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Exodus to the Stars

Page 26

by Andreas Brandhorst


  Suddenly there was a howling, like a storm in this world of songs. It whirled the many forms around without tearing away the connections between them, and its voice overpowered the softer notes of the symphony. Jorgal sensed that the hurricane was trying to pull him along with it, and he instinctively resisted and sought for something to hang onto somewhere ...

  Do not resist, Jorgal! Darhel called, and in his song the Machine Whisperer also felt the presence of Memerek along with little and big Alahandra. Come to us right now! Do not hesitate! This is the transmission pulse. It will carry us away from the base, and its energy will sustain us.

  The storm seized Jorgal, adding him to the melodies of the others. He found himself in a smaller world that still held all the notes and all the shape echoes. The Mother of Machines held out her arms to him, to all of them. Jorgal ran to her, let his song blend with hers and those of the others, and a common melody emerged, complex and beautiful.

  For the first time in his life, Jorgal felt perfect, unlimited happiness.

  An electromagnetic pulse left the antennae of the base just before the asteroid disappeared in a fireball. It flew at the speed of light through space just like the arks that had left a distant solar system many thousands of years before. It joined with the cosmic background radiation and carried a song to the stars.

  40

  Deshan Apian

  Lemuria, 4653 dT (51,747 B.C.)

  "What is the point of Project Exodus now?" Deshan asked. They had left the Astrolift at its stationary terminus above Lemur and boarded a shuttle that would take them to the construction complex in Suen's orbit. "It's said that development of a faster than light drive by the Spaceflight Solidarity is close to a breakthrough."

  "Hyperdrive will simplify spaceflight considerably, that's true," Paronn said as the shuttle accelerated and Lemur's moon appeared in the window. "But when the first FTL Lemurian ships reach other star systems, the Enemy will notice sooner or later and find his way here."

  "Hasn't he already known about Lemur for a long time?"

  "To be perfectly honest, I don't know. I'm no longer certain whether the artifact on Anunna's moon really was a relay station intended to transmit detection data. Perhaps it served an entirely different purpose. And the spacesphere that destroyed three Lemurian transports ... It was damaged, remember? It could have reached the Apsu system by chance."

  "You've been saying for 150 years that someday an enemy will come, an enemy worse than the Konos, and now you're changing your mind all of a sudden?"

  "No," Paronn said. "The Enemy will come. I know that. It is not an opinion, it is a certainty. But perhaps it will be Lemurian ships outfitted with the new hyperdrives that lure him here. When the Enemy arrives, we have to be gone." He pointed out into space, to the construction complex over Suen that had grown to the size of a city. Semi-automatic factories on the Moon processed Suen's raw materials and delivered their products not only to the Exodus Project's ship-construction facilities but also to the Great Solidarity of Lemur. "Those two ships there will be the last. With them the Exodus of Generations will come to an end."

  The shuttle had already begun its braking phase without anyone on board noticing anything. G-force absorbers, artificial gravity, antigrav generators—all these things had become commonplace.

  Two great ships hung in space next to the orbiting shops. One was tube-shaped and the other ring-shaped. Assembly robots and semi-automatic connection units swarmed over them. The generation ship composed mainly of tube-like elements struck Deshan as having an almost astonishing similarity to the space station in which an explosion had killed Professor Luban and his team of scientists and technicians long before. The ship was of course of much greater length, but like that station it consisted of interconnected but separate cylinders, ring components, clusters of projectors, and bundled antennae. A colossus that at the same time seemed strangely fragile. That impression was deceptive, as Deshan knew. The new technology made this ship considerably more stable and robust than, say, the AKAN HATA or the HENTECK AVRAM.

  "This is the ACHATI UMA," Paronn said. "The last ship of the Exodus Project. I will leave the Apsu system with it."

  Deshan turned to look at him in amazement. For some reason he had assumed that Paronn would remain on Lemur to fight against the Enemy when he finally appeared.

  "And I will take your complete chronicle along," Paronn added.

  The shuttle flew past the two enormous ships, past individual components and modules that would be assembled into a greater whole. In a few weeks the two ships would be finished, Numbers forty-six and forty-seven, and with that the 150 years of the Exodus Project would come to an end.

  "The construction facilities, the factories on the moon, our bases orbiting the outer planets ... All these resources will soon be available to the Great Solidarity," Paronn said. "That way we'll pay back a little of what Lemur has given us."

  The shuttle went by the manufacturing facility that produced the countless assembly robots in space, passed an environmental module with transparent walls in which plants grew in the light of sunlamps. People moved among the greenery, tiny, like two-legged ants. It flew past the capture field projectors, and then the ACHATI UMA fell behind Paronn and Deshan. They approached the other Exodus ship, the next to last to go on the long journey: the GALAN BAL. It seemed a little thinner than the ACHATI UMA and was somewhat shorter, but there were major similarities in the overall structure. Its individual components could also be turned and made to rotate although it had long been no unnecessary to simulate gravity with centrifugal force.

  "Their destinations have already been programmed," Paronn said.

  "And you will inform only the commanders."

  "Yes. The fewer people who know, the better."

  "And the commanders are immortal."

  Paronn nodded. "As new generations are born, live, and die, the commanders must watch and protect for centuries while millennia go by outside the ship. They are responsible for continuity for their populations." He operated the navigation controls and the shuttle headed away from the GALAN BAL and towards the construction complex.

  "When will the commander of the GALAN BAL receive a Cell Activator?" Deshan asked. He looked outside and watched the shrinking Exodus ship. Apsu's light caressed its sides, turning them silver and gold. The GALAN BAL suddenly seemed beautiful to him.

  "He has already received it." Paronn said.

  "So soon? Normally you wait until just before launch for the ceremony."

  "Normally. This time things are different."

  "Who is your choice for commander?" Deshan asked. "Do I know him or her?"

  "It's a him. And you know him rather well."

  Deshan thought of the various Star Seekers who might be considered for taking the GALAN BAL to the stars. And then he suddenly understood.

  His eyes went wide. "Do you mean ... ?"

  Paronn smiled. "Yes. You are to be the commander of the GALAN BAL."

  Deshan memorized everything, every detail, every bit of trivia no matter how banal. He looked around at his surroundings like someone who knew he would soon go blind and so tried to impress memorable images into his mind.

  The wind was blowing today, stirring the water and preventing him from seeing his reflection in the lake, along with the other face with large brown eyes and framed by black hair. Deshan's back was not happy about the rocking of the boat, but he pushed the stabbing pain to the edge of his perception. Another pain had moved to the foreground, that of parting.

  Mira's death was his first parting from her, and this was a second, just as final as the first, and no less difficult. He sat in the boat half hunched over, wrapped in a thick coat that sheltered him from the cold. The snow on the mountainsides announced that winter was close at hand, and perhaps this time it would be so cold that the lake in the Valley of Silence would freeze. The image of Mira held captive under the ice disturbed him, even though he knew how nonsensical that was.

  "I've
come here for the last time," he said, and even the words were difficult. "We leave tomorrow, Paronn and I. Tomorrow the ACHATI UMA and the GALAN BAL will launch. As the commander of an Exodus ship, I will take nearly 20,000 Lemurians to the stars. And at the same time it will be a journey into the future, Mira. Each day aboard the GALAN BAL will equal a hundred days here."

  He looked out across the water and listened to the lapping of the waves against the boat's hull. Several birds let the wind carry them high into the sky, and for a few seconds Deshan envied them. Birds simply lived, and neither had to make difficult decisions nor bear responsibility. But perhaps there are easy and hard things even for such creatures as well, he thought.

  "I will never come back here, Mira. From now on, you will be alone in this place." Deshan heard the tone of these words; they sounded terribly wrong. "No, that's not true," he added. "You will not be alone because I'm carrying you with me, in my memories and in my heart. For as long as I live." He felt for the Cell Activator on his chest, then let his hand drop. "And perhaps I will live for a very, very long time."

  He stared into the turquoise water and sought for words. "Two of our great-great grandchildren are aboard the ACHATI UMA,” he said. "Along with several members of the House of Rusun, which has been allied with ours since the marriage of Mornea's grandchild Gildia." Mornea, their eleventh and last child, born in the year 4534. She had been dead for several years, as were all of Deshan's sons and daughters. He liked to think of them being with Mira. The family united—it lacked only the life-companion and father. "And some members of your House are among the travelers on my ship, the GALAN BAL. Just think: the names Lemroth, Apian, and Rusan will reach the stars."

  He was silent for some time, and with his next words his voice was no more than a whisper. "But you will remain here alone."

  The wind seemed to answer him, a murmuring and a whispering that brushed the water and gave foam tips to the waves. It spoke of cold, of ice and snow, of loneliness.

  Deshan felt his cheeks grow moist. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry to leave you here alone. Please wait for me, even if it takes a little longer."

  And then there was nothing more to say, and at the same time more than he could say in a day, and Deshan went back to the shore. For the last time.

  Levian Paronn looked out of the vidscreen, nearly 100 square meters square, on the forward wall of the control center.

  "Fare you well, Deshan Apian," he said. His voice resounded from the loudspeakers everywhere on board the last two Exodus ships. Thousands of emigrants heard them, and they were also transmitted to Lemur. "I thank you for the service as a Chronicler that you have rendered me. Your stories are traveling with me into the future to tell Lemur's grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the exodus of generations. Fare all of you well who are setting out to take Lemur's seed to distant worlds. My best wishes are going with every one of you."

  "Fare you well, Levian," Deshan murmured when Paronn vanished from the vidscreen. A display of outer space returned and with it the distant stars.

  "All systems ready," the Chief Engineer of the GALAN BAL reported.

  Deshan nodded and stiffened his posture. He wore a uniform-like black jumpsuit. Black like space. Black like the clothes of the Herald who 150 years before had begun calling Project Exodus into being. A circle seemed to close.

  "Activate capture fields," he said.

  Gray-white funnels formed on the sides of the GALAN BAL and began to revolve.

  "Initiate forward thrust reaction."

  "Forward thrust reaction initiated."

  Deshan pictured how the Receptors would employ their Abhijn Power to increase the interaction probability of the captured neutrinos. A glow appeared in the capture fields as neutrinos and anti-neutrinos were annihilated.

  "Acceleration phase has begun," the Chief Engineer said.

  G-force absorbers, artificial gravitation, navigation shields, environmental systems—everything functioned flawlessly. Other, smaller display screens showed the ACHATI UMA, Suen, and Lemur, falling behind the kilometers-long ship.

  Deshan Apian turned to the men and women in the control center. "We are underway," he said.

  Two hours later, the forward thrust reaction in the ACHATI UMA's capture fields glowed. The last Exodus ship left the solar system, then changed course, and accelerated to nearly light-speed. The journey to the stars and into the future had begun.

  41

  Levian Paronn

  ACHATI UMA: Twelve Years after the Beginning of Dilation Flight: 5853 dT (50,547 B.C.)

  This room was especially secured and could only be entered by the commander of the ACHATI UMA. The active security systems would have first warned unauthorized persons making an attempt to enter it, then eliminated them.

  Levian Paronn sat at a horseshoe-shaped table with various control switches, and when he touched one of them, the room darkened and the walls seemed to lose their substance. In reality, a holographic depiction of the ship's surroundings appeared on them, giving the viewer the impression of floating in space. Paronn leaned back in the seat and looked out at the distant stars. Here on the edge of the spiral arm, the distances between them were increasing. Ahead lay an empty zone that separated this spiral arm of the Galaxy from the next one.

  The sublimity of space gave him peace, even after all these years. For a while Paronn enjoyed the silent beauty, then he leaned forward and touched a switch. Directly in front of him, another projection field formed, showing Apushol in all its glory: the Galaxy, a colossal wheel of fire made of billions of stars. And among them blinked forty-six points—the estimated positions of the other Exodus ships.

  "Lemur's seed has been scattered," Paronn said softly. He had finished his work. Except for that which lay ahead of him: the future. For many it was uncertain, but he believed he knew what it held in store for him.

  Levian Paronn smiled. He was more confident today than ever. But the final confirmation that he had done the right thing he could get only as soon as he again met the friend who had not even been born yet.

  His fingers felt for another switch and a compartment in the table opened. In it lay the recording module that he had received from Deshan Apian and half of a Cell Activator that he would probably never finish because he lacked too many components. He fervently hoped that the other devices he had made copying the original that hung at his chest would function as anticipated. Lack of materials had forced him to improvise here and there.

  Why hadn't he spoken with the four-armed friend about it? He had neglected to do so when it was still possible, then events had snowballed and left him no more time.

  No more time ...

  That sounded like an irony of fate. Now, after the beginning of the Great Journey, he had more time than he liked. Children would be born on the ships that had been sent out. They would grow up, grow old, and die, fleeing from a menace that had brought the people of Lemur to the edge of the abyss. No one would have believed the truth about the Beasts who would swarm over the Galaxy like a plague.

  "If only it had been possible for me to tell you everything, Deshan," Paronn murmured.

  Images flickered before his eyes, so swiftly that he could not make out any details. Paronn had supplied every Exodus ship that set out with a copy of the most recent version of the chronicle in specially prepared data storage units. Each was programmed for the brainwave pattern of a certain person. Only he had the complete version of the chronicle of the exodus of generations. But that was too little. The clue on the last ship, the ACHATI UMA, had to be passed on. Otherwise, he feared, the future would be in danger.

  For some time, Paronn stared at the ordinary-seeming data storage unit. "This is more than my story," he murmured softly, listening to the echoing of his own words. "This is the life of all of us."

  He had decided not only to deposit the original in the proper place but also to distribute several copies. Simply to be sure. Where, he would know when the time came, but for now he did not yet k
now.

  Because of the specially prepared data media, the copying process took some time. Paronn wondered how he would feel if someday he were to stand in front of the recipient of the recording in person. He quickly suppressed the feeling of using other people.

  His gaze returned to the stars. "Survive," he whispered to Lemur's seed on board the many generation ships. "Survive and deliver my message."

  42

  Perry Rhodan

  This was the place where memories painted pictures. Now their colors were fading, washing out to a gray that lost details. Yet details and colors were preserved in another place, in the consciousness of a man nearly 3000 years old.

  Perry Rhodan's eyes snapped open, and he was instantly awake. An audio signal sounded on the medical Syntron linked to him, and a few seconds later Dr. Hyman Mahal appeared at his side.

  "I know the whole story," Rhodan said. He realized that he was lying on a diagnostic bed and sat up, determinedly swinging his legs over the side. "I know the story of the Star Arks." He wanted to stand up but the doctor pushed him back into a sitting position with gentle emphasis.

  "Take it easy," Mahal growled and looked at the readouts on the medical equipment. "How do you feel?"

  "Very well rested. Like I had a good sleep."

  "How did you feel?"

  Rhodan raised his right hand to his temple, then let it sink again. He noticed the small data storage unit on a table nearby and watched as it turned gray. As gray as the images he had received—and which existed in his mind in all their original colorful glory.

 

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