Captain Future 09 - Quest Beyond the Stars (Winter 1942) Read online

  “It’s not only Mercury we must think of. Mercury faces today the grim prospect of planetary death from failing atmosphere. But other worlds will face it tomorrow. And no makeshift expedients such as have been unsuccessfully tried on Mercury will solve this problem. No attempt to manufacture oxygen from mineral sources by chemical conversion can meet this situation.

  “What is needed,” — his brilliant eyes swept them — “What is needed is a way of making limitless supplies of oxygen and nitrogen out of nothing. And I think there is a possibility that we can find an expedient way of doing that.”

  Simon Wright, the Brain, listened to Curt with a strange feeling of pride. For to the Brain, as to the other two Futuremen, Curt was not only a leader but a son. The three unhuman beings had reared him from helpless babyhood to brilliant manhood.

  Years ago, Roger Newton, young Earth scientist, had come to the Moon to establish a hidden laboratory. With him had — come his youthful bride and his scientific colleague, the Brain. They had built this laboratory-home beneath Tycho crater. Here they had labored at their great experiment of creating artificial life. Here they had created Grag, the intelligent metal robot, and Otho, the synthetic man. And here, too, Curtis Newton had been born.

  It was in this very laboratory, soon afterward, that Curtis Newton’s young parents had been slain by enemies. And in this citadel on the barren, airless satellite, the Brain and the robot and the android had reared the orphaned infant. They had given him an education of unparalleled depth and scope. That education and his inherited genius made Curt Newton the audacious, brilliant scientific adventurer and crusader whom the whole Solar System knew as Captain Future.

  “Make unlimited supplies of matter out of nothing?” Otho was echoing incredulously to Curt. “How in the sun’s name is that possible?”

  “All matter,” Curt reminded, “is electrical in nature. Electrons are really particles of immaterial electricity. Why couldn’t matter be synthesized out of units of immaterial electric force?”

  “It might be theoretically possible,” Grag rumbled unbelievingly to Captain Future. “But actually, it has never been done.”

  “It has never been done by any scientist,” Curt corrected quietly. “But is has been done, and is being done right now, by the forces of nature.”

  He pointed upward at the big glassite window in the ceiling, which framed a circle of burning stars and space in which swam the great green bulk of Earth and the dazzling Sun.

  “Far in the central depths of our galaxy of stars, thousands of light-years away, matter is constantly being created out of electrical energy upon a gigantic scale.”

  “You refer to the Birthplace of Matter?” rasped the Brain, startled.

  Curt nodded. “That’s what I’m thinking of, Simon. If we could learn the secret of the Birthplace —”

  “The Birthplace? What are you talking about, chief?” rumbled big Grag puzzledly.

  Curt countered with a question.

  “You know the theory that Millikan first proposed away back in the 20th century, that was later proved — the theory of the cyclic change of radiation and matter?”

  “Sure, even a dumb robot like Grag knows that,” Otho cut in impatiently. “The matter of the galaxy’s suns tends constantly to melt away into radiation, into heat, light and other electromagnetic energy. It was thought for a while that the process would go on until all matter disappeared. Then Millikan guessed the truth, that somewhere in the galaxy is a point where radiation is somehow retransformed into matter, and that the so-called cosmic rays are the ‘birth-cry’ of newborn matter.”

  “That’s right,” Captain Future nodded. “And it was found that that Birthplace of Matter is somewhere at the center of our galaxy, in the region of thick star-clusters and nebulae beyond Sagittarius. From that point stream out the tides of cosmic dust which are the new-born matter, and from that point emanate the cosmic rays, their ‘birth-cry’.

  “We have no idea of how radiation is built into matter at the Birthplace,” Curt went on, as calmly as though he were not about to make the most audacious proposal in the history of the System. “But there is a chance that if we went to the Birthplace we could learn how. With that secret, we could create unlimited matter from radiation, could solve the problem of reviving Mercury’s wasted atmosphere.”

  “IS THAT your idea?” Otho yelped unbelievingly. The android’s slitted green eyes were wide with amazement. “You must be spacestruck, chief. That point in the galaxy where the Birthplace is located is thousands of light-years away!”

  “How would we ever get there?” Grag chimed in. “Our Comet may be the fastest ship in the System, but its rockets would never take us across all those millions of millions of miles. Even at the fastest speed it would take centuries!”

  “Not if we used the vibration-drive we experimented with last year,” Curt retorted. “You remember — Simon and I designed it to propel the Comet by the reactive push of high-frequency electromagnetic vibrations projected from a drive-ring at the stem of the ship. We calculated it would build up velocities many times the speed of light.”

  “You calculated, yes,” replied Otho significantly. “But you didn’t dare try the vibration drive once you had it built, lest living creatures couldn’t stand such acceleration.”

  “Otho is right, lad,” rasped the Brain. “We had to give up the vibration-drive because our first tests showed that the acceleration necessary to build up to velocities faster than light would first ‘black out’ brains, then crush vital organs and finally pulp bodies.”

  “I know,” Captain Future admitted impatiently, “but you must remember that I figured out a way to overcome that objection, by throwing our bodies into a stasis of force that would protect them completely from the acceleration pressure. Before I could build and try out such a stasis projector, the case of the Magician of Mars broke, and I’ve not had a chance since then. But I’m sure it will work. And with it, we’ll be able to force the ship to speeds so many times the velocity of light that we can fly across the whole starry universe.”

  The android, always most reckless and adventuresome of the quartet, kindled.

  “Devils of space, what an adventure if we could do it!” he said eagerly. “To get clear out of our Solar System, to explore the hidden heart of the universe, new suns and worlds and nebulae —”

  “It wouldn’t be any wild, hair-raising pleasure jaunt, you cockeyed son of a test-tube,” Grag growled at him. “It’s those poor Mercurians and their dying world that the chief is thinking of.”

  Simon Wright had been silent. Now the Brain’s rasping, metallic voice gave utterance to his doubt.

  “Lad, I fear this stupendous voyage you propose is beyond our powers. I don’t think that even such a stasis of force as you designed can withstand that terrible acceleration pressure. And then —”

  “And then we’d be corpses somewhere out in interstellar space,” Curt Newton admitted. His expression became earnest. “Simon, I know the danger you speak of is real. But I hope that I can guard against it. Shall we risk it? Or shall we let a world die, let its people be driven homeless to alien worlds?”

  “We go, of course,” came the Brain’s cool answer. “I only wished to point out the possibilities. For myself, the scientific value of finding the secret of the Birthplace outweighs all risks.”

  “Then we begin work at once,” Curt declared eagerly. “It’ll take plenty of it to fit up the Comet.”

  IN THE days that followed, the matchless scientific ability of the four Futuremen focused unceasingly upon the task of preparation. The deft skill of Otho with tools, the un-human strength and precision of Grag, the supreme technical knowledge of the Brain — these were the instruments unerringly wielded by the genius of Curt Newton.

  The underground hangar of the Comet was the chief scene of activity as the long lunar evening waned to night. The four heavy cylindrical generators of the vibration drive were installed in the cabin of the streamlined space-
ship. The terbium drive-ring was fitted around the tapering stern of the craft, just forward of the tail rocket-tubes, and linked to the generators by coaxial cables.

  Captain Future himself labored upon the stasis projector. It was the very heart of their plan, for without its shield of force their bodies could not for a moment withstand the stupendous acceleration they meant to exact of the ship. He recessed the projector beneath the control-room floor, so that it showed only the fiat silver disk from which the protective force would emanate.

  “It seems to work perfectly,” Curt declared when he had tested the stasis effect.

  “We’ll soon know if it doesn’t work,” Otho muttered. “The pressure will splash us all over the ship if the stasis breaks down.”

  The Brain said nothing. But Curt read from his silence the doubt that still haunted Simon’s mind.

  While Grag and Otho stocked the Comet with the last cases of supplies and tanks of oxygen and water, Captain Future made a final anxious check of instruments.

  “No, you don’t, Grag!” he exclaimed suddenly. “You’re not going to smuggle Eek aboard — I told you that he and Oog stay home this time.”

  Grag stopped guiltily. The robot and concealed his pet, a small, gray, bearlike moon-pup, in some cases he was carrying aboard.

  “Eek will be lonely here,” Grag protested worriedly.

  “He’ll have Oog to keep him company,” Curt retorted, pointing to a fat little white “meteor-mimic” that was Otho’s pet. “The automatic feeder will take care of their food. And those two would be in our way on a crowded, dangerous trip like this.”

  As Grag reluctantly carried his cherished pet out of the ship, the Brain looked inquiringly at Captain Future.

  “Lad, should we have told our friends on Earth what we plan? Joan Randall, and Marshal Ezra Gurney, and the others?”

  “I thought it wiser not to tell them,” Curt said soberly. “They’re working night and day with the other Planet Police to handle the migration from Mercury. And I didn’t want to raise their hopes.”

  The last supplies were aboard. As casually as though about to start an ordinary interplanetary voyage, the four entered the ship. In a moment the great roof-doors of the hangar folded silently back, and the Comet rose on roaring rocket-tubes from the surface of the Moon.

  Captain Future was in the control-chair. He drove the roaring ship up on a steep slant across the barren lunar plains and peaks, that lay bathed in the soft green glow of the hanging Earth. He was looking beyond the planet, toward the glittering star-streams that flowed together near the constellation Sagittarius.

  “Tens of thousands of suns, planets, dark stars, nebulae, bunched there together at the galaxy’s heart,” he murmured. “The densest, most dangerous part of the universe, hiding the supreme mystery of the Birthplace. It’s mad, perhaps, to think we can —”

  “To think we can penetrate that secret?” rasped the Brain. “It’s on the knees of the space-gods now, lad.”

  THE ship flew outward through the Solar System under the full power of its rockets. Curt had not as yet touched the switches of the vibration drive. There were ten such switches, for the vibration drive could be used in ten different stages of power and speed.

  At last they were beyond the orbit of Pluto, running infinity itself. Behind the Sun and its planets were a small bright disk circled by gleaming dots. Ahead glittered the bunched star-clouds of Sagittarius, unthinkable light-years away.

  Curt’s hand moved to the switches of the vibration drive.

  “All ready,” he said calmly. “Stand by.”

  “We’ll know in a few minutes whether the protective stasis works,” muttered Grag. “Feeling jumpy, Otho?”

  “What are you trying to do, you perambulating junkpile, scare me?” Otho demanded belligerently.

  Curt closed the switch. The great generators back in the cabin began throbbing in a low murmur that mounted to a loud drone.

  A dim blue force flooded the whole interior of the ship. It emanated from the silver floor-disk of the stasis projector, which was designed to go into operation automatically when the drive was turned on.

  The pervading blue force of the stasis had a strange effect upon the Futuremen. They felt as though submerged within a dense, super-elastic medium, a force that tended to “fix” every atom in the ship, should cushion them against acceleration.

  “Stasis seems okay,” Captain Future murmured. “Here goes.”

  He shut a switch that turned the propulsion vibrations back into the drive-ring. The Futuremen, cradled in their stasis of elastic force, felt almost no pressure. But the pointers on the accelerometers leaped as though suddenly gone mad. The Comet, under the terrific reactive push of the vibrations streaming back from its stern, was being flung forward through outer space at a velocity nobody in the System had ever before attained.

  “One quarter light-speed already,” Curt muttered, reading the meters. “Half-light-speed now — Lord, what acceleration! And the stasis is working perfectly.”

  “It seems that my fears concerning it were groundless,” admitted the Brain.

  The Comet, within an unbelievably short time, was traveling faster than light itself toward the distant star-clouds of Sagittarius. Yet its velocity continued steadily to build higher. To the eyes of the awe-stricken Futuremen, they seemed hardly moving. The glittering star-streams and nebulae and clusters bunched in Sagittarius seemed as far away as ever. For the first time, Curt Newton and his comrades realized the truly awful immensity of the universe into whose great depths they were flying on their desperate and perilous quest.

  Chapter 3: Nebula Danger

  “CHIEF, look at that!” cried Otho, pointing ahead. “It makes me almost afraid!”

  Curt had just entered the control-room. He strained his keen gray eyes against the glare ahead.

  “We’re getting close, all right,” muttered Captain Future. “It’s time we changed course to avoid that nebula.”

  The other two Futuremen came into the control-room to peer at the brilliant spectacle ahead. The Comet was now approaching the boundaries of the congested region in which their destination was hidden. Across the heavens ahead flamed thousands upon thousands of stars, blazing points of light, each point a great sun. Masses of these suns were gathered in gigantic clusters that looked like swarming bees of light. Between and beyond the clusters and their trailing star-streams shone the glowing clouds of nebulae. Deep in this great wilderness of the galaxy they could make out the black bulk of a cloud of cosmic dust.

  Their ship was a tiny midge crawling toward this vast cosmic jungle. They were heading toward a giant glowing nebula whose shining gases stretched for billions of miles across their path, partly hiding the starry wilderness beyond.

  “We’ll have to veer around that nebula,” Curt declared. “It contains meteoric debris, according to our meteorometers.”

  “But according to the cosmic ray compass, our course lies right through it,” Otho objected, pointing to the instrument.

  Straight toward the glowing nebulae ahead pointed the needle of the apparatus. It was an instrument that Captain Future had devised for their expedition, an electroscopic device sensitive to cosmic rays. Its needle pointed always toward the far, mysterious source of the radiation, their unguessable goal.

  Days passed as they followed the needle across interstellar space. The vibration drive flung them on at continually mounting velocity until they were traveling at fully two thousand times the speed of light. Yet they had small sensation of speed, so perfectly had the cushioning stasis of force protected them from the pressure of acceleration.

  Nor had there been any sun or star in the vast void near enough to show their progress. The shoreless emptiness stretched unbroken to the sector of the heavens far ahead, where the great star-streams converged in the starry whirlpool of suns and nebulae whose outer edge they were now at last approaching.

  “If we go around that nebula, we’ll get off the course the cosmic r
ay compass indicates,” Otho objected. “It’ll waste a lot of time.”

  “Sure, why don’t we run the nebula?” Grag demanded. “It would be a real thrill.”

  Captain Future hesitated, then shrugged and grinned.

  “I guess there’s not much real danger. The meteorometers will keep us warned of debris. All right, you excitement eaters, here goes.”

  The Comet plunged on toward the vast sea of glowing light. Curt had already begun to decelerate their tremendous velocity, since they could not safely use such an outrageous speed inside the clusters and star-streams of this region. The stasis force, operating perfectly, continued to cushion them against the great pressure.

  ALL the firmament ahead flamed with pearly white light. They were now too close to the nebula to distinguish its limits. A twinge of regret at his decision tugged Curt’s mind. This vast ocean of glowing gas was much more awesome at close hand. But already the ship was racing into it. They sped through a universe of flaming light; On every side stretched leagues of glowing, brilliant gas. Curt’s keen eyes alertly watched the dials on the control panel f6r signs of possible danger.

  The intrinsic heat of a gaseous nebula is not great. It consists of a great cloud of very tenuous gas illuminated to a flaming glow by reflected and refracted light of nearby stars. The gas was too tenuous to cause dangerous frictional heat, even at the great velocity at which they were traveling. But the meteorometers buzzed frequently, indicating the presence of solid debris in the gas. Captain Future’s quick hands kept the Comet swerving to avoid these possibly dangerous masses. He had to rely on instruments for he could see nothing but the flaming glow of white light that seemed to fill all space around him.

  Curt Newton noticed that the needles of the electroscopes were bobbing wildly.

  “There’s some queer radiant force inside this nebula,” he said uneasily. “I can feel it.”

  A strange tingling sensation was running through him. At the same time Captain Future became aware that he possessed an exhilarating clearness of mind. He had never before felt his brain so powerful, so capable of solving any problem. Simon Wright and Otho and Grag were showing a similar reaction. The Brain spoke rapidly, in answer to Curt’s statement.