Captain Future 09 - Quest Beyond the Stars (Winter 1942) (14 page)

Then he returned cautiously to the
Comet.
Its locked door was on the side facing the Korian soldiers. Their backs were toward it, but the quivering light of their glower illuminated it strongly. The brain glided like a shadow toward the
Comet’s
door. A series of quick pressures upon the numbered studs of the lock operated its ingenious mechanism. The door swung open with a low sighing sound. The sound reached the ears of one of the Korians around the glower. The green soldier saw the Brain gliding into the open door.

“The strangers are stealing their ship!” he yelled. He and his comrades scrambled to their feet, leveling their fire-rods.

Simon had already touched the stud that slammed shut the outer air-lock door. He flashed forward through the familiar interior of the
Comet
to the control-room. He rested himself in the pilot chair and jetted the magnetic tractor beams that were his limbs, in different directions. One pressed the stud that started the cyclotrons roaring. Then it shifted to grasp the space-stick and pull it back, as the other tractor beam shoved the cyc-pedal inward. With the full force of its powerful rocket drive, the
Comet
roared steeply skyward. The Brain felt it shudder slightly as crashing streaks of energy struck it from the fire-rods of the Korians. But he knew that no weapon of such comparatively small power as those hand fire-rods could penetrate the heavy walls. An acidly humorous thought occurred to him.

“I am becoming a disciple of action, after all these years. Otho will be proud of me.”

THE BRAIN could handle the
Comet
skillfully, though ordinarily he avoided piloting the ship as he avoided other purely physical activities. Now he turned it southward toward the city of Kor. He did not attempt to use the vibration drive. And he kept the rockets muffled to a low drone as he flew on through the night. The scattered lights of the city of Kor came into sight. The Brain glimpsed several conical ships cruising in patrol over the city. He steered at once to a lower level, and the
Comet
glided like a dark shadow low above the rooftops toward the palace.

Simon kept the rockets throttled down to their lowest possible power as he sank toward the palace roof. He hoped fervently that the dull drone would not be noticed by the guards around the palace. His hopes were quickly shattered. As he landed the
Comet
on the flat copper roof, he heard a distant cry of alarm.

“A strange ship on the roof! Call the captain of the palace and signal the patrol!”

“Where can Curtis and the others be?” fretted the Brain.

There was no sign of Captain Future or the others on the flat roof. And now a rising clamor of shouts and alarm gongs was rising from the great pile underneath. Simon knew the guards would be emerging in a few minutes onto the roof, but he remained cool.

Down out of the hazily glowing sky swept two conical Korian cruisers. The black muzzles of their heavy fire-rod batteries jetted streams of raving energy that barely missed the ship of the Futuremen. Before the Korian attackers could dive closer, the Brain had struck back. One of the proton-cannons of the
Comet
swung skyward as he took rapid aim with it. He pressed the firing trigger and the pale proton beam lanced upward and tore through the two attackers. Both Korian ships staggered and lurched in mid-air, then whined through the darkness to crash in the palace gardens.

“There’ll be more in a minute,” thought the Brain. “This is going to be a hot place if Curtis and the rest do not come soon.”

It never occurred to the Brain to flee. Unperturbed, he waited for the next attack. Then he glimpsed a trap door in the roof being violently flung open. Men poured out of it, dim figures in the darkness. Simon swung the proton cannon to blast them off the roof, refrained from firing when he perceived that these men were firing atom-guns and proton pistols back at other men who were following them out onto the roof. It was Captain Future and his comrades engaged in a hot battle with Korian guards who had pursued them.

“There’s the
Comet!”
rang Curt’s voice. “This way, quick!”

The Brain sped to open the door of the ship for them. Captain Future’s group backed toward it, triggering fiercely at the Korians, who were still pouring out onto the roof. Crackling bolts of fire-rods and pale proton beams criss-crossed on the dark roof. All the city around the palace was arousing itself in a growing uproar.

The hoarse, defiant yell of big Hol Jor and the fierce battle cry of Ki Illok the Sagittarian rose into the darkness as they and the other star rovers shot shoulder to shoulder with the Futuremen. Advancing Korians stumbled and fell as beams found their mark. But Otho clapped hand to his shoulder with a cry of pain and rage as a bolt burned past him, and one of the star rovers beside him fell.

Captain Future bent to pick up the fallen man. It was Skur Kal, the younger of the two red Antarians.

“Into the ship, for space’s sake!” yelled Curt, dragging the fallen man with one arm and shooting with his other. “Where’s Thyria?”

“I have her, chief!” boomed Grag.

The giant metal robot appeared out of the darkness with the white-faced Thruunian girl. Curt Newton and Otho and Hol Jor covered the others as they scrambled into the
Comet.
They heard an ominous drumming roar as Korian cruisers dived out of the night for mass attack.

“Catch the strangers!” came a hissing, furious cry from beyond the charging Korians. “They must not escape!”

“That’s Larstan!” exclaimed Otho. The android flung a chance beam into the darkness but without result.

He and Curt and Hol Jor jumped into the ship, and slammed shut the airlock door.

“Take her up, Grag!” Curt yelled urgently.

The robot had already reached the control room. The
Comet
jerked skyward with a bursting roar of rocket tubes.

CAPTAIN FUTURE and Otho
leaped to the breeches of the proton cannon. The ship was now screaming out of the atmosphere of Kor into the radiance of open space. After them raced a half-dozen conical Korian cruisers, firing all their batteries of fire-rods in fierce attempt to destroy the
Comet.
Grag was avoiding the bolts of energy by a series of hair-raising spins and twists. Otho pressed the trigger of his heavy proton cannon, then uttered an exultant exclamation.

“That’s one less of them!”

The powerful proton beam from his weapon had torn through one of the Korian craft, and the crippled ship was sinking.

“Throw in the vibration drive, and we can get away from them!” Captain Future called to Grag.

As he shouted, Curt was triggering his own heavy weapon. It ripped away part of the stern of a Korian cruiser that was executing a fast space-spin to bring its main armament to bear upon them. The other Korian ships recoiled a little from this unexpectedly hot resistance. Then came the loud drone of the vibration drive generators. The
Comet
jerked violently forward as Grag threw in enough of the super-powerful drive to out-distance the Korian ships. Even though Grag used but a fraction of the power of the drive, the acceleration crushed Curt and the others against the walls. The pressure lifted as Grag quickly cut the acceleration.

“That did it — we’ve left them behind,” Otho called.

The
Comet
had completely shaken off the Korian pursuers, and was flying at frightening speed into the glittering electronic haze.

“Head toward Thruun — that small red sun far ahead,” Curt Newton directed the robot. “They can’t catch us now.”

He mopped perspiration from his brow as he went back into the cabin. Curt found the others gathered around the prone body of Skur Kal. Ber Del intercepted Curt’s questioning glance, and the old blue Vegan nodded solemnly.

“He is dead. I think he was already dead when you dragged him into the ship, Captain Future.”

“Yes, he’s blasted off on his last voyage,” muttered Hol Jor. The big Antarian’s massive red face was somber with grief. “And he was my own sister’s son, was Skur Kal.”

“It’s another score to settle with Larstan when the time comes,” said Ki Illok between his teeth.

They gave Skur Kal space burial befitting a star rover, wrapping and lashing his body and setting it afloat in the void. Then Curt took stock of the situation. They were flying ever deeper into the glittering auroral haze of flying electron streams which filled this vast space inside the cosmic cloud. Ahead of them, deep within the shining haze, glowed the little red sun of Thruun. The shrouding haze still concealed what lay beyond the red sun, still veiled the central region in which the Birthplace of Matter guarded its mystery. A check of instruments assured Captain Future that the copper skin with which they had coated the
Comet
was effectively preventing the streaming torrents of electrons from affecting the ship.

A soft hand touched his arm. It was the girl Thyria, her blue eyes glowing with gratitude.

“You are really taking me to Thruun?” she cried eagerly. “Larstan’s men cannot overtake us?”

“Not a chance,” Curt Newton reassured her. “Their ships haven’t the speed of the
Comet.
You’re quite safe now.”

“It’s not my own safety I’m thinking of!” cried the Thruunian princess. “I want to warn my father Kwolok that Larstan is preparing to attack Thruun. For it is my fault that that attack is coming.”

“Your fault?” Curt’s brows drew together.

THYRIA explained. “The Korians have always wanted to conquer Thruun, so that we could no longer prevent them from reaching the Birthplace. But they feared we possessed the secret of the Birthplace, the secret of matter mastery. It would be a terrible weapon. When I was captured,” Thyria went on self-accusingly, “Larstan took me to Kor and subjected me to hypnotic questioning. I admitted to them that my people do not possess the secret. So now Larstan is not afraid to attack us.”

“It’s not your fault, Thyria,” Curt consoled. “You wouldn’t have told them if it hadn’t been for hypnosis.”

His gray eyes flashed. “Beside, we are on the side of Thruun now. We can lend our science to improve your ships and weapons so much that the Korian attack can easily be beaten back.”

“But Larstan will know that!” Thyria exclaimed. “He will surely make his attack on Thruun now before there is time for you strangers to give effective help to my people.”

“Say, the girl is talking sense,” murmured Otho. “Larstan was figuring to use our help to make his conquest of Thruun a sure thing. Well, he’s now lost our help, so he’ll jump on Thruun before we can help the other side.”

“You’re right,” Captain Future said slowly. “It looks as though our coming here has precipitated a final struggle.”

The Brain directed a question at the Thruunian princess. “YouThruunians have always prevented the people of Kor from reaching the Birthplace, you said. Yet you have never gone there to secure its secret for yourselves. Why?”

“It was the command of the Watchers,” answered Thyria solemnly. “Long ago, they decreed that none of us inside the cloud should seek to secure the secret of the Birthplace. We of Thruun have always obeyed that command, and when the Korians sought to disobey it, we prevented them.”

“The command of the Watchers?” Captain Future repeated puzzledly. “Larstan said that the Watchers were only a baseless legend.”

“Larstan lied,” Thyria assured him with fervent conviction. “The Watchers are no legend.”

At that moment came a startled cry from Grag, who was still on duty in the control room. “Chief, come here and look at this!”

With a bound, Curt Newton reached the control room. The others followed. Grag was pointing his metal arm at space ahead.

“What’s that?” the big robot asked perplexedly.

The
Comet
had traversed a great distance on its swift flight into the deeper central haze. The glowing red sun of Thruun, with its single planet, was clearly visible not far ahead. But it was beyond the red sun that Grag was staring. There in the remoter central haze there vaguely loomed an awe-inspiring object none of these star roamers had ever seen before.

“Is
that
the Birthplace?” gasped Otho.

THE radiant electronic haze ahead was almost blinding in its intensity. Its shaking banners of auroral brilliance, streaming outward like great winds of force from a cosmic storm, so completely veiled the vast object at the center that only its vague outline could be glimpsed. It looked like a colossal spinning spiral of white flame, its titanic arms millions of miles across. But it could not be flame, Curt knew. It was a focus of unimaginable forces upon which they gazed, a cosmic maelstrom that ceaselessly threw off the terrific currents of streaming electrons whose glittering veils shrouded it.

“And we were going to find out the secret of
that!”
exclaimed Otho with a mirthless laugh.

“We can still do it,” Captain Future replied steadily. “The thing is more terrible than I had imagined, but we can find a way to approach and study it.”