" Perry Rhodan 0037 - (29) A World Gone Mad" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

probably must have been for reasons of security.

Suddenly he noticed a flash as if the sunrays were reflected from a shiny metallic surface.

Pucky strained his eyes and recognized a robot that slowly patrolled back and forth in front of the
entrance to one of the many gorges about 600 feet away.

The mouse-beaver noted the direction and dropped down to the ground. He carefully concentrated on a
high cone-shaped rock not far from the entrance to the gorge and made his jump.

Within the second he materialized again behind the rock. He took a deep breath and waddled out onto
the plain as if he were a rabbit of the local fauna in search of food. This behaviour was probably not
considered conspicuous by the robots, assuming they were programmed to treat only the native Goszuls
as enemies.

The metallic monster kept patrolling before the opening to the gorge which was about 150 feet wide. It
paid no attention to Pucky for whom this experiment was a matter of life and death. If the fighter robot
failed to react to his approach he would be able to move around unmolested. It gave Pucky an
unpleasant feeling in the pit of his stomach that he failed to be taken seriously but he swore that we would
get even at the first opportunity.

Barely 100 feet away from the robot Pucky paused for a few minutes and thoroughly studied his
adversary. Its arms extending at an angle ended in spiral-shaped barrels of lethal energy-beamers. The
mouse-beaver knew he could be vaporized in a fraction of a second if the positronic brain of the seven
foot giant regarded him as an enemy. Luckily this didnтАЩt seem to be the case. The robot didnтАЩt even
know what a mouse-beaver was and as long as Pucky behaved peacefully he wouldnтАЩt be tagged as a
foe.

The retracted antenna of the robot indicated that it was not tuned in to a command centre but was
programmed by an individual data bank. If it was possible to get close enough to it, it could be
deactivated and rendered harmless. However this was easier said than done. If the robot registered
intelligence in a living being that didnтАЩt look like a Springer it was bound to react in a hostile manner.

Pucky was unable to solve this problem and decided to determine once and for all if he would be
classed as an intelligent being by the positronic brain.

He went down on all fours and hopped straight to the silent guard who was impassively making his
rounds. He was ready for an instant teleportation jump to save his hide if it became necessary.

If Bell could have seen his little friend in these circumstances he would have roared with sarcastic
laughter. The mighty mutant Pucky acting like a common rabbit would have been the greatest joke to
him. Luckily Bell was not on the scene to enjoy the spectacle in which the robot showed no interest
whatsoever.

Pucky was completely ignored.

He would have loved to use his telekinetic power to hurl the robot 100 feet up in the air and let him
crash to the ground as he had done many times with other robots. But he had to keep the promise he had
given to Rhodan. He suppressed his urge and bounced into the ravine, passing close by the robot.