Captain Future 06 - Star Trail to Glory (Spring 1941) Read Free Page B

him even more dangerous. Captain Future's home is on Earth's Moon. When the System President needs this man, he calls him by a certain beacon signal upon Earth's North Pole. Undoubtedly he will soon call Captain Future by this means, to gain his assistance in stopping our activities."
     
    NEITHER Six nor Fifteen made any comment, as human beings would have done. They stood silently awaiting orders.
    "It is essential," continued One's cold mechanical voice, "that Captain Future and his assistants be prevented from interfering with our plans. It is your duty to prevent that. You will head for the Moon at once in our fastest ship, with a crew of six. Get there before the beacon signal calls the Futuremen to Earth. You will take Captain Future and his assistants by surprise and overpower them by means of our usual weapon.
    "Surprise is vital. Once this man is on his guard, even our powerful weapon might fail against him. Secure them and their ship, the Comet, but do not kill Captain Future or his men. Their ship, the Comet, contains many valuable scientific secrets of space ship design which only he and the Futuremen understand. Bring them to Venus Base first, and I will notify you when it is safe to come here to Main Base. Then we shall force Future or his comrades to explain all the features of their ship to us. After that we can kill them."
    Six and Fifteen, without question or remark, turned and stalked out of the room. Presently, through the subdued clangor outside, came the roar of a powerful space ship's rocket-tubes blasting for take-off. The awesome mechanical figure of the master of the machine men remained immobile, his enormous artificial eyes inscrutable.
     

     
Chapter 3: The Man of Tomorrow
     
    CURTIS NEWTON, the young planeteer famous through the whole Solar System as Captain Future, straightened from the work that had intently engrossed him for hours. He stood surveying the object of his labor. It was a peculiar square case of transparent metal, resting on his laboratory table.
    "All finished, at last!" Captain Future exclaimed with relief. "Want to try it out now, Simon?"
    A rasping metallic voice answered him. It appeared to come from the odd square case before him.
    "Give me a minute to familiarize myself with the controls, Curtis."
    "Oh, all right," Curt Newton conceded impatiently. "You're so all-fired deliberate about everything. I want to see how it works!"
    Waiting anxiously, Captain Future made a striking figure. The young Earthman was six feet four in height, and his lithe ranginess in his drab zipper-suit made him seem even taller. As he stood running one hand through his mop of torch-red hair, his space-tanned, handsome face and clear gray eyes mirrored his eagerness to test the results of his work.
    Curt looked more like a fighting man than a scientist. But the big ring on his left hand — a ring whose nine bright "planet" jewels constantly revolved around a radiant "Sun" jewel — identified him on nine worlds as the System's greatest scientific wizard. The matchless laboratory on the Moon was silent witness to his abilities.
    In the uninhabited airless satellite, under the floor of Tycho crater, was the maze of underground rooms of Captain Future's home. The ceiling of this biggest room was a large glassite window which gave a view of outside space. In the black vault bulked the green, huge sphere of Earth, and the dazzling Sun whose rays poured in to glitter off the laboratory's crowded scientific equipment and unfamiliar machines.
    "Very well, Curtis, I'm ready to test the projector now," came the rasping voice from the square, transparent case on the table. "But I still wish I hadn't let you talk me into this."
    "Think how convenient it will be for you to be able to move about, Simon," Captain Future argued. "Remember how helpful it was in that case of the Seven Space Stones, when you could use that phony Thinking Machine body to get about in? And look how much easier your scientific