"(novel) (ebook) - Perry Rhodan 0099 - (91) Friend to Mankind" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

It was imperative that he carried out his plan as fast as possible. He would have to disregard his physical condition. The Arkonide had promised Rhodan that he would never let the spacejet fall into the hands of others. Little did he think at the time that he would be forced to defend it with his life.
As he ran breathlessly, he turned around from time to time. The trunk people could appear any time at the ridge of the slope if they needed some technical equipment from their ship. More than once Khrest had the uncomfortable feeling that a thermo-beamer was aimed at his back. He ignored the weakening of his legs. This was not the time to play a sick man. Although he was an exhausted old man, he had to act like a young man in his prime.
Soon he discovered the spaceship of the transgressors. It was broken in two. Once again Khrest looked back over his shoulder across the open plain behind him. The fact that the ship was a total wreck increased his concern about his spacejet. His opponents were willy-nilly forced to capture a spaceship if they did not want to get stuck on this planet. Khrest had no doubt they would leave no stone unturned to destroy the protective energy screen in order to gain possession of their only means of escape.
Khrest studied the section of the spaceship which was only partially destroyed. He would be able to enter it at several places. Through the open airlock and through the hole torn at the point of impact. At the bow gaped another crack which was wide enough to let him pass through. Khrest decided to use the entrance through the airlock. He kept his impulse-beamer at the ready but nobody was there to challenge him when he pulled himself up to the airlock. There was enough light to orient himself. His trained eyes recognized quickly that the ship had been ripe for the junk heap even before the catastrophe occurred. He saw some lettering above the airlock but was unable to decipher the instructions.
He penetrated deeper into the ship. Some of the corridors had collapsed and others were split open. The floor was littered with debris and Khrest had to climb over it. Finally he reached a larger room which was filled with a variety of equipment. The Arkonide did not take the time to examine the function of the numerous devices as he continued his feverish search for weapons.
He stepped over a low bunk behind which some flexible spiral arms were mounted on a wall. This was as far as he got! He was seized from the rear in a bear hug. His impulse-beamer clattered to the floor. When he looked around a cry choked in his throat. His attacker was a mechanical contraption!
Two of the mysterious spiral arms had reached out from the wall and wound themselves around his body like snakes! He was irresistibly pulled down on the bunk.
A trap! he thought aghast. They've set a trap for me!
He tried to free himself from his entanglement with all his strength but quickly realized that it was hopeless. The automaton held him in a firm iron grip.
After Khrest had been pushed down on the bunk he gave up his futile resistance and stretched out his limbs. Then he was strapped in by clasps emerging from the sides of his baffling trap. His body was completely immobilized until he could move only his head.
Khrest had to watch helplessly as a pad was lowered and pressed his forehead back. He cursed his carelessness but now it was too late to do anything about his lack of foresight. He was spun in like a cocoon and forced to surrender to the machine.
Before he could fully contemplate his misery another spiral dangled over his face. It had an attachment that looked like a rod with a soft covering. A light fluid dripped from its end. Khrest thought he was having a bad dream. The gadget swung around his nose and he noticed that the dripping rod slowly rotated. The apparatus accompanied the operation with a hypnotic noise which sounded like Bzzzzzzzzzzt!
Two flimsy wires, similar to sensors, descended on Khrest's face as if searching for something. They touched his nose, which made Khrest quiver although the metal wires felt pleasantly warm. Then the sensors were retracted again but his hope that the peculiar treatment was finished was disappointed. The rotating rod came down and aimed straight for his face again, while the machine softly whirred Bzzzzzzzzzzt!

* * * *

Golath extricated himself from the hole and flopped exhausted to the ground. His fury had grown so irrepressibly that his eyes flared malevolently when he stared at Zerft. He knew from the beginning that it was senseless to use this method to penetrate the screen around the ship. But Zerft had insisted on continuing the attempt.
"What's the matter?" Zerft asked, irritated.
"I'm tired," Golath replied. "We won't get anywhere this way. Perhaps we can break down that barrier with one of the energy generators aboard the Kaszill."
"It must be fairly simple," Zerft contended stubbornly. "The owner of this tiny craft can't penetrate the shield either. Therefore he has to deactivate the energy screen whenever he wants to board the ship. This can't take very long and he must know a method to lift the screen safely and rapidly."
"Sure," Golath agreed. "It's simple for him."
Zerft stared fiercely at the spacejet as if he could conquer it by the power of his eyes alone. "What other possibilities do we have?" he asked.
"We can take some generators out of the Kaszill," Golath proposed. "Perhaps it is possible to make them absorb the energy of the protective field or concentrate it in one area and create a gap."
"Sounds reasonable," Zerft admitted. "However, we should see if Liszog finds something in the house which would open the way to the ship."
Golath's groan expressed his contempt for Zerft's deficient technical knowledge as well as Liszog's talent as a sleuth. He felt an urgent desire to give his trunk a good cleaning. It was clear to him that sooner or later it would come to a showdown between himself and Zerft. He was fed up with taking orders from that big bully who was not much more intelligent than Liszog. To be blunt, he was nothing but a common thief.
They went to look for Liszog in the house. They found him hopping around and whining in a room filled with a blue haze that made Golath cough. The young Unither held his thermo-beamer in one hand and hid the other hand under his trunk. Golath saw that it was bleeding. The stench of burning made his trunk writhe.
Zerft pulled Liszog out of the smoke and asked incensed: "At whom did you shoot?"
"I shot at a machine," Liszog explained tearfully.
Golath bristled. "At a combat robot?"
"No," Liszog replied, beginning to calm down, "it was no such thing."
"Why did you shoot at it?" Zerft wanted to know.
"It hurt me," Liszog exclaimed. "It had several push buttons and I thought it might have something to do with the ship. So I pressed them."
"Then what happened?"
"There were a few openings and something began to hum inside. I put my hand in one of them and before I could pull it back it was already injured."
"But why did you shoot at it?" Golath asked.
Liszog looked at him with puzzled eyes and Golath couldn't help feeling something like pity for the exiled youth. "I don't know," Liszog said.
"He's cracking up," Zerft scoffed, exasperated. "He's like a nervous old woman and his stupid shooting will get us into trouble."
"I'll take a look," Golath said.
Zerft gave him the OK, not being anxious himself to get back into the smoke-filled room again. He left the house together with Liszog and they sat on the ground to wait for Golath, who came back after a few minutes.
"Well?" Zerft asked and got up.
Golath was pensive as he reported: "It really was a machine. A special machine."
Liszog cocked his head. Maybe he had succeeded in doing a good service to his companions after all."
Zerft asked dubiously: "A special machine? For what?"
"For chopping up food," Golath explained.
Liszog was deflated and Zerft gave him a nasty look. "We have to go back to the Kaszill," Golath said calmly. "We must get some equipment and Liszog's wounds have to be bandaged, too."
For a change Zerft raised no objections. He walked first without a word and Liszog followed, downcast.

* * * *

Khrest was in the unenviable position of a man who watched a strange show taking place before his eyes in which he played the main role but was unable to change the events. In the meantime the Arkonide had realized that the machine was not set as an ingenious trap for him. In his haste he had triggered the mechanism by accident but he was still baffled by the purpose of the device. The spirals and wires which dangled over his face seemed to search for something the old man apparently lacked. The robot machine would desist only after it carried out its task and Khrest had no idea what it was.