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

2/ "WHAT A PROSPECT"


Reginald Bell was sitting in the command centre of the Ministry of Defence of the New Power. He had everything under control. All around him little lamps were glowing on instrument panels, videoscreens were flickering, visiphones were humming constantly as an uninterrupted stream of new reports kept arriving. All these reports concerned Thora's unexpected flight.
Next to Bell stood John Marshall, the telepath of the mutant corps. He had been born in Australia and had discovered fairly late in life his remarkable gift of being able to read other people's minds. It seemed inevitable that he had joined Perry Rhodan's forces and had become one of his most valuable collaborators. His talent for extrasensory perception had been caused by the effect of the increasing radioactivity of Earth's atmosphere on his parents' genes. There were many mutants like John Marshall but only a few among them knew about their talent. Even mutants needed a long time to become aware of their altered senses.
"He'll be here soon," said John Marshall to Reginald Bell.
Khrest the Arkonide was standing in the back of the room. His tall figure loomed above the videoscreens and his whitish hair contrasted sharply with the dark control panels along the wall. His albino eyes had a reddish glint in them.
He was deeply embarrassed by Thora's flight. Deep inside, of course, he could understand her motives; nevertheless he regarded her reckless actions as unforgivable. She had endangered Project Terra in a most irresponsible manner.
The race of the Arkonides had reached the zenith of their development and surpassed it. Their galactic empire that had taken thousands of years to establish was now decaying because of the Arkonide rulers' inactivity. Decadent and arrogant by nature, the Arkonides would some day become the victims of their own might.
Khrest had clearly foreseen this course of events. He realized that these determined, fearless, vital earthlings would become the future heirs of the Arkonide empire-and he was convinced that it would fare well in their hands. Far better, in any case, than in the hands of those people who belonged to the colonial realm of the Arkonides but who had very little left in common with the human race despite their intelligence. Far better, too, than in the fins of the fish-like races inhabiting the Pleiades or the wings of the bird-lizards of the Rigel system. Let alone, naturally, the six-fingered claws of the Topides.
Khrest had searched for successors capable of taking over from his own decadent race and believed he had found them in the inhabitants of Terra. Perry Rhodan and Reginald Bell had received from him a special hypno-training which had supplied them with the superior knowledge and technology of his own Arkonide race. He had set about systematically to prepare Rhodan for his future task. Khrest liked secretly to refer to this plan as 'Project Terra.'
And now Thora had endangered this plan.
The door opened and Perry Rhodan entered the centre. He greeted Khrest and Marshall with a slight nod, then turned to his friend Bell. "Any news?"
"A lot of news, Perry. I don't know where to begin."
"At the beginning, of course. Make it brief, will you, we don't have much time to waste."
"Thora took off one hour ago with destroyer C, flew by the Moon in the direction of Venus. She responded everywhere with the correct identification signal. She must have the robot pilot on board with her. She was not stopped. If she has continued increasing her ship's velocity at the expected rate, she should have landed on Venus by now."
"I can understand," said Rhodan, "how she felt, Reg. We have waited too long in keeping our promise to her. She must have been desperately longing to see Arkon again."
"You are too generous in your thoughts," interjected Khrest. "I appreciate that you are speaking up for Thora here. But we must face things the way they really are. Whatever her motives might have been, the fact is that she acted wrong. If she should manage to get inside the station she will take over the hyperwave sender. She can do that as the former commander of our exploratory expedition. Just imagine the results!"
Rhodan remembered the defeated invasion of the vicious Mind Snatchers and he shuddered. If Thora should succeed in her plan to send a message to Arkon via hyperwave it would be spread instantaneously throughout the entire universe and most likely be intercepted by any number of alien belligerent races. This would indeed represent a grave danger. These hostile races could calculate the direction and distance from where the message originated. They would be very curious to determine where in that distant part of the galaxy a so far unknown inhabited system actually existed. They would come to Earth and find it unprepared, still divided and therefore ripe to be colonized by them.
What a frightening prospect!
"I wonder how she tricked the robot guards?" said Rhodan. "Any information how she did it?"
"Yes," blustered Bell. "The guards report that she approached them in the usual official procedure, spoke with the pilot of destroyer C and then took off with him. They had not received any orders to stop Thora."
"Of course not!" growled Rhodan. "Who would ever have thought that Thora would break her word?"
This time it was Khrest who defended her. "She must have believed she would never see Arkon again unless she resorted to such a ruse."
"I am inclined to believe," said Rhodan with a hint of a smile, "that there were some additional motives in her case. Just think of the planet of eternal life. The Immortal made it possible for me to obtain periodically a prolongation of my life and also gave me permission to pass this on to any Earthman whom I would consider worthy of such a fabulous gift. The Arkonides were not included in this offer because their race had already reached the zenith of its existence and was on a downward grade. The human race, on the other hand, was on an ascending path in its development. Thora is proud and arrogant. She could not bear to be humbled like that and therefore wanted to avenge herself in her own peculiar way. She wanted to prove to me that she is the stronger of us two. She does not seem to have any idea-or maybe she does not care-about the horrible consequences for mankind. Her desire to return home is understandable but not her obvious stupidity or lack of consideration."
"What are you going to do about it, Rhodan?"
Bell sat up and listened attentively. He was eagerly awaiting Rhodan's reply, at least as much as Khrest. Rhodan spoke slowly: "I shall take up pursuit with destroyer A and will go after Thora right away. John Marshall and Son Okura will come with me. Get us a car, Reg, will you! Anything else we need we'll find on board the destroyer."
Khrest made a weak effort to protest but quickly resigned himself again into inactivity. It was still hard for him to get used to the Earthmen's speedy reactions-all this vitality still overwhelmed him.
Bell's reaction was quite different. He cocked his head and said: "And how about me?" with an expression that would have suited a little boy who had not been remembered with presents at Christmas time. "Am I supposed to stay here and just twiddle my thumbs?"
"Not a bad idea." Rhodan jokingly accepted this suggestion. "Relax, Reggie, you'll follow me with destroyer B as soon as possible. Unfortunately we cannot cancel the announced festivities without a good excuse. That means you'll have to stand in for me. If I'm not mistaken, Col Freyt his already announced your address on TV. I hope you'll be up to it and have some prepared speech somewhere up your sleeve."
"I'm supposed to give a speech?" said Bell highly indignant, and his ruddy cheeks blushed even deeper. "What about?"
"What else but about the manner in which Earth could be defended in case of an interstellar invasion by hostile aliens. A very timely topic, don't you think? The moment the festivities are over you'll start out after me. Is that a deal, Reg?"
"A deal." Bell did not sound too enthusiastic. He was afraid he might miss some of the fun in that interplanetary chase.
"Inform Son Okura!" requested Rhodan.
Bell was still not too happy. "Why Okura of all people?" he asked while he was already busy getting in touch with the command centre of the mutant corps.
"He's our frequency seer, as you know. Because his eyes can perceive all visible as well as invisible waves and especially the infra-red rays. This makes him invaluable during night time. Remember that night lasts on Venus as long as five Earth days. Besides, he can 'see' heat radiation; even hours after some warm body has left the area, he can still 'see' it as clear as a picture. You agree, don't you, that we couldn't find a better man for this job than Son Okura?"
Bell had meanwhile made his requests of the mutant corps command centre via radio. Now be had calmed down as he suggested: "You are right, Perry. But he can't run very fast. How about taking along a teleporter?"
"You can bring one along later. There's room for only three men in a destroyer. I'll even have to leave our robot pilot behind."
"Why don't you take a larger ship?"
Rhodan thought for a little while. "That's a splendid idea. You'll follow me not with our third destroyer but take an auxiliary vessel of the class of the Good Hope. Be sure to bring along enough mutants. But I almost believe all these precautions will not be necessary." Rhodan smiled mischievously. "All will be over anyhow by the time you get there."
Bell gasped for air but then quickly changed his mind. He cast a glance in Khrest's direction, remembering that the serious Arkonide scientist never had shown great appreciation for his own peculiar brand of humour. He suppressed whatever wisecrack had been on the tip of his tongue and simply said: "Yes, let's hope so."

while Bell was still standing in front of the TV cameras addressing a world-wide audience, destroyer A was racing out into space. The automatic pilot system would rapidly bring up the ship's velocity to almost the speed of light and then just as swiftly slow down again. Their course had been set.