"(novel) (ebook) - Perry Rhodan 0053 - (45) Unknown Sector Milky Way" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

For the time being, nobody knew what he had run into. Inasmuch as he was also a telepath it wouldn't have been easy for him to fall prey to a sniper's bullet. Probably he had run afoul of a mechanical trap. In view of the distrust that the survivors of the Isan War had for each other, it was highly possible that cleverly concealed automatic rifle traps or similar devices existed. If Pucky became too reckless he would be highly vulnerable to them.
Pucky's injuries were a very serious setback for Rhodan. Belal and Havan had to be found, otherwise all the efforts he had made to bring new social and political improvements into both bunkers would probably turn out to be of no avail.
In the meantime the people of Fenomat and Sallon had consumed half of the concentrated food on board the space jet. These concentrates were of a type that would sustain a feeling of satiation for about 4 weeks. During that respite, Rhodan hoped that natural, uncontaminated food resources could be developed or else he would have to summon an Earth ship with provisions.

* * * *

On the following day, Marshall made an important discovery. Ever since the 2-man conquest of the bunkers was concluded, Marshall had been in Sallon attempting to find a trace of Belal and Havan. For this purpose he had been making a systematic search of the bunker and he finally reached the main power plant area where energy was generated for the air conditioning, electrical illumination and all other purposes.
Marshall's important discovery here was nothing more than pure chance. The fortuitous circumstance was that he no sooner arrived than Malanal started an experiment in his secret laboratory which required a considerable surge of electrical power.
Marshall made some rough calculations and arrived at an answer that showed the total average power requirement for the bunker to be about 200,000 kilowatts. He wasn't so taken by his abilities that he wouldn't have considered the possibility of even a 50% error in his figures but when he took an instrument reading of the main power line he saw that the energy output indicated more than a million kilowatts. And by his estimate this was an impossibility.
He called Rhodan because he was sure that he had at last found a clue. Rhodan responded at once. For a few minutes he arranged to have all connections to the regular bunker shut off. The output of the power plant should have reduced to zero as a result but instead the residual output stood at exactly 800,000 kilowatts and was evidently feeding into unseen secret conduits. This was 4 times the total power load that Marshall had estimated for the whole bunker.
Rhodan took a quarter of an hour to trace out the power leads that were carrying the current. Shortly thereafter the boot-legged power load dropped suddenly to 100,000 kilowatts.
Rhodan was satisfied. "That does it," he said to Marshall. "You wait here. I'm going to bring a heavy disintegrator from the ship. All we have to do is follow these bootleg lines and we'll come to Belal's hideout." He smiled grimly for a moment and then added: "It wasn't very clever of him not to have provided his hideaway with a separate power plant. What I'd like to know is what he's up to using 800,000 kilowatts!"
Rhodan returned to the surface world by the fastest route. The suit he was wearing, which had filled Ivsera with such awe when she first saw him, was a further development of the Arkonide transport industry. It was even a bit less impressive in appearance than the normal models but this was compensated for by the fact that its antigrav generator was 4 times more powerful. The deflector field and the defence screen operated independently from each other, each with its full quota of energy. Under heavy fire it was no longer necessary to dispense with the function of invisibility in order to repel a bombardment.
As soon as he exited from the ground lock, Rhodan rose from the ground and flew close above the grass at a fast pace toward the space jet. Night had fallen and Rhodan noted its strangeness, considering the low-hanging dark red sunball of Wilan and the scarlet heavens choked with endless stars.
He required only a few minutes to arrive at the spaceship. Using his small portable transmitter he gave the automatic code signal that would cut off the defence screen long enough for him to enter the lock.

* * * *

Originally Belal had wanted to carry out his coup alone but Havan had belaboured him so much that he decided to let him come along. In this decision he had not been influenced in the slightest by the report from Havan's 3 bodyguards that the latter was due for a serious state of depression unless he could have a change. Of course Belal was fully determined to get rid of Havan as soon as possible so that he would not endanger his personal plans but for the time being it was practical for a number of reasons to take him along and allow him to believe that he was important and on an equal standing. For example, Havan had a few cohorts over in Fenomat who would only obey his commands whenever it came to a decisive showdown.
Elimination of the alien machine-which Malanal now believed to be some sort of spaceship-was considered by Belal to be so important that he stationed himself at the exit of the secret lab in the company of Havan and 2 of his most trusted men. The 2 soldiers had placed the rocket launcher in position so that at the deciding moment there would be nothing left to do but to lift up the hatch cover and open fire.
Belal and his companions were provided with a clear view of the strange vehicle, by means of a stereoscopic telescope that only extended its objective lenses a few inches above the ground. The double lens head casing was camouflaged to look like an ordinary rock lying on the ground. Belal was fairly certain that if things began to happen the people inside the ship would not detect the device.

* * * *

Laury had her hands full with all her duties. The sorely wounded mouse-beaver required her care and attention. Of course any danger of infection from his wounds was eliminated by means of the medications available on board the space jet but Pucky was very weak and the restoration of his physical strength had to be monitored carefully.
The mouse-beaver had been conscious for some time and he related to Laury what had happened to him. As Rhodan had surmised, he had gotten into a trap when he tried to have a look inside one of the bunkers. At the time he had not turned on the defence screen of his transport suit because he was operating under the deflector screen and had good reason to believe that nobody would be shooting at an invisible object. In this he had been deceived and now he ruefully recalled that Rhodan had advised him to take no risks and above all not to enter any bunker.
But besides Pucky there was still Count Rodrigo de Berceo to worry about. After Rodrigo had persisted at much length and made it perfectly clear that a man's love involved certain 'arrangements of a personal nature', Laury's emotional attachment to the Spanish-Aztec count had weakened to some degree. In addition to this, when it became apparent that his abduction from Earth of the 17th century and his isolation from all technological advancements, plus his long confinement in a zoological museum and his sudden leap into the 21st century, was causing a considerable number of problems and often seemed to shake the very foundations of his mental constitution, even the last vestiges of her feelings for him had faded, to be replaced by a kind of affectionate pity.
Laury had somehow managed to explain to Rodrigo that it was ridiculous to be running around in top boots, scarf and laced cuffs and since then Rodrigo had been wearing the customary work uniform for space travel. But of course it had taken him a little longer to put aside his sword. She had also managed to dissuade him from thinking that he was entitled to a carte blanche treatment by everybody just because he was of noble extraction. She had convinced him that what mattered in the present age was to be shrewder and stronger-especially in a situation where the space jet was in flight from Tolimon.
But Laury had overlooked one thing: deeply rooted perspectives were not to be eradicated from one day to the next. And so it was that a strange mixture of notions dominated Rodrigo's mind and it became more difficult for him each day to adapt himself to his new environment.
For example he had striven with a pathetic eagerness to comprehend what kind of a vessel this was that he found himself in. He had grasped that this was a ship of space in which men could fly around among the stars. Inasmuch as his technical world went only as far as the steam engine-the principle of which had once been explained to him-he had been looking for a steam engine ever since he had seen the space jet in operation for the first time and no one could get it through his head that the spaceship utilized an entirely different principle for generating its driving power.
Rodrigo had learned how to service various controls by pushing this button and that. He knew that he had to press there to turn on the viewscreens or push here to operate the air conditioning. But he did not know how the equipment operated and Laury was convinced that he never would learn.
For this very reason it was a chore in itself to prevent Rodrigo from fooling with the space jet on his own and attempting experiments in order to increase his knowledge.
One night after she had attended to Pucky, Laury found the count inside the ship's maintenance shaft. With an adjustable wrench he had removed the cover plate from the defence screen generator and with the light of a powerful flashlight he was tracing the colour-coded knife switches.
When he heard Laury's footsteps he straightened up and turned to the girl with a smile. "I don't think I'll ever locate that steam engine," he said a bit sorrowfully.
Laury was very angry with him. "You'll wreck this ship yet in the process," she protested. "Come out of there! You know you're not allowed in this section by yourself!"
Rodrigo nodded and obediently climbed up the narrow plastic ladder. When he came into the bridge, a buzzing signal was heard from the main control console.
"Turn on the viewscreen!" Laury ordered. "I think the Chief is here."
Rodrigo complied immediately. The panoramic viewscreen covering the wall of the control room lit up and revealed a night scene of the dark red plain of grass that spread out on all sides of the space jet. Perry Rhodan was standing about 50 yards away from the main lock. Rodrigo saw him take a small apparatus out of his pocket, on which he concentrated for a moment.
A slight quiver ran across the viewscreen. Rhodan put himself in motion and came toward the lock.

* * * *

Belal did not see the stranger until he was only a few paces away from the vessel. He had not ventured to scan the area with the lens head for fear of being discovered. "Watch out!" he whispered. "He's arrived!"
The 2 soldiers knew what they had to do. One of them bent down under the hatch so that it rested on his shoulders. The other took hold of the rocket launcher and stood ready to shove the weapon out on the edge of the exit hole.
Belal could not determine whether or not the protective screen that Malarial had described was turned off, so he waited until the stranger named Perry had reached the vehicle. Trembling in his excitement, he saw that a port opened in the wall of the machine. Where there had been smooth, seamless metal before, a door now opened swiftly and soundlessly. When the door opened, a shining conveyor belt glided down to the ground in front of Perry's feet. Perry stepped on the belt and permitted himself to be borne upward to the opening.
"Now!" cried Belal. "Open fire!"
The hatch swung on its hinges, making a squeaking and grating sound. With a groan, the soldier shoved up the heavy tube and braced it on the edge of the opening.
The other man dropped down and turned on the fuse switch. Hissing and spitting through a cloud of smoke, the first shot left the barrel and went shrieking toward the ship.

* * * *