" Perry Rhodan 0086 - (78) Power Key" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

with the squadron of heavy units. Wait for the takeoff signal. Again I wish
you much luck." The younger officer at Semekho's side waved apathetically to
me and checked off the name of my ship on the list he carried. Lightly
humming, the glider went on. With bitter feelings I watched the vehicle until
it stopped before the next ship down the row, a battlecruiser direct from the
robot production line. I was to 'carry the glory that is Arkon into the
depths of space,' the old and worn-out man had said. "The glory that is
Arkon"! He, who must have been about 10,000 years younger than I, had no idea
that long before him I had been an admiral and commanding officer of a
squadron of Arkonide ships. Then, when the methane breathers were attacking
our interstellar empire, 'glory' was an appropriate term to apply to Arkon. At
that time we did not find it necessary to man the units of our fleet with
subject races. Twenty billion Arkonides, each man a highly trained specialist
in his own area, stood at our disposal. Not one of us would have tolerated a
robot or an alien intelligence in our control rooms or command posts. Even
suggesting to the youngest apprentice technician that he might have to obey
the orders of a non-Arkonide would have led to mutiny. And now-how did it
look now? Angry and at the same time painfully touched, I looked over at the
crew of robots, marked with different colours, that had lined up behind the
ranks of the men of my ship. Each of the special machines had a specific
assignment to carry out on board the ship, and programming the emotionless
creations for all the different tasks had been a time-consuming and
troublesome chore. In contrast to the other and pitiable commanders I at
least had 200 genuinely living men on board with whom I could speak, laugh
and, if necessary, curse. 150 of them were dynamic men of action from the
ranks of the Solar Space Patrol. They were space travellers with whom one
could go into missions no matter how dangerous without having to fear that
chaos would ensue the first time the ship was hit by enemy fire. None of them
were prone to shellshock; none of them would desert their posts in fear.
Besides these 150 men were 50 authentic Zalites, who had been assigned to me
some weeks before. The new battleship was to be manned by at least 200
thinking beings, since past experience at the blockade front near the Druuf
discharge zone had shown that robot crews alone were no longer
enough. Neither Perry Rhodan nor I had been happy about having to take the
Zalites on board. Naturally we would have to be careful from now on that we
did not make any serious mistakes. Even one English word might excite surprise
and suspicion. Still vivid in everyone's memories were the mysterious attacks,
although we had successfully seen to it that our men had come through the
medical and psychological examinations in good shape. To round out our bad
luck, among the fifty Zalites were two officers with whom I had to trust
leadership posts. Since we were supposedly Zalites ourselves, I could not find
any plausible reason to simply reject two competent-rated men. I found it
difficult to shake off my worries. We were in an alien environment and among
bitter enemies who would have mercilessly struck with even the slightest hint
of our true origin. The gigantic Robot Brain on Arkon 3 had recently added a
new subject to the general fleet training program: 'Studies in Terran Battle
Tactics'! When I heard of that for the first time I grew weak in the knees.
According to the course description, the Regent was preparing for the conquest
of the Solar System even though it still did not know where the Earth even
was. In a few months, the Druuf threat would come to an end by itself, for