Captain Future 06 - Star Trail to Glory (Spring 1941) (2 page)

WALKER tossed uneasily in his barracks bunk that "night", dreaming of impossible speed-landings, of Ilo's tragic death, and of space ships that vanished strangely. He awoke with a start. The bell that signaled "morning" was ringing. He emerged after breakfast to find other Rocketeers already trooping out toward the ships. The daily grind of testing was about to begin.

Suicide Station was maintained by the big space ship manufacturers for this purpose. All the big factories were located here on Mercury, and the manufacturers combined to pay the expense of this lonely station where their new ships could be tested.

Walker found Yalu warming up the Kalber Twenty. The old Martian Rocketeer already had his space-suit on.

"Did those two missing pilots get back with their ship?" Walker asked. Yalu shook his head, his wrinkled face gloomy.

"Kardak had a televisor call from them after you turned in. Their ship was stolen, like all the rest. They don't know how it was done. They woke up floating in space, after suddenly going unconscious. A Venus-Mercury freighter picked them up. It's getting on my nerves. The Planet Police has one of their ace men here investigating. He can't find out who's doing it, or how."

Walker got into his space-suit while Yalu screwed shut the Kalber's door. At the Martian's signal, he took the pilot chair.

"All right, Earthling, take her off," the old Rocketeer ordered. "We'll run out past the orbit of Venus, cut out of the ship-lane into clear space, and then let her out for the speed trials."

The Kalber's cyclotrons throbbed cheerfully as they blasted off from Suicide Station. They soon left Mercury a dwindling brown ball behind them, and zoomed outward toward the orbit of Venus. Earth was a bright green star with the Moon a smaller silver companion star. Beyond lay the great deeps of the outer System. They throbbed on through space until they were past the orbit of Venus. Then Walker veered out of the standard ship-lane.

"All right, Earthman, let her out for all she's worth," drawled the old Martian Rocketeer.

Walker's hands gripped the throttles, but he never opened them. There was a sudden wild blurring of everything around him, a sensation as though he were being flung at awful speed through a howling vortex.

His senses slowly cleared. He still wore his space-suit, but he was not in the Kalber. He was floating in empty space, and there was no ship in sight. Stupefied, he stared around and glimpsed another man floating nearby. Walker snatched the portable impeller from his belt and drove himself toward old Yalu. The Martian's face was as bewildered as his own.

"Our ship — gone!" choked the veteran, clinging to Walker's arm. "They got it, whoever they are, like they got the others."

"But how?" cried Walker. "We saw nobody! There was just a crazy blurring of everything and then — this!"

"It's some blasted mystery weapon they use," the old Martian groaned. "It's like ghosts had taken the ship from us! We're not far from the ship-lane, so we may be picked up. But how are we going to report another new ship stolen? And how the orange imps of Phoebe are they doing it? Who is doing it? Why?"

For many hours the two men drifted together in space. Jan Walker's thoughts were bitter. In his first day as a Rocketeer, he had lost the valuable ship he was supposed to test. He felt so discouraged that he almost dreaded being picked up and returned to Mercury.

Suddenly old Yalu gripped his arm and pointed sunward.

"There's a ship! We'll use our impellers to flash a signal."

Frantically they blasted bright flame from their impellers, to catch the attention of the black speck they could see against the Sun. The speck grew larger. The ship had turned and was coming straight toward them. It was a new Garson Sixteen.

When it paused beside them, and they were pulled inside, they found that the craft was piloted by Losor, the tall Neptunian Rocketeer.

"Figured you'd be somewhere in this sector," he declared. "Ka Kardak sent me out to look for you when you didn't return. Where's your ship?"

Jan Walker shrugged gloomily. "It was hijacked from us."

"Same way as all the other hijackings, Losor," said Yalu. "Everything suddenly blurred. Then we found ourselves floating in space."

"This mystery is getting too much for me!" Losor swore. "Three ships gone in two days! No wonder Ka Kardak is burning."

Ka Kardak in fact seemed boiling with suppressed emotion when he came striding out to meet them as they landed at Suicide Station.

"Of all the space-struck idiots!" he roared. "Letting your ship be taken like that — you two must have fallen asleep!"

"No, we didn't," defended Yalu earnestly. "Some queer force hit us."

"Bah, I ought to wash you both up for this! Three of the space ship magnates are here right now, riding me about these vanished ships. And old Gurney, the Planet Patrol ace, is here with them. Come along, you two imbeciles!"

With sinking heart, Jan Walker followed the Jovian and Yalu into the Station offices. A middle-aged Uranian, fat, yellow-skinned and beady-eyed, came forward to meet them. It was Ak Kalber, head of the big Kalber Space Ship Company.

"That new Twenty of yours is gone," rumbled Ka Kardak. "Taken off these two men of mine, the same as all the others."

"This is too much!" hissed Ak Kalber. "Nineteen of my ships have been lost this way, new ships worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each. Something's got to be done about this, and done quickly!"

Lan Tark, the tall, solemn-eyed red Martian tycoon of the famous Tark factories, nodded emphatic agreement.

"Kalber's right. We need action. We can't stand this heavy loss of brand-new ships."

The third space ship magnate was Gray Garson, an Earthman with deep lines of worry in his homely, rugged face.

"I've lost only six new ships, but that's a tremendous loss for a small company like mine," he said ruefully.

Ak Kalber turned toward the fourth man in the office, a grizzled old Earthman in the dark uniform of the Planet Police. He was chewing
rial
leaf, his faded blue eyes watching everything.

"Marshal Gurney, something must be done to stop these thefts before we're bankrupted!" the Uranian declared.

JAN WALKER felt his pulse jump as he looked at the bleak-eyed old Police marshal. This was the famous Ezra Gurney, veteran of the Patrol, a companion in arms of the legendary Captain Future himself!

"You still got no idea who's stealin' these ships, and why, and how it's bein' done?" asked Ezra Gurney thoughtfully.

"I have an idea, yes!" declared Ak Kalber. He looked vindictively at Jan Walker and Yalu. "I believe these Rocketeers are deliberately turning over our new ships to someone, and then coming back with this fantastic story!"

Jan Walker and Yalu bristled at the accusation. Before they could defend themselves, Ka Kardak stepped in.

"No one can call my Rocketeers crooked! They're a bunch of soft-heads. They have to have me riding them every minute to keep them working, but they're not crooks. I'll beat the head off anyone who says they are!"

"Easy, there," drawled Ezra Gurney to the enraged Jovian. "Gettin' mad's not goin' to help things any. These space ship manufacturers have a right to be worked up, they've lost so many valuable new ships. And we Planet Police haven't been able to track down a single one of those hijacked ships, worse luck. If these thefts keep up, they'll disorganize the whole space ship manufacturing industry. And so far we haven't been able to get even an idea where all the stolen ships are taken, or why and how they're bein' stolen."

The old marshal seemed to reach a decision.

"I'm goin' back to Earth and see the System President about this. I'm goin' to ask him to call in Cap'n Future!"

"Captain Future?" Kalber exclaimed. He seemed almost taken aback. "Do you think he would investigate this mystery?"

"He would if the President calls him, and I think I can convince the President," stated Ezra. "We can't let the whole space ship industry be disorganized this way without doin' somethin' about it."

Gray Garson nodded emphatic agreement, a new light of hope on his rugged face.

"If Captain Future could break up these mysterious thefts, he'd save some of us from bankruptcy!"

"Even we bigger manufacturers can't stand such losses long," Lan Tark, the solemn Martian magnate declared. "Rissman and Zamor and the others will all be encouraged to learn that Captain Future may take a hand in this."

Ezra Gurney strode toward the door.

"I'm goin' back to Solar City and then blast for Earth. Remember, not a word of this to anyone except the other manufacturers!"

* * * * *

WHEN Ezra Gurney left Mercury an hour later, he would have been less confident of secrecy had he been able to see into a certain small room with walls of smooth stone, a low cement ceiling and no windows. A dim clangor came from outside, but it was impossible to guess its nature, or the location of this secret room. Under a cluster of bright uranite bulbs gleamed the square bulk of a powerful televisor. In front of it stood a weird machine that grotesquely resembled a man.

The machine man stood upon girder-legs and had jointed girder-arms. Behind his metal ribs were compact generators and motors and cogged gears, crowded closely together. His head was a big cubical metal box. In one side of it were two visi-plates that served as eyes. From the mouthlike orifice came a deep, humming voice as the machine man spoke into the televisor.

"This is One speaking. Calling Forty-four at Venus Base!"

The mechanical creature who called himself "One" stood motionless, awaiting a reply. The televisor screen glowed with light. Then it showed another metal machine man, similar to One, except that his cubical head or brain-case was not so large.

"Forty-four speaking. What is it, One?"

"Your report, Forty-four?" demanded One.

"Two space ships captured today," said the other machine man. "A new Kalber Twenty and a Zamor Eight. We have them safe here at Venus Base."

"What about their Rocketeer pilots?"

"We tossed them out into space and left them floating, as usual," replied Forty-four. "They have no idea of how we did it, of course."

"Bring those two ships on to Main Base here at once. Use more than ordinary caution not to be spotted as you approach Mercury. The Rocketeers are greatly aroused, and the Planet Police have redoubled their efforts to catch us."

"I understand," replied Forty-four simply. "I will bring them."

One snapped off the televisor. Then his cubical metal head swiveled toward the door of the room. His voice hummed loudly.

"Six, Fifteen!" he called.

The door opened. A clangorous banging and hammering from the mysterious place outside invaded the room as two machine men stalked stiffly in and closed the door. Six and Fifteen were like One in every detail, except that their cubical brain-cases also were not so large.

"Your orders?" asked Six.

"It has come to my knowledge," hummed One, "that the Planet Police, having failed to check our activities, are about to call in a certain Earthman named Captain Future to help them."

"I do not know of Captain Future," declared Six.

"You would not, of course," admitted One. "But I know of him. He is only a human, yet he can be dangerous, for he is a master of science and an unswerving champion of the System Government and its laws. And his three assistants, the so-called Futuremen, make him even more dangerous. Captain Future's home is on Earth's Moon. When the System President needs this man, he calls him by a certain beacon signal upon Earth's North Pole. Undoubtedly he will soon call Captain Future by this means, to gain his assistance in stopping our activities."

NEITHER Six nor Fifteen made any comment, as human beings would have done. They stood silently awaiting orders.

"It is essential," continued One's cold mechanical voice, "that Captain Future and his assistants be prevented from interfering with our plans. It is your duty to prevent that. You will head for the Moon at once in our fastest ship, with a crew of six. Get there before the beacon signal calls the Futuremen to Earth. You will take Captain Future and his assistants by surprise and overpower them by means of our usual weapon.

"Surprise is vital. Once this man is on his guard, even our powerful weapon might fail against him. Secure them and their ship, the
Comet,
but do not kill Captain Future or his men. Their ship, the
Comet,
contains many valuable scientific secrets of space ship design which only he and the Futuremen understand. Bring them to Venus Base first, and I will notify you when it is safe to come here to Main Base. Then we shall force Future or his comrades to explain all the features of their ship to us. After that we can kill them."

Six and Fifteen, without question or remark, turned and stalked out of the room. Presently, through the subdued clangor outside, came the roar of a powerful space ship's rocket-tubes blasting for take-off. The awesome mechanical figure of the master of the machine men remained immobile, his enormous artificial eyes inscrutable.