" Perry Rhodan 0047 - (39) The Silence of Gom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

cave. Tako Kakuta was unconscious for hours after the crash and had to be carried. One of Ivan
GoratschinтАЩs double heads had suffered an injury. Although it was the тАШyoungerтАЩ of the two heads which
had received the concussion, the mutantтАЩs sympathetic nervous system caused the тАШolderтАЩ head a great
deal of painтАФwhich was cause for it to severely tongue lash its brother.

Betty Toufry had been the biggest surprise. When they crawled out of the broken body of the dead
Gazelle, the men were sure they would have to clamber back and rescue Betty, who was presumably so
paralysed by fear and shock that she was unable to move. Instead, after each had emerged from the
mass of twisted plastimetal, stretched out on the ground and gingerly fingered his body with leaden arms,
Betty was already outside, some yards distant, leaning nonchalantly against a rock formation and greeting
them with a cheery smile. She could read their thoughts and knew what was on their minds, shushing Bell
as he began to compliment her on what a courageous girl she wasтАж

The steady wind had blown heat waves as high as 400┬░ F to the site of the crash, forcing them to seek a
cooler climate in the twilight zone. At first they walked erect like human beings but soon discovered that
their earthly pride was no match for the doubled gravity.

They had just made it to the cave when the storm struck in earnest. They had watched in wonder while
the blue flesh-like plants had sought safety in the ground a few minutes before the first gust swept over
the high-plain and would have whipped them away but for the fact that they were partially protected as
they cowered on the lee side of a rock.

Then they hid in the cave and waited 10 long hours for the tempest to subside.

And now they found themselvesтАФas beforeтАФcut off from all communications on a world which was
almost twice as big as Saturn, rotated once every 2.4 Terrestrial years as it completed its orbit around its
central star Gonom, thus always showing it the same face. However its trajectory was very eccentric so
that violent liberations caused periodic changes of the sunтАЩs position. Gom had a mantle of oxygen and an
air pressure of 20 atmospheres. Its surface gravitation measured 1.9G.

It was a world on which a man could stand erect no longer than a few minutes and where he needed the
protection of a spacesuit to keep from being crushed by the enormous pressure; a world on which
disgusting, blue, semi-intelligent plants vegetated and where eternal night reigned on one half and constant
day on the other; a world from whose twilight zone one perceived nothing but deepest darkness behind
and only a weak, blood-red streak of light ahead.

A creation of hell. Such was Gom!



****
"Something is coming," John Marshall said.

Reginald Bell stared out of the caveтАЩs exit. "ThereтАЩs nothing I can see," he muttered.

"ThereтАЩs nothing to see," Betty remarked. "What do you think of it, Mr. Marshall?"

Marshall shook his head. "I donтАЩt know. It seems to be rather simple minded."

"Right. Semi-intelligent."