"(novel) (ebook) - Perry Rhodan 0060 - (52) Fortress Atlantis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

Inkar, whose ship had remained on Larsa, was already busy working on our communications with the strangers. The first translations were coming in from the linguistic robot. They showed that these brown people used a simple, easily understood language.
I finished the ceremony and Tarth, my old friend and teacher, insisted on naming the newly acquired land Atlantis in my honour. I reluctantly deferred to his wishes and returned after the act to my flagship in order to prepare the necessary instructions.
Inkar flew back to the 2nd planet in one of the Tosoma's auxiliary ships to organize the transfer of the 50,000 Zakrebians.
I transmitted a hyperradio message to the Great Council advising its members of the measures I had taken in the interest of our endangered colonists and I received the confirmation a few hours later. My venerable uncle personally authorized me to proceed with the transport of the pioneers to the 3rd planet and to provide temporary housing for them until he dispatched a fleet of ships with the complete equipment required for quick establishment of a colony.
I lowered my head in front of the picture screen and put my right hand on my chest. The speaker at the other end smiled. Due to the great distance the picture was rather poor. "You must stay put in this planetary system a little longer, Atlan. Amonar's confessions lead us to believe that the conspiracy of the former Administrator was not confined to the 2nd planet of Larsa's star. We need a man of your stature in that constellation. I hereby grant you full powers."
His edict was irrevocable. When his picture faded away I heard Tarth laugh loudly and angrily. The men in the radio centre looked as if they wanted to bite my head off.
"He can't do that to us!" the old Commander exclaimed. "Why did you have to call him? I'm afraid we'll be stuck in this miserable corner for years. We'll be waiting for an attack which will never come. I happen to know that not even the Galactic Traders know anything about the existence of these 10 planets."
I was exasperated myself. If I had left immediately the Great Council would have had to send in another commander. There were more important things for me to do with the insurrections that constantly occurred somewhere in the Galaxy than to waste my time in a world whose denizens threw themselves in the dust to beg for our benevolence.
We started the following day. I assigned a contingent to Capt. Feltif and left him some mobile energy-cannons and graders.
When I returned a week later with a flotilla and disembarked the first pioneers from Zakreb, they had already constructed a temporary spaceport with a meter-thick solid base.
Our construction planner Capt. Feltif had simply melted a part of the plateau with the impulse-cannons and let the liquefied rocks spread out and cool off to form a smooth surface.
2 weeks later the transport fleet promised by the Imperator arrived and an administrator was appointed for the 3rd world of Larsa's star.
The special robots that had been shipped in for laying out small settlements with a communal centre in accordance with proven plans went to work at once.
While they were busy with their work I received orders to station an armed taskforce on the planet and to take off into space again to join Space Admiral Sakal who was engaged in a bitter fight with the insurgent forces of methane-breathers that had attacked him with a large fleet of ships and novel weapons.
This gave me a welcome opportunity to depart from Atlantis. I put the taskforce under the command of Capt. Feltif and investigated again each planet of the little system for the presence of intelligent beings before I prepared for the start. Only the 3rd world had developed higher life and I was satisfied that my job had been taken care of for the time being so that I could notify the Great Council to this effect.
I lifted off in the battleship Tosoma together with the battle cruisers Paito and Askohr and waited near the orbit of the 4th planet for my other heavy and light cruisers to join us so that we could perform our transitions.
The war against the methane-breathers had broken out again during the first days when the settlers on Atlantis began to build their new home and I was happy to be thrust again in the multitude of stars in the centre of the Galaxy although I knew that we were on the eve of a hard and bitter fight.
At the spacefleet base Alslaton 6, I took on provisions, water and nuclear fuel for my squadron. We received worrisome reports from the so-called nebula sector. It looked as if the intelligent beings of the whole non-Arkonide world had conspired against us.
When I finally arrived at the advanced planetary base Jangtu and reported to Admiral Sakal I no longer thought about the little yellow sun which had been named Larsa's star after its discoverer. Neither did I ponder the fate of the small continent which had been given the name of Atlantis by the commander of my flagship. It had become rather unimportant now that the Great Empire under Arkon's hegemony struggled for its very existence.
The so-called Methane War taxed our resources to the limit. At that time we did not yet know how much it would bleed our people and that it would lead the Empire to the brink of disaster.
Had it been otherwise, I would doubtlessly have found ways & means to circumvent the full effects of a terrible event 2 years later.








6/ ALIEN ATTACK

The focal point of the 35th battle to contain our enemies was only about 3 light-years away. This time the Koal System was at stake and all its inhabitants had been hastily evacuated.
4 weeks before beginning the new major attack I had landed on the spacefleet base Alaget 3 to obtain the long overdue overhaul of my machines and to replenish my exhausted weapons.
Alaget was in a state of indescribable chaos and I had to use all my influence to get the units of my squadron into the maintenance yards. The place was littered with badly damaged vessels of the Imperial Fleet and their commanders and squadron chiefs were desperately scrambling for replacement of killed or horribly maimed crews.
I was lucky to receive preference, as it was known that I was Atlan of the ruling dynasty and I had no scruples about taking advantage of my name to obtain reinforcements that were unavailable to other commanders. The importance of my special task force outweighed name and rank.
Capt. Inkar was given a brand new battle cruiser of the Fusuf class to replace his unfit wreck and he promptly christened it Paito again like his old ship. I was fortunate enough to be able to wangle 10 light cruisers as well and now I was equipped to go into battle once more.

* * * *

Capt. Tarth knocked at the door of my cabin and I wondered why he didn't use the telecom. After entering he put a note with a decoded message on the table before me. His wrinkled face looked deeply worried. I had prescribed a biochemical rejuvenation for him a few weeks ago but so far we didn't have an opportunity to visit a government medical centre. Such institutes didn't exist at the borders of the Empire.
"More setbacks, old friend?" I inquired with dismay, picking up the note.
He laughed grimly. He had been on many daring missions. "From your august uncle himself," he said weakly; his red eyes looked inflamed. "Atlan, I've put you through a hard school but this I don't like. Someone is stabbing us in the back. We're ordered away from the battle and instantly re-deployed. Do you know where?"
I perused the radio message. It bore the personal code signal of the Imperator. "Larsa's star?" I wondered out loud. "Sounds familiar, Larsa's star...?"
"It's the tiny solar system we left 2 years ago. The colonists there have once again sent an emergency call to the Great Council. But this time they're not concerned with the transgression of a megalomaniac official. They seem to be disturbed by a more serious matter. We've been instructed to move into that space sector and to be girded for a fight."
I glanced at the observation screens on the Admiral's cabin. Outside on the vast grounds of the maintenance yard agitated Arkonides from all parts of the stellar empire hurried to and fro. There were many men among them whose ancestors had emigrated thousands of years ago. All their petty rivalries about sovereignty and competition for trade were forgotten. The only thing that mattered now was to repulse the non-humanoid, methane-breathing intelligent creatures.
"And I'm supposed to leave at a critical moment like this and to go to such an insignificant little star," I growled, highly irritated. "My venerable uncle seems to have forgotten that we're 32,000 light-years away from there."
"The Commander of the local depot has been ordered to show us special considerations," Tarth responded in a calming tone. He was a loyal admirer of my family. "We're slated to receive a few more new cruisers."
I jumped to my feet and picked up my telecom-helmet as I walked to the door. What could have happened in the region of Larsa?
Only 12 hours later I took off with my fleet which now consisted of the battleship Tosoma, the battle cruisers Paito and Askohr as well as 42 heavy and light cruisers. I had held a short briefing on the telecom and my commanders were informed about our objective.
Shortly before reaching the velocity of light we became embroiled in a fight with several light warships of the enemy who had broken through our lines without being noticed. We demolished the 5 cruisers with a single terrific blast from our impulse-cannons, raced on leaving the glowing debris behind and informed the commanding admiral of the incident.