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

patrol cruiser did not answer Penter's question. He merely sat before his
flight console and accelerated the spherical spacer slightly beyond its safety
limits. "Alright," he said, speaking through the intercom to Communications,
"you can hail the alien ship!" The antenna beamed the standard identification
challenge to the stranger. Communications had automatically connected Control
Central with the ship's receiving channel and now the crewmen began to
experience a certain amount of tension. In a surprising burst of acceleration
the intruder attempted to get away. "Fire Control: 3 warning shots!" From
the Nile's polar gun turret a heavy impulse cannon fired a barrel-sized beam
in the direction of the fleeing ship. The deadly ray of energy intercepted the
stranger's course within 100 kms. Speed and acceleration had been accounted
for and although the 'bow shot' held its intensity for 3 seconds the starship
did not make contact with it. "Hold fire!" The commander called the order
into his mike just as the bogey ship's reply was heard on the speakers. It
was a Springer! 5 minutes later the Nile braked its velocity to match that of
its quarry and drifted in close alongside the cylindrically shaped vessel. A
prize crew was sent over while the cruiser's guns held steadily on the
200-meter hull of the alien craft. "We have intercepted a Springer ship from
the Gelsla System," began the Nile's report to Relay Station Ori-12-1818 and
to the Fleet base on Betelgeuse 3. "A prize crew has been sent across. Stand
by-we have a message from the boarding detail... Glord! Hello,
Ori-12-1818-send us a medi-cruiser at once! Springer ship UG DVI has been hit
by an epidemic or plague of some kind. More than half the crew is dead. There
are only 8 Traders who can still be considered intact. We are informed by Sgt.
Hopkins that this Trader clan may be afflicted with what spacemen refer to as
the 'stone-belly' sickness. This estimate, however, is provisional. OK,
Fitzgerald, so when do we get the hospital ship?" Lt. Fitzgerald called back
from Ori-12-1818 with a counter-question: "Have you quarantined the boarding
crew and ordered them to stay with the UG DVI?" "No, but I'll take care of
that. Have you alerted the medi-ship? What sector is it in now?" The Solar
System maintained 3 ships of this class. In spite of their relatively small
100-meter hulls they were effective flying clinics equipped with the most
modern facilities that Earthly medical science and Ara skills had so far
developed. The first ship of this class had just been commissioned only 2
years before but within its first 4 months of service it had been able to
chalk up its first major success. After a 10-day marathon of Herculean efforts
on the planet Sulf the medicos had managed to isolate an unknown bacterial
agent. It had caused the Terran settlers there to break out into a continuous
state of perspiration so that they were dying due to dehydration. 5 days later
a serum was produced in sufficient quantity to inoculate 120,000 otherwise
helpless settlers, thereby saving their lives. Now the lives of the 12-man
boarding crew were at stake, as well as the lives of the remaining Springer
survivors. One medi-cruiser lay in a docking berth in Terrania, ship 2 was on
a mercy mission in the Vega Sector. Flying clinic #3 was on picket post at a
distance of some 8,590 light-years. This latter vessel was contacted by
Fitzgerald and it announced its ETA within 6 hours. While the medi-ship left
its station and struck a course toward its first transition, the chief medical
officer got into communication with the patrol cruiser's commander. Also,
through relay hookup he was in contact with Sgt. Hopkins, leader of the
boarding crew on board the plague-ridden UG DVI. "Describe the symptoms,