Read Online Captain Future 10 - Outlaws of the Moon (Spring 1942) by Edmond Hamilton - Free Book Online Page A

ridges without fatal collision.
     
    HE WAS seeking to give the Patrol cruisers the slip by dodging away through the dangerous peaks. They would hesitate, he felt, to follow closely. But a shower of atom-shells suddenly exploded brilliantly to his left. The Patrol cruisers above were firing down at him heavily.
    “Patrol shooting!” jeered Otho, his green eyes blazing. “I’d like to show them gunnery.”
    Captain Future swung the space stick sharply to the left, to hurl the Comet between two tall pinnacles of rock. At that moment, more atom-shells exploded right in front of the fleeing ship. The terrific glare blinded Curt for an instant. There was a heart-stopping shock and crash that flung them violently about.
    “We grazed one of those peaks!” came Grag’s yell.
    The Comet ’s left lateral rocket tubes had been crushed in by the grazing contact. The ship, temporarily unmanageable, spun crazily and then dived headlong toward the rocky valley between the two peaks.
    Curt Newton glimpsed the glaring rock waste rushing up at them with frightful speed. Instinctively, he kicked in both the cyclotron and brake-blast pedals. The rocket tubes in the prow of the ship spouted flame a moment before the Comet reached the ground.
    The terrific brake-blast batted the ship dizzily back up for a few yards. It roiled crazily and then crashed down onto the rock, and lay still. The shock had snapped the fuel-feed line.
    “Chief, are you hurt?” cried Grag.
    The big robot had picked himself up with Otho, and he and Simon Wright were anxiously bending over Curt. Captain Future shook his head to clear it. Then, as he took in their situation, he jumped unsteadily to his feet.
    “Left lateral tubes gone — but we could take off again if that fuel line hadn’t snapped!” he exclaimed.
    “It’ll only take us twenty minutes to put in a new feed line!” Otho cried.
    “That’s more time than we’ve got!” Curt rapped. “Those cruisers will be down after us like hawks —”
    “There they come now!” cried Grag, pointing.
    Through the control-room window they could see the four grim Planet Patrol cruisers, coming back low over the white rock pinnacles that towered against the star-specked black sky. The cruisers passed close above the narrow, boulder-strewn valley in which the Comet lay helpless.
    “They’ve spotted us — they’ll come down at the nearest possible landing place and rush here in space-suits to capture us!” Curt declared. “If we wait to fix that fuel line, they’ll get us sure. We’ve got to abandon the ship.”
    “Abandon the Comet ?” Otho’s voice was sharp with dismay. “We can’t do that! If we did, how could we reach that gorge we’re heading for?”
    “On foot, in space-suits,” retorted Curt Newton.
    “It’s two hundred miles!” cried Grag, appalled. “And across that devilish Sea of Glass —”
    “It’s either that, or let ourselves be captured here and see the whole game go to Larsen King and his crowd!” rapped Captain Future.
    His voice rang in sharp command.
    “Grag, get together those transformers and condensers and other equipment. Tie them on your back. They’re fairly compact — you can carry them. Otho, get our space-suits. We’ll need extra oxygen tanks, and an oxide converter. Hurry!”
     
    NEED for haste was manifest. They had glimpsed the four Patrol cruisers slanting down to a landing farther along this lunar valley, where it was wider and clearer. Soon the Patrol men would be in hot pursuit. Grag hastily strung together the compact electrical equipment that Curt had devised for his secret scheme. Curt had purposely designed the apparatus to be light and easily transported. Grag slung the whole mass onto his back, and also picked up a stout metal bar. Captain Future and Otho had got into their space-suits.
    An extra alumiloy oxygen tank and a compact oxide converter were attached to the belt of each suit beside their proton pistols. The special inside pockets