"It's lucky you and Otho had your space-suits on," Grag declared. "At least that gave you some protection from the explosion."
Curt looked swiftly around the Comet.
"It doesn't seem to have done any irreparable damage. The cycs are too far back to have been affected." He went to the big time-thruster and inspected it carefully. "As far as I can see, the thruster wasn't harmed, thank the stars. It has stopped, probably due to the shock, but we can start it again and go on back —"
Curt Newton's voice trailed away into silence, his jaw dropping in an expression of utter amazement as he looked at the gage of the thruster.
"Why, this dial must have been knocked out," he muttered. "It shows a trip of three billion years, which is impossible."
Then a sudden thought made Captain Future lunge back toward the cyc-room. His eyes leaped to the fuel gages on the feed-lines that brought powdered copper fuel to the cyclotrons to be transformed into atomic energy.
"Holy sun-imps!" he cried, aghast. "The fuel tanks are absolutely empty! While we were unconscious, the time-thruster was running wide open. It shot us so far back into the past that the cycs stopped from lack of fuel!"
"You mean it's taken us three billion years into the past?" asked Otho. "Why, Chief, you must be imagining things. That bump on the head —"
But Captain Future was striding toward the control room. His tall figure froze as he stared wildly out of the broad windows. The other Futuremen, following him, became as motionless as they, too, looked out upon the strange spectacle in space — a spectacle upon which no human eye had ever rested before.
THE Solar System they had known — was gone entirely. Millions of miles from where their ship floated, the Sun was blazing. But it was not the brilliant yellow star they had always known. It was a vastly larger, dull blue sun that burned now in the black heavens. And it was entirely alone in space. Not one planet, not even a single asteroid circled that huge, flaring blue orb.
"Where are the planets?" Grag cried bewilderedly. "What's become of all the worlds and moons?"
Captain Future tore his gaze from the spectacle to face the others.
"The time-thruster did carry us back three billion years in time, while we lay senseless and unable to stop it," he said tonelessly. "We've come back to an age before the planets of the System even existed!"
"Aye, lad!" rang the Brain's voice, charged with pulsing excitement. "The wonder of it! We are looking upon our Sun when it's still a blue giant."
"You mean the worlds of our System haven't been born yet?" echoed Grag unbelievingly. "Melt me down, this really is trouble! Zikal's cursed work has thrown us two billion years farther back than we wanted to go. Now we'll have to turn around and go forward again. We can't get the uranium of the System's planets when there aren't any planets yet. Let's get going."
"You've forgotten something, Grag," said Captain Future grimly. "The fuel supply of the cycs is exhausted. There isn't an ounce of copper left in the tanks."
Otho's green eyes widened.
"Then what are we going to do?" he blurted. "We can't get copper for fuel from some planet, for there aren't any planet's yet."
"That's just it," Curt rejoined significantly. "We've no fuel and no place to get any from."
"Devils of space!" gasped Otho. "We're cast away in time — cast away before the creation of the System!"
There was a grim pause. They looked out at the wild, strange spectacle of space. The Sun's mighty blue orb, millions of miles away, was the only comparatively near object. Aside from it, there was nothing but the blindingly bright eyes of the burning stars, a gorgeous skyscape such as they had never seen.
"The stars are much closer to each other in this age," muttered the Brain. "Look at that one yonder."
Curt's eyes fixed on the brilliant red star at which the Brain was gazing. It outshone any other in the blazoned heavens.
"There might just be a way out of this jam," Curt said thoughtfully. "If we could get the time-thruster going enough to take us only a few million years forward in time, I think it would give us a chance to do something."
"By that time the planets may be born and we can get copper?" Otho questioned.
Curt nodded, staring at the red star.
"I think so. It's about the only chance left."
"But how can we start the time-thruster up for even that little jump when we haven't a scrap of fuel for the cycs?" Grag objected.
Captain Future looked around the interior of the Comet, crowded with scientific equipment.
"We've got to strip the ship," he said. "We must use every ounce of copper in it, except that in the cycs and the time-thruster itself, for fuel. It may be enough to take us a little farther on to a time when there'll be planets and unlimited fuel supplies."
WITHOUT dissent, they put Curt's desperate expedient into operation. Ruthlessly the Futuremen tore apart scientific apparatus that would have been invaluable to any laboratory in the future Universe. Delicate instruments and massive tools that had taken years and infinite pains to build were relentlessly scrapped.
The copper flanges of the fine electro-spectroscopes, the copper switches on the control panel, the copper base of a fine therapeutic projector, all went into the macerator, in which Grag reduced the metal to fine powder.
When they had finished, the Comet looked as though vandals had been at work. Anxiously the Futuremen waited as Curt estimated the amount of powdered copper they had secured. He shook his red head.
"It's mighty little. It won't operate such a power-hungry device as the time-thruster for long. We can only-hope it will take us past the time when the planets will be born."
"What makes you think there's any chance of that?" Otho asked pessimistically. "Maybe the planets won't be formed for another half-billion years."
The Brain looked toward the brilliant red star out in space.
"If that star is coming toward here, as I think it is, the planets will soon be born."
"Yes, Simon, I'm gambling on that red star," Curt said. "Come, we'll load this copper and start the cycs."
The small amount of precious fuel was poured into the tanks. The automatic injectors shot it into the cyclotrons. As the cycs were switched on, the explosion of copper atoms into pure energy began in them.
Curt had already changed the setting of the time-thruster's controls so that the mechanism would emit an extra-electromagnetic force, which would accelerate the movement of the ship's atoms along the flowing time dimension, instead of reversing it now the force would hurl them forward, rather than backward in time.
As the cycs started throbbing, Captain Future hastily closed the circuit of the time-thruster. Again the quartz disks glowed. Again the big cone sprayed its radiance. And once more the Futuremen steadied themselves against the dizzying shock of that atom-pressing energy.
The needle of the time-gage began to creep forward again. Curt hastened into the control room, the others at his heels. They stared in awe through the ports at a sight no one had ever seen.
Chapter 17: Birth of a New System
THE Sun seemed unchanged, a giant blue orb glaring in empty space. But before their eyes the brilliant red star in the distance grew brighter.
"It's coming closer!" Curt exclaimed. "We're seeing millions of years of change take place in minutes, which is why it seems to be moving so rapidly."
The red star already presented a visible disk. As the time-thruster droned on, hurling them on through time, it became obvious that the star was moving in the direction of their own Sun.
"If it keeps coming on that way, it'll pass near the Sun," Otho said. "Say, then that red star must be the one that caused the birth of the planets!"
"I don't get it," protested Grag bewilderedly. "What are you talking about?"
"Remember your astronomy, Grag," Curt Newton explained tensely. "The planets were known to have been formed by the approach of another star to our Sun. I think we're going to see that happen."
"Holy s
un-imps!" cried the robot. "So that's what you were figuring on!"
The Comet was speeding on and on through time. Curt hoped fervently that the copper fuel would hold out long enough. Now the red star had itself become a sun-sized orb, blazing dazzlingly in the starry heavens as it approached. With solemn, cosmic majesty, it swept ever nearer toward the blue Sun, which seemed to be moving ponderously to meet it.
In the youth of the Universe, chance was flinging two colossal, spinning orbs of flame toward each other, and out of that cosmic collision would come a strange sentient thing that called itself man.
"They're beginning to pull each other closer by mutual gravitational attraction," rasped the Brain in the closest his mechanical voice box could get to an awed whisper.
Then the Futuremen fell silent. Even their hardened spirits were overwhelmed by the titanic spectacle that was unfolding before them. The spectacle of the birth of the Solar System was about to take place before their eyes.
Stupefying indeed was the sight as the blue, glaring Sun and the even more gigantic red stranger marched majestically toward the fateful encounter. A weird, blinding radiance of mingled red and blue light streamed through even the glare-proof windows to dazzle the eyes of the Futuremen.
Curt saw long, wild streamers and prominences of flame lance out from the blue Sun. Its surface seemed wildly disturbed and the disturbance was increasing as the distance between it and the red giant shortened.
"They're going to pass mighty close to each other," gasped Otho, his green eyes dilated.
"Look, both stars are already warping from the tidal effect of gravitation," Captain Future exclaimed.
As the blue Sun and the huge red star drew closer to each other, the mutual pull was tugging each great sphere of flaming gas out of a flattened, whirling ball into a pearlike shape. The elongated projection of each star was being drawn out farther toward the other.
Now the two mighty stars were but a scant hundred million miles apart, about to pass each other. The terrific pull between them drew out still farther the tidal projection of each. And then —
"The projections are breaking away!" yelled Otho.
The strain upon the masses of the two tortured stars had become too great. The elongated streamers of fiery matter were torn loose in flaming masses. In that appalling moment, blazing prominences raged up from each riven star. Through space came a terrific wave of electrical force that rocked the Comet like a chip in a storm, flinging it wildly about.
CURT NEWTON and the Futuremen held on desperately to prevent being knocked senseless again. The time-thruster continued to drone, but they heard control panel fuses popping like firecrackers. Then the ship quieted as the unbelievable electrical wave passed.
"The two stars have passed!" Grag's booming voice shouted.
Red giant star and flaming blue Sun had passed and were now marching away from each other. But around the Sun, as around the departing stranger, now raced a swarm of small, flaming balls that had been torn away and given rotatory motion by the passing star.
Captain Future pointed at those circling satellites of the Sun with a hand that trembled slightly.
"The worlds are born," he said softly, his throat tight with emotion.
The red star, like a fat woman with a big family, grew smaller and smaller as it departed into infinity. But the eyes of the Futuremen were fixed on the flaming planets around their own Sun. What had seemed a bewildering swarm of blazing matter fell rapidly into definite orbits and patterns that now scrambled madly around the Sun.
From the little mass that had been flung farthest out, which would eventually become Pluto, to tiny Mercury close to the Sun, the ten worlds were recognizable. Nearly all had satellites of smaller flaming masses, embryo moons. And as they raced around the Sun, they seemed to be swiftly cooling, shrinking, solidifying.
"They'll soon be solid enough so we can land on one, at the rate we're going through time!" Curt exclaimed. "Then we can get enough copper —"
Ironically at the moment he spoke the throbbing cyclotrons began to sputter, then died. The scanty fuel had been exhausted. Their progress through time came to a dead stop as the thruster ceased to function.
"Stuck again!" said Otho bitterly. "And this time it looks as if our orbit was scrambled for good!"
"Can't we get copper yet from those planets?" Grag asked.
Captain Future shook his head. "They're still semi-molten. We've got to go farther in time before we can land on them."
"And there isn't a scrap of copper left that we can spare for cyc fuel," lamented Otho. Then a gleam came into his green eyes. "But, say, come to think of it, there's a little copper in Grag's insides."
"I'll twist your rubber neck into a knot!" cried Grag furiously. "Do you think you're going to make fuel out of me?"
"You'd be more help feeding the cycs than otherwise," Otho retorted.
Despite the gravity of the situation, Curt Newton grinned.
"There's not enough copper in Grag to help, anyway," he pointed out. He looked around the interior of the Comet. There appeared to be no possible source of fuel. "There's only one thing to do — tear down one of the cyclotrons and use its copper parts for fuel. It'll leave us only eight cycs, but we can get just enough power from them."
"If one of them blew, we wouldn't have a spare," objected Otho.
"I know, but we have to take the chance," Curt replied grimly. "Come on. We'll take apart Number Nine Cyc."
The Futuremen rapidly went to work. The big inertron outer and inner casings of the massive cyclotron were disassembled. From between them came the copper wire coils and plates which were the last possible source of fuel.
The powdered metal they obtained by their desperate expedient seemed pitifully small, compared with the risk they were running. Taking care not to spill a grain of it, they poured it into the fuel tanks. Soon the remaining eight cycs began again their powerful throbbing.
Captain Future already had the time-thruster switched on. Once more its cone sprayed white radiance. Again they felt the familiar shock of extra-electromagnetic forces hurling their bodily atoms on into time.
THE planets resumed their nightmare race around the Sun. And, as they moved on along the time dimension across millions of years, the Sun itself was changing perceptibly. Its bluish shade faded through blue-white and white to a pale yellow. The yellow deepened as time flashed by.
"The Sun's temperature is increasing, as it begins to contract," Curt muttered, watching. "It must be near a more stable phase by now."
"Aye, lad," rasped the Brain, scrutinizing the great orb with intense interest through a shielded electro-telescope. "The increase of temperature inside it is causing thermo-nuclear reactions on the carbon-nitrogen cycle, a steady transformation of hydrogen into helium, with a great release of radiant energy as a concomitant."
"It's the planets I'm worried about, not the Sun," declared Otho. "But you can't see 'em. They're just streaks of light at this time speed."
Curt glanced sharply at the time gage.
"They should be nearly solid worlds by now. How is the fuel holding, Grag?"
"Going down fast!" called the robot from where he sat at the space-stick. "That time-thruster eats up energy like nothing I ever saw before."
Captain Future came to decision. They could not risk being stranded again. It was better to take a chance that the planets were solid.
He shut off the time-thruster. The giddy race of the ten worlds around the Sun became a normal movement. Intently the red-haired planeteer scrutinized them in turn through the powerful electro-telescopes.
All of the worlds now had a solid crust, he noted. The great outer planets still appeared to be quite hot, but their moons and the smaller inner worlds were cooler. Each planet was now wrapped in an atmosphere that had been formed of occluded gases.
"They're solid, thank the stars!" Captain Future declared. "Here's where we start shipping uranium into the future. Head for Mercury, Grag."
; With its dwindling fuel now powering the rocket-tube?, the Comet hurtled through space toward the yellow orb of the Sun. Soon they made out Mercury, a tiny globe swinging near the colossal flaming sphere. The surface of the smallest plant was a tumbled, jumbled wilderness of hardened lava and basalt as they swooped down toward it. The number of active volcanoes argued that the interior of the little planet was still in a highly molten state.
"First we have to find copper for ourselves," Curt said. "Then we'll start on the uranium."
Swinging back and forth over the tumbled, rocky planet, they searched its surface with their spectroscopic apparatus. It was not long before they had located a copper deposit large enough for their needs.
They brought the Comet down to a landing. Curt and Otho ventured out with Grag. For two hours the three comrades labored in the blazing light of the huge Sun, digging out the metal.
When they had sufficient, it took but a few minutes to run it through the macerator. Then, with fuel tanks well loaded with the powdered metal, the Comet rose again above the surface of primeval Mercury.
"That takes care of the fuel problem, finally," Curt said, breathing more easily. "Now for the uranium. We've got a terrific job ahead. We must locate the main uranium deposits on nearly all the worlds and drive the element into the future with our auxiliary time force projector."
Otho looked discouraged.
"Chief, it's too big a contract for anybody. When you think of all those worlds we have to cover —"
"Thinking won't help us do it," rejoined Captain Future. "You know what depends on getting the uranium across time to the age of Katain — a whole people saved and Zikal's murderous scheme frustrated."
Otho's eyes hardened at mention of Zikal's name.
"You're right," he almost snarled. "Anything is worthwhile that'll crush that Katainian devil."
SIMON had been examining one of the planetary mineralogical maps which Curt and old Darmur had formulated for guidance.
"This shows two main deposits of uranium here on Mercury," rasped Simon.
Captain Future 08 - The Lost World of Time (Fall 1941) Page 12