"(novel) (ebook) - Perry Rhodan 0010 - (5a) Space Battle in the Vega Sector" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

It had been Khrest who had burst out with the cry of anguish. He stared at the screens where two basically different types of spaceships were revealed in stark detail. Captain Klein had one of them greatly enlarged on the screen of the short range detector. It was one of the egg shaped units that were heavily represented in the area. The ship’s stern propulsion system generated extremely intense bursts of light, the brilliance of which pained the eye of the observer.Although these ships were there in great numbers, they were being swiftly decimated by the other ships. The interplanetary space of the Vega system was filled with catastrophic nuclear explosions, in which more and more of the egg shaped vessels perished. They seemed to be completely helpless, which seemed to a great extent to be due to their obvious bulkiness. From the automatic calculators Rhodan had been aware for some time that the alien vessels possessed only a trifling rate of acceleration, so that their manoeuvrings were painfully slow. Again and again the height fingers of light struck the dark looming egg hulls, which instantly became exploding bombs.

"They don’t have any protective screens!" Klein yelled excitedly. "No energy detection system, sir! They’re snails they don’t have a chance!"Rhodan concentrated only on his daring course deflection. If the Good Hope maintained its present trajectory, it was inevitable that it would plunge right into the thickest part of the war and chaos.

Then Khrest’s second outcry was heard.On the extra large bow screen, new shapes emerged. In complete contrast to the rotund, cumbersome units they had seen, these ships possessed long, delicate, rod shaped hulls but were conspicuous because of their large center bulges. They looked as if someone had stuck a thin pencil through a chestnut.

"Faster—increase the deflection!" Khrest cried in a panic. His famous composure had fallen from him completely. The Arkonide scientist was in this moment nothing more than a quivering bundle of nerves.Rhodan’s answer wasn’t needed. The Good Hope raced away from the battle center with flaming deflection drivers, yet still drew fire. Too many of the mysterious alien opponents were distributed over a giant sector of the Vega area of space. Again, when it was almost too late, they saw the lightning finger of death reach toward them. The positronic detection system took over automatically, but no further thrust could be expected from the drivers. The ray beam flashed. In the same instant the Good Hope was grasped as though in a giant claw and whirled off its course. A titanic discharge of energy crashed and blasted so mightily against the extradimensional outer screen that the spherical Arkon steel core began to reverberate like a bell in the direct transmission of the resulting vibrations.In a moment the phantom thrust passed on. In the distance one of the rod shaped ships darted through space, the ship from whose weapon cupola the shot had come.

Rhodan could be seen laughing, although there was no possibility of hearing him above the echoing reverberations of the deflected lucky hit. Khrest still stood before the visiscreens. The flaring crucible of the apace battle fell behind, and the individual definitions of ships became mere points of light, The relatively small space sphere ceased to draw further fire. Far behind it the cumbersome egg shaped ships still exploded, but with diminishing frequency now as new enemy units emerged out of hyperspace.

The last incident of immediate danger occurred when they shot through a flaming ball of gas at their extreme velocity. In this spot one of the cumbersome ships had exploded from a hit. The outer defence screen shrieked its complaint again; then the Good Hope was through. Before them shone the fourteenth planet of an unreal seeming solar system. This world appeared to be a giant sphere of gases of the Jupiter type.

Rhodan finally cut off the roaring starboard drivers, and the Good Hope glided toward the still distant planet in free fall.

"They don’t have much to offer," Reginald Bell commented with the reassuring calm of a man in complete self-control. "That was no ray beam—just a gentle brush of the hair. Anybody have any comments?"He squinted across at Rhodan, who was just getting up from his control seat. Slowly, be approached the two Arkonides. Khrest seemed to shudder under the commander’s smiling gaze. Rhodan was again the uncompromising test pilot who refused to deal in vagaries."When we were under fire, you wanted to say something," Rhodan’s voice said. "What was it?"Khrest presented a pitiable spectacle. Thora, pale and shaken, had sunk back into her chair.

"I was in error!" sobbed the great scientist. "I really made a mistake. Forgive me!"

"Mistake? Well, that’s no world shaking piece of news. But what did you want to tell me when we were attacked?"Khrest’s reddish eyes implored. He was greatly disturbed. "Those long, rod shaped ships with the conspicuous center bulge—! know them! Every Arkonide knows them. There can be no doubt. There is only one race in the entire galaxy that builds that extreme type of hull."

"And where do they come from?"

Khrest groped for support. Dr. Haggard led him wordlessly to the nearest chair. From there the Arkonide explained brokenly, "Naturally, not from Arkon. The race of the Topides has evolved from a reptilian phylum. Highly intelligent, unyielding, and fierce. Absolutely nonhuman! They dominate three small solar systems. We call their principal world Topid. By Earth reckoning, their system is located about 815 light-years away in the vicinity of Orion. The planet Topid circles Orion Delta, a double star. The prime star is white; the secondary one is violet I don’t understand what the Topides are looking for in this region. They were the very first colonial race to revolt against the might of the Greater Empire. About 1,000 years ago we made several punitive expeditions against them."Rhodan emitted a low laugh. "A thousand years ago," he repeated. "That’s just like you, my friend. And nevertheless you claimed that your people had pulled themselves together to make a mighty research expedition. You know, I can even tell you what these characters are after."

"Us?" Captain Klein interjected anxiously.

"Exactly! And we fools even flew in front of their ray projectors for them. We are dealing with a galactic great power, and the Earth has desperately little to oppose it with. No need to frown so, Thora. Your so-called Great Empire is dying. It’s time that people on Arkon took a look at what’s going on along the rim of the galaxy. Do you still think it’s a good idea to give them a shout on the radio? The Topides undoubtedly have super light speed ships. Maybe they’ve gone home assuming that everybody recognises them as ruling Arkonides."The words hurt. The Arkonides reacted to them with a bowing of their heads. Rhodan turned away, but Khrest’s question followed him."But to whom do those other ships belong? Did you see how rapidly they were being destroyed?"

"Naturally. They are like helpless, bleating sheep, which incidentally we might have been on a larger scale, If these Topides had attacked our solar system. Reg! Kindly get your fingers off the weapon controls! If anybody slips up now we’ll have these lizards swarming over the Earth tomorrow. They probably haven’t detected their slight error, and they won’t as long as the indigenous Vega intelligences around here carry on just as we would have. They defend themselves, that is all. But they are hopelessly outmatched. I don’t doubt that these others are the inhabitants of the planet Ferrol, which was discovered more than 10,000 years ago by an Arkonide exploring expedition. They have progressed from primitives to capable space travellers. Now they’ve got to swallow what was actually meant to be dished out to us."Rhodan fell silent. The Good Hope hurtled unmolested through space. The arena of the space battle lay far behind.

"And now?" asked Bell. "Do we disappear? And if so—how?"Rhodan settled into the control seat reflectively. "In the interests of Earth we’ve got to disappear, but unobtrusively. We’ll cruise out of this system at normal sublight speed. Then we’ll have to risk a hyperspace jump. It was very fortunate that our incoming warp disturbance wasn’t detected during all the excitement Khrest, do you have anything to say?"The Arkonide shook his head. Rhodan began to program the board. Again the starboard drivers of the Good Hope roared into life. It was going to take considerable time to face the ship homeward again, because Rhodan preferred to maintain velocity rather than decelerate to a halt.

Orders came in clipped precision. In the upper hemisphere of the ball shaped vessel, Major Deringhouse clambered in disgruntled mood from his fighter. He had counted on a pursuit launching.

Later, when they had achieved an opposite trajectory, the sensors began to warn of objects ahead. Far ahead and dead on course, were countless pieces of wreckage and debris. The area was close to the fourteenth planet, in the area where the space battle had occurred.

"Interesting," remarked Bell. His brow furrowed querulously. "Do you think there are any survivors? Those Ferron people are bound to have developed space suits—I hope! We really ought to make an attempt to talk to one of them."Rhodan did not answer for several moments. First, he made a slight adjustment of the controls. All four drivers of the Good Hope began to thunder, this time, however, with the propulsion field tubes set in reverse. Khrest suddenly froze. This lanky, mysterious man had just finished saying that it was necessary to disappear from the Vega system as quietly as possible, and now he was locking the entire drive system into a braking manoeuvre. Rhodan was something more than a phenomenon. Khrest had to admit that there was also no one left now in the Greater Empire who could approach this man in his swift dexterity at the ships controls.

"Weapon controls secured," Rhodan said briskly. "You know, that isn’t a bad idea, Reg."

"Apparently it’s easy for anybody to change your mind for you," snapped Thora. "Just a slight suggestion and you do exactly the opposite of what you just finished deciding you would do."Rarely had anyone ever seen Rhodan smile so scornfully. Thora reddened under his gaze.

"There’s been a slight error," he advised. "Bell’s suggestion wasn’t the cause. It was the final data runout from the positronics. Look at the information on the screens! These beanpole Topidian ships are way behind the Good Hope in their acceleration rating. By the time any of them could even approach the speed of light, we’d be gone into hyperspace ten times over. The egg crates of the Ferrons are still slower. The computer brain has determined the nature of their propulsion. Ultrahigh concentrate photon generators. You can’t expect fast pickup from that kind of system. So we’ll just have ourselves a look at what’s going on out there."

"Wreckage—uncounted swarms of debris!" whispered Dr. Manoli. "Just look at all of it—sensor readings from all directions. There must be survivors somewhere!"With a quiet smile, Betty Toufry looked at Rhodan. She had read his thoughts. The fact that the Good Hope had a speed advantage over the enemy aliens wasn’t the only reason why he was slowing down. He, too, was thinking of the living entities who might he struggling for their lives out there in space.The ship developed a deceleration rate of three hundred miles per second. In the hangar, Major Deringhouse forced his long frame once more into the cramped cockpit of the space fighter. Several crew members pulled down and fastened the hood over his head…