"(novel) (ebook) - Perry Rhodan 0088 - (80) The Columbus Affair" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

A chill came over Poskanov when he thought of the gigantic fleet of the inhuman Druufs. Near the blockade front in the Myrtha System he had had sufficient opportunity to witness the fury of the aliens' attacks.
"Not that!" he muttered Half-aloud. "Not here! Hauer, inform the individual commanders of Rhodan's instructions. But take care you don't let a single pulse-signal escape the directional beam."
The commander glanced across at the cabinets where the spacesuits were kept Poskanov understood.
"Not yet," he decided. "We still have time-you might say a period of grace. I'm going to..."
A message from the Com Central interrupted the pursuit force chief. The loudspeakers blared.
"There's a big batch of pulse-coded traffic going out from Terra," announced the duty officer. "So far, more than 40 dispatches. Our directional trace indicates that they are being sent to all possible sectors. All ships outside the system are being restricted from either takeoff or communication. Effective immediately, all commercial traffic is frozen. Patrol cruisers in the Outer Fleet are getting special orders. It's going out on an assembly line, sir. Ye gods-Headquarters doesn't waste any time!"
Poskanov elected to remain silent. His face was grave.
The inter-com screen faded. When the briefing messages had all gone out to the commanders of the various units of the pursuit force and the confirmations had all come back, the squadron chief felt a little better. He knew that everything humanly possible had been done.
This fact served to lift Poskanov's depressed spirits. The colonel sat down in the command chair and turned to the commander of the Osage. Lt.-Col. Hauer had all he could do to keep a tight ship and hold to regulation procedures while answering the numerous standby readiness signals from his battle stations.
The colonel waited a moment or so until Hauer leaned back in his seat with a sigh of relief. From the battle cruiser's tracking room they could hear the continued rumbling of the hypersensors. The sound had become steadier now, which was a sign that the observed discharge cone was reaching a point of stabilization. Probably a state of constant energy exchange had been established between the two universes.
"I'm glad Rhodan is back home!" said Poskanov softly. "It will raise the Fleet morale and speed up everything that has to be done. Hauer, I'm afraid we're just now on the eve of a cosmic war. Whatever we've gone through before is probably nothing compared to what's ahead of us. In fact, by comparison I'd say that all our previous operations and commando missions were nothing but light skirmishes, of no account at all."
The commander loudly blew his nose and then care fully replaced his old-fashioned linen handkerchief in the outer breastpocket of his uniform jacket. Poskanov watched him with amusement. Hauer was an able officer but sometimes he was a bit fussy. However, all that changed whenever he had to make decisions concerning the welfare of his ship. Then he could act surprisingly fast and use an iron fist.
"Sir," he said, finally, "I'm not fond of issuing firing orders but if it has to be I won't hesitate a second."
Poskanov thought that those few words just about wrapped up everything that everybody on board the Terranian ship was thinking. Out there in the depths of interstellar space loomed a deadly threat to the existence of humanity. Alien, inhuman beings were about to reach out for the Lebensraum of other races of people.
Inwardly the thought had a calming and settling effect on Poskanov to know that he would be fighting in self-defence if it came to a battle. It was a good feeling to have that part of it straight and clear.
"Nobody wants this war, there's nobody yearning to have it happen-so why is it happening, anyway?" he asked bitterly. "I'm not at all fond of shooting other intelligences. And, by God, we've got every kind of destructive weapon to throw against them! I wonder if those creatures we call the 'Druufs' really know that."
"They know it, sir," answered Hauer calmly. His broad hands clutched the armrests of his chair as though to prevent him and the seat from plunging into some fathomless abyss.
"They know it, sir!" he repeated. His eyes were fixed on the glowing screens of the panob gallery before him. The billions of stars of the Milky Way were gleaming as brightly as ever. Never had space seemed emptier and friendlier.

* * * *

The crucial strategic meeting between the Fleet officers and those of Solar Security took place in the middle of May 2044 in the underground Headquarters of the Central High Command. The giant deep bunker installations had been built exclusively for Operation Columbus so that under catastrophic conditions all necessary security measures could be met with.
The Command Central had required 10 years of labour. With all of its vast and costly automatic equipment it formed the nerve centre of the Solar Empire. Admiral Atlan had once scornfully remarked that by Arkonide standards it was nothing more than a backwoodsman's shack but Perry Rhodan and the other leaders of the Earth of course had quite another opinion of it.
Defence mobilization plans had long since been worked out by the best scientists and strategists of the Earth and had been constantly updated and improved according to the latest status of science and technology so that now they were activated in the astonishingly short time-span of just 2 hours. Had the necessary precautions not been taken, and if Operation Columbus had never been thought out down to the smallest and even negligible details and then fine-honed to perfection, the still-young Solar Empire would have already been plunged into chaos.
Immediately after Rhodan's arrival, all emergency laws came into effect. Having been preprogrammed for years for this situation, special positronic brains distributed a global alert signal into the fully automatic alarm systems of the giant industries around the planet. Within a period of just 30 minutes, all peacetime manufacturing ceased. New data for assembly lines, technicians and responsible directors were given. Having been prepared for such a case as this, the great manufacturing and processing plants of the Earth were converted almost at once. Stockpiled raw materials, specifically earmarked for emergency production, were brought out of storage bunkers into the halls of industry.
No one in America, Europe, Asia, Australia or the colonized polar regions required any blueprint for action or special instructions at this crucial hour. what each one had to do or bring forth had already been determined.
The benefits of herculean labours during the last few decades were now beginning to be seen. The Planning Ministry in Terrania was only pestered in isolated cases by people doublechecking their assignments. The calling in of Fleet reservists progressed with equal rapidity. Huge transports standing ready for takeoff and operated by the major airlines of the Earth now proceeded to bring the reserve units to the designated spaceports.
Never before in history had there been such a perfectly coЎrdinated organization as this. The new Moon Base was running at full capacity. Especially in the case of such small, swift spaceships as pursuitships, interceptors and Gazelles and space-jets, production rolled in quick succession through the staging checkpoints on the assembly lines.
Terra was strong-tremendously strong-in terms of the smaller fighting units, and in this regard it was actually not far behind the Arkonide Empire. The only thing that had not yet been done was to generate a capacity for pushing out major class fighting ships at the same speed of production.
It still required a number of years to construct a battlecruiser measuring 500 meters in diameter. But in spite of all possible methods of speedup and simplifications it was still estimated that the completion of a super battleship of the Imperium class would require at least 12 years. Whereas such a task might be accomplished in an approximate period of only 5 months if one were equipped with the mammoth production means of the Arkonides.
Since Rhodan was well informed concerning Terranian production he knew where the limitations of his power were. The countless smaller ships could deliver hard blows to the enemy but they were not capable of ultimately deciding the battle. There was a scarcity of heavy and super-heavy types of weapons which could only be carried by major vessels. Besides that there was a lack of deep space carrier ships which could bring the light-speed interceptors and pursuitships to the focal point of the battlefront, through hyperspace, and then launch them into the fighting.
The new 100-meter cruisers of the State class did not possess a first-rate offensive power. Earth had never been interested in attacking other races or subjugating alien populations. So the ships had been so designed and constructed that their armaments were now insufficient to meet the present situation. State class cruisers were space reconnaissance ships designed for maximum acceleration and fast scouting missions.
These were the things that came up for discussion during the strategy talks. No one overestimated his own strengths. Nobody considered Mankind to be omnipotent. On the basis of these assumptions a very conscientious and responsible defence plan was established. All available Fleet units were divided up and strategically deployed, commanders were designated and dispatches were sent out to all ships outside the Solar System.
It was certain that the appearance of a Druuf discharge funnel had suddenly placed Terra in a desperate situation. Rhodan did not presume that he might alter the condition with a wave of the hand or by means of mutant assignments. A lack of careful circumspection now could only lead to catastrophe.
The populaces of colonized planets were informed via Terra television. The armoured portals of atom bomb shelters opened and subterranean supply lines began to operate. Stockpiled food and human-support materials of every description were brought down into the bunkers. Surface traffic in the major cities of the Earth began to come to a standstill. Five hours after Rhodan's landing at Terrania's spaceport, the Earth took on the appearance of a depopulated fortress. From now on life would carry on beneath the surface of the world. Only those with the most vital assignments remained in the light of the sun.
Thousands of pursuit interceptors, destroyers and small disc-shaped spaceships roared through the skies. On the basis of laborious calculations, the heavier Solar Fleet formations were deployed into their planned battle positions.
All of this happened before the first Druuf spaceship emerged from the glowing chasm of the discharge funnel.

* * * *

The digital clocks in the Fleet High Command Headquarters registered the 11th hour of the evening. The strategy conference had not yet ended. The first scientific analyses concerning the nature of the discharge zone were now available.
Khrest, the aged and wearied Arkonide scientist, reported to Rhodan with the figures. In a frighteningly sober and dispassionate form, the results revealed what humankind could expect. In addition to the questions of defence a problem had emerged which Khrest outlined in a few words: "With our inadequate means it can't be determined whether a stable discharge funnel may be due to chance or deliberate plan. Experience tells us that these energy phenomena have a short duration when they have been generated due to natural overlap effects. Since the zone we've located has held a connection between the two time-planes for 8 hours so far, and with a continuously increasing stability, it can be assumed that the Druufs have succeeded by some synthetic means to create a through-channel into our universe.
I recall the force ring field generator or warp-ring gate we employed previously, which also permitted an entrance into the other space-time continuum. I don't see why the Druufs may not have made a similar discovery. In the interests of our defence it would be safe to grant the existence of such a dangerous invention and to regard it as a fact."
This was the gist of what the Earth's mathematicians had to report. Khrest was in agreement with them. From that moment on the Chiefs of Staff of the Solar Empire resolved to make all preparations necessary for the appearance of additional discharge zones.
It was Reginald Bell who put the disquieting state of affairs into words: "We might be able to handle one of those funnels but not when they come in bunches! If it comes to an attack on several fronts we would have to split up our forces when they're already too weak. And that, my friends, would be curtains for the Earth. Since we know we're kidding ourselves to place our bets on good fortune alone, I vote for an immediate transmission of our prepared disaster message to Atlan."
Marshal Freyt caught his breath. Allan D. Mercant remained expressionless. Rhodan put his hands behind his back and began a nerve-racking march back and forth in front of the floor-to-ceiling viewscreen.
After several minutes he came to a stop in front of the chart table. "A message to Atlan? Very nice. But that would be absolutely in the last resort. In order for Atlan to help us, you know he has to send ships. That means he has to reveal the location of Earth, or else the ships will never get here. From that moment on, all intelligences of the galaxy would know where Terra can be found. Our long-standing game of hide-and-seek would be at an end."
"Sooner or later we're going to have to lay our cards on the table, anyway," interjected Mercant.
"That's right, sooner or later! But it's my intention to remain undiscovered as long as possible. We're still too weak to hold our own in a wide-open cosmic game with the galactic races. Mercant-" Rhodan interrupted himself. "Mercant, we ought to try to frustrate the plans of the Druufs with the means we have at hand. Send John Marshall to me."
The Security Chief had mental reservations in this regard. Under present circumstances he did not consider the mutants had a chance. As he was getting to his feet, however, the event occurred that everyone at Headquarters had been expecting for hours: a viewscreen lit up. The face of Maj. Abucot was recognized.