"(novel) (ebook) - Perry Rhodan 0078 - (70) Thora's Sacrifice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

For the next three hours the Burma skirted the blockade front under the escort of the three super-battleships. Twice during that time they had to evade unexpected and determined onslaughts by the Druufs but Joe Pasgin and Hendrik Olavson refrained from giving the slightest hint as to the acceleration potential which was concealed in the light cruiser.
Then came the curt message from the IgDro 34 that the escort was terminated and the robotнships of the Arkonide Imperium disappeared without bothering with formalities.





6/ ESCAPE IMPERATIVE

The last transition left the Burma in the middle of the stellar cluster M-13.
The spherical agglomeration of stars had a diameter of 99 light-years and more than 30,000 celestial bodies had converged in this region. They were the inner core of the Great Empire and the realm had every reason to feel big.
The observation screen of the Burma reflected a fantastic spectacle. Sun stood next to sun and the density of the concentration created a sparkle, glitter and iridescence of a magnificence beyond compare. The soft shimmer of the Milky Way had disappeared as if it never existed. Instead the picture screen in the Command Centre of the light cruiser was flooded by a show of scintillating colours which evoked the admiration of the most hardened space travellers.
M-13 was the seat of the immense Arkonide Empire-a grandiose act of creation where the stellar configurations crowded together with such cascades of light that it was impossible to isolate a particular sun by eye.
The Burma, although built on Earth, was a further refinement of Arkonide construction and due to this fact its navigators were able to cope with all galactonautic problems with apparent ease despite the confusing multitude of planets. The masters among the astrogators could only take a silent bow in recognition of the Arkonide technology and hyper-mathematics.
While the men in the Command Centre were thrilled and transfixed by the incredible splendour of colours of the 3-D picture, the positronicon of the light cruiser computed the distance to the Arkon system.
Its central star was a very large sun shining glaring white. It had 27 planets. Three of these planets had a special significance. They circled their sun in the arrangement of an equilateral triangle. Their name was the same as the stellar configuration and they were differentiated by the numbers 1, 2 and 3.
Arkon 1, or the Crystal World, with a gravity similar to Earth, was the planet where the Arkonides resided. The administration of the Great Empire was located on Arkon 2 which was also a transit place for the trade throughout M-13.
Arkon 3 however had probably no equal anywhere in the Galaxy. Larger than 1 and 2 it was one big place for manufacturing weapons and armaments. Here the gigantic Arkonide warships were produced in a constant flow. It was the heart of the Arkonide war-machine-military administration, fleet and war ministries-and the Robot Regent.
Deringhouse breathed heavily when he thought about the immense switch-complex. Once again he was struck by the grotesque fact that a positronic computer had been designed many thousands of years ago by the leading scientists of Arkon who had the foresight to program it during a few centuries for its task to take over the government of Arkon. It had assumed power several decades ago-Terra time-and nobody was happier about it than the decadent Arkonides who lived in a state of over-indulgence which was incomprehensible to the population of Earth. From that time on the Arkonides abandoned all restraint in their reveries and lost all awareness of how degenerated they had become.
Deringhouse called Thora on the intercom and her expectant face appeared on the picture screen. "Thora, may I ask you to come to the Command Centre? I want to talk to the positronic Brain in a few minutes."
Thora agreed and Deringhouse switched to the Communications Centre. "Contact the. positronicon on Arkon 3!" he ordered.
"Structure disturbance!" the Monitor Officer reported. "Five ships!"
The transition jump into star-cluster M-13 had also been performed without damping the auto-frequency of the Burma and the vigilant Arkonide space surveillance stations had picked up the structure disturbance caused by the Terranian vessel with their compensator instruments. Five warships were immediately dispatched to scrutinize the visitor from hyperspace.
At the same moment the Communications Centre started flashing the identification signal of the Burma in a constant stream as triggered by the automatically present data.
Against the background of the multitude of stars the outline of three heavy Arkonide cruisers, that threatened to ram the little Burma, became visible. Suddenly they veered from their course and pulled alongside the Burma.
The Communication Officer switched through to the Command Centre and the screen lit up. The face of a robot that was speaking appeared on the screen but there was no sound.
Then the radio room announced excitedly: "Positronic Brain fails to answer our call but has established communication with one of the five Arkonide spaceships!"
Now the sound of the message was restored. The suspension of the sound had been deliberately induced by the radio officer to keep the information he had given Deringhouse from reaching the outside world.
Thora entered the Command Centre but again the General had no time to turn around. However he didn't request her this time to move out of the camera's range when she waited at his side.
"...escort to Arkon." She had just come in time to hear the last words. Then the connection was cut off by the robot before Deringhouse could say a word.
"It doesn't look good," the general commented apprehensively. "We can't get through to the robot Brain although he talked to one of the robotships. Escort, my foot! It sounds fishy, Thora!"
"General!" the radio officer said anxiously. "KK-o-76398 demands that he take charge of directing the Burma!"
KK-o-76398 was the robot commander of one of the five Arkonide warships. He had told the general he would escort his flight to Arkon.
"I'll talk to him," Deringhouse said with icy calm. The First Officer Joe Pasgin gazed at him and noticed with satisfaction the grim smile on his lips.
Once more the impassive face of the robot appeared on the illuminated screen.
"My friend!" Deringhouse exclaimed, "you can tell your Regent that we're no Arkonides but Terrans-and Terrans don't like to have their ships steered by robots!"
Deringhouse made a point of showing that he could be just as impolite as a robot although he was aware that these mechanical men could not be affronted by virtue of their built-in programming.
Joe Pasgin and Olavson had their hands full maintaining the Burma in the centre of the warships' closed formation that was supposed to take them to Arkon. They had no intention of colliding with the other units although there was no danger of damage by a direct impact which was made impossible by the powerful protective fields which surrounded each ship. Nevertheless they would have been loath to give the appearance of being amateurs by flying in closed formation.
"How do you like their gall, Thora?" Deringhouse asked sarcastically.
"Robots!" she replied dismissing it.
"THE Robot!" Deringhouse contradicted. "The Mammoth Brain. And if anyone in the Great Empire knows how Terrans react to a restriction of their freedom, that 'lovable' Regent ought to know!"
Despite their situation's uncertainty Thora laughed. Her health had worsened again. "Deringhouse... although I am a member of the Zoltral dynasty and was born on Arkon 1... the Robot Regent is in my eyes the same monster as in yours. Maybe I don't challenge him with the same energetic determination as you Terrans despite the fact that lately I have to remind myself frequently that I'm not a child of Earth."
She was suddenly interrupted by the astrogator Merck. "General, we're deviating from our course. At Psi we're off 0.57 degrees. I've never seen such a discrepancy in robot navigation."
"0.57 degrees," Deringhouse repeated. "This is still in the Arkon system, Merck. For which planet could we be heading on this course?"
Thora listened attentively. As the former commander of a big space exploration ship she was an expert in such matters.
Merck grimaced. "The system has 27 planets. It's difficult to make an instant prediction. We better wait about half an hour."
Deringhouse was anxious to avoid any risk with Thora aboard. For this reason alone he instructed the radio officer: "Radio our present position to the closest relay station and advise them of the deviation from our course that has been forced on us. Details will follow."
Relay stations were those Terranian spaceships which were positioned according to a carefully devised plan at certain places in the Galaxy for the purpose of maintaining radio contact with Rhodan's agents. The messages they picked up were relayed to the next station and so on in an intricate pattern until they finally reached Terra. This complicated but safe procedure served to keep Terra's location a secret.
"Further course deflection on coordinate Chi, General, 1.18 degrees. We appear to be moving in the direction of Mutral!"
The light cruiser Burma was a compact sphere of machinery and its crew of 150 men was above the average of other ships. They were highly qualified people and more than 2 dozen of them who held the lowest rank aboard the Burma were among the best experts of Terra in their particular fields.