Read Perry Rhodan Lemuria 1: Ark of the Stars for Free Online

unimportant, said nothing about the suicides. But those who took their own lives: they were different, weak or old; they had lost their faith in the Metach'rath, the Ladder of Life; they were not people like her, not like Venron.
    Denetree was panting. She rose from the seat, shifted to a higher gear and tried to drive the fear from her thoughts by pedaling harder.
    "Just ask the Net!"
    The mocking call echoed within her. Yes, the Net would know where Venron was. Nothing—or almost nothing, since it didn't know about the Star Seekers—escaped the attention of the Net. She could report Venron as missing. After that, nothing would ever happen to him again. The Net would take him into its caring protection, turn him over to the Magtar, the psychologists who had settled on the Inner Deck and never left it—and who could never leave it now, because their muscles had atrophied. Despite this handicap, they claimed to know better than everyone else about life on the Ship. They would test Venron until they found something. They would find out about his explorations, treat him with injections and pump him full of their drugs until he could only murmur his name and "Be loyal to the Ship!" Then they would let him go, a reformed member of the greater community.
    But he would live.
    Unless he was too strong. Then, the Magtar would turn him over to the Pekoy.
    Ahead, Denetree saw one of the rudimentary shelters that had been built at regular intervals in this part of the Ship.
    He would live ...
    The Pekoy would ask questions. Why did he explore? Who else explored with him? Treason was a contagious disease. It would ripen in one individual, then spread to others, growing like an ulcer. To prevent it from endangering the entire community, treason had to be burned out. Completely. If she asked the Net to find Venron, the Star Seekers also would be discovered. They would all fall down the Ladder of Life, and if they were lucky, they would be allowed to begin again at the lowest rung. Maybe.
    He would live ...
    The Ladder of Life held no meaning for a dead man.
    Every shelter contained a terminal for use in emergencies that was fully connected to the Net.
    Denetree rode past the shelter, then turned around and stopped at it. There was a bicycle leaning against one of the posts, but no one was in sight. The floor of the shelter and the small touchscreen of the emergency terminal had been hastily wiped clear, most likely by children who had been caught playing with it. They must have run away in order to escape a beating, and left the bicycle behind in their panic.
    Denetree bent over the touch screen.
    Live, she thought. Venron must live!
    She touched the display to activate it, thinking hard to come up with the words she would use to report her brother as missing. Afraid of losing her nerve in the last second, she imagined him dead: his stiff, unmoving body, unseeing eyes.
    I'm sorry! She apologized in her thoughts to the other Star Seekers, who surely would be exposed. I'm sorry. But Venron must live.
    The display lit up. But instead of the input menu, she saw Venron.
    "Brother!" she exclaimed in surprise. "I was so worried about you! Where ... "
    The blare of the display's loudspeaker cut her off. "Look into the face of the traitor, metach! Today, this man, Venron, attempted to destroy the enterprise to which we have all sworn our lives! He has put us all in deadly danger! See his heinous deed!"
    Venron's face disappeared. In its place appeared a long shot of a huge room. In the center stood a large, lumpy machine that Denetree did not recognize. At one end bulged two translucent domes like the eyes of an insect, but from the place where the animal would have had a mouth projected a long, three-part device. For a few moments, nothing happened. Denetree thought she saw movement behind one of the domes, but the surface was reflective and showed only what appeared to be the silhouette of a man.
    Then large doors opened behind the machine. The