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

small and harmless that Harlgas believed it could be attacked without
risk. When one of his ships was turned into dust, he realized his mistake.
Harlgas laughed terribly as the loss was reported to him. A few seconds later
his guns scored a hit and made the little ship inoperable. Harlgas ceased fire
and waited to see what the enemy would do next. At the same time he kept
watching the far bigger ship which had been waiting inactively at a distance
of 12,000 miles and now suddenly resumed speed. He concluded at once that the
adversary was going over to the attack and he formed a defensive position with
his own ships. He would have felt better if he had known what kind of an
enemy he was facing. A short talk with Orlgans had warned him that the
ships-though apparently of Arkonide origin as he could see for himself-were
most certainly not manned by Arkonides. Harlgas didn't know what to expect
and to complicate the situation, an observer reported that a tiny craft had
left the badly damaged unmanoeuvrable ship. Harlgas instructed two of his
ships to follow the little craft. The other 27 remained in their assigned
positions and Harlgas admonished them not to underestimate the antagonist
roaring toward them. His warning soon turned out to be well justified, as the
attacking ship unleashed its initial salvo from a distance much greater than a
Springer captain would have dared to fire, with the result that two of
Harlgas' ships were immediately burned to ashes. .... The destroyer finally
got off to a good start and shot out into space. Tiff accelerated only
moderately. "Where to?" Hifield asked. "Deringhouse said to get in touch
with Rhodan," Tiff replied. "Although I've really no idea where Rhodan might
be, but..." "...but if Deringhouse says so," Hifield interrupted, you believe
it's gospel, don't you?" Tiff remained calm. "Not quite," he rebutted. "But
Deringhouse knows what he's talking about." They were packed tightly in the
little cockpit. There were only three seats and the girls had to sit on
Eberhardt's and Hifield's laps. Because of the threatening dangers the
spacesuits remained closed and communication took place through the
transceivers in the helmets Tiff could hear Felicita crying softly. He wanted
to boost her courage, when suddenly the picture on the sensor screen showed
some motion. The sensor had been following the hostile fleet and depicted it
as a swarm of motionless points. But now two points detached themselves from
the swarm and began to move toward the centre of the screen. Tiff changed his
course and accelerated rapidly. "Looks like well be busy," he said tersely.
"They're chasing us!" .... "Take care of the K-7, Nyssen!" Rhodan ordered.
"Take them back on board!" The Solar System shot away in the direction of the
K-7. The Stardust kept on its course toward the hostile fleet. The fleet stood
about 6000 miles behind the Solar System, whose crew now knew that
reinforcement had arrived. "Don't get too close, McClears!" Rhodan called.
"They probably can beat us at close range." The gas clouds from the Springer
ships demolished by the disintegrator still floated in space. Two seconds
after Nyssen had opened fire the Stardust and the Terra had shown up from
hyperspace. Rhodan kept following his plan. From the beginning, since the day
when Julian Tifflor was told to fly to New York to report to Homer G. Adams,
Rhodan had had no other intention than to apprehend the aliens. He had no
interest in exterminating his adversary by killing all his men. He wanted to
know with whom dealt. With this in mind the two ships approached their
targets while Terra went to the aid of the K-7. .... The situation became
more and more confusing for Captain Harlgas. The structure-sensor showed such