by Perry Rhodan
"We can count on that for sure. But this will also mean that we've come a bit nearer our goal. That will be a reward in itself."
"And the next time," remarked Thora, "I shall join you. I'm entitled to participate in this quest."
Their conversation was interrupted by a loud hum from the brain. The paper strip with the announced translation emerged from the answer slot. Bell, who was nearest, picked it up and read it aloud:
WHOEVER WISHES TO FIND THE WAY MAY STILL TURN BACK. BUT IF HE DECIDES TO PURSUE THE TRAIL, HE MAY REST ASSURED THAT HE WILL NO LONGER RECEIVE ANY ASSISTANCE. SOON THE UNIVERSE WILL BE SHAKEN. INVESTIGATE, BUT CONSIDER THAT THIS WORLD IS ALIEN AND GIGANTIC.
Bell's face was one big question mark as he looked at Rhodan. "How do you like that? It sounds like another of his riddles."
Rhodan did not reply. He sat with eyes half-closed. Khrest took the message from Bell and carefully read the text several times before he passed it on to Thora. She too tried to fathom the meaning of the message.
Bell spoke impatiently. "The universe will be shaken, according to the message. That's what we're supposed to wait for? What mysterious thing is going to send a shockwave through space—maybe an atomic explosion?" To make each point he punctuated his sentences by a bang of his fist on the table.
"Not necessarily," said Khrest. "The transition of a large spaceship is enough to cause such a shockwave throughout the universe. Perhaps a spaceship will arrive. What must we make, though, of the alien and gigantic world? It doesn't seem to me that Ferrol can be meant by that."
Thora no longer seemed as confident as a short while before when she had insisted on participating in the solution of the next task. She expressed the doubts the message had engendered in her mind.
"My intuition tells me, Khrest, that no good will come of all this. There's danger ahead. We've been too arrogant and presumptuous. So far we've been lucky—extremely lucky. What if our good luck runs out?"
Rhodan opened his eyes and regarded Thora. His face was serious but not desperate. He was still deliberating. Haggard ventured an opinion: "Without hope life becomes meaningless. I'm against abandoning our search What do you think, Rhodan?"
The Peacelord slowly lowered his head in contemplation. To all present an eternity seemed to pass till, resolutely, he looked up again. A steely glint plainly shone forth from his eyes. In that moment Earthmen and Arkonides knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that, the search for the planet of eternal life would be—continued.
They would traverse the path ahead of them; accepting every challenge put before them, daring every dagger, coping with every peril they would confront; pursuing the prize of life everlasting that glittered at the end of the quest. What lay at the ultimate end—the deathly deception of a cruel alien Lorelei or the heady draft of immortality of a cosmic de Leon?
Siren fatality or Fountain of Youth? Who could say for certain? Rhodan's voice interrupted the reveries. "No use racking our brains over what was meant by 'the shaking of the universe'. We'll find out in due time. But there is something that worries me—you know what I'm alluding to?"
Bell leaned forward and asked: "No. What, Perry?"
"The message from the Unknown tells us that soon the universe will be shaken. But when were these words recorded? Ten thousand years ago? Earlier still? I am seriously wondering, what does an immortal being understand by 'soon'?"
No one, of course, could venture a guess. Silence was the only answer. 'Soon' could mean tomorrow. But it could also mean another thousand years!
Next time--
The Ghosts Of Gol
