" Perry Rhodan 0042 - (34) SOS Spaceship Titan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

apathetically near the base of the spacesphere.

They were tall, slim, almost skinny people. An outstanding peculiarity was their total baldness, plus a
strange sadness in their deep-seated eyes. Their skin had a brownish-red complexion, again reflecting the
washed-out colouration that marked Honur’s ugliness.

"Those poor devils are in rags," observed Bell. "Looks like they’re ready for the Midnight Mission!"

"Couldthey represent the hidden danger here?" queried Khrest.

Thora blushed, which was rare for the otherwise proud Arkonide woman. She exchanged glances with
Perry and once more lifted her shoulders in despair and let them fall again. "I don’t know! I don’t know!
I just haven’t the slightest idea why I suggested this system as a rendezvous point for us with the
Ganymede . I don’t know anything about Honur; I’m sure I’ve never before heard or read anything
about the system. That’s what’s so frightening—and now this ban against landing here…!"

On an impulse, Perry put his hand on Thora’s arm. His voice, as he spoke to her, had a calming effect.
"Thora, maybe all of us rely too much on the reliability of Arkonide data. Didn’t we occasionally find
cases where information was missing? Let’s assume for the moment that the ban was actually lifted, say,
10,000 years ago. Perhaps the data wasn’t ever registered—an omission that would be understandable
in view of the hopelessly worthless condition of this small system. Maybe we’re worrying too much!"

Bell got up. He put his hands in his pockets and said, emphatically, "Perry, so help me ifyou’re not the
puzzle now! What kind of a circus is this, where everybody wants to play clown? Thora here—she puts
in a big plug for coming here to this Death Valley planet and now she knows nothing about it! And I’m
supposed to be witness to a confab where we all agreed Col. Freyt would meet us here. So what
happens? You of all people—you can smell a rat a thousand light-years away—you’re covering all this
with a flowery veil! You can’t be serious, Perry—it just doesn’t add up!"

Perry was still holding Thora’s arm but his thoughts were elsewhere. He looked at Bell and expressed a
new thought that came to him. "Are those three Mooffs still in their isolation section?"

"They are—at least as of an hour ago," declared Bell. "I always keep my distance from those
beauties—but I don’t think the Mooffs are involved in this. The whole game is way too foxy for those
overblown squids. Perry, I’d be more likely to put my finger on those dauntless gypsies of the
starways—the Springers! Somebody is hypnotizing us. Somebody who might remember that we stole
their newest merchant ship and converted it to theGanymede . Maybe this unknown entity is gunning
now for theTitan , in exchange for it!"

None of the three men had been watching Thora. She had remained motionless under the touch of
Perry’s hand on her arm. Physical contact with him had caused a thrill of happiness. She had never
before experienced such a sense of elation and a compulsion grew within her to rise up and embrace him,
to place her face against his and to throw her arms around him. She had been ready to let go and
surrender to these impulses when Bell’s thundering discourse had caused something like a short-circuit
and brought her back to reality.
 The electricity died. She felt an implosion into emptiness. But the men were more intensely involved than
ever in their discussion—even arguments in Bell’s favour.

Then came Rhodan’s rebuttal. "One of our mutants would be able to sense hypnotic interference. No,
Reggie, I’m more than ever convinced that we’re the victims of an error in the Arkonide filing system.