Edmond Hamilton - Calling Captain Future

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Curtis Newton,
wizard of science,
and his trio of
futuremen blaze a
trail across the
stars to forestall
the coup of Dr.
Zarro – leader of a
legion of peril!
Cast with unerring accuracy,
the nets prisoned the
Futuremen (Chap. XVI)
Edmond Hamilton – CALLING CAPTAIN FUTURE
CHAPTER I
The Menace from Space
HE big liner Pallas throbbed through space on it
regular run from Venus to Earth. In the brightly
lighted saloons of the big shop, throngs of men and
women drank, laughed, talked or danced to the haunt-
ing music of the native Venusian orchestra.
T
Up in the televisor room, "Sparks" yawned over his
instruments. Then the youthful Earthman operator
looked up quickly as the stocky first mate of the liner
entered the room.
"Call Earth Spaceport Four and tell them we'll dock
at ten sharp tomorrow," the mate ordered.
Sparks punched his switches, pressed the call-but-
ton. The televisor screen broke into light. In it appeared
the chief dispatcher, on duty at Earth Spaceport 4.
The dispatcher heard the report and then nodded.
"Okay, Pallas. We'll have Dock Fifteen ready for –"
Then it happened!
The televisor went blank as an untuned wave of in-
credible power crowded onto it. Then the image of a
man appeared in it.
"What the devil –" Sparks gasped. The man in the
screen was an extraordinary-looking individual. He
seemed an Earthman, yet his tall, gaunt, black-clothed
figure, his enormous bulging forehead and skull, and
his hypnotically burning black eyes, gave to his aspect
some indefinable but startling aura of the superman.
"Doctor Zarro calling the Solar System peoples," he
rasped in a deep, harsh voice. "People of the nine
worlds, I bring you warning of a dreadful peril –a peril
which your bungling, stupid scientists have not yet
even discovered.
"A huge dark star is rushing upon our Solar System
from the boundless abyss of outer space! This colossal
dead sun is coming from the direction of the constella-
tion Sagittarius –its exact position is Right Ascension,
seventeen hours, forty-one minutes, Declination, minus
twenty-seven degrees, forty-eight minutes. It is coming
straight toward us and will reach our System in several
weeks, at its present speed. This on-coming monster
will wreck our System – unless it is turned aside."
OCTOR ZARRO'S rasping voice deepened into a
reverberating thunder.
D
"I can tum aside that oncoming dark star, if I am giv-
en power to do so in time!" he shouted. "I alone! I am
master of forces unknown to your ignorant scientists,
for I am not really a native of this System at all. Who I
am or what I am does not matter in this emergency.
"I am going to form a legion of men who believe in
me and will help me avert this peril –a Legion of
Doom! But to prepare the forces that can turn aside the
onrushing menace, I must have complete authority over
all the resources of the System. I and my Legion must
have temporary dictatorship over the System, if this ter-
rible danger is to be averted."
The figure of Doctor Zarro vanished from the televi-
sor screen, leaving the operator and the mate of the Pal-
las thunderstruck.
"Who the devil was that?" gasped the stocky mate.
"He didn't look completely human!"
The young operator shook bis head dazedly. Now
the Earth Spaceport dispatcher, reappearing in the tele-
visor, cried:
"Did you get that broadcast of the man who caned
himself Doctor Zarro? He crowded onto all wave-bands
– every televisor in the whole System heard him!"
The dispatcher switched hastily off. Young Sparks
looked excitedly up at the mate.
"Do you suppose there's anything to his warning? If
a dark star really is coming toward the System –"
"Nuts, there can't be anything to it," the mate de-
clared. "It's just a publicity stunt, but a queer one."
"It didn't sound like a stunt," Sparks muttered uncer-
tainly.
He pressed switches, tuning in on many stations. A
kaleidoscope of faces passed across the televisor,
screen. A hurricane of messages was being flashed
back and forth between planets, concerning the startling
broadcast of the self-styled Doctor Zarro.
"He's sure stirred up the System!" the operator de-
clared. "And judging from the messages, not everybody
is as skeptical as you."
A buzzer sounded from atop the televisor set.
"General Government Call!" exclaimed Sparks, his
youthful face stiffening. He reached and touched a stud.
An official of the System Government appeared in
the televisor. He spoke with decisive firmness.
"This is to inform the System peoples that the so-
called Doctor Zarro who broadcast a warning tonight is
merely a cheap faker trying to scare the System," said
the official. "His assertions are not true. Astronomers
have quickly checked the position in space he gave, and
found nothing. The dark star does not exist!"
"What did I tell you?" scoffed the first mate as the
System official switched off. "Just a crazy fake, that's
all."
"Maybe," muttered the operator. "But that man did-
n't look like a faker. He looked queer, powerful –super-
human!"
"Rats –he's just a crank alarmist," repeated the
stocky mate. "The Planet Police will soon hunt him
down."
UT the Planet Police did not hunt Doctor Zarro
down. Two weeks later the Mercurian newscaster
was announcing:
B
"–and so the Planet Police have been completely
unable to find the mysterious Doctor Zarro who made
1
Edmond Hamilton – CALLING CAPTAIN FUTURE
that broadcast, for his wave was of a strange new type
whose source could not be located or analyzed.
"Karthak, Saturn: A disastrous atomic explosion in
this colony today took toll of–"
The crowd of chromium-miners and engineers in
this little drinking-shop in one of the Twilight Cities of
Mercury paid no further attention to the news bulletins.
One of them, a big, bald Earthman miner, had started
arguing with a little Mercurian engineer.
"I tell you, I heard that broadcast," the Mercurian in-
sisted, "and that Doctor Zarro wasn't any Earthman! He
looked –"
"Look –there he is now!" yelled one of the crowd,
pointing at the televisor.
They stared stupefiedly. The newscaster had been
crowded off the ether, and the tall, gaunt, burning-eyed
image of Doctor Zarro had appeared in the screen.
"You did not believe my warning, people of the nine
worlds," Doctor Zarro thundered. "you chose to believe
your stupid 'scientists' instead. But now you shall see
for yourself. The dark star approaching is now grown
so large that it can be seen in small telescopes.
"Look for yourselves to the position in space I men-
tioned, and you will see that monster dead sun that is
coming nearer to us each fateful minute. Look –and
see for yourselves whether your 'scientists' or Doctor
Zarro was right."
The figure of Doctor Zarro vanished from the televi-
sor, leaving the gathered miners and engineers gasping.
"Another fake warning!" cried the bald Earthman.
"I wonder," muttered the little Mercurian engineer.
He turned to a younger Mercurian. "Atho, you have a
small telescope, haven't you? Get it and set it up – we'll
see for ourselves."
Presently, in the dark street of the metal Mercurian
city, they were crowded around the small electro-tele-
scope that was pointed toward a spot in the constella-
tion Sagittarius.
"There is something there!" the young Mercurian
cried. "I can see it!"
One by one, they stared through the eyepiece. They
saw a tiny disk of darkness out there in the Milky Way.
"It's a dark star, all right," muttered the little engi-
neer. "And it must be of great size, to present a visible
disk far outside the System."
HE motley interplanetary group of men looked at
each other. A chill of doubt had settled on them.
T
"If a dark star is rushing toward the System, it will
wreck the nine worlds as Doctor Zarro warns!" cried a
wide-eyed Venusian. "Maybe we ought to give him the
System-wide authority he asks for."
"Aw, I still don't believe it," declared the bald Earth-
man miner. "Let's see what the Government has to say
on it."
They crowded back to the televisor in the drinking
shop. A Government announcer was on.
"People of the System, our scientists have now lo-
cated a dark body of some kind in Sagittarius," admit-
ted the official; "But there is no danger from it! As far
as the scientists have ascertained, it has almost no mass.
So there's nothing to fear."
"See?" exclaimed the bald Earthman miner tri-
umphantly. "I told you it was all nonsense."
But the others looked worried. One of them, the
younger Mercurian, voiced what all were thinking.
"The scientists said at first there was no dark star at
all! Now they admit that Doctor Zarro was right, that
there is a dark star. They claim it lacks sufficient mass
to harm us, even though it's big. Suppose the scientists
are wrong again? Suppose Doctor Zarro's warning is
right?"
They looked at each other in wild surmise.
"If it is, then Doctor Zarro is the only one who can
save us from the dark star! He was the one who told us
about it when our scientists denied even its existence –"
The bald miner shook his head. Like all modern
people, he had always had complete faith in the scien-
tists of the System. That faith was still unshaken, even
though Doctor Zarro had proved the scientists wrong
once.
"I still take our scientists' word against this mysteri-
ous Doctor Zarro's," he declared stubbornly. "They'd
tell us if there was any real danger –"
This particular Earthman might persist in his faith.
Others, in various quarters of the System, were losing it
rapidly.
"There is danger! Terrible danger to the whole Sys-
tem! And only Doctor Zarro can avert it!"
The speaker was an Earthman colonist of Saturn, a
deeply-tanned man of forty whose face could not con-
ceal his deep-seated worry.
His wife and family and a few friends were gathered
with him in his ranchhouse living room. Outside in the
night stretched the vast plains of Saturn, with lanky Sat-
urnians riding to and fro on their grotesque steeds in the
light of the brilliant moons, herding the queer planetary
cattle.
"The dark star exists –the scientists can't dispute
that –and it's coming on toward the System at terrible
speed, judging from the way its visible size increases,"
the rancher continued earnestly. "If it isn't turned aside
somehow it will wreck the whole System. And Doctor
Zarro's the only one who can possibly turn it aside."
"How do you know that even Doctor Zarro can do
that?" demanded a Colonial Office clerk skeptically.
"I don't know, but who could do it if he can't? He
discovered the approaching dark star long before the
scientists could even see it. Hence, he must have pow-
ers greater than any known to our science. I say: give
him the System-wide power he asks, and let him do
what he can."
2
Edmond Hamilton – CALLING CAPTAIN FUTURE
"It means setting him up as a dictator over the whole
System," pointed out a neighbor Earthman rancher.
"It's better to have a temporary dictator than to see
the nine worlds wrecked by a catastrophe!"
The Earthman voiced what more and more people in
the System were thinking. The scientists had been
proved wrong once by Doctor Zarro. What if they were
wrong again? The answer to that meant life or death for
the System.
ORE and more people were proclaiming that
they believed Doctor Zarro's warnings. And the
mysterious prophet's followers, his Legion of Doom,
had appeared throughout the System. They all wore a
black, disklike emblem on their sleeves and carried a
similar emblem on the bows of their space cruisers.
They sped through the spaceways of the alarmed Sys-
tem, mysterious couriers of the enigmatic Doctor.
M
"Doctor Zarro always broadcasts at this time," the
rancher's wife was saying. "Let's see if he's on tonight."
They switched on the televisor. Minutes later, the
impressive figure of the doctor crowded on the screen.
"People of the System, your scientists have told you
there was no danger," he shouted. "But where are those
scientists now? Where is Robert Jons, the Mercurian
astronomer who ridiculed my warnings? Where is Hen-
ry Gellimer, the astrophysicist who denounced me as a
faker? Why have the great .scientists' who laughed at
my warnings disappeared?
"Those scientists have escaped from the Solar Sys-
tem to avoid being trapped by the coming catastrophe!"
Doctor Zarro thundered. "They have fled with their
families, going outside the System in space ships to
wait until the catastrophe is over, and then they will re-
turn to whatever worlds are spared. They are saving
themselves, while you billions of people who believed
in them will perish!"
As the dark prophet vanished from the screen, the
Earthman rancher and his friends, stunned, looked at
each other.
"If those scientists have really fled from the System,
that proves that Doctor Zarro is right!" cried the ranch-
er.
"We don't know yet that it's really happened – Doc-
tor Zarro may be lying about it," said the clerk worried-
ly.
"Here's a Government bulletin!"
The harassed face of a System Government official
on a System-wide hookup appeared in the screen, for
the Government was now following each of Doctor
Zarro's broadcasts with reassuring statements. This
statement was not reassuring.
"People of the System, it is true that many of our
most eminent scientists and their families have disap-
peared. But we are sure they have not fled –we believe
foul play is responsible. We beg the System not to cred-
it the statements of this Doctor Zarro, but to have faith
that there is no danger –"
"Have faith?" cried the rancher of Saturn. "How can
we have faith in the scientists' assurance that there's no
danger, when they've fled to save themselves? There is
danger – and Doctor Zarro is the only chance we have
to avert it!"
"I believe now you're right," his neighbor rancher
agreed troubledly. "We'll have to force the Government
to turn over all power to Doctor Zarro!"
N front of the great tower that housed the System
Government, in the city of New York on Earth, a
vast crowd was demonstrating this night.
I
"The President –and Council –must resign –and
yield their power – to Doctor Zarro –and the Legion –
till the danger is past!" the crowd was shouting in uni-
son.
James Carthew, the President of the System Govern-
ment, stood at the window of his office, looking down
at the surging, terrorized throng. His secretary waited
anxiously beside him.
"This can't go on," Carthew said tightly as he looked
down at the swaying crowd being held back by police.
"A little more of this, and they'll overturn the Govern-
ment by force."
His fist clenched.
"This Doctor Zarro is a cunning plotter playing upon
the fears of the System to attain dictatorial power! He's
the most diabolically ingenious schemer that has ever
threatened this Government!"
North Bonnel, the young secretary, shook his head
in troubled doubt.
"But, sir," he reminded, "Doctor Zarro did foretell
the coming of the dark star, when our greatest scientists
with the most powerful telescopes could not even see
it."
"I know, and I can't understand that," Carthew ad-
mitted. "But that doesn't change the fact that we're up
against a devilish scheme to usurp power over the
whole System. There can't be any real danger in that ap-
proaching dark star when it has such a ridiculously low
mass. The public only thinks there is danger, and Doc-
tor Zarro is fanning their fears higher every hour."
The door of the office burst open. The man who en-
tered wore a dark uniform with silver stars on the
shoulders. He was Halk Anders, commander of the
Planet Police.
"Sir, I have to report," he told the President breath-
lessly as he saluted, "that those crowds are getting out
of hand. We can hardly hold them out of this building
now. I've had calls from headquarters on the other plan-
ets, and the people there are rioting too, calling for
Doctor Zarro to be given full emergency authority."
Carthew's lined face whitened.
"Haven't you been able yet to locate this Doctor
3
Edmond Hamilton – CALLING CAPTAIN FUTURE
Zarro?" he cried. "If we could arrest him and stop those
inflammatory broadcasts of his –"
The stocky commander shook his head.
"We've been unable to find Doctor Zarro's headquar-
ters. His broadcasts are on a new-type wave that we
can't track down. We've tried to trail the ships of his
Legion of Doom, but they always manage to give us the
slip in space."
"What about Jons and Gellimer and all the other sci-
entists who vanished?" Carthew asked. "Have you
learned anything?"
"No, sir."
North Bonnel turned haggardly to his superior.
"What are we going to do, sir? If the public terror
increases like this, the Government will be in Doctor
Zarro's hands in a week!"
AMES CARTHEW'S pale face set. He looked out
through the eastern window of the tower room, at
the fun moon that was rising majestically in the heav-
ens like a great silver shield.
J
"There is one man who can smash Doctor Zarro's
plot, if anybody can," he muttered. "I did not want to
call upon him before this, for he is not the kind of man
to be annoyed with matters the regular authorities call
handle –"
The secretary stiffened. His lips trembled.
"You mean – Captain Future?"
"Yes, Captain Future," the President said, his eyes
still fixed on the rising moon. "If anybody can stop
Doctor Zarro and his Legion, Captain Future and those
three weird comrades of his can do it."
He turned abruptly, desperate determination written
on his kindly, bewildered face.
"Televise an order to have the North Pole signal-
flare set off at once, Bonnel!"
A half hour later, amid the frozen wastes of eternal
ice at the North Pole, there blossomed a huge flower of
flame as a great, dazzling magnesium flare was detonat-
ed.
Far out in space that brilliant beacon was visible.
Throbbing, winking and blinking, it cast its beams out
through the void in silent, urgent appeal.
"Calling Captain Future!"
Calling the great, glamorous foe of evil, to a strug-
gle with the mysterious Doctor Zarro's plot against mis-
led humanity!
4
Edmond Hamilton – CALLING CAPTAIN FUTURE
5
Saturnian rope-snakes pinioned
Curt's limbs (Chap. III)
CHAPTER II
The Futuremen
BARREN, deathly white waste stretched across the
surface of the Moon. Beneath the glare of the blaz-
ing sun, the lunar plains rolled in eternal silence toward
the colossal craters that towered like menacing jagged
fangs. Upon this desolate world there was no air, no
sound, and no human life – except in one place.
A
Upon the floor of Tycho Crater glittered something
like a round crystal lake. It was a big, glassite window set
in the lunar rock. Underneath that window, excavated out
of the soft rock, was the artificial cavern that was the lab-
oratory and home of the most famous man in the System
– Captain Future.
The big laboratory of the cavern home was bathed in
light from the window above it. Here loomed mechanisms
and racks of instruments in bewildering array. Giant gen-
erators and condensers that could furnish limitless
atomic power. Big telescopes and spectro-telescopes
whose tubes protruded through the lunar surface.
Edmond Hamilton – CALLING CAPTAIN FUTURE
Chemical and electrical apparatus of bewildering com-
plexity and design. All the crowded equipment of the
System's supreme master of science!
The two individuals working tensely in a corner of
the laboratory could be heard over the throbbing of a
machine.
"Time to shift the electron-flow, Simon?" the deep,
clear voice of one was asking.
"Not yet, Curtis," answered the other's voice, a rasp-
ing, metallic, unhuman one. "Transmutation is not com-
plete yet."
These two were working with a spherical machine
into which the great atomic generators were pouring
vast power.
One of the two was a big, red-headed young man in
a gray synthesilk zipper suit. His lithe, broad-shoul-
dered figure towered six feet four. His tanned, hand-
some, debonair face and flashing gray eyes had a rol-
licking humor in them that could not hide keen intelli-
gence and deep purpose.
He wore a big ring on his left hand –a ring whose
nine jewels were motivated by a tiny atomic power en-
gine that kept them moving slowly around a glowing
central jewel. This ring, whose jewels represented the
nine worlds, was known to the whole System as the
identifying emblem of Captain Future, the wizard of
science and the implacable foe of evil.
Captain Future –or Curtis Newton, by the name so
few knew –stood ready by the lever of the spherical
machine. On a pedestal, watching the gauges of the
mechanism, was his fellow-worker.
This was Simon Wright, the Brain. He was just that
–a living human brain that had no body. Instead, his
brain was housed in a square, transparent serum-case,
in the front of which was his resonator speech appara-
tus, on the stalks of which in turn were his lens-eyes.
"Transmutation's almost complete now," the Brain
declared in his metallic artificial voice, his glass lens
eyes closely watching the gauges. "Stand ready to shift
the electron flow."
A moment later he spoke quickly. "Now!"
Curt Newton slammed down the lever. The throb-
bing of power into the spherical machine ceased.
The red-headed scientific wizard unclamped a door
and opened it. Out of the mechanism poured a stream
of white powder.
"That's done it!" Curt exclaimed. " A hundred
pounds of copper, transmuted into pure isotopic boron."
E stepped back and mopped bis brow, and then
grinned at the Brain. "Whew, that was a job! But
it will save us a trip all the way to Uranus, to get that
rare isotope."
H
"Aye, lad," rasped the Brain. "This transmutation of
elements is one of your greatest achievements yet."
Curt's gray eyes twinkled at him.
"You're an old fraud, Simon," he accused. "You
know as well as I do that I could never have achieved it
if you hadn't worked with me."
At that moment, there was a sudden explosion of an-
gry, arguing voices from another chamber of the cavern
home. One was a loud, Booming, mechanical-sounding
voice. The other voice was hissing, sibilant and furious.
"Grag and Otho are at each other again!" exclaimed
Captain Future impatiently. "I swear those two will
drive me crazy yet."
He raised his voice in a call. "Grag! Otho!"
Two creatures of unhumanly weird appearance en-
tered the laboratory in answer to his call.
One of them was a rubbery white android, or syn-
thetic man. Otho, the android, was manlike in figure,
his synthetic flesh having been molded into human
form when he had been made. But his hairless white
head and face, his slitted green eyes that were flashing
now with anger, were not like any human's. Nor could
any human move with his wonderful quickness and
agility.
Grag, the metal robot, was the other disputant. Tow-
ering seven feet high, his mighty metal arms hinted in-
credible strength. The chief features in his bulbous met-
al head were his two photo-electric eyes that gleamed
with living light, and the mouthlike opening of his
speech mechanism. There was no creature in the whole
System stronger than Grag, the robot.
Perched upon Grag's shoulder was a queer, bearlike
little animal of inorganic silicate flesh, with strong
paws, a sharp, inquisitive snout, and bright little black
eyes. It was a moon-pup, one of the strange non-breath-
ing creatures found on the lunar plains, who assimilated
food elements by direct ingestion of the mineral they
could crush in their powerful teeth. The little gray crea-
ture was contentedly chewing on a piece of copper
now.
"Now what's the trouble between you two?" Captain
Future demanded of the robot and android. "Can't Si-
mon and I work for a minute without you two getting
into your arguments?"
"It's Grag's fault!" hissed Otho furiously. He pointed
to the little gray bearlike animal. "That damned moon-
pup pet of his has eaten up one of my best pistols!"
RAG, the robot, cuddled the little gray moon-pup
protectively with a great metal hand. "It's not
Eek's fault, master," he told Captain Future in loud in-
dignation. "Eek was hungry – and he loves copper."
G
"Either that moon-pup leaves here or I leave!"
stormed the android. "The beast eats any metal it can
get its paws on –and when it gets hold of some pre-
cious metal, it gets howling drunk on it! It's got a lot of
other habits that make it a pest. It was crazy of Grag to
catch the cursed thing and make a tame pet of it."
"We humans like to have pets," the robot defended.
6
Edmond Hamilton – CALLING CAPTAIN FUTURE
"Otho does not understand, master, because he is not
human like us."
"Not human like you?" Otho howled furiously.
"Why, you walking machine-shop, anyone can see that
I'm a flesh-and- blood human while you're nothing but a
clever mechanism! If I –"
"Now don't start that argument again!" Captain Fu-
ture interrupted hastily. "I've heard enough of it."
"Aye, and so have I," rasped Simon Wright, the
Brain, his lens-eyes dourly surveying the two dis-
putants. "You two are always arguing about which is
the most human. And I, who really was human once,
can tell you that it's nothing worth arguing about."
"Simon is right," Curt Newton said severely. "Every
time you two have any time on your hands, you start
scrapping with each other, and I'm getting tired of it."
Despite his severity of tone, there was a fond twin-
kle of affection in the gray eyes of the big red-headed
scientific adventurer, as he surveyed the robot and the
android and the Brain.
These were the Futuremen, the loyal trio of com-
rades who had fought and sailed around the whole Sys-
tem with him! These three weird comrades of his, un-
human in form yet superhuman in abilities, had stood at
his side in more than one great struggle out in the solar
spaces. And, furthermore, the three had reared Curt
Newton from babyhood to manhood, in this very cavern
home on the Moon.
Twenty-five years before, Captain Future's parents
had come secretly to the moon. Roger Newton was a
young Earth biologist who dreamed a great dream. He
hoped to create life –artificial, intelligent living crea-
tures who could serve mankind. But his work was in
danger. Certain ambitious men coveted his scientific
discoveries and tried to steal them.
Roger Newton had decided to seek refuge on the
wild, uninhabited Moon. He had sailed secretly in a
small rocket for the Moon. And with him had gone his
young wife, Elaine, and his loyal co-worker and assis-
tant, Simon Wright – the Brain.
Simon Wright had been a famous, aging scientist
who was about to die of incurable disease. Newton had
by brilliant surgery removed Simon's brain and trans-
ferred it into a special serum-case. Ever since, the Brain
had been his most loyal friend.
Newton and his young wife and the Brain had
reached the Moon safely, and had built an underground
home beneath Tycho Crater. There, soon after their ar-
rival, a son was born to the man and woman –a boy
whom they named Curtis. And there they began the
work of creating artificial living creatures.
RAG, the robot, was the first creature created by
Roger Newton and the Brain. Their second cre-
ation was not of metal but of synthetic plastic flesh
molded into a manlike android –Otho, the synthetic
G
man. These two artificial creatures, intelligent, strong
faithful, showed Roger Newton that he had at last real-
ized his dream.
Then disaster struck. The evil plotters who coveted
Newton's scientific secrets had trailed him to the Moon.
There was a fight –and Roger Newton and his young
wife were slain, before the robot and the synthetic man
killed the murderers.
Dying, Elaine Newton entrusted her infant son to the
care of the three unhuman creatures, Brain, robot and
android. She begged them to rear him to manhood and
implant in him a hatred of all those who used scientific
gifts for evil ends –to train him as a relentless foe of an
such as would oppress or exploit the System people.
Simon Wright and Grag and Otho had kept that
promise. They had reared little Curtis Newton to man-
hood. And the Brain, with its wonderful scientific
knowledge, had so schooled him that he became a wiz-
ard of scientific ability surpassing his teacher. Grag, the
robot, strongest of living beings, had fostered his
strength until it was superhuman. And Otho the an-
droid, swiftest and most agile of all creatures, had
taught him unmatchable speed and deftness.
Thus Curtis Newton had grown to manhood on the
lonely Moon, with his three unhuman tutors. When he
had reached manhood, the Brain had told him the story
of his origin, and had repeated the dying wish of his
mother that he become champion of the System's peo-
ples against those who would oppress them.
"Will you take up this crusade against interplanetary
evil, Curtis?" the Brain had asked. "Will you embark on
this crusade, this fight for the future of the System?"
Curtis Newton had made his fateful decision, one
that was to change history.
"Yes, Simon –someone has to stand up for the Sys-
tem peoples against their exploiters. And, with you
three helping me, I'll do my best."
He had added half-humorously: "Since you say I'll
be fighting for the future of the System, I think I'll call
myself – Captain Future."
As Captain Future, then, Curt had offered his ser-
vices to the System President in the war against inter-
planetary crime. At first doubtful of this strange, red-
headed young man, the President had in a desperate
emergency called upon his aid.
Captain Future and the Futuremen had demonstrated
their power, swiftly, relentlessly. Since then, the Presi-
dent had called him time and again by the agreed sig-
nal. And time and again, Curt Newton and his three
strange, loyal comrades had gone forth in perilous
struggle.
URT was thinking of all that now, as he faced his
three comrades. "You two are more than human to
me," he told Grag and Otho impulsively. "So why can't
you quit this continual jealousy about which is the most
C
7
Edmond Hamilton – CALLING CAPTAIN FUTURE
human?"
"Otho is too overbearing," Grag boomed, cuddling
the moon-pup in his metal arm. "He should remember
that I was made before he was."
"Of course you were-you were such a bad job that
they had to try again and make me before they were sat-
isfied," Otho jeered, with a mocking gleam in his slitted
green eyes.
"Will you let him talk so, master?" appealed Grag
angrily to Curt Newton. "He –"
"The signal!" cried the Brain suddenly.
Simon's lens-eyes had glanced up through the win-
dow overhead at the great green sphere of Earth. The
cry of the Brain made the other three look up instantly.
There upon the great cloudy green planet hanging in
starry space, upon the white patch at the North Pole, a
blazing pinpoint of light was pulsing and throbbing.
"It is the signal!" Captain Future said gravely.
"We're needed."
Captain Future's debonair tanned face had changed,
grown grim. His nostrils were flaring, his brilliant gray
eyes had something chill and hard as steel in them now.
The Futuremen were gripped by the same strange
emotion. The call from Earth! The tocsin that sum-
moned these four to action! It was for this call that they
waited through long weeks, living and working in the
lunar laboratory .
Captain Future's voice rang like a silver trumpet
summoning to battle.
"To the Comet! That call admits of no delay. The
President never calls for nothing."
"Pick me up, Grag," rasped the Brain's calm, metal-
lic voice.
The robot picked up the handle of the Brain's case.
With the moon-pup clinging to his other arm, Grag
started with hasty strides after Curt Newton and Otho.
Ten minutes later a small ship shaped like an elon-
gated tear-drop rose from an underground hangar on the
lunar surface. It was the Comet, super-swift craft of the
Futuremen, known far and wide through the System as
the swiftest ship in space.
Two hours later, so swift was its flight, the Comet
screamed down through the stratosphere of Earth's
night side. Curt Newton dropped the little craft straight
toward the great Government Tower that rose above all
other structures of brilliant New York.
The Comet came to rest on the truncated tip of the
tower. As Curt and the Futuremen emerged, they saw in
the plaza far below a great crowd that surged riotously
against a line of Police.
Curt's lip tightened.
"Something's damned wrong, from the look of
things. Come on – hurry –"
They hastened down a stairway that led directly into
the private office of the System President. The three
men in that office, Carthew, his secretary, and Com-
mander Anders of the Planet Police, spun around star-
tledly.
"Captain Future!" cried Carthew, his voice shrill
with relief, his fine face working as he came hastily for-
ward.
OUNG Bonnel and the burly Commander stared,
not without awe, at the tall young wizard of sci-
ence and his companions.
Y
Curt Newton's big figure radiated power and confi-
dence as he stood there, the weird trio of the Futuremen
behind him – giant Grag, the Brain he held, and the rub-
bery android.
"What's wrong, sir?" Curt demanded of the Presi-
dent. "What does that rioting crowd down there want?"
"They want me to turn the System Government over
to Doctor Zarro and his Legion!" burst Carthew.
"Doctor Zarro?" Curt's eyebrows rose. "Who the
devil is that?"
"You haven't heard him?" cried Bonnel incredulous-
ly. "Why, the whole System has heard his broadcasts
about the dark star."
"What dark star?" snapped Captain Future. "I've
heard nothing. Simon and I have been engaged for
weeks in advanced electronic experiments. Tell me
what's been going on."
James Carthew told him, in hasty, stumbling words.
"Nine-tenths of the people now believe utterly in
Doctor Zarro's warnings!" Carthew finished hoarsely.
"They want me to turn over all power to him, because
he claims he can avert the peril."
Curt's gray eyes snapped.
"Obviously this Doctor Zarro is merely using the
dark star as a pretext to usurp dictatorial power. You
say the System astronomers are convinced that there is
no real peril in the dark star?"
"Yes. They all agreed that the dark star has far too
small a mass to be a danger. Though it is hard to be-
lieve so large a body could have so small a mass."
"Simon and I will check on that by observing the
dark star for ourselves," muttered Curt. "But first this
Doctor Zarro has to be caught and silenced before he
spreads more panic."
Commander Anders shook his head hopelessly.
"We can't find Doctor Zarro! It is impossible to lo-
cate the hidden base he and his Legion are using. And
more scientists keep disappearing –Kansu Kane, the
astro-physicist of Venus Observatory, vanished an hour
ago!"
"It's legitimate to infer that Doctor Zarro's Legion is
behind these vanishings," Curt said. "We must have a
starting point. I think we'll go to Venus and try to pick
up the trail –"
The desk televisor buzzed suddenly. Commander
Halk Anders sprang toward it.
"I ordered all calls from Venus routed to me here,"
8
摘要：

CurtisNewton,wizardofscience,andhistriooffuturemenblazeatrailacrossthestarstoforestallthecoupofDr.Zarro–leaderofalegionofperil!Castwithunerringaccuracy,thenetsprisonedtheFuturemen(Chap.XVI)EdmondHamilton–CALLINGCAPTAINFUTURECHAPTERITheMenacefromSpaceHEbiglinerPallasthrobbedthroughspaceonitregularrun...

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