Perry Rhodan NEO: Volume 1 [Complete] by Frank Borsch Christian Montillon

Author:Frank Borsch, Christian Montillon
Language: eng
Format: epub

19.

“Are you ready?” Rhodan, strapped himself into the formchair in the Stardust’s cockpit, turned his head, and looked Crest in the eye. The red coloring was foreign, inhuman. At the same time, Rhodan detected the beginnings of familiarity emerging within them.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Crest replied.

Rhodan read no fear in the alien’s countenance; only hope. If he wasn’t mistaken, there was even a touch of thirst for adventure.

The old Arkonide had his own chair. The robots had placed it between Manoli’s and Flipper’s formchairs with millimeter-perfect precision. It appeared to be made from a single piece and looked fragile enough to collapse under the slightest strain. There could have been no clearer demonstration of the Arkonides’ technological superiority. Rhodan was certain that Crest’s chair could withstand anything, even the Stardust burning up on reentry to the Earth’s atmosphere—and that its Arkonide passenger would survive along with it.

Crest wasn’t wearing a spacesuit. He didn’t need one. An oxygen supply and protective shield generator were integrated into his seat. In an emergency, the shield would protect him long enough for Thora to fish him out of space, or the sea, or wherever he might end up.

Rhodan nodded and gave Bull a signal.

Bull cleared his throat. “Two hundred seconds to launch. Initiating final checks.”

While his friend handled the launch sequence, Rhodan took a look through the porthole. The Arkonides had brought the human space craft out of the hangar and set it down at the foot of the crater. Rhodan could see pale Moon rock, the sheer crater walls, and an immense dark shadow resting on pillars three times as tall as the Stardust. It was the Arkonides’ starship, the Aetron.

He wondered if he would ever come back to this place. He already knew the answer: yes, he would. He would fly to the Moon again. To the Moon and far beyond. Just as long as he and his crewmates—and all of humanity—survived the next few days.

“Launching!” said Bull.

With a soft hum that felt at odds with the excitement and nerves burning inside Rhodan, the Arkonide propulsion units came online. Crest had assigned a host of robots to install them while small specialized machines had gotten to work inside the ship. They’d removed the ruined onboard computer and replaced it with an Arkonide model called a “Positronic.” For the old Arkonide, it had taken a mere fifteen minutes to set all this in motion. However, it had been such an exhausting fifteen minutes for him that he’d had to lie down afterwards.

The g-force pushed Rhodan into the chair, but it wasn’t overwhelming. He estimated a pressure of maybe five gravos—far from the force that he and his crew were capable of withstanding. And even that was far less than the Arkonide propulsion units could muster, he was sure.

Bull was wise to be cautious, however. The Stardust wasn’t designed to handle that kind of power. Rhodan glanced at the display; like a rear-view mirror, it allowed him a view of the back of the cabin.

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