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

have concluded friendly deals with spider-type creatures. Our best friends
belong to an aquatic race living in the oceans of a watery world. No, my
friend, the outer appearance is not what matters. Only character should
count.' 'Do the Topides have any character?' 'Everyone has a character,'
replied Khrest seriously. 'Sometimes the character is good, sometimes it's
bad. That's the only difference.' 'What do you suggest we should do now?'
asked Rhodan. 'Propose a peace treaty?' Khrest shrugged his shoulders. 'Let's
return to that question later - once we meet up again with the Topides. They
might be willing to enter into negotiations after they've suffered a
defeat.' 'There's something else I'd like you to answer for me,' said Rhodan,
looking Khrest straight in the eye. 'What do you think of my crew here? Do you
believe they'll prove themselves in an interstellar conflict?' 'You can rest
at ease,' replied Khrest, trying at the same time to suppress the admiring
look in his eyes. 'What I've witnessed here today is like a dream from the
glorious past of my Arkonide ancestors. That's the way we were way back when
we started to build up our galactic empire. Today, unfortunately тАж' For a
moment he was silent, his face betraying the embarrassment he felt. Then he
smiled and continued bravely: 'You could be the direct descendants of the
former Arkonides.' While Bell issued commands for the fighters to return to
the mother ship, Rhodan remarked as if lost in thought: 'Perhaps that's what
we are - speaking figuratively, of course.' 2/ THE KEY TO ETERNAL
LIFE Forty-two planets revolve around the bright star Vega. Intelligent life
developed only on the eighth planet. The Ferrons were a short people, rarely
taller than five feet four inches. Their eyes were small and deepset, their
foreheads bulging. Their copper-coloured hair and pale-blue skin - result of
solar irradiation - formed a strange contrast. Their tiny mouths made them
appear harmless. The climate on their home planet Ferrol was hot and tropical.
Their short, thickset bodies were perfectly adapted to the 1.4 G's of their
own world. Many Ferrons, however, were no longer living on Ferrol. After the
invaders occupied their homeland, many of them fled to Rofus, one of the
planets they had colonized. There they settled down, waiting impatiently for
their liberators, the Arkonides, who had so suddenly appeared from nowhere and
dealt the Topidian enemy a crushing blow. The Ferrons had in their possession
matter transmitters, capable of operating throughout five dimensions and over
tremendous distances. Yet they had not progressed very far in their knowledge
of space flight; they had not mastered five-dimensional mathematics either.
These two facts seemed to be inconsistent and Rhodan was rather puzzled by
this. An ice-moon revolved around the twenty-eighth planet. The satellite's
former atmosphere had become precipitated eons ago and changed the moonтА╣s
surface into an icy desert with high mountains. No life could exist in this
hellish climate. Still, Iridul was far from being a dead world. Hidden deep
inside one of these mountains there was an immense cavern whose smooth walls
still bore signs of recently molten rock. A wide tunnel led to the moon's
surface. An airlock permitted John Marshall and Doctor Haggard to leave the
cave anytime they wished aboard one of their two fighter planes, in order to
carry out reconnaissance flights. The foundation of the hyperwave broadcast
station was expertly camouflaged in the eternal ice. Nearby were the plastic
living quarters of the two men and their Ferron companions. Generators
provided light and heat; an air-conditioning system made life bearable beneath
the frozen surface. John Marshall, a natural telepath and member of the