The Sleeper of the Ages Page 18

  Between the massive buildings with rounded edges, equally bulky constructions rose from the floor. These resembled turbine housings, generators, transformers, or energy storage banks. These, too, were in different colors. Many of them were connected by a network of pipes that were large enough for a man to crawl into. They crossed each other in an undecipherable pattern and disappeared into the roofs of some buildings. In the center of the hall, an angular tower of stone blocks and glass in massive metal frames rose from the floor to the ice-encrusted ceiling.

  And on every surface and rounded edge, a thick layer of glistening snow crystals lay on top of a thin shell of ice. In contrast to the deathly stillness outside, a deep rumbling filled the hall.

  The team split into two groups and accelerated their pace. No one wanted to stay here any longer than necessary. They walked down the ramps and lost themselves between the machinery complexes and buildings.

  As Rhodan and Denetree came around the corner of the first metal, cube-shaped building, a harsh metallic snapping and then some tinkling sounds sounded behind them. Then a metal wall like a bulkhead moved slowly from out of the adjacent wall. Yellow, red, and orange-colored lights flickered and a powerful motor whined. Ahead of them, a second wall blocked their way, but in it yawned a hole as though from a projectile that had punched through it with enormous force. The jagged edges were bizarrely twisted outwards; some debris lay scattered on the granite floor.

  "If it wasn't completely impossible ... " Rhodan murmured. He turned to Denetree, and out the corner of his eye saw Mahal and Shimon going from machine to machine.

  Solina called over the wristcom. "No problems, Perry. All the signs are in Old Akonian. Ameda confirmed it."

  "Thanks," Rhodan replied. "Have you seen anyone? Or something that smashes robots and punches holes through massive walls of ice and steel?"

  "By the exploding sea mushrooms of Shaghomin"! exclaimed the historian, sounding almost embarrassed. "Not a thing, sorry."

  Rhodan and Denetree climbed through the hole. An Akonian Shift could have comfortably passed through it, Rhodan thought to himself but let the thought slide. Fifteen steps further, in the middle of a greenish building, the two halves of a hatch cover hissed grindingly apart. The interior lit up in a gloomy red light. A tank-like robot on wide caterpillar tracks came rolling out, its numerous illuminated sensors blinking. Rhodan grabbed Denetree by the wrist and ran to one side, pulling her along with him. The machine waved hydraulic arms with grippers twice the size of human hands and was connected to something inside the building by a thick spiral of cable. It clattered straight ahead, and collided with a metal control panel. As the housing tipped half off the base, sparks spewed from its insides.

  "We've crossed a boundary into forbidden territory, Denetree," Rhodan said. Holding his beamer at the ready, he observed how the robot drew back, changed direction, and rolled forward again. Five meters further, it ran into the edge of the nearest building. A huge sheet of ice came loose and shattered into innumerable shards on the floor. Some long fragments, the length of human arms, punched their way into the main part of the robot's metal body and tore up the internal circuitry, setting off massive discharges of energy. The robot stopped, refusing to go any farther. Its metal limbs flailed against the stone floor, making screeching noises as they struck. Sparks flew in all directions.

  "Don't panic!" Rhodan called into his helmet mike. "We aren't in any danger! It's just an ancient robot cracking up."

  It was impossible to tell what purpose the installation had served. But the old Akonian technology was still operational to a limited degree. As the machine collided repeatedly with obstacles that it did not recognize as such, Rhodan and Denetree continued straight on along a wide stretch of rocky floor. They came to an angular structure that, unlike the metal buildings, was built with transparent components. The noise of the machine behind them continued without stopping. The hall was filled with the sounds of its struggle in a continuous, nerve-wracking background racket.

  As Rhodan came to a halt, the entire building suddenly lit up and glowed with a white, even light. Several levels could be seen, and judging from the visible switch panels and connecting cables, it seemed to be a control center of some kind. Again a wide door opened up automatically; the vibrations loosened large sheets of ice. Rhodan and Denetree went through the doorway into a large hall. Several steep metal stairs led both upwards and downwards from the entrance. Here were long control panels and old-fashioned Akonian tables and chairs. Shimmering hot air suddenly began to stream from openings in the floor, and the ice on the ceiling and the stairs started to melt. From the background of the hall three very loud crashing sounds came at one-second intervals. Then there was a loud cracking, and several spotlights went out.

  "I'll look up there," Denetree said, then interrupted herself. "There's that crashing again. Could it be a battle of some kind?"

  "I don't know," Rhodan replied. "Something's breaking up, anyway."

  "I'm in the approximate center of the hall," Mahal reported over the com. "I think I've seen something large between the buildings. All the way in the back."

  "We've released some remaining power with our entrance here. Can you make it out any more clearly?" Rhodan asked. Again he thought of some mechanical relic that had gone completely out of control and was smashing its way through the installation.

  "No, it's coming from the other side."

  "We haven't been able to identify anything, either," Solina called in. "One thing is certain: a long time ago, power was generated here. But for what?"

  Rhodan and Denetree agreed on their next move with a hand signal, then he went down the steep steps through thin clouds of steam.

  Denetree climbed upwards and leaped from the iron steps when she reached the higher level. The massive glass sheets in the heavy frames that divided the level like partitions were almost ice-free. Denetree opened her helmet and sniffed. The air smelled pungent; it was breathable but damp, and thin vapor condensed on her suit and skin. She went between solidly frozen seats from one console to the next, risking an attempt to move levers and push buttons, but nothing happened.

  She climbed from floor to floor as they had in the stone tower. Here, too, all the systems were out of order. She slowly went back down.

  Suddenly she heard a voice trembling with panic. Denetree recognized Ameda, who was calling from somewhere in the hall. "I need help! I'm in the blue building. I can't move—some kind of restraining field."

  "I'm coming, but first I have to find you." Solina's voice sounded calm and controlled.

  "I know where you are." Heavy breathing accompanied Kealil Ron's call. "I'm on my way ... " Then a curse was heard and indeterminate sounds, and at the same time machines started running in the hall area. One of the thick pipes that stretched from the background in the direction of the ramp began to glow a dark red.

  Ron swore again. "Some thick plates have blocked me in! I can't get out of here! You'll have to wait ... "

  "Did you hear the calls for help, Perry?" Denetree asked worriedly. "I can't do anything from up here."

  "Stay calm," Rhodan replied. "First we'll look on the other side of the hall."

  Denetree climbed down the ladder-like stairsteps as quickly as the spacesuit allowed. Clouds of steam billowed up towards her from the stairwell. As she reached the entrance room, all but exhausted, Rhodan came out of the thick clouds and wiped the visor of his helmet.

  "Now it's really getting serious," he said. "None of us can control the old machinery." He looked around and pointed out the angular tower column or support beam to Denetree. Colored light shone there on the approximately twelve levels. The conspicuously bright illumination of the level below the ceiling pulsated cobalt blue. At least a dozen of the pipes also glowed in various colors.

  "Here I am," Solina called from somewhere, her voice now betraying rising panic.

  "And I'm to the left of you, Perry," Isaias Shimon said.

  Denetree and Rhod
an turned around. Shimon came at a run from the direction of the side wall and waved.

  A little tensely, Rhodan looked at Denetree. Droplets of sweat and condensing steam ran down her face. "Close your helmet," he told her. "Isaias, go with Denetree as fast as possible to the exit. The situation is getting out of control. Now move it!"

  "Do you really think ... " Shimon began, but Rhodan cut him off with a gesture.

  "I can't order you to do anything. But take the advice of someone with some experience. Hurry up and get going!"

  "All right," Shimon replied. "Come on, Denetree. Here, take my hand."

  They left quickly. Rhodan watched them for a few moments, then concentrated once more on the com messages and the parts of the hall that were in an uproar. Whatever was running amok here, the spindles were not responsible for it.

  Then he and Mahal heard Arsis Tachim's cry for help.

  Before the millions upon millions of Menttia were united, many individuals came to prefer the foaming sea waves of spring and autumn where the salty fragrance of creation breathed around them. Others discovered clouds of scent molecules that rose from the deserts after periodic rainfalls transformed them into fields of flowers. Still others delighted in the ethereal emanations of humble plants that survived the heat of summer and cold of winter in protected valleys. When the axial tilt of their world began to change, these places changed as well. The Menttia, whose realm was the entire planet and far out into the velvety darkness of space, had merged into gigantic groupings without giving up their individuality.

  —Once this was our mating place. A valley filled with scent molecules that the wind brought to us.—

  —And this idyllic place became a setting for conflict and death ...—

  Flora and fauna were equal in their universe, even though they lacked the intelligence of the single beings and certainly that of the combined capability of the whole. The ability to reason, an evolutionary process that guaranteed them their independence as thinking beings, had taught the Menttia how to manipulate different kinds of energy for their own use. There was never any regret over not having organs for gripping or holding with which one could build less transient things. Until enormous spaceships appeared that had been built of ore by alien hands. They fell into the atmospheric realm like meteorites after space had announced their coming from beyond the visible stars.

  —The eight strangers will realize that they are combing a city of the dead. Disappointed, they will depart.—

  —If we continue to block the energy, they cannot take off.—

  —So, we must enable their departure.—

  —Otherwise they will remain and settle in our homeland ...—

  Spaceships landed and from them swarmed alien beings that smelled worse than flowers, salty sea air, or desert blooms. As the strangers began to devastate the valley by building lumpy things in it, the Menttia realized that any energy, up to a certain amount, could be manipulated. They attempted to drive the strangers out using the means available to them. But those creatures acted recklessly and thoughtlessly. They were powerful and intelligent. The battle for the mountain valley began and cost many victims over long years. After suffering many losses during that time, the strangers abandoned the iron city and disappeared. The Menttia never learned whether they considered themselves defeated or if there were some other reason for their departure.

  Many Menttia had been consumed by strange energy. Many cycles of days went by, and the planetary axis continued to change its tilt. The polar cold made the scent plants wither and the ice began to cover the city of the Akonians; but that entropy was still not complete.

  —We cannot perceive what is happening with the ancient defensive installations. So we will continue to wait.—

  A whipcrack echoed somewhere in the hall, as though someone had fired a high-energy beam. As Rhodan and Mahal moved as quickly as possible to the other side of the hall, Rhodan wondered yet again why this base had been built so long ago. He could be misinterpreting the signs, but many things pointed to a military research station that developed weapons, defensive force fields, or new technologies. Among the buildings were what appeared to be manufacturing facilities and workshops.

  That would explain the restraining fields and the "traps" that were now a danger for him and his companions. Over the com, he heard Ameda and Arsis trying to find their comrades and help them. "Hyman," he said, "I think one of them is over there."

  Between metal walls, glassy bulkheads, and both small and gigantic pedestals on which weirdly bizarre machines stood, they found Kealil Ron. He was imprisoned by plates of metal and glass seven meters high, and was trying to enlarge a gap between the edges of the frames with his beamer. Meanwhile, Ameda was squirming desperately in a greenish, cylindrical restraining field. Arsis was nowhere in sight.

  "Solina!" Rhodan called. "Where is Arsis? Come to the open plaza between the two red buildings. There are three green-glowing pipes above us."

  "Acknowledged," Solina replied. "I see the pipes. I'm coming."

  Arsis did not reply, but they heard her heavy breathing. At the same moment, Kealil Ron and Ameda saw that Rhodan and Mahal were approaching. Rhodan climbed up on a pedestal and tried to trace the cables, circuits, and projectors. Again there was the whipcrack of an energy discharge. This time, Rhodan saw the longest pipe, which ran next to the tower column, flash like a long bolt of lighting then suddenly fall back into darkness.

  The tremendous echo had not yet faded away when a new crack of thunder was heard. It also came from the dark end of the hall. Rhodan and Mahal could only faintly tell that an object causing enormous destruction was passing through the middle of the installation and heading directly towards them.

  Splinters of ice whirled over the edges of the buildings, followed by the debris of heavy structural components. Somersaulting with flailing limbs, a robot was tossed almost to the ceiling. A building behind and to one side of the tower swayed and then slowly collapsed, tearing the thick connecting pipes away with it.

  "Get out of here, fast!" Rhodan exclaimed, trying not to lose his grip on events as he started running. Fleetingly, only from the corner of his eye, he saw something large and red behind the tower. A deafening crashing and banging filled the hall, resounding in endless echoes from the walls and ceiling.

  " ... I'm in a trench ... trapped ... glass plate over me ... " he heard Arsis's voice on the com.

  An electric discharge shot from the floor to the ceiling. A thick mast tipped over like a falling tree and struck the roof of a metal building. Warning lights blinked in three colors and alarms shrieked from different directions. Rhodan and Mahal ran stumbling out of the path of the rampaging giant that was inexorably approaching. A thick column of smoke rose, and fountains of steam howled from invisible crevices or holes. When Rhodan and Mahal reached the side wall behind a low enclosure, several more pipes flared into glowing life.

  Again electric discharges crackled from smashed machines. There was another exclamation over the com, this time both loud and relieved: "I've gotten free!"

  The massive frames of the glass components that held Kealil Ron prisoner slid tortuously apart. The restraining field around Ameda dissolved. What Arsis yelled, Rhodan could not above all the other noise. Through the blinding energy discharges, the steam, and the whirling fragments of ice loosened by the vibrations, Rhodan saw a wall burst and a creature shoot out of it. Not a machine, but ...

  ... a Halutian!

  A deep black giant that sped along on pillar-like legs and arms. Its hemispherical head was lowered and its jaws gaped wide with flashing rows of teeth within. It wore a red combat suit and its huge eyes were fully open. Rhodan saw it clearly for only half a second, then the Halutian disappeared again between the buildings and machinery. It thundered away towards the stone ramp that lay outside of Rhodan's range of vision.

  "That's impossible!" Rhodan exclaimed. A Halutian! Here? And yet ... It may have been impossible, but it made some kind of sense. Besides being
nearly twice the height of a man and massively built, Halutians had evolved to be incredibly strong and were virtually invulnerable. If a single being of any species could cause the kind of destruction that Rhodan was seeing in the base, it would just about have to be a Halutian. And while, as a species, Halutians were peaceful by nature now, individuals did occasionally go on rampages. These were known familiarly as "urge-purges" and were simply to vent the physical energy that built up inside of them.

  But how did a Halutian get here? And more importantly, how had it gotten on board the LEMCHA OVIR? Rhodan remembered Kalymel's passing mention of a mysterious black object that had been hidden for what must have been decades, if not longer, in a cargo hold on the ark. Its existence was apparently kept a deliberate secret from everyone on board. The object had separated from the LEMCHA OVIR when the ship broke up, and Kalymel had last seen it hurtling towards the planet below during the crash. Now Rhodan realized it must have been some kind of spacecraft that had been docked to the ark and it was one of the objects that had come down in the ice here. It had probably belonged to the being now running amok in the base—a crash landing was something a Halutian could not only survive but laugh off as a minor inconvenience. It would mostly be annoyed by the loss of a perfectly good spaceship.

  Still, what had the Halutian been looking for on the ark in the first place? How had it even learned of its existence? The LEMCHA OVIR had raced through the Galaxy for millennia under the cover of its anti-hyperdetection field. That this Halutian had stumbled on it by coincidence bordered on absolute impossibility. But, and this thought completely took Rhodan's breath away, if it was not a coincidence ... what had moved the Halutian to accompany the ark on its journey?

  There was yet another thought that disturbed Rhodan. He had seen the Halutian only for a brief moment. But in that moment ... Rhodan dismissed the idea. No, impossible. Completely impossible. In all the chaos and confusion, maybe he had not been seeing very clearly and his imagination had filled in the gaps for him.