Read Online Captain Future 09 - Quest Beyond the Stars (Winter 1942) by Edmond Hamilton - Free Book Online Page A

surface of our world?”
    Captain Future evaded.
    “The thing is not yet complete,” he said gently. “You must wait a little longer.”
    The faces of the gray folk fell somewhat.
    “But the Thousand are still working at the problem on our dead sun?” he pressed.
    “The irony of it!” muttered the Brain in low tones. “The beastlike mineral-men on the dead sun — they must be the evolution-adapted descendants of the Thousand who went there long ago.”
    “Gods of space!” murmured Hol Jor, aghast. “Great scientists, attempting that colossal, degenerating through the generations into those beasts! And these people don’t suspect —”
    Curt Newton was speaking gently to the young ruler, “The descendants of the Thousand are still on the dead sun. And the problem of rekindling it will soon be solved, I feel sure.”
    The gray sleepers seemed more cheerful at this.
    “Then we will return into the hypnotic sleep until that happens,” their ruler declared. “I can operate the apparatus that will again cause us to enter the trance.”
    “First, tell me this,” put in Curt urgently. “Have you any store of metals here? We badly need one called terbium. It is essential to the success of the great plan.”
    The young ruler answered eagerly.
    “We have a store of machines and metals in an adjoining cavern. The Thousand stored them there so that we would have them with which to begin life anew when we awakened.”
    He led the way across the mausoleum-like cavern to a portal that gave entrance to a much smaller adjoining cavern. Here were stored with scientific precision a great mass of instruments, tools and machines, as well as bins and cases of almost every valuable or rare element and compound. Curt Newton was first to find a case of colorless metal bars.
    “This is terbium — and there’s enough,” he said thankfully. “We can carry it between us, Hol Jor.”
    They returned to the main cavern. The ruler was addressing his people.
    “We must sleep again, but next time we awake, our world will surely be smiling again beneath the warm sun.”
    Dutifully, the gray folk lay down upon the slabs. The young ruler was last, and before he lay down he touched a lever near the foot of the spiral stair.
    “You will do all in your power to help the Thousand or their descendants rekindle our sun?” he asked Curt anxiously.
    “I promise you that,” answered Captain Future gravely.
    “Stop your ears, unless you wish to be cast into the sleep with us,” warned the young ruler as he lay down upon his slab. “The bells begin.”
     
    ALREADY, a faint ringing pattern of bell-tones was becoming audible. They could hear it clearly, for Curt and Hol Jor had removed their space-helmets to converse with the young ruler.
    Hastily, Captain Future and the Antarian and Simon closed their ears with waxite plugs from Curt’s bell-kit.
    They were none too soon, for the growing strength of the bells was having an overpoweringly drowsy effect upon them before they cut it off in this manner. The long-dead scientists who had devised that cunning instrument of super-hypnosis had been masters of their art. Now, unable to hear the siren bells, the three adventurers watched as the gray folk again became motionless in sleeping trance. The powerful hypnosis that had operated on them by auditory stimulation appeared to slow down every vital function of their bodies almost to the halting point, and again they seemed lying in death. Curt signaled to Hol Jor, and they carried the heavy case of terbium up the spiral stair. When they emerged onto the rock surface, they replaced the heavy round metal lid in the opening of the stair.
    “There’s a tragedy of the cosmos,” Curt said gravely when they had removed the ear-plugs, inside the Comet. “A people sleeping for all these ages, dreaming of a day when their sun would be retired.”
    “And now they’ll sleep like that forever,” muttered the Brain.
    “Not forever,” contradicted Curt