" Perry Rhodan 0044 - (36) Man and Monster" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

you want your friends to die of starvation?"

Rhodan removed his sweat-dampened hands from the transparent partition. Two slowly fading
impressions remained on the plastic surface.

"Stiller!"

The engineer on the viewscreen lifted his head.

"You may begin! But not too muchтАФtake it easy!"

The snap of a closing switch broke the stillness. From the ventilators of the large mess hall, whitish puffs
of vapour emerged. In scattering and drifting shreds they were borne along on the fresh air streams until
the first suffocating clouds enshrouded the trembling heads and shrieking mouths. The completely
harmless but fast-working anaesthetic gas remained suspended in the room. The exhaust vents of the
automatically activated ventilation security system were closed off by Stiller.

The ecstatic yowling and shouting tapered off. In increasing numbers the sick men fell into a beneficial
sleep. Reginald Bell, RhodanтАЩs second in command, appeared to have a moment of clarity just before
sinking down. It was almost as though an unfailing instinct of danger had brought the confused man to a
point of angry protest. He staggered to the transparent partition, his lips parted, then sank to the deck
with a look of bewilderment in his blue eyes.

Silence reigned in the mess hall of theTitan . It was the same in other departments and sections where
the infected ones had been quarantined. The women of the crew lay in ThoraтАЩs spacious cabin. There,
too, the lunatic laughter had been stilled. The exhaust vents turned on again. In a few moments the
anaesthetic vapours were drawn away and fresh oxygen streamed in.

Rhodan turned away with slumped shoulders. Beyond him, technicians opened the locked security
hatches. The first Med Robots scurried into the room. Men of the newly arrived crew hurried in with
inflatable emergency beds. The large shipтАЩs sick bay wasnтАЩt extensive enough to accommodate all the
patients.

The bleak and desolate landscape of the planet Honur shimmered on the monitor viewscreens. A section
of the small red sun was to be seen on the upper edge of the screen. Outside, all was quiet. The great
laboratory of the unknown intelligences had long since been conquered. The liberated nonues, or Hono
bears, had scattered to the four winds. Of the indigents, who had reverted to a primitive state, there was
also nothing more to be seen. It was as though Honur had never harboured life.

"And now?" asked Perry Rhodan tonelessly. "YouтАЩve had your wayтАФso what happens now?"

The Arkonide Khrest moved himself into the foreground. His old yet strangely young face was furrowed.
His white hair shimmered in the diffused lighting. "Perry, make a return jump into the Arkon System," he
recommended calmly. "If there is any help to be had, it will be there. It would be senseless to fly to the
Earth. Your scientists already have the medical knowledge of my race. They canтАЩt help. So the only hope
left is that Arkon will have made new discoveries in the meantime."
RhodanтАЩs face revealed his inner contempt. "Arkon!" he retorted tensely. "My friend, youтАЩre dreaming!
That unfit, degenerate race of yours will have done anything else but search for new medical remedies!
They lack the will to action, donтАЩt you understand?"