"002 The Third Power" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

CHAPTER ONE

The silence was deceptive.
The mirrorlike surface of the Koshun salt lake in northern. China was unbroken
by movement. Still as death, the lake lay sprawled across the wide desert. Not
the slightest breeze could be felt, and the atmosphere was oppressively hot and
dry. The glimmering air was buoyed above the heated stones and lost itself in
the blue of a cloudless sky. Far away on the horizon rose a ridge of low
mountains, from which had come the river that fed the salt lake.
The river was the only thing that stirred in this part of the Gobi Desert. Heavy
and sluggish the river flowed, neither wide nor deep but never becoming
completely dry.
Vegetation could not have grown on this stony ground, and animal life would not
have found food amongst the flat rocks. Nothing was alive; yet the silence was
deceptive.
A slender structure of glittering silver stood close beside the banks of the
river. It did not fit into the picture of this lonely wilderness, for it was an
interplanetary craft more than ninety feet long whose aerodynamically designed
hull and delta wings were in stark contrast to an environment so inimical to
human life.
The Stardust, the first terrestrial spaceship ever to land on the moon, had
returned to Earth and landed in the Gobi Desert. The whole world already knew
this, but only a few would begin to suspect that it had been not an emergency
landing but an intentional manoeuvre.
In the hull of the vehicle, a rectangular opening appeared. A man came into view
in the opening. His gaze swept along the river, across to the mountains and then
to the lake, where it remained. Captain Reginald Bell, test pilot for the U.S.
Space Explorations Command and engineer of the Stardust, drew in the air with
eager breath, although it was anything but refreshing. The captain was short and
heavyset. He wore the tightfitting blue uniform of the newly created Space Navy
and held his cap under his right arm.
His eyes, which seemed almost devoid of colour, bore a faint glimmer of hope as
he turned and called into the interior of the spaceship. "You think itТs
possible to take a bath in that puddle over there?"
Someone emerged from the dark corridor and stepped up beside Reg. He wore the
same uniform but without epaulets. He seemed to be about thirty-five years old,
tall and lean, and above a face with hard grey blue eyes there fell short blond
hair. This was Major Perry Rhodan, commander of the Stardust and leader of the
first lunar expedition.
"Of course itТs possible," he said in answer to RegТs question, "but the water
is warm and hardly inviting. Besides, itТs far too salty for my taste."
"Oh, I always liked highly seasoned food," declared Reg in a very serious tone.
"I could even drink the whole lake, if necessary."
"YouТd really be in for a surprise. The waters of the Atlantic would taste like
sickening sweet lemonade compared with that over there."
Reg squinted up at the sun, which was nearly at its zenith. "I hope IТll have a
chance to find out, because they wonТt be leaving us in peace much longer. I
hope Khrest has thought of something in the meantime."
Khrest was the scientific leader of an extraterrestrial expedition that had had
to crashland on the moon. His race, which had been master of a large part of the