The First Immortal

by Leo Lukas

  Except that it wasn't possible for these two. Perry Rhodan, about one meter and ninety centimeters tall, wiry, in good shape—if not that of a top athlete, it was still a more than respectable physique—looked up at the newcomer like a small child at a full-grown elephant. Its barrel-sized fists probably could have easily crushed the Terran's hand as well as his forearm. A light tap would have sent him flying across the control center. At most Rhodan could have put his arms around one of the two pillar-like legs.

  So Rhodan just placed his right hand on his heart, smiled, and then, looking around the room and said, "May I present Icho Tolot."

  As if that was necessary! Every child knew about the Halutian, one of Perry Rhodan and the Terrans' oldest comrades in arms. For many generations, he had been a permanent feature of the lesson plan in elementary schools as a role model for responsible, even humble employment of great personal power. Pictures of the black-skinned giant in his famous red battlesuit decorated the wall of every Terran child's room at some point. Pearl had had dozens of them. The first time her parents had left her alone for an evening without a babysitter, she had gone to sleep with an Icho Tolot doll in her arms, firmly convinced that nothing could happen to her as long as the Halutian was protecting her. Icho Tolot was cool, the big brother that everyone wanted: almost invincibly strong, but also a mental giant thanks to his two brains. Above all else he was extremely considerate, gentle, and always ready to help. And once you got used to the three red eyes, each twenty centimeters in diameter and at the ends of extensible stalks, and the massive jaws of a predator, he looked damn sharp ... No wonder it took Pearl's breath away when the mythical being that she had been so crazy about when she was growing up appeared in person before her. And of course Tolot looked even more impressive up close than in a picture or hologram.

  Alemaheyu Kossa was the first to express what they all felt. "Man, you're awesome!" the communications officer exclaimed.

  The Halutian laughed, literally making the walls shake. Then he politely broke off, or else Pearl's eardrums would have been left in shreds.

  "People have told me that fairly often," Tolot rumbled, "so there may be something to it. Hello, everyone! First Officer Laneaux, I thank you for permission to come aboard. Please forgive me for greeting Perry first instead of you."

  "Nothing to apologize for," she managed to say. She could hardly believe it. This super-being, weighing 3900 kilos and measuring two and a half meters wide at the shoulders, whose overbrain had the capacity of a positronic computer, was showing consideration for the ship's hierarchy and had felt it worth the effort to inform himself beforehand about the situation on board!

  Pearl felt flattered.

  At the moment she commanded the PALENQUE. Although as Resident Rhodan held the highest executive position in the League of Free Terrans, he considered it important to be just a guest on board the privately-owned prospecting ship. Commander Sharita Coho, in turn, was off duty. Like most of those who had been involved in the mission in the Ichest System's asteroid belt, she had gone to her cabin for rest. And Denetree, the anachronism, the living Lemurian from a time that lay 50,000 years in the past, was seldom seen any more. When she wasn't sleeping or self-sacrificingly taking care of the Lemurians, she was undergoing hypno-training. It wasn't enough to merely see the stars, one must also understand what one saw, she felt, and in that regard Pearl agreed with her.

  They had just reached Akon after a short and thankfully uneventful flight. Three starships, outwardly similar yet fundamentally different, had gone into a parking orbit at the edge of the "Blue System". Next to the PALENQUE were the LAS-TOOR, somewhat larger with a diameter of 215 meters, and Icho Tolot's visibly smaller but far more powerful HALUTE.

  "Now that the formalities are taken care of, I trust you will permit us to retire to the conference room?" Perry Rhodan asked. "Tolot and I urgently need to bring each other up to date on what we know before we make contact with the Akonians' Ruling Council."

  "Yes, of course." Pearl nodded. She could hardly take her eyes off the idol of her childhood. "Feel yourself at ... well, whatever. I don't have any objections." She felt herself blushing.

  You silly twit! she chided herself. Now pull yourself together!

  "I do, however," said a woman with a husky voice.

  All eyes turned to the speaker, who was leaning casually against Alemaheyu Kossa's communications console. Even in this illustrious company, the almond-eyed, brown-skinned beauty was hard to overlook. She wore an extravagant leisure suit the surface of which waved like a lush green meadow with finger-long blades of grass. Colorful flowers bloomed here and there, and as if that wasn't enough, bees, dragonflies, and fluorescent butterflies flitted around them while birds chirped in her high-piled hair.

  "Eniva ta Drorar, computer network specialist of the LAS-TOOR," she introduced herself, bowing slightly to the Halutian. "I am what you might call an exchange hostage on this filthy flying cage of fools." Her nasal tone of voice, aristocratic and arrogant. The insulting content of her statement, was completely negated by the fact that she was holding hands with Alemaheyu Kossa. "Or, if you prefer, unofficial ambassador of my people. Which naturally has great interest in this whole affair. That means I would gladly be present at your conference, if you will allow it."

  "I don't mind," Rhodan said. "We don't have anything to hide. Do we, Tolotos?"

  Was Pearl mistaken, or was there an undertone in Rhodan's voice that he took the question more seriously than it sounded? A touch of distrust, the slightest hint of an inconsistency?

  "Of course not."

  "Fine," Eniva replied. "Thank you. I would also like to bring in Solina Tormas, assuming she feels awake enough for it."

  That was quickly determined. The historian declared over the cabin intercom that she would willingly sacrifice a few hours of sleep to be on hand for this briefing.

  Pearl Laneaux felt jealousy flare up within her. Ridiculous, irrational, and unjustified though it was. She was, after all, completely informed about everything that she hadn't personally experienced, partly by Rhodan and partly by Sharita. Besides, she couldn't leave the bridge at present.

  Even so, after they had disappeared in the direction of the conference room, she called after the two Activator-carriers and the walking spring meadow in her thoughts: Just don't think I'm dying to be there, too. Non, messieurs, je ne veux pas!

  "Who'll start?"

  "You, Rhodanos."

  "All right. The Galaxy is in a rare state of relative peace at the moment. Since I know the Universe can't be saved in just a long weekend, I decided to go on a kind of goodwill tour in one of the last no-man's-lands in the Milky Way: the Ochent Sector."

  "Which borders on the influence zones of several Blues peoples and the Akonians," Tolot put in, "but has been too uninviting to date to arouse any interest. Hardly any life-bearing worlds, high frequency of hyper-storms, strategic value precisely zero. Go on."

  "In recent years, the Ochent Sector has nevertheless attracted an increasing number of prospectors: Terrans, Blues, mixed crews united only by the hope of a big find, and lately Akonians. Until now, the prospectors have only succeeded in pouring a lot of work and capital into the interstellar vacuum, but the probability that this will suddenly change increases by the day. A deposit of five-dimensionally radiant quartz ... the high-tech relics of an extinct alien civilization ... an ore deposit of extreme purity ... any of these discoveries could set off a race between the galactic powers and transform the undeclared cold war that currently grips the Milky Way into a hot one."

  "I understand," Tolot said. "You hoped to defuse a crisis before it broke out."

  Rhodan nodded. "I should have learned something after all these years, right?"

  "And according to my overbrain's calculations," Tolot added, "you also wanted to make contact with the Akonians in order to steer the Forum Raglund in a direction that favored Terra, since Akon is one of the Forum's most important members."

  "Correct,"
Rhodan said. "A high-level, official state visit wouldn't have accomplished anything other than boring speeches at far too lavish banquets. So I pulled certain strings in order to sound out the mood on the spot, practically among the people themselves, and to be able to act if necessary. A little like Harun al-Rashid. Oh, sorry, that's a local legend no one here knows. I mean I wanted to ... "

  "The Caliph of Baghdad," Solina Tormas spoke up. "Terran legend. He disguised himself as a common citizen and thereby learned in the bazaar what his subjects really thought. Still, the analogy doesn't match completely because you've never made any effort to conceal who you are and what you have in mind."

  "Indeed."

  "It does strike me," Eniva said, "that if you think the comparison through, you are considering the Ochent Sector as part of the territory you rule."

  "I don't rule anywhere, not even on Terra," Rhodan replied. "Let's not over-interpret the metaphor. In any event, I had hoped to be able to accomplish more as a passenger on the PALENQUE than as the commander of a fleet of super-battleships."

  "Go on."

  "On March 4, we stumbled across a generation ship by pure chance. A star ark that left Lemur, that is to say Terra, more than 50,000 years ago and crossed the Galaxy in dilation flight. It was protected by an anti-hyper-detection screen that was as archaic as it was a work of genius."

  "Unfortunately," Solina said, "we in the LAS-TOOR happened to be exploring in the same sector at the same time."

  "So what?" Rhodan asked. "I would rather call it a stroke of luck. We complement each other wonderfully, don't we?"

  "Who's talking? The intergalactic diplomat or the eternal wanderer?"

  For a very brief, very intense moment, their eyes met. Rhodan was the first to lower his gaze. I certainly can't get involved with someone here, he reminded himself.

  It was hardly possible to imagine a greater contrast between two women originating in the same cultural milieu. An eccentric noblewoman, styled at the moment as the incarnation of Flora and Fauna and lolling in her seat like a grass-overgrown sinful temptation. The sober, matter-of-fact historian sitting straight up in hers. Solina's light beige overalls, which were easy to keep clean due to their built-in microstructure that repelled dirt and offered many practical pockets, hung on her impeccable figure like a burlap bag that had gotten wet and then dried again without being ironed.

  "Please continue," Tolot rumbled.

  "Right," Rhodan said. "In this ark, the NETHACK ACHTON, there was a small shrine, a kind of altar. With an idol that represented a Halutian." Rhodan looked at Tolot sharply. He had learned how to interpret his friend's facial expressions and body language. What he now saw showed nothing but honest surprise.

  "The statue of a Halutian in a Lemurian ship," Tolot mused. "Difficult to imagine. Likely a reminder of what they must fear ... "

  "This Halutian was highly honored by the Ark's inhabitants and given the name 'the Keeper,'" Solina explained. "You can well understand that we were surprised ourselves. But there's no doubt at all about this interpretation of the altar. Denetree, whom you've already met, confirmed it, too."

  "Denetree? She was the youngest member of the team I encountered in the asteroid belt, correct?"

  Rhodan nodded. "She comes from the NETHACK ACHTON. But that's not all, it gets even more mysterious. We have Denetree to thank for a tip that led to a second ark, the LEMCHA OVIR, stranded in the Ichest System."

  "The ship's name, by the way, is Old Lemurian, and means 'Star of Hope,'" Solina added. "NETHACK ACHTON means 'Far Horizons.'"

  "When we examined pieces of the LEMCHA OVIR's wreckage," Rhodan continued, "we also discovered the remnants of a Halutian space-sphere."

  "Perhaps it detected the LEMCHA OVIR and they destroyed each other?" Tolot suggested. "That would correspond with our tragic common past."

  The ancestors of the human races and the Halutians had nearly wiped each other out in a terrible war for supremacy in the Galaxy that had lasted for centuries. The aggression had clearly originated on the part of what were then called the "Beasts," and the six-limbed warrior-giants had lived up to their name.

  "It's a reasonable theory," Rhodan said, "but wrong. Everything points to the opposite—that this ominous 'Keeper' had docked with the LEMCHA OVIR and had been on board during the crash, which occurred only recently."

  "But you didn't find the Keeper?"

  "We did indeed. We came across him on the planet Mentack Nutai. Unfortunately, I only saw him very briefly. Denetree, however, had somewhat longer contact with him. He saved her life in the frozen base. Then he fled in the PALENQUE's Space-Jet and hasn't been seen since."

  "Do you have a photograph of him or a graphic image reconstruction based on Denetree's memory?"

  "Uhm ... " Rhodan hesitated. "You can see what he looked like, my friend, by just looking into any mirror."

  "Are you trying to say ... ?"

  Rhodan didn't have to say anything.

  Tolot excitedly swiveled his massive, hemispherical head back and forth in a gesture that resembled Terran head-shaking to an astonishing degree. "Impossible. When do you say this encounter took place?"

  "Three days ago, on April 23."

  "So that was why Denetree acted so strangely towards me ... But I swear to you, Perry, that it was not me. I was on Halute at that time. You even reached me there by hypercom ... "

  "I don't need any witnesses and evidence, Tolotos. Your word is enough for me. But you can imagine how confused I was, and still am, when you take a look at these pictures."

  He gestured for the conference room servo to turn the light down and project the images that the camera in his multifunction armband had automatically taken in the base beneath the ice.

  Two brief sequences lasting half a second showed the form of a Halutian in a red battlesuit. Rhodan had played these recordings over and over again: in freeze-frame, in slow motion, backwards, and in increasingly blurry enlargements.

  "The PALENQUE's Syntron confirms my perception. The Halutian depicted here is Icho Tolot with a probability of 98.43 percent."

  "My overbrain gives an even higher value," Tolot rumbled. "Unbelievable, but true. That is, or rather was, me! But even so, it can't have been. Besides the fact that I don't remember it, I was tens of thousands of light-years away. I am faced with a riddle that can't be solved, Rhodanos. No one can exist twice at the same time. Unless ... " He suddenly broke off.

  "Yes?"

  "Unless a time loop was involved."

  Icho Tolot then reported what he had experienced since his arrival in the Ichest System. Like Solina Tormas and the other occupants of the crawlers, as the PALENQUE's auxiliary scout craft were called, he had been transported by a teleportation field into the interior of an asteroid. Into an ancient Lemurian base in which an anti-Beast weapon had apparently been under development during a late phase of the war. Tolot had felt the effect of that weapon on his own body and had only barely escaped with his life. At the last minute, the base's malfunctioning positronic computer had changed its mind and allowed the presumed enemies to leave.

  Since she knew this part of the story from her own experience, Solina's thoughts wandered. What Tolot said earlier had electrified her. A time loop? That would open up fantastic possibilities. How often had she wished for a time machine so she could travel into the past? But the required technology existed nowhere in the known Galaxy now even though the Lemurians had once done experiments with time.

  After Tolot had finished, it was Perry Rhodan's turn again. During the operation in the asteroid belt, the Terran Resident said, he had learned the prior history of the arks by means of a mental connection with a data storage unit salvaged from the wreck of the LEMCHA OVIR. Through the eyes of the Chronicler Deshan Apian he had witnessed the beginning of Lemurian space travel and learned how a mysterious Lemurian Cell Activator-carrier named Levian Paronn had led the construction and launch of the star arks.

  "There's another mystery," Rhodan said. "The data unit
reacted solely to me, as though it had been calibrated for my own personal brainwave pattern. But how could it have been known to that Chronicler who lived about 55,000 years ago?"

  "This Paronn possessed a Cell Activator, you say?"

  "Yes. An egg-shaped model worn with a chain around the neck. No idea how he got hold of it. But possibly we can ask him that ourselves. Because if everything goes well, we'll soon be standing in front of that first immortal Lemurian."

  "Oho!" Tolot exclaimed. "What makes you think that?"

  "In my Chronicler's vision," Rhodan answered, "I saw the ark he set out in himself. The last of nearly fifty generation ships, the ACHATI UMA."

  "'Our Life,'" Solina translated conscientiously.

  Rhodan went on. "We've just learned that the Akonian Spacefleet discovered and commandeered yet another ark on March 14, and on April 13 towed it into the Blue System using naval tenders. Jere tan Balloy, the commander of the LAS-TOOR, was kind enough to provide us with pictures. He wasn't violating any military secrets—all the Akonian media are filled with them."

  Once again the holo-projector went into action. "That," Rhodan explained, "is the ark I mentioned. I'm certain it's the ACHATI UMA, Levian Paronn's ship. It's so familiar to me from Apian's chronicle that I feel as though I've been on board it myself. See that enclosed ring construction in the center of the hull? Among other things, it houses the systems for generating and coordinating a multitude of tiny neutrino capture-fields in the form of propeller blades. In comparison with the NETHACK ACHTON, Paronn and his engineers achieved considerable progress over time during the arks' construction program. This area also contains acceleration-force absorbers that are effective up to eight G's. Plus ready rooms for the para-psychically gifted crewmembers so they could be quickly put into action in case of a failure, along with the life-support systems, hydroponic gardens, and so on. Once acceleration force could be neutralized, artificial gravity was possible, so it was no longer necessary to rotate the ship in order to simulate gravity with centrifugal force. So there's a different deck arrangement than on, say, the NETHACK ACHTON. Since the gravity is directed towards the stern, the bow is 'up.' Here, in front of the central ring, in the four attached cylinders as well as in the middle hull section, are the five actual living areas, designed for two thousand persons each."