"Perry Rhodan 019 - The Immortal Unknown" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

"Yes, sir, the echoes are excellent The instruments function perfectly."
"That's what we wanted to find out. Attention, everybody! A force field is, to all appearances, interfering with us. Its nature is so far undefined. Be ready for surprises. You're advised to remain at your battle stations for your own safety. Capt. Klein, fire a random beam shot from the gun at the upper pole. Deploy an impulse weapon. I want to see the beam."
"Shock waves are still coming," reported the energy control centre. "They're now absorbed by the G-field."
Bell had regained his composure.
"Who was that old friend you greeted?" he quickly asked.
"Three guesses. Our mystery friend let us know that he's around. I bet my bottom dollar we're near the planet."
"We ought to be able to see it or locate it with the range-finder."
Rhodan's face looked sceptical.
"We'll come to that too," he predicted. "The question is how."
"Nyssen is gaining speed, he's giving it all he's got," Deringhouse announced. "Shall I take over by remote control?"
"By all means, hurry up. If I know the Unknown, these shocks were only a little tidbit of his."
Deringhouse switched on his guidance system. Nyssen saw the red lamp light up above his head and then he knew that the mothership had taken him under its wings, regardless of whether his signals got through or not.
Nyssen stared ahead with burning eyes. The climate control of his spacesuit turned itself on as the humidity became excessive.
Finally, Rod Nyssen recognized the weak glimmer in the cluster of stars. The little flicker became more distinct until it disappeared again in the flames of his pursuit-ship. His flight was retarded by the Stardust. Next they would have to open the fatally dangerous gravitation screen to avoid a collision with the little fighter and to prevent its disintegration in a flash. It was always a test of nerves to approach the Stardust with enormous speed, knowing that it was enveloped in the most potent defence fields designed to repel all imaginable attacks.
Not that all types of defence screens were dangerous for materially stable objects but the G-field was one of those structures which incorporated the most lethal achievement of the Arkonide super-technology.
It was, so to speak, abnormal in terms of three-dimensional space, since it consisted of energy-units of a higher order in the fifth dimension. The Arkonides knew the nature of gravity whereas the scientists on Earth had only tentative theories.
Nyssen's craft was still a fatastically fast projectile spewing redhot flames into black space.
The Stardust was still far ahead but clearly visible now. Seconds later it grew to the size of a baseball which stood out against the background of stars.
Nyssen's little machine gradually slowed down. He sighed hopefully and as he finally disengaged the manual steering, he saw with horror that one half of the battleship had suddenly become a fire-spitting furnace. Nyssen managed to yell his observation into the telecom. Close before him the energy screen split open. Magnetic forces of enormous magnitude seized his craft and pulled it into the open hatch of the airlock.
It happened much too fast and rough. He kicked the pedal for the shock compensator almost at the instant that he was pushed onto the launching tracks with forbidding force and hurled into the magnetic retention field.
The little spacefighter slammed through the magnetic barrier and was smashed against the solid walls of Arkonide steel at the end of the hangar.
Before Nyssen lost consciousness he perceived the tumultuous uproar in the Stardust. After a long period of waiting things had perked up on the battleship.

* * * *

It would have been too much to expect that Nyssen-in his condition-understood the reasons for his precarious landing manoeuvre. At present it was not so important how he got on board. What mattered was that he made it.
The two mutants in the command centre, Son Okura and Tanaka Seiko, reacted almost simultaneously.
Okura, the frequency-seer, received only an indistinct wave pattern. Nevertheless, he was able to pinpoint the spot where the entirely unfamiliar emission originated.
It was located in the red sector at about 32 degrees. In the vertical plane it was at 4 degrees.
He reported his findings at once. However the other mutant, Tanaka Seiko, had suffered violent repercussions.
Anne Sloane and Tama Yokida restrained the frantic mutant by telekinetic force.
It was impossible to get accurate information. Tanaka's wretched condition had evidently been brought on by a severe shock.
It also quickly became superfluous to obtain the result of his directional probing. The Stardust had abruptly become the victim of over powering forces.
Weeks of laborious calculations and intricate manoeuvres were in danger of being negated within moments.
An unseen mailed fist struck at the same time as Nyssen's pursuitship landed in the airlock.
Rhodan had already switched over to automatic control when the first relatively mild strikes occurred. He feared that he would be in no position to counteract sudden surprises in time. The way it looked now, this seemed to have been a very appropriate move.
Stardust II was soon reduced to a creaking spherical shell whose cavernous volume was not conducive to retaining the necessary stability.
It was as if all joints and braces expanded and contracted although some reinforcements were armourplate a yard thick.
At the same time the spaceship's velocity increased spontaneously to such a degree that Rhodan's attention was primarily concentrated on listening to the power reactors instead of the distortion effects.
"Maximum load," Bell shouted above the noise. Rhodan looked at the widened eyes of his friend. This was as much as Bell reacted to panic. He was one of those enviable men without nerves in times of danger.
The alarm went off again. Bright-red warning lamps blinked in all departments of the ship.
"Oh no, not this!" Khrest moaned as he was squashed into his seat.
Rhodan, too, could feel the mounting pressure. The mighty Stardust II was driven by ever-increasing accelerating forces with which the thrust neutralizers could cope no longer. Their capacity was 360 miles per second which could be exceeded in emergencies only for a very limited time if all power reactors worked together.
Rhodan began to look worried. Something was happening now which had not occurred on board a modern Arkonide spaceship in at least 20,000 years-the effect of the moment of inertia took over. They felt the impact of the thrust breaking without transition through the neutralizing field and they realized that the Unknown was deadly serious this time.
The automatic controls still functioned satisfactorily. So far only the men were hampered by the cruel forces.
Khrest's unusually young face became grotesquely distorted. He suddenly looked ancient, dilapidated and lifeless. The Arkonide was almost unable to breathe while Rhodan still functioned and made decisions.
The more high-pitched sound of the drive-engines running at full speed insinuated itself into the predominant noise of the power reactors. The engines produced about four million tons of thrust by terrestrial standards.
Rhodan exhaled the compressed air in his lungs with a whistle. It felt like a sneeze of relief. He wanted to shout, laugh or do anything to vent his excitement.
He regained his lucidity. The engines performed in a faultless manner as was to be expected from the superior products of the Arkonides.
Brutal forces of formidable strength opposed each other. On one side the incredible energy of the Unknown and here the might of machines.