"(novel) (ebook) - Perry Rhodan 0082 - (74) Checkmate Universe" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

Tifflor unexpectedly struck out, hitting Cooper directly on the chin. Tifflor put enough force into the blow that he would not have to hit the man a second time. Stumbling, Cooper fell to the ground. The gun slid from his shoulder and dropped nearby with a clatter.
All of a sudden Lt. Lubkov stood next to Tifflor. Tifflor saw his white teeth shining in the darkness. "Excuse me, sir," said Lubkov apologetically, "I just wanted to see what it looks like to be an innocent bystander."
Tifflor smiled. "There's been a lot of violence lately," he admitted, "and innocent bystanders have been getting the worst of it. This man won't remember me too kindly when he wakes up again."
"That's the purpose of this undertaking," Lubkov declared.
Then he returned to the transport and banged his hand against the rear covering. "Everybody out!" he called in a muffled tone. "We're here!"
Tifflor was no longer at Lubkov's side. He had gone to open the small man-sized hatch at the south pole of the spacesphere and switched on the emergency lights that would show Lubkov and the others the way.
Lubkov and the others, Tifflor thought with a smile. No doubt Ras Tschubai was already in the control room!
Boarding the ship was a process that lasted no longer than 10 minutes. Julian Tifflor was last to get aboard. First he had lifted the unconscious form of Sgt. Cooper into the back of the personnel carrier, drove a few hundred yards towards the main exit of the shipyards, then returned by foot to the Newborn.
Thoughtfully, he climbed through the hatchway, closed it behind him and took a slow, outmoded antigrav lift to the central deck.
The second part of the plan had succeeded: the 'rebels' were in possession of a spaceship. The way to the Druufs stood open.

* * * *

The vidscreen lit up blank for that which spoke was nothing that needed to be seen. The mechanical voice was deep, powerful and skilfully modulated. No one who did not previously know that the voice belonged to the Robot Regent of Arkon would have guessed that he was dealing with a non-organic being at the other end.
It was one of the odder facets of galactic politics that the Robot Regent was always ready to receive a message from Perry Rhodan even though Arkon and Terra were enemies and trying to cause damage to each other whenever possible. Even their enmity was rather peculiar, it did not prevent Arkonide and Terran ships from fighting together against a common enemy while a few thousand light-years away an Arkonide robot fleet prepared to bombard a Terran base.
Rhodan believed he knew why the Regent was so willing to exchange messages, messages were sent by hypercom. Hypercommunications offered the possibility that the sender could be tracked and located, and the Robot Regent's top priority at that moment was learning the Earth's galactic position.
Naturally, Rhodan had taken care that the Robot Regent would at least not find it out this way. The conversation he was having with the Regent was transmitted by 12 relay stations before it finally went on to Arkon. From the Earth it went over a directional beam to a station 2,000 light-years away. The hypercom wave-bundle had a diameter of just 40 meters. The opening of the bundle consisted of about 3 ten-millionths of a second of arc. That meant at a distance of 2,000 light-years the bundle had increased from 40 meters to 30,000 kilometres, a diameter not more than a few percent larger than the planet on which the relay station was located. This in turn meant that the planet had to be precisely 'aimed' at. Indeed, the bundling of the beam and the directional sighting of the antenna was a masterwork of directional beam technique and something that had long been considered impossible. The fact that in hypercom traffic, values other than 4-dimensional distances, in this case 2,000 light-years, were used, did not lessen the achievement of Terran technicians at all.
The important thing was that an enemy observer could overbear a message so transmitted and track down the sender-with some ease under these circumstances-only if it by chance passed through the directional beam. The probability of such an event was so slight no one took it into consideration.
So Terra's security was insured. The transmittal of the conversation from relay station to relay station followed the same principle. The Robot Regent had no chance of learning anything about the Earth's galactic position in this manner.
The Regent replied with a common all-directional sender. He would not have known in what direction to aim a directional beam.
The conversation that Perry Rhodan had with the Robot Regent on the evening of 11 December 2043 was brief but significant.
"I find myself in an unpleasant situation," Rhodan explained. "A top officer in my fleet has revealed himself as a traitor and with a few like-minded cohorts he left the Earth in a stolen spaceship. I don't know where these men will go. I would be grateful to you if you would let me know as soon as they fall into the hands of one of your ships, if it happens that they do. It's not that the men are especially important, they don't even have any vital information that could damage me. It's the principle of the thing that I'm concerned about: a deserter must be punished."
The Regent acknowledged that and promised his help, and since in spite of all modulation-no emotions could be detected in his voice, there was nothing in it to suggest that it considered Rhodan's motivations spurious.
A man does not call a person a 'top officer' and then immediately say he is not important. The Robot Regent was certain that if he could get hold of the deserter, that 'top officer' could be of much value to him.
The Regent then took note of the descriptions of the 15 renegades that Rhodan arranged to have given to him.
Once that was done, Rhodan added: "Maybe I can give you a hint that will make the affair easier for you. I talked with the deserting officer a few weeks ago. At that time he was of the opinion that the time was ripe for the Earth to make an alliance with the Druufs against you. He seemed to be obsessed with the idea of an alliance. I would suspect, therefore, that he will make an attempt to penetrate the Druuf universe."
The conversation had been conducted in Arkonese. The Robot thanked Rhodan for the hint and closed with the usual formal Arkonide phrase for ending a conversation. "Gova Dorani."
Immediately thereafter he activated his logic sector and analysed every bit of the news just received. As he expected, the probability that Perry Rhodan was up to something was not exactly small. Nevertheless, the probability that his request was genuine was higher, and with it the probability that a top officer in the Terran Fleet really had left the Earth with 14 men for traitorous reasons.
No matter what the conclusions of his logic sector, the Regent was convinced he could not go wrong if he sent ships to chase after the deserters. The Arkonide blockade fleet in the vicinity of the overlapping zone, through which the Terrans would have to pass if they wanted to reach the Druufs, was 30,000 units strong. The fleet could be reinforced by another 10,000 ships and half of the total, 20,000 ships, then, could be sent after the deserters.
Rhodan could not know that the Robot Regent had finally decided on such a move. He hoped he had however and smiling rubbed his hands together.

* * * *

Ras Tschubai actually was already in the control room when Franklin Lubkov came in with the first of the men. Tschubai was a teleporter. He had the ability to transport himself and-if they held onto him tightly enough-others over considerable distances. The power that enabled him to do so came from an additional portion of his mutated brain and was on call at any time. Necessary to making a 'Jump', as he modestly termed it, was only a certain amount of concentration and a general image in his mind of the place he wanted to go. Also, this ability was linked with an inherent safety factor, if it should happen that Ras Tschubai would materialize within solid matter, he did not solidify but returned to his starting point. It worked automatically and followed the First Law of Physics: two objects cannot simultaneously occupy the same point in space.
In addition, Ras Tschubai was an experienced astronaut. When Col. Tifflor walked into the control room of the Newborn a few minutes later, the engines were already warmed up and the ship was ready to go.
Tifflor knew that a considerable amount of confusion would be stirred up on the spacefield when a ship was seen taking off from the repair yards. The yards had not been constructed for takeoffs. Under the boiling streams shooting out of the ship's corpuscular engines, the yards' plastic flooring would break up and melt. From over on the main field, observers would see a magnificent display of fireworks.
Tifflor had been informed that in that evening's spaceport activity certain security measures had been taken to insure that pursuitships would not take off after the stolen vessel with the usual alacrity. The Newborn would have a good head start. It would not be too large a one, or otherwise the manoeuvre would have been too transparent. It would be important to make the most of the advantage they did, have in achieving a maximum of safety.
Tifflor directed his men to their places. They knew what they had to do. Lt. Lubkov functioned as First Officer and copilot. With two other men, Sgt. Fryberg watched over communications, radar and tracking equipment. No pursuit craft on their trail would escape their notice. The mutants remained in the background. If there were no other alternative, Ras Tschubai would teleport himself to one of the pursuing craft and instigate utter confusion until the Newborn was safe.
The entire operation was a matter of about 15 minutes. In 15 minutes the Newborn would reach sufficient velocity to make a transition and thus pass into hyperspace.
For a quarter of an hour they would be in fear for their lives. Then they would be secure.
While his hand was resting on the main control switch, it penetrated Tifflor's consciousness that that was a false conclusion, from now on until their return, they would never be safe. The pursuit by Terran fighters was an amusing little game in comparison to what would happen if the Arkonides got on their tail, or what the Druufs would do once they found out what the Terrans really had up their sleeves.
Tifflor threw a glance at the chronometer. What sense was there in holding to a predetermined timetable? He could just as easily take off at 22:14 hours as at 22:15. It made no difference. He would have time to figure out their actual course once they were out in space.
He pushed the small button built into the handle of the switch. The takeoff sirens howled into life. Seals clicked over the hatches as the crew checked each one out. Boots scraped across the floor-and as the sirens died away, breathless quiet reigned over the ship.
Tifflor gave the lights on the control panel one last practiced glance. Everything was in order... But what good would it do him that everything was in order if a fusion rocket from a fighter struck them, or the disintegrator beam of an Arkonide battleship? The Newborn dated from the early years of the Terran fleet. Her defence fields did not belong to the latest products of Terran technology.
Then he yanked the switch down. It did not bother him any what happened to the plastic covering on the ground below. It could explode into a million pieces for all he cared!
White flashes blitzed across the vidscreen. The engines were in operation but nothing could be felt in the control room. The antigrav absorber was doing its job.
The Newborn was airborne-and space-bound.