Edmond Hamilton - Captain Future 23 - The Harpers of Titan

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The HARPERS of

TITAN

A Captain Future NOVELET by EDMOND HAMILTON

Again Simon Wright, the "Brain", lives in a human body, and in that guise contends

with the most hideous peril he has ever faced--a menace driving a planet to madness!

CHAPTER I

Shadowed Moon

His name was Simon Wright, and

once he had been a man like other

men. Now he was a man no longer,

but a living brain, housed in a metal

case, nourished by serum instead of

blood, provided with artificial senses

and means of motion.

The body of Simon Wright, that had

known the pleasures and ills of

physical existence, had long ago

mingled with the dust. But the mind of

Simon Wright lived on, brilliant and

unimpaired.

HE ridge lifted, gaunt and rocky,

along the rim of the lichen forest,

the giant growths crowding to the very

crest and down the farther slope into

the valley.

Here and there was a clearing

around what might once have been a

temple, now long fallen into ruin. The

vast ragged shapes of the lichens

loomed above it, wrinkled and wind-

torn and sad. Now and again a little

breeze came and set them to rustling

with a sound like muted weeping,

shaking down a rotten, powdery dust.

Simon Wright was weary of the

ridge and the dun-gray forest, weary

of waiting. Three of Titan's nights had

passed since he and Grag and Otho

and Curt Newton, whom the System

knew better as Captain Furore, had

hidden their ship down in the lichen-

forest and had waited here on the

ridge for a man who did not come.

This was the fourth night of

waiting, under the incredible glory of

Titan's sky.

But even the pageant of Saturn,

girdled with the blazing Rings and

attended by the brilliant swarm of

moons, failed to lift Simon's mental

spirits. Somehow the beauty above

only accentuated the dreariness below.

Curt Newton said sharply, "If

Keogh doesn't come tonight, I'm

going down there and look for him."

He looked outward through a rift in

the lichens, to the valley where Moneb

lay--a city indistinct with night and

distance, picked out here and there

with the light of torches.

Simon spoke, his voice coming

precise and metallic through the

artificial resonator."Keogh's message

warned us on no account to go into the

city. Be patient, Curtis. He will

come."

Otho nodded. Otho, the lean, lithe

android who was so exactly human

that only a disturbing strangeness in

his pointed face and green, bright eyes

betrayed him.

"Apparently," Otho said, "there's a

devil of a mess going on in Moneb,

and we're liable to make it worse if

we go tramping in before we know

what it's all about."

HE manlike metal form of Grag

moved impatiently in the shadows

with a dull clanking sound. His

booming voice crashed loud against

the stillness.

"I'm like Curt," he said. "I'm tired

of waiting."

"We are all tired," said Simon. "But

we must wait. From Keogh's

message, I judge that he is neither a

coward nor a fool. He knows the

situation. We do not. We must not

endanger him by impatience."

Curt sighed. "I know it." He settled

back on the block of stone where he

was sitting. "I only hope he makes it

soon. These infernal lichens are

getting on my nerves."

Poised, effortlessly upon the unseen

magnetic beams that were his limbs,

Simon watched and brooded. Only in

a detached way could he appreciate

the picture he presented to others --a

small square metal case, with a

strange face of artificial lens-eyes and

resonator-mouth, hovering in the

darkness.

To himself, Simon seemed almost a

bodiless ego. He could not see his

own strange body. He was conscious

only of the steady, rhythmic throbbing

of the serum-pump that served as his

heart, and of the visual and auditory

sensations that his artificial sense-

organs gathered for him.

His lenslike eyes were capable of

better vision under all conditions than

the human eye, but even so he could

not penetrate the shifting, tumultuous

shadows of the valley. It remained a

mystery of shaking moonlight, mist

and darkness.

It looked peaceful. And yet the

message of this stranger, Keogh, had

cried for help against an evil too great

for him to fight alone.

Simon was acutely conscious of the

dreary rustling of the lichens. His

microphonic auditory system could

hear and distinguish each separate tiny

note too faint for normal ears, so that

the rustling became a weaving,

shifting pattern of sound, as of ghostly

voices whispering -a sort of

symphony of despair.

Pure fancy, and Simon Wright was

not given to fancies. Yet in these

nights of waiting he had developed a

definite sense of foreboding. He

reasoned now that this sad whispering

of the forest was responsible, his brain

reacting to the repeated stimulus of a

sound-pattern.

Like Curt, he hoped that Keogh

would come soon.

Time passed. The Rings filled the

sky with supernal fire, and the moons

went splendidly on their eternal way,

bathed in the milky glow of Saturn.

The lichens would not cease from

their dusty weeping. Now and again

Curt Newton rose and went restlessly

back and forth across the clearing.

Otho watched him, sitting still, his

slim body bent like a steel bow. Grag

remained where he was, a dark

immobile giant in the shadows,

dwarfing even Newton's height.

Then, abruptly, there was a sound

different from all other sounds. Simon

heard, and listened, and after a

moment he said:

"There are two men, climbing the

slope from the valley, coming this

way."

Otho sprang up. Curt voiced a

short, sharp "Ah!" and said, "Better

take cover, until we're sure."

The four melted into the darkness.

Simon was so close to the strangers

that he might have reached out one of

his force-beams and touched them.

They came into the clearing, breathing

heavily from the long climb, looking

eagerly about. One was a tall man,

very tall, with a gaunt width of

shoulder and a fine head. The other

was shorter, broader, moving with a

bearlike gait. Both were Earthmen,

with the unmistakable stamp of the

frontiers on them, and the hardness of

physical labor. Both men were armed.

They stopped. The hope went out of

them, and the tall man said

despairingly,

"They failed us. They didn't come.

Dan, they didn't come!"

Almost, the tall man wept.

"I guess your message didn't get

through," the other man said. His

voice, too, was leaden. "I don't know,

Keogh. I don't know what we'll do

now. I guess we might as well go

back."

Curt Newton spoke out of the

darkness. "Hold on a minute. It's all

right."

URT moved out into the open

space, his lean face and red hair

clear in the moonlight.

"It's he," said the stocky man. "It's

Captain Future." His voice was shaken

with relief.

Keogh smiled, a smile without

much humor in it. "You thought I

might be dead, and someone else

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Edmond Hamilton - Captain Future 23 - The Harpers of Titan

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