Rematerialisation occurred in a fair-sized room containing an emergency-power reactor and a converter bank. Farther to the left were the control panels which were connected to the pile by heavy cables. High tension lines led through the thermically-glazed rock walls into an adjoining room where the tanks containing pre-catalysts and nuclear fuel were located. There were also the moderator pumps for dampening down the reactor with regulated injections.

I knew that the emergency power pile had never been called upon for any current demands. I had found the place during my numerous inspection tours and learned that its installation had been a useless precaution.

Typical of this type of construction, the whole assembly sat on a shoulder-high foundation made of armourplate plastic metal. One wall was broken by a maintenance hatch. Behind it was a passage through which one could crawl to the cleanout access holes around the reactor zone. The hatch was no more used than was the power unit itself. Here was the place for our bomb. It could lie here undisturbed for over 6000 years, waiting for the impulse from its uranium timer.

Pucky took a look around in our immediate vicinity, finding only several technicians making routine inspections. They were checking out individual relays. The construction of the giant Robot had required thousands of years. This particular reactor room must have been completed about 20 years ago and there were no further installations being done in this sector. The only thing we would have to fear would be detection by a security patrol, which was unlikely.

I turned off my deflector field. The room was lighted by a permanently burning emergency lamp. We waited until our eyes had adjusted to the dim illumination. It was warm and it became uncomfortable in our combat suits but we didn’t dare turn on our air-conditioners. To avoid any danger of being traced by instruments it was better if our micro-reactors could remain inactive. Their residual radiations were enough to worry about.

Pucky returned from another teleport jump. Ras Tschubai stood at the closed steel door and listened for sounds outside.

"Everything clear," whispered the little one. He looked around anxiously. "Nobody’s there but those technicians."

"Almost a little too easy, eh?" remarked Rhodan.

I thought of Epetran and Marshall’s story. If the learned scholar had seen through our game he was certainly reacting strangely. Why hadn’t he sounded an alarm? Or didn’t he suspect what we were intending to do? Had he merely regarded us as interesting visitors from the future who had come to impart specific knowledge to him? No—Epetran was too shrewd not to realize in that case that we must have come here to destroy his life’s work? Would he stand for that?

I was helpless to find an answer. Finally my extra-brain expressed itself. Granted that Epetran had guessed our origin, he wouldn’t be able to interpret our thoughts. He would have to rely on the vagaries of machine analysis.

This thought relieved me somewhat. At any rate we hadn’t been eliminated so far. No one seemed to suspect our presence down here. Above us lay about 1000 meters of solid rock. The few access passages were heavily guarded. If there were any hint of our presence, all the sentries would have to do was to move in and attack. This was evidently not the case or they would have come looking for us long before now.

Rhodan’s voice suddenly tore me from my thoughts.

"What are you waiting for?" he asked. I was surprised to see that the Terran was suspicious of me. I could detect it in his eyes. He had always looked this way at other intelligences when he doubted their intentions.

"You Terran barbarian," I retorted angrily, "are you thinking perhaps that I‹ll lose my nerve at the last minute? Will you never learn any better?"

The Chief of the Solar Imperium suddenly grinned with the ingenuousness of one of his youngest cadets.

Pucky showed his incisor tooth brightly. "Now he’s acting human again!"

I released the cylindrical bomb from its carrying straps. Rhodan held it while I opened the maintenance hatch. After I had crawled in, he handed it to me and I attached it to the plastic metal wall with instant-grip fasteners. To check it over would have been superfluous. The weapon was sealed. There was nothing more to attend to here. I carefully emerged from the crawl-way and closed the hatch.

Pucky was listening telepathically for thoughts impulses from outside.

"Almost too easy to be true, sir," said Ras Tschubai. "Is that all?"

I nodded.

"Then let’s jump back," ordered Rhodan. "We can’t wait here for 6000 years."

He attempted to laugh but it didn’t have the desired effect. Pucky ran to me and I picked him up in my arms. It was the best way for the two of us to teleport.

"Are you sure the reactor definitely won’t be inspected?" asked Rhodan again. He had often asked this question.

I couldn’t tell him any more than I had previously. The power pile had never been used. The main reactors had never failed.

Ras suddenly groaned and I realized why too late. He and Rhodan were standing several meters away. Before I understood why they both started to collapse I was also attacked by a wave of pain. Pucky screeched and I felt his legs tremble. I felt as if fluid fire were running through my veins. I squatted down and let the little fellow roll onto the floor.

After 3 seconds it was all over with. The pain faded as swiftly as it had come. Rhodan’s reaction was to reach for his weapon immediately. My eyes finally cleared and I was about to ask what happened when Ras let out another groan. His eyes were fairly popping as he stared beyond me. When I turned, I knew why.

The emergency power reactor had changed. Its isolation shielding jacket which had just been so immaculate was now stained and spotted. Here and there were cracks and other signs of decay. A thick layer of dust was on the floor and the equipment. I jumped up. Rhodan was already on his feet. Pucky was still squirming on the floor.

"How can a new reactor become a pile of junk in 3 seconds?" asked Rhodan. His voice sounded hoarse. I declined to answer, since we both knew.

"It’s—it’s the time field!" stammered Tschubai, horrified. "Sir, we’ve gotten out of the conversion field. The machine has stopped working."

I helped Pucky to his feet. His mouse face was contorted in a grimace of uncertainty.

"The field is gone," he confirmed. "I’m getting many impulses. We’re back in our own time again. But the bomb—!"

I whirled about to look as the hatch that I had just closed. Just closed? Perry reassured us.

"Don’t get excited. We left the Sotala on February 14. We haven’t spent more than an hour here. We still have 20 hours."

His last words were drowned out by a nerve-shattering howl. Outside the alarm sirens were sounding. The Regent had detected us. For 6000 years it had been a harmless machine. Now we had to get used to the idea again that it had begun to deteriorate due to the tampering with its A-1 circuits.

Pucky had calmed himself. I took him up in my arms once more. Rhodan took a firm hold of Ras Tschubai.

"Where to?" asked the teleporter confidently. He was accustomed to eluding his enemies through the paramental planes.

I hesitated. Where could we go? If the time-phaser had ceased functioning, then the cruiser would also be in the present time. That meant a battle which would sooner or later lead to the destruction of the ship. There was no other explanation for our sudden return to our own time. The machine must have failed. Whether by accident or plan was immaterial just now.

"Our target is the Sotala," Rhodan decided. "Then we’ll see what we should do."

I waited for the dematerialisation but it did not occur. Pucky began to tremble. His eyes seemed to grow dim. Ras Tschubai staggered so that Rhodan had to support him. I felt gooseflesh come over me.

"Pucky … !"

"Antis!" he exclaimed. "Antis are close by somewhere! I can’t concentrate—they absorb my psi. Atlan, I can’t jump!"

Tschubai confirmed it. I didn’t ask any more questions. We knew that the Akons had the support of the Baalol priests. Their mental emanations negated the mutants’ para-faculties.

I pulled my minicom set from my equipment belt and turned it on. I sent out a distress call on the hyper-frequency band of the Fleet. We had found that the Brain’s honeycomb screen could be penetrated by relatively weak hyperwaves. If the radio experts of the Sotala were alert they would hear me. Of course that depended on whether or not the cruiser had actually returned to present time.

We listened breathlessly. Pucky detected a few brain impulses, then nothing more. So the Antis were also closing in on us. The Sotala did not answer but in its place we heard a strange voice. It was a time announcement in English. Someone was broadcasting on our frequency.

"Ironduke—it is now 11:43, 15 February 2106 … !"

The message was continuously repeated except that the time of day kept changing. I tensed, hardly noting Rhodan’s sudden grip.

"The 15th of February, sir," said Ras, nonplussed. "The bomb will explode in less than 17 minutes!"

"But—we came out of the ship on the 14th," protested Rhodan. "The conversion table—"

"Was wrong," I interrupted him. "The time-phaser doesn’t work as precisely as we assumed. Friend, I’m getting nervous."

He released his grip on my arm. Pucky announced that his psi faculties had surrendered completely. A merciless enemy waited for us outside. We exchanged glances. In a basic sense it made little difference to us which way we would die if it were going to happen. Perhaps an energy beam might be easier to contemplate than being caught up in the sun-hot concussion of a 50-megaton explosion.

"We’ll use the emergency exit. All set?" We turned on our individual defence screens. They were strong enough to absorb the impact of hand weapons fire although a robot shot might be dangerous. The deflector screens made us invisible. When I pulled down my absorption filter I could again see my companions.

Ras opened the emergency door in the rear of the chamber. Beyond it was a dimly-lit corridor. There was still no one in sight.

The hypercom message of the Ironduke was still giving the countdown. It was now 11:46 …