" Perry Rhodan 0103 - (95) The Plasma Monster" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

at him. "It's easy to see you're a stranger to this type of operation. I'll
soon find out if your information is true. No way for you to get away now
other than run around inside the ship. So what's your business in the Com
Room? Can't you read? Restricted area!" "But the First
Administrator..." Bell interrupted him with a brisk wave of his hand. "Lay
off that right now! You'll do Perry and the rest of us a big favour if you'll
refer to him as the Chief and not the First Administrator. But what do you
want with Communications?" Ballin was well informed concerning Reginald
Bell's general personality and disposition, so there was nothing left for him
to do but to confess his sin of omission once more. Bell's sudden grin
widened as he listened. "Man," he said, "now I've heard everything...!" With
a startled cry, Walt Ballin drew back before a heavy blast of air as an animal
3 feet high appeared out of the shimmering whirlwind, mouse-like above and
beaver-like in its lower extremities. Simultaneously the creature squeaked
out in a piercing shrill voice: "Fatso, this youngster isn't pulling your leg!
He was really about to stand up his girlfriend and I suppose you've never done
that before, eh? Wasn't there a certain Sheila Gibbons, a Madeleine Ykes and
Rosita Menderez and..." "Please, mister!" Bell told him anxiously and Ballin
couldn't understand why Rhodan's Chief Deputy should do him the honour of
holding the door open for him to the Com. Room, even gesturing to him to
enter. But Bell knew very well why he was driven to this desperate move. He
had hardly closed the door again before he turned toward Pucky, only to snort
out a cussword. The little devil disappeared again in the same way he had
come, after accusing him of all these things in front of the young
newcomer. While Walt Ballin got his connection to Paris and waited for Yvonne
Berclais' face to appear on the screen, in the Control Central Rhodan was
studying the latest reports from Relay Station Ori-12-1818. Gen. Conrad
Deringhouse was standing next to him. "Nothing much new, sir," he was saying
in his quiet way. "But the little we have is bad enough. I believe they have
come!" "As convinced as all that, Deringhouse?" Rhodan's question, however,
carried no note of sarcasm. Without comment the general handed him the latest
photos transmitted to them by hypercom. They revealed a small spaceship with a
spherical hull and flattened areas at either pole. "And here's the
oscillogram, sir, with the flattened curves. They are abnormal for our own
type of transitions. If this isn't an Akon ship from the Blue System, then
here we go again-faced with another alien race. But there's everything to
argue against the latter supposition. That ship's configuration leads to only
one conclusion, flat poles or no: we're face to face with the
Akons." Meanwhile the Drusus had been picking up speed as it left the solar
system, yet many a valuable minute was still required before the flagship of
the Solar Imperium could enter into its first transition. At this moment
Ori-12-1818 sent through some additional data and 3 Central Control officers
proceeded to lay out the visible course of the unknown spaceship on the
stellar map board. As Rhodan and Deringhouse came over to the map section,
Bell entered unobtrusively and took up a position behind the two
men. Typically, Bell expressed what he thought of the situation without being
asked. "Doesn't look to me like they're headed for a landing on Betelgeuse 3,"
he said. "I have the same impression, Chubby," Rhodan replied. "But if our
guests aren't going to land on the only inhabitable planet of the system, what
are they doing here?" "Why not give them a hail and ask them? Speaking of