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

"The little scoundrel had no sooner arrived than he attempted to use his teleporting faculties for breaking through the robot Brain's energy shield. Apparently this unearthly upstart thinks his capabilities are boundlessly beyond those of your human mutants. Naturally when he made his jump he was intercepted by the Brain's ultra-dimensional field matrix. The interlocked honeycomb of force shot him right back and in an extremely painful manner. I knew about it from the automatic warning system. So take care that in the future such playfulness is kept under control. I've made it sufficiently clear to you and your men that the failsafe security section that was built by my forefathers will not tolerate any penetration into the area of the robot Brain by alien life forms. The programming is built in and I can't change it. Do we understand each other, Barbarian?"
These last words sounded hard and cold. Rhodan suspected that he had reached the limits of Atlan's patience and consideration. He nodded silently but in a few moments added: "That's something else I don't like. You'd think we'd at least get permission to take a look at this technological miracle machine."
A swift movement of Atlan's head brought a bright flash to his whitish-blond hair. It seemed as though his red-golden eyes gleamed a warning. "Perry, you are intelligent enough to assess my words very well. I am telling you once more that I cannot alter the security circuits. My ancestors knew what they were doing when they built in these protections for the indispensable robot Brain. Besides, where that's concerned I do not trust you! You might 'just happen' to bring along a microbomb and set it off in the installation somewhere. I know you a bit too well, Terranian! So you stay in your sphere and I'll stay in mine. After the Regent portion of the Brain was phased out, it became a harmless automaton but it still retained unique capabilities. Before I would allow it to be destroyed I'd sooner annihilate you along with your whole Solar System. If one thinks in terms of the galaxy-which I presume to rule!-I'd consider the Empire with its more than 50,000 colonized worlds considerably more important than your little Earth. So beware of ever attacking the machine. In such a case all my pledges to you would become void. Is that clear to you, Perry Rhodan?"
"Oh quite clear. Thanks a lot."
"You can keep your sarcasm. Excuse me now, I have things to attend to. A new major attack is starting on the Druuf front."
Atlan raised his hand in a parting signal. The glowing viewscreen paled to an imageless raster. Behind Rhodan the thick armoured doors glided upward. Bright light flooded into the hexagonal chamber.
He walked out in a state of turmoil. Atlan's final words had gotten to him. In spite of the Admiral's long time on Earth there was no more denying that he had once more become a major political figure in the galaxy-and he played his politics accordingly. Rhodan soberly admonished himself to keep his head about him. With reason and tolerance, he thought, nothing would ever happen.
With this resolution in mind, he entered the outer foyer.
Reginald Bell, his second in command, sat tensely on the edge of a chair and watched the First Administrator of the Solar System as he approached. Rhodan came to a stop directly in front of him and looked at his watch. He said nothing.
When the silence became unbearable, Bell contented himself with a single, half-mumbled sentence. "Judging by your face I'd say Your Highnesses didn't see eye to eye."
Rhodan did not answer immediately. Still immersed in thought, he looked once more at the armourplated airlock doors of the interrogation chamber, which had closed behind him again. "It was to be expected. If I were in his shoes I wouldn't have been sold on the arguments, either. From a purely strategic point of view the treaty doesn't make sense, anyway. Who would ever keep him from striking out against us at any time he pleased, in spite of that piece of paper? So I'm a foxy barbarian, am I? Hm-m-m..."
Bell laughed knowingly. "He knows us too well, doesn't he?"
"Definitely! But that's also my one remaining hope. He should know very well by now that we're on his side. Under Arkon's dominance alone the Greater Imperium is short of intelligent and decisive brains. The degeneration of the present inhabitants of Arkon is so widespread that you're not going to change them much over night. The best thing Atlan can do is look to the next unborn generation, provided he starts an educational program that will protect them from lethargy, corruptions and idiotic philosophies. In about 60 years maybe he could manage to get the Arkonide Empire back on its feet again. But by that time we will have seen a few changes ourselves."
Bell got to his feet. He and Rhodan were the last two Terranians in the giant subterranean city near the robot Brain. The wide, cathedral-like halls swarmed with aliens. Most of them consisted of the troops that had been conscripted on the colonial planet Zalit and were waiting down here for embarkation, The two men were not accosted by anyone as they moved rapidly toward the nearest antigrav lift. Even the numerous robot guards allowed them to pass unhindered.
"How times have changed!" said Bell ironically. "Only a few days ago they would have burned us to ashes if we had even shown our noses around here. Atlan's reign is getting off to a pretty good start I'd say."
A Zalite space officer stared in amazement at the strange uniforms of the Terranians. He didn't know what to make of their rank insignia. He decided that to be on the safe side he would give them a proper salute.
As Rhodan acknowledged it he thought back to the difficult days of their commando push when he had been forced to wear the red-skinned disguise of a Zalite inhabitant. It had been the only way to get to the fleet mobilization and munitions planet all in one piece.
Just before they reached the lift, Bell inquired almost indifferently: "You come down off the ceiling yet? I mean-are you calmed down?"
Rhodan slackened his pace. Finally he came to a stop and slowly turned to look at Bell, who was smiling like a sphinx. "What's wrong?"
Bell squinted up at the artificial nuclear sunball that moved along its simulated course. The conversations of the crowd of Zalites around them became a dull, heavy roar in their ears.
"What is wrong?" Rhodan repeated, more sharply than he intended.
Bell wiped sweat from his brow. "Getting too warm again down in this cave," he observed after slightly clearing his throat. "OK, so I'll tell you! Perry, we can't wait any longer for that treaty. Sikerman brought us some top secret news that isn't any too heartwarming. They've found out the Druufs were able to build a transmitter base on Terra." As Rhodan stared at him aghast and searched for words, he waved a hand. "Don't get excited, it's been taken care of. The Druufs were discovered by a former collaborator with Intelligence and were put out of business. It's been established that by some stupid accident the monsters got hold of our transmitter frequency. Probably had something to do with our supplies for the Moon Base. They calculated the 5-D effects and infiltrated over our hyper-frequency. That's not saying by any means that they are really aware of the Earth's location. But anyway our preliminary calculations show that there would be a considerable difference between a direct flight approach and an extra-dimensional transmitter jump."
Rhodan had by now collected himself. His face was expressionless. "Intelligence made a counterattack?"
"Thanks to the undercover man-I've forgotten his name. A few traitors came within an ace of fixing them up with an exit base. A so-called group of conspirators was formed which was supposed to serve as backup for the invasion. Allan D. Mercant is afraid of complications."
"That's all I needed," said Rhodan. "while I'm sweating it out here with Atlan, we have a surprise raid at home. Did Sikerman bring the full particulars?"
"Everything that Mercant was able to find out."
"What's the prognosis? Have the probability factors been worked out positronically?"
"Up to a point. He didn't have any more time. Our radio dispatch arrived in the meantime and Mercant decided to use Sikerman as a courier. Hey, what the-?!"
Bell got into motion to follow his companion, who had suddenly started to sprint. Panting, he reached the antigrav lift, jumped into the barely visible force field and shoved off. The two of them drifted weightlessly upward. They reached the exit near the surface dome that they had half destroyed a few days previously during their desperate battle of retreat from the depths of Arkon. A work detail of robots was busy repairing the big dock elevator.
The bright white glare of Arkon sunlight greeted them. Rhodan jumped into the waiting hover glider and shouted a hasty instruction to the robot driver.
The flagship of the Solar Fleet had landed 3 kilometres away, which was still comparatively close to the vast defence screen. The Drusus was a giant but it was relatively inconspicuous here among 50 equal-sized battle-ships of the Arkonide Home Fleet.
Rhodan reached the lower manlock of the 1500-meter giant sphere just as a squadron of fast battle cruisers took off a few kilometres away and thundered into the cloudless sky. The resulting shockwaves were intercepted by the fully automatic repulsion fields and their energy was absorbed. On Arkon 3 nothing happened without the systematic intervention of the greatest robot Brain in the Milky Way.
Rhodan followed the swiftly diminishing ships with an uneasy gaze. Only a few days previously they had come off of the tireless assembly lines and now they were off on their test flights.
"I'd feel a lot better if we had a production capacity like that," said Rhodan. "Where is Sikerman?"
The tall, broad-shouldered figure of the commander appeared in the lock. His greeting was restrained.
While still in the airlock, Rhodan remarked: "So our friends from the second time-plane cooked up a little surprise for us, did they? I want to see the particulars on that immediately. How was your trip?"
"Thank you, sir, excellent. I flew in full fighting trim when I entered the Voga System but we didn't run into any trouble. Our people were able to come on board without any hesitation. I was only there two hours before I took off again. I also got through the outer fortress ring of the Arkon System without any interference. Not even the usual escort ships showed up. Then we were brought in by the Regent's remote controls and landed on this spaceport."
"Atlan kept his word," Bell confirmed thoughtfully. "Do you think we're judging him unfairly?"
"We'll soon find out," remarked Rhodan. "Sikerman, can you imagine that the Druufs won't find the Earth? Just consider that these intelligences succeeded in setting up a transmitter contact apparently without a hitch. They have a high grade of science. For example, do you think we'd be able, with the help of hypermath components, to calculate a stable 4-dimensional reference point with a maximum uncertainty coefficient of plus or minus 0.5%? Could we do that?"
The scientists of the great flagship who had hurried down for the reception now stood in the background inside the large airlock. They gazed in silence at the lean, grey-eyed man in the plain uniform. Sikerman's husky frame blocked the forward pressure hatch, together with the guard robots that were stationed there. It was as though he wanted to protect the ship against any alien intrusion.
"Sir, very probably we could do that!"
Rhodan's smile was impersonal. "Then the others could do it too," he said quietly. "Sikerman, get the ship ready for emergency takeoff. Where are the documents?"
"In the Control Central, sir."
Within 10 minutes Rhodan had gone through the reports. While the exhausted men of the battle commando unit were being assigned to quarters and a buzz of conversation between them and the crew members of the superbattleship began, Rhodan put in a request for an Arkonide courier.
30 minutes after Rhodan's arrival on board the Drusus a heavily armed robot detail appeared at the ground airlock. Simultaneously Atlan came through the Regent's special waveband. "Problems, my friend? I was advised of your request. What is wrong?"
Rhodan came closer to the small viewscreen. "I'm sorry to have to disturb you again. But Sikerman has... Do you know Sikerman?"
"Naturally."
"He's brought me some very serious news. The Druufs have found Terra..."
"What...?"
"So far only through a transmitter base. My people didn't have time to evaluate the basic data they obtained. I wonder if you could do that for me. I need a probability analysis."