" Perry Rhodan 0049 - (41) The Earth Dies" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

OtherwiseтАж



****



The 2nd player at the galactic chessboard was Al-Khor, Commander of the Topides in the Betelgeuse
system. Since he had eliminated his opponent, Wor-Loek, and made his own contact with the home
planet, a few changes had been made. The relatively weak military base on the 4th planet had been
dismantled hastily in order to remove it from danger in case of an attack from outer space. Al-Khor had
become a useful part of RhodanтАЩs plans without in the least being suspicious of the fact. Moreover, his
strenuous preparations had only served to strengthen the impression of the Springers that the jungle world
of the 3rd planet was in fact the Earth.

For Al-Khor had transferred the fighting forces of the Topides to the 3rd planet.

Hour after hour, new reinforcements were arriving from the TopidesтАЩ home system, which was more or
less 500 light-years distant. It was easy for Deringhouse to register the hypertransitions and up to this
time he had counted about 400 units.

On the upper plateaus of the primeval forests, energy beams carved out tremendous caves in the rocky
cliffs. The previously uninhabited planet was transformed into a fortress bristling with weapons. Patrol
ships of the reptiles circled Betelgeuse 3 in precisely calculated orbits, providing a guarantee against any
surprise approach of the Springers. Other units were concealed in the shallow oceans and waited there
for the signal to attack.

The Topides were well armed and prepared to give the greedy Springers a proper reception, whose
motives this time they had completely misunderstood. If they had actually known why the Galactic
Traders were attacking Betelgeuse and that they considered the 3rd planet to be the Earth, their actions
would have been considerably altered.

But they did not know thisтАж

And so it came about that, without any further help from Rhodan, the uninhabited world whose galactic
position had been represented as that of the Earth in the memory banks of TopthorтАЩs positronic Nav
computer had become an interplanetary fortress practically over nightтАФa fortress that was considered in
certain circles to be the Earth.

Al-Khor had no idea that he had become a pawn in the game.

He was on board one of the last ships to leave Akvo, the water planet. As the bluish world shrank away
behind him, he nodded with satisfaction to the commander of the cruiser. "The Springers will never get
the idea that weтАЩre as interested in the 4th planet as we are in the 3rd and they will also have no
opportunity to correct their mistake. The Dictator has just advised me that a further fleet of 200 heavy
class warships will join us in the attack when we are in full engagement with the enemy. Perhaps not a
single Trader ship will escape destruction."

"A very shrewd move," praised the commander of the cruiser. "Your name, Al-Khor, will go down in