"Perry Rhodan 126 - The Shadows Attack" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

Perry Rhodan
126

THE SHADOWS ATTACK

by Clark Darlton




PROLOG

KHREST, WHO WAS PERRY RHODAN’S FIRST ARKONIDE FRIEND, HAD PREDICTED IN HIS TIME THAT THE BOLD AND ENERGETIC TERRANS WOULD ONE DAY TAKE OVER THE CRUMBLING ARKONIDE IMPERIUM IN ORDER TO ERECT FROM ITS RUINS THE STELLAR EMPIRE OF HUMANITY.

HAS THE DAY ALREADY ARRIVED IN WHICH KHREST’S PREDICTION IS TO BE FULFILLED…? IN THE YEAR 2105—NOT YET A CENTURY AND A HALF SINCE EARTHMEN FIRST VENTURED INTO SPACE—IS THE SOLAR IMPERIUM STRONG ENOUGH BY NOW TO RELIEVE THE ARKONIDES OF THEIR RULERSHIP OVER THE KNOWN SECTIONS OF THE GALAXY? IMPERATOR ATLAN, WHO HAS NEVER BEEN ACCEPTED BY HIS DECADENT COURTIERS AND SYCOPHANTS, IS FACED WITH SO MANY DIFFICULTIES THAT HE HAS FOR SOME TIME BEEN ABLE TO MAINTAIN HIS POSITION ONLY WITH THE HELP OF THE TERRANS—TOGETHER WITH THE AID OF THE POWERFUL ROBOT REGENT!

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR 2106 THE ROBOT REGENT SUDDENLY WITHDREW ALL SUPPORT FROM ATLAN AND INSISTED THAT HE SUBMIT TO A “MENTO DUEL” WHICH WAS TO DECIDE WHO THE NEW IMPERATOR SHOULD BE. ATLAN FAILED IN THIS DUEL AND WAS REMOVED BY THE POSITRONICON, IN FAVOUR OF CARBA.

BUT NEITHER ATLAN NOR PERRY RHODAN ARE MEN WHO TOSS THEIR WEAPONS AWAY JUST BECAUSE THEY’VE HAD A SETBACK. THEY STILL SEARCH FOR A WAY TO REVERSE THE COURSE OF EVENTS—AND THUS THEY FIND THE IMPERIUM SAVER …








1/ THE ROBOT HUNTERS

“BOGIES!”
“Sir, we have bogies in sector K1-8-DX. Range 2.3 lisex. Standing by for instructions …”
Col. Kermak, commander of Solar class battlecruiser Alderamin, did not so much as turn his head. He stared intently at the main viewscreen of the Control Central, which gave him a very natural reproduction of a section of the outer void. With a swift movement of his hand he brought in the magnification. The 2.3 light-seconds of distance seemed to telescope and the tracked objects became visible.
“Increase retropulsion,” he said without taking his eyes from the screen. “Approach manoeuvre. Boarding crews stand by! Man the battle stations!”
The 1st Officer saluted and left the room in order to transmit the orders and see that they were carried out.
Col. Kermak was looking at 3 ships on the viewscreen. They were apparently drifting along through space without guidance and it was obvious that they were unmanned. They were robot units of the Arkonide Imperium’s fleet which had virtually “died” when the robot Regent was destroyed. The Terrans had already succeeded in securing about 90,000 out of a total of 100,000 of them but out there in the unfathomable reaches of space there were still 10,000 heavily armed ships. In the hands of any potential enemy this could represent a force not to be underestimated.
Col. Kermak was among those who had been chosen to prevent this. With his heavy battlecruiser Alderamin, a spherical vessel 500 meters in diameter and carrying a normal crew of 800 men, he had been assigned to the task of tracking down the pilotless robotships of Arkon and taking them over with special prize crews.
This was no simple operation because when the robot Regent of Arkon was destroyed the units of the Arkonide Fleet were scattered all over the galaxy. Without a special circuit alteration these ships had responded exclusively to the command signals of the giant positronicon. Thus from one moment to the next they had suddenly become pilotless and they were subject to being confiscated by anyone who knew the secret of how to switch them over to manual control. Within the Milky way there were numerous races who desired to increase their military power so it was natural for them to seize the opportunity by attempting to capture Arkon’s inactivated ships.
But Perry Rhodan sought to prevent this at all costs.
As Col. Kermak continued to observe the 3 drifting vessels he noted that one of them was a superbattleship of the Imperium class, a tremendous sphere measuring almost a mile in diameter whereas the 2 other smaller ships were obviously cruisers. They still flew in their original formation, which was loosely triangular, with the battleship leading and the 2 cruisers following.
The First Officer returned to the Control Central. “Ship ready for combat sir.”
This time Kermak turned toward him. “Probably as superfluous as in all the other cases,” he said with a reassuring smile. “Let’s secure the battleship first. Who’s leading the boarding team?”
“A Lt. Vitali, sir. This is his third ship capture.”
“Then he knows what he has to do. Let me know as soon as all 3 ships are secured for manual flight.”
“Very good, sir,” answered the First Officer, who again exited the room.
Col. Kermak turned back to the viewscreen in order to follow the forthcoming procedures in every detail. But before the locks of the Alderamin could be opened for Lt. Vitali and his men, something unexpected occurred: a message came through from the duty officer in the tracking section. At least 20 ships ranging from large to small had materialised at a distance of just 5 lisex and were now approaching at top speed. They deployed themselves swiftly so that they quickly surrounded the Alderamin and the robotships.
“Energy screen!” roared Col. Kermak. This placed him in a security mode which would protect his spacesphere from eventual raybeam bombardments. And of course Vitali could no longer leave the Alderamin.
“Stand by!” he ordered, while watching his screen.
The alien ships were cylindrical in shape. Springers! But after all, what else? Wherever there was trouble the Springers, otherwise known as the Galactic Traders, were never far away. These merchant-pirate offshoots of the Arkonide race were as shrewd and clever as the Terrans. There could be little doubt that their technicians knew how to make the manual override connections on the robotships. The stellar traders had shown up with the intention of grabbing the spoils and dividing the heritage of Arkon between themselves.
“Radio message, sir!” announced the com officer over intercom. “An urgent warning!”
Almost imperceptibly, Kermak composed himself. With outward calm he answered: “Alright, let’s have it!”