Captain Future 12 - Planets in Peril (Fall 1942) (15 page)

After what seemed a long time, Curt's mental voice reached him again through the telep-transmitter.

"I think I've figured the combination, now. Here are the figures."

Lacq mentally noted them down. Then he pressed the studs of the lock in that order. With a click, the massive door swung open! Lacq felt a surge of rising hope as he entered the gloomy, shadowy vault.

He looked around in awe. Near him loomed a squat, baffling complex machine. Beyond it towered tiers of glass coffins, each of which contained a lifeless man or woman.

The Unbodied! The bodies in those coffins were mere frozen husks from which the living mind had been expelled to roam in a new, immaterial photon-body like a homeless ghost.

"You will find my own body in a coffin on the last tier," came Curt's direction. "Put it on the top of the machine."

Lacq found the coffin in which the waxen-faced, lifeless figure of the red-haired planeteer lay motionless. Chilled by the uncanniness of the whole proceeding, he placed Curt's body atop the machine.

"Now what shall I do?" he asked into the telep-transmitter. "I don't know how to operate this mechanism."

"Neither do I," came Curt's mental answer. "I shall have to examine its design, to figure out how it can be used to draw the mind back from a photon-pattern into the brain."

There was another wait for Lacq, much longer than before. It seemed to him that the whole attempt was hopeless. How could anyone penetrate the secret of this ancient machine? Not even the Tarasts who now used it knew its principle — they merely operated it by tradition.

Perhaps Kaffr could solve a scientific mystery that was beyond anybody else? Lacq's faith in the greatness of his hero kept hope alive in him during that long, torturing wait.

At last Curt Newton's thought came again to him from the telep-transmitter.

"I believe that now I understand the operation of this machine. Put the glass helmet on the head of my body, and then reverse the two upper switches."

Lacq obeyed. Then came the crucial order.

"Now turn the lower rheostat handle slowly toward the left, stopping at the tenth notch."

The young Tarast did so. As he moved the lever, the machine began to hum with power. White radiance streamed now from the copper bulb and hit Curt's head. Soon, Curt Newton's lifeless body began to stir!

Curt opened his eyes. Then with Lacq's help he staggered off the top of the machine.

"God, what an experience!" Captain Future said hoarsely.

CURT was shaken as he had never been before. He only now realized the awful mental strain he had undergone during the time in which he had been one of the ghastly Unbodied.

He steadied in a minute, and grasped Lacq's hand.

"You have saved us, Lacq. And you've saved the one chance still left for your people."

Lacq's eyes shone with the emotion that he felt at this high praise from Kaffr. He helped Curt transfer Otho's limp body to the machine.

Otho leaped up with a yell when the re-transformation had been effected.

"Devils of space, did I dream all that or was I really a phantom? Chief, I seemed to be a cursed ghost —"

Curt hastily checked his babbling, and put him to work restoring their comrades. Grag and Simon and Gerdek and Shiri, one by one, woke to life as their disembodied electric mind-webs were drawn back out of the phantom photon-patterns into their own proper bodies.

The horror of the experience was stamped on the faces of all the humans. But it could not erase from Captain Future's mind one paramount consideration.

"Do you know whether Vostol has departed on his mission?" he cried to Lacq.

"I do not know what mission to which you refer," Lacq answered puzzledly. "But I saw Vostol leave hours ago, in a star-cruiser that was marked for some reason with a silver circle."

"He's gone!" groaned Curt to the others. "He's already on his way to Thool to conclude the treaty with the Cold Ones."

Gerdek's pale face was tragic.

"There is no more hope, then. For as soon as Vostol reports the signing of the treaty, my people will carry out the self-sterilization that means the end of our race."

Shiri was sobbing. Lacq's face was aghast as he began to realize the significance of Vostol's departure.

"We're not beaten yet," Captain Future gritted. His gray eyes flared with indomitable resolution. "There's still a chance, if we can get to Thool and find Zuur's secret
before
Vostol concludes the treaty."

"But we can't go to Thool now," Lacq said despairingly. "Since the Council has condemned you, Kaffr, they'll never agree to your leading a force of Tarast star-cruisers to attack Thool."

"I know that," Curt said grimly. "It means that we'll have to go without any Tarast fleet. We'll have to get to Thool on our own."

Lacq was stunned.

"You mean — just the seven of us to attempt to reach Thool in your ship and find the secret? But that's impossible!"

OTHO shrugged coolly.

"We Futuremen have done a few things before this that people thought could not be done."

"But you can never do this!" Lacq burst. "Thool is far across this universe and there are whole networks of the Cold Ones' patrols to block the way. We'd never be able to get through!"

"And even if we did," Gerdek said hopelessly, "what could our little band hope to do at Thool? That mysterious world is the very citadel and core of the Cold Ones' power. How much chance would we have of searching out Zuur's ancient secrets before we were captured?"

"I've an idea that might possibly get us through the Cold Ones' patrols," Curt rapped. "When we got to Thool, we'd have to take our chances. It's risky, I know. But it's the only chance we have left. Are you with me?"

Gerdek's face suddenly flamed.

"Of course! I think it means our death, but I'd rather die out there fighting a last fight for my people, than to stay here and be thrust back into the Unbodied."

Lacq's eyes too were glistening.

"Kaffr, I'd follow you anywhere!"

"Then we must reach the
Comet
and start at once," Curt said coolly. "At all costs, we must get to Thool before Vostol."

Shiri had donned the black robe that had been torn from her when she was thrust into the Unbodied. Lacq took the arm of the trembling girl as their little band moved rapidly up the shadowy stairs.

They reached the ground level of the Hall of Suns without detection. But the guards at the entrance turned to shout an alarm when they saw the party. Grag's great fists stunned the men into silence before they could give the alarm or use their weapons.

Night lay over Bebemos now. The streets of the hothouse city were almost deserted. Gerdek led his band by little-used ways to the main gate of the city. They emerged into the freezing air outside the domed metropolis, and ran at once toward the
Comet.

A few seconds later, the
Comet
rose steeply from the spaceport and shot up through the light of the red moons into the void. Almost at once it was out of sight, racing out into the darkness of the dying universe on its desperate flight toward distant, mysterious Thool.

OUT from the cluster of dying suns that was the last stronghold of the Tarast race, there stretched the awesome darkness of a blacked-out universe. Only a few scattered red sparks of faraway, perishing stars broke the boundless gloom. Everywhere else reigned the brooding blackness.

The
Comet
seemed to hesitate in dread as it emerged from the cluster into this vast realm of death and night. Curt Newton was at the controls, and he brought the little ship gradually to a halt. It floated motionless in space.

"Why are we stopping here?" Gerdek cried worriedly. "Cold One patrols may run upon us at any moment."

"That's why I'm stopping for a moment — so we'll have a better chance of getting through those patrols," Curt replied, getting out of his pilot's chair. "You remember I said I had an idea that might do it."

"What's your idea, Chief?" Otho asked alertly.

"The Cold Ones," Captain Future reminded him, "gave Vostol's ship a safe-conduct to Thool. They ordered him to paint a silver circle on its side, and said their patrols would be instructed to allow such a ship to pass. Well, we're going to mark the
Comet
in the same way."

"Jumping sun-imps, I get it!” Otho exclaimed excitedly. "The Cold One patrols will think this is Vostol's ship, and let us by."

"But Vostol's ship is ahead of us, Kaffr," Lacq protested. "The patrols will have already seen it pass, and will know we're a fake."

"We’ll curve out on a different course to Thool than the direct course Vostol will be taking," Captain Future explained. "By not following him directly, there's less chance of our being sighted by any enemy patrols that have already seen his ship."

"But it will take us longer to reach Thool by an indirect route," Shiri said worriedly. "Vostol will get there long before we do."

"Not if we snap into it and quit talking," Curt declared impatiently. "Grag, get a can of liquid chromium while I get into my space-suit."

Presently Curt Newton, in his protective suit, and Grag went out through the ship's air-lock door and hastily began the task. Their magnetized shoes held them to the
Comet,
as they rapidly painted a shining circle in liquefied chromium upon each side of the ship.

Curt clambered back inside with the robot, and quickly divested himself of the protective suit.

"That should get us through any patrols that haven't already seen Vostol pass. Now let's get out of here."

He took the pilot's chair again. Once more the small ship leaped forward in space. Curt turned the full power of the high-speed vibration-drive generators into the drive-ring at the stern.

The
Comet
built up velocity with incredibly rapid acceleration. Only the cushioning protective stasis, which Curt had learned was also standard equipment in the Tarast and Cold One ships, enabled their bodies to withstand the acceleration. They were soon traveling faster than light itself, yet still the space-speed needle crept across the dial.

Captain Future laid the course at Gerdek's directions. The world Thool lay many light-years across this universe. Curt learned its exact coordinates, then plotted their course to take them in a broad outward curve to the distant capital of the Cold Ones.

Racing, rushing, humming through the vast void at ever-increasing speed flashed the
Comet.
Its occupants seemed hurtling into a chartless darkness. There was no gleam of stars or nebulae to serve as sky-marks. There was almost nothing except the somber blackness.

"At last," said the Brain in satisfaction, "I'll have opportunity to take some data on the exact dimensions of this spherical universe."

And Simon, in whose chill, strange mind scientific considerations were almost always paramount, applied himself to the battery of powerful telescopic and other instruments back in the ship's main cabin.

CURT NEWTON remained in the pilot's chair, anxiously scanning the detectors that might at any moment give warning of the approach of Cold One craft. These vast reaches were crisscrossed by the enemy's patrol and traffic routes, he knew. He hoped fervently that his stratagem would get them through to Thool.

"But the time is short — so short," Curt murmured forebodingly to himself. "It won't take Vostol long, to conclude that treaty."

The Brain came into the control room then, to report the results of his investigation to Captain Future.

"Lad, I've made an approximate appraisal of the dimensions of this spherical universe. It is more than two billion light-years in diameter, many times larger than our own. And it's still rapidly expanding."

"I do not understand that," said Lacq hesitatingly. "Does our universe really expand?"

The Brain explained briefly.

"The diameter of a tri-dimensional spherical universe depends directly upon the amount of matter in it. For matter tends to warp space in a closed circle around it, by the Einstein gravitation effect. The more matter there is, the more space is warped inward and so the smaller its diameter.

"As a universe grows old and its suns melt into free radiation, there is less and less matter in it. Consequently, the gravitational warp of space is weaker. Thus the curved space of that universe continually expands. It expands until it reaches a critical point, at which the continuum of space can no longer stand the strain. At that point, the bubble of curved space bursts and collapses into a much smaller sphere."

"And that is when our own universe will begin to be reborn, is it not?" cried Gerdek eagerly.

"Yes, it is so," agreed the Brain. "The sudden collapse of the spherical universe, into a much smaller sphere, causes the welter of free radiation in it to be transformed slowly back into solid matter."

"But I don't see how radiation could be turned back into matter," Lacq frowned puzzledly.