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

The propulsion units revved up to full power readiness. Breaker banks poised for cut-in.

"X minus Zero… Lift-off!"

A massive sphere almost one mile in diameter, theTitan became weightless and floated upward,
retracting its huge multiple struts. The incredible became credible, perforce, because there it was: the
most tremendous spaceship in the known universe was rising and gaining speed, until it finally hurtled into
space.

The planet fell behind. Space seemed to rush past them, deepening to a well of blackness behind. And in
that well the sun Voga appeared like a reddish cyclopean eye, balefully watching their departure. Then
came the vaulted splendour of Star Cluster M-13, a bursting pinwheel of coruscating fire to light the
demonic abyss.

"What a ship!" sighed Bell. "What a wonder world around us!"

The two Arkonides, Thora and Khrest, stood between the two seats occupied by Rhodan and Bell.
They knew these wonders; this had been their home. Thirteen years before, they had left the star cluster
of the Empire to explore the galaxies in search of ‘Pel’, the Planet of Eternal Life. Their journey had
ended in disaster on Earth’s moon. For 13 years they had been able to observe closely how the people
of a ‘barbaric’ Earth had developed and matured, under the leadership of Perry Rhodan. Earthlings
would soon be ready to take over the reins from the Arkonides.

Thora and Khrest were too intellectually sensitive to think of Earthlings as ‘Lords of the Universe’ but
they did believe that the Earthmen would finally achieve domination of the galaxies, where their own
people had failed. It was Perry Rhodan who had finally discovered the planet Wanderer, their
long-sought World of Eternal Life. Yet, ironically, it had been he and Reginald Bell who were chosen to
be treated with the coveted biological cell shower, a rejuvenating process. They would not age for at
least another 6 decades. Whereas they, the Arkonides who had researched this ages-old myth of their
race, had not been accepted for this special honour. And now here was an Earthman, his life prolonged,
in command of the greatest spaceship in the galaxies—an ally of the Arkonide Empire! Thora and Khrest
shared these thoughts mutually. They relived in memory the past 13 years in a foreign world, plus their
return to Arkon. They had become strangers in their own home world. Instead of Arkonides reigning
there, a mammoth robot brain was in charge and revolutionary flare-ups in satellite galaxies were quelled
without mercy by robot-manned Arkonide spacers.

"Transition in 12 minutes!" the ship’s positronicon announced through all speakers.

TheTitan shot through the star cluster at eight-tenths speol (speed of light). The panoramic vid-screen
pictured the passing stars, a world of wonder that always fascinated. But on board theTitan there was no
room now for romanticists. The nav computation data spilling out of the positronicon became audible.
Star Cluster M-13, more than 230 light-years in diameter, was a flight-channel ‘freeway system’ for the
spacers. Within this relatively limited’ space, nine-tenths of all Empire space traffic sped from one star to
the next. Hyper-transitions were being recorded almost with pulse-beat frequency.
 Suddenly Perry Rhodan began cursing under his breath, which didn’t happen very often. He had spotted
two bogey blips on the observation screen, and in response to his instant keying the console for I.D.,
electronic symbols marked the screen, showing the blips to be spacers tied to his own trajectory.

His Commander’s voice demanded, "Where’s that comp data!"