Edmond Hamilton - Captain Future 11 - The Comet Kings

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Edmond Hamilton - THE COMET KINGS
THE COMET KINGS
by Edmond Hamilton
Trapped in the Depths of Halley's Comet, the
Futuremen Battle Fourth-Dimensional Monsters in a Titanic
Struggle to Save the System's Solar Energy!
Captain Future parried the blow by a swift jab of his own dielectric blade. (Chap. IX)
CHAPTER I
Vanishing Spaceships
ILLIONS of miles out beyond Jupiter, the bat-
tered old space-freighter Arcturion plodded
through the void.
M
"I'd just as soon walk to Uranus!" disgustedly ex-
claimed Norton, the young second mate. "I wish I'd got
a berth on a passenger liner. They don't spend weeks
crawling along between planets."
Brower, the veteran first mate, smiled tolerantly at
the impatient young officer.
"You'll get used to it," he predicted. "Me, I kind of
like it. It's restful, plugging along day after day through
these big empty spaces."
"But nothing ever happens!" the younger man com-
1
Edmond Hamilton - THE COMET KINGS
plained, "There's never even a close brush with a mete-
or swarm. I can't stand this deadly monotony."
Ironically, it was at that moment that the catastrophe
broke upon them.
The plodding, droning Arcturion suddenly seemed
to go crazy in space. Its steelite hull plates screamed
beneath the grasp of unearthly forces. The ship hurtled
suddenly sideward in space, as though it had,, been
gripped by a giant, invisible hand.
The sharp shock of that invisible grasp was so pow-
erful that it nullified the Arcturicy's artificial gravita-
tion. Young Norton felt himself hurled against the cab-
in wall, and his brain saw stars.
His last sensation was of mysterious and mighty
forces sweeping the old freighter at undreamable speed
through the void. Then he knew nothing at all.
That was only the first disappearance.
"But there aren't any uncharted meteor swarms out
in that sector of space, sir!"
The man who spoke was a Martian who wore the
dark uniform of the Planet Patrol. He wore a captain's
insignia, too, for Tzan Thar was head of this Jovopolis
Maintenance Division.
His red, solemn face was wrinkled with dismay and
there was anxiety in his large-pupilled black eyes, as he
protested to the Venusian superior officer who looked
at him out of the square televisor screen.
"Don't try to evade responsibility, Captain Thar!"
snapped the higher officer. "You're in charge of the
Maintenance Division for that sector of space. You've
been lax in your meteor-sweeping, and a score of ships
have come to grief as a result.
"Twenty-three ships gone, since that old freighter
Arcturion first disappeared! And every one of them
vanished in that sector beyond Jupiter, and hasn't re-
ported since."
"I can't understand it any more than you can sir,"
said the Martian captain. "We swept all lanes in that
sector only a few weeks ago."
"Then you missed plenty of meteors!" rapped his su-
perior. "You get out there with every sweep you've got
- and be fast about it! I want that sector cleaned up at
once. And see if you can't find the wreckage of those
ships."
The connection was broken. Tzan Thar turned and
looked helplessly at his junior officers-lanky Earthmen,
squat Jovians, bronzed Mercurians.
"You all heard him," the Martian captain said wor-
riedly. "You know we swept that sector thoroughly,
that every space-lane was clear. But something's drifted
in that haft been wrecking ships. We've got to get
busy!"
Six broad-beamed, dumpy meteor-sweeps soon rose
up through the thin sunlight of Jupiter, blasted their tor-
tuous path out through the maze of moons, and then
laid a course outward in space.
The six ships, built with steelite walls of massive
strength, droned steadily out through the starry void.
Their far-ranging spotter beams fanned space ahead.
Wherever those beams encountered meteors or other
debris, they would be reflected back to indicate the lo-
cation. Then the sweeps would advance and destroy the
meteors by concentrated atom-blasts.
UT their spotter apparatus found no trace of mete-
ors as they droned out along the space-lane. Cap-
tain Tzan Thar became deeply puzzled.
B
"I can't figure it," he admitted anxiously. "There are
no meteors in this sector. There isn't even any wreckage
from all those vanished ships."
His immediate superior, a young Mercurian, looked
uneasy.
"It's queer, all right -"
Cataclysm suddenly interrupted their discussion. A
colossal, invisible hand seemed suddenly to seize their
heavy ship. They were flung to the floor as that giant,
unseen hand scooped up all six great meteor-sweeps.
Nor did the tragic disappearances cease.
"Fifty-two ships Do you hear that-fifty-two ships!
Freighters, liners tankers, even meteor-sweeps. This
can't go on!"
North Bonnet's face was agitated as he paced to and
fro in his office, on a high level of Earth's Government
Tower at New York. It was a comparatively small of-
fice, yet it was the very brain and nerve center of the
far-flung Planet Patrol.
Halk Anders, commander of the Patrol, sat at his
desk and said nothing. His bulldog face was stolidly
grim as he hunched there, staring out through the win-
dow at the soaring towers and gleaming lights of this
night-shrouded metropolis of the Solar System.
"Commander, something's got to be done," North
Bonnet continued vehemently. "Those ships held thou-
sands of people, millions of dollars' worth of cargoes.
Shipping companies, planetary officials, anxious rela-
tives are all besieging the Government. You've got to
send cruisers out there to stop these disasters!"
Halk Anders did not turn from his grim contempla-
tion at the lights of New York, as he answered.
"We sent two Patrol cruisers into that sector to in-
vestigate weeks ago after our meteor-sweeps vanished."
"You did" Bonnet said hopefully. "What did they re-
port?"
They didn't report anything," the commander
replied. "They never came back - just disappeared like
the others."
The Government official was appalled.
"Patrol cruisers disappeared, too?"
Anders nodded.
"Yes. We kept it quiet because we didn't want to add
to the general alarm."
"But what are we going to do about it?" Bonnel
2
Edmond Hamilton - THE COMET KINGS
asked dismayedly.
"I've already done something," the commander told
him. "I sent out another cruiser to investigate. Two of
my crack agents are aboard. You know them - old Mar-
shal Ezra Gurney and Joan Randall.
"It may look queer, sending a girl," he added quick-
ly. "But Joan's not only the smartest agent of our secret
investigation division - she knows the space-ways bet-
ter than most men. And as for Ezra Gurney - well, he
knows the whole System like the back of his hand."
"Have they found out anything yet?" Bonnel de-
manded eagerly.
Halk Antlers shrugged stolidly.
"I don't know. They were to report by televisor to-
day. I've been expecting their call any minute."
But though the two men waited expectantly, it was
not until four hours later that the televisor on the desk
buzzed sharply. From it came the urgent voice of a
headquarters switchboard man.
"Cruiser Ferronia calling, Commander. Agent Ran-
dall to speak to you."
"Switch her on at once!" snapped Halk Anders.
N the square glass screen of the televisor appeared
the vivid face of a dark, pretty girl. Joan Randall's
eyes were shadowed with anxiety as she spoke to them
across the millions of miles of space.
I
"Ferronia reporting, Commander," she said rapidly.
"We've been cruising back and forth over the whole
sector in which those ships vanished. And we've found
nothing."
"Nothing?" echoed Anders incredulously. "You
mean -"
"I mean just that. There's nothing here but empty
space!" Joan Randall declared. "There's not a meteor in
this whole region big enough to wreck a ship. Further-
more, there's no sign whatever of any wreckage of all
those ships. It's just as though space itself swallowed
them up!"
The white head of an old man appeared over the
girl's shoulder. Marshal Ezra Gurney's wrinkled face
and faded blue eyes were bleak as he corroborated the
girl's report.
"It sounds cursed queer, but it's so," he told the com-
mander. "This is the dangdest, most puzzlin' mystery I
ever -"
At that moment, something happened. It happened
so swiftly that neither Commander Anders nor North
Bonnel get more than a glimpse of it.
They saw something like a blaze of white across the
televisor screen, instantly blotting out the suddenly
alarmed faces of Joan and Ezra. And then the televisor
had gone dark.
Anders jabbed its call-button.
"Joan! Ezra! What's happened?"
There was no answer. Anders flung a switch and
shot an order to the headquarters operator.
"Contact the Ferronia again at once!"
Ten minutes later, the switchboard division called
back.
No success at all, sir. The Ferronia simply doesn't
answer."
Anders slowly turned and looked at the Government
official, and his bulldog face was heavier than ever.
"It happened to Joan and Ezra, right in front of our
eyes," he muttered. "Whatever struck at the other ships
3
Captain Future smashed desperately to close the fateful door as
the Allus advanced viciously toward him and Joan. (Chap. XV)
Edmond Hamilton - THE COMET KINGS
struck at theirs, too."
Bonnel was appalled.
"But what was it? There was nothing but a blaze of
force in the screen!"
Anders shook his leonine head helplessly.
"I can't figure it. I thought I'd seen everything in
space but this is something new, and dangerous."
He rose to his feet.
"There is nothing to do but to send a full squadron
of Patrol cruisers out there. And if they disappear, too
-"
"'There'll be a panic that will cripple space travel in
the whole System," breathed Bonnel, his face pale.
Then his eyes flashed.
"Commander, this mystery can't be met by force. It's
a job for someone who can scientifically ferret out what
is really happening. Someone who can use every re-
source of science to solve the riddle."
Halk Anders understood this at once.
"You're thinking of Captain Future?"
The official nodded emphatically.
"If anybody could crack this mystery, that scientific
wizard and his Futuremen could."
"Maybe so," muttered the commander. "Future has
plenty of tricks the rest of us don't know. But if you call
him in, will he come?"
"Will he come?" echoed North Bonnel. He strode
toward the televisor. "Why, Ezra Gurney is one of his
oldest friends, and as for Joan - you ought to know
what Future thinks of her!"
"Will he come? He'll split space itself getting here
when he learns that Joan and Ezra are in danger!"
CHAPTER II
Riddle of the World
SMALL, streamlined ship climbed froze the bar-
ren, airless surface of the Moon, with rockets
blazing white fire, it shot toward Earth.
A
Had there been any observer, he would have known
at once that it was the ship of Captain Future and the
Futuremen. For only those four famous adventurers
lived upon the lifeless, forbidding satellite. Their un-
derground laboratory-home beneath Tycho crater was
the only habitation.
The little ship flew toward Earth at a speed no other
craft could match, and which no ordinary pilot would
have attempted. It screamed down through the darkness
of the shadowed planet, toward the blazing pinnacles of
New York. Like a swooping falcon, it came down to
rest on the truncated tip of the looming Government
Tower.
Down in Planet Patrol headquarters, North Bonnel
was still restlessly pacing his office as Halk Anders sat
grimly silent.
"If Future can't solve this thing, nobody can!" Bon-
nel was saying jerkily. "And if ships keep on vanishing
like that -"
A clear voice interrupted him:
"What's this about vanishing ships? And what's hap-
pened to Joan and Ezra?"
Bonnel and Halk Anders both spun around. A door
had opened silently behind them. And in it were four
figures.
"Captain Future!" exclaimed Bonnel. He breathed in
gusty relief. "By heaven, I'm glad you and the Future-
men got here so quickly!"
Curt Newton ignored the warm greeting of these two
old acquaintances as he strode into the office. His
brows were knitted in a frown.
"You said in your call that Joan and Ezra were in
trouble. What is it, Bonnel? And why didn't you call me
before?"
Captain Future - as the whole System called Curtis
Newton - towered a full head above Bonnel. His tall,
ranged figure, clad now in a gray zipper-suit, hinted of
strength and speed. And the heavy proton pistol belted
to his waist recalled that he was not only the famous
Wizard Science, but also the most renowned fighting
planeteer in the System.
Beneath Curt's torchlike mop of red hair, his spac-
etanned handsome face and clear gray eyes now mir-
rored an urgent anxiety. He had few friends, but those
few were very close to him. Marshal Ezra Gurney was
one of the oldest. And even closer to his heart was the
gay, gallant girl agent whose safety now was threat-
ened.
"Where are Joan and Ezra?" he repeated.
"We don't know," Bonnel answered helplessly.
"What do you mean - you don't know?" cried one of
the Futuremen. "Devils of space, is this a joke?"
The three Futuremen who were Curt Newton's faith-
ful, lifelong comrades made a striking contrast to their
tall, red-haired young leader. Otho, the one who had
just spoken, was a lithe, white, rubbery-looking figure
of a man, with a devil of fierce recklessness in his slant
green eyes. He seemed almost an ordinary man, but was
not. Otho had been created in a laboratory, long ago.
He was a synthetic man, an android.
Grag, second of the Futuremen, was even more ex-
traordinary. He was an intelligent robot - a giant metal
figure towering seven feet high, with photoelectric eyes
gleaming from the bulbous metal head that shielded his
mechanical brain. Strongest of all beings vas Grag!
The third and strangest was Simon Wright, the
Brain. He was just that - a living human brain, dwelling
in a transparent metal case whose constantly repurified
serums kept him alive. His glass lens-eyes were watch-
ing, his microphone ears listening, as he hung poised
upon the pale beams of force by which he could move
through the air at will.
4
Edmond Hamilton - THE COMET KINGS
"You must have some idea where Joan and Ezra are!
Otho was exclaiming impatiently to Bonnet. "Or did
you bring us all the way from the Moon just for a silly
hoax?"
"Shut up, Otho," Curt Newton ordered. His gray
eyes bored into Bonnel's face. "Tell us what happened."
ONNEL told them, as briefly as he could. He told
of the scores of slips that for weeks has mysteri-
ously vanished in that sector beyond Jupiter, of the as-
signing of Joan Randall and old Marshal Gurney to in-
vestigate, and of the inexplicable interruption of their
televisor call.
B
"The thing has me baffled, Captain Future," con-
fessed Halk Anders when Bonnel finished.
Curt's eyes were hard. "We're going out there at
once and find out what did happen to them," he said
sharply. He turned toward the door. Otho's slant green
eyes flamed with excitement as he followed. And Grag,
too, followed Captain Future silently. But the Brain's
metallic voice held them back. "Wait a moment, Curtis.
I know you're worried about Joan, but getting into too
big a hurry won't help us. We need to know more about
this."
Otho groaned exasperatedly. "Every time we're in a
devil of a hurry, Simon has to delay to plan things out."
There was truth in the charge. The cold, almost
emotionless mind of the Brain was always more careful
in planning action than were the others. That was natu-
ral, for the Brain was the oldest of them all.
The Brain could look back across the years to the
time before Curt Newton had been born. He had been
an ordinary man, at that time. He had been Doctor Si-
mon Wright, brilliant, aging scientist of a great Earth
university, dying of an incurable ailment.
His body had died but his brain had lived on. His
living brain had been surgically removed and implanted
in the artificial metal serum-case which he still inhabit-
ed. That had been done by Roger Newton, his gifted
young colleague in biological research.
Soon after that, threats to their scientific secrets had
caused the Brain, Roger Newton and Newton's bride to
leave Earth in search of a safe refuge. They had found
such a haven on the lifeless Moon, where they built an
underground laboratory-home beneath the floor of Ty-
cho crater.
In that strange home, Curt Newton had been born.
And in it, the science of the two experimenters had cre-
ated Otho, the android, and Grag, the robot.
Death had come to Roger Newton and his young
wife, soon after that. The orphaned infant they had left
had been adopted by the three strange beings, the Brain,
the robot and the android. These three had faithfully
reared the boy to brilliant manhood, giving him the un-
paralleled education that in time had made him an un-
surpassed master of science.
Ever since Curt Newton had begun to use his great
powers against the evil-doers of the System, his three
former guardians had followed him as the Futuremen.
"Before we go out there," the Brain was saying de-
liberately in his metallic voice, "I want all available
data about the spaceships that disappeared. I want to
know the route each ship was on, its date of departure,
its approximate cruising speed, and about when it van-
ished."
Captain Future's gray eyes showed quick under-
standing.
"I see what you mean, Simon. By calculating the
courses and speeds of the ships, we may be able to fix
the approximate point in space where they vanished."
Halk Anders gave rapid orders into an office inter-
phone. The file of data requested by the Brain was soon
brought to him.
"We'll call you the moment we learn anything out
there," Curt called back earnestly from the door to the
two officials. "Come on, Grag."
HEY hurried up the little private stair to the land-
ing deck atop Government Tower, Otho taking the
steps three at a time, Grag's metal limbs clanking, the
Brain gliding silently at Curt Newton's side.
T
Up there in the windy darkness atop the tower, the
small ship of the Futuremen crowded the deck. The
four boarded the Comet in a minute, the airlock door
was slammed shut, the cyclotrons started, and Captain
Future grasped the space-stick in the crowded little con-
trol room.
He sent the Comet climbing steeply up to the stars
with a burst of white flame from its tail rocket tubes. It
angled sharply above the glittering towers of New York
to fling itself space-yard amid a roar of splitting atmo-
sphere, as Curt's foot pressed the cyc-pedal.
Presently they were out in clear space, Earth reced-
ing rapidly behind them as Curt Newton built up the
speed of the Comet to fantastic velocity. Like a man-
made meteor gone mad, the ship of the Futuremen hur-
tled outward. The bright speck of Jupiter gleamed
ahead, a little to the right.
Far out to the left, well beyond the orbit of the
monarch world, glowed the brilliant splendor of Hal-
ley's Comet. The great comet was plunging Sunward
again in its vast, seventy-five-year orbit. Its giant coma
or head shone like a blazing world, the long tail stream-
ing backward.
"The ships all disappeared in the quadrant ahead,
between the orbits of Jupiter and Uranus," Curt told
Otho thoughtfully. "Since all space-lanes have been re-
routed to give Halley's comet a wide berth, it cuts down
the area that we must search."
There came a sudden booming cry of alarm from
Grag, back in the main cabin.
"Someone has planted an atomic bomb on this
5
Edmond Hamilton - THE COMET KINGS
ship!"
Springing up in alarm, Curt Newton slammed the
switch of the automatic pilot and bounded back with
Otho into the cabin. This main cabin of the Comet was
more laboratory than living quarters. It was crowded
with telescopic, spectroscopic, electrical and other ap-
paratus. There was a table at its center over which the
Brain had been poised, studying a mass of calculations.
Grag was standing, pointing his metal arm in alarm
at a small, square black case in a corner. It exactly re-
sembled a "live" atomic bomb.
"Don't touch it, Chief - it may let go any minute!"
the big robot cried. "Somebody must have put it in the
ship while we were out."
Captain Future moved swiftly toward the bomb,
snatched it up and tore open the airlock door to throw
the thing out. But the "bomb" suddenly writhed and
changed form in his hands.
It changed with swift protean flow of outline, into a
small, living animal. It was a doughy-looking little
white beast, with big, solemn eyes that looked up inno-
cently at Curt.
"It's my pet, Oog!" cried Otho. He jumped forward
in alarm. "Don't throw him out!"
Curt disgustedly tossed the little animal to its mas-
ter.
"It isn't his fault," Otho said protectively. "You
know Oog laves to imitate anything he sees. That's his
nature."
Oog was cuddling contentedly in his master's arms.
The little beast was a meteor-mimic, a species of aster-
oidal creature which had developed the art of protective
coloration to great lengths. This species had the power
of shifting its bodily cells to shape itself after any mod-
el, and completely controlled its own pigmentation. It
could imitate anything.
"I don't mind your keeping the little nuisance around
in the Moon-laboratory, but I told you not to bring any
pets in this ship" Captain Future bawled out the an-
droid.
"Well, Grag brought along his pet, Eek, and so I
thought I had a right to bring Oog," Otho answered de-
fensively.
URT uttered an exasperated snort. "So we've got
Eek along, too? Where is he, Grag?"CRelunctantly the great robot opened a cabinet and
released another small animal, but one of a different
species. It was a little gray, bearlike creature with
beady black eyes and powerful jaws, now contentedly
gnawing upon a. small scrap of copper.
Eek, as Grag called this pet of his, was a moon-pup.
He was a member of the strange species of moon-dogs
that inhabited the airless satellite of Earth. These crea-
tures did not breathe air or eat ordinary food, but nour-
ished their strange tissues by devouring metal or metal-
6
The Futuremen were drawn inexorably into
the center of Halley's comet. (Chap. III)
Edmond Hamilton - THE COMET KINGS
lic ores. They were strongly telepathic, that being one
of their chief senses.
"Look at the beast - he's chewed up half the copper
instruments in that cabinet," Curt said bitterly. "Why
the devil did you bring him along?"
Grag shifted uncomfortably.
"Well, Chief, I had to do it. Eek can sense what peo-
ple are thinking, you know, and he knew we were going
and was upset about being left behind. He's a sensitive
little fellow."
"Sensitive? That walking four-legged nuisance? All
he knows is to eat up valuable metal and to sleep," Curt
said witheringly.
Simon Wright had paid no attention to the alterca-
tion over the pets. The Brain was too accustomed to
such arguments to notice them. "Curtis, I want you to
look at these figures," he said.
摘要：

EdmondHamilton­THECOMETKINGSTHECOMETKINGSbyEdmondHamiltonTrappedintheDepthsofHalley'sComet,theFuturemenBattleFourth-DimensionalMonstersinaTitanicStruggletoSavetheSystem'sSolarEnergy!CaptainFutureparriedtheblowbyaswiftjabofhisowndielectricblade.(Chap.IX)CHAPTERIVanishingSpaceshipsILLIONSofmilesoutbey...

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