Captain Future 09 - Quest Beyond the Stars (Winter 1942) (6 page)

“What’s on those spears of yours that kills them so quickly?” Curt asked.

Skur Kal, the younger Antarian, answered.

“We castaways discovered that a certain radioactive substance here was poisonous in an extreme degree to the mineral-men. So we made spears tipped with the radioactive poison, to repel them when they attacked us.”

Hol Jor interrupted, pointing ahead.

“There’s our camp. Won’t the others be surprised?”

The camp of the interstellar castaways was in a hollow in the rock plain. The hollow had been gouged by the crash of a large, cylindrical shaped vessel that had been shattered into a total wreck.

“That’s the ship of Ber Del — the other Vegans in his expedition were all killed in the crash,” Hol Jor explained. “Later, when we others drifted here from Wrecks, we found Ber Del living here and joined forces with him. We’ve lived ever since, using the rations in the wreck and utilizing a chemical conversion unit to make water from the rock-elements.”

The
Comet
landed nearby, and the Antarians led the Futuremen into the camp. From the shattered wreck, three men came wonderingly forward to meet them. Hol Jor hailed them.

“A ship at last, mates! Maybe it means we can finally get off this cursed globe!”

He named the three men, one by one. Ber Del, the old Vegan, was a small, withered, blue-skinned man, completely hairless, with a bulging intellectual-looking skull, and colorless, faded eyes. Taunus Tar, the man from Fomalhaut’s worlds, was a pink-skinned plump, genial looking man of middle age whose small black eyes peered at them incredulously from between crinkling rolls of fat. Ki lllok, the castaway whose home was one of the suns of this Sagittarius region, was a brown man. The Sagittarian was compact, stocky, clipped of speech, brusque of manner. All three star rovers seemed astounded when Hol Jor told them how far across the galaxy the Futuremen had come.

“These friends all understand my language — we’ve learned each other’s tongue, in the time we’ve been here,” he explained to Curt.

“You came
that
far across the universe?” Ki lllok, the brown Sagittarian, repeated unbelievingly to Captain Future. “It’s hard to believe. Yet your companions certainly look alien.”

“They came looking for the Birthplace of Matter as we did,” shrugged big Hol Jor. “Only they were luckier than we, and didn’t get completely wrecked when they tried to enter the cloud.”

Ber Del, the withered old Vegan, shook his head. “Many men from different stars have met their deaths in this part of space, drawn by the lure of the Birthplace and the power its secret would give. And who knows — maybe all in vain. Maybe even if we could penetrate the cloud, we wouldn’t be able to reach the Birthplace against the will of the Watchers.”

“The Watchers?” Curt repeated sharply. “Who are they? And what do they have to do with the Birthplace of Matter?”

Big Hol Jor shrugged.

“It’s just an old tradition that Ber Del mentioned — probably only a baseless legend.”

“I wish I were sure it’s only a legend,” muttered the old Vegan nervously. “For if it should be true, the man who finally finds the Birthplace will enter a peril beyond anything ever dreamed.”

DIM in the darkness stretched the rolling ashen plains of the dark-star world. Wrapped in the somber obscurity of eternal death and night lay this once — mighty sphere. Only at one point did ruddy light beacon through the dusk. Captain Future and his friends had set up an atomic glower in the camp of the castaways. They sat around it now, the wrecked star-sailors eagerly sharing a meal of frozen Jovian beef and Earth bread and Uranian fruits that Curt had brought from the frozen-storage compartment of his ship. The bright radiance of the glower dispelled the chill and darkness. It gleamed off the hull of the
Comet,
wavered over the shattered hulk of the nearby wreck and picked out the strangely assorted group around it — Curt Newton, tanned, handsome, keen-eyed, Grag’s mighty metal limbs, and Otho’s lithe white figure, the brooding lens-eyes of the Brain and the faces of the old Vegan, the two Antarians and the Fomalhautian and Sagittarian.

They talked for hours, these strangely-met star-captains from far-separated parts of the galaxy. Fascinating to Captain Future were the tales these men could tell of exploration and adventure and dire peril and marvelous beauty which they had met with in intrepid voyages through this region of the starry universe.

“ — and so we combed sun after sun in that part of the star-cluster.” It was Ki Lllok, the brown Sagittarian, who was speaking in his clipped, curt way. “We saw wonders on some of those weird worlds! But the sight I’ll never forget is the night sky of those worlds — all the suns of the cluster blazing in the heavens like a million moons.”

Old Ber Del, the withered blue Vegan, nodded his hairless head.

“I was through some of those star clusters, years ago. It’s crazily dangerous piloting, picking your way through those thousands of swarming suns. I remember we’d picked up a load of rare metal in there and were heading back for Vega when we got into trouble running between the two suns of a double star. We were lucky to see our own worlds again.”

Otho’s green eyes were sparkling with excited interest.

“If you chaps have been going and coming between stars here for so long, why is it you’ve never visited our own sun, Sol?” he asked them.

Hol Jor, the giant Antarian, answered.

“Your sun is too far across the galaxy! No ship of ours could make it in less than many years. In this part of the universe, where the stars are much closer together, interstellar travel has been feasible.”

Taunus Tar, the fat pink star-captain from Fomalhaut, nodded agreement.

“It is so,” he told Captain Future. “That is why we were so awe-stricken when we learned how far across the universe you had come.”

“We had a strong motive for the voyage,” Curt Newton said earnestly. “One of the worlds of our System is dying from failing atmosphere. Only the secret of complete matter-mastery can revive it. And only at the Birthplace of Matter can that secret be learned.”

Old Ber Del nodded understanding.

“I came searching for the Birthplace with the same motive. My native world at Vega is dying. And it was a similar purpose that brought Hol Jor and the others on their separate quests, which ended in disaster.”

Curt’s jaw hardened.

“My
quest isn’t ended yet. It has to go on, somehow. For the life of a world, the future of a people, depend on it.

“You were telling me something about a legend or tradition connected with the Birthplace of Matter — something about the Watchers. What is the story?”

Hol Jor snorted.

“It’s just a crazy yarn you hear from many star peoples. They’ve been telling it for ages.”

“I don’t know — there may be truth in it,” muttered old Ber Del. “Maybe someone, long ago, did penetrate to the Birthplace and brought out this story. That’s what they say, anyway.”

The old Vegan bent toward Curt.

“The story was to the effect that the Birthplace does exist far inside the cosmic cloud, but that it is guarded by mysterious wardens with unhuman powers, who are called the Watchers and who allow no one to gain the secret of matter-mastery from the Birthplace.

“It is a fact,” he continued thoughtfully, “that no star-rover who went into the cloud has ever returned.”

Captain Future’s brow knitted.

“It’s a queer legend, this story of the Watchers. But we’ll worry about that when — and if — we get inside the cloud.” He looked at the castaways. “We’re going on, if we can find terbium to repair our ship. But what about you five?”

Hol Jor made an eager proposal to Curt.

“Why don’t you take us with you, as crew? We’re all willing to try bucking the cloud with you. We can help, maybe, with our small knowledge of the currents, and, once inside, you may need five star veterans like ourselves.

“We’re all after the same thing,” the big red Antarian went on earnestly. “We all want to secure the secret of matter-mastery from the Birthplace to help our worlds and peoples. Together, we’d have a better chance of winning that secret. And if we did get out with it, you could help us reach our own stars before you start home to yours.”

CURT looked at the other castaways.

“Do you all feel the same way about it?”

“I do,” replied Ki Illok curtly.

The fat, good-humored face of Taunus Tar bobbed in agreement.

“Anything is better than starving on this forsaken globe.”

Old Ber Del also nodded.

“We have nothing to lose and much to gain by joining you if you’ll have us.”

“Then it’s settled!” Captain Future said calmly.

“So now we’ve got a foreign legion of the stars!” grinned Otho.

“The first and biggest problem facing us,” Curt told his new partners, “is the finding of terbium to repair the driving ring of the
Comet
. Without the vibration drive, we can’t buck through those currents into the cloud. Is there any terbium in your wreck?”

Ber Del shook his head.

“Not a scrap of it. I never heard of terbium being used in any ordinary space-ship.”

“That makes it tougher,” Curt Newton admitted. “Simon, what do you think of our chances of finding terbium on this dead sun?”

“It’s a very slim chance, lad,” rasped the Brain. “This dark star contains only the gaseous elements of its original solar life, now solidified. Terbium would not be among them. But I’ll check with the element-resonator and make sure.”

Curt yawned, feeling the reaction of many hours of strain.

“I need sleep. Grag will help you with the job, Simon.”

Captain Future slept with the other star rovers around the cheerful flare of the atomic glower, as deeply as though he were not slumbering on a dead sphere.

WHEN he and the others awakened, they saw Grag and Simon hovering over a complicated instrument they had brought from the
Comet.
It was an element resonator, that could detect the presence of any element at extreme ranges. It operated by emitting narrowly-tuned vibrations that were reflected back only by the selected element, no matter what the distance.

“Any luck?” Curt asked, rubbing his eyes as he joined them.

“None, lad,” replied the Brain succinctly. “As I feared, there is no terbium on this sun.”

Otho swore.

“There wouldn’t be, just because we need it so badly.”

“Now what, chief?” Grag asked anxiously, while Hol Jor and the other star rovers waited anxiously for Curt’s decision.

Captain Future shrugged, “If there’s no terbium on this dead star, we have to look elsewhere. We can’t go far without the vibration drive. The only possible nearby source is one of the two planets of this ancient sun.”

“But they’re covered deep with ice,” objected Hol Jor.

“We’ll have to get down through the ice, if we locate terbium on one of them,” Captain Future replied. “That ought to be possible —
if
the terbium is there.”

An hour later, they had all entered the
Comet,
ready for the search for the vital metal. The ship blasted skyward with comparative slowness on the rocket drive. Grag steered it toward the innermost of the two planets that circled the burned-out star. The small world was a forbidding spectacle as they circled over it. It was covered to a great depth by solid ice — ice which was not only frozen water but frozen air. It presented a blank, barren white surface.

“Some place to go terbium mining
I”
muttered Otho. “What does the resonator say, Simon?”

The Brain was intently directing the instrument to and fro across the icy surface of the frozen world. His lens-like eyes watched the floating bubble of light that was its indicator.

“The resonator indicates the presence of terbium not far northwest of here,” he rasped, “Fly slowly in that direction.”

The
Comet
moved at reduced speed over the icy plain. The Brain watched his instrument, calling directions to Grag. Presently, at Simon’s request, the ship was brought to a halt.

“There is positive resonance from terbium directly underneath us,” the Brain announced. “The terbium is under the ice.”

“So now all we have to do is clear the ice away,” said Otho. “Well, give Grag a shovel and let him go to it.”

Hol Jor looked astonished.

“But it’ll take years to clear away that great depth of ice by such methods!”

Curt Newton smiled.

“Otho was only joking. Our proton-beams can disintegrate ice as swiftly as any other matter. We’ll have to fan them out so as to cover a wide area at one time.”

Adjustment was quickly made of the big proton-cannon used ordinarily as the armament of the
Comet.
Then they jetted their powerful rays, not in their ordinary highly concentrated beam, but in broad fans of force that combined to sweep a great area.

The ice began to melt over an area of half a square mile. It was not melting into Water — it was melting into nothingness.