned to the Control Central. "Ship ready for combat sir."
This time Kermak turned toward him. "Probably as superfluous as in all the other cases," he said with a
reassuring smile. "Let’s secure the battleship first. Who’s leading the boarding team?"
"A Lt. Vitali, sir. This is his third ship capture."
 "Then he knows what he has to do. Let me know as soon as all 3 ships are secured for manual flight."
"Very good, sir," answered the First Officer, who again exited the room.
Col. Kermak turned back to the viewscreen in order to follow the forthcoming procedures in every
detail. But before the locks of the
Alderamin
could be opened for Lt. Vitali and his men, something
unexpected occurred: a message came through from the duty officer in the tracking section. At least 20
ships ranging from large to small had materialised at a distance of just 5 lisex and were now approaching
at top speed. They deployed themselves swiftly so that they quickly surrounded the
Alderamin
and the
robotships.
"Energy screen!" roared Col. Kermak. This placed him in a security mode which would protect his
spacesphere from eventual raybeam bombardments. And of course Vitali could no longer leave the
Alderamin
.
"Stand by!" he ordered, while watching his screen.
The alien ships were cylindrical in shape. Springers! But after all, what else? Wherever there was trouble
the Springers, otherwise known as the Galactic Traders, were never far away. These merchant-pirate
offshoots of the Arkonide race were as shrewd and clever as the Terrans. There could be little doubt that
their technicians knew how to make the manual override connections on the robotships. The stellar
traders had shown up with the intention of grabbing the spoils and dividing the heritage of Arkon between
themselves.
"Radio message, sir!" announced the com officer over intercom. "An urgent warning!"
Almost imperceptibly, Kermak composed himself. With outward calm he answered: "Alright, let’s have
it!"
The Springers’ challenge was brief and unmistakable: "Get out of here, Terrans! The 3 ships belong to us
because we sighted them first. We’ll give you 10 minutes, your time."
Kermak studied the viewscreen thoughtfully. The 20 longships of the fighting nomads had meanwhile
firmed up their positions around the
Alderamin
. Within that circle were the 3 robot vessels which were
the objective of both sides. He knew that for the moment their granted period of "grace" but on the other
hand he was not in a position to drive them off. Under these circumstances he could not order Lt. Vitali
to try taking the Arkon vessels. It would be a useless sacrifice. But for the same reason the Springers
couldn’t send out any boarding crews either, without exposing them to danger. It was a completely
messed up situation.
He had the option of beaming out a call for Terran reinforcements, he thought bitterly, but they couldn’t
arrive before the 10 minutes were up. Probably by then the Springers would open fire in an attempt to
break down the
Alderamin
’s defence screens. The gamble could turn out to be fatal. Turning the picture
around, it seemed out of the question for the
Alderamin
to knock out 20 opponents simultaneously. This
was aside from the fact that Kermak was not intending to be the first to fire a shot. there could be no
doubt that the Springers were in superior force here. It wouldn’t be easy for them to knock out the heavy
battlecruiser but with a streak of luck it was possible.
"Only 8 minutes left," said the First Officer, who had returned. "That’s damnably short …"
 "Long enough to make a decision," replied Kermak calmly, although he was shaking inwardly. "There’s
no way they can take those ships in the meantime. On the other hand we’re under orders to avoid armed
conflict with other races wherever possible. We are to defend ourselves if attacked—and that hasn’t
happened yet."
He scanned the viewscreen again. Although the 3 robotships were hurtling through space at a
considerable velocity, they appeared to be standing still. The
Alderamin
and the Springer formation also
seemed to hover there motionlessly. It would be quite simple to take deadly aim with all the cruiser’s
heavy armaments. Anyway, only 3 minutes of the allowed time had been used up.
"The 3 Arkon ships don’t have their screens up," muttered Kermak as if to himself. "They could be
wiped out with our first broadside."
"But sir … !"
"Do you have a better idea for keeping them out of the Springers’ hands? You’ll have to do better than a
shrug of your shoulders. If we can’t get control of those robotships, then the Springers shouldn’t be
allowed to either. That would be the best solution where Terra is concerned."
The First Officer stared at his commander. "If we had a teleporter on board I’d know of another way!"
"Me too," confessed the colonel bitterly. He glanced at the chronometer. "Still 3 minutes left. Get a move
on! In the meantime I’ll try talking to the Springers."
Which was no particular problem. The Springers spoke Interkosmo as well as the Terrans. It didn’t take
the com operator more than 30 seconds to establish contact. On Kermak’s screen the bearded face of a
typical Galactic Trader appeared. He must have been one of the patriarchs because he was certainly
more than 100 years of age by Earthly reckoning. The full, thick beard was tinted red and curiously
squared, which was obviously a clan identification.
"What do you want, Terran? You have 2 minutes left."
Kermak controlled himself and kept his voice as even as possible. "These 3 Arkon ships belong to us.
We have permission from Gonozal VIII … "
"Permission, he says!" The Springer began to laugh thunderously. "Who is this Gonozal VIII, anyway?
Or are you talking about that pseudo-imperator of Arkon who merely fronted for the robot? If so, then
the ships don’t belong to you any more than they do to us. They are ownerless—free booty for the first
to find them. And we were first in this case. So?"
Kermak knew that he only had another minute to go. "Gonozal-Atlan was the rightful ruler of Arkon.
Perry Rhodan is his rightful successor. Therefore the ships belong to him. If you take them it will be an
act of theft. Do you want to tangle with Terra?"
"Terra!" echoed the Springer, starting to laugh again. He seemed to be genuinely amused. "What is Terra
without the protection of Arkon? And the Imperium doesn’t exist anymore."
The bearded swindler was in for a surprise, thought Col. Kermak heatedly while noting with a quick
glance that only 40 seconds were left. His hope of convincing the Springer was fading away. The First
Officer had just returned and gave him the nod. This meant that Kermak only had to depress the red
firing button to bring the robotships under concentrated fire. Since they were without defence screens
 they would be destroyed in a matter of seconds.
"So what you are saying is that you are willing to perform an act of piracy and risk open conflict with
Terra?" he asked quietly.
That’s right!" nodded the Springer, still chuckling. "What have we got to lose?"
10 seconds to go.
"Very well," said Kermak, suddenly returning a very sarcastic smile. "I might have let myself be talked
into letting you have at least one of those cruisers but since you’re so greedy you won’t have even one of
them. Do you understand?"
"Not a word," replied the Springer, fingering his beard. "You Terrans are fond of speaking in riddles.
Besides, your time is up. Get out of here or I’ll open fire."
"I’ll do it for you," retorted Kermak grimly. He shoved in the red button which activated all the guns that
had been carefully aimed in the meantime.
"You’re welcome to the scrap!"
From 3 turret positions the concentrated energy beams of the
Alderamin
shot out and found their
targets. They penetrated the hulls of the robotships with ease and bored their way into the vessels’ central
cores—to the Arkon power piles. The resulting nuclear explosions ripped the ships asunder.
Although there were actually 3 explosions their effect was that of one gigantic detonation. One of the
Springer ships had been too close to the robot super giant and was hurled away into the void by the fury
of the blast. Before the remaining 19 longships could take their revenge on the
Alderamin
, Col. Kermak
shoved his flight lever forward into full thrust. Immediately the warship started toward a distant nebula
and accelerated wildly. It soon reached light velocity and vanished into semispace.
All they could do was attempt to rescue the smaller longship that was plunging out of control into
emptiness. They paid no further attention to the glowing nuclear clouds which had been 3 proud Arkon
ships. They also knew that it was useless to try pursuing the Terran cruiser with its new linear-drive
propulsion.
The
Alderamin
switched course, however, and made a direct flight to the distant Earth, prepared to
submit a report to the First Administrator. It was to inaugurate a new phase of the search for Arkon’s
missing robotships
* * * *
The
Caesar
was a superbattleship of the Imperium class, also equipped with linear space-drive and also
on the hunt for the valuable Arkon robotships.
4 days had passed since the return of the
Alderamin
. Tactics had been changed. In a conference
convened by Perry Rhodan it had been decided to distribute the members of the Mutant Corps among a
number of the search ships so that even superior forces of Springers, Aras or Ekhonides could be
outsmarted. Moreover, all had agreed that no compromise was to be countenanced and that it was
preferable to risk combat, if necessary, and to destroy the robotships rather than have them be taken.
From now on the search units were going to offer stiffer resistance. In the past few days the Springers
 especially had demonstrated a ruthless determination to challenge the men of Earth for possession of
Arkon’s heritage.
Col. Sukril, commander of the
Caesar
had also been present at the conference. Outwardly he looked
very much like Rhodan’s second-in-command, Reginald Bell, nor was it to be denied that certain
elements of his character reminded people of Bell. This is why it was perhaps not a pure coincidence that
Col. Sukril had the distinction of acquiring the mutant services of Pucky the mousebeaver.
Their first meeting had not been without a certain flavour of drama.
It had been Pucky’s own fault that he had not been present at the briefing. He had just come back from
a strenuous mission and had decided to pass the few hours of his leave at his weekend place at Lake
Goshun. Rhodan had told him that his presence at the meeting wasn’t mandatory. He said that it only
entailed some routine matters that concerned the Fleet commanders.
So it was that Pucky came on board the
Caesar
at the last moment, after Rhodan had given the mutants
their assignments. He was of course familiar with the name of Col. Sukril but he had not yet met him
personally. The
Caesar
was like any other ship and, like every one of them engaged in the search activity,
it was to have a mutant on board. This was in addition to a special load of 20,000 experienced
spacemen, other than regular crews, which the search ships were carrying for the purpose of taking over
the robot battleships and bringing them to Earth.
A young, dark-haired officer was waiting for him in the airlock. "You’re flying with us, Lt. Puck," he
said. "May I welcome you most heartily on board the
Caesar
?"
"That you may," replied Pucky patronizingly, saluting rather indifferently. He wore his custom-made
uniform with the heated case for his beaver tail. Being a telepath, he already knew the officer’s name. "By
the way, does it happen that I’ve been assigned to your task unit?"
"You’re quite correct, Lt. Puck!"
The mousebeaver stretched out his paw and smiled. "Then you can drop the title of rank. We’re buddies
in this together."
"Hm-m … ah—very well, Puck."
"Pucky!"
"What … ?"
"Pucky! that’s what I’m called." He looked around. "Where is the commander? A Colonel Sukril, if I
understand correctly."
"In the Control Central. We take off in 5 minutes."
"Then I’ve arrived at just the right time," Pucky grinned. "So up, up and away—to happy hunting!"
"Hm-m," grumbled Germa doubtfully, shrugging vaguely. "I’m not so sure it’s going to be all that happy.
The Springers are keeping our search commandos pretty busy."
"Pah!" Pucky watched while the heavy main lock closed and slid in place with a dull thud. "So far we’ve
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