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

Finally, Ivsera nodded to Havan, as he stood in front of her waiting for an answer. "I believe we can make an agreement," she said, a bit uncertainly.
Havan beamed. He grasped for her hand and she gave it to him-unwillingly and with abhorrence.
"I didn't dream, my girl," he stammered happily, "that you would still consider it. But now..."
He released her hand and ran to the table that he had been sitting behind originally. Impatiently he jerked open a drawer, brought out a stack of paper sheets and threw them on the table. He scrabbled in his pocket for a writing instrument.
Ivsera was startled no less than Havan himself when a crack appeared suddenly in the wall on their right, which ran from the ceiling to the floor and then brought the wall crashing down a moment later. Pieces of masonry scattered about in a rising cloud of dust.
Ivsera had jumped up with a cry of fright. Havan had fallen back out of his chair and rolled against the rear wall. Through the dust clouds Ivsera could see him with his arms crossed protectively over his head.
There on the rubble from the wall stood the strange woman, Laury. Ivsera stared at her uncomprehendingly. She saw her motioning to her but she did not understand what she wanted. Laury pointed to Havan, who still lay there motionlessly. Her gestures became impatient.
Then Ivsera finally got the message. With 2 or 3 quick steps she was behind Havan and before he knew what was happening she pulled his miniature pistol from his belt, released the safety catch and aimed it at him.
"Stand up!" she yelled at him. "Your game is finally at an end!

* * * *

The rest was easy. In the general confusion it was a simple matter for Laury to free the other prisoners as soon as they were all brought into the laboratory. Ther became his old fire-eating self and overpowered the guard who had appropriated Laury's stun-gun and only when Ther made his attack did others become aware that things were not in order with the prisoners.
Following Laury's instructions carefully, Ther made good use of the alien weapon and as the guards came hurrying in one by one he sent them crashing unconscious to the floor of the laboratory.
All final attempts to recapture the prisoners were abandoned. The news that Havan was himself in the prisoners' hands broke down all remaining fighting spirit on the part of the insurgents. They knew the reins of power had slipped from their hands and now they sought by cooperation to counteract the penalty that they had earned through their collaboration with Havan.
All that the sensational new situation required to make Laury and her former fellow prisoners completely victorious was the appearance of a giant airship over the region of Fenomat, such as no one had ever seen before, and which now manoeuvred for a landing.

* * * *

The Earth had sent the newly commissioned ship, Drusus. The vessel was spherical in shape and 5000 feet in diameter. In fact, it was the mightiest ship that had ever been seen on Isan.
True to Rhodan's instructions, the commander of the Drusus had only taken on board a minimum crew and the most indispensable weapons. On the other hand, every available room was crammed full with containers of provisions.
The Drusus held 20,000 megatons of food, of which half consisted of high-concentrate nourishment. It was an easy guess that the planet's 100,000 inhabitants would be able to last a century with these provisions.
But 100 years was enough even for the dangerous, long-lived Strontium-90 radiation caused by the war to subside to a safe level. In 100 years the inhabitants of Isan would be able to start producing natural sources of food without danger. Of course until that time they would have to get by on the gift of provisions which the Earth had provided.
There was something else that the Drusus brought with it: bad news. Commander Harrings, who had brought the mighty ship safely and undamaged from the Earth to the centre of the Milky Way, immediately requested a conference with Rhodan after the landing. This he was granted at once.
Rhodan learned that Earth patrol ships in all sectors of the galaxy had detected a heavy activity of Arkonide and other spaceships. The ship movements had been registered according to course and coЎrdinates and fed into the great positronicon in Terrania, which had just finished absorbing Rhodan's own data concerning the situation on Tolimon. With an astounding probability factor, the computer had arrived at the conclusion that the Arkonide Empire had been alerted by those events and that it appeared to have made a connection between them and Rhodan, who had disappeared from the scene over half a century before. In the opinion of the positronicon, the things that had happened on Tolimon, and above all the way in which they happened and were carried out, constituted sufficient evidence for the Arkonide robot brain to draw a conclusion that everything pointed almost unequivocally to Rhodan as the perpetrator.
The interlude that Perry Rhodan had won for himself and the Earth by misleading the Springer fleet 50 years ago, was at an end. The Empire had begun once more to set out in search of the Earth.

* * * *

For Rhodan this meant that he had to cut short his sojourn on Isan as quickly as possible and return to the Earth.
It was disappointing to him to have to leave so soon. After having fallen so unwittingly into the affairs of Isan he had conceived of many plans for these people, among which the most important was to stabilize relationships in the highest sense of human dignity.
Moreover, he had hoped to satisfy his own curiosity. On the first day of his arrival he had been surprised to hear the inhabitants speaking a form of the Arkonide language-although of course an ancient form. He had assumed that they were descendants of Arkonide emigrants who had penetrated here to the centre of the Milky Way about 10,000 years ago during the first epoch of colonization. Presumably their connection with the home world of Arkon had been severed shortly thereafter. The miraculous Arkonide technology had fallen into oblivion and the population of Isan had fallen back into barbarism. At the start of their great war they had been more or less at the same level of culture as the Earth was a hundred years ago.
Rhodan was convinced that there was some clue to the origin of the Isan people hidden away in the archives of the bunker but now there was no time left to rummage through such records. Earth called.
Rhodan arranged for 2 commuter craft to be brought out of the Drusus launching locks, each manned by a 10-man crew. The auxiliary ships were fitted out with weaponry so that the small crews would be superior in fighting power over any surviving force on the face of Isan. These 20 men were also assigned the task of apportioning the food provisions of the Drusus throughout the land in a fair and proper manner.
Rhodan appointed Feriar, Ther and Ivsera as chief commissioners over the Fenomat and Sallon bunkers and ordered the crews of both auxiliary ships to give them military support in the performance of their duties. He enjoined the 3 chief commissioners to make sure that their position of leadership would not be permanent and that they should be replaced as soon as possible by a duly elected governing board.
In this connection, Ivsera commented: "When you came here I had already gotten tired of being passive and idle and I didn't want to hear anymore about women keeping out of politics. But I had never dreamed that within just a few days I'd become a chief of my bunker!"
Rhodan smiled but before he could reply, they were interrupted by Ther. "Just don't get so snooty, girl! You're not alone in this, you know."
"Don't worry, this is only temporary glory," retorted Ivsera. "It's enough to know at least I made it!"
Rhodan grinned. "You know, you may be looking at this whole thing a little out of proportion. I don't want to intrude in your private affairs but I'd like to think that what you need is a man who'll set your head straight once in awhile and show you what it's really all about."
Ivsera lowered her gaze toward the floor.
"That's what I say too!" said Ther. "For the past few days-ever since she brought me into the lab and started ordering me around like a robot-I've been trying to attract her attention. But there was only one time she ever even gave me a friendly little smile..."
Both Rhodan and Feriar broke up the little tableau with irrepressible laughter. But Ther and Ivsera remained immobile, with expressions as serious as their thoughts.

* * * *

A few hours later the Drusus blasted off.
The Isanians had had their miracle: the population of the planet had been at the point of extinction but thanks to the help of a handful of strangers from another world their demise had been averted and the Planet of the Damned had new hope. Saviours from a distant planet had arrived with incomprehensible and uncanny powers and had spared no effort in applying them to what they thought just. They had re-instituted order and stiffed the pangs of hunger. They had made possible that which had been considered impossible but a few short weeks before: Isan's re-awakening to a new and promising life.
Isan would not forget the good Samaritans. Their reverence and veneration included the dead man whose lonely grave lay where the strangers' ship had first landed, a man who actually had nothing to do with the crisis on Isan-Count Rodrigo de Berceo-but who had lost his life merely because he wished to help someone.
For Rhodan a world and an adventure were left behind, both already a part of his past before the Drusus transitioned into hyperspace. There was no time to dwell on that which lay behind him; ahead lay more important things.