Perry Rhodan NEO: Volume 2 [Complete] by Frank Borsch Christian Montillon

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

First Part

Thora

June 30 to July 4, 2036

Under the radiant dome

By the late evening of July 4, 2036, the noise had long since surpassed what was tolerable. The Chinese tanks and rocket launchers had zeroed in on their immobile target. The detonations were barely perceptible as individual events by now.

Perry Rhodan stood unprotected and without a helmet under the radiant dome. He felt as if he had sunk into a sea of sound waves. It was a deeply transparent, even invisible, sea. No sensible differentiation could be made anymore between hearing and numbness. Silence was a distant and slowly fading memory, like that of water in the desert.

Rhodan barely felt Bull tapping him on the shoulder. He turned towards him. Bull’s slightly receding hairline glistened with sweat. His mouth was pinched tight, his face paler than usual. He didn’t even try to speak. With his lips pressed together, he beckoned to his friend.

Rhodan nodded and followed him. They walked toward the Stardust which, like the entire surroundings of their life, lay under the transparent shell of energy. Where did the protective field generator actually draw this energy from? The question was stuck in Rhodan’s mind and couldn’t be ignored anymore. His thoughts were moving viscously and unwillingly in the abyss of this acoustic underworld.

“Why are you doing this to yourself?” asked Bull after they closed the Stardust door behind them. He spoke as loudly as possible without screaming. Even their spacecraft couldn’t shield them from the continuous thundering of the detonations. But just having the sounds muffled was already a relief.

“I wanted to think,” Rhodan answered.

They went into the cockpit. It had gotten narrower since they had anchored the Arkonide formchair inside. Its thrust absorber allowed for much higher acceleration rates than would have been tolerable for humans without protection. And the Stardust also owed this fantastic novelty to the Arkonides’ technological upgrades.

Rhodan had to smile briefly when it occurred to him that the Chinese had been said to have a certain tendency toward product piracy in the early years of the 21st century. Peanuts against what we’re doing now, he thought.

He looked out of the window. The drumfire under which the radiant dome caused more than the acoustic inferno. The play of lights, at times wan, at times blinding, seemed more alien than anything he had encountered on the Moon or aboard the Arkonide starship.

Bull pointed at the two helmets lying on the mountings and made a quizzical face. Should they put them on and communicate over the radio?

Rhodan shook his head. Too risky. They had no idea whether their besiegers possessed the technical means to intercept them, or to what extent. Instead, they put their heads close together, talking directly into each other’s ears in turn.

“Think?” asked Bull. “Well, out there seems to be the ideal place for meditation.”

Rhodan waved the jest aside. “Have you been in contact with Manoli and Crest?”

“No,” his friend answered. “I’ve tried to reach them time and time again. No chance. I can’t get through because of the interfering transmitters.

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