by Hans Kneifel
Rhodan thought back and remembered ... The hypercom signal whose purpose Alemaheyu could not determine did not contain any information but was an unmodulated impulse. It resembled exactly the one sent by the NETHACK ACHTON! It had been sent after Chibis-Nydele had removed the container with the memory chips from the Naahk's desk and severed its connections to the "Net." "Another 'probably,'" he said ironically. "The hypercom signals are probably triggered when strangers enter the ark's control center or, in this case, that of the wreck. Sharita! I have to go down and see Chibis-Nydele. In spite of an intensive search by all eight of us, we didn't find anything that resembled a hypercom transmitter. Why would the old Lemurians have such technology in their arks?"
"The PALENQUE won't land," Sharita decided, "but a pilot can take you down and back in a crawler."
"It's not too much effort for knowledge of this kind," Rhodan said and reached for his multifunction wristband. "But we have to hurry. The LAS-TOOR is probably already on landing approach."
"We'll take care of the stored data," the commander answered and stood up from her contour seat. "You know the way to the crawler hangar. Oh! A new message ... "
The bearded face of a crawler pilot suddenly appeared in the holos.
"Aramis of the Dumas Trio," Alemaheyu murmured. "Crawler V. Have fun on the flight, Perry."
"I'm still on duty, so to speak," Aramis announced in a gruff, affable tone. "And we were just down there. Send Rhodan to me and I'll take him wherever he wants."
"I'm on my way to the crawler hangar," Rhodan said and quickly left the control center. After a few steps he jumped into the down antigrav shaft and came out on the hangar deck. The yellow alarm light was blinking above the hatchway. Rhodan yanked a spacesuit off its rack, checked the Syntron, and put it on as fast as he could. Then he opened the hatch, slipped through the safety lock, and ran to the open door of the crawler.
Aramis greeted him with a bone-crunching handshake and pointed to the seat next to the pilot's. "Strap in! Where are we going, by the way?"
The hatch doors closed with a hiss. A holomap was displayed in front of the two men. Rhodan touched his finger to the control sensor, looked for the equator, and found the edge of the desert.
"Here. To the ark's command section. Alemaheyu will give you the exact coordinates."
"Hear that, Mama?" Aramis called into the microphone. "Hold on—I'm taking off!"
"Roger, Crawler V. Syntrons linked."
Rhodan leaned back in the cushioned seat. For two men, the cabin could almost be called comfortable. As the hangar door slid to the side, the flying laboratory rose and moved forward. Two seconds later, they were dropping towards the planet below.
For some time, Rhodan studied the close-range scan images and raised his head when he was certain that the crawler was on the right course. For a while, he watched how confidently the gray-haired Terran steered the crawler. He considered the pros and cons of putting a craft like this in operation in the asteroid belt. He couldn't help but be skeptical.
"Some large fragments of the ark were apparently hurtled into the asteroid belt after the collision," Rhodan said, turning to Aramis. "Have the crawler teams agreed yet to search there for survivors?"
The prospector tugged at his rakish mustache. "Four crews have already set out." He let the crawler continue to fall and activated the front window's lightshade. The noon sun burned down blindingly. "We also discussed the Menttia factor. If they won't let us mine the fifth planet, we'll try it on the fourth and sixth."
"If there aren't any Menttia there," Rhodan said. There was no indication of the LAS-TOOR on the 360-degree scan. "They didn't tell me if they were natives of only one planet in their system."
"We'll find out." Aramis's broad fingertip tapped on a touchscreen field. "Mama, does Driscol have the Akonians on the screen?"
Alemaheyu answered at once. "They've just left their low orbit and they're heading below. Perry? Solina and the others are waiting for you with Nydele. I just spoke with them."
"Roger. Thank you," Rhodan said, and took his finger off his multifunction wristband.
Beneath the crawler, the edge of the forest changed to bushes and dry savannah. Then the first dunes began. The metal cylinder appeared between dune slopes and the shining foil of the tent walls blended into the sunlight.
"Here we are," Aramis rumbled and set the crawler down in the churned-up sand.
"The hypercom signal was sent from this piece of the wreck." Rhodan worked his way out into the open. "For what reason and to whom? Maybe we'll find a clue."
Chibis-Nydele and Solina Tormas came towards Rhodan and Aramis and, after a brief greeting, led them back to the shade. Ameda and Kealil Ron were sleeping somewhere in the living quarters. His beard ruffled, Aramis sniffed suspiciously at the cold Huccar, but a gesture from Rhodan seemed to reassure him.
After the first sip, Rhodan turned to Chibis-Nydele. "We received a communication signal that was sent from this section of the ark."
"That is quite possible," the Lemurian woman answered. "Perhaps it was an automatic distress call from the Net?"
"That's what I also assumed, but the signal was faster than light ... "
Chibis-Nydele looked at him questioningly. "Faster than light?"
"Many times faster than your ship ever flew. We call this technology 'Hypercom," and it was unknown to the builders of your ship. Something like this should have been impossible, but our Syntrons clearly registered the signal."
"I understand nothing of technology," she said after thinking about it for some moments, "but as you know, there is still some remaining power flowing intermittently through the command section. Once, I heard a humming and afterwards there was a smell of burnt plastic. Perhaps that could have something to do with this signal?"
"After our first meeting?"
She nodded. No Menttia were to be seen in the air above the dunes.
Solina stood up. "I'll help you look, Perry. But there hasn't been anything that caught our attention since you left."
"Come on," he said. "I think I could use a little help."
They went in the hatchway, climbed down the spiral steps, and both smelled the odor of burned positronic or electrical systems. They followed the smell by sniffing the air. It grew stronger the closer they came to the forward section and the glass components of the forward viewport. In the light from Rhodan's spacesuit they discovered a discoloration on the bottom plate at the front of a switch cabinet that was unmistakably the result of intense heat.
"I can guess what we'll find here," Rhodan said. He shoved the blade of his spacesuit's small all-purpose tool under the corners and lifted the plate, which was about the size of two hands.
The spotlight beam shone into a black, cube-shaped hollow space within.
The device, now completely melted on two sides and burned ash-white, had also once been the shape of a cube. The strong, burned smell was the result of a fire caused by a self-destruct system.
"The transmitter," Solina said. "What else? The Naahk surely didn't know anything about it. He would have shared his knowledge with his beloved."
Rhodan sighed, stood up, and stowed the tool back in his spacesuit. He looked around the half-destroyed room. "I wonder who installed this transmitter here? It couldn't have been the builders of the ark—they didn't have the necessary technology."
"Maybe it was the Halutian who traveled with the ark?"
"Possibly, even probably. But if that was the case, the question remains as to why he did it. To attract attention to himself? Hardly, or he would have activated it long before or simply used the transmitter on his own ship."
"A distress signal?" Solina offered. "After all, the signal was sent at the time of the catastrophe."
Rhodan shrugged. "Maybe, but then the system must have been defective. The signal was triggered long after the disaster. Much too late. Still, that would explain why we only found melted remnants."
"And why it was an unmodulated signal? I
mean, what kind of message is that? It was probably a defective system's last sign of life ... "
They went back to the hatch. "She asked me," Solina said in a low voice on the way. "I didn't want to tell her, but then I couldn't do anything else ... "
Rhodan smiled uncertainly. "But Nydele now knows that she and the ark inhabitants are the last Lemurians, and that history has caught up with them and brought them together with their descendants."
"Yes." The Akonian scholar lowered her head. "Brought together by an incredible coincidence."
The LAS-TOOR appeared in the sky and flew roaring and droning in a wide circle at an altitude of about 300 meters around the cylindrical fragment. As Kealil Ron came rushing out of the hatchway, Solina was talking with someone in the control center by shouting into her multifunction wristband. The eight landing struts slowly extended from the flattened lower pole. The ship floated on the antigrav projectors and the impact-cushioning force-field. Finally the commander decided to set down on the widely spread landing legs. The ship sank a meter deep into the sandy ground. The howl of the engines ceased.
Chibis-Nydele laid her hand on Rhodan's forearm and smiled at him. "This ship, or perhaps your ship ... could it move the command section to the place where we Lemurians will build our little town?"
"Technically speaking, that won't be a problem. But where will this settlement be?"
"I have been in touch with Kalymel. He and his friends don't know that yet. They want to use a shuttle to find the best and most attractive place." Nydele glanced thoughtfully back and forth between the huge ship and the relatively small command module.
Ameda Fayard came out of the hatch and caught up with Kealil Ron. Solina pointed to the extending ramp. "Maphan von Baloy has ordered for us to go on board and give our reports," she said.
"I'm sure," Rhodan said, pressing her hand, "that we'll spend some more time here together. Ask the commander to help the Lemurians and especially our friend Nydele."
"Don't worry. I can be quite stubborn when it comes to that. I wish you much luck in your search for forgotten memories."
"They have been suppressed but not lost," Rhodan replied, and waved farewell to Kealil Roni and Ameda.
Aramis regarded the dunes thoughtfully, then turned to look at Nydele. Enchanted, he twirled the end of his beard.
Rhodan waited under the tent roof until the Akonians had disappeared into the ship and closed the hatch. As the tent's thin metal sheet began to flutter in the wind from the surging starship engines, a chapter of this strange mission came to an end for Rhodan. Very soon, he told himself, a new, perhaps even more mysterious chapter would begin.
He watched the Akonian starship take off. "The Akonians have also promised to help you," he said at length to Nydele. "That will happen in a few days. As to where to settle, the survivors must make their own decisions for themselves. We'll come back and put things in order for you."
"I know that you will keep your word, Immortal." Nydele accompanied Rhodan and Aramis to the crawler and waved as they took off.
An hour later, they set down in the PALENQUE's hangar.
Epilogue
24 April, 22:35 ship's time, 1327 New Galactic Era
Its engines roaring, the OVIR PIXAL flew over the coastal strip to the west. Kalymel, Rasturi, and Ascelin sat in the pilots' cockpit. Some Tenoy and the three Councilors, who had survived the crash of the ark fragment with only minor injuries, had strapped themselves into the seats in the passenger compartment. The Lemurians had decided to search for a suitable place for their settlement until the majority were convinced that they had found the right location.
The shuttle flew slowly at a height of about 150 meters. Sandy beaches and rocky shorelines alternated with each other. Islands of bare stone reared out of the low surf. The color of the sea changed from deep blue to emerald green and then to gray. A dried-up riverbed and backwater woods passed by to the right. Then a large inlet dug deep into the interior, ending on the horizon along a peninsula where some flocks of birds circled.
"It looks good," Ascelin called. "Old forest and there's even a little bay off of the big bay. We should take a closer look."
Kalymel was overwhelmed by the vastness of the ocean that surrounded the peninsula. He flew the shuttle lower and slowly circled around the cape. The Lemcharoys saw a river with clear water, some grass-covered slopes, and a rocky ridge. The peninsula offered a place to settle on a plateau as well as on a second stretch of ground near the riverbend. The shuttle descended with a final howl of its engines and landed on the riverbank.
In the bushes, four-legged animals with brown and red fur scurried away. Flocks of birds scattered with loud screeching. The peninsula was about 75 kilometers away from the main wreck of the Star of Hope.
"We have wood and stone here for building houses," Kalymel said, climbing down from the cockpit. "We'll learn how from the information and drawings on the Net."
"And from here we have access to the rest of the land as far as the mountains." Rasturi rested her arm around Kalymel's waist. Above the blue-gray horizon of the sea floated the planet's largest moon. Kalymel wondered if he should call it "Moon of Hope,"—LEMCHA OMTARN. Perhaps it would be a good sign for anew beginning?
"There, Kalymel," Rasturi said softly, quoting from their common dreams on the ship, "is the seashore of yellow sand with the cool foam of the surf that we so often dreamed of. Soon ... "
The wind rustled and hissed in the crowns of the great trees, bringing with it strange sounds from the interior of the land. Small animals climbed up the tree trunks. The Lemcharoys would be able to hunt in the forest when they had learned how to properly use firearms.
"We will use the shuttles to fly back and forth and bring here everything we need from the wreck of the ship," said a Councilor, who had finished taking a short walk around. "We are few; we do not have to build a large settlement."
"I'll fly back," Kalymel said. "All the survivors will realize that this is the most beautiful place on this entire world."
They climbed into the shuttle. Again Kalymel flew several circuits around the settlement area and switched on the video recorders. The surviving Lemcharoys would be able to see within an hour the places where they wanted to build their houses. Dozens of dwellings, not made of steel and plastic for the first time since the ark set out.
Flying with thundering engines back towards the wreck section, the occupants of the shuttle did not see the swarm of Menttia that circled peacefully in the sunlight high above the peninsula.
The PALENQUE had entered its "night" phase, and the presence of a pilot in the control center was not required. The ship was circling Mentack Nutai in a 100-minute orbit along the equator. Rhodan sat next to Sharita Coho under the central hologram, in which the sun rose and set by turns. In front of them were half-filled coffee cups. The commander was in a relaxed mood. She was not under observation by her crew and had made her peace with Rhodan. The Immortal had not usurped her position, had not pushed her to the side. Quite the opposite: he had given her the adventure of her life. And the chance of a profit that brought her dream of her own prospecting ship close enough to touch.
The information gathered over the last few days had yet to be completely analyzed, but all the data had been secured. "Here we are again, with nothing to do but wait," Sharita said with an ironic smile and after some time had passed in thoughtful, contented silence. "It's a frustrating night watch, Perry."
"Someone like me has had to learn that waiting is a considerable part of life."
Sharita nodded in virtual slow motion. "Naturally, I have less experience in that than you."
"Of course."
"Do you think you actually recognized your Halutian friend?" she said after a suitable amount of time had passed, her eyebrows raised questioningly.
Rhodan nodded.
"And you just called the same Halutian and asked him to come here. That would be the first Halutian in history who's in two places at the same time!"
When the video images that Rhodan's syntronic camera had automatically recorded in the base under the ice were evaluated, two short sequences had shown the Halutian's entire body. Rhodan had played the images over and over again: in freeze frame, in slow motion, backwards, in increasingly blurry enlargements. The PALENQUE's Syntron had eventually confirmed Rhodan's observation: the Halutian in the video recordings was Icho Tolot. Probability: 98.43 percent.
"Whatever the case may be," Rhodan replied in the same tone, "that's impossible. I know it. I don't believe in ... magic. But a few rebellious cells in my brain, in which vague memories sleep, won't let me rest." He shrugged. "Let's drop the subject. Icho will be arriving in his ship before long and then he'll at least be here with us. Maybe then a few of our many questions will be cleared up."
Sharita lifted her cup and winked at him. "We're waiting impatiently for a new Space-Jet. I'm not expecting him to deliver the jet in his starship."
"Hardly. But the owners of your company won't suffer any loss."
Four crawlers overseen by Alemaheyu were on the way to the asteroid belt between the orbits of the red sun's seventh and eighth planets. From orbit, the crew of the PALENQUE had watched the Akonian research cruiser transport Chibis-Nydele's command section to the peninsula and there unload some containers. Efforts to decipher the stored data were under way. Denetree had interrupted her work to get some sleep.
Rhodan's gaze rested on the surface of the planet. It drifted beneath the ship bathed in constantly changing light and with bizarre shadows cast by the clouds. From their altitude and position in orbit, the precise details that would determine the fate of the Lemurians could not be made out. Perhaps the founding of a tiny settlement, with all its problems, both technological and day-to-day, was a hopeful sign.
"Loss, profit, gain, and wealth—on Mentack Nutai, they have more pressing concerns," Sharita said softly.
