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

It took three hours till their feet touched solid ground. Okura looked at the compass on his all-purpose wrist-band. "Let's go that way," he declared. "That's the direction of the base. Let's hope we won't find any obstacles in our way. As far as I can see there are not any swamps around here. And the ground is relatively dry."
Rhodan's head hurt. Even an immortal gets headaches, he thought bitterly. And he can even die, if he is unlucky.
While he was marching behind Okura, all the events on the Planet of Eternal Life passed in quick review in his mind's eye like a film. They had pursued the trail that led through the galaxy and time to Wanderer, the lonely planet on which the immortal being from the past resided. 'It' had explained to Rhodan, at least partially, the secret of everlasting cell preservation. It had also granted him an opportunity to submit himself to the so-called 'cell-shower.' This caused the process of aging to be arrested for a certain period of time-exactly 62 terrestrial years. It had decreed that only Earthlings were permitted to use this cell shower, and only those that were given permission by Perry Rhodan.
Reginald Bell was the only other person to have benefitted from this life-prolonging process.
In another 62 years Perry Rhodan would calculate the exact space co-ordinates of the wandering planet with the help of the great positronic brain. Then he would return to the planet Wanderer and receive another cell shower. But six decades is a long time. Many things might happen during this period...
Okura stopped suddenly. He peered intensely into the dark, then reached back his arm to feel Rhodan. Marshall had run into Rhodan and cursed under his breath. "What's the matter?"
Okura whispered, "there's something moving up there in front of us, a large shadow. I can't recognize what it is. It makes no noise."
"Then it can't be a saurian lizard. You can hear those for miles."
Rhodan was silent. He listened attentively. His hand moved instinctively to the gun in his belt.
The Japanese breathed a sigh of relief. "Probably some other animal. Anyhow, it can't see as well as I do, because it hasn't noticed us. Now it's making a right turn and moving away from us. It was about the size of a gorilla and looked very much like one, too. Maybe there are already apes on Venus."
"Oh, for heaven's sake!" said Marshall softly.
Rhodan turned around. "Why? Do you have something against apes?"
"No, but if apes really exist here, then our colonists on Venus will have a lot of trouble with the Venusians-in another 100,000 years, that is."
Rhodan chuckled. "I'd like to have your worries, Marshall. Is that all that's bothering you now?"
Marshall mumbled something incomprehensible, not giving a proper reply. Okura continued to advance. Rhodan once more held his hands in front of his face to protect it and followed the Japanese.
The night would continue for four more Earth days and if they did not run into any unexpected difficulties they could make about 60 miles before the next sunrise.
What a prospect!
Five hours later Rhodan stretched out his arm and seized Okura by the shoulder. We must pause here. We must be cautious with our strength, we must use it wisely otherwise we'll never reach our destination. As soon as we get to some suitable spot we'll camp and rest. Maybe we'll find a clearing in the jungle."
"May I suggest something else?" The Japanese had stopped. We might climb a few yards up some tree. We are bound to find a big branch with enough room for all of us to sit on. Down here on the ground I would have to be continually on the lookout for dangerous animals. I think we will be relatively safe up in the trees."
"I am surprised we didn't get into any swampy area yet," Marshall mused. "We lucked out so far."
"But we made just barely three miles in all this time," said Rhodan.
Okura spotted a suitable tree and began to climb up. Thirty feet off the ground he found a broad, horizontal branch, completely overgrown by a nest of creeper plants which formed a kind of cave. The men crawled inside and felt somewhat protected.
Marshall took over as cook. Soon the food concentrates had dissolved in the boiling water and they sniffed an appetizing odour of hot soup coming from the steaming kettle. It made them almost feel at home in the wilderness.
"Things aren't so bad after all," said Marshall, much more cheerful now, stirring the soup. When day breaks we'll make good time and maybe even enjoy our hike through the jungle."
He could not see Rhodan's worried face. He remained silent. After a while Okura broke the silence. "But it isn't day yet."
Marshall said nothing more. He just kept stirring his soup in silence.









3/ DARK NIGHTMARE


Many hours earlier.
A hazy sun was about to set on the Venusian horizon. The pale disk beyond the misty cloud layers was diminishing in light intensity while at the same time it became more colourful. The weak rays of the sun were refracted in their course through the cloud veils and changed the whole western sky into a magnificent spectral colour display.
Gradually red shades began to dominate everything. The primeval landscape was enveloped in a pink haze and the green hell of the treacherously glittering surface of the swamp seemed to become a riot of colours on the palette of a celestial artist who was watching from some invisible vantage point over his constantly changing work.
All life on Venus seemed to hold its breath for a bit with the onset of the long Venusian night which, so to speak, was ushered in by a changing of the guards. The mighty saurians came out of the woods to return to the security of their former watery home. Entire herds were pouring and trampling through the tall reeds along the shore, turning the bright iridescence of the swamp into a whirling, gigantic spectrum resembling colourful galaxies that travel on their endless orbits in the void, forever spinning in their futile quest for a destination.
In the distance glowed the bare rocks of the mountain ranges. They looked as if liquid fire had been poured upon them. In between glittered silvery bright waterfalls. Where ever they hit the canopy of the jungle, way down below, their waters would scatter in fine sprays forming one immense rainbow sheath that covered the world with a transparent colourful veil.
While the saurians went to their long night of rest, the nocturnal inhabitants of the jungle world began to awaken. The brief pause during the transition was abruptly terminated as the sun sank below the misty and burning horizon. Accompanied by a cacophony of shrill cawing, giant birds flew on silent wings through the twilight, hunting for food. Gigantic moths fluttered toward the sinking sun, trying in vain to catch up with it.
At the edge of the rocky plateau, which reared up like an island from the green jungle ocean, stood several men watching the mighty spectacle of nature with deep emotion. Although the sight was nothing new for them, they could never quite escape its magic spell.
They were all dressed in a similar fashion-or rather, they used to wear the same kind of clothes. Their uniforms by now were torn; their belts were the only thing that kept their rags from falling off their bodies. Their tattered trouser legs were tucked in their worn-out boots. Some of the men had wrapped animal skins around their shoulders to protect them against the cold that always accompanied the onset of night.
Their hair was long, their beards matted. But even despite their peculiar appearance there was no mistaking them for anything but inhabitants of the planet Earth.
One of them, a powerfully built, short man with a broad face, shielded his eyes with his right hand. It's much more beautiful here than on Earth," he said in a language that sounded like Russian. "Perhaps this has induced the others to want to stay here."
"Most likely, General Tomisenkow. There is no other explanation. They have lost their minds."
The former commander of the Eastern air landing division, recently defeated by Rhodan's forces, energetically shook his head.