Perry Rhodan (006) The Secret of the Time Vault by Clark Darlton

Author:Clark Darlton [Clark Darlton]
Format: epub
Tags: Unknown
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2010-01-03T09:00:37+00:00

It was like a scene in a grotesque monster movie. The new commander of the Topidian forces, Rok-Gor, was sitting at his desk, scratching the synthetic top with his sharp claws, doodling intricate patterns. He was extremely nervous, for this was the day they expected the investigation committee from Topid.

Chrekt-Orn, now dismissed from his post as commander-in-chief, and Trker-Hon sat on the other side of the desk. Using Chrekt's eyes and ears as a medium, Ralph Marten, the mutant, became a witness to this preliminary discussion.

Ralph Marten was the son of a German father and a Japanese mother. He'd inherited his father's tall stature and light-blue eyes, and his mother's black hair. His ability to penetrate other persons' minds and spy undetected on their actions was not a normal characteristic shared by his parents and handed down to him. This was the result of the increasing radioactivity of the Earth's atmosphere, which caused mutations in the parents' genes, later expressed as startling new talents in their offspring. Thus Ralph Marten, the mutant, could see and hear with the lizards' eyes and ears and follow their conversation. Meanwhile Ralph's body was lying rigidly in the secret chamber of the Red Palace, watched over by Reginald Bell and other members of the mutant corps.

The three Topidian lizards behaved in a rational and intelligent manner - a notion often proposed in times past by writers of imaginary stories, but which had seemed utterly fantastic and unbelievable scarcely ten years earlier. 'The lizards were not too much at ease in this strange environment, but they'd adjusted to it fairly well. They had different types of furniture on their home planet Topid, to be sure, designed for their reptilian body shapes. Still, here they made do with the furnishings they'd appropriated from the human-like Ferrons.

'It was nothing but hypnosis, remote control hypnotic trance!' wheezed Trker-Hon, trying to explain the reason for both blunders he'd made. First he'd insulted the Despot, then he'd withdrawn his fleet in the midst of battle. 'I wasn't aware of what I was doing. I was no longer master of my own mind. They must have machines which control other people's brains.'

'And how do you account for the fact,' Rok-Gor asked, 'that Chrekt-Orn could suddenly fly like a bird, that a black ghost appeared from nowhere right in the command center of the battle cruiser, demolishing many instrunents? Was that also due to hypnotic commands?'

Trker didn't reply. What answer could he give? Chrekt-Orn, the former commander-in-chief, tried to advance his opinion of the nightmarish events. 'Our enemies must be aided by strange powers, unknown to us. We've learned from our conquests of alien races that they frequently possess incomprehensible abilities and characteristics for which we later have found some explanation. I'm sure this will be the case here too. Tomorrow the Commission will …'

'That's exactly why I've asked you to come here,' interupted Rok abruptly. 'We all realize that we'll be held responsible if the campaign should prove to be a failure.

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