"(novel) (ebook) - Perry Rhodan 0042 - (34) SOS Spaceship Titan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

Thora, who at one time had commanded an Arkonide expedition ship, that same vessel that had been stranded on Earth's moon, softly placed a hand on Perry's shoulder. The touch of the aristocratic Arkonide woman sent a tremor down his spine. Never in 13 years of close contact had he ever experienced her physical touch.
"Yes?" He looked up at her.
"Perry-what you are demanding from the ship's computer brain is beyond its potential performance limit. For the hypertransit, it would require an entire new progr-"
She was interrupted by the high, ear-shattering speaker voice of the automaton: "X minus 17... X minus 8... X minus 1..."
Thora, Khrest and everybody else standing in the command central fled to any seat they could find.
Perry was barely able to hear the final "X minus Zero!" The awful twinge at the nape of the neck slammed in on him. Then fifth-dimensional hyperspace streamed whispering and hissing tonelessly from all sides into the control cupola of the Titan-extinguishing everything: life, matter, energy. It devoured everything, swept it all away. The normal world ceased to exist.
The two Empire ships had been tailgating the Titan closely. Their hyper-sensor equipment registered the transit jump of the giant spacesphere through hyperspace and captured exact co-ordinates.








2/ HIDEOUT IN THE THATREL SYSTEM

"Okay, that's enough!" groaned Bell. He closed his eyes in a painful grimace and rubbed the nape of his neck.
The Titan had just completed the fourth short hyperjump. Perry and he were the first to recover enough to go back into action.
"We'll see," muttered Rhodan to himself, non-commitally.
The micro-speaker hissed briefly. Then came the comp data from the hyper-sensor scans, calculated from the moment of their first transit.
"Five jumps measured, sir!" announced the scan officer triumphantly. "Each with a distance of 8 LIMS (light minutes) and 14-point-6 light-seconds..."
"Thank you," replied Rhodan and turned off the intercom.
Bell shook his head wonderingly. "But man, did you see that heavy space traffic? I'd sure like to have some good statistics on the actual number of spacecraft operating in that star cluster!"
Thora called to him from her seat. "I recall that, 13 years ago, we had more than 3 million of them," she said. She and Bell had often exchanged rejoinders and squelches but this one caught Bell short for an answer.
"Three million!" he moaned and kept repeating it.
The figure startled Rhodan and disturbed him but he concealed his reaction. Good Lord! he thought. Over 3 million space ships and yet they've let all their accomplishments decay... The whole crew in the command centre had heard Thora's remark and showed their astonishment. No doubt they were thinking it a utopian dream to attempt a conquest of such an incredible empire.
"So what!?" Perry looked straight into Thora's eyes. She lost her self-assurance under his glance.
Perry was not conceited but just now his memory awakened concerning how he alone had been able to outwit the mighty positronic brain on Arkon. And yet this robot brain was more powerful than he-a million times more powerful. The total incalculable might and power of Star Cluster M-13 stood behind it. This Brain was no decadent bon vivant of an Arkonide. It had drive, a desire for action. But it had been outwitted by a single individual. That was why Rhodan was merely concerned but not vanquished by Thora's statistic.
"No more hyper-transits!" Rhodan's order was transmitted to every deck of the Titan and into every sector. He was convinced that Arkon had lost his trail. Those two Empire ships tagging so close behind were also in a heavy traffic channel and had probably lost him at the third hytrans. "Enter flight program for the Thatrel System," he also ordered.
Reginald Bell began sulking. "I wish I could figure out why the name of that system gives me the wild willies. Hey, Perry-who dusted off that particular corner of the star maps for us?"
"You ought to remember, Reg. It was Thora."
"No, this is the first time you told me who. Anyway, she knows best, I guess. How far is this place from Arkon?"
"47 light-years. But you should remember all that, Reggy. You were with us when we went through the star catalogue searching for the Thatrel System. What gives with you, chum?"
"Nothing, Perry, it's just a funny feeling about that place, that's all."
"You should take something for it!" Perry spoke in harsher tones than he intended but Bell had upset him with his foreboding. He had hoped after all these past turbulent days to subside into a period of relaxation.
The Second Officer in charge of ship EDP positronics and programming announced: "Sir, the flight program for Thatrel System is in operation and trajectory set for new course. Difference to co-ordinates is 0.0003. Distance from Honur is 34.62 light-hours at current velocity of 0.76 light..."
At slightly more than three-fourths speol, the Titan sped toward the obscure Thatrel System. Three insignificant planets circled a small, pale-red sun there. According to the star catalogue prepared by the Arkonides, the second world was inhabited but by a degenerated population. Rhodan wondered if the already degenerated Arkonides were calling these descendants of their race degenerate, what was in store for them on this planet Honur?
For two days Perry kept up his precautionary observations on the space behind him without any course change, while edging farther and farther from the customary shipping routes of the Arkonide spacers. He wanted to make sure that the mechanical Regent of Arkon had not discovered his whereabouts and that none of the many spacers that had crossed their course at a distance might have reported them to Arkon. His precautions were well understood by everyone on board the Titan, since Rhodan was no friend of chance contingencies and went out of his way to avoid them.
At 10:43 ship time the command was finally given to take a direct course to the Thatrel System. The Titan hurtled toward its destination at almost the speed of light. Slightly less than 13 hours later the remote solar system appeared before them on the panoramic videoscreen.
The spectroanalyst harrumphed derisively as he analysed the small sun's light rays. Rhodan compared results with the values listed in the Arkonide catalogue.
He was standing in the main conference room of the Titan, surrounded by Bell, Khrest and Thora. The conference room was commensurate in its dimensions with the extravagant size of the Titan. Bell had derisively dubbed it the Ballroom because he frowned on pomp and ceremony and extensive talks and meetings.
"Perry, why not just make a 'Mars' landing on this clod; you won't find anything there. You don't have to make a big project with the catalogue-I found a Galactic Routing and Time-Table in the library. You ought to take a look at it. There's not a single shipping route that touches this corner of the Big Deep."
"Then this place is exactly what we need, Reg. You keep forgetting we could hardly powder our noses on Zalit without a hundred spies watching us. And don't blame me now if I'm still suspicious of the Zalites. After their revolt they were all too friendly with Arkon. Can you tell me how we can install the new hypertrans compensator without being caught at it? Right now on this trip it's been brought home to us how important the compensator is to us. Instead of going through multiple jumps we could have said goodbye to Arkon with a single transition. That's why I'm glad that Thora has recommended this deserted 'corner' in your Big Deep for us. The installation has to be kept a complete secret. I'd like to have at least a couple of aces up my sleeve in this game we're playing against the robot brain on Arkon."
Bell felt rebuked and started rebelling. "So how many aces are 3 million spaceships? You going to overlook that...?"
"On the contrary, my dear Reg!" Perry was all smiles. "Since I have learned how many spacers there are in M-13, I have been able to shelve our project for new spacer construction."
"You intend to do some more skyjacking, Perry?" Bell was perplexed. When he noticed Thora and Khrest grinning, he became angry. He could see no reason for the hilarity and he blustered, "Skyjacked is the right word, my friends, let's face it. The Titan was skyjacked! You have to draw the line somewhere and face facts!"
"But Reg-you of all people!" Rhodan interrupted, his eyes dancing with concealed delight. "To become so sensitive on this particular subject! What's come over you, pal? Need I remind you of a few small items concerning 'skyjacking', where you have drawn a line longer than the universe...? For instance, I well remember-"
"Okay!" Bell's excitement had subsided as he saw Perry's trend of argument. "I pass!"
"Alright, Reg," Perry answered. "But I still can't have you thinking of us as common thieves. Don't forget that we came as friends to Arkon and you saw what happened when we reached Star Cluster M-13! Besides, when I suggested that our project for new spacer construction had become superfluous, I was thinking of the day when the Arkonides would become our best friends and would supply us with as many spacers as we need. Then what you prophesied in our conversation with Khrest a few days ago will become reality. Okay? Are we back to a mutual understanding...?"