" Perry Rhodan 0088 - (80) The Columbus Affair" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

Perry Rhodan 088 The Columbus Affair by K.H.Scheer Prolog Perry Rhodan's
discovery of the Moon-stranded Arkonide spaceship had been the impetus for the
political unity of Mankind and had formed the cornerstone of the Solar
Imperium, the stellar empire of Terra. Minuscule by comparison with the many
other powers of the universe, the fact that this small empire exists at all or
hasn't dissolved in an inferno of atomic destruction or been degraded into a
colony of Arkon can be attributed to the shrewd moves of Terranians
surrounding Perry Rhodan in this cosmic chess game-and to the luck that
eventually comes to the most proficient... However, the very fantastic streak
of luck that has so far followed Rhodan in his efforts to conceal the galactic
position of the Sol System now seems to be nearing its end. Recently the
Solar Imperium of Mankind has had to take a goodly number of setbacks-even
aside from the emerging COLUMBUS AFFAIR... But now the time has come-and the
question arises as to whether or not this still-adolescent stellar empire of
humankind is strong enough to withstand a direct attack... 1/ THE MESSAGE OF
THE CENTURY THE INCREDIBLE had happened. In clear, uncoded text the
unmistakable signature appeared on the tape. Mute, cold, inanimate-yet
possibly signifying a turning point in human history... Sgt. Bidge had been
carefully checking his entries into the radio log for 11 May 2044. What had
caught his attention was a hyperspace message designated as 76-Hy-11-5-44. It
had been sent out under the pulse-burst coding used by the Fleet, duly
modified by the recognition coding for that particular security period.
Duration: 0.1 second. According to directional beam angle its point of origin
had been in space sector M-13 Hercules. Ordinarily Bidge's task would have
been taken care of at this point with regard to the message if it had not been
for the fact that the automatic rectifier had added that special signature to
the usual ID marks on the punched tape. Those final marks were in clear text.
For this part, Sgt. Bidge did not have to wait through the tedious process of
decipherment of the pulse-burst message, which contained a variable
probability factor ranging over a possible 4.6 million data bits. He caught
his breath sharply when the machine rang its small bell to designate the end
of the rectification cycle. On the plastic tape strip in his hands was a
completely meaningless maze of dots, lines and geometrical figures compressed
into a mosaic pattern. It would require a high capacity electronic brain a
half hour to perform a proper data retrieval on this. It was impossible for
Bidge to gather the import of the message itself by visual inspection-but he
could clearly read that end signature. He repeated it softly aloud:
"I-Rho-Ad-T" For a moment he ceased to be aware of the monotonous humming and
clicking of the operating equipment Sgt Bidge was the subordinate duty officer
in the crypto room of Solar Intelligence. One glance at the clock apprised
him of the fact that he had already lost valuable seconds. The code man next
to him was startled when Bidge reached out suddenly and decisively hit the
alarm button. "Huh? What the...!" The penetrating howl of the sirens left
him speechless. Bidge waited until the armourplate hatch slid upward
automatically and the chief duty officer appeared on the threshold. The crypto
room of Solar Intelligence was under Class 1 security control. Maj. Raynold
Abucot had the reputation of being a superior officer who was a stickler for
regulations. He came forward with carefully calculated steps, not too fast and
not too slow. His face was expressionless. "Who activated the alarm?" The
sergeant raised his hand. "I did, sir." Abucot looked at him sternly. "Who is