" Perry Rhodan 0003 - (2a) The Radiant Dome" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

CHAPTER ONE



“…FOR THE TIME BEING I shall not even remotely consider giving up our position. I shall not resign
myself to handing over to the NATO countries the knowledge acquired on our moon expedition.”

The tall man with the lean face pushed down hard on theSTOPbutton of his tape recorder. Both reels
stopped abruptly.

Major Perry Rhodan, test pilot of the U.S. Space Force, commander of the first manned moon landing
expedition, looked around in deep thought. The control panel centre of theStardust was as narrow and
crowded as befitted a spaceship of her size.

The steel lids of both hatches, hermetically sealed during the space flight, were now wide-open.
Through the thick quartz panes the vast yellow brown expanses of the Gobi Desert were visible. Only to
the right of the moon rocket, which had landed here like an airplane, could some sparse vegetation be
seen. This was the thin green strip growing on the banks of a small river known as Morin-gol. Just a few
miles farther to the north, the river flowed in the big Goshun salt lake, whose southern shore formed part
of the Chinese Mongolian border.

To the south of theStardust lay the infamous central Gobi. Apart from a few small settlements nestled
around the rare waterholes, and the military installations of the Asiatic Federation, there existed hardly a
trace of human life in these desolate parts.

The grim realization flashed through Perry Rhodan’s mind that this desolation had been altered quite
suddenly and radically.

Through narrowed eyes he gazed through the quartz window toward the east. Beyond the riverbed
where the tiny settlement of Dahoba could barely be seen, quite a few things had changed. The military
air base, formerly nothing nut a miserable training camp, seemed to have turned overnight into a major
airport.

The concentration of military forces was enormous. The massed troops of the outstanding Asiatic elite
units evoked the impression that they were getting ready for an invasion.

Rhodan’s eye wandered over to the tent close to the moon rocket. The comforting thought of absolute
security became nothing but an illusion as soon as Rhodan examined it more closely. Once the ten had
been part of the equipment of an Asiatic transport commando, which had arrived only one week earlier.
Rhodan’s lips widened into an amused smirk when he punched theSTARTbutton of his recording
machine.

When he began to speak again, his voice sounded some how easier and more confident.

“I am making this tape recording to safeguard against any unforeseen eventualities. I repeat: This is
Perry Rhodan speaking, commanding officer of the U.S. spaceshipStardust , test pilot working with the
Space Exploration Department of Nevada Spaceport. It is extremely important to me to record our
recent experiences with the utmost accuracy.”
 “Just one week ago Captain Reginald Bell returned from his daring special assignment. I could hardly
believe my eyes, but he really accomplished the apparently impossible when he brought back with him