The Venus Trap by Perry Rhodan

Author:Perry Rhodan [Rhodan, Perry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Interstellar, Sci-Fi, Unknown
Publisher: Ace Books
Published: 1972-01-23T00:55:51+00:00

• • •

They had traveled a distance of one and a half miles from the exit of the shaft when a bomb exploded. The forest was illuminated for a few seconds by a pale light which was clearly noticeable through the dense roof of leaves. Half a minute later. the shockwave of the explosion rolled over the land. They were not affected by the blast. It was a small fusion bomb with a non-critical split mass, reaching the critical factor of one at the time of ignition by utilizing a suitable reflector such as graphite or beryllium-oxide. The dangerous radioactivity was confined to the immediate proximity of the explosion. The cave of the seals, which had served as their haven for a few minutes, and its surroundings in 1500 foot radius, would be a contaminated area for some time, but if the seals heeded the warning they wouldn't be hurt by the despicable bombing.

Nonetheless, the deployment of an atomic bomb was additional proof for Perry Rhodan that it would be criminal irresponsibility to leave Venus to the mercy of people like Colonel Raskujan. They treated Venus like an outpost of Terra. They failed to understand that a new world called for new methods. It was beyond their comprehension that the international rivalry on which politics between the countries on Terra was based, could not be allowed to be transplanted and continued on Venus. What these people lacked was 'cosmic thinking' as Perry Rhodan had come to term it. Rhodan felt it extremely regrettable that so far he had been prevented from putting Raskujan in his place. Of the 22 miles to the perimeter of the defense screen less than two had now been covered. Time for an extended rest had to be taken out in the next five hours or their legs and senses would give out. They spent the pause in the highest and last hazardous level of the forest. Son Okura selected a tree promising comparative comfort and security. With some difficulty he reached—at a height of about 120 feet—a fork in the tree big enough to offer a safe place for all of them in its hollow. Rhodan volunteered to take the first watch of two hours. Then it was the turn of the Japanese, with John Marshall completing the cycle.

They settled down as best they could and both Marshall and Okura were fast asleep in a minute. Rhodan, however, used the time to ponder some of the problems that had so far remained unsolved. A year ago he had deprived general Tomisenkow's hostile Space Landing Division of their ships and driven them into the forest with the intention of creating from Tomisenkow's 10,000 men—or rather what was left of the men—the first stock of inhabitants of Venus. The plan had proceeded very well. Tomisenkow's division had split up as expected. Ideological splinter groups formed, such as the pacifists under Lieutenant Wallerinski. The separation had not taken place without inner conflicts. There had been some fighting. But

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