Her fists clenched, Commander Hogh stood in front of a monitor wall, and stared at the black spherical starship that the screens showed from various angles. It was enveloped in white shreds of clouds and a glowing tail of ionized air streamed behind it.

  The Beasts had already penetrated the atmosphere.

  Delaine Hogh turned her head slightly and looked at Paronn. Her face was ashen. Horror flickered in her eyes.

  "The KOLOSCH blew up," she murmured. "The crew and more than a thousand men, women, and children ... simply gone in a second."

  Paronn felt a fleeting twinge of guilt. Up to now he had not wasted a thought on Thore Bardon's crew and the refugees who had been on board the heavy cruiser when it was destroyed by the Beasts. Did that mean he was cold-hearted, an insensitive fanatic completely wrapped up in himself?

  No, he told himself. Not cold-hearted, just logical. All these brave men and women may have died, but with the time machine I can reawaken them to new life ...

  But he could only use the time machine if he succeeded in transporting it to Lemur and determining how to operate it. That was impossible without the KOLOSCH. Either they would die in the fire of the Beast ship's cannons or in the fire of the atomic destruction eating away at the planet.

  Desperation tightened his throat.

  His every instinct rebelled against the hopelessness of their situation, and he thought again of the Twelfth Hero's prophetic words. Vehraáto had been convinced that he would accomplish the mission given to him, so he would not fail no matter how dark the situation seemed.

  There had to be a way out!

  But no matter how feverishly he thought—every scenario led to certain death.

  "Does the base have a defense system? Gun emplacements? Impulse cannons?"

  Hogh shook her head hopelessly. "This is a civil installation, not a military outpost. Our best protection was the fact that no one suspected that the base even existed."

  Paronn spat a curse.

  He watched on the vidscreens as the Beast ship slowed, approaching in a vertical descent to the mountain where the Suen station was hidden. Apparently the enemy had discovered the base. He wondered helplessly how long the solid rock would stand up to a barrage from the interval cannons. Probably no longer than a few seconds. The five-dimensional impact fronts would smash the stone and leave the base in rubble and ashes, along with the crew and the time machine that now would never see use.

  In any event, death would come quickly.

  His shoulders sagged.

  Velsath had been right. They were doomed. The Twelfth Hero must have been mistaken about Paronn, as inconceivable as that might be. He would not accomplish any great deeds, he would not be able to change the fate of the Lemurian people. Instead he would meet death on this remote planet in the 87th Tamanium, far from the home world.

  He heard Velsaths's gasping breaths behind him, interrupted by a murmured prayer. He wished that he too could believe in the old gods of Lemur and find comfort in them.

  But the old gods had betrayed Lemur. And they were doing nothing to save Levian Paronn, the Great Tamanium's last hope, from certain death.

  Suddenly the black spacesphere came to a stop at the foot of the mountain. It hung over the valley floor, enveloped in its impenetrable paratron shield. Paronn believed for an euphoric moment that he had been mistaken, that the Beasts had not discovered the base after all.

  But then a hatch opened in the black steel of the hull and two four-armed figures in black battlesuits floated out. They landed on the stony soil and stormed up the slope that led to the Suen base's entrance.

  Seconds later, they disappeared from the cameras' view.

  Paronn continued to stare at the spacesphere on the monitors.

  They don't want to destroy the base, he realized, they want to take it over! Does that mean they know about the time machine? Or are they simply following their killer instinct like those Beasts that landed in the city to massacre the civilian population?

  Whatever the case, the time machine must not fall into their hands!

  "They want to break into the base," he said to Delaine Hogh. "Pass out weapons to the crew. It will be a hard battle, but we'll win it."

  He had attempted to give his voice an optimistic sound, but the commander looked at him in disbelief.

  "It's no use. We don't have a chance." She shook her head in despair.

  Paronn swore and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Don't give up the fight before it's begun!" he snapped. "Every person in this Lahmu-damned base is going to fight and anyone who won't will be shot by me personally! Do you understand me?"

  Intimidated, she nodded and he let go of her. As Hogh stepped to the console and activated an alarm that howled loudly through the underground base, Paronn turned away. The anger over the commander's defeatism still churned within him, and he glared at Velsath.

  "Are you also afraid of the coming battle?" he asked in a dangerously quiet voice.

  His assistant swallowed. "You can depend on me, Technad. I will defend the time machine with my life."

  Paronn accepted the answer with satisfaction, and admired Velsath for the courage he showed. After all that he had suffered from the Beasts, Paronn would not have been surprised if Velsath had crawled into some corner in a panic. But perhaps he saw in the coming battle a chance to take revenge on the Beasts.

  The Technad and his assistant left the control room and hurried back to the time machine hall. The funnel-shaped converters had already been dismantled and stowed in the containers that waited in the wide corridor for transport. Ruun Lasoth and several of the station's technicians used an antigrav disc to raise a disassembled block of machinery from the lower level into the hall. They ignored the rising and falling siren tones that howled through the base. In one corner stood Donee, the weapons officer, observing the work with an expressionless face.

  When Paronn came in, she immediately walked over to him. "Why has the alarm been sounded?" she asked.

  "Two Beasts are attacking the base," Paronn replied. "We must prepare ourselves for a battle."

  Donee merely nodded, without any change in expression, and automatically felt for the thermobeamer in the holster at her hip.

  "And the KOLOSCH has been destroyed," Paronn added. "We no longer have any way to leave Torbutan."

  "I understand," the weapons officer murmured. Her face still showed no sign of reaction. "If we have to die, we'll take some Beasts with us," she added grimly.

  "P-perhaps," Velsath stuttered, "the situation isn't really so hopeless. I mean, it's still possible that some of the ships from the squadron survived the battle against the Beasts and will return in time to save us." He gestured helplessly. "We must not give up hope."

  Paronn laid a hand on his shoulder. "No, we mustn't," he said earnestly.

  From outside the doorway approaching footsteps could be heard. Half a dozen members of the station crew wearing gray battlesuits and armed with heavy thermobeam weapons burst in. Their leader, a tall, gangly man with ash-gray hair, came up to Paronn.

  "Lieutenant Proda," he introduced himself tersely. "The commander ordered us to guard the hall. Your orders, Technad?"

  "Proceed to the corridor intersection and defend it with your lives," Paronn told him. "No Beast can be allowed to reach the time machine."

  "Understood," Proda said. He smiled coldly. "You can depend on us."

  The crew members left the hall to take their positions. Paronn watched them go and their willingness to sacrifice themselves touched him. Tam Councilor Markam seemed to have chosen his people very carefully. Even in the face of death they showed no fear. Perhaps these men really would succeed in repulsing the Beasts.

  His mood darkened again.

  But even if they were victorious, there was still the atom fire that would reach the underground base in twelve, at most fourteen, hours and destroy it.

  Levian Paronn straightened up. He drew his thermobeamer from its holster, checked its energy magazine, and prepared himself for his final battle.

  16

  Between the double suns in the ash-filled sky of Torbutan, a third sun had blazed up. It glowed white at first but then fading after a few seconds, finally died away completely in the sooty haze. Only a thousand shooting stars, pieces of debris leaving glowing trails in the smoke-obscured sky, remained of the Lemurian heavy cruiser.

  Looking at the virtual depiction of near-planetary space on the inner side of his helmet visor, Icho Tolot followed the course of the Halutian battlecruiser. With a spoken command he had his suit's built-in computer project the further progress of the ship's trajectory and found his fears confirmed.

  The Beast ship was heading for the time teleporter complex in the western mountains.

  His overbrain's cold thought impulses forced their way into his conscious mind. Either it will destroy the base or the crew plans to seize the time teleporter. Both alternatives are equally disastrous. You must not allow the teleporter to fall into the Beasts' hands. The consequences would be catastrophic.

  Tolot could only agree with the overbrain's reasoning. The Beasts would have no scruples about using the time teleporter.

  In all probability they will use the time machine to travel into Lemuria's past and destroy the planet before the Lemurians can become a galactic power, the overbrain added with the dispassionate tone that was its distinguishing characteristic. The consequences of such an action would be unimaginable for the Milky Way and the other galaxies in the Local Group. There would be no pacification of the Halutians, no Second Humanity, no Arkonides, Tefrodians, or other Lemurian descendants. There would be no positive development for IT's entire sphere of influence. The Halutians would then presumably rule the Local Group in the present on behalf of the criminal First Vibratory Power, whose orders they follow.

  The overbrain then went silent. Either it had exhausted itself with its explanation or it recoiled from considering the further consequences of such a massive disruption of time's natural progression.

  Tolot looked again at the sky, where a small black spot had appeared. It was flying towards the mountain range through the clouds of soot that overhung the eastern horizon. He immediately activated his battlesuit's deflector and sensory systems. The narrow ravine where he had concealed himself since digging his way out of the buried cave offered additional protection from discovery.

  With long leaps he raced through the winding canyon and finally reached its end. The rubble of the demolished communications station still smoked. Columns of smoke also rose from the city to the west and the spaceport to the east.

  The livid glow of the approaching atom fire threw the entire eastern horizon into a bloody light.

  In twelve to fourteen hours, the mountain base will be burned to nothing, his overbrain informed him soberly. You must have taken control of the time teleporter by then or you will never leave this era.

  However, this assumed that the Beasts would not destroy the underground base with the teleporter. And the com messages that Tolot had intercepted indicated to him that the Lemurians had dismantled the time machine, although their plan to transport it to Lemur on the now destroyed heavy cruiser KOLOSCH had failed.

  They were marooned on Torbutan.

  Just as he was.

  I warned you. The overbrain's thought impulses seemed to express grim satisfaction even though any emotional reaction was alien to it. If you had listened to me and taken control of the time teleporter earlier, you would not find yourself in this hopeless situation.

  Tolot muttered a rumbling curse and pressed himself instinctively against the rocky wall of the ravine. The black Beast ship, protected by its flickering paratron shield, floated over him in uncanny silence and onwards in the direction of the mountain base. It was a small battlecruiser with a diameter of not even one-hundred meters. If his information about the ancient Halutians was correct, such ships were completely automated and manned only by crews of one or two.

  As the ship shrank to a dot in the distance, he turned towards the west as well and ran back through the winding valley that was bounded by steeply rising cliffs. At the end of the valley lay the burned-out wreck of the refugees' ship that he had seen shortly after his arrival. He slowed up as the Beasts' black ship came to a halt near the wreckage. It slowly descended until it was just above the ground, then hovered there in a stationary position.

  Apparently they are not planning on destroying the base with their interval cannons, the overbrain observed.

  Tolot took cover under a huge rock outcropping although the deflector field shielded him from scanners and curious eyes, and watched as two Beasts left the ship and stormed up the slope that led to the entrance of the time transmitter complex.

  The worst alternative had become reality.

  The Beasts were attempting to take over the mountain base. And if they took control of the time machine ...

  You must prevent that from happening no matter what, the overbrain admonished him once more. The time teleporter must not fall into the Beasts' hands! Kill them before they distort the course of history beyond recognition.

  Icho Tolot ran onwards.

  He saw bright flashes of energy shooting down the slope at the Beasts and being diverted by their paratron shields into hyperspace. They answered the fire with their interval guns. Where the five-dimensional impact fronts struck, the rock was smashed and pulverized. Rock dust drifted in thick billows through the air and was blown away by the wind. The virtual display of the battle on the inner surface of his helmet visor showed Tolot a dozen armed Lemurians ducking behind rocks or in crevices near the main door of the base. They were continuously shooting at the charging Beasts with thermal and impulse beams.

  But the four-armed giants could not be stopped. Protected by their flickering paratron shields, they advanced meter by meter and killed the entrenched Lemurians with robot-like precision. Finally they had eliminated the last defender and reached the massive armored door of the main entrance.

  Tolot watched them fire at the closed door with their interval guns. It did not take long before the hardened steel crumbled away beneath the five-dimensional impact fronts. An opening appeared that was large enough for the Beasts to squeeze their way inside.

  A moment later, they had vanished from Tolot's view and the range of his suit's sensors. He didn't hesitate any longer, and instead raced up the mountain slope, drawing his interval beamer from its holster as he ran. As he approached the breached armored door, he slowed his steps and studied the virtual battle depiction on the inner surface of his helmet visor.

  Just beyond the door, everything was quiet. There were no energy signatures that indicated a battle with beam-weapons. Even so, he approached the jagged opening in the steel door with extreme caution and looked inside.

  A dozen corpses lay in the large entrance hall. Fallen Lemurian soldiers who had been terribly maimed by the Beasts' interval guns. The four-armed giants had needed only seconds to eliminate the guards. The Lemurians had not had a chance against them.

  What are you waiting for? the overbrain pressed him. Do something before it's too late!

  Tolot squeezed through the hole in the armored door, strode across the large room that had been hollowed out of the surrounding rock, and came to the wide tunnel that led to the antigrav and emergency stairway shafts. From the depths rose muffled screams, drowned out by the roaring laughter of a Beast in a killing frenzy. With a dozen long leaps, Tolot reached the antigrav shafts. He saw that they had been turned off and access to the lower levels was blocked by horizontal hatch covers.

  His gaze turned to the emergency stairway shaft. The door had been torn away with brute force and lay dented on the ground.

  As he started down the stairs, the death screams from below grew louder. He descended the metal steps at a run, came across two more dead Lemurians and a smashed door on the next landing. He ran through the doorway into a wide, brightly lit corridor. The walls showed scorched impact holes. From the end of the passageway came the characteristic crackling of beam weapons.

  Tolot stormed onwards, reached the next turn, and came to an abrupt stop.

  A few meters ahead, one of the Beasts blocked the corridor. Enveloped in its paratron shield, it stood with its back to him and fired at a barricade of furniture and steel plates. Several Lemurians had taken cover behind it and were firing their thermobeamers at the enemy.

  The blazing hot beams of energy were dispersed without any effect on contact with the Beast's protective shield. It roared with laughter and smashed a portion of the steel-plate barrier with a well-aimed interval blast. Two Lemurians crumpled, dead, while their comrades continued to fire without even making the Beast's paratron shield waver.

  What is holding you back now? the overbrain's thought impulses demanded impatiently in Tolot's mind. Kill the Beast!

  Tolot hesitated for a fraction of a second, then made his decision and turned off his deflector field. He suddenly became visible. The Lemurians' beam fire broke off as they discovered the presumed second Beast in the red battlesuit.

  "I am your friend!" Tolot exclaimed in Lemurian. "Do not be afraid. I am on your side!"

  The Beast in front of him whirled and glared at him in surprise with its red, glowing eyes. "Who are you?" it rumbled.

  "I am the one who is going to kill you," Tolot replied in a roar and charged.

  Astonished, the Beast took a step back and raised its interval gun, but Tolot was too fast. Before the Beast could fire, he had reached it and overloaded its paratron shield with his own energy field. Both force fields collapsed. Tolot knocked the gun out of the Beast's hand so hard that the weapon hit the wall with a crack. A discharge flash shot out from its energy magazine and burned a blistering scorch trail in the skin of the Beast's head.

  It roared with anger and rage and hammered at him with all four fists. Tolot groaned under the powerful blows and threw his hands up to protect himself, but the Beast broke through his defenses and went on pounding him mercilessly.

 

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