" Perry Rhodan 0062 - (54) The Blue Dwarfs" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

When Milligan tried to stand up at the end of the 3-hour rest period, his legs gave way. He fell over and
remained there, lying in a prone position. Mullon thought Milligan had sprained his ankle and tried to help
him up.

But Milligan could no longer stand up. He was so weak that he fell down when not held up.

Half an hour later the first symptoms of that mysterious disease appeared: blue pustules.

Mullon radioed Greenwich immediately and learned that Weeney had achieved a partial success in
fighting the sickness. He had succeeded in slowing down the activity of the virus with one of the
medications brought from Earth and if not curing the disease, at least bringing it to a standstill.

Then Mullon and Pashen loaded Milligan aboard the helicopter. Mullon wanted to fly the patient back to
Greenwich but when he tried to turn the motor on, the machinery responded with a single rattling noise
and died completely.

Mullon then tried to locate the problem but although he was a technician and familiar with helicopters, he
was not successful. Meanwhile the sun sank and a flight to Greenwich was no longer even thinkable. The
narrowness of the passes and the height of the mountains would have made such an enterprise fatal and
one simply could not risk the only helicopter available to 8000 settlers.

Not to mention the fact Mullon had no more light to continue his investigation of the helicopterтАЩs
propulsion system.

They would have to wait until the next morning, even though Milligan could be long dead by then.

Mullon assigned periods of watch-duty to the others, then took the first 3-hour period himself. The
afflicted Milligan could not be left without anyone to keep an eye on him.

Milligan accepted his fate calmly. He was conscious and even the breakdown of the helicopter did not
seem to bother him. "DonтАЩt worry, Boss," he said to Mullon, "everything will be alright!"

MullonтАЩs watch-period ticked away without incident. He let 3┬╜ hours go, since he did not feel tired
himself and wanted to let the others have a little extra rest. Only then did he wake Freddy.

In the meantime, Milligan had fallen asleep.

Freddy took a gun and a small flashlight and sat down in front of the tent in which Milligan was sleeping.
Next to her burned a small lantern, which Mullon had put up during his watch. The lantern threw a circle
of weak light into the darkness and attracted a number of beetles and night butterflies.

Freddy spent her time observing the flying insects and since she did it with expert knowledge in the field,
she was able at the same time to fulfil one of the expeditionтАЩs objectives.

In this manner 3 hours passed relatively quickly. Freddy remained where she was, however. She wanted
to wake Pashen only when she was so tired she could no longer keep her eyes open. It had not gotten to
that point yet: the variety of beetles and butterflies swarming around the small lantern offered no chance