"(novel) (ebook) - Perry Rhodan 0088 - (80) The Columbus Affair" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)
"You fool!... Operation Columbus!... court-martial... Capella... brass-pounding...!" It hammered into his skull. Suddenly groaning aloud, he cursed the day that he first walked up the wide steps of the Space Academy.
* * * *
Only a few humans might have comprehended the function of the alien apparatus. Instead of the usual computation curves of a magnetically guided polygraph, as would have been expected of an Earthly positronic brain, this machine spewed out a maze of strange geometric symbols.
Inwardly it did not differ much from the equipment that had been built by humanoid life forms but the mathematics involved was something related to alien, inhuman intelligences. With this fundamental difference the multiple circuits were logic-gated so that the output data simply appeared in another form. But these were mere superficialities. What was more important was the faultless reliability of operation at this particular moment.
The gloomy red light in the room was reflected in the huge eyes of the monstrous creature who stood motionlessly before the machine until the last symbols appeared. The organic antennas of the Druuf picked up an ultra-high-pitched whistle tone that was in a frequency range of 200,000 cps. With what seemed to be a very slow moment, he shut off the P-calculator. With a heavy tread the 10-foot giant marched to the open, unpanelled doorway.
In the next room were giant oval-shaped viewscreens and a mass of equipment that looked like a display of abstract art. Dark, spherical heads with lipless triangular mouths and fluorescent eyes turned to look at the one who had entered.
This might have been one of the deepest sub-cellars of Hell. No human would have heard anything here and yet there was conversation. Normal articulation was replaced by ultra-high impulses, and the body antennas picked up the vibrations, conducting them into their brains for processing. But they were not all that unintelligible, these insect derivations from an alien time-plane that had no connection with the known universe.
The 'silent' conversation between the officers and the chief mathematician of the long, rod-shaped heavy fighting ship took place within about 16 minutes after their reception of the strange hypercom transmission. The Druufs had not needed more time than this to complete the signal trace. Other calculation machinery began to function. On the surface of a spherical indicator appeared the stars of that sector of space which surrounded the discharge funnel. The surprisingly well-articulated hand of a Druuf pointed to a place on the sphere where 4 tracer lines intersected. At that spot was a small, yellow sun.
The deep thundering of the engines became louder. The ship was increasing its speed. Simultaneously the first of the signal data were sent out. Another formation of 500 ships had just come through the discharge rift and now swung off. On the viewscreens of the lead ship gleamed the head of a Druuf.
Essentially what he said was: "Sending you bearings on the signal. Investigate and report. If findings are positive, I will follow."
500 heavy-class fighter ships disappeared. It was a phenomenon that human scientists referred to as 'sneaking into the 5th dimension". In contrast to Arkonide principles of operation the Druuf hyperspace travel technique was based on a linear duration of movement under the influence of 5th-dimensional laws. The mode of 'flying' was smooth rather than an abrupt transition jump. In this respect the Druufs were superior to all intelligent life forms whose hyperspace propulsion equipment was based on Arkonide designs.
Producing only a brief and low amplitude shockwave, the squadron disappeared into extra-dimensional space and picked up speed. Neither was there an actual dematerialisation as with Earthly spaceships, nor was there any painful process of dissolution or loss of consciousness. At many thousands of time faster than light-speed they flew toward that point from which a hypercom transmission had been received. The trace coЎrdinates were precise, of this there could be no doubt. The only factor of uncertainty was whether the rhythmic signals had come from the Terrans they were seeking or had been propagated by a passing merchant ship of some unknown race. In the latter case they would merely have demonstrated the excellence of their tracing technology without having arrived at any practical results.
So they would just have a look at what was going on in the vicinity of this unimportant little star. Since the Druuf mentality related to comparative measurements of size and mass it seemed to them almost impossible that such a significant race as the Terrans could have developed under the light of such a weak sun.
The Druuf fleet flagship flew to mighty Capella but no intelligent life could be found on any of its planets. So an order for assembly was given. 2000 ships, which according to plan were reinforced every hour with additional groups of 500 each, soon made their appearance in the outer reaches of the Capella System. The commanding Druuf was concerning himself meanwhile with the thought of ordering a careful reconnaissance of all stars lying within a radius of at least 50 light-years. Their capable mathematicians could not have miscalculated to any higher degree of error than that.
The commander-in-chief finally decided to wait for the results of the first reconnaissance assignment There was time, plenty of time! And anyway during the waiting period they could prepare exact star charts and at the same time try to orient themselves to the great blockade front using this alien system as a reference point.
These beings from the other time-plane had planned and calculated well but of course they had not taken the Terran power of resistance into consideration. The principle Druuf commander also did not suspect that his ships had long since been tracked. But if he had known this it would have made little difference to him. What counted in the long run was the mass concentration of heavily-armed spaceships. A quick discovery of their presence would only mean a temporary impedance. But resistance was not the same as an 'untenable' situation.
One built up armaments only with patience. Squadron after squadron welled up out of the artificially-induced discharge rift. They were taking no risks, even though they were thrusting into a universe where the time rate was twice as fast as that of their own plane. By this it was plain to the chief commander that his ships would be 50% slower than the expected ships of the enemy. But if one recognizes his danger he can adjust himself accordingly. The Druufs intended to compensate for their inferior manoeuvrability by a superior concentration of heavy ships and super-powerful weapons.
This tactic had best demonstrated itself at the blockade front. The success of the Master Plan depended only on two objectives: to pin down the famous Arkonide Fleet with very powerful forces and then to conquer Terra and build up a second front at the backs of the Arkonides. If this succeeded, the strategy of the Druufs would change over night.
50 ADVENTURES FROM NOW
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5/ THE MOST CRITICIAL MOMENT IN THE ENTIRE
HISTORY OF THE HUMAN RACE
Lt. Aluf Tehete, leader of the 586th Interceptor Group in Space Pursuit Force 64 was one of the first Terranian officers to hurl his 1-man pursuit ship at the heavy phalanx of the Druuf reconnaissance ships. Basically Tehete's interceptor was nothing much more than a projectile, 15 meters long and 1.5 meters in diameter. Ninety percent of the interior space was taken up by a compact high-powered propulsion unit.
In addition to this it possessed a fixed heavy impulse cannon but whenever the monstrous piece of ordnance was fired it seemed to the pilot that his outer hull was going to blow to atoms. The defence screen was almost pitifully weak but even more skimpy was the area that the designers had allotted to the pilot.
Tehete crouched in a narrow observation capsule which was the cockpit. It was directly behind the sharp bow, which was integral with the cannon muzzle. Actually it was asking a lot to send young men into battle under such conditions but the pursuit pilots were satisfied. They didn't envy the men who had to serve on board a 'fat' ship. Pursuit pilots had more freedom. They saw and heard what was going on in space and they never had to wait for permission to fire. They had to decide on their own, attack on their own and rely on themselves for survival.
The Druuf ships had hardly returned to normal space before they were spotted by the fast cruisers of the SPF-64 and simultaneously Tehete led his group into the attack front. On the control column in front of him was an adjustment that permitted a skilful control of the jet pressure vanes. This provided a fabulous manoeuvrability, the effects of which the completely surprised Druufs were to feel a few minutes later.
The first space combat in defence of Terra was exclusively an engagement between the Earthly interceptor forces and the Druuf scouting units. Not one heavy vessel of the Solar Fleet took part in it. Everything happened too swiftly to permit any manoeuvres on the part of the major fighting ships.
These fleet hornets swarming out of the various cruiser squadrons struck the first successful surprise blow. Equipped with guns that were more suitable to a 500-meter battle cruiser, they generated a nuclear holocaust that annihilated 85% of the Druuf formation in a time-span of 7 minutes.
As Lt. Tehete placed his hand on the firing button at the upper end of the control column he was thinking of the broad steppes of his East African homeland. On the 30 cm screen of the automatic firing sight were the sharply delineated outlines of a long, rod-shaped spaceship. The green indicator of the matter tracker flashed at him insistently, signalling him that he was definitely not dealing with a Terranian ship. The alloys employed were alien, as were the propulsion radiations.
Aluf Tehete was able to determine that the Druuf he was tailing was actually flying at half the speed of light. This corroborated the data he had concerning a time-rate differential of 1 to 2.
His greater speed was an incalculable advantage. Even more vital, however, were the tiny dimensions of his machine, which could hardly be detected in the vastness of space. So he remained on target course until his automatics told him he was within 300,000 km of his quarry. It was an optimum firing distance for an interceptor. Although the distance was sufficient for his own safety the hit-probability quotient stood at 95%. His holding angle was small and the light-fast raybeam shot would strike home in a second.
His positronically guided approach manoeuvre brought the outlines of the alien ship into his green target circle and Tehete pressed the firing button. Since his present velocity was close to light speed, the normally imperceptible cosmic dust that was present tended to 'pack' in front of his bow. Every pursuit pilot hated this compaction effect because it made the cannon's sun-bright impulse beams optically visible. If this light-conducting medium were not present, the energy discharges could not be seen.
Tehete felt the hammer-blow recoil of his machine. In front of his cockpit was a flare of white-hot light. It expanded into a fireball from which shot a beam of energy 10 meters long and as thick as his leg.
Then it vanished into the dark deeps of the void. The beam was still out there but without the cosmic dust compaction it could no longer be observed.
Painfully blinded for the moment, the group leader pulled his ship away from the approach course. Since he was almost as fast as his weapon beam he had to avoid plunging at full speed toward the target. As Tehete shot away within 10,000 km of the Druuf ship a blue-white bubble of incandescence swelled beneath him. The energy sensor indicated a powerful burst of nuclear forces. Thus the young Terranian knew he could chalk up the first kill of the war.
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