" Perry Rhodan 0012 - (06) The Secret of The Time Vault" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

Perry Rhodan 012 The Secret Of The Time Vault 1/ RHODAN 'CONQUERS'
GALACTO-CITY The Gigantic spacesphere was hurtling across the orbital plane
of the forty-second planet of the sun Vega. It went into the faster-than-light
drive and set course for the planet Earth, twenty-seven light-years
distant. And then-it happened. The huge ship, in an instant, became
invisible. It simply dissolved, dematerialized, disappeared as if it had never
existed. Such is the transition from the fourth into the fifth
dimension. But no four-dimensional body can consciously exist inside
fifth-dimensional space, in which neither three-dimensional measuring scales
nor chronological calibrations have any meaning. The body ceases to be matter
subject to the laws of the space-time continuum. It becomes
timeless. Nevertheless, it exists! Thus the colossal spacecraft eight
hundred yards in diameter, continued to exist, but in another form. So did its
passengers. Perry Rhodan's mind was filled with serious doubts as he issued
the order for the hyperspace jump via the automatically guided electronic
brain, for, after all, he was unfamiliar with the ship. It was an alien craft,
captured in another solar system, wrested from the Topides, a non-human race,
who in turn had seized the spacesphere from its original owners, the Arkonides
- legendary rulers of the universe. Fortunately, the ship's technical design
resembled that of the disabled Good Hope, the ship that had brought Rhodan
into this sector of the universe, where he had become embroiled in a series of
battles with the lizard-like Topides. Rhodan realized the risk that lay in
attempting transition to Earth with an unfamiliar and undermanned ship.
However, he had no alternative, if he wanted to help the inhabitants of
Ferrol, the eighth Vegan planet, in their fight to rid themselves of the
invaders of their world Unaided, the Ferrons were simply incapable of
overcoming the inimitable Topides. Such was the motivating force behind
Rhodan's daring decision to risk the hyperspace jump which might well mean
death and the end of all his plans for mankind and the universe entire. There
was but a single entity aboard the Stardust II - as Rhodan privately thought
of the conquered vessel - that could consciously experience the jump through
space and time: the positronic brain. It automatically stored all sensory
impressions of the dematerialized crew, retaining the information for future
use. Additionally, the positronic brain took care to activate the robot crew
as soon as rematerialization took place, so that the robots' human charges
would be guarded from any possible harm. To Rhodan, no time seemed to have
passed from the moment the spacesphere began its hyperspace jump. But a
tremendous pain raged throughout his body. He felt as if he were about to be
torn apart and was completely incapable of so much as moving a finger. His
friend Reginald Bell, companion of lunar adventures a few years earlier, was
lying on the other side of the command centre, moaning softly, eyes wide open
and staring at the ceiling. The door opened silently and a human shape
entered the command center, glistening metallically in the subdued light. It
was one of the special robots which, having been ordered to do so by the
positronic brain, now obeyed the new masters of the spaceship without
hesitation. Gently it applied self-acting injection patches to its human
charges. Perry Rhodan's intense pain subsided instantly. He sat up and
regarded the automatic calendar. Some time had passed, of course, bm the
calendar had been adjusted to Earth time. A short span - but during it they
had travelled twenty-seven light-years! Suddenly Rhodan realized that the two