"The seals are asking where we want to go," Marshall inquired.

Rhodan thought for a moment. "Ask them if they can take us to the peninsula where it joins the coast of the continent."

"Nothing to it," Marshall reported their answer.

Rhodan wanted to say something but the boat surged forward at the same instant. The seals required no further instructions. With a speed exceeding that of their old motor by more than half - as Rhodan estimated - their unwieldy craft streaked through the waves.

Marshall was lost in thought as he gazed on the glistening heads of the seals pulling the boat and those swimming along to their left and right.

Then he flopped down on the bottom of the boat. The back of his head landed in a puddle of slimy water they had failed to scoop out. This didn't bother him though. He had hardly laid down when he was fast asleep.

Rhodan and the j.a.panese exchanged understanding glances. They both crouched at the bow of the boat and watched the seals. Rhodan found it amazing that 10 seals imparted a higher velocity to the boat than the 30 horsepower turbine. One and a half times the velocity meant more than twice the output, a.s.suming the efficiency was equal. Under these conditions it could be figured that each of the 10 seals developed about 10 horsepowers.

Their efficiency was probably higher than that of the more complicated motor with its propeller drive. But a minimum of at least four or five horsepower had to be ascribed to the seals. For the first time Rhodan understood how different life on this young world was from ancient Terra. For the first time he grasped the meaning of the concept of vitality.

Colonel Raskujan committed the error of worrying more about his two most important prisoners, Thora and Tomisenkov, than about the two gyrocopters he had sent out.

He requested information about the aircraft from the radio station which had been set up some distance away from the s.p.a.ceships in the vicinity of the coast and learned that nothing had been heard from them for two hours. The period of two hours didn't disturb him as such. A search over the open sea could easily require three or four times as long without producing any results but the radio silence caused him anxiety.

The radio station had attempted several times to contact the two machines, each time without success.

Now Raskujan decided quickly. He gave orders to a major to comb the surface of the ocean with three helicopter squadrons - giving special attention to the area where the strange streams of light had been observed. They were to look for the missing vehicles and spot any enemies who were around, to attack and destroy the enemy or capture him if possible.

The helicopters took off within a few minutes after Raskujan issued his command. But meanwhile three hours had elapsed since they had last heard from the first two vehicles.

Two hours had gone by since the seals had taken over leading the boat. Rhodan estimated they had covered a distance of about 50 miles during these two hours. As the boat was proceeding now in a northnortheast direction, the distance to their hypothetical point of landing had grown by a few more miles. Rhodan guessed that they were about 9o miles from their goal, a ride of nearly four hours.

He wondered what steps Raskujan had taken about his two machines that had disappeared. He didn't trust his luck to be great enough to make Raskujan refrain from any further action. Sooner or later more helicopters probing the ocean were bound to come forth.

The only chance their little boat had against a flotilla of helicopters-except for their thereto-beam weapons-lay in the fact that they had put a considerable distance between themselves and the course on which the helicopters would presumably fly from their camp. Perhaps the search would take long enough to permit the safe escape of their boat.

Perhaps-

Rhodan was still mulling over these thoughts when a sound reached his ears that was different from the splashing noise of the seals. He tried to shield his ears from the splashing of the water with his hands and listened into the night.

Irregular, humming sounds.

Helicopters! An entire squadron!

Still far away, Rhodan thought. Okura won't be able to see them yet.

Nevertheless, he drew the attention of the j.a.panese to the noise and told him to keep his eyes open. As Okura could not have failed to see the hot exhaust from the engine jets if it were within range of sight, the only conclusion to be drawn from the fact he had seen nothing so far was that the machines were still below the horizon.

The noise grew louder, reached a climax and diminished again. Ten minutes after Rhodan had first noticed it, it had disappeared again. "They're not on the right track yet," Rhodan smiled with relief. "I hope they don't find us for a long time!"

He looked at the sleeping Marshall. If the helicopters came closer he'd have to awaken him from his well-deserved slumber. They'd need every raygun if the chips were down. Furthermore, Marshall had to warn the seals so that they wouldn't be placed in jeopardy.

But there was no immediate danger.

More than 60 miles above this scene, someone else made a second and - for the time being - last attempt to intervene in the events taking place on Venus.

Reginald Bell, the battle-hardened companion of Ferry Rhodan and Minister of Internal and External Security of the New Power, had heretofore been concerned with his own safety and was unable to come to the help of the others because the mighty positronic brain in the Venus fortress had enveloped the whole planet almost to the limit of its atmosphere in an impenetrable protective mantle that sealed it hermetically off from all outside influence.

Shortly after Rhodan had left, Bell took off from Terra in one of the spherical s.p.a.ceships of the Good Hope cla.s.s measuring 200 feet in diameter and officially called "Guppies" when they served as auxiliary vessels on board a larger battleship.

Thora had suffered a sort of mental short-circuit. Home sickness and the obsession that Rhodan didn't think of allowing her to return to Arkon, caused her to seek aid on Venus. The most important base of the New Power was located on Venus. Although it harbored no s.p.a.ceships, it contained hyperwave radio transmitters with energy great enough to broadcast emergency signals that could reasonably be expected to be picked up by her people far out in s.p.a.ce.

Thora had blasted off in one of the newly built destroyers and was shipwrecked on Venus when she approached the defense zone of the fortress because her ship had not yet been equipped with facilities to remit the code signal. Subsequently she was captured by Tomisenkov and both of them were in turn taken prisoner by Raskujan.

Rhodan followed her a few hours later but he and his two companions didn't fare any better than Thora. They had been able to avoid capture but their efforts to free Thora failed.

The third of the team was Reginald Bell. It was presumably a simple matter for him in his Guppy to reach Venus without hindrance and to enter through the defense zone of the bulwark. With the technical gear available at the base he could have intervened in the battles, liberated Thora, rescued Rhodan and taught Raskujan a lesson to boot. The positronic brain, however, having been alarmed by the two previous unannounced flight, cordoned off Venus from the outer world and took over command of the fortress and the planet as a whole. As a consequence Bell was cruising with his s.p.a.ceship outside the protective mantle and was not even in a position to communicate with Rhodan via radio. All electro-magnetic frequencies down to the long wavelengths of infra-red rays were blocked out.

Only once had Bell attempted to circ.u.mvent the barrier of the positronic brain by the deployment of a mutant, Tako Kakuta. The most remarkable of Tako Kakuta's amazing talents was teleportation. He was able to transport himself over distances up to 30,000 miles without recourse to technical conveyances. His medium for transport was the transcendental hypers.p.a.ce. The method was thus equivalent to the transition of a s.p.a.ceship - with the exception of the energy source.

Tako had returned from his first attempt instantaneously and half dead. He himself was under the impression that he had been absent for hours. The fact of the matter was undoubtedly that the positronic brain was prepared to repulse infiltration attempts of any kind whatsoever, even those taking place on planes of a higher order. It was questionable that the base permanently maintained a five-dimensional defense screen around the whole planet. This would have required an immeasurable amount of energy. But apparently the positronic brain reacted to the intrusion of a superbody quickly enough to eject it again from its realm.

Tako Kakuta needed two days of Terrestrial time to recuperate.

On the following day Bell asked him whether he'd be willing to try it once more and gave a few reasons. "It's possible, for instance," Bell pointed out, "that the first failure was due to an accident. Perhaps you can get through to the fortress the second time without being molested. You remember that you once before entered the base with a telejump after Tomisenkov first landed with his armada of 500 s.p.a.ceships and was scattered to the four winds with his crews. Of course, it's possible that the positronic brain considers the present situation much more dangerous than before and that it has therefore activated many more far-reaching defense measures. To be honest, it probably has. But shouldn't we try to make another attempt just the same?"

Bell spoke in gentle tones that ran counter to his usual custom. He was under no obligation to plead with a mutant or any other member of the New Power. In situations like the present it was his right to give orders.

But he knew what it meant to induce Tako Kakuta to undertake this task again. He had already reached the limit of his physical endurance the first time.

To his surprise Kakuta didn't hesitate for a moment. With an uncertain smile on his round child like face he answered: "Of course I'll try again. I hope it won't be worse than the last time when I felt like being run over by an armored tank."

They prepared for the mission. Bell summoned two men of the crew to the command center and instructed them to hold Kakuta carefully when he reappeared in the ship.

Tako Kakuta took up his position. He exhibited a suffering mein and announced: "Here I go!"

The transition took less than a second. No sooner had they noticed his outline getting fuzzy than he had already completely vanished.

Reginald Bell held his breath. For an interval of two heartbeats he dared hope that this time their attempt had been successful. Then the j.a.panese suddenly reappeared again.

His eyes were closed and his face distorted with pain. The men Bell had called to a.s.sist him, did their duty. The j.a.panese sank into their arms. He was unconscious.

"Take him to his cabin and watch him!" Bell ordered. "Let me know when he wakes up."

He turned around and stared at the observation screen filled with swirling, brightly lit ma.s.ses of clouds.

The second attempt had failed miserably!

There were no more conceivable ways left for him to take a hand in the events on Venus. Rhodan had to carry on the struggle alone.

Son Okura saw the flat coast of the continent appear like a dark line.