Free Perry Rhodan Lemuria 1: Ark of the Stars by Frank Borsch

take a look."
    Sharita aimed her beamer at the section of the wall where the heat source registered. The disintegration ray made slow progress cutting through the barely visible hatch.
    "This hatch is a lot thicker than the first one," she called over the hissing of the melting metal.
    "Maybe it's a rescue pod that's designed to be ejected in an emergency."
    Sharita's beamer continued to burn through the wall. The loosened hatch fell away, and Sharita stepped first through the opening, her beamer held ready.
    She found herself in a tiny room, this one somehow free of the ice that coated the rest of the wreck. In the weak light beam from her armband, Sharita could see several contour seats anchored to the floor, and in front of them instrument panels and dark, dead screens. At the other end of the room, she saw an opening that led into a kind of cockpit. And in front of that opening, on the floor—
    "A body!"
    Venron hears a noise. A crash that reminds him he is still alive; the cold has not eaten him. Not yet.
    Sharita's light hovered on a human form. The body had drawn itself up into the fetal position, with its back turned toward them. One arm was outstretched, as though the being had been trying to reach something. The body was dressed in lightweight trousers and a shirt that appeared colorless and faded.
    Light. Not the light of the stars. This is softer. Venron tries to open eyelids that are frozen together. He manages only a narrow crack. The colors do not seem right. It is as though the cold has frozen even them. He sees the dully colored floor of the shuttle. And an arm. A long moment passes before he recognizes the emaciated limb as his own arm. He had stretched it out. He had thought he could touch her. Grasp her with his hand and cling to her. Who? he wonders. He has forgotten.
    "That ... that ... "
    Sharita's mind told her to run to the figure on the floor, to help him or her, but her body didn't obey. It was as if her body had frozen at the moment of the discovery. She felt ashamed. How could she have been playing games with Rhodan to save her pride when someone lay here dying?
    Rhodan pushed past her in one stride and knelt down next to the prone form.
    A blur. A voice. It whispers something. Venron does not understand what it says, but that does not matter. It sounds soothing, sincere.
    Rhodan carefully took the body by the shoulders and turned it on its back. It yielded only reluctantly, twisting strangely, as though every bit of flexibility that was natural to the human form was gone.
    It was a man.
    A man. Venron sees him from large, sad eyes. The man's mouth moves unceasingly, whispering a message he cannot understand. Venron wants to say something. But he cannot. His mouth will not obey him. The man in front of him dissolves into a blur.
    Sharita and Rhodan looked at the unshaven face. The eyes lay deep in their sockets, the cheeks were sunken. The man's brown skin was waxy, and had a bluish tint. Rhodan slipped one hand behind the man's head, and with the other opened the magnetic fastenings of his jacket and wriggled out of the sleeve. He switched hands behind the man's head and shrugged his arm out of the other sleeve, then bunched the jacket up into a provisional pillow and rested the man's head on it.
    A warm hand. It feels good to be touched. This touch reminds Venron of ... Denetree. That was who he was reaching out for. He had seen her among the whirling stars. His sister would never abandon him. The shape above him flows into a new form and takes on solid outlines again. Venron sees his sister bending over him. She smiles.
    "Is ... is he still alive?" Sharita asked. She couldn't shake off her stiffness. Her beamer was aimed at Rhodan and the man. It was completely inappropriate and unnecessary, but she couldn't help it. The fingers of her right hand clutched the pistol grip with the intensity of a drowning man holding a life-saving tree limb.
    A second voice. A woman. Venron tries to turn his