"Perry Rhodan 022 - Escape to Venus" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

Thora had ordered him to name her the commander of this destroyer when they were passing near the moon base. But before the station could reply they had long since vanished in the darkness of space.
This time she was determined not to permit anything to interfere with her plans. For 10 years-if one took into consideration the peculiar time-leap on Wanderer, the planet of eternal life-she had submitted to Rhodan's iron will. But now she realized he had not the slightest intention of permitting her and Khrest to return to Arkon.
First, he had said, he wanted to organize his terrestrial world government, not lose face before the Arkonides. Of course, he always used the cheap pretext that an invasion was forever threatening his race.
Very well then, if Rhodan would not give her permission she would simply take what was her due right. On Venus she would find a way to provide herself with a ship which could carry her back to her home planet. All she needed was to reach the hypersender on Venus that would carry her words with faster-than-light speed through the emptiness of space to distant Arkon.
Her compatriots would send a ship to rescue her and thus her imprisonment would end.
She had reached this point in her deliberations when she was seized by some doubts. She had failed to inform Khrest of her plan although he was entitled to know about it. But Khrest was on Rhodan's side; he would not understand her. Therefore she had to proceed without him.
Nevertheless...
Seconds turned into minutes. Long since the sun had shrunk in size behind the rear of her ship although it still looked much larger than when seen from Earth. Now a brightly shining point detached itself from the crowded cluster of stars: the planet Venus. Rapidly, it grew in size; became a disk and then a white globe.
Thora stared at the approaching planet with burning eyes. There she would find the goal of her desires-the gigantic interstellar radio station, constructed ten thousand years ago by the vanished Arkonide settlers who had erected a base on Venus with its automatic installations still functioning perfectly to this very day. And the frightening defence weapons of an unimaginable technology were still effectively protecting the Venusian radio station and the positronic brain.
Thora was well acquainted with the rules that governed the policy decisions and reactions of the positronic brain. Since destroyer C had been constructed according to Arkonide plans, it would fulfil all necessary prerequisites to be recognized as an Arkonide vessel when it would be probed and checked out by the barrier beams of the ancient fortress. No obstacles would be placed in its way when destroyer C would come in for a landing. Thora knew only too well the powerful fortifications and weaponry of this age-old Venusian base and what means the mighty positronic brain had at its disposal to defend itself.
After these deliberations her doubts were quickly dispelled and she said to R-17: "We ought to start slowing down now."
"We have already done so," replied the robot. "One can't notice it. The force fields are compensating for any change that has occurred in our speed. Look-Venus is growing larger!"
Indeed, the bright sphere had come very close and it seemed to increase in size steadily though only very gradually. A dense cloud cover made it impossible to catch even a glimpse of the planet's surface. But Thora did not need actually to see it, she knew that it resembled a primeval world. Immense oceans extended over a large part of the planet's face, which was mainly a maze of water, swamps and gigantic jungles. The extensive jungles were inhabited by giant saurian reptiles who had only comparatively recently conquered the continents.
The jungle was practically impassable for man. Even using the most sophisticated means of modern technology, to cover any distance on foot would be almost impossible. Whoever happened to be stranded in this jungle was doomed. Saurian giant lizards, swamps and carnivorous plants would soon finish them off.
The Venusian atmosphere was breathable for human beings. Despite its high carbon dioxide content it had sufficient oxygen for man. The upper strata of the atmosphere contained increasingly larger percentages of volcanic pollution and admixtures of inert, rare gases. The average daily temperature was close to 120░ Fahrenheit. The constant dense cloud layer created a hothouse effect over the entire planet and gave rise to a vegetation growing in great profusion.
One full Venusian day lasted as long as 10 days on Earth. This meant 120 hours of uninterrupted daylight, which was followed by an equally long stretch of darkness. One Venusian year lasted 224.7 Earth-days.
Gravity and escape velocity were slightly less than on Earth but due to the planet's closer proximity to the sun it received a far greater share of the sun's warming rays.
Not a very pleasant world for man to live on but this is what Terra must have looked like millions of years ago. Some day this planet would be inhabited, maybe by some future generations of mankind who might change this fertile soil into a paradise.
For the time being, however, Venus was far removed from this utopian state. Planet of Hell was the name that Bell had called it once during a conversation with Thora. She was reminded of this name as the destroyer penetrated the upper strata of the atmosphere and kept slowly descending toward the planet's surface.
Their speed was greatly reduced now. Bright wisps of clouds passed by the window and appeared to drift upwards.
The radar screen indicated the presence of high mountain ranges. A plateau of such a mountain range was the location of the star station of the ancient Arkonides which housed the positronic brain and the hyperwave-sender.
Robot R-17 resumed control over the ship. He determined the position of their eventual destination. He had not been programmed by any command that forbade him to land the ship on the Venusian base. Suddenly they emerged from the bottom layer of the cloud bank. The destroyer seemed to have reached the lowest depths of a gaseous ocean and it was now flying almost directly above the bottom. The sun shone weakly like a dull spot through the gas masses but sufficiently strong to cause in them violent turbulences even though they rarely thrust down to the surface of the planet.
Thora looked down and shuddered. They had been flying across an ocean and were now approaching the coast. There was remarkably good visibility and far off toward the horizon towered high mountains with flattened tops. Dense vegetation seemed to cover the sides of these mountains halfway up. A whitish glow came from inside dark canyons. Thora knew that these were gigantic waterfalls rushing to the bottom of the abyss, providing new water supplies for the swamps in the jungle.
The jungle...
The continents seemed to be completely overgrown with these jungles. All she could see were the oceans, mountain ranges and the endless expanses of the jungle. One immense green carpet stretched wherever her eyes could see, only occasionally broken by some tall rocks and watery surfaces which glistened green and foreboding. Now and then this poisonous-looking surface would part to let appear a gigantic head which undulated aimlessly at the end of a long, sinuous neck, soon to dip down again below the surface.
The ship kept descending.
"Our destination is 500 miles from here," R-17 stated without any emotion. "Shall we land or turn back?"
"We'll land, of course," replied Thora. Her voice sounded as calm as the robot's, although a storm of emotion was raging inside her. It was very difficult for her to keep herself under control. In a few hours she would know whether she had been able to outsmart Rhodan or not. "Any sign yet of the sensor rays corning from the Venus Base?"
R-17 checked his instruments. No."
We must still be too far away from it, thought Thora.
She remembered that the barrier zone had a radius of 300 miles. The positronic brain inside the mountain fortress prohibited any unauthorized landings inside the barred area and would open fire on any trespassers without warning. Thora knew that she would not run such a risk because of her brainwave pattern that identified her as a member of the Arkonide ruling race. But of paramount importance was the fact that the ship was built according to typical Arkonide designs. Its built-in code transmitter would make certain that all inquiries from the positronic brain would be answered in the required manner.
"360 miles to go," announced the robot mechanically.
Thora threw a glance at the weapon rack built into one of the walls of the cabin. In it were all kinds of hand weapons that might be needed in case of an emergency landing in unknown territory. She shrugged her shoulders. No need for those, she thought; what for?
"We are approaching the barrier zone," said R-17.
Thora sat up straight in her chair and peered fascinated through the window down at the steaming surface of the Venusian hell. Nothing seemed to have changed since the time she had been here last. A fairly large lake glided by below them. Steep rockwalls ringed its shores. The rockwalls were overgrown with sparse vegetation.
Beyond she could see one of the many islands formed of high rocks, gigantic plateaus which reared up from the swampy morass. Life was relatively bearable up there.
"Descend farther!" ordered Thora, but she would have been hard put to explain the reasons for this command.
The robot obeyed silently. Their ship's altitude made no difference as far as the sensor rays of the station were concerned. They made contact with the ship, requested the identifying code signal-and received no reply. All this took place completely automatically and unnoticed by the two occupants of the ship, whose instruments only indicated that it had been tracked by the station's radar installation.
The rest came therefore as a total surprise.
Down below at the edge of the plateau a rocky ledge moved aside. From a dark deft in the rock a shiny cannon barrel emerged; it was ringed by glittering spirals. The barrel raised up and pointed its orifice threateningly at the low-flying spaceship. Three hundred miles from this spot, impulse currents raced through complicated machinery, opened and closed contacts, activated relays and finally resulted in a positronic command. This was transmitted by a radio signal and reached the disintegrator cannon in the barrier zone.
Neither Thora nor R-17 had been prepared for a direct hit that had been fired at them without warning. The destructive energy ray dissolved the crystalline structural field of the ship and vaporized its matter.
R-17 automatically depressed the exit button.
The spacecraft's nose had been sliced away neatly from the ship's command centre. The energy supply was still miraculously functioning. But the mechanism jammed.
Thora clung desperately to the back and sides of her armchair. The ship nosed down at an angle, tumbling crazily toward the green hell below. The cabin window was now below Thora. She realized that they would still land on the plateau-if this sudden crash could be called a landing.
If they were lucky, the tree tops might soften the impact on the ground.
Why did the positronic brain order us shot down? Thora asked herself in her last few lucid moments. Why?
Then she felt a violent blow that rammed her legs almost into her abdomen. The pain coursed through her entire body, up to her brain before she finally lost consciousness.
Robot R-17 hit his forehead against the instrument panel.