The second conversation took place between the Druuf commander and Perry Rhodan. Again Harno saw to it that Rhodan could observe the angular monster in his ship Central during the exchange, although the Druuf had no inkling of it.

The s.p.a.cecraft sent into the Druuf Universe through the portal which had been created by the lens field projector in the largest Drusus hangar had meanwhile returned and reported to the commander.

"Harno," Rhodan had asked the round creature, "can you hear what the scoutship commander is telling his chief?"

Harno managed it and Rhodan had no quarrel with the report presented by the returned Druuf.

Negotiations now proceeded.

"Rhodan," the Druuf was just replying, "we are secure in places where you are not present. You are baiting us with your promise that we can return to our Universe. But if we take up your suggestion, you will really attempt to destroy us!"

Rhodan sensed that he could not make any progress with the Druuf with words. He had to provide tangible proof of his honesty. But how was he to do that?

The teletransmitter, the only weapon of its kind and the most dreadful, had to be eliminated. If the Druuf were to find out about the existence of a device such as that, his appet.i.te for the Drusus might increase.

Louder than before, he responded more out of intuition than intellect. "Druuf, you mustn't forget that I did not have to search for you and your fleet. On my native star I already knew where you were hidden. I could just as well have come with all my ships and the battle against you Druufs would have been over long ago!

"I have no more to say than that. Now I am switching off. If you want to talk to me, do it soon!"

That was the old Rhodan, again investing his total personality and, by virtue of his foresight, knowing with almost 100% certainty that the Druuf commander would now be ready to accept his suggestion.

In the mighty Command Central of the gigantic vessel discussion was resumed but no one left his place. Rhodan's flagship was still surrounded by Druufs. If the ultimate showdown were to come about, their fate would be more quickly sealed than the time it had taken to destroy the superbattleship Kublai Khan over the world of the lizards.

"Has the information for Atlan been compiled?" Rhodan asked Gen. Deringhouse.

He stiffened imperceptibly. "Yes sir, all but the time..."

We'll have that right away! Rhodan dared to contend.

No one allowed himself to smile sceptically at that. Perry Rhodan rarely made a prediction like that. But when he did, it always came about.

"Marshall?"

The chief of the Mutant Corps was standing next to Bell at the special tracker. He looked up.

"Inform Tako Kakuta that he is being detailed to the flagship of the Druuf as astronaut. Dr. Small will remain behind in his place!"

"But Kakuta is no astronaut!"

"All the better teleporter he is, Marshall," Rhodan countered.

Bell nodded almost imperceptibly. He had realized what Perry Rhodan was planning with this switch but Marshall seemed to be having a bad day. "Sir, I don't understand you."

"Then I recommend that you have your distrust expelled. Perhaps there is some good therapy for that. Have you understood me now?"

"OK, boss!" Marshall laughed self-consciously, shaking his head over his own denseness.

Tako Kakuta, the short slender j.a.panese with the child's face did not bat an eyelash when Marshall conveyed the boss's order. Only Pucky, who had some reprimand to look forward to for his excessive zeal, said what he thought.

"I still don't know which I like better: the Topide lizards, the Galactic Physicians or the Druufs. None of them appeal to me. They are all repulsive but the Druufs probably bother me most. I don't trust them one inch. Tako, just take good care of our star course regulator and bring it back safe and sound."

"You are having your talkative day again today, huh, Pucky?" Marshall commented sternly.

"No," the mousebeaver replied, grinning with his incisor, "but is it prohibited to give Reggie's thumb some thought and..."

Marshall, still cross about his own denseness, grumbled at him: "Do you have to go and repeat Reggie's rubbish?"

"How delighted he will be about your good opinion when I disclose to Fatso, accidentally of course, how you talk about him! I could probably forget it forever, if you would stroke my fur for two hours." That was plain blackmail and Pucky knew it but as a mousebeaver he could get away with it. However, Marshall did not play along.

"Tell him whatever you wish, my friend, but we will just wait and see when you are ever sent on a mission again! I think your fang will fall out before that!"

No one had ever referred to Pucky's incisor, of which he was so proud, as a fang before. However, Marshall's threat not to send him on any more missions was even worse. Hearing that was more terrible to him than being without fresh carrots for 10 weeks. "John," he meekly requested, "could we come to an agreement?"

"With you, blackmailer?"

But Pucky could not be deterred that easily. "OK, John! Then I am a blackmailer and you are a slanderer! You think that is much better?"

The mousebeaver had the laughter on his side; even the quiet Kakuta smiled his mysterious Asiatic smile. Ready for action, he checked out with Marshall for astronaut duty. Pucky disappeared on the spot.

Marshall informed Command Central over intercom of his partic.i.p.ation.

Meanwhile Perry Rhodan was waiting for the Druuf to take the initiative in making contact. Tension was mounting steadily. During this period Communications was relaying news broadcasts from main stations of Arkonide hypertransmitters.

The Great Empire was cracking at all corners, although it was obvious that the newscasts were designed to heighten the unrest. Even discounting a great deal, however, it was clear that Atlan's position was worsening from hour to hour. The time was approaching in which the Empire would break apart after having endured more than 15,000 years.

During a lull Bell commented: "When the Druuf discovers that he is to play Fly Swatter and the fly at the same time, well..."

Reginald Bell's apprehensions were justified. Several things would have to become immediately apparent to the Druuf scoutships, a.s.suming that the commander sent out the ships with the two Terranian astronauts: For one, the unusual density of the stars in the cl.u.s.ter M13, which would have to arouse the Druufs' suspicion that they were dealing with the national territory of their bitter enemy.

For another, the alarming news of turmoil in the Arkonide Empire would not escape their attention.

Thirdly, and this point caused Rhodan the most anxiety-the Mounders were circling Archetz on security rounds. Should the two Druuf scoutships meet up with ma.s.sed fleet-and the battle-trained vessels would not hesitate one second to attack foreign ships-then not only would Rhodan's plan be foiled, the Druuf fleet surrounding the Drusus would attack as well.

The outcome of that unequal match was obvious.

Rhodan turned to Gen. Deringhouse. "Compose a message for Arkon 3. Demand that Atlan see to it that-No! We won't use hypercom. Just include in the message the courier is taking to Atlan that the Mounders must disappear from the vicinity of Archetz, Emphasize that Atlan will have three hours time for it after receiving the message."

Perry Rhodan was not even conscious of the fact that he was giving orders to the ruler of the greatest celestial empire. During these days he saw Atlan and himself as sitting in the same boat which had to reach a safe harbour through a stormy sea. Should it sink underway, there would shortly be no more Great Empire and that tiny ent.i.ty that proudly called itself the Solar Empire would no longer exist either. Hence it was of no consequence who was giving orders to whom. It was imperative to master the crisis in absolute mutual trust.

Rhodan was just as certain that his plan, Fly Swatter, had little in common with strategy. The plan was laden with unknown factors, the greatest of which was called Thomas Cardif!

Neither Atlan nor he had expected that this young man, supported by the Galactic Traders, could succeed within a few days in shaking the foundations of an empire that had existed for 15,000 years.

There was one single advantage on Atlan and Rhodan's side: even revolutions accompanied by economic collapse needed time to ripen. As long as that moment had not arrived, the greatest power still lay on the side of the state and that fact was the mainstay of Rhodan's plan.

Atlan was neither forced into the roll of crown prince nor was he a victim of confinement psychosis although he was the only living being hidden away under the gigantic dome of the mammoth Computer. He had accepted Rhodan's warning that it was better to incur a great risk than to squelch the least seed of revolution with brute force and thus himself set fires in all corners of the nation. For if Arkon's powerful robot fleet were to attack, hundreds of thousands of cylindrical vessels would form a front. And the positronicon had long since informed Atlan of how well they were armed and what a mismatch the robot fleet would be against the Springers.

"Rhodan..." The voice of the Druuf sounded to many of the men in the Drusus command room like the watchword that liberated them from intolerable stress.

"Druuf..." Rhodan replied just as curtly.

"I am ready to accept your suggestion but I am not prepared to engage two s.p.a.ceships. Only one with two of your astronauts on board will fly to the target star. But if the ship does not return or cuts off communication, then you can prepare your own ship for combat, Rhodan!"

Rhodan ignored the threat. I will send my five men on an auxiliary craft to your ship, Druuf. Order your fleet not to attack it!"

"Already done. Send your men over here, Rhodan. The rest will follow later."

The special transmitter was silent again. The Druuf fleet commander had switched off.

Only a few commands were making the rounds of the great s.p.a.cecraft.

Four astronauts and the teleporter, Tako Kakuta, were boarding a guppy that was to bring them to the flagship of the Druufs. Gen. Deringhouse was meanwhile sitting in Communications Central, completing the report for Atlan which the courier would deliver. He shook his head uncomprehendingly as a technician took the message out of his hand and went over to a device that was not connected to any transmitter.

"Grossi, now just explain to me once again what a negative of a transmission impulse means. I simply can't grasp it, so this is the third time you have to tell me..."

The technician Grossi shook his head, laughing goodnaturedly. "General, it can only be explained with formulas and the whole thing was a chance discovery. More precisely: a cuckoo idea! When it flashed through the mind of my colleague Francozetti and he told us about it, we all laughed. He had the last laugh, though. Two months later he held his new formulas under our noses. Actually it is nonsense to talk about the negative of a radio impulse but we don't have any other expression for it. And because we borrowed the term from photo-chemistry, it has to lead to false conceptions, which makes the process even more incomprehensible... to a layman!"

"Thanks!" Gen. Deringhouse said with a grin. "Now I at least know that I should quit bothering you with questions and what a splendid specimen of a layman I am. But now what's happened with my, message in this contraption?"

Grossi, born in Sicily, got his degree in Naples. For 11 years he had been among the top talent brought to Terrania by Rhodan. Grossi now felt sorry for himself for again he had to turn down the general.

"I can't explain that to you either. If I tell you that this device converts your words into impulses and that in the same operation it prepares a negative of them, you will automatically think of film negatives and that's a dead-end..." He took the thin tape that had clicked its way out of the machine over to the automat of the hyper-transmitter. Gen. Deringhouse did not budge wanted to understand this as yet unexplained process from his side. He was not ready to give up. He still By means of this negative procedure there was certainty for the first time that hyper-transmissions could not be deciphered-as long as the process was unknown to the adversary.

The hyper-transmitter of the Drusus sent the negative message to the courier ship posted 30 light-years away. A direct connection to Arkon was not possible as Atlan did not yet have a like device. "But the courier has one, otherwise Atlan along with his positronicon could brood till the end of time about the undecipherable message our boss sent. So, General, the courier is taking off! You see?"

Grossi demonstratively pointed at the tracking screen. The courier ship could be seen as a minute, gleaming point.

Grinning, Deringhouse asked the dark, curly-haired Grossi: "And you are glad that I am leaving Communications Central, aren't you? But you are not rid of me in the long run!"

The yellow Rusuma sun shone on 18 planets; the 5th was the Springer central world of Archetz. Following the example of Arkon, the Galactic Traders had developed all of them into defensive forts in the course of millennia, with the exception of the planet Ult nearest the sun. Ultimately they included the many moons in their planetary fortification ring.

The clans, constantly cruising back and forth between the stars, mocked the need for security of their racial brothers who had become sedentary upon Archetz until they themselves were compelled to land frequently on Archetz, either for essential repairs of their cylindrical ships or even to purchase new s.p.a.cecraft.

From the moment they felt solid ground beneath their feet they grasped the value of the mere knowledge that they were protected by heavily armed planets and moons.

Archetz, the hub of the subversive movement and of the economic crisis, had made a last ditch effort in the past days. The Mounders had been induced to fly security checks around this most important of Springer worlds.

The night lay above t.i.ton, city of 12 million. In c.o.kaze's vessel, c.o.kaz 2, the two eldest sons of the Patriarch were on guard duty. They were instructed to awaken him and Thomas Cardif on receipt of any important messages. The major portion of the night had pa.s.sed uneventfully, however, when suddenly the central control station of the strong battleship taskforce reported in on the Mounder frequency.

"Where is c.o.kaze, Springer?" the voice of the giant who weighed more than a half ton boomed from the loudspeaker. The giant's face was distorted by anger and his forehead was flushed. "Is he asleep? Then wake him up, quick, friend!"

c.o.kaze's eldest son stormed out of the communications room of c.o.kaz 2, confused by the gruff call of the Mounder. His younger brother switched on intercom, simultaneously connecting with his father's cabin and the Terranian's.

"Who is calling?" the Patriarch asked, still drowsy.

"I'm on my way!" Cardif interjected, wide awake.

They met on main deck and looked at each other questioningly. They shrugged their shoulders, having no idea of what the central control station of the Mounder might have to report of importance at this time of the night.

The Patriarch sank heavily into the chair facing the readout screen. "Onkto, what's up?" he asked, now aware that he was the richest patriarch of all the Springer clans and that there was no more important man at that moment in the entire Arkon Empire.

"Not much," the Mounder said in his incredibly deep ba.s.s voice. "We are pulling back, Patriarch!"

"What are you going to do?" c.o.kaze screamed into the microphone in a fever of excitement. "That is counter to our agreement, Onkto! That is treason!"

"Nonsense!" the Mounder retorted coa.r.s.ely. "Arkon threatened us in no uncertain terms, demanding..."

"Arkon..." The Patriarch, otherwise so controlled, roared with laughter. "Arkon, none other! What is Arkon today?"

"Who is that standing behind you, c.o.kaze? The face reminds me a lot of Rhodan! Who is it?" the Mounder demanded, drowning out c.o.kaze's furious laughter.

Thomas Cardif stepped forward. He placed his hand on c.o.kaze's shoulder, indicating that the Patriarch was to leave negotiation to him.

"I am Thomas Cardif and my mother was Thora, an Arkonide princess, Onkto! That should do it. What did Arkon demand?"

Onkto, head of the central control station of the Mounders, 800,000 kilometres above Archetz in his battleship, felt hypnotized by the reddish gleam of these cold Arkonide eyes. "Are you the one counselling c.o.kaze?" he inquired, obviously confused.

"What did Arkon demand? Who made the demands? The Regent or Admiral Atlan?" It was the Arkonide speaking out of Thomas Cardif; in his gestures, tone and stance he was a prototype Arkonide but in his succinct manner of expression he was Perry Rhodan's son.

Onkto's querying glance at c.o.kaze went unanswered. "The Great Coordinator called up, requiring immediate withdrawal. Otherwise we would be forced into it by the robot fleet."

"And what evidence do you have that the Regent has pulled back the robot fleet from the Druuf front?" Cardif demanded to know.

The giant's eyes widened in anger as he spat out a curse. Then he grumbled: "Cardif, if you already know, why ask? It's enough for us Mounders to know that the robot fleet is no longer at the front... and the Great Coordinator also threatened to send the Druufs!" he hastily added.

"And that is enough to chase the valiant Mounders into the farthermost corner of the Universe?" Cardif bitterly scoffed. His reproach did not sit well with Onkto.

"We are no dumber or smarter than Patriarch c.o.kaze, who only has 10 ships left on t.i.ton. He withdrew all the rest from the firing line..."

"Then a.s.sure me, Onkto, that you will not make your withdrawal known with one single transmission! If I don't get your guarantee, I will see to it that the entire Galaxy learns why you abandoned security duty around Archetz... just because Arkon threatened to send the robot Fleet!"

"Cardif!" Onkto responded menacingly and his eyes narrowed to a slit, "you know as well as we do that the robot fleet is no longer on the front, which means..."

Cardif coldly interrupted: "I do contradict that, Onkto! c.o.kaze contradicts it as well! Once the Mounders are known to be extreme cowards, your war business will be in a bad way. Don't you think so, Onkto?"

He was apparently not alone in the control room, as Cardif and c.o.kaze could hear him whispering, although they could not make out what he was saying.

The face of the Mounder once more faced the screen. "We accept the condition and are going to withdraw covertly. One day the star devils will fetch you, you d.a.m.ned Terran!"

Those were Onkto's parting words. Thereafter the screen in the command room on c.o.kaz 2 darkened.

Thomas Cardif turned his head toward c.o.kaze when he heard him ask: "The Mounders weren't lying, were they?"