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

Okura dressed Marshall's wounds before he began to worry about himself. "Of course, it'd get my legs again," he said with resignation. "It always will affect my legs. I have so much trouble already just plain walking. I'm afraid I'll be a burden to you when we have to march through the jungle."
Marshall grew pale. "You don't seriously consider that we might have to go down there?" and he pointed to the ground. "Down into that hell full of giant spiders and reptiles-and God knows what all other creatures crawling around there. No! Ten horses won't drag me off this tree. Here at least we are relatively safe."
"True enough," smiled the Japanese politely. "You won't starve here. But you are also safe in prison."
John Marshall did not know what to answer.
He turned his glance away from Rhodan and looked through the window down into the uncertain green twilight.
He thought he saw, far down below, a giant shadow amble by. From somewhere came a bellowing roar.
Despite the heat, Marshall felt suddenly chilled.

* * *

Several hours later, when Perry Rhodan looked at himself in a mirror, he was frightened.
There was a huge abrasion straight across his brow; it would take weeks until this wound would heal without the special Arkonide organ-plasma. His right eye was all swollen; he had trouble recognizing his own face.
He sighed in disgust and leaned hack in his chair so that the Japanese could put a new bandage over his injuries. "My best friends won't be able to recognize me," he said. "That'll at least give Bell something to kid me about."
"He'd better not do that as long as I am around," threatened Marshall, "or I'll break his bones."
"That's easier said than done," warned Rhodan. "there's a lot of fat wrapped around those bones; they are well cushioned." He waited until Okura had finished his job, then added: "What's our situation now?"
Okura stepped back and appraised his handiwork as a good Samaritan. "Your injuries are not dangerous. But the sad fact is that we are stuck in the middle of the Venusian jungle without any means of getting in touch with Earth. We have lost our spaceship and with it all possibility of making contact with the Radiant Dome inside our base on this planet. So we will have to depend entirely on our own resources. We must somehow reach the station-or else we'll have to wait it out till Bell finds us by sheer accident."
"We have our mini-transmitters," interjected Marshall.
"They won't be of much help; their range is very limited. When we ejected with the centre from the rest of the ship we were cut off from our means of communication, our radio transmitters. That should teach us a lesson for the future. From now on we must make sure that each ejector emergency capsule is equipped with its own radio installation. As far as Bell is concerned we can of course establish communication with him provided his ship accidentally comes within our range. Should we wait for this eventuality while Thora mobilizes all the horrors of the universe?"
"Okura is right with his analysis of our situation, Marshal," commented Rhodan. "There is only one choice open to us: we must try to forestall whatever Thora is planning to do. We must prevent her from getting inside the base. But I have no reason to believe that she has fared any better than we did in her attempt to get inside the barrier zone. She flew here with the same type destroyer that was at the identical stage of construction as ours. The code installations of her ship had not yet been properly programmed-just like ours. Let's hope that she survived the crashlanding of her spacecraft."
Marshal snarled furiously. "I wouldn't mind if she broke he neck."
"I wouldn't wish that on anyone," answered Rhodan in a reproachful tone. "Never wish bad luck on another person, just prevent them from causing ill harm to others. And besides, it wouldn't do us much good even if Thora should break her neck: we'd still be marooned here in the jungle on Venus."
"I didn't really mean it that way," apologised Marshal. "All I wanted to say was that I see red when I think of what that vixen has done to us-even if she is beautiful."
"I'm glad you can be objective on that point," Okura grinned mischievously.
Rhodan raised himself while holding onto the wall for support. He was still dizzy from his long period of unconsciousness. While his companions kept a watchful eye on him he slowly groped along the wall till he reached the window. he looked out into the bleak darkness of the Venusian night. But even if it had been bright daylight, Rhodan would not have dared leave his cabin. Apart from the dangers lurking in the hardly ever explored wilderness, he was far too weak to risk the hardships of marching through the primeval forest.
And yet-each additional hour of delay would increase the imminent collapse of all he had accomplished up to this moment. True, Col Freyt could substitute for him; but once the news would spread that Rhodan, President of the New Power, had not returned from a flight to Venus, and that in all likelihood he had made a fine dinner morsel for one of the Venusian giant lizards-no, Rhodan could not even bear to think of the potential grave consequence. The hardly abated fierce chauvinism of some ambitious politicians was bound to 'save their fatherland' and with it the Terranians would revert to simple Earthlings. And that was the worst fate that could befall them. They would recede once again to the level of narrow-minded nationalism and thus be helplessly at the mercy of an alien invasion.
This realization permitted only one decision. Rhodan expressed it to his two companions: "We have to reach the base. We'll have another rest period. A good sleep will restore our strength-then we'll march off. We have no special Arkonide protective suits and not enough food. How about arms?"
Okura opened the door of a built-in weapon cabinet. There were three pulse-ray guns neatly stored in a rack. Otherwise the cabinet was empty.
"That's at least something," growled Marshall. "They work fine on saurian reptiles, I was told."
This was apparently though not Rhodan's greatest concern-how to shoot Venusian saurians. No machineguns? No rifles?" He looked around. "How much food and water do we have?"
"A few sticks of food concentrates and a couple of gallons of water. Enough for several days. We could hunt for food, shoot some lizards."
"Wrong!" Rhodan shook his head. "The energy beam of a positronic pulse-ray burns and vaporizes instantly any matter. There wouldn't be much left to eat even if we should get one of those giant monsters."
"Then we must make sure we only kill the beast," said Marshall, "and stop the energy beam in time. Besides, you know that I always carry my trusty old revolver. Bell has made fun of me more than once because of that, I'm sure you remember."
"I certainly do and I share his opinion," laughed Rhodan. "How do you propose to use that toy against a Saurian?"
"It doesn't have to be one of those giant monsters," countered Marshall. "There are plenty of smaller animals in the jungle. Probably much tastier, too."
That seemed to make sense to Okura. "Marshall has a point there, sir. I'm sure we can hunt for meat and there must also be some fruit growing here. I can remember frequently eating some strange local fruit at the time of my training here. I am quite confident I can recognize it if I see it again. I am much more worried about our water supply. We can't possibly drink that gunk from the swamps. Who knows what fine bacteria we would pick up there."
"Oh, that's nothing," Rhodan reassured him. "We don't need to boil the water, there is some germicide in this cabinet. We pour the powder into the water and it will kill all the bacteria in it. We still will have to filter the water to get rid of any poisonous properties. And if we should run out of the powder then we still can boil the water. There is plenty of wood around here."
"Yes, and plenty wet and damp. We won't have much luck with it."
"What are you talking about wood for all the time?" said Okura. "Who needs it? Look here!" With these words he reached for a small package in the storage cabinet and held it up. "See, Marshall! Energite! One hundred times more efficient than dry heat cubes. We have enough here for three meals a day for the next three months. All we need now are the lizard cutlets."
Marshall made a face. "Brrr... lizard meat! Some delicacy!"
"How do you know if you never tasted it? It's about time you find out for yourself!" Rhodan admonished the sceptical telepath. Then he sat down again on his provisional couch. "Pack everything that we might need. Then lie down and sleep. Who knows when we'll get another chance to sleep in relative safety and comfort."
Rhodan closed his eyes and soon his deep regular breathing revealed that he was determined to gather up all his strength for the coming adventure.
An adventure that from one second to the next would hurl them from an era of the most modern technology back into the most primitive conditions.

They were suspended in the thick foliage and branches of a giant tree more than 150 feet above the treacherous floor of the jungle. Creeper plants, as thick as an arm, facilitated their downward climb.
Rhodan cast one last glance back into the cabin whose shelter and security they were now leaving for good. He estimated that the Arkonide base with its robot crew must lie some 310 miles due west from them. An almost insurmountable distance because of the primordial fauna and flora.
He checked the pulse-ray gun in his belt, hung a small bag with his share of water and food concentrates around his neck, and groped for the next branch. Marshall had already descended several yards down the tree.
Okura stared down into the dark with utmost concentration. "We are lucky. A small clearing No trace of animals."
As usual, even Rhodan felt uncanny when he observed how well the mutant could see in almost total darkness. He himself could hardly recognise his own hand right in front of his eyes.
Somewhere in the distance a volcano seemed to have erupted; perhaps in the next mountain range. A weak, reddish glow spread throughout the jungle, bathing everything in a pink diffuse light. But this could be hardly called 'seeing.'
Rhodan fumbled with his foot for a halt, found it, then let himself slowly down along a creeper plant. He almost believed it would be easier and faster for them to travel along the treetops than down below on the treacherous jungle floor. But they would only know for sure after they had tried both methods. Maybe they could change their mode of travel during the daylight hours.