Captain Future 07 - The Magician of Mars (Summer 1941) (7 page)

“But how can we catch Ul Quorn when he has this power to flee into the other universe?” cried Otho anxiously.

“We can’t follow him into the other universe — unless we have a ship with the same power,” Captain Future admitted.

HE STARTED a close search of the deserted laboratory. The atomic tools in it were of the highly ingenious type used for space-ship manufacture. With them one man could easily construct a small ship.

Curt peered into two big, empty lead bins. He fingered a trace of shining blue powder that still remained in them.

“Radite,” he said shortly. “The most powerful cyclotron-fuel known. He’d need such super-power to actuate his dimension-shifting ship.”

“Aye, and that’s probably why he had his laboratory here on Uranus’ moon,” said the Brain keenly. “Radite is only found on Uranus.”

Curt searched Skal Kar’s papers, hunting for the plans and diagrams of the murdered scientist’s dimension-shifting craft. But the papers had been ransacked, and all plans were missing.

“Here’s Skal Kar’s diary!” Grag boomed suddenly. “I found it among the books over there.”

CAPTAIN FUTURE eagerly inspected the diary. He was disappointed that it contained no scientific notes or plans about Skal Kar’s ship. But he found one entry revealing, and read it aloud.

Began actual work on the ship today. If this small model craft succeeds in entering the co-existent universe, I’ll be able to build a larger ship of greater cruising radius. Then at last I’ll be able to seek in that other universe for the great treasure that Harris Haines saw there. And I’ll succeed in getting that treasure, where Haines failed!

Curt looked up, his eyes gleaming. “So when Harris Haines went back into the other universe, it was to get some great treasure he’d seen there?” he muttered. “And he never came back. But Skal Kar knew about it from Haines’ papers, and was planning to go after it himself.”

“But Quorn had Skal Kar killed, and now has his and Harris Haines’ secret papers!” Otho burst out. “And I’ll bet a planet that —”

“That Ul Quorn’s planning to go after that mysterious treasure in the other universe himself!” Captain Future finished. “Of course! He —”

Grag suddenly interrupted. His sensitive microphone-ears had detected a distant sound.

“I hear a ship landing outside!” he cried.

Like a flying shadow, Captain Future darted to the door with the others close behind him.

He flung open the door, then uttered a cry.

“Quorn’s ship!”

A small, sleek-lined space ship had landed softly close beside the
Comet
in the green-lit clearing.

And a giant Jovian, a Martian and a fat Earthman were rushing toward the unguarded door of the ship of the Futuremen.

“They’re going to steal the
Comet!”
yelled Captain Future.

CURT plunged forward with a yell, his proton pistol flashing in his hand. But he knew, even as he and the Futuremen started, that they were too late to intercept the three men racing for the
Comet.

A wiry little figure suddenly tumbled out of the ship, confronting the three criminals with a leveled proton gun. It was tough young Johnny Kirk. He fired the weapon, and its thin blue ray dropped the Martian in his tracks.

“Good work, kid!” yelled Otho exultantly. “We’re coming!” The “Futuremen couldn’t shoot, for Johnny was between them and the criminals.

The remaining two criminals, the giant Jovian and fat Earthman, heard the yell and they turned and saw the Futuremen rushing toward them. Hastily the two criminals turned and plunged back to their own ship. Young Johnny Kirk ran valorously after them, brandishing his weapon.

“Stay back, Johnny!” Curt cried hastily. “Don’t —”

His warning came too late. The audacious youngster had pursued the two outlaws right to the door of their craft. They turned on him suddenly, and the giant Jovian knocked his weapon aside before he could fire.

Neither Captain Future nor the Futuremen dared pull trigger for fear of hitting the youngster. As they lunged forward, they saw the great Jovian fell Johnny with a blow that sent the Earth lad reeling into the open door of the criminals’ ship. The door of that little ship slammed shut, and with a screaming roar of rocket-tubes it zoomed up from the clearing into the planet-light.

“After them!” Otho yelled furiously. “They’ve got the kid, blast them!”

“If he hadn’t been so crazy daring, it wouldn’t have happened!” Grag boomed. “When he followed them back to their ship, they grabbed him for a hostage. They know we can’t attack them now.”

“We’re going after them nevertheless!” Captain Future cried.

He and the Futuremen were piling into the
Comet
by this time. Curt leaped into the pilot-chair, flicked the cyc-switch. He jammed the cyc-pedal to the floor and pulled the space-stick back. With a bursting roar of rocket-tubes, the ship climbed skyward.

Up into the green glow of great Uranus they roared, after the fleeing ship of the criminals. They were high above the moon Ariel by now, and the
Comet
was swiftly overtaking the fleeing craft ahead. But at this moment an amazing phenomenon occurred.

The fugitive ship of the criminals suddenly vanished from sight ahead. One moment it was clearly in view — the next moment, it was gone as though it had never existed.

“Hell-hounds of Venus!” raved Otho furiously. “They’ve given us a clean slip!”

It was the truth. Though Captain Future kept the
Comet
circling space for minutes, there was no sign anywhere of their quarry.

“Quorn’s vanishing ship!” Curt gritted, tingling with anger. “It’s gone, and we can’t follow it. All they had to do was to shift it into the co-existing universe, and then laugh at our pursuit.”

“There’s no doubt now that that is the secret of Quorn’s ship — the power to enter the other universe,” Simon rasped thoughtfully.

“Not a doubt in the world,” Curt agreed bitterly. “They’ll travel safely through the space of that other universe for a distance, and then shift back into our own universe — millions of miles from here.”

“Aren’t we going to do anything about it?” sputtered Otho.

“Calm down, Otho,” Curt advised, repressing his own anger. “We won’t accomplish anything by dashing around space like a runaway meteor.”

“But they’ve got young Johnny a prisoner!” Otho exclaimed. “I liked that youngster.”

“So did I,” Curt Newton said. “They’ll pay for it if they harm the boy. But that’s got to come later. Our task now is to find Ul Quorn. He and his band must have a secret base somewhere.”

“My guess is that it’s around Uranus,” rasped the Brain. “And that Quorn gave orders to set a little trap here for us.”

NEWTON nodded thoughtfully. “It looks like it. Quorn’s clever. He would figure that we’d be here sooner or later, following his trail. So he had some of his men waiting in that ship. I think they meant to steal the
Comet
and then blast open the stockade — let the gas-beasts in on us. We couldn’t escape, and it would have wiped us out.”

A queer light danced in Captain Future’s gray eyes.

“I’ll say this for Ul Quorn — he’s a foeman worthy of our steel. But we conquered him before and we will again!”

Curt brought the
Comet
back down to a landing inside the stockade. He was not yet finished with his investigation there.

He and the Futuremen first examined the dead Martian criminal whom Johnny Kirk had killed in his intrepid defense of the
Comet.
They found nothing remarkable on his body, except a trace of shining blue dust which Captain Future noticed in his pockets and cuffs.

“That blue dust is radite,” Curt muttered. “This man has been somewhere recently working with the mineral.”

He looked up at the Brain, who was hovering beside him.

“It all checks up, Simon. Quorn is amassing a stock of radite, the super-powered cyclotron fuel. And Quorn is either building or planning to build a larger dimension-shifting space ship that will have great power and cruising radius.”

“Hold on, Chief!” Otho interrupted brashly. “How do you know Quorn’s building a bigger ship?”

Captain Future shrugged.

“By using my wits, as you ought to now and then,” Curt replied caustically. He took a paper from his pocket. “This is the list of objects stolen by Quorn’s band in their raids, as reported by Ezra. The list includes six massive super-cyclotrons, a mass of high-test alloy bars, and a number of atomic machine tools used in ship construction.

“Those are the chief materials and tools which would be required for construction of a larger and more powerful space ship,” Curt Newton continued keenly. “The conclusion is inescapable that Ul Quorn has some secret base at which he plans to build such a ship. In that ship, fueled with radite, Quorn and his band will go into the co-existing universe in search of the mysterious treasure Harris Haines told about.”

“Good reasoning, lad,” approved the Brain. “I believe now we’re getting somewhere.”

“Hanged if I can see it yet,” Otho objected. “Why should Quorn have to build a larger ship to go on this treasure hunt in the other universe? Why not just use the little ship they stole from Skal Kar, the ship they’re using now? That craft can enter the other universe.”

“That puzzled me at first,” Captain Future admitted, “but I believe I’ve figured the answer. Suppose, once they shift into the other universe, the treasure they’re after is a long way off in space? A small craft such as Skal Kar’s model couldn’t travel any vast distance in the space of the other universe, any more than it could here. They’d have to have a larger ship with a vastly greater cruising radius, one that could hold more fuel.”

“But, Chief,” Otho asked, “what the devil
is
this mysterious treasure they’re after?”

“I wish I knew,” Curt said thoughtfully. “It must be something big. Ul Quorn doesn’t play for small stakes.”

Captain Future rose decisively to his feet.

“But there’s nothing more we can learn here. We’ve got to run down Ul Quorn before he departs into the other universe.”

“You talk about running down Ul Quorn as though all we had to do was walk in on him and grab him,” muttered Otho gloomily. “How in space can we track him when he ducks in and out of the other universe?”

“Don’t be so cursed dismal, Otho,” Captain Future reproved. “As I see it, we’ve got two angles to follow on this thing. One, we’ve got to see if we can’t locate the secret base where Ul Quorn is building his bigger ship. Two, we must equip the
Comet
with dimension-thrust apparatus so we can follow Quorn into the other universe.”

“How’re we going to fit up the
Comet
like that when we don’t have Skal Kar’s plans for the apparatus, as Quorn does?” Otho objected.

“Simon and I know the principle of the dimension-thrust,” Curt told him. “Don’t you remember our experiments back home on the Moon last year? We can build apparatus that will shift the
Comet
across dimensions. But first, we want to locate Ul Quorn’s secret workshop and base.

“It must be on Uranus,” Curt went on keenly. “Quorn will need a lot of radite to power his treasure-search in the other universe. And in the whole Solar System, radite’s found only on Uranus. We’re blasting there at once, to hunt around the radite sources for Quorn’s base!”

SOON the
Comet
was zooming up from Ariel and roaring toward the vast, greenish globe of Uranus.

“Head for Lulanee, the capital city,” Curt ordered Otho, who had taken the pilot-chair. “It’s on the night side now.”

Presently their ship was screaming down into the deep atmosphere of the seventh world. Beneath lay the moonlit, mountainous landscape of Uranus. It was well named the Mountain World, for it was ragged with labyrinthine-linked ranges of lofty peaks. Some of the ranges, like the Mystery Mountains that loomed far in the north, actually towered more than twenty miles into the clouds.

The
Comet
screamed southward over the equatorial Endless River that belts the mid-section of the planet. It was a foaming river that roared ceaselessly around the planet in the titanic canyon it had eroded for itself, its current being the result of tidal pull of the four moons. Then they, came within sight of the Shining Sea.

Towering black mountains cupped a great sea whose waters glowed like an uncanny ocean of curdled white light. Those shining waters held in suspension a large amount of glowing radioactive minerals, causing a radiance. Their luminous waves lapped against the encircling black cliffs, breaking into showering sprays of living light.

Amid the mountains on the northern shore of the Shining Sea brooded the ancient capital city of Lulanee. It was a monolithic metropolis whose black-domed buildings and streets and docks had been carved from the solid rock. Its lighted streets and arcades were thronged with the pleasure-seeking population. Out on the glowing sea drifted the pleasure-barges of the richer Uranians, like dark boats on a fairy ocean.