Captain Future 07 - The Magician of Mars (Summer 1941)

by Edmond Hamilton

  “My guess is that it’s around Uranus,” rasped the Brain. “And that Quorn gave orders to set a little trap here for us.”

  NEWTON nodded thoughtfully. “It looks like it. Quorn’s clever. He would figure that we’d be here sooner or later, following his trail. So he had some of his men waiting in that ship. I think they meant to steal the Comet and then blast open the stockade — let the gas-beasts in on us. We couldn’t escape, and it would have wiped us out.”

  A queer light danced in Captain Future’s gray eyes.

  “I’ll say this for Ul Quorn — he’s a foeman worthy of our steel. But we conquered him before and we will again!”

  Curt brought the Comet back down to a landing inside the stockade. He was not yet finished with his investigation there.

  He and the Futuremen first examined the dead Martian criminal whom Johnny Kirk had killed in his intrepid defense of the Comet. They found nothing remarkable on his body, except a trace of shining blue dust which Captain Future noticed in his pockets and cuffs.

  “That blue dust is radite,” Curt muttered. “This man has been somewhere recently working with the mineral.”

  He looked up at the Brain, who was hovering beside him.

  “It all checks up, Simon. Quorn is amassing a stock of radite, the super-powered cyclotron fuel. And Quorn is either building or planning to build a larger dimension-shifting space ship that will have great power and cruising radius.”

  “Hold on, Chief!” Otho interrupted brashly. “How do you know Quorn’s building a bigger ship?”

  Captain Future shrugged.

  “By using my wits, as you ought to now and then,” Curt replied caustically. He took a paper from his pocket. “This is the list of objects stolen by Quorn’s band in their raids, as reported by Ezra. The list includes six massive super-cyclotrons, a mass of high-test alloy bars, and a number of atomic machine tools used in ship construction.

  “Those are the chief materials and tools which would be required for construction of a larger and more powerful space ship,” Curt Newton continued keenly. “The conclusion is inescapable that Ul Quorn has some secret base at which he plans to build such a ship. In that ship, fueled with radite, Quorn and his band will go into the co-existing universe in search of the mysterious treasure Harris Haines told about.”

  “Good reasoning, lad,” approved the Brain. “I believe now we’re getting somewhere.”

  “Hanged if I can see it yet,” Otho objected. “Why should Quorn have to build a larger ship to go on this treasure hunt in the other universe? Why not just use the little ship they stole from Skal Kar, the ship they’re using now? That craft can enter the other universe.”

  “That puzzled me at first,” Captain Future admitted, “but I believe I’ve figured the answer. Suppose, once they shift into the other universe, the treasure they’re after is a long way off in space? A small craft such as Skal Kar’s model couldn’t travel any vast distance in the space of the other universe, any more than it could here. They’d have to have a larger ship with a vastly greater cruising radius, one that could hold more fuel.”

  “But, Chief,” Otho asked, “what the devil is this mysterious treasure they’re after?”

  “I wish I knew,” Curt said thoughtfully. “It must be something big. Ul Quorn doesn’t play for small stakes.”

  Captain Future rose decisively to his feet.

  “But there’s nothing more we can learn here. We’ve got to run down Ul Quorn before he departs into the other universe.”

  “You talk about running down Ul Quorn as though all we had to do was walk in on him and grab him,” muttered Otho gloomily. “How in space can we track him when he ducks in and out of the other universe?”

  “Don’t be so cursed dismal, Otho,” Captain Future reproved. “As I see it, we’ve got two angles to follow on this thing. One, we’ve got to see if we can’t locate the secret base where Ul Quorn is building his bigger ship. Two, we must equip the Comet with dimension-thrust apparatus so we can follow Quorn into the other universe.”

  “How’re we going to fit up the Comet like that when we don’t have Skal Kar’s plans for the apparatus, as Quorn does?” Otho objected.

  “Simon and I know the principle of the dimension-thrust,” Curt told him. “Don’t you remember our experiments back home on the Moon last year? We can build apparatus that will shift the Comet across dimensions. But first, we want to locate Ul Quorn’s secret workshop and base.

  “It must be on Uranus,” Curt went on keenly. “Quorn will need a lot of radite to power his treasure-search in the other universe. And in the whole Solar System, radite’s found only on Uranus. We’re blasting there at once, to hunt around the radite sources for Quorn’s base!”

  SOON the Comet was zooming up from Ariel and roaring toward the vast, greenish globe of Uranus.

  “Head for Lulanee, the capital city,” Curt ordered Otho, who had taken the pilot-chair. “It’s on the night side now.”

  Presently their ship was screaming down into the deep atmosphere of the seventh world. Beneath lay the moonlit, mountainous landscape of Uranus. It was well named the Mountain World, for it was ragged with labyrinthine-linked ranges of lofty peaks. Some of the ranges, like the Mystery Mountains that loomed far in the north, actually towered more than twenty miles into the clouds.

  The Comet screamed southward over the equatorial Endless River that belts the mid-section of the planet. It was a foaming river that roared ceaselessly around the planet in the titanic canyon it had eroded for itself, its current being the result of tidal pull of the four moons. Then they, came within sight of the Shining Sea.

  Towering black mountains cupped a great sea whose waters glowed like an uncanny ocean of curdled white light. Those shining waters held in suspension a large amount of glowing radioactive minerals, causing a radiance. Their luminous waves lapped against the encircling black cliffs, breaking into showering sprays of living light.

  Amid the mountains on the northern shore of the Shining Sea brooded the ancient capital city of Lulanee. It was a monolithic metropolis whose black-domed buildings and streets and docks had been carved from the solid rock. Its lighted streets and arcades were thronged with the pleasure-seeking population. Out on the glowing sea drifted the pleasure-barges of the richer Uranians, like dark boats on a fairy ocean.

  “I always did think Lulanee was the most beautiful city in the System, at night,” commented Otho, drinking in the weird beauty.

  Curt Newton nodded.

  “Land at the Police station,” he ordered.

  The luminous shooting-star emblem on the domed roof of the Planet Police station identified its location. The Comet dropped on its keel tubes into the landing-court behind the building. Here were parked fast cruisers of the Planet Patrol, swift Tarks and Rissmans.

  A vice-marshal of the Planet Police, an alert young Venusian, came running out to meet Curt and the Futuremen as they emerged from their ship into the krypton-lit court.

  Curt held out his identifying “nine-planet” ring. The young officer smiled eagerly.

  “As though I didn’t know your ship and the Futuremen without that, Captain Future! What can we do for you here?”

  “I’m after someone who needs a lot of radite,” Curt stated crisply, “and I hope to trace him in that way. The man I’m after is a criminal. He wouldn’t dare negotiate for the radite with the mine companies here. Is there any other source of radite on Uranus besides the established mines?”

  “No reachable source,” the Venusian replied. “Radite is known to exist at one point far down in the great caves below the surface, but nobody has ever been able to obtain it from those endless depths.”

  The young officer was referring to the labyrinthine caverns which honeycombed the mass of Uranus to unguessable depths — the most extensive caves in any of the nine worlds. But Grag did not understand.

  “If no one’s ever been able to reach the radite down there in the caves, how do you know it’s there?”
the big robot demanded.

  “Radite is so powerfully radioactive that its emanations affect sensitive instruments at a great distance,” the officer explained. “Such instruments show a rich radite deposit far underground, north of here.”

  “And no attempt’s ever been made to get at that deposit?” Captain Future demanded.

  “Plenty of attempts were made at first, but all failed,” he was told. “You see, the only way to that deep-buried deposit would be through the great caverns. And the ferocious cave-creatures and the People of Darkness who inhabit that maze of lightless spaces, attack any intruder. After many attempts, all efforts to reach the deep deposit were abandoned.”

  Captain Future’s gray eyes had a startled gleam in them. He turned to the Brain who hovered beside him.

  “Simon, suppose Ul Quorn has reached that radite deposit down there? Suppose Quorn’s secret base is down in the great caves?”

  “I believe you’ve hit it, lad,” muttered the Brain. “Quorn must have a large mass of radite fuel if he’s to enter the other universe in a larger ship. And that buried deposit in the deep caves is the only place where he could get it. Probably he’s building his new ship down there!”

  “That’s a goofy theory,” Otho objected. “How would Quorn and his band get down into that cave, if nobody has ever managed to reach it?”

  “Quorn could enter the cave easily,” Curt retorted. “He’d simply switch his little ship into the other universe, travel to a point in it corresponding to the location of the cave in our universe, and then switch back across the dimensional gulf. Then his ship would be inside the cavern!”

  “Well, we can do the same thing as soon as we fit up the Comet with dimension-thrust apparatus!” Otho exclaimed triumphantly.

  “That’s not soon enough,” snapped Captain Future. “It’ll take days to build a dimension-thrust mechanism capable of shifting the Comet into the other universe. By that time, Quorn will probably have his new ship built and will be gone into the other universe for the treasure.”

  CURT’S face lengthened.

  “And I think that treasure is something that will give Quorn great powers once he gets it. He wouldn’t be after it so keenly if it weren’t so. We may not be able to cope with Quorn if he secures the mysterious treasure!”

  Otho scratched his head.

  “That’s right. But I don’t see what we can do but take the chance. We have to take time to fit up the Comet.”

  “We don’t all have to,” Curt declared. His eyes gleamed with purpose. “Simon, you could build the dimension-thruster, couldn’t you?”

  “Yes, I could,” answered the Brain. “I have a full record of our experiments on the subject, in our microfilm reference library.”

  “Good!” Curt exclaimed. “I’m going to leave you and Otho here to build the machine. Meanwhile, I’m going with Grag to try to penetrate directly to Quorn’s cavern base, and make sure he doesn’t get away. Grag and I will attempt to go down through the caves to that radite cavern.”

  The young Venusian officer made strenuous protests. “Don’t try it, Captain Future! Nobody has ever succeeded in getting past the creatures in those deeper caves!”

  “We’ll have a few wrinkles most of the explorers didn’t have,” Curt retorted. “We’ve got to make it. As soon as you have the Comet fitted, Simon, you and Otho can follow us by the fifth-dimension short-cut.”

  “Say, do you think you’re going to leave me here while you take Grag off on a jaunt?” cried Otho rebelliously. “Not much!”

  Curt saw mutiny brewing. He had his own reasons for wanting Grag as his companion on this venture instead of Otho. To prevent the inevitable argument, he took Otho aside and spoke to him in a low voice.

  “You’ve got to stay, Otho,” he whispered. “Grag wouldn’t be any good helping Simon with the dimension-thruster. Grag’s faithful and strong but you know as well as I do that he hasn’t your skill in science.”

  Otho expanded under the praise.

  “Sure, Chief, I know that,” he answered cockily. “His iron fingers can’t handle instruments deftly.”

  “That’s it,” Curt agreed seriously. “But don’t tell him I said this. We don’t want to hurt his feelings.”

  “Depend on me to keep quiet about it, Chief,” promised Otho.

  Ten minutes later, Curt Newton and Grag rose above the city in a small, fast Tark Twelve rocket-ship borrowed from the Planet Patrol station. At high speed, it screamed north through the night over the black mountains that rimmed the Shining Sea.

  Curt was heading for the famous Valley of Voices. He had been told that there was an entrance to the labyrinth of caverns that extended deep down into the planet. He had brought certain instruments and weapons from the Comet. But he realized that even armed with scientific powers as he was, it was a hazardous descent he was about to make into the bottomless caverns from which no explorer had ever returned.

  Chapter 7: Johnny’s Defiance

  JOHNNY KIRK had been inordinately proud when Captain Future had asked him to remain and guard the Comet. The tough youngster did not suspect that it was only a device to keep him in the ship.

  After Curt and the Futuremen had departed toward the looming tower of Skal Kar’s laboratory, Johnny began standing guard in dead earnest. He took a proton gun from the space-suit locker and sat in the airlock-door, looking out across the green-lit landscape of Ariel.

  Johnny Kirk was the product of one of the toughest environments in the System — the space-dock district of New York. He had grown up, parentless and friendless, in those shabby slums. He had learned to take care of himself, to outwit his enemies, and to hate the authority of the law. He had a hearty dislike for the “sky-cops” — the Planet Police. But Captain Future had always been his supreme hero. He had dreamed of being one of those glamorous Futuremen who followed the red-haired planeteer on his flashing, adventurous space-trails. And now it had happened! Here he was, almost a Futureman himself!

  “Wish the gang back by the space-docks could see me now,” he thought happily.

  Johnny suddenly sprang to his feet. A small ship was swooping down from the planet-lit sky. It landed only a dozen yards from the Comet. From it hastily emerged a giant green Jovian, a fat Earthman and a tall Martian. Johnny heard the Jovian call to the other two.

  “Come on — now’s our chance to grab the ship, while they’re in the laboratory!”

  The three men came running toward the Comet. Johnny Kirk, bristling belligerently, bounded out with his proton gun.

  “Grab this ship? Not much!” snapped the tough Earth youngster. He pressed the trigger of his weapon and a thin, pale blue ray drilled through the Martian of the trio. He fell in a dead heap.

  At that moment, Johnny Kirk heard a yell from the distant tower and knew that the Futuremen had heard and were coming.

  “No chance now!” he heard the big Jovian curse. “Back out of here before those devils get us!”

  “You don’t get away so easy!” Johnny snapped, and plunged after them. He pursued the Jovian and the fat Earthman right to the door of their little ship. The great Jovian whirled with astonishing swiftness. His outflung fist caught Johnny’s head.

  Johnny saw stars, and was aware that he was stumbling and falling inside the door of the outlaws’ ship. He heard the Jovian yelling.

  “Up out of here, Xexel! This brat spoiled the whole plan!”

  Johnny heard a door slam and then, with a roar of rocket-tubes, the ship lurched skyward. Still on the floor, he glimpsed the Jovian’s hands reaching down.

  “I’ll fix this cub for what he did!” snarled the giant green man.

  “No, Thikar!” cried the throaty voice of the fat one. “We can use him alive. Throw him in that locker.”

  A heavy hand grabbed the half-dazed youngster, and he was slammed into a crowded little locker whose door clanged shut. Johnny groggily gathered himself up into a sitting position.

  “I let them take me like a little sissy,” Jo
hnny thought wrathfully. “I ought to have blasted them down, instead of ordering ‘em to stop. Well, anyway I got one — and Captain Future will get these others.”

  THE boy’s tremendous confidence in Captain Future was unshaken. He wasn’t afraid. Sooner or later, Captain Future would rescue him.

  He could hear Thikar, the big, brutal Jovian, yelling to the man at the controls of the little ship.

  “Faster, Xexel! There comes the Comet after us!”

  “Can’t go faster!” whined a cracked voice. “Future’s ship can fly rings around us. We’ll have to make the dimension-shift now or they’ll have us!”

  “All right!” Thikar bellowed. “Brace yourselves — here goes!”

  Johnny heard Thikar start some mechanism whose powerful hum rose swiftly to a penetrating, tingling vibration. Then the lad suddenly felt a ghastly shock. He seemed thrust into a bellowing blackness in which each atom of his body was wrenched by supernal forces. Finally the awful sensation passed, leaving him quivering and shaken.

  “What in the devil was that?” Johnny wondered bewilderedly.

  He could see nothing, locked as he was in the dark metal cabinet. But he heard Thikar’s coarse laugh.

  “We’re safe now,” the Jovian criminal exulted. “Captain Future can’t follow us here. How I’d like to have seen his face when we disappeared in front of his eyes!”

  Johnny Kirk’s bewilderment increased. What had that awful shock of strange force meant? How had this craft escaped the Comet?

  “Head back to base, Xexel,” Thikar was ordering. “Keep over on this side until we’re in the right spot — then shift back over.”

  “All right, all right,” quavered the cracked voice of the old pilot, Xexel. “But I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes when we do get back. Quorn’s going to be plenty angry with you for bungling the thing.”

  “Was it my fault?” roared the Jovian. “How could we know that they’d have that brat watching their ship? Who is he, anyway?”