" Perry Rhodan 0029 - (22) Fleet of the Springers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

don't forget to pick up some weapons. You can use the thermo-guns of the
Springers." Tiff started to protest but Deringhouse cut him short. "No
discussions, Cadet Tifflor! It's an order!" Tiff saluted. "Yes, sir!" The
five subdued Springers lay neatly tied up next to the bulkhead and the
thermo-guns wrestled from them were stacked in a comer. "Take all five guns,"
Tiff ordered. "We can't have too many of them." Eberhardt and Hifield
collected the weapons. Tiff stopped at the door and looked at Deringhouse. "I
feel like a..." he began, but Deringhouse interrupted him at once. "Shut up,
Cadet!" he barked at him, "and get out of here as quick as possible. Try to
reach the Stardust but first make contact with the Chief, just in case!" Tiff
saluted a second time and left. Hifield and Eberhardt followed him. The two
girls were picked up at their cabins. Tiff gave his last instructions from
the hangar of the destroyer. "Hold your fire and try to save your lives!" he
directed the cadets. "There are too many of them to win. Don't do anything
rash!" The two girls had already entered the cockpit. Hifield handed them the
weapons. He still held the last gun in his hand when the airlock hatch began
to buzz and slowly opened up. Eberhardt stood on the left fin of the machine,
staring with open mouth at the hatch and what appeared behind it. "Look out!"
he shouted. Tiff simply threw himself down and rolled over to Hifield. A shot
blasted into the room and Hifield reacted with remarkable agility. He turned
on his heels and fired a few rounds against the hatch. A wild scream came from
the opening. A tall, broad-shouldered figure staggered in, tried to stay on
its feet and finally crashed to the floor. Hasty steps could be heard leaving
through the passage outside the hangar. Hifield jumped over the wounded
Springer and darted toward the door. "Stay here!" Tiff shouted. "We don't
have time for that." Hifield stopped in his tracks and returned. He turned
the unconscious Springer on his back. The man had a burned black wound high in
his left shoulder. "He'll pull through," Hifield decided laconically. Then he
jumped on the fin of the destroyer and climbed into the cockpit. Tiff was the
last to climb aboard. He squeezed into the pilot seat and made a hasty call to
the command centre, informing it that one of the two remaining Springers lay
badly wounded in the hangar and that the other one had got away. Then he
commanded: "Secure spacesuits and open the airlock!" .... Rhodan received
Nyssen's message a few seconds before the transition. He passed it on to
McClears and impressed upon the captain: "We'll have to slug it out to rescue
the K-7 but let's be careful to disable the hostile ships without destroying
them!" Shortly thereafter the two ships vanished from their positions without
a trace and went into hyperspace. Two light-years away they emerged again at a
distance of three astronomical units from the orange-coloured sun of the twin
system. 21:17 hours Terrestrial time. The battle began. .... In the
military spacefleet of the Springers the 'group' was the smallest independent
unit. A group consisted of 25 to 35 ships and was under the command of a man
whose rank was equivalent to that of a captain on Earth. Captain Harlgas had
been closer with his group to System Beta-Albireo than all the other units of
the Springer fleet when Ornafer broadcast his desperate call for help into
space by hyperwave on a special frequency. Harlgas had acted without
delay. A few seconds after finishing his transition he had formed a clear
impression of the situation. Orla XI, which had been in distress, was now
fleeing the system at high velocity. Not far from it was an unfriendly ship of
Arkonide design. A little farther away was a third vehicle which looked so