"(novel) (ebook) - Perry Rhodan 0070 - (62) The Last Days of Atlantis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)
"He should enter the converter again and make an all out try to stop the process," said Lt.-Col. Sikerman.
I shook my head. No, that wasn't the answer, either. The problem lay in our lack of knowledge concerning the function of the Physiotron. While he was being charged, Bell had only been caught a short length of time in the distortion forces of the phase shift. We knew now that the existence of the planet in semispace had been a question of energy levels. Unquestionably the intermediate plane was related much more closely to the Druuf zone than with our own space-time continuum.
I only learned later that I had stood for more than an hour in a trance-like state in front of the perfect robot. The men of the Drusus continued their silence after I was awakened from my brooding by a painfully heavy pulse from my logic sector. I had found a temporary, solution but whether or not it would stand the test of application was another question.
"You've arrived at something," said Rhodan. "What can we do?"
I felt exhausted. The mathematical problems involved were getting too big for even an Arkonide brain. For the time being I could only come up with general information. As I tried to look about attentively I noticed that my eyesight seemed to fail me to some extent. Rhodan came close, his face showing concern.
"You're still exhausted from your last effort," he said softly. "Can you still concentrate? I have a certain conceptual grasp of what's going on. Let's wait to see what your dice have come up with. Maybe our opinions will coincide."
I smiled at him and asked myself why I had ever considered this man to be my enemy. On Hellgate I had almost killed him. The humans associated with Rhodan reminded me more and more of the old Arkonides under my command who fought and suffered in the Earthly solar system many thousands of years ago.
They had been wonderful friends and rugged soldiers, as worthy of affection as these Terranians were gradually becoming. Reginald Bell for example was the personification of self-control. For several minutes now he had started to defy his fate. I could read in his eyes that he had determined to show no sign of weakness. Of course he knew only too well that with a continuation of the retrogressive process he would lose his high-spirited courage.
A simple concentration or contraction of his cell structure or molecular combinations could not be involved here. Had this been so, we would probably have seen his body begin to shrink.
But instead he became younger! It was something that I could neither understand nor express in mathematical symbology. Of the greatest secret in the universe, which was life itself, I knew practically nothing. I was a high-energy engineer and a specialist in cosmic colonization which also included the field of cosmo-psychology. But I couldn't guess what was happening to Bell's cellular structure. Nevertheless I hoped for a miracle which might be brought about on the basis of a fleeting calculation in the field of probability.
I looked at the relatively small Physiotron. It was a columnar-shaped apparatus with a thick, circular platform. Farther beyond them I recognized several high-powered reactors, similar to all the others of their kind, which were in evidence everywhere on Wanderer. The cell shower's energy was supplied without wires.
"Are you able to service the Physiotron consistently?" I inquired of Homunk. When he confirmed this, I continued: "What power stations are required for perfect functioning of the Physiotron? What special circuits do you have to take with you?"
"Take with him?" repeated Rhodan with some emphasis. "Arkonide, I think you've hit on the same idea that I have. Keep talking. I'm all ears!"
Homunk explained the technical operation. It was relatively simple to understand until he came to the impulse converters, which had been built into the base of the apparatus. From there on my thinking capacity began to strike out. As for example I couldn't exactly visualize the process when the robot mentioned the creation of the stabilization effect.
A living organism also consists of atoms, from which molecules are formed. The principle of the Physiotron was based on a catalytic cycle in which the atomic agglomeration or cohesion is held stabilized and unchanged for about 62 years.
So it was clear in principle what had been achieved with the machine. The aging process of the cells had not been attacked at the cell core directly but at the infinitely smaller level: the atom!
After Homunk had answered my numerous questions, I saw things a bit more clearly. I looked at my watch. Then I stepped closer to Bell.
"Bell, until now I've only had a vague idea. What we will do is tear the cell shower and its power plant out of the foundation by means of antigravity beams. We'll have to be careful not to damage any of the mechanical installations. The combined operating unit will be mounted on a large freight platform, which we'll fit out with a vibrodrive unit. The Drusus will build up an energy lens-field that will be 1,500 feet in diameter so that we can make an exit from normal space. We will penetrate the Druuf time-plane where we will try to synthesize or imitate the unstable conditions of semispace-which we hope to do through a concentration of energy inside a defence screen we'll have to erect. We know that semispace is an unstable condition or form of the 5th dimension, somewhat comparable to the unusable isotope of an element. An approximation should be possible but I'm still going to need every computer and electronic brain on the Drusus for calculating these effects. Are you in agreement with this?"
Bell remained motionless but he asked: "Looks like the operation will take about 4 or 5 days. Where in Druuf space will you get the energy for levelling the continuum?" He had grasped completely what the whole thing depended upon.
In this connection, Rhodan had also arrived at a solution. "We'll use another antigrav platform so that we can take one of the planet's major reactors with us. Homunk, can you arrange that for us?" he asked.
The robot calculated swiftly. After 1/2 a second it replied: "In 12 hours and 14 minutes a semispace generator will be ready for transport!"
"Good Lord! What's a semi-?" asked Sikerman bewilderedly.
The robot only simulated a smile. It did not seem to be capable of any other human mimicry. "It is a special converter for supercharging an outer ring field-one that is warped in upon itself and closed so that 4th dimensional influences will be reflected from it."
With that we knew for certain! I gradually perceived that the technology of the collective entity was incomparably beyond our own.
"What about me?" Bell called out.
The Chief of the Solar Empire halted, turned to face him, leaving his back to the rest of us momentarily. "I've already spoken to Dr. Skjoldson. Until preparations have been completed, you will remain in the medical section's sickbay. A bio-chem deep-sleep shot will reduce your physiological functions by at least 80%. It could be that your runaway rejuvenation process may be slowed down or held off by it while you're under. Skjoldson will handle all that. Alright, what are we standing around for?"
He was right. What were we waiting for? There was nothing much more to discuss. Pucky, that curious imp from the planet Vagabond, followed close on my heels.
"Want me to pop you over to the Drusus?" asked the little fellow plaintively. His big eyes seemed to be a sea of tears. It almost seemed to me that he was close to an emotional breakdown.
I bent down without a word and picked him up in my arms and in this manner the 2 of us moved toward the great, arched entrance gate of the Physiotron chamber.
Behind us a hectic hustle and bustle ensued. Sikerman's loud voice was unmistakable. Homunk, the perfect robot, stood motionlessly among the hard-pressed crewmembers of the super battleship, his synthetic smile still radiating its irritating charm and graciousness.
When I reached the open square in front of the building, Rhodan was just opening the door of a small pulse-glider. Silently he indicated the rear passenger seat. I came to a halt right next to him and looked at him penetratingly. In his case, nothing seemed to have changed. His body was as young and strong and limber as ever.
His smile told me he'd guessed my thoughts. "It was luck," he said. "I finished the cell-activation process at 17:24 on the 1st of May, so I wasn't hit by the phase-shift phenomenon. Bell didn't come out of the machine until about 19:30. The distortion effects must have attacked him during the dematerialisation."
"We are aware of the facts," I answered reflectively. "But to me there's an equally important question: what's happened to It? Where is that collective entity keeping Itself?"
Rhodan's ironic laugh caused Pucky to whimper and cling more tightly to my shoulder. "That's Problem #2, Atlan. I guess you'd like a few words of explanation from him, wouldn't you?"
I nodded slowly. Naturally I'd be glad to find out why I had been furnished with a strange apparatus some 10,000 years ago by Earth reckoning. I felt the chest area of my uniform involuntarily. The activator hung there firmly on its unbreakable body connector.
"Let's go," said Rhodan, and there was an undertone of hopelessness in his voice. "I don't relish the idea of losing a friend. Or perhaps it would be interesting to see how far the retrogressive process goes. Where or how does it end? In the ultimate germ cell?"
It made me dizzy to think of such a possibility even by inference. One thing was certain: Nature had played a nasty trick on the biophysical processes of a highly developed intelligent being.
2/ CHLORINE WORLD
We knew more now about the interrelationship of physical laws in the Druuf universe than we had known months before.
At that time Rhodan had stood in bewilderment on various alien planets which had been afflicted by the unknown Druuf phenomenon. Although outwardly they had seemed to be undamaged and everything on the surface appeared to be intact, organic life itself was missing. It had taken a long time to postulate the existence of another time-plane from an analysis of the evidence at hand.
By now we knew that penetrating the superimposed continuum was merely a question of energy output. It was a plane of existence which was parallel to our own but with the difference that each universe had its separate time reference.
During the last expedition, alien life forms had been discovered which we had called the Druufs. But we still didn't know with whom we were dealing in actuality. The rulers of the other time-plane had remained invisible to us. Their robots and subjugated races had not been able to enlighten us.
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