Perry Rhodan Lemuria 1: Ark of the Stars (30 page)

"And what about your brother?"

Denetree lowered her eyes. "He is dead. He tried to flee in a small ship. The Tenoy shot it down. You can do nothing more for him."

Rhodan stiffened.

Solina wondered if there was something the Terrans were hiding. They had reported the wreck of a shuttle that had put them on the trail of the ark. They had not said anything about a passenger. Had the Terrans taken a prisoner, perhaps?

"No, Denetree, we can't do anything more for him." Rhodan shook his head sadly.

The Lemurian wept softly. Again she rested her hand on her belt. When Denetree raised her hand to wipe the tears from her face, Solina saw she had taken a rectangular plastic case out from under her belt.

"So your brother did more than dream?" Solina asked.

"Venron was never content with what he had. He always wanted to know more. He believed there was a better life among the stars than there was here." She looked at Rhodan and Solina. "Is that true?"

"I don't know," Rhodan said. "I don't know anything about life on board this ship. But I can assure you that there is life among the stars—and that we will take you with us if you wish."

Denetree's "thank you" was drowned out by Pearl's exclamation. "Rhodan, I think you'd better come and see this!"

"What is it? More Lemurians?"

"Yes, a
lot
more!"

Rhodan went to stand next to Pearl, who as before was keeping watch at the edge of the altar clearing. Solina gave Denetree an encouraging glance and joined him. She was happy to finally have spoken with an inhabitant of the ark, but if they wanted to find out more about the ship, they needed to make contact with the command level. Perhaps now there would be an opportunity to do that.

Pearl had stationed herself between two bushes, an observation post from which she could look out over an adjacent field that recently had been harvested. At the moment, several hundred armed individuals had taken up position. Solina couldn't tell much from their faces—they wore masks or had exaggerated their facial features with paint to look frightening—but that wasn't necessary. The determination with which they aimed their weapons at the joint scouting party spoke volumes.

There was an exclamation behind her back. "The Tenoy!" Denetree cried. "They've found us!"

"Now what?" Pearl asked. "Do we wait until they open fire, or do we beat them to the punch?"

Solina was surprised that Pearl had suddenly turned to Perry Rhodan as the leader after she had so determinedly acted as if she was in command of the group. But it was the only reasonable thing to do: Rhodan had much more experience in such situations than all of them put together, probably more even than the hundreds of opponents facing them. But in Solina's eyes, Pearl Laneaux had been behaving like someone who was much more status-conscious than rational. Had she misjudged her?

Rhodan didn't answer immediately.

"They can't crack our shields," Pearl went on. "We can knock them flat with our paralyzers for a few hours—and then maybe they'll see reason."

"I doubt that." Rhodan seemed to have come to a decision. He turned to the Lemurian. "Denetree, don't let them see you, no matter what happens! Understand?" Then he said to Pearl, "It's hard to have a conversation with a headache, and that's where we'll be if we paralyze them. Not a very good beginning for a friendly relationship. I don't know what kind of weapons they have, but if they open fire on us, there's a danger they could damage the ark beyond repair." He straightened up. "We have to talk."

Rhodan lifted both arms, held out his empty palms toward the armed group facing him, and started walking.

For a moment, Solina looked at him in amazement, then leaped up indignantly. What was he thinking? Did he believe that just because he was immortal, he had a monopoly on dramatic gestures? She stretched out her own arms in the same gesture and caught up with Rhodan. He greeted her with a smile. "Thank you for the company."

They continued on together.

As the armed inhabitants noticed the two strangers approaching them, they stiffened. The clinking of metal on metal that accompanied the positioning of their weapons faded away. No one said a word. Solina thought she heard a faint humming she hadn't been aware of before. Perhaps it was the background noise of the ship's operating systems.

Rhodan hadn't activated his personal defense shield. Solina didn't, either. She thought she knew the reason for the Terran's decision: their armed opponents would have noticed the shields due to their flickering glow, and perhaps opened fire on the spot. The Lemurians facing them must be extremely nervous and frightened if even only a fraction of what Denetree had told them about the ark's society were true.

It was a calculated risk. If they were fired at, their suits' syntrons would activate the shields in time to protect them. In all likelihood, at least; they didn't know what kinds of weapons their opponents were carrying.

About twenty paces in front of the armed front line, Rhodan and Solina stopped. Rhodan lowered his arms, taking care to continue showing his empty palms, and called, "We come in peace!"

Rhodan spoke in Lemurian.

The barrels of the weapons did not move.

"We come in peace!" Rhodan repeated. "We wish to speak with you!"

A single man emerged from the mass, armored the same as the rest, but wearing neither mask nor facepaint. He stopped halfway out to them and laid down his weapon. His steps were strangely stiff, as though he wasn't used to moving his legs, or the high gravity was affecting him adversely. His nearly bald head sat frozen on his neck and didn't move even when he bent to lay his weapon on the ground. His rigidity gave him the appearance of a robot. Only his eyes betrayed the turmoil raging within him.

But Solina hardly noticed the man as such. Her attention and Rhodan's was entirely focused on the chain the man wore around his neck. From it dangled a dull metal egg.

A cell activator!

The man coming toward them was an immortal!

The man stopped two steps in front of them. "I am Lemal Netwar, Naahk of the
Nethack Achton
."

In her mind, Solina translated the name of the ark:
Far Horizons.
A hopeful name, at odds with the atmosphere of fear Denetree described.

Perry Rhodan and Solina gave their names. Solina pronounced hers in a state of numbness. A cell activator! It was impossible! By some unlikely chance a Halutian might have stumbled on the ark and gone down in their legends as a protector, but this ... it was impossible. It was only long after the ark had set out that the Tefrodians, descendents of the Lemurians, had cell activators ... .

"You say you come in peace. Why should I believe you?"

"Because we are human beings like you. We come from Lemuria."

"From Lemuria? Then Lemuria still exists?"

"Yes."

Rhodan didn't tell the Lemurian that the civilization from which he originated was gone. That knowledge could have thrown him into complete confusion, and events already were overwhelming Lemal Netwar. His hands trembled. He slowly lifted his right hand to the cell activator at his chest, as though he was seeking strength there. Which could be the case: Solina knew that at times of heightened stress, cell activators increased their life-sustaining impulses and so made their wearers better able to cope. The Lemurian closed his eyes. What would he decide? Solina wondered what more they could say to convince them of their peaceful intentions.

Rhodan spoke again. "Your cell activator gives you strength."

Lemal Netwar opened his eyes wide. "You know about ... "

"Yes," Rhodan said. "I used to wear one like yours, but it was replaced by a new one implanted in my shoulder."

"You are ... "

The Lemurian sized up Rhodan. Solina understood that an instant bond now existed between them. Only an immortal could appreciate what immortality felt like.

They had won.

Lemal Netwar trusted Rhodan. It would not end in a battle.

In that moment, Solina heard Pearl cry out from behind her, "Denetree, no!"

Solina Tormas turned and saw the young Lemurian running toward her.

Hartich van Kuespert was assigned a console in the lower ring of the
Las-Toór
's control center, one of those reserved for the Akonian scientists, the Yidari. The console offered the Terran a welcome refuge. The conversation with the Ma-Techten, the ship's first officer, had been a mixed pleasure. The Akonian's manner had perfectly matched Hartich's image of these people: self-controlled and reserved. But behind Echkal cer Lethir's mask of cool politeness, the Terran thought he sensed something seething. Disapproval. Distaste. Or had it only been uncertainty? It was hard for Hartich to trust his own perceptions. Hadn't the same man generously given up his own cabin?

Hartich suspected that much more time would pass before he began to understand the Akonians.

Fortunately, their technology was much easier to understand. The syntron responded to Intercosmo, and some kind soul had set his menus and outputs to the galaxy's lingua franca before his arrival.

Hartich quickly made himself familiar with his new workstation. It was astonishing how much Akonian technology resembled Terran: evidence that the two races were more alike than they wanted to admit? Or that Akonian economic espionage wasn't a fabrication of the Terran secret service after all, as the hyperphysicist had assumed up to now? And each system and piece of equipment on the
Las-Toór
seemed to be that little but decisive bit better than its counterpart on the
Palenque.
Evidently, the Akonian government was not quite as stingy as the private owners of the
Palenque.

Hartich felt comfortable at the console. During the short transfer flight to the
Las-Toór,
Hartich had come up with a new idea concerning the Lemurian ship's hyperdetection shield, and now he spent a few minutes with the syntron developing an appropriate computer model. When it was complete he tested it, which took longer than expected since some of the Akonian scientists were just then tying up a large percentage of the computing capacity.

Hartich leaned back and soaked up the atmosphere of the control center. Silent concentration reigned in the hemispherical room. The most prominent sound was the low murmuring of the various ventilators, interrupted now and then by muttered instructions to the various syntrons. Jere von Baloy seldom took an active part in the control center crew's work. The men and women were apparently an experienced team used to working together, and they made most of their decisions autonomously.

The maphan seemed engrossed in a syntron report, but he suddenly turned to the comm officer positioned on the middle level of the ring. "Netkim, have you been able to reestablish contact with the exploration team?"

A translator integrated into the console translated the question for Hartich with almost no delay into Intercosmo.

"No."

"Keep trying."

"Yes, Maphan."

The brief exchange of words tore Hartich out of the complacent mood into which his unexpectedly open reception on the
Las-Toór
had lured him. Communications with the Terrans and Akonians who had gone on board the Lemurian ship had been broken off? That was bad! They had to get help to the team—fast!

He wanted to ask Jere von Baloy what could be done, but while he was still formulating the words, the first officer spoke up ahead of him. "Maphan, we must do something!" Echkal cer Lethir urged. "Contact has been broken off for almost an hour!"

Jere von Baloy turned in his seat toward the officer. "And what do you suggest?"

"That we send in a second team, more heavily armed."

"And what do you wish to accomplish by that?"

"What else? They could get our people out of there!"

The maphan looked at his deputy almost pityingly. "That's based on the assumption that the team is in danger. There is no indication that is the case."

"But we've lost contact with them!"

"That doesn't mean that anything has happened to them. It is very likely that we are merely dealing with a side effect of the Lemurian ship's hyperdetection shield. Hartich, is that probable? You've been working on a model of the ship's detection shield, am I correct?"

In his surprise, Hartich was only able to manage a stuttered, "Yes, I have ... " The commander of the Akonian ship was asking for advice from him who, despite all the polite talk of hospitality, was really just a hostage?

Jere von Baloy was satisfied. "See, Echkal? We'll wait. We agreed with the Terrans on a period of twelve hours for the scouting mission. We will of course honor the agreement. We are Akonians, don't forget. We are the good guys." The maphan grinned at those around him, as though he had made an excellent joke. But no one laughed. The Akonians accepted his words as though what he had said was self-evident.

Once more silence returned to the control center, but Hartich was now aware of a tension in the air that he had not sensed before. He had the feeling he had witnessed a scene in a play that had already been going on for some time. Otherwise, the openly spoken objection by the first officer and its brusque dismissal by the commander could not be explained.

Hartich wondered when the curtain would go up for the next act.

"Maphan!" the comm officer exclaimed. "The Seventh Fleet is calling again! Takhan Gartor von Taklir wants to speak with you immediately!"

The commander thought for a moment. "Give the highly respected admiral my best regards. I am unavailable at the moment."

They were polite words such as were expected between highly placed Akonians, but Hartich had a critical advantage over the admiral: he could read Jere's expression. And there was expressed a very different message:
Get lost, Admiral!

"Of course, Maphan," the comm officer said and transmitted the message. He listened to the reply with an expression of concentration, then turned back to the commander. "Maphan, Takhan von Taklir wishes to state that nothing could be so important as to make the commander of an Explorer unavailable for hours on end, unless there is an emergency condition that exceeds his and his ship's limited capabilities."