SPACE BATTLE IN THE VEGA SECTOR

CHAPTER ONE

On a shrill, shouted command, two hundred gleaming metal arms raised upward. A hundred fluorescing ray guns pointed at the cloudless sky of the Gobi Desert. One hundred steel fighter robots poised motionlessly; their mechanical inner workings were operating, but this was not outwardly detectable.

"Let's give our guest the full dress treatment," Colonel Freyt advised, with an ironic glance at the human commanding officer of the robot guard troops standing at attention.

Captain Klein coughed discreetly. He squinted across at the ship that had just landed. "Looks kind of familiar," he said. "Will you take care of the ceremony, Sir?"

Colonel Freyt, chief of the Space Fighter Force, moved forward stiffly like a marionette. On the mighty tail unit of the landed jet bomber gleamed the emblem of the U.S. Space Force. Freyt stopped before the escalator.

The figure emerging from the narrow hatch was huge and impressive. General Lesley Pounder, space force commander, looked about him silently. For a moment his gaze rested on the dress formation of the fighter robots. He acknowledged Captain Klein's salute distractedly. Far above the airport thundered ghostly shapes in the blue May sky of the Gobi Desert. It was shortly after 1300 hours. The sun's beat bore down oppressively.

Crackling blasts of thunder confirmed that the ships up there, whistling toward outer space, had pierced the sound barrier. Before the sonic booms reached the ground, the silvery dots of reflected light had disappeared.

Pounder cleared his throat, "Quite a show," he acknowledged appreciatively. Then, "Hello, Freyt. It's been a long time, hasn't it?" Even Pounder found the first moments of their meeting a bit distressing.

"About three years, sir," Freyt agreed diplomatically. "You sent me to the moon in a Stardust-class rocket. The mission went as badly as the landing we made. If the chief, Perry Rhodan, hadn't arrived with the space sphere, you'd have had to add three more test pilots to the crash list."

Pounder, square built and always on a sharp edge, pressed his lips together. "That's right," he confirmed coldly. "For three years now you've been wearing the uniform of the Third Power. Hm-m-doesn't look so bad. A bit Utopian. I see you've been promoted, too."

Colonel Freyt decided not to answer the innuendoes. Pounder had come here to the sanctum sanctorum of the Third Power as a visitor. It would be senseless for Freyt to argue with his former superior.

"The car is waiting, sir," he parried. "The chief is not here yet. We received a message from him just a half hour ago. He's somewhere near the orbit of Mars in a fighter ship, making a test flight."

General Pounder also swallowed this pill. His former subordinate spoke casually of things that were still incomprehensible to mankind. "Near the orbit of Mars," he murmured to himself. "That sounds strange. You've come a long way, lad. Definitely further than would have been possible in the space force. You've really been building up around here."

Pounder took a look around. Far to the north, near Lake Goshun, the towerlike structures of Galacto City loomed skyward. He had not been here for three years. At that time the Third Power had possessed only a few provisional buildings. And now this! The two flight centers alone could serve as showplaces for any major power-but the spaceport was the mightiest installation ever created by man

"We have further plans," Freyt told him expressionlessly. "The land area we've bought from the Asiatic Federation now amounts to exactly 14,400 square miles. Galacto City, according to the latest census, has 230,000 inhabitants. If you please, sir, our people will service your ship." With a glance at the mighty bomber, he added casually, "That old crow is a bit primitive, you know. Are you still using the old-fashioned nuclear propulsion?"

"That's the propulsion that sent you to the moon, Freyt. Are you trying to rub in how terribly far behind you we are? Just remember that you and Perry Rhodan got your start in the space force. If I hadn't sent Perry to the moon he wouldn't have come across the Arkonides. That is what you call the aliens, isn't it?"

"Precisely, sir." Freyt nodded.

Pounder snorted. "Without this alien intelligence we wouldn't have made another step of progress. Rhodan lucked out when he gained their confidence It's the only way the Third Power could have come into being. Well, enough of that. How is Rhodan making out as chief of state?"

"Do you mean the president, sir?"

Pounder fumed silently for a moment, then blasted out, "Freyt, for me your president will always be Major Rhodan, the shavetail I promoted and drilled personally until he was placed in that momentous expedition. You straighten him out on that!"

"He hasn't forgotten it, sir." Freyt grinned. "But all barbs aside, I'm glad you're here. Are you going to negotiate with the chief about the pulse drive system?"

The general paused in his stride. At the distant spaceport the weird roaring rang out again. Flashing shapes rode the skies on barely perceptible pulse streams. Ile waited until the infernal sound subsided.

"That was the second squadron under Deringhouse," Freyt explained. "He's made good. You didn't select any bad candidates, sir."

Please note: This is a work of fiction. This text corresponds to the first pages of the novel "The Vega Sector". I aquired the book in 1975 in the United Kingdom. The book was published by Futura Publications Ltd, 49 Poland  St., London W1A 2LG. The cover lists K.H. Scheer and Kurt Mahr as joint authors of this book, but it is my knowledge that the text that I've scanned for internet usage was exclusively written by Karl-Herbert Scheer. The author is deceased. It is my knowledge that this text was translated by Mrs. Wendayne Ackerman. I had the great privilege to meet this nice lady and fine translator in her private home in Los Angeles, California. It's a pity that Mrs. Ackerman is deceased, too.

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It is the purpose of this Website to promote a better understanding of the Perry Rhodan series among the English-speaking science fiction community. It is my personal opinion that the works of Karl-Herbert Scheer should be more prominently noted by the international community. As fas as I know, "The Vega Sector" is out of print. I would be delighted if the early novels of the Perry Rhodan series were once again available to the general public.