" Perry Rhodan - Atlan 01 - Spider Desert" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

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Behind us, Tarkihl lay on the horizon. Ahead lay the vast wasteland of the Spider Desert beneath its
eerie silvery roof.

I sat tensely in the driverтАЩs seat of the dune-rover. The seat next to me had been taken by old
тАЬSawbones?тАЭ as I was wont to call my mentor, Fratulon. His face was expressionless as he stared out of
our cockpit enclosure. I would have given much to know what was stirring in that bald cranium of his.

As I looked at him askance, he glanced at me briefly with his yellowish eyesтАФstill without expression.

тАЬAre you thinking of the distress call, Fratulon?тАЭ I asked, merely to be saying something.

тАЬIтАЩm merely thinking?тАЭ he answered, тАЬthat some humans out there are in trouble, and we have to help
them.тАЭ

I refrained from pressing him further. His silence didnтАЩt bother me. On the contrary, I was actually
glad to be able to concentrate on our journey. To drive a dune-rover was comparative childтАЩs play. The
tractor vehicle was low in contour, not much higher than a man and about as wide with a length of 18
feet. Its ground traction was such that it could negotiate almost any obstacle, and for this reason it was
especially suited for travel through desert sands. But even so, there was a certain element of risk in
making this thrust into the Spider Desert.

Aside from countless unknown dangers, there was a constant menace here which had given the desert
its name. At an average height of 2 meters over the ground was a vast net of silvery strands as thick as an
arm which stretched across the entire desert region. No one knew who had placed the net here or what
purpose it served originally. It was suspected, however, that its designers had been those same beings
who had created Tarkihl.

Many a soldier of fortune had set out to find the end or beginning of the mysterious net, but none of
them had ever returned. The silvery strands still retained their secret. But one thing had been learned
concerning their nature. At times this apparently self-contained network would begin to hum and vibrate.
The eerie sound of the vibrations gripped all forms of life in some sort of a trance, causing hallucinations
which had been fatal to countless desert wanderers.

I myself had never experienced the humming song of this spidery web, but I couldnтАЩt imagine how a
person could fall under its spell if one were to exert the necessary force of will against it.

When I once expressed these thoughts to Fratulon, he had answered: тАЬMany who were older and
stronger than you have fallen prey to it, Atlan.тАЭ This had been earlier, on another occasion, but at the time
it had vexed me because it seemed that he underestimated my abilities.

Since then he appeared to have altered his opinion of me. Nowadays it often seemed to me that he
regarded me as an equal. Like this morning when the distress call had reached Tarkihl from somewhere
in the desert. He had not objected to my taking the controls of the rover. I considered it as a form of
silent recognition and it filled me with pride. Therefore I determined to substantiate his new-found
confidence in me and to bring the machine safely to its destination.