Perry Rhodan Lemuria 1: Ark of the Stars by Frank Borsch Read Free Book Online Page B

are all over the Ochent Nebula, but it wasn't the Akonians who destroyed the crawler. It was that thing there." The Immortal pointed to a small holo at the edge of the control center showing the hangar containing the recovered wreck. "Or I should say, its missing half."
    Pearl Laneaux, who up to now had been occupied with the hyperdetector data at one of the consoles, spoke up. "There's something to that. The thing was moving at nearly light-speed when we retrieved it. An object's mass increases toward infinity the closer it comes to the speed of light. Even a collision with a toy ball moving at that speed would be fatal. Only the tiniest particles would be left of both bodies."
    "That could be," the commander allowed. "But why is half of that thing still left? Assuming your suspicion is correct, then shouldn't there be just a single cloud of particles remaining?"
    "That's true," Rhodan conceded. "But the thing may not have come apart in the collision with the crawler. What if this rocket had split in two long before? The debris would likely follow only slightly deviated trajectories. One half collided with the crawler, and our search revealed the other half, which despite its high velocity was still in the vicinity of the collision point."
    Sharita closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and turned to the hyperdetection officer. "Omer, go through the stored hyperdetector data. Search for particle clouds. Maybe there's one with a mass that roughly matches that of the crawler plus a piece of debris like the one in the hangar ... even though I hope not."
    The result came a few minutes later. There actually was a particle cloud in the specified sector, and its direction, velocity and mass were within the parameters of what would be expected after a collision between the crawler and a piece of debris.
    Sharita quietly thanked the hyperdetection officer. "At least now we are certain." She turned to Rhodan and stared at him for a moment. "You suspected this all along, didn't you? Why didn't you say something?"
    Rhodan met her gaze. "Because it wouldn't have made any difference. None of you would have wanted to believe me. You would have gone on looking anyway until you fell over from exhaustion. And I understand completely. In your place, I would have done exactly the same thing if the lives of my friends were at stake."
    Pearl Laneaux opened her mouth, but Sharita waved her off with a militarily abrupt gesture. "I know, I know. He has a point." She straightened the belt from which her beamer dangled. "It's now confirmed. The three crawler crew are dead. Pearl, inform their families. See to it that they get the risk bonus they're entitled to. And now I want to take a look at the thing that is responsible for the loss of my people."
    The commander of the Palenque stalked out of the control center. Rhodan joined her, and Sharita accepted his company without a word.

5
     
    "Are you sad?"
    Lemal Netwar carefully turned his head in the direction from which the voice came. His caution was rewarded; he felt only a fleeting twinge of pain.
    He looked at the blank wall. The Net chose not to manifest itself today. It had been manifesting less and less often. Perhaps the projector had broken down and the Net had not found a substitute. It would be one more in a long list of devices on the Nethack Achton that had failed.
    "Why do you ask?"
    Netwar was a large and powerful man; he remained so despite the sickness that ate away at his joints. With his broad shoulders (though lately he found himself slumping), he could have been mistaken for a metach who had been assigned to heavy labor his entire life. But the appearance was deceptive. Nothing could be further from the truth.
    "I know you, Lemal." The voice came from a different direction. Netwar made no effort to turn toward it. He was not in the mood to play games with the Net. Here in his private rooms, it heard every word he said, whether he liked it or not. And he had to take it easy on