"(novel) (ebook) - Perry Rhodan 0072 - (64) The Ambassadors from Aurigel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

A wide gateway opened at the base of the first tower through which the aircushion car floated into a brightly-lit hall. The other vehicles followed as Chellish reassured himself with a quick backward glance. Servants in splendid uniforms rushed forward from all sides and took their places at the doors of the vehicles.
Their initial goal had been reached: Chellish and his companions were inside the 'palace' of the President-King of Peep, or rather Heeninniy, although they didn't know it at the moment.





3/ THE SECRET DOCUMENTS

"I've got a job for you," Admiral Wee-Nii said 3 days later to his aide Fij-Gul, "and I don't know if you're going to like it."
Fij-Gul listened attentively.
"At the court of His Excellency," Wee-Nii continued, "they have meanwhile found out that the spaceship of the aliens is empty and was left unguarded. I want you to take a few men and have a look if there is any important information in which we would be interested."
"Is there any reason to distrust the aliens?" Fij-Gul asked suspiciously.
Wee-Nii waved his hand. "First of all there are always reasons to mistrust strangers and, secondly, it's none of your business nor is it mine. Orders are orders and this one comes from the Presidential Chambers. So pick a few men and take some micro-cameras along. The sooner you finish the job, the better."
"But I don't have any idea how airlocks can be opened," Fij-Gul grumbled. "The strangers have locked them."
"This problem has already been solved," Wee-Nii said. "Our technicians weren't asleep all this time either. Just let me know when you're ready to enter the ship and you'll find the airlock open."
Fij-Gul turned around but before he left through the curtain which served as a door, he thought of another question. "What will happen if the strangers surprise me in the act?"
Wee-Nii made a vague gesture. "Then the court will hold you in disgrace as long as the aliens remain on Heeninniy," he answered. "Of course the Presidential Chambers will deny all knowledge. If you get caught you'll have to assume all responsibility yourself. You'll have to make this clear to your men too."
Fij-Gul saluted and left. He walked along the high and long corridor outside, which was uneven and packed down by footsteps. He mulled over the assignment he had drawn and felt that it was utterly distasteful to him.

* * * *

"No," Sheldrake assured with emphasis, "I've never had a more interesting job in my life and time has never seemed so short as aboard the Fair Lady."
A buzzing, disturbing noise suddenly filled the little room. Sheldrake looked up and glanced with dismay at the little warning box which hung on the wall behind him. "Visitors!" he said tersely. "Take your places, boys."
Loewy and Krahl got up and left the room. Sheldrake followed and locked the hatch to the small room. The hatch was designed to look exactly like the adjacent wall. It fitted in without showing a crack and only by measuring the adjoining rooms would anyone else have been able to detect that there was a 3rd room between the other 2.
Loewy and Krahl slipped down the dark corridor toward the right and Sheldrake turned left. He tried to analyse his emotions and concluded that he didn't feel any fear. He was excited but not afraid. To discover this seemed to calm him somehow. He touched his weapon, which he carried in his hip pocket, and turned into a narrow corridor leading to the radio room. He checked the observation screen, which gave him a view of the Command Centre, and found that it was properly switched on as it flickered once in awhile. The screen was dark since it was also dark in the Command Centre at the present time.
Sheldrake closed his eyes and listened. He didn't know who had opened the airlock. But Chellish himself had installed the warning instrument and advised the entire crew of it. Therefore it was extremely unbelievable that one of their own men had done it.
Whistlers, Sheldrake thought. They must have become curious, wanting to snoop around. Although he strained his ears, he was unable to hear anything. Whoever the intruder was, he moved quietly and cautiously as one would expect a burglar to do. Sheldrake opened his eyes again and looked at the picture screen. He waited for the light in the Command Centre to go on but he knew that he would be startled when it happened.

* * * *

Wee-Nii had kept his promise: the airlock of the alien ship was open.
Still, Fij-Gul felt not a bit more comfortable than before. What if the strangers had failed to tell the truth and left guards aboard the vessel in order to protect it against any unauthorized trespassing?
Then he, Fij-Gul, would have to take the blame for the mess. There would be nobody to back him up. Even Wee-Nii would feign astonishment and pretend that he didn't have the faintest notion how his adjutant got the crazy idea to sneak into the ship of the strangers with a handful of men and violate the laws of hospitality in such a flagrant manner.
He would be demoted and sent to the farthest and most boring corner of Heeninniy. If they would ever call him back and restore his honour after the strangers had departed, as Wee-Nii had promised, was something that could not be predicted with certainty. Iiy-Juur-Eelie's verdicts were sometimes inscrutable.
With a whistling sound of disgust he pulled himself up through the airlock. The lamp in his hand lit up and the beam searched along the wall. Fij-Gul had learned before he started out with his 5 men how to operate the hatches of the unfamiliar ship. He quickly located the button which opened and closed the inner hatch doors.
He waited till his men had caught up with him and then shut the outer hatch. At the moment it closed with a sucking noise, the airlock chamber was flooded with light. Fij-Gul was stunned at first since nobody had told him that the illumination worked automatically. They probably didn't know it either. Fij-Gul waited awhile and listened. Only after a few minutes had passed without a stir did he feel sure that no danger threatened.
He opened the inner hatch and was no longer surprised that the corridor behind it was also bathed in light. In the centre of the corridor was a conveyor belt which was not running. Fij-Gul motioned his men and they cautiously went ahead through the corridor.
In time he became bolder. At first he stopped and listened at each corridor crossing. Since everything was perfectly quiet, he became more confident as he went along.
It began to look as if the aliens had told the truth: the ship was empty.
Fij-Gul thought it most likely that the desired information-if there was any to be found at all-could be dug up in the Command Centre from where the ship was steered. Following his sense of symmetry, he guessed that the Command Centre was located at the centre of the ship and he was not mistaken in this case. After searching for half an hour during which time his head-and those of his men even more-began to drone under the unaccustomed high air pressure inside the ship, they reached a circular room which was much too low for his standards. The room had so many switch panels, consoles, observation screens, dials, loudspeakers and other instruments on its walls that its function was unmistakable.
Fij-Gul had only the vaguest idea what to look for. He saw several cabinets, which were filled with files. The files contained papers with the peculiar letters of the strangers. Fij-Gul didn't know the writing and had therefore no possibility of recognizing what was or wasn't important. Thus he thought it best to photograph everything he could lay his hands on. While he was busy taking pictures his men examined the other cabinets which were all empty with one exception. Fij-Gul felt relief. The sooner he could leave the ship the better it would be.
He had the files spread out on one of the tables and photographed each sheet with a small camera which he had slipped over a finger through a metallic ring.

* * * *

Sheldrake indeed flinched a little when the light went on. He saw the 6 Whistlers enter the Command Centre and hoped that they would fail to detect the little electronic eye above the entrance door which surveyed the entire room.
He could also hear one of the Whistlers, who was a little taller than the others, utter some squeaky noises while pointing in various directions. He knew that a recording instrument monitored the conversation and that they would later be able to translate it into English by using the transmitter they had obtained from the Whistlers on Grautier. He regretted that he didn't have such a set because he was extremely anxious to learn what the Whistlers were after in particular.
He watched the tallest of the men, apparently the leader of the group, take file after file out of the cabinet, spread them out on the table and photograph them with a miniature camera. He knew that these files had been purposely put into the cabinet by Chellish in order to mislead the Whistlers and he was pleased to see that they swallowed the bait. If the Whistlers succeeded in translating the documents they would be taught to exercise extreme caution in their treatment of the envoys of Aurigel.
About 40 minutes later all papers had been photographed. The officer-if he was one-took a last look around and Sheldrake had the impression that he was glad not to discover any more documents. With a quick, nervous gesture he motioned his men to leave and closed the hatch behind himself. The observation screen turned dark as the light in the Command Centre was switched off.