The Last Days of Lemuria, page 21
part #5 of Perry Rhodan Lemuria Series
Outside, the howling of the alarm sirens died away, but it was still not quiet. In the whistling of the wind were mixed the hissing and rumbling of the gun emplacements at the edges of the fleet base. Energy beams as thick as a man's body shot out of the ray cannons into the clouded sky. They burned holes into the cloud deck through which the black globes were plunging downwards. The Beast ships returned fire with their impulse cannons. One of the gun emplacements exploded with a blast that echoed far and wide.
More and more spacespheres appeared in the sky and fell into the crossfire from the ground forts. The entire sky now seemed to burn. Debris rained down on the base and set several barracks on fire.
Fear clutched at Paronn's throat as he tirelessly continued to work. At any second he expected an energy beam to strike the building with the time machine and destroy all their hopes. They were fortunate though—or the Beasts were intentionally sparing the building.
"Storage banks at fifty-seven percent and increasing," he heard Tolot announce in a monotone.
He looked outside again. On the distant horizon, where the great city of Matronis stood with its large spaceport, ships climbed into the sky. They belonged to the last enormous refugee convoy that in recent days had been assembled under the leadership of Commander Drorah. The refugee ships were attempting to escape the fierce battles in an emergency launch, but the Beast units didn't make any distinction between civilian and military targets. Mercilessly they shot down many of the rising spacecraft.
Bright flashes of light shot through the driving snow, mushroom-shaped clouds blackened the white of the horizon. After a delay, the thunderclaps of huge explosions could be heard, followed by roaring shockwaves that ripped the billows of snow apart and brought dust, soot, and ashes along with them.
Tactical nuclear weapons! Paronn thought in horror. Those accursed Beasts are using atomic warheads ...
"Storage banks at sixty-three percent and increasing."
Tolot's rumbling voice was the only certainty in the onrushing chaos. Paronn concentrated on it as he continued to work on the time machine.
A cry of terror from outside made him whirl around.
The defensive fire from the gun emplacements had broken off as the last ground fort was destroyed. From the black spherical hulls of the Beast ships that hung menacingly in the sky over the Fleet base, dark spots detached themselves and sank slowly towards the ground. At first it was only a handful, but they increased by the second until whole swarms darkened the sky.
Levian Paronn held his breath.
Landing parties!
The Beasts were setting down ground troops. They didn't want to destroy the time machine, they wanted to take control of it!
Once more desperation overcame him, like a choking hand around his throat. They couldn't fail when they were so close to their goal! His mission was too important for him to fall short.
"Storage banks at seventy-four percent," Tolot announced.
"All systems operating flawlessly," Ruun Lasoth added.
Paronn looked at the Chief Scientist of the First Tamanium. The man's hawk-like features were pale, and in his eyes shone the same fear that also gripped him.
"We'll do it," the Technad said grimly. "By the old gods of Lemur, we'll do it!"
The soldiers who had taken position around the hall opened fire on the plunging Beast ground troops with their impulse guns and portable thermocannons. Paronn saw how some of the four-armed giants were struck and their paratron shields diverted the deadly energy beams into hyperspace.
The first Beasts touched down on the landing field where the light cruiser had stood not long before and fired their interval guns at the defenders. Paronn saw a force-field dome of a mobile gun emplacement distort under the five-dimensional impact fronts of concentrated interval fire. It collapsed with a final flicker. The mobile gun exploded and its crew was caught by the shockwave and hurled across the barrack grounds.
Paronn turned and with trembling hands continued the preparations for the time jump.
"Storage banks at eighty-two percent," Tolot rumbled.
Paronn stepped to the time machine's floating control module and cleared his throat. He made an effort to give his voice a tone of determination, but it sounded shrill and frightened even in his own ears.
"Destination time programmed and confirmed," he said. "I'm activating the time destination guidance control and inputting the data ... data successfully input. The destination time is the year 4500 dha-Tamar."
He looked over at Ruun Lasoth, who stood in front of the temporal transformer displays.
The Chief Scientist noticed his glance. "Transformer output at one-hundred percent and stable," he said.
Paronn exhaled in relief. "Tolot?" he asked.
"Storage banks at ninety-eight percent," the Halutian replied.
The droning of the machinery grew louder. Outside, screams echoed and explosions thundered, but Paronn didn't look at the open door. Instead, he continued to concentrate on the control module. He prayed that this time there would be no malfunctions.
"I am initiating the temporal converter," he said hoarsely.
Suddenly the familiar discharges of energy again crackled between the funnel-shaped converters. They merged with torturous slowness into the shining blue, pulsating force field that resembled the transport field of a teleporter.
"Transformer output continues to be stable," Lasoth called above the thunder of an explosion.
"Storage banks at ninety-four percent and increasing," Tolot added.
Soon, Paronn thought feverishly. Our work will soon be finished ...
The pulsing of the force field grew stronger. The individual strands of energy merged into a seething oval with a diameter of nearly five meters. Fascinated, Paronn stared into the blue luminescence.
"Storage banks at ninety-eight percent," the Halutian said.
The time had come. Levian Paronn straightened up and stepped in front of the transport field while Ruun Lasoth took over the control component. Paronn glanced over at the open door to check the situation there. Despite the Lemurian soldiers' bitter resistance, the first Beasts were approaching the building. Four-armed giants in black battlesuits, enveloped by the reddish glimmer of their impenetrable paratron shields.
"Tolot!" Paronn exclaimed. "What's holding you back?"
The Halutian didn't move from where he stood. "I can't accompany you into the past," he replied evenly. "You made this trip by yourself. I can't change the shape of time."
"But the Beasts will kill you!" he protested. "Lahmu damn it all, be reasonable and come with me!"
"I'm sorry," Tolot replied, "but I can't allow a time paradox to ensue."
Paronn swore.
"Storage banks at one-hundred percent!" Lasoth's tense voice called above the sound of gunfire. "The time field is stable. Hurry, Paronn! What are you waiting for?"
Levian Paronn hesitated. Then he breathed deeply and took a step. He now stood directly in front of the seething temporal field. The blue luminescence seemed to tempt him, and suddenly he felt all fear fall away from him. The crackling and hissing of the beam weapons, the roar of explosions, and the choked cries from injured and dying soldiers ... Everything faded into the background. He heard only the excited pounding of his heart, the panting of his strained breathing.
The time machine's transport field was only an arm's length away from him. The past was close enough to touch.
The Twelfth Hero was right, he thought, intoxicated with triumph. I will accomplish great things that anyone else would consider impossible. I will save the Lemurians and the Great Tamanium and destroy the Beasts ...
He felt tears in his eyes. Tears of relief and of gratitude that the Hero had chosen him to change the fate of the Lemurian people.
Then he pulled himself together. With one long step he went through the force field and vanished.
Levian Paronn was on his way into the past, on his way to fulfilling his destiny.
23
Hardly had Paronn stepped into the time machine's transport field, when an interval beam pulverized a section of the building's roof and struck the battery of storage banks. They exploded with deafening thunder cracks. Discharges of energy shot through the ozone-impregnated air and incinerated some of the technicians responsible for overseeing the energy supply. Icho Tolot saw the transport field dissolve with a final flickering and then the shockwave of the explosion caught him and hurled him several meters through the air and against the wall.
At the last moment he hardened his body's molecular structure, but even so the impact was violent enough that red spots whirled for a few seconds in front of his eyes. Groaning, he lay where he had fallen and, half-dazed, moved his head. His vision slowly cleared. When he could see clearly again, the first Beasts were already charging into the hall.
The soldiers and technicians posted around the time machine immediately opened fire on the four-armed giants. The beams from their thermal and impulse weapons were effortlessly absorbed by the intruders' paratron shields. Several salvos from their interval guns smashed the last resistance. Ruun Lasoth was struck by an interval blast and toppled stiffly to the floor like a felled tree. It grew quiet in the hall while outside the battles continued to rage and explosions thundered. Tolot pulled his beamer from its hip holster and fired a few shots into the rear of the hall, acting as though he wanted to fight against the Lemurians. Two Beasts tramped with thundering steps towards him and he stared into the mouths of their fire-ready interval guns. He lowered his beamer and slid it back into its holster.
"It's a good thing you came," he gasped. "The Lemurians would have killed me if you hadn't stepped in."
"Who are you?" one of the Beasts rumbled. "To what unit do you belong? And how did you come to be in the power of the Time Criminals?"
They do not distrust you, the overbrain said to his still dazed consciousness. Whatever Merhon Velsath may have told the Beasts when he committed his treason ... he apparently did not mention you and your role. Use your chance!
Tolot stood up with difficulty. "I am Icho Tolot," he replied, "and I come from the future." He gestured to the time machine. "My archaeological team and I discovered a time machine on a planet in the galactic center. It was clearly of Lemurian origin. When we examined it, it activated itself and transported me to this time and place. In the moment I materialized here, a Lemurian scientist traveled into the past. I could not prevent it. Then your attack began ... "
The two Beasts exchanged glances. While one continued to threaten him with its gun, the other turned away and spoke with a muffled, inaudible voice into its battlesuit's com-unit. When it turned back to Tolot, it glared at him menacingly.
"You will wait here," it said. "Do not move from this place or you will die."
Obey the order, the overbrain admonished him. These are just subordinate warriors. Your fate will be decided only when their commander arrives.
"I am glad that you have come," Tolot said aloud. "Who knows what the Lemurians would have done with this time machine otherwise."
The two Beasts didn't answer. They went on holding their guns aimed at him while outside the sound of battle ebbed away and the explosions tapered off. Through the hole in the ceiling, Tolot could see half a dozen black spherical spacecraft with flattened tops and bottoms hovering over the devastated base. More fireballs flared up in the sky, expanding and then fading out after a while. Debris raced like shooting stars through the atmosphere, leaving flaming trails in their wake.
Suddenly a group of Beasts emerged from the thick, blowing snow and stepped through the door. They were led by a four-armed giant that was larger than its companions. The raven-black skin of his leathery face showed patches of white pigment the size of a man's hands, shining as though polished.
Tolot found himself instinctively stiffening.
The appearance and bearing of this Beast showed that it was accustomed to giving orders. It strode up to him with long, stamping steps and looked down at him. In its shining red eyes was no emotion, only cold curiosity. It stared at him as though he was a rare insect that it wanted to examine.
"I am Hork Nomas," came its thundering introduction, "Commander of the 4th Fleet of the Righteous of Time. Who are you, traitor?"
"I am not a traitor," Tolot said, defending himself indignantly. He repeated his story and said in conclusion, "You intervened at just the right moment. If the time machine's energy banks had not been destroyed, the Lemurians would have sent an entire expedition into the past. The danger of a time paradox would have been increased beyond measure."
"From what time do you come?" Nomas asked, still not convinced.
"A future more than 50,000 years from now," Tolot answered.
There was silence for several moments. Tolot could see how impressed it was by that unimaginable amount of time. Finally Nomas spoke again.
"If you truly come from the future," he said slowly, "then you must know how this war will end."
"We Righteous of Time were victorious over the Lemurians," Tolot replied. "The defeat of the Time Criminals was total. Nothing more is left of them in the future. They were wiped out and have been forgotten forever."
"Ah ... " the Beast said, snorting. "I did not expect anything else."
You have to give him more, the overbrain urged Tolot. You must win his sympathy at all costs.
"We are the undisputed rulers of this and the twin galaxy," Tolot added. "All other races serve us. Whoever dares rebel is smashed with an iron fist. And we have shaken off the yoke of the First Vibratory Power ... "
Hork Nomas gasped audibly. He bent down to the smaller Halutian and murmured, "Tell me more about this, visitor from the future."
Tolot thought quickly. He knew that the ancient Halutians had attacked the Great Tamanium on behalf of the First Vibratory Power. Their mission was to put a stop to the experiments with time that it considered dangerous to its existence. But he also knew the war-like mentality of his ancestors and its tendency to domination. He knew that they had been only unwilling servants, filled with fear and hatred for their masters.
That is the perfect psychological lever, his overbrain observed. Use it properly and you will win their trust.
"The First Vibratory Power was always merely exploiting us," Tolot said aloud. "We were not partners with them, only tools. They sent us into the war against the Lemurians without providing us with the technological means to end the war quickly. Millions of us fought bravely and still had to die in the first decades of the war."
The Beasts murmured in agreement.
"That is an unfortunate fact," their Commander rumbled. "The First Vibratory Power has always been brutal to us even though we serve it loyally and devotedly."
"If it had only equipped us with paratron technology at the beginning of the war," Tolot went on with an audible fury in his voice, "countless numbers of our warriors would not have died in vain. The sacrifices we made were unnecessary."
Hork Nomas bent his head in approval. "I can only agree with that, Icho Tolot. Many of my brave warriors died on the battlefield because they did not have the proper weapons and energy shields. There were even moments when I feared that the Time Criminals would triumph."
"But we won the war," Tolot thundered, "and afterwards we rose up against the First Vibratory Power. There were bloody and bitter battles from which we emerged victorious. After years of terrible battles, we fought our way to the home system of the First Vibratory Power in the satellite galaxy and destroyed their world. Since then we have been the masters. Since then we have ruled unchallenged ... "
Nomas took a deep breath. "That," he said thoughtfully, "is indeed good news." He looked over at the time machine. "But the journey of the Time Criminal Levian Paronn into the past represents an enormous danger to us. We must take action. Tell me, Icho Tolot, can you operate the time machine?"
The Halutian hesitated. He instinctively sensed that his life was hanging on the answer to that question. Should he lie to prevent the Beasts from using the time machine? Or tell the truth to win their trust once and for all. If he did, he would be risking the possibility that the Beasts themselves would mount an expedition into time themselves and attempt to kill Levian Paronn in the past?
His overbrain spoke up again. The truth is the only alternative at this time. Once you have Nomas's trust, you will surely have an opportunity later to foil the Beasts' plans.
"I am not familiar with all of the machine's components," Tolot said calmly, "but I am convinced that I will be able to operate it after a thorough examination."
"Very well," the Beast commander rumbled. He turned to his companions. "Dismantle the machine and load it on board the HORGON THAR. And hurry. It will not be long before the Time Criminals mount a counterattack."
He gestured to Tolot and the Halutian followed the gigantic Beast out into the blowing snow. The fireballs of the exploding ships in the sky had now faded away, but the base's barracks and gun emplacements still burned. Oily smoke rose from them into the sky. In the west, on the horizon, where the huge city of Matronis lay, hung the mushroom-shaped dust and ash clouds caused by tactical nuclear weapons. Tolot wondered bleakly if the Beasts had intentionally destroyed the city or just the ground forts around it. He looked through the dancing flakes and saw landing craft from the Beast ships circling. Now and then an explosion shattered the uncanny silence that had settled over the devastated Fleet base. Apparently scattered Lemurian units were still resisting.
It didn't surprise him.
The ancestors of the Second Humanity were courageous fighters who didn't give up even in the face of certain defeat.
He looked upwards.
From out of the clouds and the whirling snowflakes appeared a gigantic mountain of black steel. It was one of the Beasts' super-battleships with a diameter of 1700 meters. A leviathan of space and virtually invincible. The ship slowly sank towards the landing field in front of the assembly hall. Tolot was suddenly glad that the light cruiser had disappeared as a result of the test run of the time machine. If the captured ship had still been standing in its place, he would have had serious problems convincing the Beasts of his fabricated story.
