"Perry Rhodan 063 - The Micro-Techs" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)
PUCKY was as mad as if he'd just been given a bushel barrel full of fresh sweet crunchy king-size carrots... and then developed an instant toothache in his sole incisor so that he couldn't eat them!
He was furious. He was frustrated. He was embarrassed to think that he'd fallen for that phony dachshund Muzzel! Muzzel, who was no flesh-and-blood dog at all but an ersatz canine, a robot spy of Arkon's robot Regent. Pucky's sensitive mouse-beaver psyche was psychologically disturbed, to say the least.
"You really brought it on yourself," Reginald Bell rubbed it in. The fact that, with great difficulty, he censored a sarcastic grin didn't help him any since Pucky was a telepath and could read his secret thoughts. "I've warned you often enough. Who would trust a dachshund?"
"Dachshunds are dogs, aren't they?" Pucky retorted angrily. He happened to be very fond of the 4-legged Terrestrial pets, who were usually harmless and friendly. "They're the cutest and truest..."
"Except Muzzel!" Bell interjected.
He would have been wiser to have kept the last remark to himself. It was the straw that broke the mouse-beaver's back. In addition to telepathy he had telekinetic powers, not to mention his gift for teleportation. Before Bell knew what had happened to him, gravity was seemingly nullified and he found himself floating weightlessly through the spaceship Drusus to the closed cabin door. He might have bumped into it like a balloon but at the penultimate moment before collision the door was mysteriously opened as though by an invisible hand and he found himself outside in the corridor. Though he kicked his legs and flailed his arms he knew from bitter past experience this would do him little good: Pucky's kinetic power stream held him prisoner in its pitiless grip.
"I'll show you!" screeched the furious mouse-beaver, losing all control of his English in his mounting wrath. "I'll teach you to pretend symphony (sympathy) like a hypochondriac (hypocrite) and gloat over my misfortune, you red-haired ball of blabber (blubber)!"
It was an unkind exaggeration to characterize Rhodan's friend and deputy as fat or even shapeless: his figure was simply solid, stocky. But it could not be denied by anyone but a colour-blind person that Reggie was a true redhead. With typical temper to match.
Under other circumstances Pucky's mangling of the language might have provided Bell with some amusement but at the moment he was too mad and scared to do other than bellow menacingly: "Wait till Rhodan hears about this!"
Which only made Pucky laugh hysterically. "Tell him-if you can, fatso!" he challenged.
Anyone unfamiliar with such shenanigans would have gasped at the queer sight of a feather-light Bell drifting just below the ceiling of the corridor and deftly evading all obstacles as the yard-high mouse-beaver waddled underneath him, his ears standing straight up. His animal lips were slightly drawn back, exposing a wicked incisor that sparkled in the light reflected from the lamps. Pucky kept his balance with his broad beavertail which helped support him on his short, rather unsteady legs.
Fortunately no such uniformed individual appeared on the scene. However, Pucky suddenly let Bell drop when he was startled by a man who walked around the corner of the corridor and stopped in his tracks when he saw the wingless man awkwardly flying.
Bell hit the floor with a resounding bang and would have fallen flat on his face if the man hadn't jumped forward and steadied him. His rescuer already knew what had happened-he only asked: "Why?"
Bell finally had a chance to vent his pent-up wrath. Pucky had stopped grinning and now displayed a little embarrassment; he was favoured with a dirty look from Bell, who began to roar: "That sawed-off son of a dam builder decided to use me as a pigeon again to display his powers. I went to his cabin with my heart full of the milk of human kindness, meaning to sympathize with him over the little mistake he made with Muzzel, and the next thing I knew, there I was dangling from the ceiling..."
"Is he telling the truth?" the man inquired, regarding the mouse-beaver with his cool grey eyes.
Pucky violently shook his head. "Of course not! He's lying through his feet again, boss! You're a telepath-you ought to know. He insulted me and wouldn't leave me alone."
Perry Rhodan looked back and forth between the 2. "Well, Reggie, what else do you have to say for yourself?"
"He can't lake a joke," Bell muttered, adjusting his uniform. "He never could, that doddering waddler."
"Balloon belly!" Pucky countered shrilly.
Rhodan raised his hand. "If you 2 don't cut it out, you'll have to stay home next time. This isn't the time for my comrades to quarrel."
The faces of Bell and Pucky tensed with curiosity.
"What's cooking?" Bell inquired. He gave himself a visible push and put his arm around the mouse-beaver. "We didn't quarrel Pucky, did we?"
"Oh no, whoever gave you that idea?" Pucky chirped, coyly batting his eyes and crossing his forepaws over his heart which made him look like innocence itself. "We were just playing a little..."
"Sure, sure," Bell insisted. "But you wanted to tell us something important."
"I did?" Rhodan feigned surprise. "What was it?"
Bell sighed. "I give up. Let's go Pucky! He doesn't need us.
"Just a minute!" Rhodan held him back. "Before you get any notions of playing some more games I want to tell you that Jost Kulman will resume his report in half an hour. So far he didn't have an opportunity to give us detailed information about the events on Swoofon."
"In half an hour?" Bell was intrigued. "I'll be there. But where?"
"In my cabin. I want to be a little more careful in the future. Who knows how many other spies the Regent has smuggled aboard."
With a quick wave of his hand Rhodan continued on his way. Bell and Pucky followed him with their eyes until he disappeared around the next corner.
"Hm," the mouse-beaver uttered, peering longingly at the ceiling.
Bell was taken aback a little but he scratched Pucky's neck and said in a conciliatory tone: "Let's make up. I didn't mean to upset you that much."
Pucky's incisor protruded again, which could be considered a good sign under the circumstances. "OK, slim. I'll try to get along with you even though it means you've robbed me of the pleasure of giving you a flying lesson in the big hangar. Oh shucks, perhaps some other time. Let's go now!"
"How about making it a little snappy," Bell suggested and put his arm around the body of the mouse-beaver. "Rhodan's eyes will pop out when we get into his cabin before him."
Pucky grinned joyfully. He concentrated on the short jump and dematerialised together with Bell. The air flickered as they disappeared and arrived in the same second at another place in the gigantic spacesphere.
When Rhodan entered the pair already sat on his couch and greeted him nonchalantly.
* * * *
Jost Kulman was a member of Rhodan's special team known as Cosmic Agents. Most of these agents were mutants with special talents who lived in the most important centres of the Arkonide worlds and communicated with their Central Agency on Terra via hyperradio. This enabled Rhodan to keep in touch with all critical developments in the Galaxy.
Kulman was a micropath. He possessed the ability to control the focal length of his eye lenses which made it possible for him to see objects that were visible only under a microscope to normal people. It was due to this special feature of his that he had been sent to Swoofon because the Swoons who inhabited Swoofon were the most outstanding micro-technicians of the known universe.
Kulman had made himself comfortable in a chair but he glanced a little sheepishly at Rhodan. "I know you've every right to blame me since I was responsible for bringing Muzzel aboard the Drusus. That robot dog nearly succeeded in betraying our position to the Regent," he said, conscience-stricken.
"But only nearly," Rhodan smiled. He considered the matter already closed. "It's not your fault. It could've happened to anyone. The whole Mutant Corps was fooled by that imitation dachshund. Even Pucky!"
The mouse-beaver on the couch jerked a little. He cast a sideways look at Bell, who sat next to him, and smiled embarrassed.
Jost Kulman didn't seem to have noticed the by-play and began his eagerly awaited report. "I sent you the hyperradio call when my situation made it advisable and you came to pick me up as arranged. I'm sorry a more elaborated report to you has been delayed because Muzzel..." He paused for a moment but then went on quickly: "The Swoons were given instructions to build a compensator-detector for spaceships whose construction has already been designed."
Rhodan leaned forward and looked intently at his agent. The smile had vanished from his lips as if wiped off. "A what, please?"
Kulman grinned faintly. "I've called the device a compensator-detector because this describes its function. The request was made by the Springers and they've handed the construction plans to the Swoons. The device will make it impossible in the future to keep any hypertransition secret. You can see that my observation is vital..."
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