"(novel) (ebook) - Perry Rhodan 0091 - (83) Ernst Ellert Returns" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

Marcel Rous was on his daily rounds in the stronghold, talking here and there with crewmembers and checking the guards, the communications installation and the warning system. When he was leaving the tracking and observation room he heard voices in the wardroom and mess hall. One voice in particular was that of a man who had arrived on Hades only a few days before as part of the relief crew. Men who were off duty spent their time in the large wardroom, drank their whiskey rations and related their experiences.
Rous grinned to himself as he entered the place unnoticed and sat down at a small table in a booth.
"You're a heck of a story teller, Kranolte!" shouted someone amusedly. "According to you, Rhodan would never have been able to knock out the robot Brain without your help!"
The man named Kranolte was a sergeant wearing the uniform of Solar Intelligence. He nodded his head emphatically. "I don't want to exaggerate, Myers, but you can take it from me-we were really in a helluva fix. We were hiding out in a cave in the middle of the desert on Zalit, standing guard on a transmitter, and any minute we were afraid of being discovered by the Arkonides. Man, they really could have made it hot for us!"
"That may well be, Kranolte, but you can't convince me that your mission alone was what made it possible for Atlan to get to Arkon and become the new Imperator of the stellar empire. During that time you were squatting in a cave and waiting for things to clear up, while Rhodan was conquering Arkon with his 150 special troops."
Kranolte appeared to bristle at this. "Putting it bluntly, that's an insult, my friend! After all, you weren't there!"
"But I know you," retorted Myers, undisturbed. "The way you tell it, you sound like Pucky. He's also claimed in the past that the Earth would have long ceased to exist without his help because he's saved it at least 10 times from annihilation already."
"That's all just talk," retorted the other. "Who was it that said jealousy is crueler than the grave?"
"Alright then," said Myers, although he failed to grasp Kranolte's Biblical quotation, "tell us what you did on Zalit that was so great!"
Sgt. Kranolte didn't need a second invitation. "Well, you know as well as I do that the Arkon situation under the Regent couldn't go on much longer, so Rhodan decided to pull the plug on that robot Brain. Rhodan and I and 200 men were dumped into Zalit, which is only 3 light-years from Arkon. And now comes the part about the cave. Inside was our transmitter receiver and through it the California sent backup supplies and equipment to us. We had to see that nobody located the transmitter in that cave and we organized the caravans that brought the materials to Tagnor, the capital city. Without that material the whole operation would have been impossible. We were sitting there in the middle of the desert..."
"You've said that twice already," interjected Myers.
"...and we had to watch out so that the Hhracks didn't gobble us up. In the meantime Rhodan and Atlan and the others went to Arkon and put the Regent out of business. Atlan became Imperator and Rhodan gave him recognition. Yes, that was a real wild time we had that time on Zalit. Back in the cave, we..."
"You and your stupid cave!" shouted Myers, finally losing his patience. "If you hadn't been stationed there it would have been somebody else. You were just a small cog in the machinery-and that includes any of us! Nobody is indispensable, you know!"
Kranolte seemed to shrink a few inches. "Well, just don't get carried away!" he challenged Myers, much to the amusement of the other men in the room. "You can be replaced!"
Myers' mouth dropped agape. He was suddenly flabbergasted. "But-didn't I just get through saying...?"
Kranolte nodded patronizingly. "Sure, but you didn't quite put it that way. Anyway, take it easy, nobody's infallible. Isn't that right, Capt. Rous?"
Marcel Rous realized he'd been discovered. He had to admit to himself that Kranolte had cleverly squirmed out of the hole he'd gotten himself into. He stood up and nodded. "Of course you're right, Sergeant. At least concerning that last point you made. Carry on, men."
The men had sprung up to stand at attention. Rous smiled as he left the mess hall. Even at a distance he could still hear the storm of rebuke crackling down on Kranolte's poor head. They thought that he had been aware of his superior officer's presence for some time and had sought to take him in with his exaggerated heroic deeds.
Back in the com room Rous made certain that the message receiver section was in working order. The first incoming pulse would cause the recording tapes to turn on so that any piece of news would be stored for access later. But the indicators were still showing green. No news yet.
The communications man on duty greeted him. "The, cruiser Ohio is still on picket point outside the discharge zone. Nothing special going on."
Rous merely nodded acknowledgement and returned to his quarters after making one short visit to the main Control Central of the base. All quiet on Hades. The Hell planet lay in a deep spell of peacefulness. And yet doom was only light-minutes away.
When Rous lay down on his bed he thought that boredom came more quickly to men when they were so close to the heart and hearth of danger without anything happening. Later, however, he was to wish that he had never had such a thought.

* * * *

Onot spent 2 days and 3 nights in his cell without event. No one bothered about him. A silent caretaker brought him food but refused to answer any questions.
His memory slowly returned to him. So far it had not yet occurred to the scientist that he might be suffering from amnesia. Of course he admitted he might have forgotten one thing or another but to suspect an actual gap in his memory was out of the question. Granted, there had been times in the past when he had acted very strangely, especially that time when hostile robots had destroyed the computer centre. He couldn't explain even to himself why he had acted so strangely, yet he knew that he had done so.
It was all a tangled mess. His mind sought to draw a straight line from the present to those events of the past but it failed. It was as though impenetrable veils of forgetfulness drifted between the events and obstructed his attempts to look backwards. All of which only served to accentuate his intolerable headaches.
It became clear to him that he was sitting in a trap. They would be able to hold him responsible for things that he couldn't even recall anymore. Had it really been he himself who had brought about the destruction of the great computer centre beneath the city? And if he had done it, why? Why had he given the enemy robots access to the centre so that they could finish their task?
He felt as though suddenly he might be able to grasp the past with both his hands. But then when he reached out toward it, those impenetrable shrouds would close in again-as if someone were drawing the veils across his vision.
Someone...?
He remembered suddenly that this 'someone' had certainly had a great deal to do with it. It was someone he couldn't see but whom he was probably able to hear. Someone who was next to him-or more likely within him. Ah yes, now he was aware of this again!
On the morning of the third day, Onot began to remember.
A voice had spoken to him. It seemed to come out of nothingness and yet it spoke from within himself-to him. It was an eerie voice without sound, inside his brain. It had told him of having dwelled within him for years and of having watched and controlled his work. The voice had even said that Onot had only its presence to thank for the fact that he had become the greatest scientist of his race.
After that, Onot got to his feet and walked restlessly back and forth in his cell. Five steps one way and five steps back.
The voice...
It told him once more that he must do what it told him to do. He must obey no matter what was asked of him. And he recalled that the voice had commanded him to commit treason. Yes, he had been the one who had activated the transmitter-receiver so that the alien robots could get into the Central-and only because the inner voice had demanded it of him.
Onot sat down again.
If he were to tell the judge of the Supreme Tribunal about the voice, would he believe him? Or would he consider it to be a poor alibi, a fabric of fantasy? The great unknown nemesis-a voice! Onot could already hear the entire courtroom laughing at such a statement. The Druufs were a sober and calculating species. They did not believe in ghosts and voices.
But then he searched further into memory.
Had not the voice also told him that if it were to leave him he would die? Well, so now it had left him and he was still alive. Also, wasn't his memory also slowly returning to him? Perhaps if he could convince the judge of his innocence everything would still be all right. He would build up another computer central and also construct another time stasis machine. He could make amends for his previous mistakes.
The voice had once told him that it was a mind or entity of some kind that had lost its body and that it had since taken up a new residence in Onot's body. Further, said the voice, Onot's own intellect must not resist it; it must be obedient at all times.
Onot had obeyed because he had to-and because at that time he had no suspicion of what was really happening to him. From a moral point of view, he was not guilty of the crimes he was accused of. How it would appear in the ruthless eye of Druuf judgment, however, was another question.
"I'm master of my own mind again," Onot told himself, "and therefore of my body as well. No one can command me to do anything. I am Onot, the scientist! I shall build a weapon with which we can conquer the universe! Time... what secrets does it still hide from me? If I want to I can reverse the stream of time itself and cancel out the events of the past. I'll track down the owner of the voice and kill him, before his mind or entity can leave my body. The Earth was its home planet and we're going to know where that is located. Some of us were there already. If you can hear me, voice, then answer me. Admit that I am stronger than you..."
Instead of receiving an answer, however, he saw a view-flap open in the door and the dungeon keeper looked in at him. Then he closed the flap and went away.
Onot leaned back against the wall. The voice isn't there anymore, he thought triumphantly. Before, whenever I'd have the slightest thought of rebellion it would come immediately to threaten me. Then it would cause me headaches and torture me in other ways. It would push my thoughts aside and make me its slave. But today...
No, the voice was no longer there.
Now the hour had come for which he had waited so long. The past was clear to him once more. He would be able to explain everything to the judge-and he would have to believe him.
But then, as though from the blow of an axe, the house of cards of all his hopes was shattered asunder. Soundlessly the voice spoke to him!
"You are mistaken, Onot. I am still here! But perhaps you will soon be alone-indeed, quite alone. It could well be that you would even be happy if I were to return."