"(novel) (ebook) - Perry Rhodan 0011 - (5b) Mutants in Action" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

Then he stared at the visiscreen. The pilotless ship wobbled away from him. It turned nose down and would have taken a vertical plunge, but in the same moment the total energy of the disintegrator was released. A fine vapour of atomized particles was left, which at first continued almost at the same velocity as the ship but then dispersed itself gradually into the wind.

Deringhouse forced himself not to brood over the loss of the flier any more. Rhodan wasn’t going to be happy to learn that one of his space fighters had gone down. Hopefully Klein would explain why, on the next trip, no one had better fly close to that battleship.Beneath the ejected cockpit capsule lay parklike forested countryside that came at him with a hurtling velocity. Then the parachute opened and transmitted to Deringhouse a second painful jolt. The area was not as practical for his purposes as he would have preferred, but at least no road or highway was visible in the vicinity. The little town he had just passed over was now eighteen miles behind him to the west.

The capsule burst through the trees with a loud cracking sound. There was a final rolling bounce to the ground, and when all was still and he clambered back onto his seat he was thankful that it was over with at last. He opened the plastic canopy and climbed out so hurriedly that he stumbled and fell to the ground. As he jumped to his feet, he held his neutron ray gun ready in his hand. But there was no one around to accommodate him.

In the same moment Deringhouse perceived that in the coming days his greatest problem would not be the Topides as much as the heavy gravitation of Ferrol. He had known all along that the gravity field here carried a force of 1.4 G; but at this moment it ceased to be an abstraction. Not that the muscles of a strong man couldn’t cope with a weight of 1.4 G; the disadvantage was chiefly psychological. There was a certain demoralizing effect in having to carry around 217 pounds instead of his normal 155.Deringhouse resigned himself and started out on his way, resolving to ignore the tugging sensation of the additional gravity. He wanted to move southward. The sparse forestland offered him little hindrance. Nevertheless, it would be some time before he reached the mountains.



CHAPTER TWO


If Rhodan was concerned about the loss of a pilot and a space fighter ship, he didn’t show it. Thora watched him closely but could not tell whether he was struggling with his conscience.The only observation concerning the case that he offered was, "This doesn’t necessarily prove or disprove my theories about the versatility of a fighter ship. It’s simply that in the future we’ll have to be careful about that Arkonide battleship. Apparently its automatic lock on equipment one can easily track a very rapidly moving target."The nuisance attacks and reconnaissance flights on Ferrol would be continued. Since the other space fighters had been left on Earth and only two had been brought along, this task was now reserved for Captain Klein alone.

Evaluation of the film strips offered valuable information. From them it was determined that the Topides were in the process of establishing a large fleet vase in the unsettled western part of the Great Ocean Isthmus. Rhodan did not doubt that the major number of the Topidian "hump backs," as he called the rod shaped vessels with their central bulges, would be stashed out there in some very inconspicuous spot. Other data yielded information concerning the balance of enemy small bases and deployed fleet commands. Out of this emerged a revelation that although the Topides were well spread out they were in fact thinly distributed. The individual commands were sufficient to suppress uprisings among the populace where they occurred, but their capacity to resist the full impact of a concerted attack was questionable.

The inference to be drawn from the analysis was startling. The Topides were concentrating their major forces on the Great Ocean Isthmus, and thus on the rest of the planet’s surface they were leaving themselves open to attack. If one were forced to reject the idea that Topidian fleet strategy was merely stupid and amateurish, then the only other inference remaining was–an all–out attack on the last Ferronian bastion on Rofus was imminent!Rhodan had several conversations with the Thort over the telecom, and he evidence deep concern over this development. Apparently, he was helpless. Rhodan got the message that he himself was now expected to furnish the actual deliverance. He suppressed a smile when he recalled that he had come here to Rofus in the damaged Good Hope to ask for help. He comforted the Thort as best he could and then turned to cogitating how best to circumvent the grave destiny that now hung over the ninth planet of the Vega system. He took Khrest, Thora, and Tako Kakuta into consultation.

As a result of this conference they concluded that the recon and harassment flights of Captain Klein were no enough to deter the Topidian attack on Rofus. The only possibility remaining seemed to point to a defensive counter-attack in the Topides’ own territory on Ferrol, through use of the transmitters and a powerful commando force.The information gathered by Klein was transmitted to Kekeler in Sic-Horum, and his answering confirmation revealed that he was very pleased. However, when it was explained to him that a shock troop commando force of some forty men would shortly appear on Ferrol he returned a question as to whether the proper people had been selected for withstanding the gruelling hardships of their guerrilla war.

To this Reginald Bell snorted angrily, "I’ll show that character a thing or two when I see him. Does he think that the Sichas are the only fighters in the whole world?"

Deringhouse’s march to the south was finally interrupted by a very ordinary circumstance, which ultimately forced him to risk a rather foolhardy but nonetheless necessary side venture. The simple fact was that a man could walk only so far under an unaccustomed pall of gravity before becoming ravenously hungry. He had discovered only a few bluish berries, which seemed safe to eat because of evidence that birds had been pecking at them, but they were few and unsatisfying.His former survival training under Pounder would call for going incognito into a town and foraging for food—but here, among Ferronians, it would be difficult for an Earthman to assume the appearance of a native. As far as the language was concerned, Khrest’s recent hypno course had enabled him to speak and read both the international commercial language and many regional dialect. As far as physiology was concerned, on the several Ferronian worlds there were a variety of types, he had heard—and the fact that the Sichas were larger and lighter of skin complexion was of particular interest now.He had found that the blue berries left a light bluish stain that, if evenly applied to his face and visible extremities, might help disguise him for a short period. Perhaps, then, the main ingredient would be native clothing and to bush up his hair a bit. Some Sichas and other more remote types he had seen pictured in Ferronian books ranged from orange heads to sandy, dark haired people. Now that Ferrol was in turmoil, the appearance of a remote type stranger might not be a suspicious event.

Soon a harmless Ferron native became a victim of this idea. While walking in the woods he was hit over the head from behind, and when he awoke he found himself naked.

After he had discarded his flier’s uniform and concealed the neutron ray gun and other small weapons under his new flowing garments, Deringhouse experimented carefully with the blue berries and finally succeeded in acquiring a pastel complexion on his hands and face and neck. Then he made haste to put distance between himself and the village his victim had come from. However, after putting eight or nine miles behind him he came out onto a forest highway with a growling stomach and a grim resolve to find something to eat in the next half hour—at any cost.

In view of the circumstances, their reception was grotesque to say the least.

In front of the transmitter cells in which they were arriving one after another, a horde of large, husky, colourfully dressed men was gathered, and they peered into the receiver cages with such a sombre attitude that it seemed the new arrivals were about to be taken prisoner. Rhodan held a thermo ray generator in the crook of his arm as he came through the cage door. He paused to look around. None of the husky guerrillas made any move toward him. They remained where they were and surveyed him with dark glances. Rhodan waited patiently.

Reginald Bell emerged directly after Rhodan. "Hey!" he grunted, suspiciously. "What have we gotten into!?" He looked along the line of Sichas and smirked back at them. They neither moved nor changed expression.

Then came Tako Kakuta. He smiled, as he always did. The Sichas began to show the first signs of surprise. Apparently they had never seen a person with Tako’s hue of skin."If they don’t break the ice soon," Bell muttered, "I’ll take a rain check!"The transmitter spilled out the newcomers in an unbroken procession. Ralf Marten stumbled through the cage door, followed by the boisterous Wuriu Sengu. When Marshall came through, he was a bit dazed at first; he was followed by Betty Toufry, sad and solemn eyed as usual. She barely smiled when Rhodan gave her an encouraging nod.

As they observed the small girl, the wonderment of the Sichas intensified.

I’m not concerned with this group," Rhodan advised his companions. "The city is out there somewhere nearby. So let’s go!"The transmitter processing was not finished yet, but those who were still "en route," including the fighter robots, would easily be able to follow their predecessors. Rhodan walked toward the Sichas, and as they made no move to get out of his way he went around them. He had not yet passed the last of the hulking brutes before a deep voice spoke behind him in the Ferronian commercial language.

"All of here bid you welcome!"

Rhodan halted and turned around. One of the Sichas—an older man apparently, because of the whiteness of his hair had stepped out of the group and now approached Rhodan. He stretched out both his hands, and Rhodan returned the gesture with reservations."I am Rhodan," he told him. "And you?"

"My name is Kekeler. You have heard of me."

Rhodan confirmed that he had.

In that moment the transmitter emitted a loud buzzing sound to signify that its operation was at an end and that the energy input of the sending station had been switched off. Rhodan inspected his small battle force, and Kekeler followed his gaze.