"Perry Rhodan 031 - Robot Threat- New York in Atlan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

The uninitiated observer would not have noticed any change in that day's events. The tourists from all parts of the Earth, visiting the territory of the New Power in average contingents of two to three thousand daily, noticed nothing but the beneficial activity of this nation so small in area. And in all innocence they sensed the peace, the security and the power of Rhodan's empire. As hour X inevitably approached they were to he found in the night clubs or in their hotel beds.
10:00 p.m.-sirens proclaimed the end of the workday, the end of the last shift.
10:05 p.m.-nervous tension increased among the initiated. Their nerves were on edge.
10:10 p.m.!
Somewhere within the central energy dome a hand knifed down the decisive lever. Simultaneously thousands of work robots ceased their activities. Electronically controlled transportation vehicles stopped. Wherever machines operated other machines, the direction and the work terminated. In vital industries trained personnel replaced the striking mechanical beings within seconds. Life had to continue.
And everything was prepared down to the last detail. The people of Terrania worked more than 5000 special shifts; yet the assumption of many functions that progress had delegated to machines years previously went without a hitch. It was a reversion to the discomfort of backward times. But despite its terseness, the secret order had made every participant realize that vital issues were at stake.
Police cars were suddenly speeding through the streets with droning loudspeakers.
"All inhabitants of Terrania! A disturbance has arisen in the central robot control station. Please remain calm and disciplined: it will take several hours to repair. The Ministry of the Interior will soon provide substitute vehicles steered by men. Will guests and residents of Terrania more than 15 minutes away from their homes please wait at the normal stops. Passengers with short distances are requested to return by foot. There is no cause for alarm! Maintain discipline! The Ministry of the Interior will soon..."
They had opened headquarters for this campaign in Col. Freyt's office. Freyt had meanwhile become a sort of mayor in Terrania, although that was not his official title. He was Rhodan's deputy in the territory of the New Power and conducted the affairs of state and of the capital whenever Perry Rhodan was away. And Rhodan was often gone.
Perry's deputy in universal matters was Reginald Bell. The two men had a lot to endure from the burden of 'business trips.' Most of the time they were outside: in another country, on another planet or even in another sun system.
Freyt's task was more prosaic, although he had a strong resemblance to Perry Rhodan in his character and in outer appearance. Mostly he stayed behind in the Gobi as representative of his chief.
When Rhodan returned there were often long activity reports about routine everyday affairs. Sometimes there was some excitement as well.
Like today!
Col. Freyt did not conceal his relief at Rhodan's presence. There had rarely been hours that critical in Terrania. Reginald Bell even maintained that it was the most exciting day he had spent since settlement in the Gobi ten years earlier.
"Our campaign worked remarkably well. Not one single report of action completion missing and I know that precision work like that is only possible in the New Power. But now something else has to happen..."
"You'll see soon enough what happens next," Rhodan answered. "Your worrying hasn't made the world stop yet."
"But the robots stopped. I would just like to remind you of the fat promises you had proclaimed over mobile loudspeakers and national radio. And yet you knew all the while that for the time being there is no possibility of reactivating the work robots without reincurring the risk that was just eliminated."
"It's night time, pal. In the next 6 or 7 hours there will be very little thought spent on when the robots will be intact again. The situation will get critical in the morning when the first to awaken need coffee water. We will have to he finished by then.
Bell only shrugged his shoulders in disbelief. He thought of the many thousands of robots that had to be individually inspected. And humans had to do it!
They left Freyt's office and went to the elevator that brought them to the basement. There were plenty of vehicles waiting there that could be steered manually. In three cars they drove out of the back courtyard to the general utility hall about four kilometres away. There around 300 engineers had installed test stands and were already working intensely as Rhodan entered with a staff that included several mutants.
In nonstop succession the trucks rolled up, their cranes carefully unloading deactivated robots onto the ground.
Rhodan and Bell entered the hall and visited a few of the test stands. The Chief of the New Power spoke with the head engineers and technicians. They just exchanged a few polite words, since the work sequence was clear. The 'patients' were sorted according to special classes and then conveyed for cancellation of their old programming. Very few of them were given a new program immediately, the ones that were needed for some duty that night. Most of them had to wait for new assignments.
They left the hall after convincing themselves that the work on the robots was going smoothly. Before entering his car, Rhodan turned to Tako Kakuta, the little Japanese teleporter, who by virtue of his mutated sensory powers was capable of transporting himself to any other location in the shortest time. Within the geography of Earth, distance made no difference.
"Hey, Tako! You make a jump to Capt. Klein who is heading the action against the combat robots. Get a brief report and then come directly to Col. Freyt's office. We will be there in five minutes at the latest."
"OK, sir!" the teleporter nodded. For one moment he concentrated on his jump destination, then dissolved into seeming nothingness. For the men of the New Power the momentary disappearance of a teleporter was an everyday occurrence.
"The rest of you please come with me," said Rhodan. He had already decided on a specific plan for that night but intelligent planning included preparedness for the unexpected. For that reason he could not dispense with the mutants under any circumstances. They always had to be on hand for special cases.
Rhodan went down the row. Many of his best mutants had remained behind with the powerful telepath John Marshall on the two heavy cruisers in the Beta Albireo System. However, Rhodan could depend on the men and women who had returned to Earth with him.
In addition to Tako Kakuta there was Anne Sloane, the blond, delicate American with the powers of psychokinetics. She had improved greatly in the past years through constant training. There was Ishy Matsu from Japan, a good telepath. There was Wuriu Sengu, the broad-shouldered wrestler type. His mental powers allowed him to see through solid material. The tracker, Tanaka Seiko, possessed natural brain receptivity for radio waves. He did not need a radio to tune into all possible frequencies. And finally Kitai Ishibashi was available that night, a so-called 'suggestor" who had command over strong hypnotic powers. Under his influence anyone would do what Ishibashi wanted, while believing that he was acting of his own volition.
They reached Freyt's office.
"If everything goes as you expect," stated Dr. Manoli, an old and close friend from Rhodan's moonflight crew, "we will be able to spend the night here comfortably."
Shortly thereafter Tako Kakuta arrived. He did not enter through the doorway or any other opening in the wall but came in the uncompromising manner of a teleporter. Directly in the middle of the room he materialized, back from his short jump. "Everything OK, sir!" he reported. "Captain Klein had his hands full and said I was only disturbing his work but at least he said that you need not be concerned."
Rhodan looked annoyed. "I want a specific report, Mr. Kakuta! I don't want to see the day when Klein doesn't have time for me. And don't you ever let yourself be put off with a few nice phrases. Is that clear?"
"Of course he did give me a few figures to bring back," Kakuta sheepishly explained. "Here is the note, sir."
"It's alright, ladies and gentlemen. Things seem to be going smoothly for Klein, too. Midnight on the dot the safety squad opened the attack. Over 500 combat robots have been deactivated thus far in single strikes. By dawn the mission should be completed and we can issue a reassuring bulletin in the 7 o'clock newscast."
"I wish I had your optimism," Bell answered dryly, remaining comfortably reclined in his deep plastic armchair. "If the cruiser Terra's report is correct, the majority of our robots are aiding the enemy. I just cannot imagine that the Traders reprogrammed the work robots only. On the contrary! It's probable that a strong and intelligent adversary would sooner seize control of the combat machines: firstly they are actually constructed for open conflict and secondly, being cybernetic individuals, they are more independent than a centrally controlled work robot."
"Your reasoning is perfectly correct," Rhodan agreed. "And that's why I briefed Capt. Klein very intensely. His fight tonight is tougher than many full scale battles we have gone through. His special commandos consist solely of officers and non-commissioned officers... But you heard what Tako said."
The teleporter nodded as if it were necessary to comfort their concern. "For three minutes I just listened to Capt. Klein giving orders and receiving reports. It's all ticking like clockwork. Three men approach the activated combat robots. Most of them are behaving quite normally, obeying their first rule which is to uncompromisingly accept the decisions of human beings. They allow themselves to be deactivated without resistance..."
"Most of them?"
"Yes. There are supposed to have been three exceptions but before they could switch on their protective screen they were atomized by our troops with manual impulse rayguns. When the sun rises it will all be over."
All eyes automatically turned to Rhodan, who suddenly did not seem to share the general optimism. He frowned.
"Hm, Reggie. What do you think? Isn't it all going a bit too smoothly?"
"I know what you mean. A combat robot should have quicker reactions than that. It should manage to close its protective screen when it is attacked by a human. Besides, if the Traders have reprogrammed some others to serve their ends, they should be offering resistance to our shock troops. Otherwise the whole thing doesn't make sense."
"That's just it. I think our flight to Venus will have to be postponed a few hours or days. We won't leave Earth until we know that everything is alright here.-I'm going away for a few minutes. Take over the command, will you, Reggie?"
Reginald Bell nodded. No one asked Rhodan what he was about to do.
He jumped into a car and sped away towards the central airport. In that area the positronicomputer of Terrania was stationed. He entered the massive building. There wasn't a person to be seen. The security gates opened for Rhodan one after another as he identified himself by brain-wave pattern as Chief of the New Power. Then he stood in the vast hall and made some calculations. The results were fairly satisfying but he still had more to do.
The events on Earth-even if they could be dealt with in a shortime-had disturbed Rhodan's plans. His return to the Solar System had been exclusively motivated by the large positronicon on Venus. The data he needed to locate the planet Wanderer was anchored in that extensive installation; hence it was only the computer on Venus that could furnish the required information.
Rhodan spoke the message into a tape and then played it back. "Perry Rhodan, Terrania to P-computer, Venus. Secret circuit PQ-3 Z4! Instructions for preparation. Prepare all material for Project Eternal Life-Wanderer! Recall alert until recontact! Confirmation please!"
He approved of the text so Rhodan gave it to the hypercom. Operating on a fifth-dimensional basis, it made a simultaneous transmission. Seconds later the answer arrived.
"P-computer to Perry Rhodan, Terrania! Instructions clear. All material for Project Eternal Life-Wanderer being prepared. Recall alert until recontact! Agreement secret circuit PQ-3 Z4! Supplement for completeness: restrictive stipulation for project Wanderer excludes any representatives. All information will be personally accessible to Perry Rhodan only. End."
The telecom screen darkened. Rhodan went out to his car and drove back to Freyt's office. Nothing new had come up there. "Tako, jump over to Capt. Klein's again!"