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

Then came the day when an entire wall opened up to them instead of just a hole-and with that the Druufs' misfortune began. Each time the Druufs attempted to pass through the gateway into the other universe, entire fleets of alien ships fell on them and drove them back faster than they had come. The Druufs held quiet for awhile, then undertook the same experiment once more-with identical results. The enemy lying in wait on the other side of the wall was superior. And worse yet: he was able to move faster than the Druufs could think.
Naturally the Druufs were aware of the phenomenon. The superior speed of their enemy was a result of the two different rates of time. If the Druufs had not gone to enormous efforts to overcome the phenomenon, they would have been hopelessly inferior to their opponents. Originally their rate of time was 72,000 times slower than the enemy's. In the time it took a Druuf to draw a breath, the enemy could assemble a gigantic fleet and scatter the Druuf ships to the four winds as soon as the Druufs emerged from their own universe.
The Druufs had been able to solve the problem up to a point. Their scientists created a time-field which could alter rates of time. It could slow down or speed up the passage of time relative to its normal speed, and the Druufs of course were most interested in speeding it up.
They were able to reach a rate of time half that of the enemy's. That was the time-field's limit. The Druufs had to grant the enemy the advantage of operating at twice their speed.
They no longer tried to force their way into the alien universe with large fleets. Their losses had been enormous. They sent single ships which, when the crews had been sufficiently trained, succeeded in breaking through the enemy blockade and making patrol flights through the other time-plane. After the terrible losses of the first massive attempts to break through the blockade, the Druufs were happy that at least the small-scale penetrations were effective and that so far the enemy had not launched a general attack on their universe.
That now seemed to have changed. The last ship to have come back from 'outside' reported large-scale fleet movements taking place near the overlapping front, near the opening. The enemy blockade fleet had been reinforced. Everything pointed to an attack. Only a few optimists among the Druufs, encouraged by the successful repulsion of the first attempts at penetrating the Druuf Universe by robotships, believed that the undertaking would end in failure for the enemy. Just in numbers alone, the relation of Druuf ships to those of the enemy was considerably unfavourable, and beyond that there was still the disadvantage of the slower rate of time.
It looked as though the Druufs had to fear for the continued existence of their empire.
Then, apparently at the last minute, a new bit of news reached the capital city of the planet Druufon. The experts studied it carefully and reached the conclusion that the final returning patrol ship was bringing a ray of hope with it, if not exactly a complete reversal of fortunes.
In the last analysis, the outcome depended on merely finding a few people able to react to an enemy attack as quickly as the enemy himself.
Those people seemed to have been found.








5/ AN OFFER HE COULDN'T REFUSE

It was a different universe. That could be seen in the colour of the background from which the stars shone in their usual glory. For Julian Tifflor, going from Einstein Space into Druuf space for the first time, the view was something uncanny, almost terrifying.
Space should have been black, for it was nothing more than emptiness given shape. But this space was deep red. It was glowing, as though someone were heating it up from inside.
Tifflor overcame the uneasiness that the sight of the alien universe had caused him and everyone else who was seeing it for the first time and kept his eye on the unknown craft ahead. It was no longer a washed-out fleck on the microwave screen. It had grown to a glowing point and even the optical screen showed a dully-shining red spot of light standing out clearly from the stars by virtue of its peculiar light.
The Druufs had dropped their camouflage.
The Newborn did not attempt anything. The Druuf ship had to know it had been identified. It had taken the Terran cruiser in tow. It was the one which should make the first move.
The tractor field was still in effect. However, the Druuf ship was braking, and an hour after passing through the funnel neck it had come to a complete stop. Another half-hour went by without anything happening. Tifflor decided to radio the Druuf ship himself if nothing was heard from in the next 10 minutes. He did not have to wait that long. When only one of the 10 minutes had gone by, an entire squadron of long, cylindrical Druuf ships emerged from the deep red darkness and surrounded the Newborn. Tifflor had ordered the gun posts not to fire unless there was compelling reasons to do so, and although their trigger fingers itched badly, his men followed the order to the letter.
A few minutes after the appearance of the Druuf ships, the telecom sounded. Tifflor switched on the receiver and said in English that he was willing to listen to anyone who wanted to speak to him. The vidscreen stayed dark. The Druufs either did not place any great value on conducting video conversations or their sender was not equipped with an image transmitter.
The seconds ticked sluggishly by after Tifflor had declared himself ready to listen. He mentally pictured a Druuf aboard one of the newly-arrived ships speaking into a small device hanging at his chest and waiting for the device to relay his words, now translated into English, to the microphone sitting on a table in front of him.
Tifflor reflected that the Druufs could not have known whether the ship they had captured was Arkonide or not. The shape of the spaceship did not offer any relevant clues, for with few exceptions the spherical form was almost exclusively utilized by ships in the Einstein Universe. It would be only logical if the Druufs took their captive for an Arkonide ship. However, they did not seem certain of it, or they would not have gone to so much trouble once they had passed through the funnel.
In the middle of his thoughts, Tifflor was interrupted. The receiver began to crackle and then an inhuman voice spoke: "You are a Terran ship. What do you want here?"
Tifflor was ready with his answer. "To warn you," he said after letting a few seconds go by. He delayed his reply in an effort to keep from overwhelming the more slowly moving Druufs with what would have seemed to them an instantaneous response.
"Warn us of what?" came the next question.
In astonishment, Tifflor noticed that the translating device the Druufs were using was seemingly perfect, at least as far as its capability with the English language was concerned. The sentences were, fluent and correct. Only the voice caused the listener to shudder.
"Of a massive Arkonide attack," Tifflor answered. "One is imminent and I thought that you would be grateful if someone were to make you aware of it."
This time a few more seconds went by before the Druuf spoke again. No emotion registered in the voice, no emotion could in a mechanically produced sound. However, suspicion could be plainly read from the reply, "Are you expecting a certain kind of gratitude?"
Tifflor had anticipated even that question. "In case you're thinking I was wanting to earn some money through treason," he said, unmoved, "the answer is no! Anyway, what's the point of this distrust? Do you want to carry on this entire discussion over the telecom?"
Again some time went by before the answer came. "Come with two of your men and unarmed aboard my ship. Do you have an auxiliary craft or should I have you picked up?"
Tifflor grew angry. "In the first place," he declared bluntly, "I'll come as I am or not at all. I have a general issue beamer hanging from my belt and there it's going to stay. Do you think I want to conquer an entire spacefleet with one gun? In the second place, I do indeed have an auxiliary craft. You don't have to go to any more trouble except to show me which one of those dozen ships out there is yours."
The Druuf did not seem to have any objections. "I shall be expecting you," he said. "Your craft will be given a tracking signal to guide you to my ship."
Tifflor broke off the connection. He turned and faced his men. "Now It's getting critical," he said. "Tschubai, Marshall... get ready!"

* * * *

It was reported to Door-Trabzon that not far from the WaнKelan, which was flying slowly towards the overlapping front, two alien spaceships had been spotted. Door-Trabzon's first reaction was confusion, for it was clear from the course of the two ships that they were flying together, and up to now Door-Trabzon had been expecting the appearance of only one Terran ship.
His confusion reached its height when the radar gave the first exact figures pertaining to the size of the two ships. They made Door-Trabzon's powerful ships look puny in comparison. They were space giants with a firepower that could temporarily surpass the energy output of an average star.
Somewhat hastily Door-Trabzon gave the order for the unknown ships to be surrounded and attacked. To be certain, he requested a squadron of 200 cruisers and battleships but hardly had they started to move out when one of the alien ships made radio contact with the WaнKelan, claiming it and its companion had come with peaceful intentions and their plans were in full accord with the Regent of Arkon.
That took the wind out of Door-Trabzon's sails. He rescinded his order and instructed the squadron of battleships and cruisers to await the course of events from a distance. Then he had the WaнKelan proceed ahead so he could look things over.
Even before he got that far, he received a brief message from Arkon stating that the Terran commander, Perry Rhodan, had suggested that he himself take part in the search for the deserters' spaceship, and that this suggestion had seemed reasonable and desirable to the Regent.
That threw Door-Trabzon completely off balance. For one thing, Perry Rhodan was a name that had resounded throughout the galaxy for decades, and for another, Door-Trabzon was too familiar with the relationship between Terra and Arkon-or more accurately, between Perry Rhodan and the Regent-to understand why Rhodan of all people would be allowed to move freely among the ships of the Arkonide search and blockade fleets.
However, Door-Trabzon knew that the message from Arkon was to be considered as an order. He had no other choice than to act accordingly. He was of the opinion that Perry Rhodan would never search for a single escape ship unless there was some advantage for him in it. But this opinion was worth nothing as long as he could not convince the Regent of its logic.