Captain Future 18 - Red Sun of Danger (Spring 1945)

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Captain Future 18 - Red Sun of Danger (Spring 1945) Page 13

by Edmond Hamilton


  The winged horde retreated momentarily from the robot’s flailing arms. Grag seized the chance to reach down and snap Joan and Carlin’s bonds.

  “We’ve got to get out of this cursed spot!” he roared. “The dragons will get you two sooner or later.” He pointed down at the deep waters surging far below. “That’s our only escape. Jump!”

  Joan hesitated not a moment. With Carlin and the robot, she leaped clear of the promontory and hurtled toward the waters far below...

  When Captain Future and his two comrades took leave of Joan, they pressed rapidly southward along the river. They followed the strand of beach at the foot of the sloping canyon wall.

  Ezra Gurney suddenly pointed at a smooth ripple in the brighter waters of the river, a little way out from shore.

  “That blasted cyclops-crab is still followin’ us! The brute must have a one-track mind. I don’t like it. It’s a bad omen.”

  The canyon wall in whose shadow they tramped became steadily higher and steeper as they followed the long, circuitous route of the river. They had traveled for less than an hour when Curt Newton suddenly stopped. “Listen to that!” he exclaimed.

  The drum-throb they had been dimly hearing for some time had abruptly become much louder. It was now a deep, rolling thunder.

  “We’re getting near the village,” Newton declared. “We’ll circle and approach it from the seaward side.”

  They tramped on with quickened strides, and the smooth ripple of the unseen crustacean monster still kept pace with them out in the river.

  A half-hour later, they followed the beach around a wide turn in the river. Now they glimpsed ahead of them the vast bosom of the southern ocean, heaving under the dim light of Black Moon.

  “Look up there!” cried Ezra, pointing wildly. “On that cliff — it’s Grag!”

  Curt Newton glanced upward and saw a sight he would never forget.

  On a promontory jutting out a hundred feet above the mouth of the river, Grag’s giant metal form stood outlined against the face of shadowy Black Moon. And Grag was fighting — battling a horde of flapping night-dragons that screeched down on him in ferocious attack.

  “Come on!” Captain Future cried. “We’ve got to get up and help him. Look! There’s Carlin!”

  The booming of the drum was thunderous above, and they knew the Roons were somewhere close up there. But nothing counted in this moment but the fierce loyalty of the Futuremen to each other in time of danger.

  “Holy sun-imps, there’s Joan up there with them!” cried Otho. “She somehow found Grag and Carlin!”

  “Cap’n Future, they’re going to jump!” exclaimed Ezra.

  Up on the promontory, Joan and Philip Carlin had risen beside Grag as he momentarily drove away the winged horde. Curt Newton felt a frantic anxiety as he saw all three of them leap and hurtle downward, to disappear in the deep waters beneath the promontory.

  “That cyclops-crab is out in those waters!” Newton exclaimed hoarsely. “It’ll get them!”

  He dived into the dark water as he spoke, and Otho followed. As they started to swim outward, they saw the heads of Joan and Carlin emerge above the surface and start moving toward them.

  Newton also saw the ominous ripple of the giant crustacean moving toward Joan’s head. He tried to cry warning to her.

  He knew he could not reach her in time. But then an amazing thing happened. There was a mad flurry in the waters where the cyclops-crab had been. The sea there foamed, and then became still again.

  Newton got his arm around Joan and swam with the exhausted girl toward the bank, while Otho towed Carlin ashore.

  “Joan, you’re not hurt? How the devil did you get up there when we left you at the raft?”

  She explained breathlessly, and then exclaimed, “But Grag?”

  “Here he comes,” Otho declared. “Water don’t bother Grag, when he doesn’t breathe.”

  IT WAS true — Grag was striding up from the waters to join them. The robot seemed for once to be exhausted.

  “You were the one who drove off the cyclops-crab?” Newton asked.

  “Drove him off?” grunted the giant robot. “I blamed near tore him in half! I was starting to walk ashore when I looked up and saw the beast swimming toward Joan, so I reached up and grabbed him.”

  “Quiet!” Captain Future warned. “The Roons up there mustn’t hear us.”

  Fortune favored them in that the night-dragons, still screeching in balked fury around the promontory, prevented the Roons above from approaching the cliff to look downward.

  Curt Newton rapidly led the way back up the beach along the river. Not until they were well away from the Roon village did he stop.

  “Now tell me what happened to you,” he said to Grag and Carlin. “Most important, did you find the Crypt of the Old Ones?” Grag nodded. “We found out where it is.”

  “Good!” said Newton. “We’ve got to get there fast.”

  “Chief, we can’t get to the Crypt quickly,” Grag replied. “It’s on Black Moon.”

  Captain Future was stunned. “That’s impossible!”

  “It’s the truth!” Philip Carlin said. “That round white area on the face of the moon is the Crypt! And the cracks in it are the ‘omens’ which have so excited the Roons.”

  Newton was aghast. “Then that’s where Ka Thaar and the rest are going tonight in the Firebird — to Black Moon. And we can’t follow to stop him without the Comet — and it will take at least a night and a day for us to tramp back to the colony and our ship!”

  The chill of defeat, almost of despair, contracted his heart. There seemed no way now to prevent the fruition of the coldblooded plot.

  “It’s my fault,” he said bitterly. “I was so dead sure that the Crypt of the Old Ones was near this place. It’s too late to get back to the Comet in time, but we’ve got to try. Come on.”

  They went upstream along the river bank for some distance further, and then climbed the sloping rock wall to the jungle.

  It took minutes of struggling through the jungle before they found a “shuffler” trail that led northward toward the colony. They started with urgent haste on the long, desperate trek.

  Before they had gone far, Grag uttered a joyful exclamation as Eek came scuttling out of the brush in an ecstasy of rejoicing.

  “Depend on Eek to find me sooner or later!” he boasted. “Hurry!” exclaimed Captain Future.

  His voice was raw with desperation, and the pace he set was almost frenzied. Yet in his heart, Curt Newton had the freezing knowledge that all their haste was really futile.

  For as he looked up through the trees at Black Moon, slowly rising toward the zenith, he knew that Lu Suur’s men must already be there or on their way there to set off the final “omen.”

  And that would rouse every Roon of the planet’s wild tribes to superstitious, fanatic attack on the colony, an attack that would inevitably bring secession and disaster.

  And the Futuremen were two hundred thousand miles from Black Moon, and a dozen hours’ march from the ship that could take them there!

  Chapter 16: To the Dark Moon

  IN ACCORDANCE with instructions, the Brain had remained at the Carlin plantation two mornings before, when Carlin and Grag had gone into the jungles in their search and Joan and Ezra had departed to confer with the Governor.

  Simon Wright had acceded to Newton’s request that he stay here and construct one of the Wands of Power which might so impress the tribesmen as to check their superstitious fears if the other plan failed.

  He explained his intentions to Zamok and Lin Sao, who remained with him.

  “We learned the details of those so-called Wands of Power which the ancient Denebians used against the Kangas, when we visited Deneb years ago. The diagrams of the instrument are in the file in our ship. By constructing an exact duplicate of one of those ancient instruments, we can convince the Roons that we can protect them even if the Old Ones awake. That will allay their superstitious fears.”


  “But you won’t need it if the others find the Crypt and stop the ‘omens,’ ” pointed out Zamok.

  “No, we won’t need it then, but we Futuremen are not in the habit of leaving anything to chance,” replied the Brain.

  Simon Wright glided out ahead of them through the hot sunglare to the Comet, parked in the concealment of the feather-trees. The main cabin of the streamlined little ship was in effect a compact flying laboratory, whose facilities had more than once been invaluable to the Futuremen.

  The Brain floated to a compact cabinet which held a large reference library reduced to microfilm. It contained not only the scientific studies of other men, but also the notes of every important experiment and voyage which the Futuremen had ever conducted.

  Using his magnetic tractor-beams as deftly as arms and hands, the Brain searched an index and then drew out a micro-film spool which he placed in the projector. On a small, square screen, it flashed enlarged reproductions of many pages of closely written notes.

  These were the notes of the Futuremen’s early star-voyage of exploration. He flashed pages past until he came to the record of their memorable visit to distant Deneb. Here was all the information the Denebians had given them about the ancient, dreaded Kangas.

  “Ah, this is what I wanted,” murmured Simon Wright, as another page came into view.

  It was the complete diagram of a highly complex instrument of the ancient Denebian scientist. The Brain studied it carefully.

  “Yes, I remember the wiring plan now,” he muttered. “We built the thing once in the moon-laboratory as an experiment, and it worked then. But it won’t be an easy job alone.”

  He assembled tools and materials and then started work. The two vitron-scientists were biologists, not physicists, and they watched with baffled incomprehension as he shaped and fitted tiny coils, condensers and wiring. The hot hours of the day passed as the Brain labored untiringly. Night had fallen by the time Simon finished his task. He showed them the instrument he had built. It consisted of a headset of flat, complex induction coils, which were connected by a multiple cable to a cone-tipped tungsten rod.

  “And that thing is the Wand of Power?” asked Lin Sao.

  “That’s merely the legendary name given it by the Roons,” Simon answered. “The Denebians who invented it called it a psycho-amplifier. Its induction coils pick up the encephalic-electric currents of the human brain, amplify them mechanically many times, and project the powerful, concentrated electric vibration from this rod.”

  “You mean that that thing amplifies thought?” Zamok asked incredulously. “But how could it be used as a weapon?”

  “The Kangas of long ago had alien bodies but giant minds,” Simon informed him. “They used mental attack as their chief weapon. To counter their hypnotic attack, the Denebians invented this instrument.” He put the contrivance away. “If we have to utilize the thing to impress the Roons, we can use it on one of them. Then they’ll believe we can protect them from the Old Ones.”

  Night was well advanced, and Black Moon was near the zenith as the Brain and the two scientists issued from the Comet.

  “We’d better wait in the house,” said Simon. “Joan and Ezra should be back soon with their report.”

  But the night passed without the appearance of the girl agent and the old marshal. When morning came, Simon was uneasy.

  “Even if they found a clue to Lu Suur’s trail, they should have returned to inform us,” he murmured. “But they’ll be here shortly.” Yet by the hot noontide of this second day, Joan and Ezra still had not returned. The Brain finally voiced an anxious conviction.

  “Something’s happened to Ezra and Joan! They would surely have returned or sent back word to me, otherwise.”

  “What could happen to them in Rootown?” Zamok asked doubtfully.

  “I don’t know, and I can’t go into the town by daylight to find out without being recognized and giving away our presence on Roo,” said Simon. “Will you go in and look for them?”

  The Martian scientist acceded, and left immediately. Not until soon after nightfall did he return.

  He confessed failure. “I couldn’t find them, or any trace of them. I did manage to ascertain that they had called on Governor Walker King yesterday morning, but after they left him they disappeared.”

  Simon Wright’s foreboding deepened. “Then something has happened to them. They must have got too close to Lu Suur’s trail.”

  He made up his mind. “Curtis should be told at once. He would never forgive us if Joan were in danger and we didn’t let him know.”

  “But he and Otho are disguised as Rab Cain and Li Sharn,” objected Lin Sao. “If you, one of the Futuremen, are seen talking to them, it would ruin their plans.”

  “I won’t be seen,” the Brain assured. “Under cover of darkness, I can get to them quickly. You two wait here.”

  The Brain glided out of the house into the darkness. Jetting a powerful but almost invisible magnetic beam from his strange, square “body”, he swept swiftly up into the night sky.

  His lens-like eyes studied the terrain. Black Moon had not yet risen but he knew his bearings. He started hurtling speedily northwestward through the upper darkness toward Li Sham’s plantation. Its location was clear in his mind from the previous discussions.

  He soon swept down toward the plantation. It lay dark and silent in the starlight. Gliding soundlessly around its windows, Simon Wright soon assured himself that the place was deserted.

  Poised in the darkness, he swiftly considered the situation. “Curt and Otho may be at Harmer’s place.”

  He knew where it was. Rapidly, the Brain glided through the darkness.

  Soon he saw lights at Harmer’s plantation. The place was a hive of activity. Outside the grove of trees that surrounded the house lay a small, swift-looking rocket-cruiser with the name Firebird on its bows.

  Hurrying men were carrying small, square black cases aboard the cruiser. They were superintended by a lean young Mercurian whom Simon knew must be Ka Thaar. Nearby stood the plump, worried-looking Jed Harmer.

  A man’s voice came sharply from the door of the cruiser. “Hurry with those charges! We’ve little time as it is.”

  “It’s your own fault we’re late, Lu Suur,” Ka Thaar answered. “We were waiting for you as you ordered.”

  The Brain, hovering unseen above them in the darkness, felt a thrill of excitement when he heard that name. Lu Suur? He glided a little lower, peering down at the man who stood in the door of the lighted Firebird, the man who was Lu Suur. It was an Earthman, to all appearance. Simon had never seen him before. But he thought he recognized him from his comrade’s descriptions.

  “But that’s impossible!” thought Simon Wright, staggered. “He can’t be Lu Suur?”

  “I couldn’t get away sooner without arousing suspicion,” Lu Suur was replying angrily to the young Mercurian. “You should have had everything ready. You disobeyed my orders. You should have killed the Randall girl and old Gurney at once!”

  Ka Thaar’s voice had a dangerous edge in it. “You said to get them out of the way. I didn’t suppose you meant me to murder an old man and a girl.”

  Jed Harmer intervened diplomatically. “It’s all right — they’ll be safe enough out in the Valley of Dream Flowers with Li Sharn and Cain to guard them.”

  “I’ll worry about them later, but right now we’ve got to get started for the Crypt if we’re to be in time,” snapped Lu Suur.

  “The last charges are aboard,” reported Ka Thaar.

  “Come on, then!” exclaimed the other man, turning and disappearing into the ship.

  KA THAAR and the other men entered the cruiser, while Harmer stepped back.

  The Brain, hovering up in the darkness, had been feverishly wondering what he could do. It was clear that Lu Suur and his followers were starting for the Crypt of the Old Ones to set off the final “omens.”

  Simon had no weapon, nor would any single weapon have been enough to overcome
the powerful little band of Lu Suur. Neither could the Brain enter the cruiser, with the others in its doorway.

  The door of the Firebird closed. The little rocket-cruiser blasted fire from its keel tubes and rose into the air. Then it darted away into the starry sky at an immense rate of speed. And it headed straight toward the dim sphere of Black Moon, just rising above the horizon.

  “Is it possible the Crypt is there?” Simon Wright thought, incredulously.

  He jetted his driving-beams and flashed back through the darkness at his highest speed, returning toward Carlin’s plantation.

  The Brain had decided on the only hopeful course of action. He explained it swiftly to Zamok and Lin Sao, when he reached the plantation.

  “The conspiracy is rushing toward its crisis and we’ll have to strike fast now! I’m going to take the Comet and go for Curt and Otho. Do you know where the Valley of Dream Flowers is?” Lin Sao shook his head blankly.

  “I’ve heard of such a valley filled with poisonous, dangerous flowers,” Zamok said. “It’s said to be in the jungle between here and the Austral Ocean. But no one knows just where.”

  “Then we’ll have to search for it,” Simon declared indomitably. “We must warn Curt and Otho at once.”

  A few minutes later, the Comet rose out of its concealment and roared away above the jungles at an altitude of a thousand yards.

  The Brain was piloting the super-powered little craft. Simon’s square “body” rested on the pilot-chair, his tractor beams gripping the space-stick, his lens eyes peering ahead and downward.

  “We’ll sweep out in widening circles over the jungle,” he rasped. “If we don’t find the Valley in a half-hour, we will have to forget the others and to follow Lu Suur to the Crypt.”

  He and the two scientists peered downward tensely as the Comet swept over the dark jungle in widening circles. Hordes of tree-bats startled by the roar of rocket-tubes swept up around them. Night-dragons flapped away from the thundering little ship, in frantic flight.

 

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