"(novel) (ebook) - Perry Rhodan - Atlan 03 - Pale Country Pursuit" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

Ice Claw alternately suffered and slept. Our last attempts at normal conversation slowly ceased. When we reached the Valley of Steam it was Fratulon's turn again to take over the wheel.
He guided the clanking and yowling snow car through clouds of steam that gushed upwards out of sudden earth-rifts and we were often enveloped by them. Our wide-treaded wheels churned and slipped through slimy mud holes and sloughs where varicoloured mud bubbles continuously rose and collapsed with a blubbering sound while producing a smelly pall of vapours. We crossed this valley in silence while we coughed and our eyes streamed with tears from the irritation, though we pressed furs to our mouths an& noses. It became unbearably warm and of course Ice Claw was the first to be heard from as he insisted that he was going to melt to pieces and die.
Trailing a pitch black smoke cloud behind it, the snowmobile clattered and slithered up the step-like slaggy terraces of the terrain, which were slippery because of streams of hot water. The tractor chains gripped into the slimy layers of lime and clay with their worn but sharply polished cleat hooks, chopping and gouging the earth.
"In this area..." Fratulon was interrupted by a spell of coughing. "...you won't find any snow ghosts."
"Small consolation!" I answered, chokingly.
The crater-like edges of bubbling pools made loud crumpling sounds as they burst away under our plunging impact. Water and slime flowed on all sides of our clay-packed tires. There was no wind at all so that the vapour and steam and clouds of heavy gases hung over the valley like a dome, enclosing us in a weird world where even the sounds were dampened.
Once more we had cut down our time. Our headstart must have been at least several hours by now because otherwise we should have seen the pursuing vehicle of the Kralasenes before this.
Our car broke through the wall of mist. Fratulon advanced the throttle after we had gotten out of the valley basin and now we slid and slithered down a slope that was covered with loose layers of ashes, rough gravel and broken pumice-stone. The car picked up a racing momentum as we drove down onto the plain again.
In spite of the penetrating cold outside, we threw open the windows. The white-hot colour of the exhaust returned to its normal dark red hue.
"There ahead on the horizon... do you see it?" asked Fratulon.
He defrosted the windshield with a jet of steam. We observed a plain that stretched out in all directions. However, precisely toward the North the terrain rose gradually. On the horizon, perhaps two days away, we saw a towering pillar of smoke and vapour that must have been 10 km wide. Behind the lingering mists the sun of Gortavor was swollen and pale. It made a melancholy impression.
"I see it. Is that Adjover?"
Sawbones nodded slowly. "We have a lot of snow country ahead of us. But there near that volcanic smoke-the sign of Warm Spot-that's where Adjover lies."
We could make out the area vaguely. The wheels and tractor treads were digging through deeper snow. There would be snow and ice until close to Adjover, where the ice-free zone around Warm Spot began. The position of the crater was plainly marked by the rising cloud of steam and smoke. There was little wind there to the North and it seemed to stand motionlessly above the horizon.
"When will we get to that place?" asked Farnathia wearily. Her face expressed what all of us felt: isolation, melancholy and the expectation of terror and violence in the settlement which we could not avoid.
A warning light flashed at me on the instrument panel.
"Fratulon-quick! Cut the power!"
It was too late. With a dying screech another bearing froze. The second motor broke down. Another source of driving power was gone, this time on the right side. Fratulon had switched off quickly but the clicking of the control was only psychologically reassuring. It didn't change the facts.
"If we had to," he said, "we could make it with the caterpillar drive alone. We still have enough reserve action to get us there."
He steered onward after that, with undiminished speed.

* * * *

The whole operation of this steamer was teetering at the limits of its capacity. Our wheel power was cut down and no doubt other hub motors would go out before long. Fortunately the tractor drive was functioning unimpaired. The hills and valleys of the last mountain range before the Pole emerged out of the mists before us as we gained altitude and approached the crater.
It was a bright sunshiny morning when we reached the edge of the snow and ice.
"We have to approach Adjover with extreme caution," advised Fratulon. "Too many men have died here because they didn't watch their signals."
"I don't see any settlement," said Ice Claw.
"Beyond the fringe here is a small valley by the crater rim. The settlement is there because it's fairly well-protected from the storms. You'll only get to see it after we've passed through the gates."
"I see."
Farnathia had become slightly emaciated, which had taken some of her beauty from her. But a few nights of sleep and good food would restore her to her radiant self, just as I had always known and loved her. Ice Claw's spirits had sunk to their lowest ebb and all his fears and anxieties were coming out.
I myself felt tired and washed out. The lack of sleep, the monotonous diet and the continued nerve tension connected with the expectation of attack and pursuit, all these factors had served to leave us in a state of exhaustion. I could see it in the hard lines around Sawbones' mouth and when I looked at myself in the rearview mirror I knew I didn't look any better.
The puffing vehicle ground its way around the last turn of the approach road in the pass.
"Is it really going to be as tough as you say in this den of thieves?" I asked.
"Real rugged, my lad. At least until we are accepted by Umman, who is a tyrant until you put him in his place." Fratulon grinned as though actually looking forward to the conflict.
I couldn't say as much for the rest of us. Even before we had seen this badman's hellhole, we hated it.








6/ ADJOVER: HELLHOLE OF THE NORTH

Our relief valve blasted forth with a bellowing, hissing burst of steam, producing such a prominent cloud around us that it was impossible for the guards on the double towers not to become aware of our approach. Our lame, half-functioning vehicle finally came to a stop before the southern entrance to Adjover. Actually the temperature outside had continued to rise during the last few kilometres and it was now quite comfortable-like a pleasant afternoon in comparison to the weather we had come from.
"One thing more," said Fratulon calmly. "From Warm Spot to the Pole is a zone whose strange effects extend clear into space."
"What effects are you talking about?" I asked in new apprehension.
"Within that zone, no power machinery functions. It's a mysterious barrier to electrical operation."
Activity on the part of the sentinels interrupted further comment. The tower to our left was partially built into the dark rocks; in fact most of its battlements and galleries were reworked projections of the cliff. The rest of the structure had been finished with black, intermeshed square stones. We saw the muzzles of energy guns emerge from narrow slits in the wall.