In a special room on the pirate ship SHAMMADIN, which serves as both a tracking center and a treasure trove, Perry Rhodan discusses with Vincoulon about what awaits them on the Sogore planet. The Sorgore remains nebulous in his answers. Of course, he only says that not all of his fellows have worked for the Cosmocrats, that he himself does not serve them and that he is not allowed to return to his home planet, as this is forbidden to all Sorgores who have completed an interstellar journey.

 

Telpecc, a Baccunian war commander, recapitulates his life so far and is disgusted that he has lived in peace for so long. He thinks about many aspects of the Baccunarchy's renewed military campaign and discusses this with his Offensive Advisor Ussner.

 

The RA and the SHAMMADIN have now arrived at the system of the sun Gangonia. The third planet is called Sorgorenland. The entire system is a Strangeness zone, which is why the hyper-radio doesn't work and the hypersensors show incorrect measurements. They are looking for a robotized sloop that was sent to the Sorgores home system. Since the hyper-energy storage will also cause problems, Rhodan wants to fly into the system with one of the recently acquired Lipeka cubes, as they have systems that can be automatically adapted to the conditions. The RA would then be parked in a hangar of the 1400 meter cube.

 

Telpecc is approaching the Gangonia system with its flagship ORR and a fleet and has registered that the RA is flying into the system on board a cube. The RA had inflicted heavy losses on him in a recent battle. However, Telpecc initially limits himself to assessing the situation, as the SHAMMADIN is heavily armed.

 

After the jump into the system, the artificial gravity on board the RA fails. Poquandar and Lato are struggling to adapt the hyperstorage battery to the current conditions. From the headquarters, Rhodan registers heavy spaceship traffic in the system, pyramid-shaped ships and one that is reminiscent of a Venetian gondola.

 

A radio message comes in from the gondola. A Sorgore named Kantu answers. The Tellusians (the covert racial name of the Galactics) are not allowed to remain in the system. If necessary, they may accompany the returnee Vincoulon to Sorgorenport, which is located on Gyrund and was founded by the Cosmocrat Mu Sargai. Rhodan has the obsidian archive from her, which contains the coordinates of the locations where the ES fragments are located. Kantu wants to have Rhodan's request to visit Sorgorenland checked, but that can take a few hours as only light-speed radio messages are possible and they are currently in orbit of the fourth planet, a blue gas giant. On a tour of the Lipeka cube, Poquandar and Antanas Lato notice rapid adjustments to the prevailing Strangeness. A Paratron screen has activated, but it is so weak that even a sloop's gun could crack it. Then Rhodan calls them both back to the RA, because the Baccunian fleet, consisting of 22 heavily armed ships, has finally arrived.

 

A space battle ensues because Telpecc completely ignores Kantu's request to leave the system. The Lipeka cube cannot be held. Rhodan and his comrades flee the cube ship with the RA. Kantu’s gondola is also attacked, but its ultra-strong armor easily repels the attack. The Baccunians now send boarding parties into the cube, but Rhodan informs them that the ship will explode in five minutes. When this actually happens, the Baccunen fleet retreats a few million kilometers. Kantu now invites Rhodan to the moon Gyrund, where Sorgorenport is located, because she is impressed by his defensive behavior - but it is clear that Vincoulon will be allowed to enter the moon, but not the planet. The RA lands at a spaceport on the outskirts of Sorgorenport, but there is no one on the site, so they decide to go to the city, ten kilometers away. The Deponent Shema Ghessow remains on board the Sextadim capsule because she has severe health problems due to the Strangeness.

 

The entrance tunnel to the city looks like a densely overgrown greenhouse. They come across a train station and notice that a train has been sent from the direction of the city. When they reach the city, they can marvel at colorful flora and fauna. Rhodan really wants to take a look at one of the funnel-shaped houses sunk into the ground, into which daylight is introduced using elaborate mirror technology. A Sorgore now floats up from the depths of one to greet the newcomers. His name is Escatron.

 

He orders two carriages drawn by Tawans (mammoths with giraffe necks). They can use it to travel through the city and study it extensively. In conversation with the Sorgore it emerges that there is no government here, as everything is based on the initiative and interest of individuals and groups. Perry Rhodan's warning about the Baccunians was forwarded accordingly. Ghessow reports from the RA that a number of the space gondolas are already gathering in the orbit of Sorgorenland as the Baccun fleet is approaching again. Rhodan receives a radio message from Telpecc, who wants a fight with the Tellusian. They take the train back to the spaceport. The shock wave from a nuclear explosion shakes the ground in the distance and the train tips over. The Baccunians have apparently adapted their weapons reasonably well to the Strangeness; they mainly fire torpedoes. Rhodan gives Ghessow the order to emergency launch. The RA is to retreat into the system's asteroid belt. Rhodan had previously learned from Escatron about a transuniversally traveled Sogore woman whose name is Varsaisch. Rhodan now wants to visit her since they are stuck in Sorgorenport anyway. He is hoping for information about the LUMINOSITY and the TEZEMDIA, the large, black shard ship on which the local ES fragment is presumably located, which was probably kidnapped from the Sigleiru hyper-crystal cloud Woya-Dhum.

 

Telpecc now decides to land on the moon Gyrund after the attacks with rockets and torpedoes in order to hunt down the Tellusian Perry Rhodan in a more honorable way in close combat with bladed weapons.

 

The fleeing team of Vincoulon, Lato, Poquandar and Rhodan is impaired because the former Grand Administrator and Vincoulon are currently temporarily blinded by the strong flash of light from the thermonuclear explosion, as the SERUNs and the Sorgore's protective suit are currently still disturbed and cannot filter out the flash which the two of them looked directly into. Now Sorgorian robots are blocking the escape route. Vincoulon is able to convince them not to attack them.

 

They reach a 1000 meter diameter hole in the ground in which the funnel house SPIRIT IN IRON is located. However, it remains unclear whether Varsaisch is in there, as she apparently never stays in one place for long. In any case, the house is literally teeming with Sorgores. Lato hopes that a conversation with Varsaisch will provide information about the whereabouts of LUMINOSITY and TEZEMDIA. They move on.

 

Tawanes, the mammoth-like animals that pull the carriages, are approaching. On one of them sits a Sorgore who immediately demands that Rhodan hand himself over to the Baccunians, since his well-being is subordinate to that of the general public. Without any further ado, Lato paralyzes the Sorgore.

 

Meanwhile, Telpecc leads an attack force through Sorgorenport, killing several of the Sorgores and their Tawanes. The fight is carried out by the two sides primarily with projectile weapons, as the blasters do not work or only work inadequately due to the Strangeness. War commander Telpecc's main target is Rhodan, whom he absolutely wants to get his hands on to battle and kill.

 

After a very short stay in the funnel house, Rhodan and his team continue to flee on the backs of two Tawanes, while fierce fighting continues to rage in Sorgorenport. They finally approach another of the funnel houses sunk into the ground, while Telpecc advances into the funnel house SPIRIT IN IRON. After he can't find the Tellusians, he has the house prepared with bombs because combat robots are being manufactured there. He then sets out to pursue Rhodan, although he considers keeping him alive in order to learn from his art of war.

 

The team has now reached the funnel house ECHO OF DOUBT, where Vincoulon receives medical treatment. Rhodan's blindness is already subsiding due to his cell activator. While Sorgores in the house report that SPIRIT IN IRON is being devastated by the invaders, things initially remain quiet on site, so Rhodan lies down to sleep while the turtle-like Poquandar and Antanas Lato take over the guard. But then an alarm wakes him up because the Baccunians have apparently come very close to the house. In fact, they enter the building that is sunk into the ground and Rhodan quickly finds himself face to face with a Baccunen armed with a rifle. Before he can shoot, Rhodan fires with his thermal beamer, which still works well at this short distance and burns the attacker's hand. He then finds himself in a hold, from which he can only free himself with a shot from the SERUN’s combat vest. The Baccune is killed. Meanwhile, Lato has prepared some Tawanes and Sorgores from the house join in the escape, as the house cannot be held in the long term despite a number of Sorgorian combat robots. So they flee on their mounts. Rhodan finally reaches his current target, the legendary Varsaisch on a lake in the middle of a grove. She wears a white dress and a black veil that falls far down her back. The claws with which she is drawing furrows through the surface of the water are also black. In their dark shine they resemble obsidian.

 

A somewhat bizarre conversation ensues with the legendary Sorgore, which is quickly interrupted because a group of Baccunians now reaches the lakeshore.

 

Varsaisch leads Rhodan and Lato into an underground tunnel system where they can hide, but Poquandar and the still blind Vincoulon have fled on the surface. Varsaisch wants to stop the Baccunians with remotely detonable explosives, but Perry Rhodan should first make radio contact with Vincoulon and the Onquore dimensionologist Poquandar. The radio is compressed, chopped up and coded to a high quality. The contact is made. Poquandar has saved himself and immediately sets off to see Rhodan, but Vincoulon, who is deeply distressed by the ban on returning to his home planet, has surrendered to the invaders and was arrested. Telpecc interrogates him, but he cannot get anything significant out of the Sorgore, since Rhodan and his team have never spoken about their home world. Since Telpecc wants to learn from Perry, he forces Vincoulon to lure the Tellusian to the spaceport so that personal contact can occur.

 

Varsaisch takes the rest of the team to an elevator that leads to a spaceport landing pad. Poquandar and Rhodan take the elevator, while Lato joins Varsaisch, who wants to fight the Baccunians elsewhere. As the two get out of the elevator, a tracked vehicle from one of the two landed Baccunian Talon spacers approaches. Two Baccunians and the captured Vincoulon get out. An almost philosophical conversation ensues between the legendary Terran and the war commander Telpecc about the meaning of true wealth, which should not limit itself to material things, but above all to the self-development of an individual. This becomes too ridiculous for Telpecc's companion, so he fatally injures the captured Sorgore with his bladed weapon. At the same time, a Sorgorian gondola lying on the spaceport, remotely controlled by Varsaisch and Lato, starts and attacks the two Baccune ships that have landed. While the two Baccunes flee to their sloop, Rhodan tries to help the injured Vincoulon with the Cybermed of his SERUN, but it is too late. Before he dies, he can tell Rhodan that he should find his children on Sorgorenland in order to tell them about the stars and the majesty of it all, but also the horrors of the cosmos. Rhodan and Poquandar now board a small Sorgorian gondola and fly off with the planet Sorgorenland as their destination. Since the gondola accelerates much faster than the Talon spacers, the escape is successful. More gondolas approach in orbit and Kantu reports on the radio. Since Vincoulon has died, the Tellusians' residence permit as his companions has expired. Kantu demands that Rhodan leave the system immediately. He gets to keep the small gondola as a small gift for his efforts. But now Varsaisch, who is also on board with Lato, intervenes and insists that her interuniversal journey is not yet complete, which entitles her to go to Sorgorenland. Rhodan, for his part, declares himself to be a canvasser who wants to hire a Sorgorian consultant on Sorgorenland. Kantu can only agree to this.