Captain Future 06 - Star Trail to Glory (Spring 1941) (15 page)

"Now, what did you learn here?" Captain Future demanded urgently of the Futuremen. "Where did you pick up these machine men?"

Otho explained volubly how they had discovered the city of the machine men, built here by the semi-intelligent mechanisms of Kelso's ship. He told also of their disclosure that another man had been here and had taken Kelso's scientific secrets and some of the machine men.

"That's the man we're after," Curt declared. "You say they couldn't describe him?"

"The devil was cunning enough to wear a space-suit here," Otho said. "Chief, what in space is the mystery weapon of Kelso's that that plotter got here? Have you any idea?"

"Yes, but it seems almost incredible. Come on, we'll search the
Star Streak.
I wish I could be sure
I
was right."

HE AND Grag and Otho, followed by the bewildered Jan Walker and the stolid machine men, hastened to the corroded wreck. Weird cubistic vegetation hemmed in the ill-fated ship. They found the door and entered. The wreck was almost empty. The machine men had used all the equipment in it in the construction of their pathetic city.

"We did not touch the secret devices of the man who made us," hummed one of the machine men. "He had said we must never touch those things without permission. But the other man who came took them all."

"Yes, that cunning plotter would take everything," muttered Curt, surveying the empty cabinets that had held Kelso's instruments.

"This looks like Kelso's log-book!" Otho exclaimed, bringing a time-faded book he had found amid a mass of papers.

Captain Future grasped it and eagerly perused the angular handwriting of the long-dead scientist. It was a day-to-day log of the voyage of the
Star Streak,
but it contained nothing of scientific value.

"Wait, here's an entry that gives a clue!" Curt exclaimed.

November 30, Saturday — Near Jupiter's orbit. We should reach Pluto in four more weeks. My associates tiring of the voyage, and very anxious to turn hack. They say now that the fierce native Plutonians will destroy us. I have assured them my "speedup" device will enable us to crush any Plutonians who attack us, but they don't understand the device's power.

Curt's gray eyes gleamed.

"His speed-up device! That's the mystery weapon the space ship thieves are using, just as I guessed!"

"Speed-up?" repeated Grag blankly. "I don't understand, Master."

Captain Future was lost in thought.

"If I could duplicate Kelso's device, I could meet the ship thieves on even terms at last. It'll be a terrific job, but Simon and I should be able to do it." His head jerked up. "Walker, the Round-the-System Race starts next week, doesn't it?"

"That's right," Walker replied. "The prelim-races begin soon."

"Every space ship manufacturer will have his finest stock model in that race," Curt declared. "The ship hijackers will certainly try to seise those ships. If I can duplicate Kelso's device in time, I'm going to be piloting one of those ships. Then I'll finally be able to penetrate their organization and smash them for good,"

"Captain Future — piloting in the great Race?" gasped Jan Walker.

"I'll still be Ray Barret," said Curt. "And my co-pilot will be Otho, disguised as you, Walker!"

"Swell!" cried Otho eagerly. "I always did want to be a racing pilot. Clear space, everyone. Here come the racing Rocketeers!"

"We've got to blast back to Mercury in a hurry," Curt said. "Everything depends on whether the Brain and I can duplicate Kelso's speed-up invention before the race begins."

Soon the
Comet
rose from the little world, felt its way carefully out through a rift in the glowing green coma, and then headed for Mercury with all its rocket-tubes roaring a song of power.

"But, Master, what is this speed-up device you talk about?" Grag queried puzzledly.

"It's something that even I can hardly yet believe," Captain Future replied. "Somehow, though, the Brain and I must duplicate it, if we're to conquer and capture the man we're after." He reached toward the televisor. "I'm going to call Simon now and tell him what a job's ahead of us. He'll have time to get everything ready for our task before we arrive."

The powerful call-signal of the
Comet's
televisor, tuned to the Planet Police wave, hurtled Sunward.

"Calling Mercury Police headquarters!"

He got Ezra Gurney in a brief time. The old marshal's grizzled face was astonished and his eyes popped as he recognized Curt in the screen.

"Thought maybe you was done for, Cap'n Future! Heard how the ship you and Walker took out was missin'."

"I'll explain later, Ezra," Curt answered urgently. "Put on Simon Wright. I want to talk to him."

"Cap'n Future, I can't put Simon on!" babbled Ezra. "The Brain has disappeared!"

* * * * *

SIMON WRIGHT had remained in the Planet Police building of Solar City, back on Mercury. He had requested a small room to use as a temporary laboratory, and had equipped it with certain instruments from the
Comet
before Grag and Otho left in the ship.

In this makeshift laboratory, after Captain Future had gone in his disguise to join the Rocketeers, the Brain had begun work.

He was entirely alone. Both Ezra Gurney and Joan Randall had left to supervise the secret Police agents who were to shadow the space ship magnates.

The Planet Police officers on duty in the building had such awe of the unhuman Brain that they did not dare disturb him.

Hours passed into days, but the eternal twilight outside did not change and the Brain needed no sleep. His square, transparent case poised upon his new traction-beams, using other beams with which to handle his instruments and materials. His lens-eyes carefully scrutinized every detail of the device he was making.

"It is certainly true that these beams make my work much easier," thought the Brain. "Grag and Otho are skillful, but it was irritating to be forced to direct them in every small detail. Curtis was right when he claimed I would be glad I had these new powers."

Undisturbed by the demands a body would have raised, from eating to sleeping, he continued working without interruption.

"Finished at last," he rasped, laying down his tools and contemplating the compact, double-cylindered instrument he had made. "This should help locate the ship hijackers' base, if the other methods fail."

Joan Randall entered the room. The girl secret agent looked weary and discouraged.

"You've been having the space ship magnates shadowed, as Curtis asked?" inquired the Brain.

Joan nodded. "We've had our best Police agents on it. Every move of Rissman, Tark and all the rest has been watched. We haven't learned anything. None of them has contacted the secret base of the hijackers, nor have they made any other suspicious move." She looked puzzledly at the instrument the Brain had built. "What's that, Simon?"

"It's a new, more sensitive electroscope I've devised," the Brain explained. "I'm hoping it will be sensitive enough to follow an ionized rocket-trail even through an atmosphere."

Ezra Gurney burst into the room, his grizzled face grim.

"Just got some bad news, folks. The chief Rocketeer over at Suicide Station just reported that another new ship has disappeared. Its pilots were Walker and Barret."

"Barret — Captain Future!" cried Joan. She went pale. "What happened to them?"

"Nobody knows. The last call they had from the ship, a new Cruh-Cholo Thirty, was from a position just beyond Jupiter's orbit. Then it went silent."

"Then it is obvious that the ship thieves managed to overpower Curtis in spite of his preparations and took the ship," the Brain said calmly. "They doubtless left Curtis and the other pilot floating in space as usual."

"If that big, crazy redhead has let himself be killed, I'll never forgive him!" Joan cried illogically. "Ezra, can't we do something?"

"We'll call the Planet Patrol commander at Earth and have him send Patrol ships to search that part of space," Ezra said.

The veteran and the anxious girl agent hurried out, leaving the Brain alone.

SIMON brooded in thought. He was not greatly worried about Captain Future. None knew better than Simon Wright the resourcefulness of Curt in extricating himself from a perilous situation. The Brain was thinking about the new Cruh-Cholo ship that had been taken from Captain Future. The thieves would have to bring it to their main base, since they no longer had a Venus base to use as an outlying post.

"They'll fly it straight toward Mercury from that position in space," ruminated the Brain. "And if I were out on that space-lane, waiting —"

He made a quick decision, for he saw a chance to discover the location of the hijackers' secret base. Rapidly he made a trial to assure himself that he would be able to use the electroscope. Then he attached it to his square case.

Silently as a shadow he rose upon his traction-beams and glided out of the room. No one noticed him as he glided down the corridors, out of the Police building, and rose rapidly up through the eternal dusk of the Twilight Zone. The lights of Solar City receded beneath him. Driven by the push of his powerful impulse beams, he flew on until he was completely outside the atmosphere of Mercury and was hurtling through empty space.

Space meant nothing to the Brain. He did not breathe, nor could heat or cold affect him in his insulated case. He poised for a time in the void, his mind busy with intricate calculations. Unhesitatingly he flew outward in a direction away from the Sun and Mercury. The living Brain, one of the famous Futuremen, was on his way to play a part in the great battle of Captain Future against the thieves who were demoralizing an industry!

"This should be far enough," he thought at last. "I'm right on the line."

Simon had stopped at a point in space that was directly between Mercury and that distant position in space where Captain Future's Cruh-Cholo had been captured. The thieves, bringing the stolen ship back to Mercury, must pass along this line. The Brain waited. He remained quite motionless in space, checking his tendency to drift back toward Mercury by an occasional use of his traction-beams.

A man might have gone mad from the monotony of that vigil, as the hours of his wait mounted into scores. Nothing about him changed. No ship was to be seen, for this was off the ship-lanes between the planets. There was nothing but emptiness, and the cool, watching eyes of the eternal stars, but the Brain felt no boredom. His vast, icy intelligence was accustomed to physical inaction.

As the long hours passed, he occupied himself with the mental solution of a certain fifth-order mathematical problem which he had long meant to attack. His mind juggled incredibly complex equations. In that absorbing task he did not even notice the slow passing of time. But while his conscious mind was busy with the mathematical problem, his subconscious was on the watch. The lens-eyes of the Brain, protruding from his case on their flexible stalks, constantly kept watch and at last they glimpsed a small black mass against the stars. It was a space ship, running without lights.

"That must be it," thought the Brain. "No ordinary craft would run unlighted."

HE INSTANTLY forsook his mathematical musings and concentrated on the oncoming ship. It was approaching at high speed and would pass not far away. The Brain perceived that it was a Cruh-Cholo Thirty. He could clearly count the thirty projecting tail rocket-tubes. He glimpsed faint cowl-lights in the glassite-walled control room. The light was enough to show him two grotesque mechanical figures at the controls.

"Machine men!" he thought. "They are the ones who took that ship from Curtis and the other Rocketeer. And now they're going to their base."

Instantly the Brain followed the speeding ship as it headed straight toward Mercury. Like a shadow Simon Wright hung on its trail. The Cruh-Cholo darted down into the atmosphere over the Cold Side of Mercury. The Brain would have liked to call Ezra and Joan by his televisor, but he feared the call might be picked up by the mechanical creatures in the ship ahead.

The Cruh-Cholo was now scudding low over the desolate, dark wilderness of the Cold Side. It headed across the Twilight Zone, and on over the blazing, glaring — furnace of the Hot Side. The Brain had to drop back out of sight. Until now he had been concealed from discovery by darkness, but he could easily be seen out
in
that terrific blaze of sunlight, if the machine men looked back.

He brought into action the supersensitive electroscope he had attached to his case, which could trace the new trail of ionized rocket-discharge through the atmosphere before it dispersed. By that trail, he continued to pursue the stolen ship. Beneath him lay an appalling waste of rock, blackened by the fiery glare of the huge Sun. Here and there rose black, jagged hills. He glimpsed some squat gray "sun-dogs," using their sharp horns to dig out edible minerals from the rocks.