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

cadets and the girl followed him. They rode up in the antigrav-elevator to the
section of the auxiliary ship where the cabins and the small mess hall were
located. In the mess hall they found six of the 10 cadets on board the K-7,
Felicita Kergonen, the botany student and Major Deringhouse who had hobbled
down on crutches from his cabin to enjoy some company. They knew that Julian
Tifflor had been called on board the Orla for questioning. When he entered
their conversation fell silent. Tifflor first raised his hand from his hip in
a quick silent gesture. Then he said: "Good morning! How are you getting along
around here?" The reply came hesitantly and in exactly the manner Tiff had
expected: dispassionately and unsuspiciously. They had understood his gesture
on which they had agreed a few hours earlier. Raising the hand from the hip
meant: I've got to say something the Springers aren't allowed to hear. Watch
the intercom! The Springers were anything but fools. They knew exactly what
kind of prisoners they had captured-prisoners who would only give up the
thought of escape when their throat was cut. The K-7 was equipped with a very
efficient intercom system and the Springers made thorough use of it to survey
their captives. Tiff started some innocuous chatter. A few of the cadets
surrounded him and asked him about his experiences on board the Orla. The
others kept talking to Deringhouse who, with his wounded leg, had pushed
together two chairs in order to be comfortable. The group around Tiff stood
shoulder to shoulder. The circle was so tight that Tiff was able to hastily
write something on a piece of paper without being detected by the intercom,
all the while giving insignificant answers. He passed the slip to Hifield who
stood next to him and was sure that the news would get around within a few
minutes. The conversation continued while the ship circulated. The message
read: "The Orla is inferior to the K-7 in equipment and energy output. We can
get away if we manage to start our engines. The two girls will have to
distract the guards from the command centre. I'll switch on the controls and
set a time delay of about one hour for take-off. Any suggestions when we can
start?" .... The Stardust hovered near the outer edge of the Terrestrial
solar system between the orbits of Pluto and Neptune. The gigantic
battleship-half a mile in diameter-was flanked by the two heavy cruisers Terra
and Solar System. Perry Rhodan kept in constant touch with the two commanders
via intercom. Structure-sensors had detected the transition of the strange
spaceship and pinpointed the location of departure. Rhodan had submitted the
data of the sensor to the positronic calculator and demanded a rapid
evaluation. Rhodan knew that even the tremendous positronic computer of the
Stardust would require six to seven hours for the evaluation of the
complicated sensor-diagram if the result was to be obtained with an error of
less than one percent. But Rhodan didn't have time to wait six or seven
hours. He, the Stardust and Terra were facing an enemy that had been able to
keep hidden in spite of all the efforts on Earth. This was an indication that
their technical achievements were far from underdeveloped. Rhodan had worked
out a plan according to which Julian Tifflor was supposed to lead him on the
track of the adversary. Tifflor had measured up to his expectations. However
nobody had foreseen that the enemy would capture the K-7 and take it from the
orbit of Pluto into hyperspace so that Tifflor's cell-transmitter had been
transferred from within a second outside the range of reception by the
telepaths. Rhodan was prepared to risk an error up to 10% in the evaluation
of the diagram but he was not ready to tolerate a delay of more than an