Captain Future 12 - Planets in Peril (Fall 1942) Read Free Page B

the girl is his sister, Shiri. They materialized here less than an hour ago, by means of Tiko's power-beam —"
    "Hold on, Joan!" Captain Future begged. "You're getting all mixed up in your excitement. You say that Tiko managed to bring these two people out of a different three-dimensional universe?"
    Joan's dark head bobbed.
    "Yes. He bridged the abyss between our universe and theirs with a power-beam along the fourth dimension."
    "Impossible!" Curt exclaimed. "According to all relativity theory, the fourth dimension is non-spatial. No beam could work across it."
    "That's what Simon said at first, but Tiko did it," the girl insisted. "I admit I was scared at first. Especially since we had expected only the man Gerdek to appear, and didn't know that his sister was coming along with him.
    "And Gerdek and his sister were alarmed, too, when they first materialized! It was sight of the Brain that startled them. They thought at first he was some kind of mechanical monster, and raised their weapons to protect themselves. But Tiko soon convinced them we were all friendly. Tiko has been talking to them, learning their story —"
     
    CAPTAIN FUTURE'S gray eyes lit with excitement, and he started toward the little house.
    "Joan, come on — I want to see those people. If they really came from a different universe, Tiko has got something big."
    "Holy moon-cats, I still can't believe it!" exclaimed Otho, hastening with Grag beside them.
    "Curt, I've heard part of their story that Tiko translated for us, and it's a wonderful, heart-breaking tale!" Joan was saying as they hurried across the lawn. "The universe that Gerdek and his sister come from is a dying universe.
    "Its people are fighting a terrible battle against extinction. And these two took the awful risk of being dematerialized and hurled across the abyss, in the hope of getting help here for their doomed people."
    Captain Future and his companions stepped inside of Tiko Thrin's crowded laboratory, and halted. The tall, red-haired planeteer and the lithe android and mighty metal robot made a striking group as they stared.
    Curt's eyes were fixed on the pale-haired young man and girl who had jumped up as he entered. He realized at once that they represented a race wholly unfamiliar to him. The marble whiteness of their complexions, the handsomeness of the man and the unearthly, platinum-tressed beauty of the girl were as subtly strange as their black garments.
    Future had expected this man Gerdek and his sister to show astonishment at sight of his robot and android comrades.
    But, to his surprise, it was upon himself that the gaze of the man and the girl fixed instantly.
    With eyes dilated by amazement, these two visitors from another universe stared at Captain Future's hair. Then they burst into excited speech in their own language.
     

     
Chapter 3: National Hero
     
    CURT NEWTON was dumfounded by the excitement which his own appearance had somehow stirred in the strange man and girl. They seemed unable to take their eyes off him.
    He turned to the little Martian scientist.
    "What are they saying, Tiko?"
    "I didn't get it all," Tiko Thrin confessed puzzledly. "But as far as I can gather, it's your red hair that has excited them."
    "My hair?" Captain Future echoed, mystified. "What's so unusual about that?"
    The Martian questioned Gerdek and Shiri in their own language. They replied with an eager rush of words.
    "They say," Tiko translated, "that none of their people has hair like yours. Their legends tell of a time when some of them had dark or even red hair, but now they are all a pale-haired people."
    "Tell them we're more interested in their reason for coming here than in the color of their hair," Curt Newton said impatiently.
    Gerdek and Shiri had by now got over their startled surprise. But the girl still had breathless emotion in her fine face as she looked at Curt.
    Her brother was saying something to her in a rapid, eager tone. They scrutinized Curt's tall figure