" Perry Rhodan 0052 - (44) The Pseudo One" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

1/ PITY POOR PUCKY!



A MINOR MIRACLE: there were still some inhabitants of the worlds of the 21st terrestrial century who
had not yet heard of Pucky the mouse-beaver. Of course this was not exactly a tragedy for most of them:
people suddenly encountering him for the first time were frequently in for some embarrassing surprises.

Such was the case of the insubordinate settlers in the high plateau country south of Venus City. They
knew from experience that World Government on the home planet was not in the habit of dispatching a
punitive expedition to nip such rebellions as this in the bud so they had decided to assert their
independence by shaking off a slight burden of taxation.

Inasmuch as Perry Rhodan was off somewhere in the depths of the cosmos and could not be contacted,
the Terranian World Government took matters in its own hands and assigned Pucky the task of keeping
things in order on Venus.

Which the Vagabond leaper was only too happy to do.

So one day when a Disneyesque creature resembling an ancient cartoon rodent named Mack the
Mouse, or something like that, appeared among the rebellious settlers, it was met with peals of laughter.
They laughed even more uproariously when this comical cantankerous apparition asserted that it was an
emissary of the Solar Empire, come in the interests of Law & Order.

Their laughter subsided only when the strange animal, who spoke impeccable English, brought its hidden
faculties into play. The ring leader could not hide a single thought from him because Pucky was an esper,
first class. He was also capable of appearing almost everywhere simultaneously because he was also a
teleporter. And finally, all the settlersтАЩ weapons took minds of their own and assembled themselves high
above the plateau, whereupon they fell into a very deep lake. Because in addition Pucky was
psychokinetic.

Naturally this was enough to bring the settlers to their senses. With many fine words they begged
forgiveness and promised to be obedient in the future and to pay the agreed upon taxes.

On the evening of this eventful day, Pucky permitted a celebration in honour of his obvious generosity.
The leaders of the aborted uprising had invited him and they served him some vintage Venusian wine. It
turned into quite a gay festival and PuckyтАЩs rising enthusiasm caused him to forget some of his better
upbringing. In his squeaky voice he regaled them with some rugged spaceman songs which he had picked
up from Reginald Bell. With husky voices, the men responded in a roaring accompaniment. In the forest
which surrounded the colony, the animal fell into silent wonderment over this unusual bedlam. For them,
too, a singing mouse-beaver was new to their experience. In great bewilderment, a ring-nosed
beetle-eater crawled deeper into its hole and decided to look for a new home first thing in the morning.
Even a half-deaf corkscrew worm bored its way deeply into the ground in order to get away from the
intolerable caterwauling.

To put it mildly, Pucky was feeling no pain.

Of course he was vaguely disturbed, now and then, by a subtle intrusion of weak thought-impulses into
his subconscious which did not originate in the settlersтАЩ brains, they being befogged by the strong wine
they had consumed, but he tended to dismiss these exterior stimuli. After a task well done, hadnтАЩt he