Search Worlds Without End

The greatest of treasures awaits... on the deadliest of planets.

Rikard passed a door and a man came out and fell into step beside him. The man didn't say anything for a while. He was wearing a gun--Rikard didn't know what kind--and a knife.

"Whatcher hurry?" the man said at last, his voice slurred.

"I'm trying to make an appointment."

"Zat so? Think you'll make it?"

Rikard tensed himself inwardly, in case the man decided to jump him. But he never found out the man's intentions. Without warning, a tall glittery thing flowed around the corner, half a block away, and everybody on the street came to a startled stop.

It was twelve meters tall, serpentine, transparent, shining. Rikard wanted to run, but he couldn't make his legs work. The glittering, transparent monster swung its head--if that was what it was--from side to side, as if watching the fleeing pedestrians.

Rikard found his legs at last, and took a hesitant, leaden step backwards. The thing swung to stare at him. He froze...

In farthest space lie hidden fortunes... and unknown enemies.

BATTLE OF THE MINDS

The Tathas was bigger than any Rikard had ever seen and each of its tendrils was tipped in red. It was this which was broadcasting the devastating psychic weapon.

Rikard's panic was overwhelming. He knew all too well the kind of madness those alien thoughts could engender, the horror of being touched by one of those degenerate things, being dissolved and eaten while still alive. He fought to control his fear, fumbled for his gun. But even as he pulled the gun, his vision blurred from the effects of the Tathas' psychic attack.

He tried to reach under his shirt for the dragongem, the one thing which, once long ago, had helped him against this evil, but he couldn't get his hand to work. There was a gun in it. He let the gun go, tried to raise his head, saw raiders coming out of the balcony, down ramps, across the floor from first level entrances. The Tathas loomed large, its carrier zombies striding, clumsy but purposeful, toward him.

He concentrated all his energy in retaining awareness...

Rickard Braeth and friends must find the galaxy's secret--before it's used to destroy everything!

TERROR IN THE RUINS

At first Rikard thought that Droagn was suffering hallucinations. Then he saw giant lizards with eight legs moving among the rubble. Rikard found it hard to be frightened by them, though their intent was all too obvious. He was numbed by the Tathas effect, and kept slipping back into mental darkness...

"Kitah bley!" Droagn shouted. Rikard felt the dim edges of the psychic blast which Droagn projected against the creatures, but they weren't intelligent enough to be affected.

Rikard finally became aware that he was in danger. He drew his gun and closed the connection to the implants in his hand, arm and brain. But the effect of the time dilation thus produced was bizarre, dreamlike, nightmarish.

The monsters were closing. Rikard missed his shot. He was dumbfounded. He had never missed before when he was wired into his range finder. He fired again.

And missed...