The Last Days of Lemuria, page 23
part #5 of Perry Rhodan Lemuria Series
The SHAKAN would be half a wreck when it arrived in the year 4560, vulnerable even to the primitive weapons of the Lemurians of that era. Perry Rhodan's mind had experienced the destruction of the Beast ship as an observer.
Satisfied, Icho Tolot finished his work.
"We must prepare a second light cruiser as well," he told his two overseers, "in case there are complications with the time jump and the SHAKAN is damaged. I urgently advise keeping a replacement ship ready. Otherwise there is the danger that the Time Criminal Levian Paronn will still triumph."
Gorben and Kadark agreed, and Tolot went with the two guardians on board the other cruiser. There, he repeated his manipulations. Only this time he smuggled special stealth viruses into the ship's positronic that would give him control over the spacecraft when he activated them.
He had barely finished the work when he was called to Hork Nomas's quarters. He was afraid that his sabotage had been discovered, but the Beast commander only wanted to ask him more about the future. He was keen to know more of the Beasts' glorious rule, and their brilliant victory over the hated First Vibratory Power.
During the days that followed, he worked on assembling the time machine. In a moment when he wasn't being watched, he infected the control module with a virus. It would block the unit controlling the power supply after the completed time jump and overload the energy storage banks. The resulting explosion would either destroy the time machine or at least damage it so severely that repairing it would be beyond the Beasts' technical knowledge.
Then all his preparations for the time jump were complete—as well as for his escape from this planet.
He spent the night before the crucial time operation in fearful expectation that the Beasts might still discover his handiwork. However, his apparently enthusiastic cooperation and the prospect of their final triumph over the Time Criminal Paronn had dispelled any suspicion of him.
"This is an historic moment," Hork Nomas declared as he stood with Tolot and a dozen technicians in front of the time machine and the systems were powered up. "We will strike the Lemurian Time Criminals with their own weapon." The gigantic Beast's white-pigmented face showed a broad smile.
Tolot gave a rumbling laugh. "They are getting what they have earned."
"And we have no one but you to thank for this victory," Nomas added. "You will go down in the history of our people as a hero."
The Halutian dismissed the accolade with feigned modesty. "I am only doing my duty."
Then he concentrated on the control module. The super-battleship's reactor had loaded the energy storage banks to one-hundred percent of capacity. The temporal converter droned contentedly and transformed the energy into hyperdimensional force fields that flickered palely between the funnel-shaped converters. They grew stronger and more stable with each passing second.
Tolot looked to the open door of the assembly hall and out to the landing field of the small spaceport, where the light cruiser SHAKAN stood. The crew was already on board and waiting for the time jump.
"All systems operating flawlessly," one of the Beast technicians announced after a look at the temporal converter and energy control displays.
"Initialization of temporal converters successfully completed," Tolot said.
He manipulated the switches on the control module. The shining blue force field between the converters began to pulsate, slowly at first and then increasingly faster. At the same time, the field was twisted into a spindle, its point directed at the SHAKAN.
"Step back to the energy storage banks," the Halutian added warningly. "It would be dangerous to stray within range of the teleporter field now."
The Beasts obeyed and gathered in front of the storage banks. Tolot suppressed a satisfied smile and increased the output of the converters. The humming of the temporal transformer swelled to a vibrating rumble. The pulsating, glowing blue spindle-shaped field grew longer and crept like an exotic snake towards the SHAKAN. Then the force field reached the light cruiser and enveloped it in an azure-blue aura. Energy discharges crackled like St. Elmo's fire over the black hull and merged into a flickering corona.
"Time jump commencing ... now!" Tolot exclaimed.
He hesitated for a moment. His words were the signal for the computer integrated with his battlesuit to activate the stealth virus on board the three spacecraft with an ultra-shortwave com signal. Then, he touched a sensor switch on the control module.
In the same moment, the Beast ship vanished from the spaceport. The surrounding air poured into the sudden vacuum with a thundering crack. The Beasts roared in triumph and struck each other on the shoulder. The howling of the storage banks, into which energy was still being fed, drowned out their cries of celebration only seconds later.
Puzzled, the Beasts turned towards the bank of storage units.
"What is the meaning of this?" Nomas called. "Are there problems?"
"That is a perfectly normal side effect of the time jump," Tolot replied. He drew back towards the assembly hall door. "There is no reason to be concerned."
The Beast commander stared at him with his three red eyes. Suspicion lit up in them as the howling of the storage banks increased to a deafening level.
Tolot had almost reached the hall door when Nomas made the first effort to stop him. But it was too late. The enormous quantities of energy that the super-battleship was pumping into the storage banks overloaded the buffer. Bolts of energy shot out of the units and knocked several of the Beasts to the floor. Nomas cried out in sudden comprehension and reached for the hip controls of his battlesuit to activate its energy shield. But at just that moment the storage banks exploded.
A ball of fire devoured the Beasts. Tolot was caught by the shockwave and hurled out on to the landing field, but he was prepared and had hardened his body's molecular structure. He didn't feel any pain when he hit the ground. Immediately he leaped up again and activated the Paratron field.
He glanced briefly back at the assembly hall where the fireball had now faded. While the time machine had largely escaped the force of the explosion, the Beasts had been slammed against the walls and weren't moving. He didn't know if they were dead. However, considering the tough constitutions of his ancestors, he suspected that they were still alive and would soon regain consciousness.
His suspicion was correct.
Hork Nomas, lying among the smoking debris of the storage banks, was already starting to move again.
Tolot took off running. The second light cruiser was only a short kilometer away, overshadowed by the towering colossus of the super-battleship, but it seemed like an eternity until he reached it. The entire time he feared that the stealth viruses had failed and the Beasts on board the HORGON THAR would open fire on him, but nothing happened.
With a com impulse he took control of the cruiser's positronic and ordered it to open the lower hatch door. As the hatch slid to the side, he looked back at the assembly hall. The first Beasts were staggering outside, visibly the worse for wear after the explosion. They were too far away to be a danger to him now.
An antigrav field carried him upwards into the airlock. Moments later, Tolot entered the control center of the unoccupied ship and initiated the take-off procedure. On the exterior-view monitors, he watched as Hork Nomas and half a dozen Beasts ran towards the cruiser and fired at it with interval guns. The hull's hardened steel withstood the impacts. As a precaution, Tolot activated the paratron shield and increased the output of the antigrav generators.
The Beast ship rose slowly into the sky. The guns of the HORGON THAR remained silent, blocked by the stealth viruses he had introduced. He thought of the SHAKAN, whose viruses had also become active before the time jump. They would disrupt the functioning of the ship's systems as soon as the cruiser reached its destination time. The Lemurians of that era would have no difficulty destroying the Beast ship.
Levian Paronn and the star arks had been saved.
At an altitude of about a thousand meters, Tolot activated the cruiser's impulse engines. The volcanic, fissured surface of the base planet quickly fell away beneath him. Seconds later, he had reached open space and was greeted by the shining points of light of myriads of stars.
He had escaped from the Beasts.
Epilogue
The ship sat under the cover of the corona of a red-giant star that had no planets, safe from the Beast ships' hyperdetectors that were undoubtedly searching for him. Within, Icho Tolot examined and evaluated the historical recordings of the launching of the star arks. It required a great deal of time and effort, but by taking into consideration the star patterns and the Milky Way's own movement, he was able to determine the generation ships' course vectors and their current positions.
One of the arks, the CHODOK MON, which had been among the first ships to leave the Apsu System, was only a hundred light-years distant. He flew towards its projected position. The ark's detection shield made it difficult for him to track it down, but after hours of searching he finally found it and went on board.
He was greeted warmly and with curiosity by the Lemurians, and he was thankful and relieved that the sight of him didn't fill them with terror.
His arrival was overshadowed by the sudden appearance of a Beast ship, and in a fierce battle he destroyed the enemy. The encounter with the Beasts abruptly awakened his memory of the mysterious hypercom signal that had been sent from the arks in the present of the year 1327 NGE. He wondered if the Beasts had inserted hypercom transmitters on the generation ships and if these signals were responsible for their sudden appearance on Gorbas IV. Whatever might be behind it, Tolot was convinced that Perry Rhodan would succeed in warding off the danger. In addition, Rhodanos undoubtedly had powerful help: namely himself, Icho Tolot. That Tolot, at least, who had already made the return journey to the year 1327 NGE and—perhaps—had learned much more than he knew now. He would find out himself ...
His cruiser had been damaged in the battle with the Beast ship and he needed considerable time for repairs. As days and weeks passed on board the ark, years and decades went by in the rest of the universe due to the dilation effect. Finally Tolot had finished the repair work and he took his leave from the Lemurians of the CHODOK MON.
He headed towards the second ark, then a third, and then the fourth. Over time he visited almost all of the arks, and his fear that the Beasts had descended on these islands of life gradually faded. He did not know why, but they only seemed to have tracked down the CHODOK MON. At some point they lost interest in the Lemurian ships because they had become peaceful. This was a part of the history of his people: the Lemurian Psychogenic Regenerator, developed and finally perfected almost at the last minute, had changed the Beasts into peaceful Halutians dedicated to the sciences.
One of Tolot's final destinations was the NETHACK ACHTON. Deep down, he had feared it could have been the target of a Beast attack. However, the generation ship was untouched and the Lemurians on board had still never encountered beings that looked like him.
He was received by the Lemurians of the NETHACK ACHTON in friendly fashion, although he arrived at a time of crisis. The generation now living on board had never seen Lemur and doubted the purpose of their long journey. Mutually hostile factions had formed and violent conflicts were threatening to break out. Tolot stayed with them for a while, settled the disputes, and gave the Lemurians a new sense of purpose. He told them stories of the wonders of the universe that awaited their children's children and of the fateful importance of their journey for the survival of the Lemurian people.
They would remember him forever as a guide and mentor.
Tolot enjoyed the peace that he found on the NETHACK ACHTON after the many battles and the terrible suffering that he had seen on Torbutan and Lemur. However, he had to move on, to the ACHATI UMA, the ark on which Levian Paronn traveled. He was already looking forward to seeing the scientist again. They would have a great deal to tell each other.
Beyond that, his course had already been determined.
After visiting the ACHATI UMA, he would head for the LEMCHA OVIR. There he would spend the millennia in dilation flight until the ark reached the Ichest System and crashed. From Ichest he would finally reach Gorbas IV, where in the present of the year 1327 NGE the Beasts would be causing trouble again. He would make it possible for his other, earlier self to travel into the past and to the adventures that waited for him there in accordance with the established shape of time.
The circle would close.
But was it really a circle without a definite beginning and with no ending? That would mean that he could not have avoided his predetermined fate, neither by action nor by neglect. Or was there a danger that time could be molded like wax in his hands as long he had not reached the year 1327 NGE again? Not flying to the LEMCHA OVIR was all he needed to do. The consequences would be many and far-reaching.
Impossible to predict.
Perhaps he should just content himself with seeking out Levian Paronn on the ACHATI UMA ...
And after that waited the future, mysterious and unfathomable, but filled with enticing promise.
Want to know how things are going to develop?
#6 The Longest Night by Hubert Haensel will be available from March 3, 2016
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© 2016 Pabel-Moewig Verlag KG, PERRY RHODAN digital, Rastatt
Editorship: Klaus N. Frick
Translation: Dwight R. Decker
Cover Artwork: Oliver Scholl
ISBN: 978-3-8453-3378-6
Original Title: Die letzten Tage Lemurias
Original Edition: © Pabel-Moewig Verlag KG, Rastatt
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Thomas Ziegler, The Last Days of Lemuria
