Read Online Captain Future 04 - The Triumph of Captain Future (Fall 1940) by Edmond Hamilton - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Edmond Hamilton
Tags: Sci Fi & Fantasy
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worlds.
It galled Grag to be part of this third-rate freak circus. He imagined how Otho would laugh if he knew, and decided that the android must never learn. That made him think of Captain Future, who by now might already be nearing Mars and the trap in the Machine City.
Grag wished the liner would go faster. There was nothing he could do till it reached Mars. And even then he would have to escape from his unbreakable chains.
He remained patiently motionless, hour after hour. Eek went wandering off in search of metal to eat, was roared at by the Plutonian tiger, and came scurrying back in terror to Grag’s shoulder.
Finally the ship shuddered with braking rocket blasts. They were landing on Mars. Grag heard the bustle of disembarking passengers, and then the stout showman, Hurl Adams, came down with his assistants.
“Hurry up and unload ‘em!” Adams directed. “We’ll ‘take them right to the hall I hired and start our shows at once.”
Still chained, Grag was lifted and taken out with the other freaks, and piled into a big rocket truck.
It rumbled through streets closed in by red stone towers of the peculiar, top-heavy Martian architecture. Grag recognized the city as Rok. It was in the southern hemisphere, not far from the Machine City.
He was unloaded on the curtained stage of a theater and left alone. Presently he heard the distant tones of Adams barking about the show.
“Greatest collection of planetary freaks in the System, folks!” the stout Earthman was shouting in the street. “Rare Creeping Crystals of Callisto! Living stone snakes of Umbriel! The ancient machine that still walks and talks — the only antique robot still functioning!”
Grag’s indignation at this description of himself was terrific. He heard the theater being jammed with the eternal suckers.
Then Hurl Adams hurried in, drew the curtain and started exhibiting his freaks. Finally he came to Grag.
“The antique automaton is still so strong, it has to be chained up, folks!” Adams declared. “Watch its childish performance when I unchain it. The ancients of Earth used to marvel at its ingenuity.
The stout Earthman unfastened the chains around Grag. Then he pointed commandingly. “Walk! Talk!”
Grag stepped to the front of the stage. He spoke to the audience.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is a terrible show. If you paid to get into it, you have been swindled. As for me, I am so disgusted with it that my resignation is dated now.”
The audience and showman gaped, frozen with amazement. Grag stalked deliberately out to the street, with Eek on his shoulder.
He entered the nearest rocket-flier before anyone it the street could stop him. In five minutes he was flying over the red Martian desert, toward the distant Machine City.
Chapter 6: Trail of the Life-lord
CAPTAIN FUTURE felt savage anger with himself for blundering into this peril. He and Otho still stood frozen in the courtyard of metal statues at the center of the Machine City.
The quartz disk in the wall facing them still blazed with yellow radiance that paralyzed Curt and the android. In time it would slowly transmute every atom in their bodies into metal. Then they would become metal figures.
Curt made a tremendous mental effort to move his body. He couldn’t stir a muscle. He could breathe, because the paralyzing force did not affect involuntary nervous action.
“Might have known the ancient Machine-masters would have some device to guard that mosaic from theft,” he thought bitterly. “But I had to go barging ahead without thinking.”
Curt could barely include Otho and the Brain in his field of vision. Otho stood as frozen as he, in the act of raising his proton pistol. The android had snatched it out just as the freezing radiance struck.
The Brain’s case was in the grasp of Otho’s other hand. It dangled from the frozen android’s grip, almost touching the half-raised proton pistol. Simon Wright’s square case was insulated
It galled Grag to be part of this third-rate freak circus. He imagined how Otho would laugh if he knew, and decided that the android must never learn. That made him think of Captain Future, who by now might already be nearing Mars and the trap in the Machine City.
Grag wished the liner would go faster. There was nothing he could do till it reached Mars. And even then he would have to escape from his unbreakable chains.
He remained patiently motionless, hour after hour. Eek went wandering off in search of metal to eat, was roared at by the Plutonian tiger, and came scurrying back in terror to Grag’s shoulder.
Finally the ship shuddered with braking rocket blasts. They were landing on Mars. Grag heard the bustle of disembarking passengers, and then the stout showman, Hurl Adams, came down with his assistants.
“Hurry up and unload ‘em!” Adams directed. “We’ll ‘take them right to the hall I hired and start our shows at once.”
Still chained, Grag was lifted and taken out with the other freaks, and piled into a big rocket truck.
It rumbled through streets closed in by red stone towers of the peculiar, top-heavy Martian architecture. Grag recognized the city as Rok. It was in the southern hemisphere, not far from the Machine City.
He was unloaded on the curtained stage of a theater and left alone. Presently he heard the distant tones of Adams barking about the show.
“Greatest collection of planetary freaks in the System, folks!” the stout Earthman was shouting in the street. “Rare Creeping Crystals of Callisto! Living stone snakes of Umbriel! The ancient machine that still walks and talks — the only antique robot still functioning!”
Grag’s indignation at this description of himself was terrific. He heard the theater being jammed with the eternal suckers.
Then Hurl Adams hurried in, drew the curtain and started exhibiting his freaks. Finally he came to Grag.
“The antique automaton is still so strong, it has to be chained up, folks!” Adams declared. “Watch its childish performance when I unchain it. The ancients of Earth used to marvel at its ingenuity.
The stout Earthman unfastened the chains around Grag. Then he pointed commandingly. “Walk! Talk!”
Grag stepped to the front of the stage. He spoke to the audience.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is a terrible show. If you paid to get into it, you have been swindled. As for me, I am so disgusted with it that my resignation is dated now.”
The audience and showman gaped, frozen with amazement. Grag stalked deliberately out to the street, with Eek on his shoulder.
He entered the nearest rocket-flier before anyone it the street could stop him. In five minutes he was flying over the red Martian desert, toward the distant Machine City.
Chapter 6: Trail of the Life-lord
CAPTAIN FUTURE felt savage anger with himself for blundering into this peril. He and Otho still stood frozen in the courtyard of metal statues at the center of the Machine City.
The quartz disk in the wall facing them still blazed with yellow radiance that paralyzed Curt and the android. In time it would slowly transmute every atom in their bodies into metal. Then they would become metal figures.
Curt made a tremendous mental effort to move his body. He couldn’t stir a muscle. He could breathe, because the paralyzing force did not affect involuntary nervous action.
“Might have known the ancient Machine-masters would have some device to guard that mosaic from theft,” he thought bitterly. “But I had to go barging ahead without thinking.”
Curt could barely include Otho and the Brain in his field of vision. Otho stood as frozen as he, in the act of raising his proton pistol. The android had snatched it out just as the freezing radiance struck.
The Brain’s case was in the grasp of Otho’s other hand. It dangled from the frozen android’s grip, almost touching the half-raised proton pistol. Simon Wright’s square case was insulated
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