Read Online Captain Future 19 - Outlaw World (Winter 1946) by Edmond Hamilton - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Edmond Hamilton
Tags: Sci Fi & Fantasy
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we’ve found no clues to his trail here.”
“Two other big pirate bands will be back tomorrow night, remember — Malone’s and Ak Az’s,” Bork King reminded. “I’m hoping one of them will have heard something.”
All during the next day, Captain Future helped the Martians in the labor of installing the cyclotrons and repairing the strained hull by welding in new girders and plates. By nightfall, the work was almost finished.
Curt Newton felt the precariousness of his position each moment. The danger lay in Su Kuan. At any moment, the foppish Venusian pirate captain might realize that the new man in the outfit of Bork King, the Martian, was that archenemy of the Companions of Space, Captain Future.
Yet when Bork King went back to the rendezvous of the rowdy pirates that night, Curt went with him. He had to run the risk, on the chance of hearing something that would give him a clue to Ru Ghur’s Outlaw World, something Bork might miss.
Bork had left Qi Thir and the crew in the Red Hope .
“There’s too much chance of getting into fights in Meteor Jim’s,” he had said to them. “And we can’t afford trouble.”
The lanky Qi Thir had nodded agreement. “We don’t like the place anyway,” he had said laconically.
METEOR JIM’S was going full blast when the big Martian outlaw and Captain Future entered. Money, jewels, slugs of rare metals changed hands over the gambling tables. The Companions of Space never knew whether or not their next foray would be the last one, and always squandered their loot with the thought that the next voyage might bring the inevitable end under the guns of the Planet Patrol.
Curt Newton and Bork King found that the corsair captains were not yet here. Waiting for them, they stood at the bar drinking sakra.
Curt Newton felt as though he were in the midst of a den of wolves who would turn and rend him at the slightest suspicion of his identity. But he remained outwardly nonchalant in the midst of the motley crew from all planets, as the night of carousing roared toward its climax.
A hulking gray Saturnian who was far gone in fungus brandy raised his bull voice through the din.
“From Mercury to Pluto!” he bawled.
It was a call for the old song of the Companions of Space, the dreaded pirate song that at some time or another had sent shivers through every planet in the System.
And it was roared out now from a hundred throats, the song of men without a world who lived only for battle, loot and sudden death.
From Mercury to Pluto,
From Saturn back to Mars,
We’ll fight and sail and blaze our trail
In crimson through the stars!
The roaring, swinging chant went on in verse after verse — the anthem of the lost.
We’ll cram our holds with plunder
From every world and moon —
Great corsairs of the past had sung that song before they met flaming end in space. John Haskin, that first great corsair chieftain who had made Pallas his stronghold, had sung it.
Lan Rahsh, “the Butcher,” had sung it, and so too had that fabulous young Earthman corsair who had been Ezra Gurneys younger brother, and whom long ago Ezra had grimly tracked down and dueled to death in space.
They had all sung it, and they had all died, Captain Future thought tightly. He himself had, with the Futuremen, helped clean out Pallas. This new pirate nest also would be destroyed in time, but that must wait until after they had trailed and destroyed Ru Ghur and his raiders.
Su Kuan came in with two other pirate captains just as the pirate song ended with a crash. Again, Captain Future stiffened with tension as he and Bork King went back to the table reserved for the kings of the buccaneers.
The two other pirate leaders were Ak Az, a gloomy-eyed Plutonian, and. “Blacky” Malone, a dark, wolf-faced Earthman.
“Hello, Bork!” Malone greeted gustily. “We just got in from a pounce on Saturn’s smaller moons, and we’ve got enough loot to celebrate!”
Su Kuan’s
“Two other big pirate bands will be back tomorrow night, remember — Malone’s and Ak Az’s,” Bork King reminded. “I’m hoping one of them will have heard something.”
All during the next day, Captain Future helped the Martians in the labor of installing the cyclotrons and repairing the strained hull by welding in new girders and plates. By nightfall, the work was almost finished.
Curt Newton felt the precariousness of his position each moment. The danger lay in Su Kuan. At any moment, the foppish Venusian pirate captain might realize that the new man in the outfit of Bork King, the Martian, was that archenemy of the Companions of Space, Captain Future.
Yet when Bork King went back to the rendezvous of the rowdy pirates that night, Curt went with him. He had to run the risk, on the chance of hearing something that would give him a clue to Ru Ghur’s Outlaw World, something Bork might miss.
Bork had left Qi Thir and the crew in the Red Hope .
“There’s too much chance of getting into fights in Meteor Jim’s,” he had said to them. “And we can’t afford trouble.”
The lanky Qi Thir had nodded agreement. “We don’t like the place anyway,” he had said laconically.
METEOR JIM’S was going full blast when the big Martian outlaw and Captain Future entered. Money, jewels, slugs of rare metals changed hands over the gambling tables. The Companions of Space never knew whether or not their next foray would be the last one, and always squandered their loot with the thought that the next voyage might bring the inevitable end under the guns of the Planet Patrol.
Curt Newton and Bork King found that the corsair captains were not yet here. Waiting for them, they stood at the bar drinking sakra.
Curt Newton felt as though he were in the midst of a den of wolves who would turn and rend him at the slightest suspicion of his identity. But he remained outwardly nonchalant in the midst of the motley crew from all planets, as the night of carousing roared toward its climax.
A hulking gray Saturnian who was far gone in fungus brandy raised his bull voice through the din.
“From Mercury to Pluto!” he bawled.
It was a call for the old song of the Companions of Space, the dreaded pirate song that at some time or another had sent shivers through every planet in the System.
And it was roared out now from a hundred throats, the song of men without a world who lived only for battle, loot and sudden death.
From Mercury to Pluto,
From Saturn back to Mars,
We’ll fight and sail and blaze our trail
In crimson through the stars!
The roaring, swinging chant went on in verse after verse — the anthem of the lost.
We’ll cram our holds with plunder
From every world and moon —
Great corsairs of the past had sung that song before they met flaming end in space. John Haskin, that first great corsair chieftain who had made Pallas his stronghold, had sung it.
Lan Rahsh, “the Butcher,” had sung it, and so too had that fabulous young Earthman corsair who had been Ezra Gurneys younger brother, and whom long ago Ezra had grimly tracked down and dueled to death in space.
They had all sung it, and they had all died, Captain Future thought tightly. He himself had, with the Futuremen, helped clean out Pallas. This new pirate nest also would be destroyed in time, but that must wait until after they had trailed and destroyed Ru Ghur and his raiders.
Su Kuan came in with two other pirate captains just as the pirate song ended with a crash. Again, Captain Future stiffened with tension as he and Bork King went back to the table reserved for the kings of the buccaneers.
The two other pirate leaders were Ak Az, a gloomy-eyed Plutonian, and. “Blacky” Malone, a dark, wolf-faced Earthman.
“Hello, Bork!” Malone greeted gustily. “We just got in from a pounce on Saturn’s smaller moons, and we’ve got enough loot to celebrate!”
Su Kuan’s
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